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US Chamber sues Trump over new $100K H-1B visa fee

Summary

  • Chamber challenges Trump’s $100K annual fee for new
  • Lawsuit says the fee exceeds presidential authority and violates law
  • Fee could raise hiring costs for tech firms and skilled employers
  • H-1B visas primarily go to high-, mostly from India

The is suing the for imposing a $100,00 annual fee for new H-1B visa applications, claiming the fee is unlawful and would significantly harm U.S. businesses.

In a filed Thursday in Washington D.C., the Chamber asks the court to declare that President exceeded the executive branch’s authority by imposing the fee and bloc federal government agencies from enforcing it.

H-1B visas are meant for high-skilled jobs that tech companies find hard to fill and are primarily associated with tech workers from India. Big tech companies are the biggest user of the visa, and nearly three-quarters of those approved are from India. But there are critical workers, like teachers and doctors, who fall outside that category.

The Trump administration announced the fee last month, arguing that employers were replacing American workers with cheaper talent from overseas. Since then, the White House has said the fee won’t apply to existing visa holders and offered a form to request exemptions from the charge.

In its lawsuit, the Chamber argues that the new fee violates the immigration laws that govern the H-1B program, including the requirement that fees be based on the costs incurred by the government in processing visas.

“The President has significant authority over the entry of noncitizens into the United States, but that authority is bounded by statute and cannot directly contradict laws passed by Congress,” according to the complaint, which names the , the State Department and their respective cabinet secretaries as defendants.

Prior to Trump’s proclamation imposing the new fee, most H-1B visa applications cost less than $3,600, according to the Chamber.

“If implemented, that fee would inflict significant harm on American businesses, which would be forced to either dramatically increase their labor costs or hire fewer highly skilled employees for whom domestic replacements are not readily available,” according to the complaint.

The new fee is scheduled to expire after a year, but could be extended if the government determines that is in the interest of the United States to keep it.

Historically, H-1B visas have been doled out through lottery. This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient of H-1B visas with more than 10,000 awarded, followed by Tata Consultancy, , Apple and Google. Geographically, California has the highest number of H-1B workers.

Critics say H-1B spots often go to entry-level jobs, rather than senior positions with unique skill requirements. And while the program isn’t supposed to undercut U.S. wages or displace U.S. workers, critics say companies can pay less by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels, even if the specific workers hired have more experience.

US stocks drop on worries about banks

Summary

  • down 0.6%, Dow -0.7%, Nasdaq -0.5% after early gains erased
  • tumbles 12% on $50M loan charge-off
  • falls 10.4% after filing fraud suit against borrower
  • 10-year Treasury yield slips below 4% amid economic uncertainty

 

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are slumping on Thursday, hurt by drops for midsized banks as worries flare about the loans they’ve made.

The S&P 500 fell 0.7% in its latest up-and-down day after erasing a morning gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 284 points, or 0.6%, as of 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.7%.

Zions Bancorp. tumbled 12% after the bank said its profit for the third quarter will take a hit because of a $50 million charge-off related to loans made to a pair of borrowers. Zions said it found “apparent misrepresentations and contractual defaults” by the borrowers and several people who guaranteed the loans, along with “other irregularities.”

Another bank, Western Alliance Bancorp dropped 10.4% after saying it has sued a borrower, alleging fraud. It also said it’s standing by its financial forecasts given for 2025.

Scrutiny is rising on the quality of loans that banks and other lenders have broadly made following last month’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing of First Brands Group, a supplier of aftermarket auto parts. The question is whether the hiccups are merely a collection of one-offs or a signal of something larger threatening the industry.

The KBW Bank index fell 3.1%.

Thursday’s swings on , where the Dow bounced from an early gain of 169 points to an afternoon loss of 472, fit the pattern of the week for stocks. They’ve been shaky since the end of last week, when President shattered a monthslong calm in the U.S. by threatening much higher tariffs on China.

Thursday’s swoon erased an early morning gain driven by an encouraging signal about the artificial-intelligence boom.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported a bigger jump in profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang also said TSMC expects “continued strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies” going into the end of the year.

That’s important for the U.S. stock market because TSMC is a critical player at the center of the AI frenzy, making chips for such companies as . And Nvidia and other AI stocks have been central to Wall Street’s surge to record after record this year, even though  is still high and the job market is slowing.

