Eight companies lost their green card pipeline in one press conference. A $20 billion revenue figure vanished in one article. And across Nepal, millions are about to fight for a bus seat home. Friday, in three plot twists.

On Thursday, the US Labor Department suspended Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini from PERM, the labor-certification step that comes before most employment-based green cards. It will not accept or process new or pending applications involving them. Microsoft and Adobe were singled out over "multiple active federal investigations."

Vice President JD Vance made the case: Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while receiving 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. Microsoft pushed back, saying about 80% of its roughly 6,000 H-1B filings extended or changed status for existing employees, not new hires. Vance also said nine universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, will be investigated over how they use a program for international students.

Why you should care: PERM is the gate. Anyone on a company-sponsored path at those firms just hit a pause, and the university probes put a spotlight on the student route too. Microsoft shares fell 1.7% on the news. CNBC notes it fits a wider immigration push ahead of November's midterms.

If this is your path, or your cousin's: read the Labor Department's PERM guidance, then talk to an immigration lawyer. Don't plan around headlines.

Dashain is days away, and this year's rush comes with flooded roads, new ticket rules and a lot of unpaid insurance claims. What you need, in one place.

📅 The Dashain calendar

🚌 Heading home? What's different this year

🌊 Flood-hit and insured? Read this

Insurers have received Rs 20.98 billion in claims across 2,180 policies from the August 26 Bhotekoshi-Trishuli flood. Only about Rs 6.75 million has been paid so far, because surveyors are still assessing the damage. The Nepal Insurance Authority has now allowed insurers to settle claims of up to Rs 500,000 without a surveyor. If yours is under that, ask your insurer about the fast track.

🏛️ Politics, briefly

Nepali Congress delegates voted Thursday for the party's new central committee. Gagan Thapa, with virtually no organised rival left, is poised to take the presidency. Final results were pending at press time.

*The data presented below are from the official sites of NEPSE, NASDAQ and London Bullion Market Association respectively.

🇳🇵 NEPSE 2,574.65, up 2.31 points (+0.09%) Turnover Rs 3.94 billion. 140 stocks rose and 127 fell. The index remains about 12% below its March high of 2,950.50.

🇺🇸 Nasdaq (Wall Street) Down about 1.6%. The S&P 500 fell 0.7% and the Dow 0.1%. Chip stocks led the slide after the OpenAI revenue report. Oil above $103 and Treasury yields above 5% added pressure.

🥇 Gold About $4,127 per ounce, up roughly 0.4% Edged higher while silver slipped.

🥈 Silver About $58.90 per ounce, down roughly 1.3% Near its lowest level since early August.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was detained three times in two days this week as protests intensified against India's Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. At the heart of it: a revision of electoral rolls that the AP says has removed more than 130 million names. Opposition parties demand Kumar's resignation, and student groups and the "Cockroach" youth movement have joined near-daily marches.

Why Nepal should watch: India is Nepal's biggest neighbour, trade partner and open border. Political turbulence in Delhi is never just Delhi's problem.

The Financial Times reported that OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September, not the roughly $70 billion widely reported. The Nasdaq fell 1.6%. Nvidia dropped about 3%, and Oracle and Intel each fell around 6%.

The gap is mostly accounting, not collapse. The FT says the $70 billion figure came from investors comparing OpenAI's net revenue with Anthropic's, which counts gross revenue including cloud providers' share. OpenAI says its revenue grew more than 70% over the period, and nobody lost $20 billion in sales.

Why it matters: the AI trade runs on confidence in demand. When the headline number moves $20 billion in a day, so does the mood.

(Disclosure: Anthropic makes the assistant that helped produce this newsletter. Its annualized revenue was reported at about $65 billion.)

Minutes from the September meeting showed all participants backed that month's hike, and most saw another increase as "likely appropriate" by year-end. With oil above $103 and yields above 5%, Thursday's sell-off was about more than OpenAI. Traders see an October move as unlikely but are eyeing December.

Why it matters: this is the third stone in your shoe: pricier fuel, pricier loans, pricier money. Rate-sensitive households, including anyone with a variable loan or a remittance plan, feel it first.

If the US keeps tightening immigration rules, would you change where you plan to study or work?

Reply with A, B or C:

Answers just below. No peeking. 👇

Annualized revenue (say it: AN-yoo-lyzd REV-eh-noo)

Meaning: a company's current sales pace stretched over a full year.

Example: "Annualized revenue is a snapshot, so two investors can count the same business and get numbers $20 billion apart."

For business/promotions, hit us up at: [email protected]

Made it this far? Reply and tell us what you want unpacked tomorrow — we read every message.