Welcome back to the Morning Brief——brought to you by one of America’s largest independent newspapers—The Epoch Times. 

It’s Wednesday October 21st, and I’m Keegan Billings.

Let’s jump right in.

Good morning, happy Wednesday! Here are today’s top stories. 

• The Trump administration’s probe into alleged visa fraud has led to the news: that Microsoft, Adobe, and several other tech firms have been suspended from a program that helps foreign workers get green cards. 

• According to Dr Oz HHS is deferring an additional $1.2 billion in Medicaid funding from California over concerns of widespread fraud in its state healthcare programs, 

• Doctors in China are more likely to stay silent in the face of forced organ harvesting and other transplant abuses rather than speak out for victims, due to the tight grip of the Chinese Communist Party on the medical sector, according to a report.

• Federal health officials have released more details about a new center for people injured by vaccines, including, for the first time, how interested individuals can sign up

• 🍵 Health: Eating clean doesn’t mean avoiding all packaged foods—the key is knowing what to look for. Here are the 

packaged foods that are worth reaching for.

NOW, BACK TO OUR TOP STORY:

US Suspends Some Tech Giants From Foreign Worker Program—What’s Next?

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration’s probe into alleged visa fraud has led to big

news: Microsoft, Adobe, and several other tech firms have been suspended fr

om a program that helps foreign workers get green cards.

What do the suspensions mean—and what could they signal for the future?

Vice President JD Vance and freshly confirmed Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling outlined their actions during an Oct. 8 news conference for the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.

The officials announced that Adobe, Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Microsoft, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro have been suspended from the permanent labor certification program system known as Program Electronic Review Management (PERM).

Employers typically use PERM to show that no qualified American workers are available for a role they want to fill with a foreign worker.

PERM is also the first step for foreign workers seeking a green card—permanent residency—based on their employment.

Sonderling said the companies have received more than 100,000 permanent labor certifications since 2009, along with 230,000 H-1B visa approvals. That temporary work visa, also common in tech, often comes before PERM.

The firms are among the top PERM filers, alongside Amazon, Apple, Intel, and others—with many operating in the tech world.

At the news conference, Sonderling said his department “will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies,” accusing them of taking hundreds of thousands of jobs from Americans.

“Something to this scale, as far as I’m aware, has never been done,” said a Labor Department official who spoke with The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity.

In a message to The Epoch Times, immigration attorney Jasmine Mines described the multi-firm suspension announcement as unprecedented.

She said it “signals that every employer sponsoring foreign workers must now treat immigration compliance as a front-line legal risk rather than an administrative task.”

Kevin Lynn, founder of U.S. Tech Workers, said he believes that Vance “has picked the right fight.”

“I waited years to see this,” said Lynn, who is a critic of tech companies’ recruitment of foreign labor. (More)

Under the law, the initial suspensions last for up to 180 days. They can also be extended.

Vance said the Microsoft suspension “is going to last as long as it needs to.”

Mines, the founder of Mines Law Firm, noted that something big still hasn’t happened to the companies the Trump administration is investigating for alleged visa fraud.

“A suspension is not a verdict,” Mines said. “Debarment, the actual penalty, is a separate step.”

Loren Locke, an immigration lawyer who served as a State Department consular officer, said Microsoft’s suspension “feels like it must have been designed in a back room to not actually hurt Microsoft that much.”

For one thing, she said, it does not directly affect the H-1B.

Those working under that visa can typically hold them for up to six years, giving them time to negotiate the new terrain. PERM can enable H-1B workers to extend those visas indefinitely.

She added that if she were a Microsoft employee approaching the end of that period without a labor certification, she might start looking for another employer.

Locke said that while the administration has enacted other policies that have created friction for companies seeking to hire H-1B workers, “that is totally separate from getting green cards for their H-1B workers.”

Those actions under President Donald Trump include a change to the H-1B lottery, a $100,000 fee for new visas that has been blocked in the courts, and a proposed rule from the Department of Homeland Security that would mandate a $103,665 fee for a vast swath of H-1B petitions.

Lynn, though heartened by the administration’s recent actions, said he hopes it goes further.

He called for intensified audits of companies that use H-1B visas most heavily.

Lynn also proposed that the Labor Department create an electronic bulletin board for the jobs employers are seeking to fill with PERM workers. He said he thinks that this would enable more American workers to learn about those positions and apply for them.

NOW, OVER TO POLITICS:

• Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Oz said HHS is deferring an additional $1.2 billion in Medicaid funding from California over concerns of widespread fraud in its state healthcare programs, 

The federal government’s withholding of Medicaid payments to California now totals more than $3.3 billion.

