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Articles by Abigail Grace
Partner Visas - Financial Requirement
The long-awaited report from the Migration Advisory Committee, advising the Government on the financial requirement under Appendix FM (partner visas – visas for fiancées, spouses and unmarried partners), has been published today. The Labour government’s approach to all visas, including family visas, has been under intense scrutiny since they stated their commitment to reduce net migration. Their predecessors, the Conservatives, had intended to increase the financial requirement significantly.
How to Obtain a Sponsor Licence
The agricultural sector in the UK requires skilled workers from abroad due to a combination of labour shortages, seasonal demand, and the specialised skills needed for modern farming techniques.
Visitor visa - needed for travel to the UK in advance of trip
Even though it seems like a long way off, in fact, now might be a good time to start thinking about visiting family over the holidays – especially if you need a visitor visa to do so. If you are from a certain list of countries, you may be what is known as a “visa national”. This means you will need to apply, and be granted permission, to come to the UK in advance of travelling. Visitor visa In the year ending March 2024 the Home Office granted 2,012,000 Visitor visas.
Labour crackdown illegal working & exploitation
The newly elected Labour government has launched a major crackdown on illegal working practices, focusing on industries known for employing undocumented workers, such as hospitality, agriculture, and food delivery. Recent enforcement actions have led to significant fines for employers, highlighting the serious consequences of non-compliance.
High Court Rules on Care Home Compliance
Already in 2024, there have been two instances where the High Court has considered whether the Home Office was right (acted lawfully and proportionately) to revoke the skilled worker sponsor licences of two large care home providers. These were the cases of Prestwick Care Ltd & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 3193 (Admin) and Supporting Care Ltd, R (On the Application Of v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 68 (Admin).
Heterogeneity of COVID-19 symptoms and associated factors: Longitudinal analysis of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases in San Antonio
Loading metrics Open Access Peer-reviewed Research Article Citation: Choi BY, Grace AR, Tsai J (2023) Heterogeneity of COVID-19 symptoms and associated factors: Longitudinal analysis of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases in San Antonio. PLoS ONE 18(12): e0295418.
Business Immigration Update - September 2023
Welcome to our business immigration update. The Home Office has made several announcements in recent times which will impact businesses which employ, or are looking to recruit, migrant workers. Home Office Fees and Immigration Health Surcharge Firstly, the Home Office has yet again announced fee increases across the board.
More Visa Fees & Immigration Health Surcharge
On 13 July 2023, the Government announced an increase to Home Office application fees and the NHS surcharge across the board; from work, visit and study visas to family-based entry clearance, leave to remain and citizenship applications. These changes will impact businesses seeking to fill recruitment gaps by looking overseas, as well as individuals looking to come to the UK for personal reasons.
Imminent changes to Immigration Policy will benefit seafood sector
Immigration Minister, Robert Jenrick, has announced that the UK seafood and fishing sector will benefit from a package of new measures to help them attract new workers and find the skilled employees they need. Which roles are now included within the Shortage Occupation List for the UK seafood and fishing sector?
Sexually Dimorphic Development of the Mesolimbic Dopamine System is Associated with Nuanced Sensitivity of Adolescent Alcohol Use
Ari Asarch1, Lauren Kruse1, 2, Abigail G. Schindler1, 3, Paul E. Phillips1* and Jeremy J. Clark1 1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, United States 2Allen Institute for Brain Science, United States 3VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Veterans Health Administration, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, United States Provisionally accepted: The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
What to Expect at the 2018 Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit
India’s Modi attends Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit on the heels of strained Sino-Indian ties. China’s President Xi Jinping is known for his predisposition towards grand diplomatic gestures that demonstrate to the world that the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” is underway. As China seeks to play a leading role on the international stage and integrate regional players into its own multilateral institutions, expect there to be significant growing pains.
A Renewed Approach to Southeast Asia
By Patrick M. Cronin, Abigail Grace, Daniel Kliman and Kristine Lee As the competition between the United States and China to shape the course of the 21st century intensifies, Southeast Asia has become a contested space. A region where geopolitical orientations remain fluid, Southeast Asia lies at the front line of Beijing’s expanding diplomatic influence, economic leverage, and military capability.
Contested Spaces
March 20, 2019 A Renewed Approach to Southeast Asia By Patrick M. Cronin, Abigail Grace, Daniel Kliman and Kristine Lee Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Print Executive Summary As the competition between the United States and China to shape the course of the 21st century intensifies, Southeast Asia has become a contested space.
It's Time for the U.S.-South Korea Alliance to Evolve
January 12, 2019 By Kristine Lee Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Print The alliance between the United States and South Korea has, for the past six decades, been a core pillar of the U.S.-led security architecture in Northeast Asia—but in recent months, the bilateral relationship has been facing something of a crisis of confidence.
A New Cold War Has Begun
January 07, 2019 By Robert D. Kaplan Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Print In June 2005, I published a cover story in the Atlantic, “How We Would Fight China.” I wrote that, “The American military contest with China … will define the twenty-first century. And China will be a more formidable adversary than Russia ever was.” I went on to explain that the wars of the future would be naval, with all of their abstract battle systems, even though dirty counterinsurgency fights were all the rage 14 years ago.
How the US Should Respond to China’s Belt and Road
A focus on promoting transparency and fighting corruption rather than China-bashing will be more successful in the long run. By Abigail Grace and Max Hill for The Diplomat December 21, 2018 Alarmed by China’s rapidly expanding sphere of influence and illiberal norms, the United States and its partners are searching for a way to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
In an Era of Divided Government, China Can Unite
December 14, 2018 By Richard Fontaine Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Print The televised bickering between President Trump and top Democratic leaders illustrates that, if political leaders find any consensus in 2019, it won’t be on the border wall. Nor is it likely that Trump, the Democratic House and Republican Senate will find accord on Russia policy, the approach to Saudi Arabia, North Korea diplomacy or, for that matter, almost any other foreign-policy issue.
Abigail Grace
Abigail Grace is a former Research Associate in the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for New American Security (CNAS). Her work focuses on U.S. strategic competition with China, China’s foreign policy, U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, and Chinese approaches to multilateralism. Prior to joining CNAS, Ms. Grace was a member of the National Security Council staff from 2016-2018.
This Is How America and the Philippines Can Upgrade Their Alliance
At the heart of the Indo-Pacific region are the disparate nations of Southeast Asia, a dynamic group of post–colonial nations that consciously guard their hard-earned autonomy in a theater of great powers. And at the very core of that pivotal region is the Philippines, which straddles the Western Pacific, the South China Sea, and the interlocking seascapes that constitute the maritime heartland of Asia.
Trumping Asia
In a cavernous Manila exhibition hall, flooded with light, U.S. President Donald Trump stood flanked by members of his national security team to deliver remarks to the press in November 2017. Joking that the White House press corps would need a day to recover from his first Asia trip – which covered five countries – the president observed, “It’s been an incredible 12 days.
Navigating a new chapter in the US-Philippines’ ‘Long Friendship’
In the Philippines, nearly a year after President Trump first sketched his Free and Open Indo-Pacific policy at the 2017 APEC CEO Summit, uncertainty about how the United States will operationalize its vision lingers. Beijing’s vaunted infusion of capital, and influence across all dimensions of Philippine society, including through its multi-billion dollar investments into key Build, Build, Build infrastructure projects, has amplified this uncertainty.
How President Trump is helping Beijing win in the South China Sea
For years now, China has been at war against the United States in the South China Sea — only Washington didn’t notice until the process was well underway. The Chinese way of war, modeled after the philosopher of middle antiquity, Sun Tzu, is to win without ever having to fight.
China’s Influence Operations Are Pinpointing America’s Weaknesses
Politics United States China On the margins of the 2018 United Nations General Assembly, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an explosive claim, alleging that China was engaging in a campaign to influence the outcome of U.S. elections as retribution for his prosecution of the trade war.
China’s Influence Operations Are Pinpointing America’s Weaknesses
On the margins of the 2018 United Nations General Assembly, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an explosive claim, alleging that China was engaging in a campaign to influence the outcome of U.S. elections as retribution for his prosecution of the trade war. Although the Trump administration has yet to provide specific information to back up these accusations, Beijing’s aggressive overseas influence campaigns are well known among China watchers.
The Second Coming of Kim Jong Un
The leaders of the United States and North Korea waited seventy years to have a first face-to-face encounter. That happened on June 12, when Chairman Kim Jong-un met President Donald Trump in Singapore. Now the pair is preparing for an encore encounter, which will mark the second summit in about four months.
China and America May Be Forging a New Economic Order
China and America May Be Forging a New Economic Order
The US-China Trade War is Steering the World into the Unknown
In this Nov. 9, 2017, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, right, chats with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. A new Cold War is a possibility — but not the most likely one. “New U.S.-China Tariffs Raise Fears of an Economic Cold War,” proclaimed a Washington Post headline.
Trump's China Trade War Isn't a 'New Cold War'
While tariffs are undoubtedly a distinctly Trumpian weapon, politicians on both sides of the aisle generally agree that China’s habitual , , and significantly impair the future health and competitiveness of America’s leading businesses. In 2014, President Barack Obama public comments lambasting China’s approach to intellectual-property protection and state-owned enterprises.
Power Play
Executive Summary The United States and China are in a competition to shape the course of the 21st century. At stake is whether the prevailing international order that has backstopped peace, prosperity, and freedom will endure, or whether Beijing’s emerging vision – a world defined by great power spheres of influence, rigged economic interactions, and ascendant authoritarianism – will become the global reality. To realize this vision, China is making multiple power plays.
What's in a name? Korean 'peace' and breaking the deadlock
Everyone wants peace on the Korean Peninsula. But what does “peace” mean and how is it achieved? This is where it gets tricky and political, dividing the hawks and the doves. It might be even more difficult for the United States and North Korea to agree on what peace means, including the meaning and implications of all of the interim steps, like a declaration ending the Korean War.
Beyond Defining a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’
Nearly one year in to the United States, Japan, Australia, and India’s collective pursuit of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific,” broad misunderstandings of the policy’s intentions and objectives endure. These hyper-analytic concerns are misguided and limit experts’ capacity to evaluate tangible, fact-based shifts in regional powers’ Indo-Pacific policy.
China extends Uighur crackdown beyond its borders
After years of persecution by Chinese police, Uighur businessman Mehmet fled his home in northern Xinjiang for neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, only to be harassed by Kyrgyz police and threatened with deportation. On his sixth arrest in July last year, a Kyrgyz security officer brought Mehmet to the basement of a security facility and showed him about 70 Uighur men detained there. “It was an intimidation tactic,” said Mehmet, who did not want his real name to be published.
China is on a much bigger mission than winning the trade war with the US
US President Donald Trump's most recent threat to target all $505 billion in annual Chinese imports to the United States is only the latest development in the looming US-China trade war. While Trump and his team are preparing for an economic competition focused largely on tariffs, policymakers must prepare for a multi-domain competition rooted in Chinese political posturing, domestic propaganda, and economic coercion targeting American firms operating in China.
China Doesn’t Want to Play by the World’s Rules
China Doesn’t Want to Play by the World’s Rules U.S. President Donald Trump’s most recent threat to target all $505 billion in annual Chinese imports to the United States is only the latest development in the looming U.S.-China trade war.
China Doesn’t Want to Play by the World’s Rules
U.S. President Donald Trump’s most recent threat to target all $505 billion in annual Chinese imports to the United States is only the latest development in the looming U.S.-China trade war. While Trump and his team are preparing for an economic competition focused largely on tariffs, policymakers must prepare for a multi-domain competition rooted in Chinese political posturing, domestic propaganda, and economic coercion targeting American firms operating in China.
Counterterrorism Strategy in the Trump Era - Firm or Faux?
U.S. counterterrorism has been a mixture of unilateral policies and multilateral partnerships. Stephen Tankel of American University joins us today to discuss the trajectory of U.S. counterterrorism strategy under the Trump administration. See this Segment and more from the CATO Institute
Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman Gardner, Ranking Member Markey, distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss a topic of vital importance to the United States.
The China Challenge
[remarks as prepared for delivery at the CNAS Annual Conference, June 21, 2018] Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for being here today. My name is Ely Ratner, Vice President and Director of Studies at CNAS. Before we move to the lunchtime breakout sessions, we wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about some of the new and innovative work we’re doing on China at CNAS.
Toward a New Maritime Strategy in the South China Sea
China’s attempts at unilaterally changing the status quo in maritime Asia are most visible in the South China Sea, where previously small land features are now burgeoning military outposts. The United States needs to retool its approach to China in the Western Pacific and move toward a new maritime strategy.
A Precarious Accord
Throughout 2017, diplomacy remained almost dormant as North Korea blazed through a record set of nuclear-related activities and demonstrated its ability to launch ballistic missiles with an intercontinental range capable of reaching North America. But at the end of the year, in December, the nuclear and missile tests went silent. From the first day of 2018, the diplomatic bustle has been nonstop and marked by unprecedented meetings among leaders.
The Lessons China Taught Itself: Why the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Matters
China’s changing political landscape and the recent accession of India to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) marks the beginning of a new chapter for one of China’s first self-founded multilateral groupings.
China Smells Opportunity in the Middle East's Crisis
As the Middle East becomes ever more unstable, a surprising victor may be emerging: China. Under President Xi Jinping, China has accelerated its engagement with the Middle East — a region Beijing once treated as peripheral to its interests. Increased trade and investment, invigorated diplomatic exchanges, and expanded military ties are gradually transforming China's position in the Middle East.
China Smells Opportunity in the Middle East’s Crisis
As the Middle East becomes ever more unstable, a surprising victor may be emerging: China. Under President Xi Jinping, China has accelerated its engagement with the Middle East — a region Beijing once treated as peripheral to its interests. Increased trade and investment, invigorated diplomatic exchanges, and expanded military ties are gradually transforming China’s position in the Middle East.
Homemade Heavy Caliber Rifles-Two Unusual Firearms
Historically, in crimes involving heavy caliber rifles, only conventional factory-made versions have been used. However, in recent years the number of homemade long-barreled rifles is increasing. The characteristics of two such firearms that have been submitted to the Turkish Criminal Laboratory are discussed here. When the main parts of the guns were examined in detail, it was noted that nearly all of the parts had been made carelessly, with several structural defects visible.
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