AI stocks have shot so high that critics worry about a possible bubble, like the one in dot-com stocks that imploded in 2000.

U.S. companies broadly are under pressure to deliver stronger profits after the S&P 500 surged 35% from a low in April. To justify those gains, which critics say made their stock prices too expensive, companies will need to show they’re making much more in profit and will continue to do so.

Travelers dropped 2.8% Thursday even though the insurer reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its revenue fell short of forecasts.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise fell 9.6% after giving long-term financial targets that some analysts found underwhelming.

They helped overshadow a 4% gain for Salesforce, which unveiled a plan to deliver more than 10% in compounded annual revenue growth in coming years.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services trucked 21.5% higher after the freight company breezed past Wall Street’s profit targets in the third quarter.

In the oil market, crude prices swung lower after Trump agreed to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Hungary in hopes of resolving the war in Ukraine. The war has had the United States trying to cut off purchases of Russian oil.

A barrel of U.S. crude gave up an early gain to drop 1.4% to $57.46. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.4% to $61.06 per barrel.

In stock markets abroad, indexes climbed across much of Asia and Europe.

South Korea’s Kospi soared 2.5% on hopes that a trade deal may be coming between Seoul and Washington. Samsung Electronics and automakers Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp. were among the big gainers.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 3.97% from 4.05% late Wednesday.

A report in the morning said manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region is unexpectedly shrinking. It’s one of the few windows into the economy that the has been getting recently as it tries to figure out whether high inflation or the weak job market should be the bigger concern for the economy.

The U.S. government’s shutdown is delaying important updates on the economy, such as a weekly update on unemployment claims that typically helps guides Wall Street’s trading each Thursday. A day earlier, an important report on inflation was also delayed.

Virginia Tech Foundation may sell Hotel Roanoke

SUMMARY:

  • is exploring the sale of the historic & Conference Center
  • A public-private partnership revitalized hotel in 1995
  • The City of Roanoke and would need to agree about making the conference center part of the sale

After more than three decades of ownership, the Virginia Tech Foundation is moving toward cutting the Hotel Roanoke loose.

“What has happened so far is very, very preliminary,” university spokesperson Mark Owczarski said in a statement Wednesday. “Virginia Tech and Virginia Tech Foundation … have approached the city with the idea to consider and explore the sale of the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center.”

He added: “Given the hotel’s current strength and success, along with operating and franchise agreements nearing renewal, the timing for this exploration is optimal. The City of Roanoke and its council are supportive of this exploration.”

The Virginia Tech Foundation owns the hotel, but Virginia Tech and Roanoke jointly own the conference center through the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission.

“Any decisions about how to position the conference center in or with a potential sale will require the alignment of all three partners,” Owczarski stated.

The Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission met Oct. 9 and went into closed session to discuss “potential disposition of the commission’s real property.” Neither its executive director, Brian Mann, nor Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb immediately responded to requests for comment. According to a spokesperson for the city, members of the commission are Cobb; city manager Valmarie Turner; Court Rosen, a Roanoke developer and former member of the Roanoke City Council; Amy Stoakley Sebring, Virginia Tech’s executive vice president and chief operating officer; Simon Allen, Virginia Tech’s chief financial officer and vice president for finance; and Susan Short, the university’s senior associate vice president for outreach and international affairs.

Formerly a DoubleTree by Hotel property, the Hotel Roanoke has been operated by McLean-based Curio Collection by Hilton since 2016.

In April, the Hotel Roanoke announced plans for a 10,000-square-foot expansion, which would involve enclosing the north courtyard and adding indoor-outdoor recreation and conference space. Owczarski did not immediately respond Thursday when asked if those plans are now on hold. Roanoke has issued about $12.7 million in bonds to fund that expansion, according to the city’s spokesperson.

The hotel has undergone about $17.6 million in renovations in recent years, including upgrading all guest rooms and renovating the Pine Room Restaurant and 1882 Lobby Bar.

The Grand Old Lady became a Hokie in 1989 when Norfolk Southern deeded the circa-1882 landmark to the university. At that time, business wasn’t booming at the Hotel Roanoke. Tourists preferred chain hotels off the interstate, and Norfolk Southern decided to focus on the transportation business.

Using loans, donations and other funding, the project’s leader spent about $28 million initially to remodel the hotel, with an additional $13 million spent to construct the adjacent 63,000-square-foot conference center before the property reopened in 1995.