Oz said.

we’re doing that because of the growth of personal care services in California,” “California has been growing that program 24 percent in the last three years. That is twice the rate of every other state average in the country. Impossible for us to understand how that could be so.”

President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and independent journalist Nick Shirley joined Oz at the Oval Office event on Tuesday.

Trump administration officials credited Shirley for his work in exposing healthcare fraud in Minnesota last December, which launched him into the national spotlight as an independent government watchdog.

Shirley said during the White House event. “There’s never been an incentive for anyone to ever expose fraud. In fact, when I expose fraud, instead of the mainstream media investigating the fraud, they investigated me, and people actually, in fact, wanted to kill me after I exposed the fraud.”

After his video highlighted alleged fraud in Minnesota’s daycare programs, Shirley made additional videos in New York and California.

In Oz’s announcement Tuesday, he clarified that the deferment affects California’s Medicaid payments directed to personal care services.

 Oz said “Just that one little area where you’re paying someone to carry groceries upstairs for your mom, which many of you would carry groceries upstairs for your mom for free, I would think, but in California, they'll pay you a lot of money for it, and it’s actually run by the counties,”

As part of Tuesday’s White House event, Trump and Vance announced a $25 million Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP).

Under the program, citizens who provide tips that lead to a successful fraud conviction or a significant federal enforcement action are eligible to receive 1 percent of the amount of fraud discovered, Trump said.

The Justice Department will oversee WHIP, and Americans can submit tips online at fraud.gov.

• according to a new report. Doctors in China are more likely to stay silent in the face of forced organ harvesting and other transplant abuses rather than speak out for victims, due to the tight grip of the Chinese Communist Party on the medical sector, 

The report,was released by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China on Oct. 20, it found that there were no independent safeguards against organ transplant abuses in China, because the country’s transplant oversight bodies, hospital ethics committees, organ procurement organizations, and professional associations all sit within the Party-state hierarchy.

The report is the first in a series examining various aspects of the transplant system that indicate state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting is potentially continuing, seven years after an independent people’s tribunal found the abuse had happened on a significant scale.

Sarah Cook, a China human rights researcher and author of the report, said  “Every entity that Chinese officials present to international audiences as ostensibly independent or as a ‘third party’ is in fact a node in the same Party-controlled system,” 

Unlike an ordinary political party in a democratic country, CCP membership demands total loyalty. Members, including doctors, are required to swear a lifelong oath to serve the Party, protect Party secrets, and “never betray the Party” as they join.

Cook told The Epoch Times. “These are the people who are basically running the transplant sector,” the report found In China, CCP committees are embedded inside hospitals, and the top decision-maker is not a hospital president or medical director, but a Party secretary whose authority over personnel, discipline, and major institutional decisions supersedes clinical administrators,

This political control extends far beyond individual hospitals. Party committees are also embedded inside China’s two main professional medical bodies—the Chinese Medical Association and the Chinese Medical Doctor Association.

AND MORE ON POLITICS:

• More than 300,000 foreign nationals have had their U.S. visas revoked since Trump entered office for a second term, due to criminal activity, fraud, or threats to national security.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said that the pace of visa revocations has set a record.

A State Department official confirmed to us that the “vast majority” of revocations were due to criminal activity, public safety concerns, immigration violations, fraud, or other information indicating the foreign national was no longer eligible for a U.S. visa.

In 2025, the Bureau of Consular Affairs established a visa-vetting center in Washington, the official said, which led to the overturn of 23,000 of the 300,000 visas.

The majority of these were for criminal activity and other threats to public safety, the State Department official said, including 25 percent for assault and related offenses, 22 percent for driving under the influence, 7 percent for theft, and 7 percent for substance abuse or distribution. Other reasons for revocation included visa overstays and violations of student visa conditions.

Another 4,000 visa revocations targeted aliens who allegedly participated in facilitating birth tourism. These individuals attempted, at scale, to exploit U.S. law which grants citizenship to children born on U.S. soil.

• The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has discovered roughly $270 million in suspicious financial activity likely associated with student aid program fraud.

A review of submitted reports identified more than 20,000 potentially suspicious transactions since February this year. FinCEN has reported approximately $270 million in suspected fraud to federal investigators for further investigation, the Treasury said in an Oct. 19 statement.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.

“Treasury is working with financial institutions and law enforcement to identify these fraud schemes, recover stolen funds, and hold those responsible accountable.”

The department said it was working with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.

In an example of educational fraud, the (DOJ) announced last month that a Detroit man was sentenced to 92 months in federal prison for fraud schemes, including one that targeted federal student aid programs.

The man and others submitted fraudulent student aid claims for more than 1,200 individuals, collecting more than $10 million before being caught, the DOJ said. The fraud spanned 100 schools across more than 20 states.

