Authored by Steven Edginton via American Intelligence,
While many warn that artificial intelligence itself will displace American workers, far less attention is paid to the fact that the very companies building AI are already replacing American employees with cheaper foreign labor. In many cases, though, the immediate threat to American workers is not the technology itself, but the hiring practices of the firms developing it.
In 2025, 406,348 H-1B visas were given to foreign workers in the United States, according to the latest U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data. For hundreds of thousands of Americans, that figure is a nightmare.
The H-1B visa program, created in the 1990s as a temporary work visa supposedly for highly-skilled migrants, has flooded America with millions of cheap foreign workers.
For the last few months, I have been investigating the issue of the H-1B program and its impact on Americans for a new documentary for GB News. During that process, I received a flood of messages from workers across the country describing how they were forced to train their foreign replacements, saw their jobs were sent overseas, or witnessed ethnic tribalism in hiring that shut Americans out of jobs altogether.
The largest users of the H-1B program are Big Tech companies, many of which lobby Congress aggressively against reforms that could disrupt their pipeline of foreign labor.
Tech workers in Silicon Valley, one of America’s great civilizational achievements, are now overwhelmingly foreign born. According to the 2025 Silicon Valley Inde, roughly two-thirds of Silicon Valley tech workers were born outside the United States. There are more Indian-born tech workers there than those born in California. Highly-educated tech workers from India and China outnumber those from the United States, making up 41 per cent of the workforce compared with 30 per cent.
Lawmakers should evaluate the national security implications of a strategically vital American industry becoming taken over by, and increasingly dependent on, foreigners.
But the most visceral impact of this change has been on American tech workers.
According to an analysis by Harvard economist George Borjas, H-1B workers are on average 16% cheaper to employ than their American counterparts. For each H-1B worker employers save an average of $100,000 over the six-year term of the visa. Employers then have the ability to sponsor H-1B workers for green cards, ensuring they replace American workers in perpetuity.
One Silicon Valley based employee told me she lost her job after her Indian manager forced her to hire an Indian assistant, who she was later told to train so that he could replace her. Since then, she has been struggling to find work for two years, and was forced to sell her home.
In another case, a whistleblower, who until recently worked at FedEx, said her entire team’s jobs were off-shored to India. A former Google contractor said he was told to train his replacements in the Philippines. These stories are not atypical, especially for older workers who are competing for jobs with young, cheaper foreigners.
Many have also seen ethnic tribalism in hiring. At Google one former employee said he saw Indians give other Indians confidential interview questions to help them secure jobs. Others told me similar stories, where ethnic nepotism has led to workplaces becoming hives for foreign workers who all spawned from one particular city or even village in India. One high-profile example of this can be seen in the case of Cognizant Technology Solutions, an IT consulting company founded in India. Several successful lawsuits against the company in recent years have found discrimination against non-Indian employees in hiring and promotions.
To deal with these challenges, the Trump administration has attempted to crack down on the H-1B visa. Last year a new $100,000 fee was announced which would apply to employers hiring foreign talent. While official figures on the impact on H-1B applications are not yet available, experts estimate that applications may have fallen by between 30 and 50 per cent.
However, veteran anti-immigration campaigner and lawyer Rosemary Jenks said the new fee has had little overall impact as it doesn’t apply to domestic H-1B applications. Those who convert their visas to H-1Bs, such as students, or those renewing their H-1Bs are exempt from the $100,000 charge. Jenks’ view was confirmed to me by an immigration lawyer in Silicon Valley, who said she had seen a significant increase in domestic H-1B applications.
And when it comes to foreign competition for jobs, the H-1B program isn’t the only challenge for American workers.
This week Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced it has found more than 10,000 cases of potential fraud in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. This scheme allows foreign students to work in the United States for up to two years after graduating (who can then convert their student visas into H-1Bs, and eventually green cards). ICE officials said they had found “empty buildings and locked doors at addresses where hundreds of foreign students are allegedly employed”.
Unlike the H-1B program, which requires employers to pay the “prevailing wage” for roles, those employed under OPT can be paid any wage. The result is that American graduates are competing for entry level jobs with foreigners who are willing, and able, to work for far less. As of last year, 294,253 students are in the US on the OPT program.
Some Republicans, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have called for the H-1B visa to be abolished entirely. But until Congress is willing to confront the political influence of the Big Tech lobby, America’s dependence on cheap foreign labor is unlikely to end. The irony is that while Americans are told to fear displacement by artificial intelligence in the future, many are already being displaced in the present by hiring practices of the very firms building it.
Tyler Durden Wed, 05/13/2026 - 22:35Amid the fog of the Iran conflict, some serious geopolitical chess moves were happening in the shadows, with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu having slipped behind what were once enemy lines, into the the quarters of UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for a clandestine summit which could help realign the region.
