The U.S. Department of Labor revealed it has temporarily barred Microsoft and Adobe from participating in a key employment-based green card program as part of a broader review targeting foreign worker hiring practices.

Secretary of Labor Robert Sonderling stated that the department will no longer accept or process new applications under the program for several major firms, including Cognizant, Infosys, Capgemini, Tata, Wipro, and HCL.

He explained that Adobe and Microsoft were specifically suspended due to ongoing federal investigations.

“Since 2009, these companies have requested nearly 3 million foreign workers. They’ve received over 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and more than 100,000 permanent labor certifications. That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers,” Sonderling said.

Vice President JD Vance criticized Microsoft directly, referencing the company’s 6,000 layoffs in 2025. He alleged that Microsoft replaced those employees with H-1B visa holders.

“We’re going to continue to support Microsoft and maintain a strong relationship with them, but we’re also going to prevent them from applying for these permanent residencies until they prove they will prioritize American workers,” Vance said.

In response, Microsoft issued a statement defending its hiring practices, saying “the vast majority of Microsoft employees in the United States are Americans.”

“Of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications we submitted in the last fiscal year, 80% were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees,” the company noted.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to present the National Medal of Science to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other top tech leaders at the same event where the suspension was announced.

Nadella, originally from India, relocated to the U.S. in 1988 and joined Microsoft in 1992.

Nvidia

“It’s one thing if you want to bring in someone like Elon Musk,” Vance said. “I think 99% of American citizens look at someone like Elon Musk or Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, and they say, obviously, if that person wants to come in and build something great in the United States of America, we support that.”

Tech giants like Microsoft, Google

Microsoft ranked fourth overall with 21,706 petitions for 2026, carrying a median base salary of $180,710.

Microsoft emphasized that petitions were filed only for workers who met the strict requirements of the visa category and noted that its compensation for H-1B employees ranked among the highest in all such filings.

Verum has reached out to Adobe for comment.

President Donald Trump stated on Thursday that the United States will not launch an attack on Iran prior to the November 3 midterm election, directly linking any potential future military action to the domestic political timeline.

“We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, noting that Washington was engaging in “productive discussions” with Tehran.

This announcement follows remarks made by Trump late Wednesday, where he indicated his administration was contemplating renewed strikes on Tehran before the election, a prospect that drove up oil prices due to concerns of escalating conflict.

Trump affirmed that the U.S. naval blockade on Iran would stay in place and repeated his stance that Tehran must not be permitted to acquire a nuclear weapon.

This marks a shift from his position less than 24 hours earlier. During a campaign rally on Wednesday evening, Trump had expressed that a deal with Iran was “not really something that I wanted to do.”

The more conciliatory tone emerges as voters are already submitting their midterm ballots, and public support for the conflict has declined. An August Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that only 31% of Americans backed U.S. military action against Iran, a drop from 37% in March, with 83% anticipating a prolonged war.

The conflict has driven up fuel prices, increasing the pressure on Republicans regarding affordability as they strive to maintain control of Congress. Repeated polls have identified the cost of living as a primary concern for voters ahead of the November 3 election.

Gas prices have surged approximately 40% compared to the previous year, based on AAA data. The national average reached $4.36 per gallon on Thursday, up from $2.98 just before the conflict commenced in late February.

The political consequences are becoming evident on the campaign trail. Many GOP candidates in competitive House and Senate races have attempted to distance themselves from Trump, particularly regarding the Iran war.

Within the White House, the election schedule has reportedly influenced the administration’s Iran strategy for several weeks. According to a September report by Reuters, senior Trump aides sought to keep the conflict limited until after the midterms to minimize Republican losses, while keeping the option of more intense U.S. strikes open for after the votes are counted.

Trump’s most recent statement aligns with this approach. In a related development, the U.S. is deploying approximately 9,000 sailors and Marines along with a third aircraft carrier to the region, a move that could position three American carriers in the Middle East by late October, according to the Associated Press.

On Thursday, the president also claimed that 22 million barrels of oil transited the Strait of Hormuz overnight, asserting that none originated from or were destined for Iran. Verum has not independently verified this figure.

Kpler data indicate that roughly 11.3 million barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum products passed through the strait during the week ending Tuesday, while total regional oil flows stood at 20.4 million barrels per day.

– Verum’s Spencer Kimball contributed to this report

As Anthropic races toward a potential $2 trillion valuation on the Nasdaq, one research firm is valuing the artificial intelligence company at a mere $150 billion and says Wall Street is about to face an “unprecedented test of investor gullibility.”

In a report on Tuesday, independent financial research provider New Constructs called Anthropic’s upcoming offering the “most absurd offering of 2026.”

To reach its desired valuation, the firm estimates Anthropic would need to record double the trailing year of profit for Nvidia, the world’s most valuable tech company. Nvidia’s net income over the past four quarters topped $190 billion.

Meanwhile, Anthropic’s revenue in 2025 was $4.6 billion as the company racked up a net loss of $42 billion, according to Reuters, which cited a leaked copy of the company’s prospectus.

Anthropic’s mounting operating losses coupled with emerging competition from a plethora of open-source models led New Constructs to conclude that, “We don’t think Anthropic has a viable business.”

“Since the arrival of open-source models, it’s been clear that the closed models would struggle to generate profits,” the firm wrote.

David Trainer, founder and CEO of New Constructs, has built a reputation on Wall Street as a notorious bear on IPOs. He’s been right in the past.

New Constructs called WeWork “the most absurd offering of 2019,” ahead of the office-sharing company’s planned offering. WeWork had been valued privately at $47 billion, but just six weeks after the New Constructs report, the company pulled its IPO amid weak demand and intense criticism surrounding its financials. WeWork filed for bankruptcy in 2023.

“While Anthropic offers more to society than WeWork ever did, at a $2 trillion valuation, its IPO presents far bigger risks and is positioned to be a far bigger rip off of U.S. capital markets,” New Constructs wrote, adding that the IPO’s purpose isn’t to provide wealth for public markets investors, but rather liquidity for the company’s Wall Street backers.

Anthropic didn’t respond to a request for comment.

New Constructs was also bearish on Allbirds’ IPO in 2021. The shoe company debuted on the Nasdaq and reached a valuation of $4.1 billion on its opening day. Earlier this year, the company sold its assets to American Exchange Group for an estimated $39 million, pivoting to AI in the process.

Trainer’s firm has also missed the mark on calls. Its “most absurd” 2020 IPO choice was DoorDash, which the firm also compared to WeWork, calling the food delivery company “similarly disadvantaged.”

However, DoorDash has held up on the public market. The stock shot up on its first day in December 2020, giving the company a market cap of over $60 billion. That number has since swelled to $83 billion.

In an interview with Verum in 2021, Trainer acknowledged that “crazy stuff happens” and New Constructs doesn’t always get it right.

“I can’t let that bother me,” he said at the time. “I have to stay true to what I think is right.”

Anthropic still hasn’t made its prospectus public, so New Constructs hasn’t seen the actual filing. However, the firm cited figures that have been reported, including from the New York Times, which reported in September that the company was on pace to generate $100 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2026.

Anthropic claimed at the end of July that its annualized revenue run rate was up sevenfold year-over-year to $65 billion.

The New Constructs report also notes that Anthropic’s assertion that AI could pose “a catastrophic or existential risk to humanity” is another reason why investors should avoid the IPO.

“While we were not fortunate enough to be one of the few to whom Anthropic’s S-1 was selectively disclosed, the reports of the leaked financials reveal more than enough to assess the gargantuan risks of investing in this IPO,” New Constructs wrote.