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A few weeks ago, President Trump announced the application fee for an H-1B visa would increase to $100,000. The price tag sent shock waves through the tech ecosystem, which heavily utilizes the visa to bring talent in from other countries. On this week’s Equity, we sat down with Jeremy Neufeld, the director of immigration policy at the Institute for Progress, to talk about the visa changes, what it means, and why it’s happening. He said the intention of the visa change makes sense, but the implementation of it has “left a lot to be desired.” “Some of the proposals that…
Kensington, a leader in private guided luxury travel has expanded its North American portfolio.The tour operator has launched new cruise and tour itineraries throughout Eastern Canada and the U.S. Northeast that include Montreal, Quebec City, Newfoundland, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and New England’s coastal towns. New itineraries include:Family Road Trip to Eastern Canada (10 Days from $5,140 per person) includes Ottawa’s riverside trails for cycling and rafting with private guides, complete with a barbecue lunch, continuing with a self-drive through Quebec with wildlife and food stops, a private tour of Old Montreal, and hiking in glacial valleys and…
Despite the well-known environmental benefits of recycling, it’s estimated that less than 10% of the world’s plastic gets recycled. Ganiga Innovation looks to bring that percentage up using AI-enabled robotic waste bins. Italian startup Ganiga built three products to help better manage waste and recycling. The first is a fleet of robotic waste bins, called Hoooly, that use generative AI to determine what is trash and what is recycling and sort the waste accordingly. The second is a smart lid that can be fitted to existing waste bins with the same functionality as its larger bin counterpart. The company also…
NEW YORK (AP) — A novel about identity and a missing youth, a history of the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and a picture book celebrating the underappreciated belly button are this year’s winners of the Kirkus Prize, which includes a $50,000 cash award for each of the three categories.Lucas Schaefer’s “The Slip,” which follows a man’s search for a nephew who disappeared years earlier, won for fiction, while the award for nonfiction was given to Scott Anderson’s “King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation.” The winner for young readers’ literature was…
by Brian Major Last updated: 12:45 PM ET, Wed October 8, 2025 Dona Regis-Prosper, Secretary-General and CEO, Caribbean Tourism Organization. (Photo Credit: Caribbean Tourism Organization)The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and New York-based nonprofit Travel Unity have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen the CTO’s commitment to sustainable tourism programming. Through the MOU, CTO will leverage Travel Unity’s expertise in inclusive travel to support CTO’s goal of positioning the Caribbean as the world’s most desirable and welcoming destination.Founded in 2016, Travel Unity is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to making travel welcoming for all people through innovative approaches to…
Bounce, a technology designed to make your social media account more portable across open social services, is making it possible for users to move their Mastodon accounts to Bluesky. On Tuesday, the makers of Bounce introduced its latest beta version, Bounce 2, which lets you take your Mastodon social graph and migrate it or merge it into a profile for your Bluesky account. With this change, arriving on October 20, users on the open social web will be able to move in either direction: from Mastodon to Bluesky or vice versa. The idea is that this account portability prevents users…
Base Power has built one of the largest battery storage systems in Texas in two years — and now it wants to grow faster. The Austin-based startup, which had raised $200 million in April, is back with another $1 billion in funding. The Series C round was led by Addition with participation from CapitalG, Elad Gil, Lightspeed, Ribbit, Thrive Capital, and Valor Equity Partners. The new round values the company at $3 billion pre-money, according to The New York Times. Base Power has sold more than 100 megawatt-hours’ worth of its home storage batteries in Texas — a notable figure…
It’s not so often that the font of a movie’s opening credits is, itself, a provocation.But in Luca Guadagnino ’s muddled but darkly absorbing “After the Hunt,” the white Windsor Light Condensed lettering against a black background, with cast in alphabetical order and soft jazz playing, is immediately recognizable as the style of a Woody Allen movie opening.In the juggling act to follow in “After the Hunt,” where Guadagnino will playfully twirl a twisting narrative of alleged sexual assault, cancel culture, privilege in academia and Gen Z victimization, the credits are not so much an opening salvo than they are…
by Sarah Kuta Last updated: 10:10 AM ET, Wed October 8, 2025 Holland America Line is launching Blend Bar, which it says is the first lipstick blending bar at sea. Travelers can now design, create and take home a signature lipstick or gloss by participating in the hands-on experience. Working with a consultant, they can choose between more than 30 pigments, four finishes (butter, crème, matte or gloss) and more than 20 flavors to craft their perfect custom lipstick or gloss. Dimension can be added with frost, shimmer or iridescent effects. Once blended, the custom formula is melted and poured into a…
AST SpaceMobile has inked a new deal with Verizon to bring space-based cellular broadband across the United States, marking its most significant partnership to date and its latest move to capture a larger share of the emerging space-to-cellular market. Under the agreement, Verizon will integrate AST’s satellite network with its terrestrial infrastructure, using Verizon’s 850 MHz spectrum to extend coverage in remote areas where towers can’t reach. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal builds on an earlier partnership between the two entities announced last year, in which Verizon made a $100 million commitment to support AST’s service…