"This visit has led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the UAE," Netanyahu's office confirmed in a Wednesday statement.
It provides top level confirmation of a new CBS report, which revealed that "Netanyahu made a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates recently, where he met with Mohammed bin Zayed, the country's president."
The clandestine meeting occurred in late March, and out of that grew out of the Abraham Accords, given UAE was the first to sign onto normalization with Israel back in 2020. Strangely, later in the day Wednesday, the UAE Foreign Ministry denied the trip ever took place.
It was also revealed this week Israel actually deployed its prized Iron Dome batteries and IDF personnel directly onto UAE soil during the conflict to defend against the significant Iranian attacks.
But the diplomacy didn't stop with the heads of state. Intelligence sources indicate that Mossad chief David Barnea has been a frequent flier to the UAE, making at least two trips during the heat of the Iran war to synchronize "military operations" - a move first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
US Ambassador Mike Huckabee "There’s an extraordinary relationship between the UAE and Israel." This developing realignment means that the defense of the Gulf is now inextricably linked to Israeli tech and intelligence.
"I'd like to say a word of appreciation for United Arab Emirates, the first Abraham accord member," Huckabee said at a Tel Aviv Conference this week. "Just look at the benefits. Israel just sent them Iron Dome batteries and personnel to help operate them."
"The Gulf states now understood they will have to make a choice - is it more likely they will be attacked by Iran or Israel?" Huckabee posed before the Israeli audience. "They see that Israel helped us and Iran attacked us. Israel is not trying to take over your land, and is not sending missiles to you."
So clearly there is a coordinated effort to finally make public very sensitive information - that for the first known time in history Israel is directly transferring weapons to a Gulf Arab state, while its head of state is making personal secret drop-ins for direct face time.
So during the war we saw Saudi Arabia bombing Iraq and Iran, UAE bombing Iran and Kuwait bombing Iraq https://t.co/NDweJxldFu
— Faytuks News (@Faytuks) May 13, 2026Even long before the current Iran conflict, there was a growing covert relationship between Israel and some Gulf states going back to the early phase of the Syrian proxy war, in the last decade.
Israel and the Sunni autocrats conspired to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, a longtime key ally of Iran, and they cooperated on funding and supplying anti-Damascus jihadi insurgents. Out of this shadow war came a greater mutual understanding.
Tyler Durden Wed, 05/13/2026 - 22:10Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times,
Cuba wants help, and the United States will hold talks with the communist island nation, President Donald Trump announced in a Tuesday post on Truth Social.
He did not specify when those talks would take place.
“No Republican has ever spoken to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and only heading in one direction—down! Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!! In the meantime, I’m off to China!” Trump wrote in his post.
The president has made Cuba a focus of his second term, increasing pressure on Havana in the form of sanctions, an oil blockade, and repeated comments from himself and others in his administration about how Cuba is next after the U.S. military captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Cuba, in January.
As he left for his trip to China, Trump declined providing any further information to reporters at the White House.
“Cuba is not doing well. It’s a failed nation, and we'll be talking about Cuba at the right time,” Trump said.
Asked about any planned talks with the country, a White House official said, “Within a short period of time, they will fall, and we will be there to help them out.”
Trump has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions against the Cuban regime to choke the leadership out and push it toward making a deal.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, announced some of those sanctions on May 7.
On May 1, Trump signed a presidential action broadening sanctions on the communist government, imposing them on individuals, entities, and affiliates of the regime. It also targeted anyone complicit in human rights violations or corruption.
“[Cuba’s policies] constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat,” Trump’s order said. “Not only are these policies, practices, and actions designed to harm the United States, but they are also repugnant to the moral and political values of free and democratic societies.”
On Jan. 29, Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on any country that provides Cuba with oil. Days later, the president said Mexico would cease oil shipments to the country.
The oil blockade, sanctions, and U.S. capture of Cuba’s main oil provider in Maduro have crippled the nation’s energy infrastructure.
Blackouts, shortages, and fuel rationing have become part of daily life in Cuba.
Although the United States offered some relief in allowing a Russian-flagged tanker to bring 730,000 barrels of oil to Cuba on March 31, the supply lasted less than 10 days.
Cuban Americans, including Fidel Castro’s daughter, have sharply denounced the communist government, calling on Trump to turn his attention to Cuba.
Trump has pitched the idea of a “friendly takeover” of the country, or a military takeover, adding that he believes he will have the “honor of taking Cuba.”
“That’s a big honor, taking Cuba in some form,” Trump told reporters in March. “Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.”
Trump will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from March 13–15, the first presidential visit to the country since Trump’s 2017 stop in his first term. China has called for the United States to end its oil blockade and sanctions against Cuba.
“We’re going to have a very good meeting,” Trump said before departing.
Tyler Durden Wed, 05/13/2026 - 21:45