In 2015, the Roanoke Valley – Alleghany Regional Commission, one of the state’s regional planning agencies, released a study estimating that the Hotel Roanoke had an of about $616 million over the previous 26 years.

Selling the Hotel Roanoke would not be the end of the Star City’s relationship with Virginia Tech.

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine opened in 2010, and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC was founded the same year.

“The potential sale would allow Virginia Tech to deepen its Roanoke presence and commitment in new ways,” Owczarski stated.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated

US mortgage rates dip to near yearly low at 6.27%

Summary

  • 30-year mortgage rate falls to 6.27% from 6.3% last week
  • Rates hover just above 2025’s lowest level
  • One year ago, the average mortgage rate was 6.44%
  • Rates driven by Fed policy, bond yields, and outlook

The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage declined again this week, easing to just above its lowest level this year.

The average long-term mortgage rate slipped to 6.27% from 6.3% last week, mortgage buyer said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.44%.

The latest dip brings the average rate to just above 6.26%, where it was four weeks ago after a string of declines brought down home loan borrowing costs to their lowest level since early October 2024.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their , also eased this week. The average rate dropped to 5.52% from 5.53% last week. A year ago, it was 5.63%, Freddie Mac said.

are influenced by several factors, from the ‘s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The 10-year yield was at 4.02% at midday Thursday, down from around 4.14% the same time last week.

Mortgage rates started declining in July in the lead-up to the Federal Reserve’s decision last month to cut its main interest rate for the first time in a year amid growing concern over the U.S. job market.

At their September policy meeting, Fed officials forecast that the central bank would reduce its rate twice more this year and once in 2026. Still, the Fed could change course if inflation jumps amid the ‘s expanding use of tariffs and the recent escalation with China.

Even if the Fed opts to cut its short-term rate further that doesn’t necessarily mean mortgage rates will keep declining. Last fall, after the Fed cut its rate for the first time in more than four years, mortgage rates marched higher, eventually reaching just above 7% in January this year.

“Looking ahead to the rest of the year, it is difficult to forecast where rates will go, but the likely bet is that they are not going to fall much further,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. “Buyers who think they want to wait for lower rates could find themselves facing higher prices but without an improvement in mortgage rates.”

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has remained above 6% since September 2022, the year mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. The has been in a slump ever since.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes sank last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. So far this year, sales are running below where they were at this time in 2024.

Still, many homeowners who bought in recent years after rates climbed above 6% have sought to refinance their home loan to a lower rate as mortgage rates have come down in recent weeks.

Mortgage applications, which include loans to buy a home or refinance an existing mortgage, fell 1.8% last week from a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. But applications for mortgage refinance loans made up 53.6% of all applications, a slight increase from the previous week.

Many prospective homebuyers are also turning to adjustable-rate mortgages. Such loans, which typically offer lower initial than traditional 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages, accounted for 9.3% of all mortgage applications last week.

Mortgage rates will have to drop below 6% to make refinancing an attractive option to a broader swath of homeowners, however. That’s because about 80% of U.S. homes with a mortgage have a rate below 6% and 53% have a rate below 4%, according to Realtor.com.

Economists generally forecast the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to mostly remain near the mid-6% range this year.

Nestlé to cut 16,000 jobs worldwide in cost-saving push

Summary

  • Nestlé to eliminate 16,000 jobs over the next two years
  • Move part of cost-cutting and turnaround efforts
  • Savings target raised to 3 billion Swiss francs by 2027
  • Company makes , and other global brands

Nestlé is cutting 16,000 jobs globally as the Swiss food giant cuts costs as part of its efforts to revive its financial performance.

Nestlé, which makes Nescafé, KitKats, pet foods and many other well-known consumer brands, said Thursday that the will take place over the next two years. The Swiss company also said that it is raising targeted cost cuts to 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.76 billion) by the end of next year, up from a planned 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($3.13 billion).

It has been a turbulent year for the company, based Vevey, Switzerland. Last month,  dismissed CEO Laurent Freixe after an investigation into an undisclosed relationship with a subordinate.

Freixe had only been on the job for a year. He was replaced by Philipp Navratil, a longtime Nestlé executive.

Shortly after Freixe was ousted, Chairman Paul Bulcke stepped down early.

Nestlé is also fighting a host of external headwinds like other food makers, including rising commodity costs and U.S. imposed tariffs. The company announced price hikes over the summer to offset higher coffee and cocoa costs.

