This comes a few months after a failed plan to strip international students of their visas if they are not required to attend some classes in person, during coronavirus lockdown, in July.

The new guidelines from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), if approved, mean affected students will be barred from four-year courses in the US.

It was not immediately clear if Nigerian students currently studying in the US would be affected.

In the new measures published in the US federal register and scheduled for announcement on Friday, the DHS proposed a “maximum admission period of up to 2 years for certain students”, including those from Nigeria.

Among the countries targeted in the new policy are those on the US “State sponsor of terrorism list” and students from countries that visitors have overstay rate of more than 10 percent.

“A key goal of shifting aliens in F status from D/S to an admission for a fixed time period is to provide pre-defined time periods for immigration officers to evaluate whether a nonimmigrant has maintained his or her status,” the DHS said.

“If an immigration officer finds that an alien violated his or her status prior to or during the course of an EOS adjudication and denies the EOS request, the alien generally would begin accruing unlawful presence the day after issuance of the denial.”

It also said that the proposed rule seeks to reduce instances in which F, J, and I nonimmigrants — mostly students and exchange visitors — “unlawfully remain in the United States after their program or practical training ends.”

“Under this proposed rule, aliens who remain in the United States beyond a fixed time period generally would begin accruing unlawful presence,” it said.

Following the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration was in July forced to abandon a plan to strip international students of their visas if they are not required to attend some classes in person.

The Consul General of Nigeria in New York, Mr Benaoyagha Okoyen announced this in a statement dated on Monday, August 10, 2020, on behalf of the country’s missions in the U.S.

The flight is scheduled to convey the evacuees from New Jersey on August 20 to both Abuja and Lagos, according to the statement.

This would come after the seventh and eight evacuation flights scheduled for August 15 and August 19 respectively from Houston, Texas, to Lagos.

The government had so far evacuated 1,739 stranded Nigerian citizens in six special flights from the U.S. which is witnessing a second wave of coronavirus infections.

President Trump had a press conference where he confirmed his government will be giving Nigeria 200 or more ventilators.

He said ”I spoke today to Nigeria. They will do anything for ventillators. We are going to send at least two hundren ventillators to Nigeria, probably more than that”

“The so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty things to say about the United States and Europe,” Trump tweeted of Khamenei’s comments earlier Friday in Tehran.

According to Trump, Khamenei’s blistering speech, in which he attacked the “vicious” United States and described Britain, France and Germany as “America’s lackey’s,” was a mistake.

“Their economy is crashing, and their people are suffering. He should be very careful with his words!” Trump tweeted.

Protests began Saturday at two universities in Iran, as Iranians gathered to mourn the 176 lives lost on Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, which the Iranian government admitted to accidentally shooting down early Saturday. That flight contained 82 Iranian citizens; Iran initially blamed its crashing on a technical error, calling US and Canadian claims that it had been shot down “lies.”

Angered over the Iranian government’s apparent attempt to hide the accidental killing of civilians, mourners in the crowd turned hostile, chanting anti-regime slogans and tearing up pictures of senior Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike on January 3.

Ahead of shooting down the plane, Iran responded to Soleimani’s death with missile strikes on US positions in Iraq; the government said “human error” led to military officials mistaking the aircraft for an enemy plane in the wake of those strikes.

At the protests, Iranians chanted “commander-in-chief resign,” referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and “death to liars.” Some also chanted, “They are lying that our enemy is America, our enemy is right here.”

That’s in part because, a full week after the airstrike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the White House has yet to offer a clear, consistent articulation of what “imminent” attack the US was trying to avoid — and, in fact, top administration officials are offering conflicting justifications, raising key constitutional questions.

While Republicans have largely fallen in line on the question of whether Trump should be allowed to pressure a foreign country — Ukraine — to undermine his political rival, they are exerting a few flashes of independence from the White House when it comes to attacking Iran.

The President has made specific allegations about the necessity of killing Soleimani. His top aides have remained much more oblique, making it seem as if they are trying to cloud the record without contradicting their boss.

Of course, ignoring Congress and fighting over policy and funding with lawmakers has been a constant of Trump’s presidency, even during his first two years, when Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate.

