Donald Trump has begun the process of choosing a cabinet and selecting other high-ranking administration officials following his presidential election victory.

Here are the early picks and top contenders for some of the key posts overseeing defence, intelligence, diplomacy, trade, immigration and economic policymaking. Some are in contention for a range of posts.

Chief of staff

Trump on Thursday announced that Susie Wiles, one of his two campaign managers, will be his White House chief of staff. While the specifics of her political views are somewhat unclear, Wiles, 67, is credited with running a successful and efficient campaign. Supporters hope she will instill a sense of order and discipline that was often lacking during Trump’s first four-year term, when he cycled through a number of chiefs of staff.

Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Trump announced on Sunday night that Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement from his first administration, will be in charge of the country’s borders. Trump made cracking down on people in the country illegally a central element of his campaign, promising mass deportations.

UN ambassador

Trump announced on Monday that Elise Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman and staunch Trump supporter, would be his ambassador to the United Nations.

Stefanik, 40, a US representative from New York state and House Republican conference chair, took a leadership position in the House of Representatives in 2021 when she was elected to replace then-Representative Liz Cheney, who was ousted for criticising Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Treasure secretary

Scott Bessent, John Paulson; Larry Kudlow, Robert Lighthizer and Howard Lutnick considered for the role of potential treasury secretary. Bessent, a key economic adviser to Trump, is widely seen as a top candidate for treasury secretary. A longtime hedge fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years.

Commerce secretary

Linda McMahon is seen as the frontrunner to lead Trump’s Department of Commerce, three sources briefed on the plans said. Mcmahon is a Professional wrestling magnate and former Small Business Administration director

Secretary of state

Richard Grenell, Robert O’brien, Bill Hagerty and Marco Rubio, among the top choices for potential secretary of state. Grenell is among Trump’s closest foreign policy advisers.

O’Brien, Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser during his first term, maintains a close relationship with Trump, and the two often speak on national security matters.

Hagerty, a US senator from Tennessee who worked on Trump’s 2016 transition effort, Hagerty is considered a top contender for secretary of state. Rubio, a US senator from Florida and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, is also a top secretary of state contender whose policies hew closely to those of Trump.

Defence secretary

Mike Waltz, potential defence secretary. A former Army Green Beret who is currently a US congressman from Florida, Waltz has established himself as one of the foremost China hawks in the House. Among the various China-related bills he has co-sponsored are measures designed to lessen US reliance on critical minerals mined in China.

By Francesca Hangeior.

UK universities are among the most prestigious in the world, but visa restrictions mean they are now attracting fewer international students — taking a heavy toll on their finances.

The restrictions are compounding problems caused by the UK’s departure from the European Union four years’ ago.

Almost 760,000 foreign students were enrolled in British universities in 2022, making Britain the second most popular destination after the US, in a highly competitive market.

Most come from India, then China and Nigeria.

But last year, the number of student visas fell by 5 percent. Between July and September, student visa applications slumped 16 percent compared to the same period last year.

The decline is a major cause of concern for higher education institutions since foreign students pay far more in fees than British students.

Leo Xui, 20 years old and from China, began studying population and health sciences at University College London in September.

“It’s good for my career,” he said of enrolling abroad. Thinking ahead to when he will return to China, he added: “I will be able to apply for a foreign company.”

His fees for the academic year are £31,000 (37,200 euros). British students attending universities in England have paid a maximum of £9,250 since 2017.

The Labour government, elected in the summer, announced last week that the cap would rise to £9,535 from next year, a move welcomed by universities who have been calling for an increase for years.

Universities UK (UUK), which represents 141 British higher education institutions, warned at its conference in September that funding per student is at its lowest level since 2004.

It estimates that the £9,250 fee is worth less than £6,000 because of inflation, leading to deficits in teaching and research.

“We are all feeling the crunch,” UUK president Sally Mapstone told the conference.

Universities have welcomed more foreign students in a bid to fill budget gaps, to the point where many are financially dependent on them.

According to a parliamentary report, foreign students make up more than half the student body at London’s University of the Arts and Cranfield University, a science and engineering institute just north of the British capital.

The Financial Times reported earlier this year that some universities, including York, have lowered their admission criteria to attract more students from abroad.

But the previous Conservative government, ousted from power in July, complicated the universities’ task by imposing restrictions on student visas as it sought to reduce record levels of regular migration.

It forbade foreign students from bringing family members with them, with a few exceptions, and prevented them from switching to work visas while studying.

