WSJ What’s News - U.S. Pauses Visa Interviews for Foreign Students

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

A.M. Edition for May 28. In a State Department cable signed by Marco Rubio, the Trump Administration orders embassies and consulates to stop scheduling new student-visa interviews while officials prepare to ramp up social media screening and vetting. Plus, with its armed forces depleted, WSJ’s Matthew Luxmoore describes how Ukraine is turning to TikTok and cash incentives to bring Gen Z into the fight against Russia. And SpaceX loses control of a Starship spacecraft after making it farther than previous test flights. Luke Vargas hosts.  Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. In another blow to universities, the Trump administration suspends visa interviews as it prepares to ramp up screenings of foreign students. Plus a major US copper project gets a boost from the Supreme Court. And from cash bonuses to a TikTok campaign, Ukraine goes all out to recruit young soldiers.

The Ukraine's youngest adults receive a $24,000 bonus for signing up through this program, which is more than many Ukrainian soldiers receive in the space of a year. It's Wednesday, May 28th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. The Trump administration has hit pause on new interviews for student visas, according to a State Department

cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, potentially disrupting operations at universities that argue foreign students help to subsidize tuition for others. The cable orders embassies and consulates not to schedule any new interviews as officials prepare for tougher vetting of applicants' social media activity. The move comes during a busy season for international students looking to come to the U.S. who generally receive acceptances from American universities in the spring and must obtain visas before the new school year begins in the autumn. Last week, the administration yanked Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students,

which make up about a quarter of its student body. President Trump says he'll pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted of fraud and tax evasion, describing them as having faced harsh treatment. An attorney for the couple said they had been, quote, targeted because of their conservative values. The move comes after Trump announced on Monday he'd pardon former Virginia Sheriff Scott Jenkins, who was convicted of corruption-related charges for equipping bribe payers with badges and credentials despite their lack of training. Jenkins is a vocal supporter of the president's anti-immigration and gun rights agenda.

Trump loyalist Ed Martin, the Justice Department's new pardon attorney, told the Journal he had fast-tracked Jenkins' case, describing him as being, quote, on the right side of a lot of issues. In just over a week on the job, Martin has begun turning the office into a pipeline for political allies to get cases before Trump and said he had been flooded with requests from lawyers and lobbyists seeking pardons for their clients. The Supreme Court has cleared a major hurdle for a giant copper project in Arizona that's

currently being developed by Rio Tinto and BHP Group, rejecting an appeal brought by a local Apache group to block a federal land transfer needed for the project to advance. The Resolution Copper Project has been under development by the world's two most valuable mining companies for roughly two decades, who say it could supply as much as a quarter of current U.S. demand for the critical mineral. Here's Journal reporter Rhiannon Hoyle. This is arguably the most popular metal

in the mining world today. It's projecting huge demand ahead because of the way it performs as an electricity conductor, which makes it a key part of EVs, data centers, power grids. Importantly for policymakers, it's also widely used in military vehicles like aircraft, tanks, naval ships. So this is a project that has material tailwinds from an administration that wants to mine more locally.

The companies say it could add a billion dollars a year to the economy in Arizona and create thousands of local jobs. This is still yet another market in which China is the dominant player and one that the US no doubt wants to be more self-sufficient in. A founder of the Apache Stronghold Group said the coalition will continue to fight against the development. SpaceX lost control of its Starship vehicle yesterday in yet another bumpy test flight for Elon Musk's 400 foot tall rocket and spacecraft.

It was the ninth test flight for Starship, with SpaceX aiming to complete a fuller mission than in two previous flights this year that both ended in explosions that briefly halted flights in parts of the Caribbean. The craft did fly much farther in Tuesday's mission and was able to make it into space before SpaceX said it lost control of the vehicle before it could conduct plan tests during re-entry. US stock futures are edging lower today after yesterday's rally with Wall Street seeming to bet that the worst of President Trump's trade war is over. The Journal's Katie Barnato told me investors are now

looking ahead to what could be the next big test for markets. After the market closes, we've got results from Nvidia, which is viewed as a bellwether for the AI frenzy that has fueled markets in the past. Investors will be looking to see if Nvidia's results can sustain that momentum amid what's a pretty murky geopolitical environment. Particularly given Nvidia's sales into China are facing a lot of challenges at the moment. So ahead of Nvidia's results markets aren't up to an awful lot this morning after quite a big rally yesterday. The one thing we're seeing is a little bit of gains in Asian chip stocks that Samsung and SK Hynix, but worth noting that could just be mirroring yesterday's

rally. Salesforce is also set to report earnings after the closing bell. Results that come a day after the company, whose revenue growth has been slowing, announced a major AI acquisition. And in addition to broadly lifting markets yesterday, easing trade tensions between the US and EU could offer some much-needed relief to the bloc's luxury goods sector. While high margins have long helped to insulate luxury brands from economic storms, Trump's trade war has raised alarm in towns like Ubreque, Spain, famous for its leather workshops and where a quarter of the population are employed making goods for the

