Alphabet trounces profit estimates as google reins in costs

A parent who feels like he's been "conned" after agreeing to have his dad build a computer for his teenage son has received a wave of support on Mumsnet, the U.K.-based online forum. According to a post on Mumsnet's Am I Being Unreasonable (AIBU) forum , user Glassback83 was planning to buy his 16-year-old son a PC for his birthday. But the user's father (who has been building computers "for years") said he could build one for "cheaper" than it would be to buy one from a store. So they agreed to have him do it and have the PC be a gift from the user and the child's grandparents. While global PC sales rose during the height of the pandemic , with more people working from home, the latest Mumsnet post follows a record drop in PC shipments worldwide, which saw its sharpest decline in nine years in the second quarter of 2022, according to a July 2022 report by the research firm Gartner. The decline was attributed to ongoing "geopolitical instability" following the … [Read more...] about Grandad who ‘built’ PC for teen slammed over wanting $600 from his parents

Democrats pushed their election-year economic package to Senate passage Sunday, a hard-fought compromise less ambitious than President Joe Biden’s original domestic vision but one that still meets deep-rooted party goals of slowing global warming, moderating pharmaceutical costs and taxing immense corporations. The estimated $740 billion package heads next to the House, where lawmakers are poised to deliver on Biden's priorities, a stunning turnaround of what had seemed a lost and doomed effort that suddenly roared back to political life. Democrats held united, 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. “It's been a long, tough and winding road, but at last, at last we have arrived,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ahead of final votes. “The Senate is making history. I am confident the Inflation Reduction Act will endure as one of the defining legislative measures of the 21st century.” Republican amendments shunned Senators … [Read more...] about U.S. Senate passes Biden’s mega health, climate bill; House to vote next

Republicans probably don’t like being thought of as the party of the callous , inhumane, “ kick the poor ” caucus. Which is weird, because they could have voted to ensure every American suffering from diabetes could procure their life-dependent doses of insulin at $35 a pop, and they chose not to. Thanks to 43 Republican senators voting “nay,” Democrats couldn’t overcome the 60-vote filibuster to cap the price of insulin at $35 for everyone. Mind you, this isn’t “free” or “socialized” health care—it’s insulin . Roughly 1 in 10 Americans have diabetes (37.3 million) and about 1 in 3 (96 million) have pre-diabetes, according to the CDC . In a country with both an obesity crisis and a health-care system where even people with “good insurance” can go bankrupt because of a health crisis, you’d think the GOP would be looking for ways to puff up its supposed “economic populist” credentials, rather than voting against a modest price control that would help keep tens of millions of … [Read more...] about Republicans to People With Diabetes: Drop Dead

When Zak Shafi was growing up, his family did everything they could to make ends meet. The 23-year-old had no idea how short of cash they were until a classmate spotted his school trousers on the changing room hook in PE and noticed he was wearing girls' uniform - and started to bully him. He tells The Mirror: "I went to school at Wembley High, it was a state school, it improved massively during my time there but to begin with I think it used to be one of the worst performing schools in the country. It wasn't all that at all. A lot of my clothes growing up came from my family, they were passed down to me, little did I know there was a difference between girls' and boys' trousers - the boys had buttons on the back pockets and the girls didn't. "One day in PE one of the guys asked who was wearing girls' trousers as they were hanging up, and I thought it couldn't be me - but it was. I asked my parents why I was wearing girls' trousers - they always did their best but they said they … [Read more...] about ‘I was so poor I had to wear girls’ clothes to school – now I live life of luxury’

New Delhi: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel will start rolling out 5G services this month and cover all towns and key rural areas of the country by March 2024, a senior company official said on Tuesday. Bharti Airtel managing director and CEO Gopal Vittal also said that the price of mobile services in India is very low and needs to go up. "We intend to launch 5G starting August and extend to a Pan India roll out very soon. We believe we will be able to cover every town and key rural areas as well with 5G. "In fact, detailed network rollout plans for 5,000 towns in India are completely in place. This will be one of the biggest rollouts in our history," Vittal said during the company's earning call. Bharti Airtel in the recently-concluded spectrum auction acquired 19,867.8 MHz frequencies by securing a pan-India footprint of 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands and select purchase of radiowaves in the low and mid-band spectrum for a total consideration of Rs 43,040 crore. Vittal said the … [Read more...] about Airtel to Launch 5G Services This Month, Cover Every Town by 2024: MD Vittal

Business leaders are calling on the government to urgently cut VAT, as they struggle with increasing costs. Many businesses are being hit by the same increases in bills as households, on top of other costs such as business rates. But they also face the challenge of trying to sell their products or services to customers who are cutting back on spending. Manchester's night time economy adviser Sacha Lord told Sky News: "I can't paint any positive picture at the moment - I'm more concerned now than I actually was during the pandemic. "Operators have taken on so much debt in the last two years, and that debt, by the way, did actually save businesses and jobs. Advertisement "But coming out of this, nobody expected to be hit with this crisis." He said that both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss - the candidates vying to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister - are not acting quickly enough. More on Hospitality 'Fragile' hospitality industry … [Read more...] about ‘Nobody expected to be hit with this crisis’: Hospitality businesses call for urgent VAT cut

Excise Department officials made changes in provisions of the 2021-22 excise policy and executed it without the consent of the Council of Ministers or the Lieutenant-Governor (L-G), causing “windfall gains” to licensees and loss to the Delhi government, a source at the Raj Niwas said on Sunday. The Raj Niwas source added that these details were part of the inquiry report of the Directorate of Vigilance (DoV), based on which L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena on Saturday approved suspension and disciplinary action against 11 excise officials. The Raj Niwas source said that the DoV’s report deals at length with the “arbitrary and unilateral decisions” taken by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and the officials of the Excise Department. This comes a day after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accused former L-G Anil Baijal of modifying the excise policy due to which liquor stores could not open in non-confirming areas, causing a loss of “thousands of crores of rupees” to the Delhi … [Read more...] about Excise officials caused ‘gains’ to vendors: DoV report

MIAMI (AP) _ Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH) on Tuesday reported a loss of $509.3 million in its second quarter. On a per-share basis, the Miami-based company said it had a loss of $1.22. Losses, adjusted for stock option expense and non-recurring costs, came to $1.14 per share. The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 82 cents per share. The cruise operator posted revenue of $1.19 billion in the period, which also missed Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.26 billion. For the current quarter ending in October, Norwegian Cruise Line said it expects revenue in the range of $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights ( http://automatedinsights.com/ap ) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on NCLH at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NCLH … [Read more...] about Norwegian Cruise Line: Q2 Earnings Snapshot