In the first four months of 2024, there were 30,000 fewer applications from overseas than in the same period in 2023, according to official statistics.

“These hard numbers confirm our fear that the previous government’s changes have made the UK a less attractive study destination,” said Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank.

– Overseas campuses –
Provost Ian Dunn of Coventry University, where more than a third of the 30,000 students are from overseas said the Tories’ “narrative was very destructive”.

The university had already been impacted by Brexit.

“We had 4,400 students from the European Union. Now we’re probably at 10 percent of that,” he said, adding that the situation was “difficult”.

A lecturer at another English university told AFP that teaching positions as well as courses had been cut.

“The drop in international students has dramatically worsened the crisis for us,” she said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to talk to the media.

“Some have preferred to go to Canada, Australia or the Netherlands, where courses are taught in English,” she added.

Coventry University may have found the answer by partnering with institutions overseas to open campuses in several countries, including Egypt, Morocco, India and China.

At the end of their studies, students may not have set foot in the UK but they still “obtain a degree from Coventry University”, said Dunn.

With 10 weeks to go until Donald Trump takes over, the Joe Biden administration is looking to push out the more than $9 billion of remaining funding appropriated by Congress for weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine, officials said.

Trump’s election victory spells immediate doubt for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, with Biden’s administration expected to sprint in its final days to ensure — insofar as possible — long-term US support.

Trump, who won an overwhelming victory in Tuesday’s election, has in the past voiced admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and scoffed at the $175 billion in US assistance committed for Ukraine since Moscow’s 2022 invasion.

The 78-year-old tycoon has repeatedly boasted that he can end the war in 24 hours, without explaining how.

His aides have mused about conditioning aid to Kyiv to force concessions, with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance once bluntly saying he did not care what happened to Ukraine, seeing the country as strategically insignificant compared with the global US rivalry with China.

With 10 weeks to go until Trump takes over, the Biden administration is looking to push out the more than $9 billion of remaining funding appropriated by Congress for weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine, officials said.

The Biden team is also looking for structural ways to put European allies in greater charge of assistance to Ukraine before Trump returns, diplomats said.

In a pre-emptive “Trump-proofing” measure, NATO — the transatlantic alliance that has been criticized by the president-elect — has already agreed to take over from the United States in coordinating aid to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also moved quickly with Trump in hopes of preserving ties with Kyiv’s top backer.

Zelensky called him Wednesday, offering flattery on his “tremendous victory” and voicing hope for “strong and unwavering US leadership” to bring a “just peace.”

– Not so simple –

Brian Taylor, a Russia expert at Syracuse University, said that if Trump seeks a direct role in Ukraine-Russia talks, he will “quickly find out that the details and the nuances are not so simple as simply telling everyone to stop shooting at each other.”

Even a deal to freeze the grinding conflict raises questions on where to draw battle lines, with Ukraine’s military fighting in regions that Russia says it has annexed.

At the same time, Taylor doubted that Europe could immediately replace US military assistance.

“I’m not sure Europe has the stomach or the institutional capacity to just step up and fill that role instantly, although maybe it will develop that capacity over time,” he said.

Olga Khakova, of the Atlantic Council, said that Biden could lift restrictions on use of Western weapons on Russian soil, a long-running demand of Kyiv, and boost Ukraine’s air defenses to protect its energy infrastructure.

Boosting Ukraine could also appeal to Trump by giving him a stronger negotiating hand, she said.

“Much is still unknown, but this offers a unique opportunity to negotiate from a position of strength and decisiveness and boldness,” Khakova said.

– Bringing both to table –

Leon Aron, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said Trump could ultimately be disappointed by Putin’s refusal to budge on demands, resulting in a deal politically unpalatable even in Trump’s Washington.

For now, Trump’s victory mostly means uncertainty, said Brian Finucane, a former State Department official now at the International Crisis Group.

“Further substantial US military aid seems doubtful, but Trump himself has been vague about how specifically he would deal with the conflict,” Finucane said.

Representative Michael Waltz, a Republican army veteran seen as a contender for a national security position, said in a pre-election interview that Trump could find ways to press Putin, including by tightening enforcement of sanctions on Russian energy exports.

“I think that will get Putin to the table. We have leverage, like taking the handcuffs off of the long-range weapons we provided Ukraine as well,” Waltz told National Public Radio.

Trump, he said, is “very focused on ending the war rather than perpetuating it.”

AFP