President has implemented a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods like coffee and orange juice. The imposed a 40% tariff on Brazilian products in July, which was on top of a 10% tariff imposed earlier. Coffee habits in the U.S. are almost exclusively fueled by imports. Official U.S. government data shows Brazil, the world’s top coffee producer, supplies about 30% of the American market, followed by Colombia at roughly 20% and Vietnam at about 10%. Tariff negotiations are ongoing.

The price of cocoa soared to record highs last year after inclement weather in areas where it is grown constrained supply and hit companies like Nestlé hard. While cocoa costs began to fall in 2025 as supply increased, cocoa is vastly more expensive than it was just two years ago.

Nestlé said Thursday that it will eliminate 12,000 white-collar positions in multiple locations. The job cuts are expected to achieve annual savings of 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.25 billion) by the end of next year. The company will cut 4,000 jobs as part of ongoing productivity initiatives in its manufacturing and supply chain.

“The world is changing, and Nestlé needs to change faster,” Navratil said in a statement.

Shares of Nestlé rose nearly 8% on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The company’s stock, which trades over the counter in the U.S., jumped by about the same level at the opening bell Thursday.

Virginia casinos report $73M in September revenue

September gaming revenues for Virginia’s three totaled $73.08 million, according to data the Virginia Lottery released Wednesday.

Opened in December 2024, Virginia’s newest permanent casino, the casino in , reported the largest adjusted gaming revenue (wagers minus winnings) for the month: approximately $28.2 million. Of that, approximately $21 million came from its 1,467 slots, and the remaining roughly $7 million came from its 100 table games.

, which opened as Virginia’s first permanent casino in January 2023, generated $17.64 million from its 1,422 slots and $6.65 million from its 84 table games, for a total AGR of nearly $24.3 million in September.

Last month, the reported more than $20.58 million in AGR, with nearly $16.84 million of that coming from its 1,383 slots and about $3.75 million coming from its 73 table games. The casino’s temporary facility opened in July 2022, making it the first operating casino in Virginia. The permanent  opened in November 2024.

September’s AGR is down almost 14% from August’s AGR of $84.8 million, but is up 29% year-over-year.

Virginia law assesses a graduated tax on a casino’s adjusted gaming revenue. For the month of September, taxes from casino AGRs totaled almost $15.78 million.

Under Virginia law, 6% of a casino operator’s AGR goes to its host locality until the operator passes $200 million in AGR for the year, at which point the host locality’s tax rate rises to 7%. If an operator passes $400 million in AGR in the calendar year, that rises to 8%.

For September, Danville received 7% of Caesars Virginia’s AGR, amounting to $1.97 million. received 7% of the Portsmouth’s AGR, netting $1.7 million. For the Bristol casino, 6% of its adjusted gaming revenue — more than $1.23 million last month — goes to the Regional Improvement Commission, which the General Assembly established to distribute Bristol casino tax funds throughout Southwest Virginia.

The Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund receives 0.8% of total taxes — approximately $126,234 last month. The Family and Children’s Trust Fund, which funds family violence prevention and treatment programs, receives 0.2% of the monthly total, which was approximately $31,558 in September. The remaining $10.71 million in taxes goes to the state’s Gaming Proceeds Fund.

Two more casinos are on the horizon in Virginia.

Construction began on the long-awaited $750 million Norfolk casino by development partners Boyd Gaming and the Pamunkey Indian Tribe in February. A temporary casino, dubbed The Interim Gaming Hall, is expected to open in November.

In November 2024, more than 80% of Petersburg voters approved a casino referendum. Baltimore-based The Cordish Cos. and Virginia Beach developer Bruce Smith Enterprise broke ground on the $1.4 billion casino in March.

Genworth’s CareScout to acquire senior care tech company for $20M

CareScout Holdings, a subsidiary of -based insurer , announced Wednesday it plans to acquire Seniorly for an estimated $20 million.

Based in , Seniorly has a software platform that connects families to more than 3,000 senior living communities through its network of local advisers. focuses on the population and their families and has a nationwide network of aging care providers who it says are vetted for quality standards.

expects to fund the transaction from its existing cash and expects the transaction to close in the fourth quarter. CareScout expects to pay under $20 million to Seniorly at closing.

