Why TikTok rivals aren't challenging Trump's executive order
When President Trump issued his executive order to not enforce the TikTok ban for 75 days, it seemed to be in violation of the divestiture law's letter and intent.
But so far no one has sued, even though courts have been inundated with complaints over many of Trump's other executive orders.
Why it matters: The lack of litigation may give Trump more incentive to further extend TikTok's life, even if a viable deal is not yet in hand.
Zoom in: The most obvious plaintiffs would be TikTok's rivals, such as Meta or Snap. The risk, however, outweigh the possible reward.
Social media competitors are worried that a successful TikTok ban in the U.S., particularly one rooted in questionable national security arguments, could give cover to other governments that would like to ban social media apps in their countries.
Suing also may spark a backlash, eviscerating any user adoption gains.
Behind the scenes: Legislators who supported the divestiture bill have also remained (mostly) silent.
Republicans due to their steady obsequience to Trump. Democrats because they have bigger fish to fry.
And members both parties are understandably worried about how voters would react. It's one thing to vote for a bill, and quite another to loudly insist upon its enforcement.
State of play: Oracle reportedly has emerged as a player in the divestiture process, but seemingly as a tech partner that might also take a minority stake.
Yes, this is the same Oracle whose "Project Texas" work with TikTok was either brushed off or outright insulted by some Congresspeople during a public hearing with TikTok's CEO.
Also the same Oracle that was part of a 2020 proposal, hyped by Trump, that ultimately went nowhere.
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Chicago Tribune
34 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
G7 leaders gather in Canada for a summit overshadowed by Israel-Iran crisis and trade wars
BANFF, Alberta — Leaders of some of the world's biggest economic powers arrive in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday for a Group of Seven summit, overshadowed by an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran and U.S. President Donald Trump's unresolved trade war with allies and rivals alike. Israel's strikes on Iran and Tehran's retaliation, which appeared to catch many world leaders unawares, is the latest sign of a more volatile world as Trump seeks to withdraw the U.S. from its role as world policeman. Speaking on a flight to Canada to attend the summit, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had discussed efforts to de-escalate the crisis with Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as other world leaders. Britain is sending fighter jets and other military reinforcements to the Middle East. 'We do have longstanding concerns about the nuclear program Iran has. We do recognize Israel's right to self-defense, but I'm absolutely clear that this needs to de-escalate. There is a huge risk of escalation for the region and more widely,' Starmer said, adding he expected 'intense discussions' would continue at the summit. As summit host, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has decided to abandon the annual practice of issuing a joint statement, or communique, at the end of the meeting. With other leaders wanting to talk to Trump in an effort to talk him out of imposing tariffs, the summit risks being a series of bilateral conversations rather than a show of unity. Trump is the summit wild card. Looming over the meeting are his inflammatory threats to make Canada the 51st state and take over Greenland. French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Greenland on Sunday for a highly symbolic stop on his way to Canada, meeting the Arctic territory's leader and Denmark's prime minister aboard a Danish helicopter carrier. Macron's office said the trip to Greenland is a reminder that Paris supports principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders as enshrined in the U.N. charter. Macron, who is one of the very few leaders to have known Trump during his first term, was the first European leader to visit the White House after Trump took office, emerging unscathed from the Oval Office encounter. But despite the two leaders' sporadic bromance, Macron's approach to Trump has failed to bear major results, with France caught up in the president's planned tariffs on the European Union. Nor did it bring any U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine despite Macron's efforts, together with Starmer, to build a coalition of nations that could deploy forces after any ceasefire with Russia, with the hope it would convince the Trump administration to provide backup. Trump is scheduled to arrive late Sunday in Kananaskis, Alberta. Bilateral meetings between other leaders are possible Sunday, but the summit program does not get underway until Monday. Peter Boehm, Canada's sherpa of the 2018 G7 summit in Quebec and veteran of six G7 summits, expects the heads of state to pivot discussion to devote more time to the war. 'Leaders can accommodate a discussion, perhaps even a statement,' Boehm said. 'The foreign policy agenda has become much larger with this.' Leaders who are not part of the G7 but have been invited to the summit by Carney include the heads of state of India, Ukraine, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, Australia, Mexico and the UAE. Avoiding tariffs will continue to be top of mind. 