Satya Nadella is named chairman of Microsoft

Microsoft’s India-born CEO Satya Nadella has been named the company’s chairman, an additional role in which he will ’lead the work to set the agenda for the board.’

Microsoft Corp on Wednesday announced that the board’s independent directors unanimously elected Nadella to the role of board chair, and unanimously elected John W Thompson as the lead independent director, a role he held previously from 2012 to 2014.

’In this role, Nadella will lead the work to set the agenda for the board, leveraging his deep understanding of the business to elevate the right strategic opportunities and identify key risks and mitigation approaches for the board’s review,’ the company said in a statement.

Nadella, 53, succeeds Thompson, who as the lead independent director, will retain significant authority including providing input on behalf of the independent directors on board agendas, calling meetings of the independent directors, setting agendas for executive sessions, and leading performance evaluations of the CEO, the technology giant said.

In addition to these role changes, the board declared a quarterly dividend of USD 0.56 per share. The dividend is payable September 9, 2021, to shareholders of record on August 19, 2021.

Nadella had succeeded Steve Ballmer to become Microsoft’s CEO in 2014.

Opinion | ‘A Spicy Exchange’: Who Won the Final New York City Mayoral Debate?

By The New York Times Opinion

‘Urgently investigating’: CBA, Westpac, ANZ face service outages

A range of banks, including big four lenders Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ, are scrambling to find the source of an outage that is affecting internet banking and access to online apps across the country.

Commonwealth Bank used Twitter to apologise for the outage and thank customers for their patience. “We’re aware some of you are experiencing difficulties accessing our services and we’re urgently investigated,” CBA posted around 3pm.

CBA customers said internet banking and the online app were down, but other services such as Apple Pay are still running.

Westpac customers, including those who bank with St George and Bank of Melbourne, also reported being unable to access internet banking in what is understood to be a “major telecommunications outage”.

ANZ has confirmed some impact from the outage, but was unable to provide further details.

Boutique lender ME bank customers also took to Twitter reporting “online banking is down too”.

NAB internet banking appears to be working unaffected.

Telstra confirmed it was investigating the outage.

More to come

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Opinion: Katie Ledecky makes history at Olympic trials; Caeleb Dressel just getting started

Story Highlights

• Women are being allowed to swim the mile for the first time at the Olympics
• Caeleb Dressel qualifies first in the men's 100 free
• Allison Schmitt makes her fourth Olympic team

OMAHA, Neb. – History was made at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials Wednesday night, and it was entirely appropriate that Katie Ledecky was the one to do it.

For the first time ever, women are being allowed to swim the mile – the grueling 1,500 meters – at the Olympics Games, and by churning to the fastest time in the world this year here in the final, Ledecky was, is and will be the strong favorite for the gold medal in the event.

Men have been swimming the 1,500 in the Summer Games since 1904. It took only 117 years for the old boys club running international sports to give women the same chance.

“It’s about time,” Ledecky, 24, said after a frenetic hour in which she won her shortest event, the 200 freestyle; had to show up for the 200 medal ceremony and a pool-deck interview; then dive in for the 1,500.

Satya Nadella is named chairman of Microsoft

Microsoft’s India-born CEO Satya Nadella has been named the company’s chairman, an additional role in which he will ’lead the work to set the agenda for the board.’

Microsoft Corp on Wednesday announced that the board’s independent directors unanimously elected Nadella to the role of board chair, and unanimously elected John W Thompson as the lead independent director, a role he held previously from 2012 to 2014.

’In this role, Nadella will lead the work to set the agenda for the board, leveraging his deep understanding of the business to elevate the right strategic opportunities and identify key risks and mitigation approaches for the board’s review,’ the company said in a statement.

Nadella, 53, succeeds Thompson, who as the lead independent director, will retain significant authority including providing input on behalf of the independent directors on board agendas, calling meetings of the independent directors, setting agendas for executive sessions, and leading performance evaluations of the CEO, the technology giant said.

In addition to these role changes, the board declared a quarterly dividend of USD 0.56 per share. The dividend is payable September 9, 2021, to shareholders of record on August 19, 2021.

Nadella had succeeded Steve Ballmer to become Microsoft’s CEO in 2014.

Joe Rogan Rips ‘F**king Dangerous’ Trump And His ‘Bunch Of Morons’ Supporters

Podcaster and provocateur Joe Rogan on Tuesday warned that former President Donald Trump is still capable of inciting his supporters to violence.

As a result, he said it was “really important” to have a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection carried out by Trump supporters.  

“One of the reasons why I think it’s important is because it highlights the reasons why a guy like Donald Trump is so fucking dangerous,” he said in comments posted online by Mediaite.

Trump, he added, “can incite a bunch of morons to do something really fucking stupid.”

And Rogan, who endorsed Bernie Sanders during the 2020 primaries but hinted that he would vote for Trump after Joe Biden locked up the nomination, warned it could only get worse from here. 

“And now that he’s silenced off of social media, and now that that actually did happen, once it becomes a thing, it could be like mass shootings, Right?” he said. “They didn’t exist. Then they did. Now they’re a thing. That could be a thing.” 

The House last month passed a bill to create a commission to study the insurrection, with 35 Republicans joining Democrats to vote in favor.

However, it died in the Senate, where Republicans blocked it via a filibuster.