“Families deserve trusted partners when planning for care, whether at home or in senior living communities, and this deepens our ability to be that partner,” CareScout Services CEO Samir Shah said in a statement.

Seniorly CEO Arthur Bretschneider, Chief Product Officer Sushanth Ramakrishna and Chief Technology Officer Kunal Shah founded the privately held company in 2014 and wholly owned it before the planned acquisition. The company’s approximately 20 employees have been offered roles with CareScout.

“By joining CareScout, we can now help even more older adults find the right long-term care solution,” Bretschneider said in a statement. “It’s a powerful new chapter for a shared mission.”

Seniorly will continue to operate from its San Francisco headquarters for the foreseeable future, according to CareScout spokesperson Evans Mandes.

Earlier this month, CareScout launched its first long-term care product.

Based in Glen Allen, CareScout is a wholly owned subsidiary of Genworth Financial. Genworth dropped off the Fortune 500 in 2025, slipping to No. 507. The insurer posted 2024 revenue of about $7.3 billion, down about 2.58% from 2023.

Wall Street gains amid tech, bank earnings & trade tensions

Summary

  • rises 0.3%; Dow up 32 points, Nasdaq +0.6%
  • Tech stocks mixed; AMD jumps 8.7%, mostly flat
  • Bank of America +3.9%, Morgan Stanley +5% on strong profits
  • Gold surges 1.3% amid and economic uncertainty

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are wavering in unsteady trading Wednesday as contends with an escalating trade war and the latest profit reports from big banking and technology companies.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3% in afternoon trading. The index has bounced between an early gain of 1.2% and a loss of 0.5% throughout the day. It is coming off a roller-coaster day where it careened between a sharp loss and modest gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 32 points, or 0.1%, as of 2:31 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.

were among the heaviest weights pulling the market between gains and losses. The sector is particularly sensitive to escalations in the trade conflict between the U.S. and China. Chipmaking giant Nvidia is mostly unchanged after shifting between gains and losses throughout the day.

There were several bright spots within the technology sector helping to nudge the broader market higher. ASML, a major supplier to the semiconductor industry, said it expects its revenue for 2025 to be 15% above last year’s, while next year’s should be at least as high as this year’s. It’s stock rose 3.1% in Amsterdam.

Broadcom rose 2.7% on Wall Street and Advanced Micro Devices jumped 8.7%.

“On the market side, we have seen continued positive momentum around investments in AI,” CEO Christophe Fouquet said, “and have also seen this extending to more customers.” That’s key when worries have been high that a bubble may be forming in artificial-intelligence technology, with too much investment flowing in akin to the 2000 dot-com frenzy.

Several big banks also helped the market gain ground. Bank of America climbed 3.9% after delivering a profit for the latest quarter that was stronger than analysts expected. CEO Brian Moynihan said every line of the bank’s business reported growth.

Morgan Stanley climbed 5% after likewise reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected. That followed better-than-expected profit reports from several banks the day before, including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

On the losing end, PNC Financial fell 3.7%. It reported a stronger-than-expected profit for the latest quarter, but it also gave a forecast for upcoming earnings that some analysts said was below expectations.

Abbott Laboratories sank 3.4% after its revenue for the latest quarter finished just shy of analysts’ expectations.

Companies are under pressure to deliver strong profits after their stock prices broadly surged 35% from a low in April. To justify those gains, which critics say made their stock prices too expensive, companies will need to show they’re making much more in profit and will continue to do so.

Corporate profit reports are also under more scrutiny than usual as investors hunt for clues about the health of the . That’s because the U.S. government’s latest shutdown is delaying important updates on the economy, such as the report on  that was supposed to arrive Wednesday.

The lack of such reports is making the job more difficult for the , which is trying to figure out whether high inflation or a slowing job market is the bigger problem for the economy.

The Fed cut its main interest rate last month for the first time this year, and officials indicated more may be on the way in hopes of giving the job market a boost. But too low can push upward on inflation, which has already been stubbornly stuck above the Fed’s 2% target.

Comments from the Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, on Tuesday may have hinted more cuts to rates may be on the way. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.05% from 4.03% late Tuesday.

Also weighing on the market recently have been worries about escalating tensions between the United States and China. President has gone back and forth in his criticism of China, particularly about restrictions it’s placed on exports of rare earths, which are materials that are critical for the manufacturing of everything from consumer electronics to jet engines.