In March, the DOJ said a former professor admitted to stealing government funds through a scam involving fraudulent student financial aid applications. More than 100 such false applications were filed across several universities and colleges in Texas.

The Treasury detailed some of the federal student aid fraud schemes in its statement. For instance, “ghost student” schemes involve criminals stealing an individual’s personal information and using it to enroll as a student in classes. 

In “straw student” schemes, fraudsters pay real people to enroll in classes and collect financial aid in their names. In some cases, corrupt school employees may be part of these schemes.

• Federal health officials have released more details about a new center for people injured by vaccines, including, for the first time, how interested individuals can sign up to be considered for research studies.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the (NIH), and Dr. John Powers III, acting director of the NIAID, issuing a statement said

The new center in Maryland, “will bring together patients, physician-scientists, and laboratory researchers to investigate health problems following vaccination and infections, and turn discoveries into better care and safer vaccines,” 

Goals of the center include understanding how vaccination or infection may have contributed to health problems, studying factors that may make people more vulnerable to vaccine injuries or post-infection issues such as so-called long COVID, and figuring out the best treatments for problems participants are experiencing.

 Bhattacharya and Powers said.

The NIH is finalizing a protocol for a study that will include people who visit the new center, with an initial enrollment of several hundred people who are “experiencing the most serious adverse effects following vaccination or long-term symptoms post-infection,” The NIH aims to launch the study before the end of the year.

Now People who are interested in enrolling they provided a contact email and phone number.

=

A federal judge has been suspended because fellow judges concluded she has mental health problems that interfere with her work. In recently disclosed documents, U.S. Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote that evidence indicated Texas-based U.S. District Judge Ada Brown “suffers from a temporary or permanent mental condition that interferes with her ability to perform the responsibilities of her office.”

Elrod and other judges on the Judicial Council for the Fifth Circuit said in a Sept. 29 order they were reassigning all of Brown’s cases and, for at least three months, banning her from new case assignments.

Brown, 51, became a federal judge in 2019.

A complaint prompted Elrod to appoint a special committee composed of herself and two other judges to explore whether Brown has mental health problems that interfere with her ability to carry out the duties of a judge, according to the documents.

The documents redacted the identity of the person who filed the complaint.

The committee, formed in August, found that Brown had recused herself from more than 40 cases since June 1, either without explanation or “for unusual reasons.”

It also found that Brown had been making inappropriate comments, including racial insults; claiming without proof that orders were being entered in cases she oversaw without her permission; making racial insults to judges and court staffers; and “sending copious and bizarre emails to court staff and judges, including emails in the middle of the night, and copying and/or blind copying others who have no reason to be copied on such emails.”

Brown also stopped working for a period of time to protest a clerk’s failure to enter a recusal letter on the docket of a case to which she is no longer assigned, and disseminated confidential materials, including to reporters, regarding the proceedings against her, the council said on Monday.

Brown told Elrod twice that she intended to resign, then later reversed her position, according to the documents.

• Trump said that he was open to holding a trilateral meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss denuclearization.

Moscow earlier that day proposed a meeting among the three leaders, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying talks could take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit scheduled for next month in Shenzhen, China.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump said he would be interested in meeting with Putin and Xi to discuss nuclear arms reductions.

“I would do it. Not so much for Ukraine. Because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven’t been doing much. And the same thing with China,” Trump said.

“We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization. … If President Xi wants to have it, I’d have it. I’m sure we'd talk about other things like trade too.”

Trump has previously called for a new nuclear arms control treaty with Russia following the Feb. 5 expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia that had been enforced since February 2011.

The president told Newsmax last week that he was discussing denuclearization with both Xi and Putin, but noted that China might be less willing to pursue it because its nuclear arsenal is smaller than those of the United States and Russia. He warned that China could catch up with the U.S. nuclear stockpile within the next five years.

Peskov said on Monday that no specific proposals or agreements had been raised yet regarding the proposed meeting or what it might cover. He acknowledged that Washington’s mediation efforts to end the war in Ukraine remained ongoing.

• The Philippine military refuted Beijing’s claim that a U.S. warship “illegally intruded” into Chinese waters in the South China Sea, stating that transiting through international waters does not need authorization.

A spokesman for the Chinese regime’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said the USS Charleston, a littoral combat ship, entered waters near Sabina Shoal—which the Chinese regime refers to as Xianbin Jiao—in the early hours of Tuesday, claiming that such entry requires the regime’s authorization.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views almost all of the South China Sea as its own territory, despite claims by the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Brunei.