likes of Chanel and Louis Vuitton. The EU now has until July 9th to reach an agreement with Washington to avoid a 50 percent tariff on its exports as President Trump pushes companies to shift more production to the U.S. Journal reporter Nick Kostoff says that some luxury brands have done just that in recent years, but worry a Made in America tag won't carry the same cachet with consumers. The Made in Europe provenance is very, very important. This is a key value proposition for the big brands. And actually, the luxury goods brands have pushed for many years that Europe is really

the only place in the world which has, let's say, the sophistication to produce the goods for the most kind of discerning consumers, which they usually sell for eye-watering prices. But people are asking, you know, why does this stuff have to be made in Europe? And already in 2019, Louis Vuitton, for example, opened a workshop in Texas where it now makes some of its leather goods. And that's interesting to see whether consumers think that made in America, Louis Vuitton products are as desirable as made in Europe ones. But if workshops start to move away from Europe into places like America or Asia or wherever

else, then yeah, for a town like Ubrichy, that becomes very difficult. Coming up after previously trying to keep its young people away from the front lines, Ukraine is now offering money and perks to Gen Z to join the fight. We've got that story after the break. There are very few things that you can be certain of in life. But you can always be sure the sun will rise each morning. You can bet your bottom dollar that you'll always need air to breathe and water to drink. And of course, you can rest assured that with Public Mobile's 5G subscription phone plans,

you'll pay the same thing every month. With all of the mysteries that life has to offer, a few certainties can really go a long way. Subscribe today for the peace of mind you've been searching for. With its armed forces badly depleted and Russian assaults showing no sign of letting up, Ukraine is hoping that cash can boost military enlistment among young adults, a demographic they had previously sought to spare from the front lines. Journal correspondent Matthew Luxmore spoke to our Kate Bullivant about the effort that's known as Contract 18-24.

Well, there's a huge campaign right now that really, really tries to get Ukraine's youngest adults into the military. And that tries to encourage men and women as well between the ages of 18 and 24 to join through TikTok videos telling them how many McDonald's cheeseburgers they can buy with a bonus that they'll receive and the monthly salary they'll get. The Ukraine's youngest adults receive a $24,000 bonus for signing up through this programme, which is more than many Ukrainian soldiers receive in the space of a year.

And they only have to serve for a year and other perks, including the opportunity to travel abroad and also free education and subsidised medical care and things like this. And Matthew, is it working? The short answer to that question is no. The amount of people who have signed up through this programme since its inception in February has been in the hundreds. Around 500 people have signed up as of three weeks ago according to the government. And that is really a very disappointing

figure for the government, which was hoping to bring in thousands and thousands of people through this program. Russia, at least three years ago, instituted this program of giving high bonuses and constantly raising salaries for new recruits in order to give them incentive to sign up. And it's been wildly successful. Around 40,000 people are signing up every month for the Russian military. Ukraine says around 30,000 people are signing up for the Ukrainian military. But Russia has had greater success in getting people

into the military. Okay, so not having quite the expected effect on recruiting. Do we know why that is? Well, young people in Ukraine, of course, see the time they have until the age of 25 as an opportunity to begin to build a career Without being dragoon into the military So that's part of the reason alongside the bureaucracy that's involved in joining this program that not so many people Have signed up according to Ukrainian officials we've talked to but existing according to Ukrainian officials we've talked to. But existing servicemen in the military, some of them feel a degree of resentment and even jealousy because of the huge payout that people who join through the program receive, people who are much younger than them and have no experience in the military compared to many of these seasoned combat veterans

that Ukraine has plenty of. And of course, the government would respond that Ukraine needs these people. And they've shown that they're not willing to sign up in large enough numbers. So there has to be some kind of incentive at a time when the country is really struggling for manpower. Struggling for manpower at a time when we also know Russia is preparing for a summer

offensive. How is Ukraine then preparing for that? Ukraine has kind of taken this policy of hope for peace and prepare for continued war. It's been building up its defenses in the east very, very actively. It's been launching these recruitment drives. It's been trying to get as many people as possible to sign up for the military. So this is part of a strategy actually on both sides and also in Russia to prepare for a long protracted war because both countries know that the historical grievances that Russia harbors to Ukraine for sure and Ukraine in some ways now towards Russia as well after

three and a half years of this brutal Russian invasion are not going to abate anytime soon. Matthew Luxmore, thanks so much for your time. Thank you very much. And that's it for What's News for this Wednesday morning. Today's show was produced by Kate Boulevant. Our supervising producer was Daniel Bach. And I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. And until then, thanks for listening.