Those fights intensified when Democrats took control of the House a year ago, leading to a record-setting government shutdown in early 2019. Then, when Trump blew off questions about his pressure on Ukraine to investigate his political rivals and tried to squash a congressional investigation, House Democrats impeached him for it.

Trump’s decision to kill an Iranian general and tempt war without consulting Congress was of a different order, and created a national security crisis that puts American lives at risk. And Congress, like the public, has been kept in the dark on some of the most important intelligence.

It’s an important question because, if there was no imminent threat of danger to Americans, the killing veers from anti-terror operation to political assassination. The Constitution, which gives Congress the power to declare war, did not envision that sort of power.

This is an action that would violate international law and is viewed as a war crime — after top Cabinet officials contradicted his twice-made threat.

“If that’s what the law is — I like to obey the law. But think of it, they kill our people, they blow up our people and then we have to be very gentle with their cultural institutions,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Trump originally made the threat to the sites on Saturday, tweeting that the US had “targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” adding that “if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets… Iran itself WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.”

Richmond, Va., newlyweds Matthew and Lauren Urey were on a day trip to White Island from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Ovation when the volcano went off, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Matthew, 36, was airlifted to a hospital in Christchurch with burns over 80 per cent of his body, while Lauren, 32, underwent surgery at an Auckland hospital with burns over 20 per cent of her body, the paper reported.

Matthew later left a frantic voice message at his mother’s home telling her he and his new wife were “very badly burned.”

Barbara Barham, Lauren’s mother, told the Washington Post that she learned her daughter had been hurt when she got a call from Matthew’s mom.

“Her son called and said that they had been on the excursion and there had been a volcano eruption and they were burned very bad,” Barham told the outlet.

The banana art, titled “Comedian,” was the work of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. It’s a part of Emmanuel Perrotin’s outer gallery wall at Art Basel in Miami Beach. The piece sold for $120,000 to a French art collector.

Around 1:45 p.m. in front of a convention centre full of art lovers, New York-based performance artist David Datuna ate the banana, gallery representatives told the Miami Herald.

He called it “Hungry Artist.”

A dismayed Peggy Leboeuf, a partner at Perrotin Gallery, frantically told Datuna, “But you’re not supposed to touch the art!”

The gallery reported the incident to security, but Datuna slipped away.

Lucien Terras, director of museum relations, said the work was still salvageable.

The work came with a Certificate of Authenticity, and a disclaimer that owners may replace the banana as needed.

“He did not destroy the artwork. The banana is the idea,” Terras said. Apparently the collectors are buying the certificate — the banana is not made to last.

“This has brought a lot of tension and attention to the booth and we’re not into spectacles,” Terras added. “But the response has been great. It brings a smile to a lot of people’s faces.”

Perrotin, the gallery owner, was on his way to the airport when he heard the banana had been eaten. Immediately enraged, he turned around and headed back to the gallery. One of the gallery viewers tried to cheer him up by handing him another banana.

Perrotin and a gallery assistant taped the new banana back to the wall.

“It’s not about the piece. It’s an art performance. Maurizio Cattelan, I love him. One artist eats another artist. It’s fun,” Datuna told the New York Post about eating the banana.

Cattelan was the artist behind the 18-karat gold toilet named “America” that was widely touted as anti-Trump art. It was on display in a public restroom in the Guggenheim in New York City in 2016.

Speaking from the White House, Mr Trump said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi detonated his suicide vest during a raid by special forces late on Saturday.

Baghdadi came to prominence in 2014, when he announced the creation of a “caliphate” in areas of Iraq and Syria.

IS carried out a number of atrocities that resulted in thousands of deaths.

The jihadist group imposed a brutal rule on almost eight million people in the areas under its control and was behind a number of attacks in cities around the world. The US declared the “caliphate” defeated earlier this year.

In an unusual Sunday morning statement, Mr Trump said US special forces executed a “daring night-time raid” and accomplished their mission in grand style.

“He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering, crying and screaming all the way, Mr Trump said. “The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him.”

No US soldiers had been killed but a number of Baghdadi’s followers also died, Mr Trump said, adding that “highly sensitive material and information” had been gathered.