Oracle Cuts 21,000 Jobs Amid Record US$67 Billion Revenue

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Oracle Cuts 21,000 Jobs Amid Record US$67 Billion Revenue

Oracle shed 21,000 jobs in its latest financial year while posting record annual revenue of $67.4 billion, a combination that captures the pace of its shift toward artificial intelligence.

The company’s workforce fell to 141,000 employees as of 31 May 2026, down from approximately 162,000 a year earlier, based on the annual report filed with US securities regulators on 22 June. It is the first time Oracle’s headcount has fallen below 150,000 in four years. The 13 percent decline came alongside $1.84 billion in severance payments and other exit costs, nearly five times the $374 million it spent on similar items in the previous year.

Not all divisions felt the pressure equally. Revenue and Health Sciences each saw workforce reductions of roughly 30 percent, while teams focused on Oracle’s cloud infrastructure and AI operations were largely shielded and in some cases expanded.

Revenue for fiscal year 2026 grew 17 percent to a record $67.4 billion. Cloud revenue surged 39 percent to $34 billion, driven by cloud infrastructure revenue that rose 77 percent over the year to $18.1 billion, and 93 percent in the fourth quarter alone. The company’s backlog of contracted future revenue climbed to a record $638 billion. Operating cash flow reached $32 billion, up 54 percent, though free cash flow came in at negative $23.7 billion as infrastructure spending ran high.

Oracle said the workforce reductions reflected management changes, product realignments, employee performance considerations, strategic shifts and acquisitions. The company told the BBC: “As our cloud and AI businesses grow, we will continually balance our resources.”

Oracle’s 21,000 reduction is one of the largest in the technology sector this year. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows 196 technology companies have collectively laid off more than 119,800 workers so far in 2026.

Oracle has signed major data centre agreements with OpenAI and Meta Platforms as it competes more directly with cloud rivals Amazon and Microsoft. To fund the buildout, the company raised approximately $48 billion in debt and equity during fiscal year 2026 and plans around $40 billion more in additional financing in fiscal year 2027.

For the current financial year, Oracle expects net capital expenditure of around $70 billion, financed partly through debt and equity including a previously announced $20 billion stock issuance. The company has raised its fiscal year 2027 annual revenue guidance to $90 billion.

Ghana Plans National Document Wallet With Multiple Private Providers

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Ghana Plans National Document Wallet With Multiple Private Providers

Ghana’s technology regulator will consult the market on Thursday on plans for a national digital document wallet operated by competing private providers.

The National Information Technology Agency (NITA) has scheduled a virtual Early Market Engagement session on the proposed Ghana Electronic Document Wallet (GEDW) for June 25 at 10:00 GMT. NITA is the agency responsible for implementing Ghana’s IT policies, established under Act 771 of 2008 as the ICT policy implementing arm of the Ministry of Communications.

The concept note published by NITA draws a contrast with India’s DigiLocker and signals that Ghana will adopt a different design: independent, accredited Electronic Wallet Service Providers (EWSPs) will operate the wallets commercially under NITA’s regulatory and technical standards, creating a market of competing providers rather than a single state-run platform. Under the design, wallets will not hold copies of official documents. Instead they will store only metadata and secure links, with documents retrieved on demand directly from the institutions that issued them.

Citizens, businesses and government agencies would use the ecosystem to receive, store, share and verify official digital records, covering everything from academic certificates to licences and government-issued permits, without needing physical copies. Authorised bodies such as government departments and educational institutions would connect as document issuers, while companies and service providers seeking to confirm credentials would access them as requesters within the same framework.

Thursday’s session will give participants an overview of the project’s proposed architecture, implementation strategy and regulatory framework. NITA said the engagement is designed to gather feedback and allow the market to shape the design before the project moves to procurement.

The agency added that private sector involvement is critical to ensuring the GEDW meets international standards for security, interoperability and user trust. Insights from the session will feed into the next phases of the project’s development.

Stakeholders interested in participating can access details and the NITA concept note at nita.gov.gh.

Dai Dai Crowns Burna Boy Africa’s Billboard Hot 100 Leader

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Dai Dai Crowns Burna Boy Africa’s Billboard Hot 100 Leader

Burna Boy has overtaken Tems as the African artist with the most Billboard Hot 100 entries, the World Cup anthem Dai Dai becoming his ninth chart appearance this week.

The track, a collaboration with Colombian superstar Shakira, debuted at number 75 on the Hot 100 dated June 27 on the strength of 3.9 million official US streams and was lifted further by their performance of the song before an estimated 80,000-plus fans at the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on June 11.

Dai Dai is the fourth official World Cup song to reach the Hot 100, and the second by Shakira. A Billboard readers’ poll named it the best World Cup anthem in the tournament’s history, drawing more than 31 percent of the vote. It also shot to number 7 on Billboard Global Excl. US, Burna Boy’s first top 10 on that chart.

Burna Boy, whose full name is Damini Ogulu, had shared the African Hot 100 entries record with fellow Nigerian Tems since February, after both appeared on J. Cole’s album The Fall-Off and reached eight entries each, surpassing South African rock band Seether. Tems, born Temilade Openiyi, now holds second place among all African artists with eight entries.

Beyond the entries record, Burna Boy is also the first African artist to chart at least one song on the Hot 100 for six consecutive years, a run that spans “Loved By You” (2021), “Last Last” (2022), “Sittin’ On Top Of The World” and “Talibans II” (2023), “Just Like Me” and “We Pray” (2024), “WGFT” (2025), and “Only You” and “Dai Dai” in 2026.

Burna Boy announced the milestone on his social media platforms on Tuesday. He has also recently surpassed 40 million monthly listeners on Spotify, a career high on the platform.

Released on May 15 as the official 2026 World Cup song, Dai Dai blends Afrobeats, dance-pop, world music and reggaeton. Its title is Italian slang for “come on,” chosen as an exhortation to athletes and fans to give everything at the tournament.

DC Court Revives Trump’s Fast Track Deportation Without Hearings

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DC Court Revives Trump’s Fast Track Deportation Without Hearings

A US federal appeals court on Tuesday revived the Trump administration’s nationwide power to deport undocumented migrants without immigration hearings, handing the White House a significant legal victory.

A divided three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (DC Circuit) threw out a lower court decision that had blocked the expanded policy, allowing the administration to resume fast track deportations of undocumented migrants throughout the United States, not just near the border.

Expedited removal, first created by Congress in 1996, allows low-level immigration officers to summarily deport undocumented migrants without an immigration court hearing or any judicial review. It had previously applied only to migrants caught within 100 miles of a land border or arriving by sea who had been in the country for 14 days or fewer. President Trump extended it on January 21, 2025, to cover any undocumented migrant in the United States who could not prove they had been continuously present for longer than two years. Justice Department attorneys have argued the expanded policy could be used to efficiently deport potentially millions of people.

US District Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee assigned to the case, issued a stay on August 29, 2025, after finding the plaintiffs had made a strong showing that the government’s expansion violated due process rights and that, without a pause, Make the Road New York’s members would be irreparably harmed.

The DC Circuit majority overturned her order. Judge Justin Walker, who wrote the lead opinion, said the plaintiffs had not shown the expanded use of expedited removal violated due process. Walker acknowledged evidence of individual officers wrongly applying the procedure to long-term residents, but said those errors resulted from failure by individual officers to follow existing law, not from defects in the written policy itself. Judge Neomi Rao, also a Trump appointee, joined the majority. Judge Robert Wilkins, the Obama appointee on the panel, dissented in part on the due process question.

“Today, the DC Circuit vindicated our decision to apply the law as written,” said James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security’s General Counsel. He said the department had for years artificially capped expedited removal at 14 days, even though federal law permits its use against those who entered the country illegally within the past two years.

Anand Balakrishnan, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead counsel in the case, said the ruling undermines the principle that people receive due process when the government seeks to deport them and warned the expanded system is error prone. The ACLU said it is exploring next steps.

The lawsuit, Make the Road New York v. Noem, was filed by the ACLU on behalf of Make the Road New York, an organisation that serves immigrant communities in that state. Tuesday’s ruling vacated the preliminary injunction blocking the policy but did not decide the case on its merits; the underlying litigation continues in the district court.

Percival also reminded undocumented migrants that the administration’s self deportation programme offers a $2,600 stipend for those who leave voluntarily.

GoldBod Drops Live Gold Prices, Moves to London Benchmarks

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GoldBod Drops Live Gold Prices, Moves to London Benchmarks

Ghana’s gold trading regulator will scrap live price feeds from July 1 and require all licensed buyers to trade at two fixed daily rates pegged to international London benchmarks.

The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) announced the change following extensive stakeholder engagements with players across the gold trading ecosystem, describing the measures as intended to enhance transparency, standardise pricing and strengthen regulatory oversight. The new system replaces the Board’s continuously updated live prices with rates drawn from the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Gold Price AM and LBMA Gold Price PM, the globally recognised twice daily gold fixing benchmarks.

GoldBod will publish the first official price at 10:30 a.m. each trading day, aligned with the LBMA AM price, and a second at 3:00 p.m. in line with the LBMA PM price. The Ghana cedi equivalent will be determined using the Bank of Ghana Reference Rate for that day. All prices will be available on the Board’s website at goldbod.gov.gh.

A companion directive tightens transaction discipline with effect from June 24, one week earlier. Every licensed gold buyer must, within five minutes of completing any purchase, communicate the details to its Tier 2 buyer or aggregator by telephone, text message or any approved channel. Gold purchase bookings will not be accepted beyond 8:00 p.m. on any trading day, and buyers must issue receipts immediately after each transaction, with the exact time of purchase clearly recorded.

Tier 2 buyers also face a new commission ceiling. They may not add more than GH¢30 from their allotted commission to the price at which they buy or sell gold. No licensed buyer may purchase gold above the combined value of the published GoldBod price, any applicable rate gap bonus for licensed miners, and that GH¢30 ceiling.

Buyers who trade outside the official rates “shall be deemed to have committed an offence under the Ghana Gold Board Act,” the Board warned.

Non-compliance amounts to an offence under Section 63(1)(c) and (2) of the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140), exposing operators to prosecution, suspension or revocation of their licence, and other enforcement measures.

To ensure compliance, GoldBod will deploy enforcement and compliance teams across all gold-producing and trading hubs nationwide.

GoldBod, established as the sole authority with exclusive rights to buy, sell, weigh, grade, assay, value and export gold and other precious minerals in Ghana, said the reforms follow extensive stakeholder consultations and are intended to advance fairness and responsible sourcing across the gold value chain.

Bennett Says Israel Smuggled Starlink Into Iran, Blames Netanyahu

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Bennett Says Israel Smuggled Starlink Into Iran, Blames Netanyahu

Israel secretly smuggled tens of thousands of Starlink internet receivers into Iran to help opposition protesters, then abandoned the program, former prime minister Naftali Bennett disclosed on Tuesday.

Bennett, who served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022, told the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem that he had initiated “a process of acquiring and smuggling into Iran tens of thousands of Starlink receptors that would allow continuity of the internet and social networks.” He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government halted the effort after he left office.

The disclosure carries direct electoral weight. Bennett leads Together, an opposition alliance he forged with former prime minister Yair Lapid in April, which he will head as candidate for prime minister. Polls have put Bennett as the top opposition contender against Netanyahu ahead of elections due by October. He called the current government incompetent and said the planned communications network was never in place when Iranian protesters needed it.

“And when the protest happened, that infrastructure was not there,” he said.

Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to questions on Bennett’s remarks. SpaceX was not available for comment outside U.S. business hours.

The receivers were designed, Bennett said, to keep internet and social media access available during protests and help protesters organise and eventually bring down Iran’s government. Iranian authorities have repeatedly cut off public internet access during unrest, including during nationwide protests in January and throughout the war with the U.S. and Israel that began at the end of February. That conflict opened on February 28 with strikes on Iranian military and government targets. Iran has previously accused Israel and the United States of smuggling Starlink devices to undermine its security. Starlink is not licensed to operate in Iran, though Musk has previously said the service is active there.

Bennett also called on Israel and other Middle Eastern states to join forces to repel and ultimately topple Iran’s government, predicting its collapse would mirror the fall of the Soviet Union.

Messi Breaks Men’s and Overall World Cup Records in Dallas

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Messi Breaks Men’s and Overall World Cup Records in Dallas

Lionel Messi scored twice for Argentina against Austria in Dallas on Monday to become, at 38, the leading scorer in World Cup history across men’s and women’s football.

The 2-0 win secured Argentina’s place in the knockout round. Messi’s brace pushed his career total to 18 World Cup goals, clearing Germany’s Miroslav Klose (16) and Brazil’s Marta (17), the previous holders of the men’s and overall records respectively.

Messi entered the tournament with 13 career World Cup goals from five previous editions. A hat trick against Algeria at Kansas City Stadium on June 16, the first of his career at the tournament, drew him level with Klose at 16. Against Austria, he broke clear with a left-foot one-timer in the 38th minute off a pass from Facundo Medina, then added a second in stoppage time to push the record to 18. He had missed a penalty early in the match.

“For me, Lionel Messi is the best of all time. Congratulations, champ!” Klose, who now coaches Nuremberg, told Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Messi, speaking to Fox Sports in Spanish after the game, said he was too tired to think about the record. He wanted only to enjoy the win with his teammates, he added; Argentina had given fans great moments and would try to give them more.

The mark of 18 may not stand unchallenged for long. Kylian Mbappé also moved to 16 World Cup goals on the same night, matching Klose’s former men’s total. The Frenchman reached that tally in just 16 World Cup appearances; Messi needed 28 to reach 18.

Two days before turning 39, Messi became only the second man in FIFA World Cup history to score four or more goals in three separate editions of the tournament, after Klose.

Ghana Revokes All Gun Licences, Orders Mental Health Tests

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Ghana Revokes All Gun Licences, Orders Mental Health Tests

Every firearm licence in Ghana was revoked at noon Tuesday, with holders given three months to pass mandatory mental health and drug tests before reclaiming their weapons.

Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak said three wealthy Ghanaians had used legally registered firearms to take their own lives over the past three months, exposing a licensing system that approved weapons without checking the mental fitness of their holders.

To get their firearms back, all licence holders must complete a mental health evaluation, a drug screening test, and practical firearms training before approval is granted. The minister said the Mental Health Authority, the Narcotics Control Commission, and a training range at Tesano have been identified to handle each requirement. A background check by national security agencies must also be cleared.

“Our interest is not the fees. Our interest is the safety,” Mubarak told reporters at a press conference in Accra.

Holders who had already paid their 2025/2026 licensing fees will not be charged those fees again, though separate assessment charges may apply. Those who miss the three-month deadline will first receive reminders; officers will then recover their weapons. Anyone found to have deliberately concealed a firearm after that stage will face prosecution.

Tuesday’s action came two days after a shooting at a Kwabenya property in Greater Accra left former Dome-Kwabenya lawmaker Adwoa Safo with a gunshot injury to her left ear and required her hospitalisation. Her father, Kristo Asafo Mission founder Apostle Professor Kwadwo Safo, died in September 2025, touching off competing claims over the organisation’s leadership and its associated institutions. The Kwadwo Safo family alleged she had gone to the property to serve a court injunction during an installation event for her brother, Israel Kwadwo Safo Akofena, when the shooting occurred. Police arrested Israel Safo and two others in connection with the incident.