A military spokesperson, in an Oct. 19 post on the X account of the China Military Bugle, the official account of the CCP’s armed forces, said Beijing holds sovereignty over the Spratly Islands—which it refers to as Nansha Qundao—and its adjacent waters, and said the U.S. side should “immediately cease” its activities there.

The spokesperson said the PLA Navy’s Southern Theater Command had “dispatched forces to track and monitor the U.S. vessel.”

A Philippine military spokesperson said USS Charleston “did not trespass into ‘Chinese territory’,” adding that it did not need permission for “lawful transit through international waters.”

The U.S. Navy has in the past referred to “freedom of navigation operations,” as most of the South China Sea is viewed by the United States as an international shipping lane.

Sabina Shoal, situated approximately 75 nautical miles west of Palawan, falls within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) under international law.

In September 2024, Manila confirmed its commitment to maintaining a continuous presence at Sabina Shoal.

The Philippines is an ally of the United States, which has supported its legal position on the islands.

The CCP has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the Philippines’ presence in the area, which it calls Xianbin Reef, or Xianbin Jiao.

MAIN

The Packaged Foods That Are Actually Healthy 

Hi It’s Helen Billings back with our health section and  for today I wanna talk about The Packaged Foods That Are Worth Eating.

Ok so tonight’s dinner might have come out of a freezer bag and a can: air-fried broccoli, a squeeze of lemon, and fish in olive oil. It is a quick, satisfying meal built around vegetables and protein. By most definitions, it was processed food—but clinical nutritionist Sheridan Genrich still recommends it.

She told us she sees processed foods as practical tools for helping people cook and eat well consistently. She said a package alone does not determine whether a food supports health. What matters is what’s inside, how much you eat, and how often.

Now the term “processed” covers an enormous range of foods. The NOVA system, a widely used classification developed by Brazilian researchers, sorts foods by how much they have been changed from their original form and why—not simply by whether they come in a package. It has four groups.

First, there are minimally processed foods, such as frozen vegetables, plain frozen fruit, pasteurized milk, plain yogurt, and unsalted nuts, that have been washed, cut, frozen, heated, or canned mainly to preserve them, make them safe, or make them easier to use.

Next are culinary ingredients, including herbs, spices, and salt, used to season food.

Then there are processed foods, such as certain brands of dips, pasta sauces, cottage cheese, or hard cheeses, typically made by combining whole or minimally processed foods with a small number of added ingredients, such as salt, lemon juice, or cultures.

Then there are ultra-processed foods, which are industrial products often made with refined starches, sugars, seed oils, protein isolates, flavorings, colors, emulsifiers, or other additives to make them highly convenient, shelf-stable, and ready to eat. (More)

Ok, now let’s talk about the Packaged Foods Worth Keeping.

So the most useful question isn’t “Is this packaged?” but “Does this make it easier to eat more protein, plants, and fiber?”

Frozen vegetables and fruit are among the most useful foods to keep at home. Plain frozen broccoli, green beans, cauliflower rice, berries, and vegetable blended soups can be added to meals without the pressure of using fresh produce before it spoils.

Next for Protein,

Canned tuna, salmon, sardines, and mackerel, along with frozen salmon, prawns, and scallops, make it easier to add protein to vegetables, salad greens, or a roasted vegetable bowl. Hard-boiled eggs, plain frozen chicken or turkey patties, and simply seasoned ground beef shorten the path from fridge to plate.

For Dairy and Fermented Foods.

Plain yogurt and cottage cheese can make a quick breakfast or snack when paired with fresh or stewed fruit, thawed frozen berries, and pumpkin or hemp seeds. Dairy alternatives, such as oat milk, also vary widely in quality and ingredient purity. Sweetened and flavored versions can contain several teaspoons of added sugar.

Next Hummus and guacamole add flavor, fiber, and satisfying fats to vegetables, salads, and wraps. Choose options with ingredients you recognize, and compare labels for added oils. 

For texture and flavor, use small amounts of coconut shreds, nut flours, single-serve olives, chia puddings, nuts, chia seeds, and pumpkin seeds. For dressing, olive oil and lemon beat most bottled versions, which tend to be higher in added sugar and sodium.

Now I want to mention that Microplastics and packaging chemicals can add up over time. Still, there’s no need to avoid it all. A simple approach is to reduce plastic exposure and choose BPA-free canned foods when you can.

And last, The goal isn’t to make healthy eating feel like a challenge that requires preparing every meal from scratch. A can, carton, freezer bag, or pouch can hold food that you can consistently use to support your health. Use the label to choose wisely, then let convenience help you build meals you can return to again and again.

And before we leave, here are some words of wisdom to start the day…Today’s quote is by Dale Carnegie,

He said,

“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.” 

—Dale Carnegie