'Leaders, and there are some new ones coming, will want to meet Donald Trump,' Boehm said. 'Trump doesn't like the big round table as much he likes the one-on-one.' Bilateral meetings with the American president can be fraught as Trump has used them to try to intimidate the leaders of Ukraine and South Africa. Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien told a panel this week that if Trump does act out, leaders should ignore him and remain calm like Carney did in his recent Oval Office meeting. 'He tends to be a bully,' Chrétien said. 'If Trump has decided to make a show to be in the news, he will do something crazy. Let him do it and keep talking normally.' Starmer had a warm Oval Office meeting with the president in February, wooing Trump with an invitation for a state visit from King Charles III. Trump has praised the British prime minister, despite their political differences. Last month Britain and the U.S. announced they had struck a trade deal that will slash American tariffs on U.K. autos, steel and aluminum. It has yet to take effect, however, though British officials say they are not concerned the Trump administration might go back on its word. Starmer's attempts to woo Trump have left him in an awkward position with Canada, the U.K.'s former colony, close ally and fellow Commonwealth member. Starmer has also drawn criticism — especially from Canadians — for failing to address Trump's stated desire to make Canada the 51st state. Asked if he has told Trump to stop the 51st state threats, Starmer told The Associated Press: 'I'm not going to get into the precise conversations I've had, but let me be absolutely clear: Canada is an independent, sovereign country and a much-valued member of the Commonwealth.' The war in Ukraine will be on the agenda. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to attend the summit and is expected to meet with Trump, a reunion coming just months after their bruising Oval Office encounter which laid bare the risks of having a meeting with the U.S. president. Starmer met with Carney in Ottawa before the summit for talks focused on security and trade, in the first visit to Canada by a British prime minister for eight years. German officials were keen to counter the suggestion that the summit would be a 'six against one' event, noting that the G7 countries have plenty of differences of emphasis among themselves on various issues. 'The only the problem you cannot forecast is what the president of the United States will do depending on the mood, the need to be in the news,' said Chrétien.
Forbes
36 minutes ago
- Forbes
Oracle's FY26 Revenue To Hit $67 Billion Backed By 70% Cloud Infra Growth
Oracle stock jumps to $215 as CEO raises guidance for cloud infra growth to 70% for FY26. Photo: ... More Sven Hoppe/dpa (Photo by Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images) Oracle Corporation's (NYSE: ORCL) stock soared to $215 per share on Friday, June 13, 2025, climbing 22% after the database provider announced its FY25 results on June 11, 2025. The company outperformed analyst expectations, posting Q4 2025 revenue at $15.9 billion, up 11% year-on-year (y-o-y) driven by strong growth in its cloud services and licenses support revenue. For FY25, the company posted total revenue of $57.4 billion, an increase of 8% compared to last year. Adjusted net income for the year was $17.3 billion, or $6.03 per share. However, the highlight of the earnings release was the robust growth in the company's remaining performance obligations (RPO). The RPO stood at $138 billion at the end of FY25, $8 billion higher from the previous quarter and a 41% increase compared to last year. A solid RPO number not only provides visibility about the company's future revenues and profitability but is also indicative of the robust demand for its infrastructure services and a strong customer conversion rate. Oracle posted a strong Q4 2025 performance with total revenue at $15.9 billion, ahead of market expectations of $15.8 billion. Cloud services revenue, which includes infrastructure and applications, was $6.7 billion, 27% higher y-o-y. Infrastructure revenue soared to $3.0 billion, up 52% y-o-y, and application revenue rose to $3.7 billion, an improvement of 12% y-o-y. License support revenue was largely flat at $5 billion, while cloud license and on-premise license revenue increased to $2.0 billion, higher by 9% y-o-y. Non-GAAP earnings for the quarter stood at $1.70 per share, and GAAP earnings at $1.19 per share. For FY25, the company reported total revenue of $57.4 billion. Cloud services revenue rose to $24.5 billion, 24% higher y-o-y, while license support revenue was flat y-o-y at $19.5 billion. Cloud on-premise revenue for the year improved slightly to $5.2 billion. Non-GAAP operating income for FY25 was $25 billion, with operating margin of 44%, flat y-o-y, implying that the revenue growth did not come at the cost of profitability. Capital expenditure for 4Q 2025 and FY25 was $9.1 billion and $21.2 billion respectively. The company generated $20.8 billion in operating cash flow, up 12% from the previous year, which is likely to augment its plans to expand its global data center footprint. Oracle announced a cash dividend of $0.50 per share for Q4 2025 for outstanding common shares. The remaining performance obligation or RPO is the revenue that customers have committed to pay to a company for services that will be delivered by it in the foreseeable future. Oracle's RPO of $138 billion implies that at the current revenue rate of $57.4 billion, it has already secured