The US and China reached a “framework” for a TikTok deal in Madrid yesterday that President Donald Trump said will be finalized when he meets with President Xi Jinping on Friday, potentially ending a long national nightmare that 170 million Americans could be denied their brainrot in video form.

The Trump administration had given China-based TikTok owner ByteDance until tomorrow to either divest its US business or shut down in the States due to national security concerns. The deadline is likely to be extended (for the fourth time) so details can be ironed out.

Who is the buyer? Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent didn’t announce specifics, like whether TikTok’s algorithm would be part of the deal, but CNN reported that it’s widely believed the group making the purchase will be led by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. In January, Trump touted the 81-year-old to take the reins of TikTok’s US operations.

And now, trade talks

While it’s comforting to know that Americans will not be denied access to the platform that launched The Rizzler and Addison Rae, there’s still a pause on President Trump’s steep tariffs on imports from China that’s set to expire in November. The two countries can now focus on hammering out a trade agreement when both sides meet again next month without any distractions related to TikTok’s fate.

Some likely issues for the negotiations include:

• Microchips: China launched two investigations into the US semiconductor sector on Saturday, one day after the US added 23 Chinese companies to an “entity list” that allegedly acted against US national security interests.
• Rare earths: Shipments to the US of the materials needed to make EV batteries and hundreds of other products, which are found mainly in China, have been restricted.
• Agriculture: China stopped purchasing US soybeans in February, potentially triggering bankruptcies and foreclosures for US farmers.

Looking ahead…China has extended an invitation to Trump for a summit in Beijing, but the Financial Times reports it’s more likely that any conversations between Trump and Xi involving trade will happen at next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in South Korea.—DL

Elon Musk buys $1b worth of Tesla shares. The Tesla CEO is putting his money where his electric cars are, buying 2.57 million shares, in a show of confidence in the company as its shareholders prepare to vote on a pay package that could make Musk the world’s first trillionaire. Investors and analysts cheered his first purchase of the stock in the open market since February 2020, sending the share price up 3.26% yesterday—putting it up 85% from its April low to erase its losses for the year. But Musk’s big potential payday also gained a notable detractor: Pope Leo criticized the disparity between worker and CEO salaries, specifically referencing Musk’s potential package and saying, “If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.”

China says Nvidia violated its antitrust laws. While there may be signs of a thawing over TikTok (see above), there were still some frosty signals as the US and China continued trade talks yesterday. Chinese regulators said that California-based Nvidia ran afoul of its antimonopoly rules during its 2020 purchase of Israeli networking gear maker Mellanox Technologies. China did not say what remedies it might seek from Nvidia, but this isn’t the chipmaker’s first time being caught between Washington and Beijing, since it has also had its sales to China curtailed by US export controls. Nvidia said it was in compliance with the law and would continue to cooperate with government agencies “as they evaluate the impact of export controls on competition in the commercial markets.”

US announces deadly strike on another alleged drug boat. President Trump said on Truth Social that the military had killed three “male terrorists” in a strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela in international waters. Tensions were already running high between the US and Venezuela after a previous strike two weeks ago killed 11 people on a boat that the US said was transporting drugs, allegedly with a connection to the Tren de Aragua gang. Venezuela and some scholars in the US had raised questions over whether that strike was legal, but with the second strike, the administration appeared to be doubling down on the aggressive strategy.—AR

Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination last week, employers fearing a reputational hit have been swiftly dismissing those perceived as celebrating his death, expressing indifference, or criticizing his right-wing stances.

• MSNBC fired analyst Matthew Dowd after he said on-air that you can’t say “awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place.” Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said she was dropped after posting Kirk’s 2023 quote accusing several Black women in power of stealing “a white person’s slot.”
• A Tennessee assistant dean was sacked after writing “Looks like Ol Charlie spoke his fate into existence.” An Oregon middle school teacher was put on leave and subsequently resigned after reportedly posting on Facebook that Kirk’s death “brightened up” his day.
• Office Depot fired a Michigan employee who allegedly refused to print posters for a Kirk vigil.
• FEMA suspended a data analyst after he questioned President Trump’s half-staff flag order on Instagram.

Several airline workers, a firefighter, a junior Nasdaq strategist, a Carolina Panthers communications coordinator, a Phoenix Suns reporter, and a Secret Service agent have also been fired or suspended for Kirk commentary. All this comes amid an online campaign from conservative officials to identify those who appear to revel in Kirk’s death. “Call them out, and hell, call their employer,” Vice President JD Vance said while guest-hosting Kirk’s show yesterday.

Big picture: Free speech laws in the US offer people minimal protection against a private employer, but some are criticizing what they see as a double standard. Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, for example, kept his job after apologizing for saying last week that unhoused, mentally ill people should be executed.—ML

You may start hearing the words “robust” and “momentum” less often, as public companies might soon be allowed to forego reporting earnings every three months. Yesterday, President Trump called for the SEC to drop its quarterly reporting requirement—which has been around since 1970—and asked that it let companies disclose financials every six months instead.

The president said in a Truth Social Post that the change would “save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies.”

Much of corporate America agrees

Proponents of the change argue that forcing CEOs to hop on an earnings call every quarter is cumbersome and promotes short-term thinking.

• Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett have opined in the past that requiring quarterly earnings-per-share guidance makes companies more reluctant to hire and make efficiency-boosting investments.
• Many rule change advocates claim the requirement has led to fewer IPOs. The number of US-listed public companies plummeted from over 7,500 in 1997 to 3,700 in 2025.

But…many shareholders and academics worry that less frequent reporting will reduce transparency, increase market volatility, and leave investors less able to make informed decisions. The CFA Institute studied the impacts of the UK ending its quarterly reporting requirement in 2014 and found that it didn’t affect how much companies invested, but did reduce the accuracy of analysts’ forecasts.

Looking ahead…the SEC would have to approve the change and could take years to implement it.—SK

In case you needed another reason to wish for a time machine to go back and buy Google shares for $100.30 on its first day of trading 21 years ago, its parent company Alphabet’s value soared to $3 trillion yesterday. That puts it in a club with just three other members: Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple.

The search giant has been the best performer in the Magnificent Seven this year with a ~32% rise, according to Reuters. That’s partly because its share price got goosed by a favorable antitrust ruling earlier this month. The company had been found to be a monopolist in the search space, but the penalties imposed by Judge Amit Mehta were lighter than those investors feared might be coming—in part because he found AI had changed the game. And although AI poses the biggest threat to Google since its founders peaced out for a few days to attend Burning Man, it’s also part of what has propped up the stock’s price, as its own AI investments have started to pay off. Now if only that time machine could let you make an AI play, too…—AR