
Amazon posts record first-quarter profits triple what it made one year ago
CBSN
Amazon.com continues to profit off Americans' pandemic shopping habits, posting a record first-quarter profit of $8.11 billion — more than tripling its first-quarter income back in 2020.
The e-commerce giant reported $108.5 billion in sales for the quarter ending March 31, up 44% from the year-earlier period. AWS, the cloud services division that generated half of Amazon's profit, maintained its steady 32% year-over-year growth clip, while North America sales, Amazon's largest segment, grew 40% from the year-ago period. Amazon shares have climbed 6.5% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P 500-stock index rose has 12%. But Amazon's stock price has soared 78% since last March, when the coronavirus pandemic first made online shopping a necessity for many U.S. consumers.
Yangon — Myanmar's military leader lauded President Trump and asked him to lift sanctions, the ruling junta said Friday, after a tariff letter from the U.S. president that it has taken as Washington's first public recognition of its rule. Min Aung Hlaing endorsed Mr. Trump's false claim that the 2020 U.S. election was stolen, and thanked him for shutting down funding for U.S.-backed media outlets that have long provided independent coverage of conflict-wracked Myanmar.

After years of unsuccessful attempts to finance and build a public alarm network that would warn residents of Kerr County, Texas, about dangerous flooding, officials in the region, nicknamed "flash flood alley," were going to start developing a centralized flood monitoring system this summer to help leaders and emergency managers plan ahead.

Washington — The Senate is expected to vote next week on a request from the White House to claw back funding for international aid and public broadcasting. But the funding for rural radio and television stations — sometimes an area's sole source for emergency warnings and other news — has sparked concern among some Senate Republicans, especially after the recent devastating flash floods in Texas.