Trump’s $100K H-1B Visa Fee, Palestine Recognition Wave, and Europe’s Airport Meltdown

22nd September 2025

President Trump just dropped a $14 billion bomb on U.S. employers, raising H-1B visa application fees to $100,000 per worker. At the same time, the UK, Canada, and Australia formally recognized Palestine in a coordinated diplomatic push, Trump’s border czar was caught in a bribery sting, and a cyberattack snarled operations across Europe’s busiest airports. All this and more in today’s Read It And Eat!

Major Headlines

• Trump’s H-1B visa fee to hit US employers with $14bn annual bill

The White House announced Friday that Trump signed a proclamation requiring employers to pay a hefty $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applications, an enormous jump from the current $215 lottery registration fee.  H-1B visas allow U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in fields that typically require technical expertise, like IT, engineering, mathematics, or medicine. The program is capped at 65,000 new visas annually, plus an additional 20,000 for foreign graduates with advanced degrees from U.S. universities. The visas are awarded through a lottery system and typically last three years, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.

The administration’s new move is designed to crack down on what it calls widespread abuse of the program, which it blames for displacing American workers. According to the White House, the share of IT workers with H-1B visas has skyrocketed from 32% in 2003 to over 65% today, while unemployment among recent computer science graduates has hit 6.1%. Earlier this year, the National Venture Capital Association argued in a letter to the National Science Foundation that, “Raising the annual cap of H-1B visas issued each year to educated and highly skilled immigrants who work in jobs that require a substantial amount of technical and specialized training is fundamental to generating more successful immigrant-founded companies.”

The NVCA noted that while “H-1B visas are not ideal for immigrants who want to immediately found companies in the U.S., they are still critically important for the success of immigrant founded companies because they provide valuable work experience and widen the pipeline of potential immigrant startup founders.” TechCrunch

• UK, Canada and Australia announce formal recognition of Palestine, with wave of Israel’s allies to follow

A wave of Israel’s allies is announcing their recognition of the state of Palestine, as part of a wider manoeuvre designed to ostracise Hamas and challenge attempts by the Israeli government to erase the chance of a Palestinian homeland. The UK, Canada and Australia formally declared their recognition of Palestinian statehood on Sunday in separate but coordinated statements.

The move marks the first time of the G7 advanced economies to take the step. Portugal announced its move late on Sunday too. Paulo Rangel, the foreign affairs minister, said: “The recognition of the state of Palestine is the realisation of a fundamental, constant, and fundamental line of Portuguese foreign policy. “Portugal advocates the two-state solution as the only path to a just and lasting peace … a ceasefire is urgent.” He added that Hamas “cannot have any form of control in Gaza or outside it” and demanded the release of all hostages. Other countries also joining the list of 147 UN states that recognise Palestine are Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Malta and possibly New Zealand and Liechtenstein. 

The other nations are set to make their formal announcement on Monday at a special UN conference to revive the waning cause of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Some, including the UK, brought forward their declaration out of respect for the Jewish new year. The conference is co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, but the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is not attending, unlike the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

On Sunday, a US State Department spokesperson dismissed as “performative” the move to recognise Palestine. “Our focus remains on serious diplomacy, not performative gestures. Our priorities are clear: the release of the hostages, the security of Israel, and peace and prosperity for the entire region that is only possible free from Hamas,” the spokesperson said, according to Agence France-Presse. Aljazeera

• Trump aide Homan accepted $50,000 in bribery sting operation, sources say

President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan accepted a $50,000 bag of cash from an undercover FBI agent last year in a since-closed U.S. Justice Department bribery investigation, two sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday. In the alleged scheme, Homan promised immigration-related government contracts when he joined the Trump administration in exchange for the money, the sources said, speaking anonymously to discuss nonpublic investigations. FBI Director Kash Patel ordered the investigation closed over the summer, one of the sources said. Homan could not be reached for comment.

“This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing," Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on Sunday. "The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. As a result, the investigation has been closed.”

The probe into Homan started around August 2024 near the end of President Joe Biden's administration and stemmed from a separate national security investigation, one of the sources told Reuters. In that unrelated probe, the target repeatedly brought up Homan, saying he was collecting bribes in exchange for future government contracts, the two sources told Reuters. An undercover sting operation was set up, and Homan was caught on a recording accepting a $50,000 bribe in a bag from the restaurant chain Cava, the sources said. Reuters

• European airports snarled by cyberattack, disruption to stretch into Sunday 

  
  

A cyberattack at a provider of check-in and boarding systems disrupted operations on Saturday at several major European airports including London's Heathrow, the continent's busiest, causing flight delays and cancellations. The disruption is the latest in a string of hacks targeting governments and companies across the world, hitting sectors from healthcare and defence to retail and autos. A recent breach at luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover brought its production to a halt.

Saturday's problems were centered on MUSE software made by Collins Aerospace, which provides systems for several airlines at airports globally, airports said. RTX (RTX.N), Collins Aerospace's parent company, said it was aware of a "cyber-related disruption" to the software at selected airports, without naming them. Heathrow Airport said it was among those affected. Brussels Airport and Berlin Airport were also affected, they said separately. Hours later, Dublin Airport said it was also facing minor impact from the issue, along with Cork Airport, Ireland's second biggest after Dublin.

"The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations," RTX said in an emailed statement, adding that it was working to fix the issue as quickly as possible. At Heathrow, Berlin and Brussels, 29 flight departures and arrivals had been cancelled as of 1130 GMT, aviation data provider Cirium said. In total, 651 departures were scheduled from Heathrow, 228 from Brussels and 226 from Berlin on Saturday.

Officials in Brussels said there had been four flight diversions, as well as "delays on most of the departing flights." Brussels Airport said it had asked airlines to cancel half of their scheduled departing flights on Sunday to avoid long queues and late cancellations, signalling that the disruption would continue through the weekend.

A European Commission spokesperson said there were currently no indications of a "widespread or severe attack" and that the origin of the incident was still under investigation Reuters

Minor Headlines 

• Oxford and Cambridge pushed out of top three UK university rankings for first time Yahoo.Finance

  
  

• More than 100,000, including many Trump admin officials, turned out for Charlie Kirk Memorial New York Times 

  
  

• The UN General Assembly starts today UN

  
  

• Trump invokes 'golden share' to block U.S. Steel plans for Illinois plant Reuters

  
  

• Amazon Faces Trial on F.T.C Charges Related to Prime Service New York Times

  
  

• Berkshire Hathaway exited its extremely profitable stake in BYD, which it first started buying in 2008 at the urging of the late Charlie Munger CNBC

  
  

• Ericsson, Nokia win $2.7 billion UK deal from VodafoneThree Reuters

  
  

• Nvidia and Abu Dhabi institute launch joint AI and robotics lab in the UAE Reuters