Techmeme
September 21, 2025, 8:50 PM

Top News

Karoline Leavitt / @presssec:
White House Press Secretary says the $100K H-1B fee is not an annual fee and it is a “one-time fee that applies only to the petition” in the upcoming lottery  —  To be clear: 1.) This is NOT an annual fee. It's a one-time fee that applies only to the petition. 2.) Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter. H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the
Ben Berkowitz / Axios:
White House says the $100K H-1B fee will not apply to renewals or existing H-1B holders re-entering the US, only to future applicants in the February lottery  —  A new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas goes into effect Sunday, but it will not be applied to existing holders of valid visas re-entering the country …
Bloomberg:
Yun Li / CNBC:
Erin Doherty / CNBC:
Trump says Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch may be involved in the ownership group for TikTok US, Michael Dell and Larry Ellison will also likely be part of the group  —  President Donald Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday that conservative media baron Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan …
Naoki Watanabe / Nikkei Asia:
OECD lists 1,300+ AI regulations, guidelines, and other policies worldwide as of September 2025, up ~30% since 2022, but international cooperation has stalled  —  NEW YORK — Artificial intelligence policies have proliferated worldwide over the past few years as the U.S. …
Reuters:
A look at life in online scam compounds run by Chinese gangs on the Myanmar-Thai border, with purported Thai immigration officials luring trafficking victims  —  SCAMMED INTO SCAMMING Across Southeast Asia, a multibillion-dollar fraud industry has emerged, staffed in part by victims of trafficking.
Bloomberg:
A profile of Derek Li, founder of China's top adaptive learning edtech Squirrel AI, whose business is fueled by the country's relentless academic pressure  —  Derek Li pulled his sons out of school to be taught by artificial intelligence.  Now he's betting the US is ready for machine-led learning.
Divsha Bhat / Rest of World:
A look at UAE-based Khazna, a real estate company that builds and rents out data centers and controls 70% of the country's operational data center capacity  —  UAE's largest data center operator Khazna is challenging Western assumptions while building regional dominance.
More: Trak.in
Vitalik Buterin / Vitalik Buterin's website:
Elizabeth Chamberlain / iFixit News:
iPhone Air teardown: clever use of space by placing the logic board above the 12.26 Wh battery, the same cell used in Apple's MagSafe Battery pack, and more  —  iPhone Air Teardown  —  To be honest, we were holding our breath for the iPhone Air.  Thinner usually means flimsier, harder to fix, and more glued-down parts.
Nikita Ostrovsky / Time:
UK-based startup Mantic ranked #8 in the Metaculus forecasting cup that asks entrants to predict 60 geopolitical events, the first time an AI made the top 10  —  Reactions to Kimmel's suspension, Trump publicly rebukes Putin, and more … For Vassalo, AIs' unfair advantage solves …
More: The GuardianX: @_mantic_ai, @tshevl, @_mantic_ai, and @_mantic_aiLinkedIn: Anthony VassaloForums: r/singularity
Martin Arnold / Financial Times:
The UK FCA has improved its crypto registration process, reducing approval times and increasing acceptance rate after criticism it was too slow and restrictive  —  Regulators in Britain are facing calls to be more accommodating to the fast-growing sector  —  The UK financial watchdog …

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Phoebe Liu / Forbes: