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Smugglers are not letting up at the border despite claims coming from the Biden administration. One America’s Chief White House Correspondent Chanel Rion has more on cartel loopholes.
Microsoft’s profits soared during the first three months of 2021, thanks to ongoing demand for its software and cloud computing services during the pandemic.
The company on Tuesday reported fiscal third-quarter profit of $14.8 billion, up 38% from the same period last year.
“Over a year into the pandemic, digital adoption curves aren’t slowing down. They’re accelerating, and it’s just the beginning,” CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.
Net income of $1.95 per share beat Wall Street expectations. Analysts were expecting Microsoft to earn $1.78 per share on revenue of $41 billion for the fiscal quarter ending in March, according to FactSet.
The software maker based in Redmond, Washington, posted revenue of $41.7 billion in the January-March period, up 19% from last year.
Revenue from Microsoft’s productivity segment, which includes its Office suite of workplace products such as email, grew by 15% over the same time last year, to $13.6 billion. Its cloud computing business segment grew 23% to $15.1 billion.
‘Inflation is arguably the biggest topic during this earnings season’
(CNBC) — The S&P 500 traded slightly higher on Monday as investors geared up for one of the busiest weeks of the first-quarter earnings season.
The broad equity benchmark inched 0.2% higher. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 30 points, dragged down by Procter & Gamble, Walmart and Coca Cola. The consumer staples sector was the biggest loser Monday, falling more than 1%.
The decline in consumer companies came amid surging commodity prices, which fueled fears of inflation. Corn futures hit their highest level in more than seven years in volatile trading, while copper climbed to its highest level in nearly a decade. Commodities are a big portion of costs for consumer staples.
Biden administration climate czar John Kerry, also a former Secretary of State in the Obama administration, is under fire for allegedly leaking information about Israel to the Iranian Foreign Minister.
Kerry denies these claims, and the White House is not commenting, but Republican lawmakers are calling for an investigation. Some are also calling for Kerry to resign if the allegations are proven to be true.
GOP Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) wants to question Kerry about these claims in a “closed hearing,” while Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) all urged Kerry to consider resignation.
Two House Republicans, Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Jim Banks (R-IL), called on Kerry to be removed even before the results of any probe.
Employees of Simon & Schuster have delivered a petition demanding the publisher stop all deals with Trump administration officials, wherein they accuse the firm of “perpetuating white supremacy” by going forward with a book by former Vice President Mike Pence.
According to an exclusive report from The Wall Street Journal, Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp was aware that a petition was circulating when he announced internally last week that a memoir by Pence would move forward despite pushback from some employees.
All told, 216 Simon & Schuster employees signed the petition, which equates to roughly 14% of the company’s workforce. They also solicited the signatures of another 3,500 outsiders, some of whom were “well-known Black writers,” the newspaper wrote.
The Daily Mail later published the contents of the petition in it entirety.
The letter begins by stating:
“The events of the past week have affirmed that Simon & Schuster has chosen complicity in perpetuating white supremacy by publishing Mike Pence and continuing to distribute books for Post Hill Press, including predator Matt Gaetz’s FIREBRAND.
Stunning Judge Switch During Audit
Judge Daniel Martin, who is now presiding over the challenge to the Arizona Senate Republicans’ audit of the Maricopa County 2020 election results, is a Democrat appointee who worked for a firm that merged with Perkins Coie, the pro-Democrat powerhouse firm that is trying to shut down the Maricopa County audit.
Martin took over the case after the previous judge overseeing it, Republican Judge Christopher Coury, recused himself because a lawyer for the Cyber Ninjas auditing team previously working as an extern for Coury’s office. That lawyer was not listed as a representative for Cyber Ninjas until recently, prompting Coury’s recusal. A hearing will reportedly be convened in the case on Tuesday at 11 AM. A local NBC reporter said that the new judge Martin was initially appointed to a judgeship by former Democrat Arizona governor Janet Napolitano.