One big winner because of all the uncertainty has been gold, and its price rose 1.3% to top $4,200 per ounce. It’s up nearly 60% for the year so far as investors look to buy something that can offer protection from trade wars, real military wars and the prospect of higher inflation coming because of mountains of debt being amassed by the U.S. and other governments worldwide.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe after a stronger finish in Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.7%, and France’s CAC 40 rose 2% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

Judge blocks Trump layoffs during government shutdown

Summary

  • halts during federal shutdown
  • Says cuts appear politically motivated and illegal
  • Unions argued firings were meant to pressure Congress
  • Shutdown enters third week with no deal in sight

(AP) — President ‘s administration for now must stop firing workers during the , a federal judge ordered on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco said the cuts appeared to be politically motivated and were being carried out without much thought.

“It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost,” she said. “It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”

She granted a temporary restraining order blocking the , saying she believed the evidence would ultimately show the cuts were illegal and in excess of authority.

Emails sent to the White House and the Office of Management and Budget after the judge’s ruling Wednesday were not immediately returned.

The judge’s decision came after federal agencies on Friday started issuing layoff notices aimed at reducing the size of the federal government. The layoff notices are part of an effort by Trump’s Republican administration to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.

The and other federal labor unions had asked Illston to block the administration from issuing new layoff notices and implementing those that were already sent out. The unions said the firings were an abuse of power designed to punish workers and pressure Congress.

Illston’s order came as the shutdown, which started Oct. 1, entered its third week. Democratic lawmakers are demanding that any deal to reopen the federal government address their health care demands. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson predicted the shutdown may become the longest in history, saying he “won’t negotiate” with Democrats until they hit pause on those demands and reopen.

Democrats have demanded that health care subsidies, first put in place in 2021 and extended a year later, be extended again. They also want any government funding bill to reverse the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill passed this summer.

The has been paying the military and pursuing its crackdown on immigration while slashing jobs in health and education, including in special education and after-school programs. Trump said programs favored by Democrats are being targeted and “they’re never going to come back, in many cases.”

In a court filing, the administration said it planned to fire more than 4,100 employees across eight agencies.

The unions say the layoff notices are an illegal attempt at political pressure and retribution and are based on the false premise that a temporary funding lapse eliminates Congress’ authorization of agency programs.

The government says the district court lacks jurisdiction to hear employment decisions made by federal agencies.

BlackRock, Nvidia, Microsoft in $40B data center deal

Summary

A group including BlackRock, Nvidia and Microsoft is buying in an approximately $40 billion deal in an effort to expand next-generation cloud and infrastructure.

The comes amid a flurry of deals in recent months involving top AI developers that are flooding the booming AI sector with resources and money, and addressing resources — such as electricity and infrastructure — needed to support such technology.

Last week it was revealed that semiconductor maker AMD will supply its chips to artificial intelligence company OpenAI as part of an agreement to team up on building AI infrastructure. OpenAI will also get the option to buy as much as a 10% stake in AMD, according to a joint statement announcing the deal.

Last month, OpenAI and Nvidia announced a $100 billion partnership that will add at least 10 gigawatts of data center computing power.

Aligned’s portfolio includes 50 campuses and more than 5 gigawatts of operational and planned capacity, including assets under development, mostly located across the U.S. and in Latin America. Some locations include northern Virginia; Chicago; Dallas; Ohio; Phoenix; Salt Lake City; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Queretaro, Mexico; and Santiago, Chile.

Aligned, which is privately held, will continue to be led by CEO Andrew Schaap and keep its headquarters in Dallas.

One of the sellers, Macquarie Asset Management, initially invested in Aligned in 2018. Ben Way, head of Macquarie Asset Management, said in a statement, “The scaling of Aligned Data Centers from two locations to 50 in seven years is representative of our approach to working with great companies and teams to support their rapid growth and deliver positive impact.”

The transaction is the first deal for the investment consortium, which is named the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership. The consortium has an initial target of mobilizing and deploying $30 billion of equity capital, with the potential of reaching $100 billion including debt.

“AIP is positioned to meet the growing demand for the infrastructure required as AI continues to reshape the ,” BlackRock Chairman and CEO and AIP Chairman Larry Fink said in a statement. “This partnership is bringing together leading companies and mobilizing private capital to accelerate AI innovation and drive global economic growth and productivity.”

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026.

Shares of Nvidia rose about 1% in morning trading.