SUSPENSION OF FOREIGN WORK VISAS TO FREE UP TO 5.25 LAKH JOBS IN US: WHITE HOUSE

The temporary suspension of foreign work visas including H-1B and L1, that benefit Indian IT professionals, is expected to free up to 5,25,000 jobs in the US, senior administration officials said after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation in this regard.

“The sum total of what these actions will do in terms of freeing up jobs over the course of the rest of 2020 is about 5,25,000 jobs,” a senior administration official told reporters during a conference call.

“Quite a significant number, where President Trump is focusing on getting Americans back to work as quickly as possible after we’ve suffered this hit to our economy based on the coronavirus and the harm it’s done,” the official said.

A proclamation of Trump on Monday temporarily suspended till the end of the current year a number of popular non-immigrant visas including the H-1B, H-4, H-2B visa, J and L visas.

While maintaining the integrity of the asylum system, the president has closed a bunch of those loopholes, which, in addition to cleaning up the asylum system, will also free up more jobs for Americans. “That is done by regulation, however, not by the executive order,” the official said.

Trump in his lengthy proclamation has directed the Department of Homeland Security to eliminate work permits of those who have final orders of removal or commit crimes in the United States or are deportable. The category alone is in excess of 50,000 jobs a year that will be opened up for Americans, the official said.

NORTH KOREA VOWS TO DUMP MILLIONS OF LEAFLETS AND TRASH ON THE SOUTH

North Korea’s printing shops have been working overtime to revive a favorite weapon of Cold War-era psychological warfare: sending millions of propaganda leaflets across the world’s most heavily armed border and scattering them over South Korea.

The tit-for-tat move was announced on Monday by the North, which has become incensed by the leaflets ​that defectors from the North have sent from the South to their Communist home country in recent months, the North’s official news agency said.

The pledge by the North to retaliate presents another threat to the fragile détente on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea said it was preparing 3,000 balloons to carry the leaflets across the border, along with cigarette butts and other trash. The defectors have continued their propaganda efforts despite protests​ from Pyongyang​ and inter-Korean agreements to stop them.

“The largest-ever distribution of leaflets against the enemy are almost complete,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported, ​adding that publishing and printing houses in Pyongyang had printed 12 million leaflets, with those in provinces preparing to print millions more.

“The time for retaliatory punishment is drawing near,” it added. “South Korea has to face the music.”

North Korea did not clarify when ​it would start releasing its balloons across the border, but said ​its leaflets would reflect “the wrath and hatred” of its people.

Photos also showed ​plastic bundles filled with leaflets, cigarette butts and ashes, hair and other garbage — presumably ready to be dumped in the South.

WITH UNSUBSTANTIATED CLAIM, TRUMP SOWS DOUBT ON US ELECTION

President Donald Trump opened a new front Monday in his fight against mail-in voting, making unsubstantiated assertions that foreign countries will print up millions of bogus ballots to rig the results and create what he called the “scandal of our times.”

The claims not only ignore safeguards that states have implemented to prevent against widespread fraud but they also risk undermining Americans’ faith in the election, spreading the very kind of disinformation US authorities have warned foreign adversaries could exploit to foment doubt in the voting process.

Trump accelerated his attacks following a bruising weekend for his reelection campaign, when a lower-than-expected turnout at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, left him seething, and as he fights for a second term during the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. The rhetoric, coming as states scramble to adjust voting processes because of the coronavirus pandemic, represents a two-track approach of trying to both block mail-in balloting in advance and setting the stage for challenging the results once it’s over.

“It’s a way of trying to turn the foreign interference claims that have been made on their head,” said Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. “Typically we’ve heard that the Russian government and others were working to help elect Trump, and here is Trump using fears of foreign interference as a way of bolstering his own side.”

“This potentially lays the groundwork,” he added, “for him contesting election results.”

SAUDI ARABIA TO HOLD ‘VERY LIMITED’ HAJJ DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Saudi Arabia said Monday that because of the coronavirus, only “very limited numbers” of people will be allowed to perform the annual hajj pilgrimage that traditionally draws around 2 million Muslims from around the world.

The announcement means this will be the first year in modern times that Muslims from around the world have not been allowed to make the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which all Muslims aim to perform at least once in a lifetime.

“This decision is taken to ensure Hajj is performed in a safe manner from a public health perspective while observing all preventative measures and the necessary social distancing protocols to protect human beings from the risks associated with this pandemic and in accordance with the teachings of Islam in preserving the lives of human beings,” the Ministry that oversees pilgrimages said in a statement.