two and a half years' worth of revenue, providing visibility into its future revenue and earnings. The main driver behind the surge in Oracle's RPO has been strong growth in its OCI business. Though Oracle joined the cloud infrastructure game a little late, it caught up fast. Oracle offers customized solutions to enterprise customers, saving their costs while providing them with higher flexibility. With a strategic focus on broadening its AI agent integration across applications, multi-cloud expansion, and accelerated infrastructure rollout, the company has been able to grow its OCI revenue sharply over the last couple of years. In Q4 2025, Oracle's OCI revenue stood at $3 billion, an increase of 52% y-o-y, while its competitors – Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure– witnessed a moderate growth during the period. During the Q4 conference call, Oracle's CEO, Safra Catz, highlighted FY26 as a tipping point in the company's cloud transition journey. Given the continued demand for cloud applications and infrastructure, including database services, the management raised the FY26 revenue guidance to $67 billion, $1 billion higher than the previous guidance. Catz also showed strong optimism towards growth in its cloud business in FY26, with combined cloud growth (applications plus infrastructure) expected to grow over 40% in FY26, compared to 24% in FY25. Individually, the OCI business is estimated to grow from 50% in FY25 to over 70% in FY26. The company's large and loyal on-premise customer base is likely to provide a strong clientele for its infrastructure services. Addition of over 100 AI agents, a strong RPO and high renewal rate of its strategic SaaS products will be the primary drivers for OCI growth in FY26. With a sharp growth in OCI, the company's RPO is expected to more than double by the end of FY26. Further, the management estimates its annual capital expenditure to be north of $25 billion focused on building revenue-generating equipment for the expansion of data centers. For Q1 2026, Oracle's total revenue is expected to grow between 11% and 13% in constant currency terms. Total cloud revenue is estimated to grow in the range of 26% to 30%, while non-GAAP earnings are likely to increase by 4% to 6%. Oracle is a key partner in OpenAI's Stargate AI infrastructure project. The company's current RPO growth estimates do not consider the surge in demand expected from the Stargate project. With the project still in its nascent stages, the company has a huge upside potential from the project which has not been factored into its future growth and stock price. Additionally, the CEO highlighted that there is a demand-supply mismatch in the cloud infrastructure market. Oracle currently has 23 MultiCloud data centers globally, and plans to build 47 more over the next 12 months to meet the rising demand. In fact, it will soon have more data centers than all of its competitors combined. While this will result in a sharp jump in its capital expenditure in FY26, it will reap benefits for the company in the long term. Given a strong RPO, strategic focus on expanding its data center footprint, and ability to build an array of AI-enabled solutions, Oracle is optimistic about a much stronger performance in FY26 and beyond. In fact, the company, which was once just a database provider, is growing at a fast pace and is set fulfil its CEO's vision of becoming a leader in cloud and AI solutions soon.
New York Times
36 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trump's Parade Drafted the Army Into a War of Images
Officially, the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary military parade through Washington was meant to be a straightforward celebration of the service's history. But as it played out on live TV Saturday, history was overwhelmed by the stormy present. The first complication was the fact that the Army shared a birthday with President Trump, making the military procession seem gift-wrapped for a leader who for years has had one on his wish list. To some, the spectacle smacked of the gaudy self-celebrations thrown by strongmen; to others, it was a symbol of resurgent American strength. Maybe at another time, the parade could have been the mundane, even dull bit of civic history that on the surface it was. But once conscripted into Mr. Trump's war of imagery, a tank cannot be just a tank. The event also came at the end of a tumultuous week of shocking TV images. It came after the National Guard and Marines were deployed to Los Angeles to quell protests, over the objections of local leaders. It came after Senator Alex Padilla of California was forced to the ground and handcuffed after he tried to ask a question of Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, at a news conference. It came after Mr. Trump gave a political-rally-like speech to cheering troops at Fort Bragg. On top of this were volleys of missiles between Israel and Iran and, on Saturday morning, the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and the attempted murder of another. The result, as it rolled across our screens, was anything but an uncomplicated celebration. It was a split-screen presentation for a split country, in a world that seemed to be riven apart. The major broadcast networks did not carry the parade. CNN and MSNBC covered it on and off, along with the Middle East and Minnesota news, as well as the 'No Kings' protests across the country that accused Mr. Trump of antidemocratic overreach. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