The Interior Ministry had already suspended the operating licence of Kantanka Security Services Limited on June 22, citing the alleged use of unauthorised uniforms, firearms, and ammunition by its personnel during the Kwabenya operation. Under Ghanaian law, private security companies are prohibited from using firearms. Six company personnel were arrested after allegedly possessing and discharging those weapons.

The ministry ran a national gun amnesty from December 2025 to January 2026 to encourage voluntary surrender of unregistered firearms without prosecution, and the weapons collected are scheduled for public destruction on July 9. In March, Mubarak had already slowed the issuance of new licences while the Central Firearms Registry was being digitised.

Ronaldo’s Historic Brace Puts Portugal on Verge of Knockout Stage in 5-0 Rout

Samuel Kwame Boadu
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Ronaldo’s Historic Brace Puts Portugal on Verge of Knockout Stage in 5-0 Rout

The 41-year-old captain scored twice to become the first footballer to score in six separate World Cup tournaments, as Portugal thrashed Uzbekistan 5-0 in Houston

Cristiano Ronaldo etched his name into football history on Tuesday, scoring twice as Portugal thrashed Uzbekistan 5-0 at NRG Stadium in Houston to become the first player to score in six separate World Cup tournaments.

Ronaldo opened the scoring in the sixth minute, side-footing home from six yards after connecting with a low cross from João Cancelo. He sealed his historic brace in the 39th minute, finishing calmly after a precise delivery from Bruno Fernandes.

Nuno Mendes curled a brilliant free-kick directly into the back of the net in the 17th minute to make it 2-0. Uzbekistan goalkeeper Abduvohid Nematov fumbled the ball past his own line in the 60th minute for an own goal, and substitute Rafael Leão drove home a powerful strike from the edge of the penalty box in the 87th minute to complete the scoring.

Portugal dominated possession with 66 percent and registered 16 shots, nine on target, while Uzbekistan managed seven shots, two on target. Portuguese passing accuracy stood at 92 percent compared to Uzbekistan’s 77 percent.

Ronaldo’s double took his career World Cup tally to 10 goals, officially surpassing the legendary Eusébio as Portugal’s all-time top scorer at the global finals. Following heavy media criticism and a quiet 1-1 opening draw against DR Congo, Roberto Martínez’s side bounced back with immense maturity.

An analysis by Accra Street Journal noted that Fabio Cannavaro’s tactical layout for Uzbekistan struggled to contain the technical wing-play of Cancelo and Mendes, leaving striker Eldor Shomurodov largely isolated up front. Portugal now have four points in Group K, while Uzbekistan remain on zero and face elimination, needing a miracle against Colombia on the final matchday to keep their hopes alive.

Ghana retrieves 4,038 illicit firearms under gun amnesty program

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Ghana retrieves 4,038 illicit firearms under gun amnesty program

Ghana has retrieved at least 4,038 firearms under the nationwide Gun Amnesty Program (GAP) launched by the government last November to enhance peace and public safety, Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak said Tuesday.

These firearms included unregistered and illicit firearms surrendered by their users, Mohammed-Mubarak said during a press briefing, adding that others also took steps to regularize their firearms in line with the law.

 According to him, the registration process began in February for individuals who applied to regularize their firearms under the GAP, with the registration authorities conducting background checks and training those who qualify in firearms safety and competency.

 With the program now expired, law enforcement agencies will carry out joint operations, targeted searches, swoops at identified hotspots, and surveillance of criminal networks across the country to retrieve unregistered or illicit firearms, Mohammed-Mubarak said.

 He added that the Ghana Police Service would confiscate all firearms that do not meet the requisite legal requirements and arrest and prosecute any person found in possession of an illicit firearm in accordance with the law.

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