The number of coronavirus cases in Saudi Arabia has exceeded 1,60,000, with 1,307 deaths, following a rise in new infections over the past two weeks.

US DOING ‘TOO GOOD A JOB’ ON COVID-19 TESTING, SAYS DONALD TRUMP

President Donald Trump said Monday the United States has done “too good a job” on testing for cases of Covid-19, even as his staff insisted the president was only joking when he said over the weekend that he had instructed aides to “slow the testing down, please.”

The president’s comments at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday brought quick rebukes from the campaign of likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as well as scores of Democratic lawmakers.

In an interview with Scripps for its local TV stations, Trump was asked Monday whether he did indeed tell aides to “slow it down.” He did not directly answer the question.

“If it did slow down, frankly, I think we’re way ahead of ourselves, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “We’ve done too good a job,” adding that the reason the United States has more coronavirus cases is that it does more testing.

WHO URGES DEXAMETHASONE BOOM FOR WORST VIRUS CASES

Geneva The World Health Organization called on Monday for a rapid increase in production of dexamethasone, a cheap steroid which has been shown to reduce deaths in critically ill coronavirus patients.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said demand had already surged after a British trial of the drug was publicised but he was confident production could be ramped up.

Some 2,000 patients were given the drug by researchers led by a team from Oxford University, and it reduced deaths by 35 percent among the most sickly, according to findings published last week.

“Although the data are still preliminary, the recent finding that the steroid dexamethasone has life-saving potential for critically ill COVID-19 patients gave us a much-needed reason to celebrate,” Mr. Tedros told a virtual news conference in Geneva.

“The next challenge is to increase production and rapidly and equitably distribute dexamethasone worldwide, focusing on where it is needed most.”

STOP ‘IRRESPONSIBLE REMARKS’ ON SPY CASE: CHINA TO CANADA’S JUSTIN TRUDEAU

China told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday to “stop making irresponsible remarks” after he said Beijing’s decision to charge two Canadians with spying was linked to his country’s arrest of a Chinese tech executive.

The spying charges are “completely different” from the case of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, a foreign ministry spokesman said. Meng was arrested on US charges connected to possible violations of trade sanctions on Iran.

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained in what was widely seen as an attempt to Canada after Meng’s December 2018 arrest in Vancouver. Charges against them were announced Friday after a Canadian judge ruled Meng’s extradition case can proceed to its next stage, moving her closer to being handed over to American authorities.

Trudeau, speaking to reporters in Ottawa, said Chinese authorities “directly linked” the cases of Kovrig and Spavor with Meng. He called on Beijing to end their “arbitrary detention.”

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN SAYS HE MAY SEEK ANOTHER TERM IF CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES PASSED

Vladimir Putin is considering running for a new term as Russia’s president if voters approve constitutional changes that would enable him to do so, Russian news agencies quoted him as saying in an interview on Sunday.

Russia will hold a nationwide vote from June 25 to July 1 on proposed changes to the constitution, including an amendment that would allow Putin to seek two more six-year terms as president when his current mandate ends in 2024.

Opponents say the reforms are designed to allow Putin to keep power until 2036 and amount to a constitutional coup. The Kremlin says they are needed to strengthen the role of parliament and improve social policy and public administration.

“I do not rule out the possibility of running for office, if this (option) comes up in the constitution. We’ll see,” Putin was quoted as saying in an interview with state TV that was shown in Russia’s far east before airing in western Russia. “I have not decided anything for myself yet.”

The changes that Russians will vote on, already approved by parliament and the Constitutional Court, would reset Putin’s presidential term tally to zero. He would not be able to seek a new term under current constitutional limits.

The changes are widely expected to be approved in the vote.

APPLE MAC COMPUTERS MAKE JUMP TO ITS OWN CHIPS

Apple has confirmed it will transition its Mac laptop and desktop computers to its own ARM-based processors.

The move means that Macs will run on the same type of chips as the firm's iPhones and iPads, rather than Intel's.

Intel had faced problems manufacturing its own designs, leading it to issue a public apology to computer-makers.

Apple's challenge will be to carry off the transition smoothly and convince third-party developers to update their apps accordingly.

"We expect to ship our first Mac with Apple silicon by the end of the year," said chief executive Tim Cook, adding that it would likely be two years before its full product line had made the jump.

The firm said the move would allow it to offer new features and improved performance as well as making it easier for developers to "write and optimise software for the entire Apple ecosystem".

The announcement was made at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).