Category Archives: Amazon

Amazon and other platforms allowing payments to far-right groups

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Report by Center for Media and Democracy finds SPLC-designated hate groups receiving income via mainstream platforms

Dozens of hate groups and racist media outlets are receiving income via mainstream payment processors such as Amazon, Stripe and DonorBox, according to a new report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).

The groups still receiving donations and sales via such platforms include promoters of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that motivated the Christchurch shooter, an organization cited as an inspiration by mass shooter Dylan Roof, and several groups that participated in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville that ended in the killing of a protester.

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How to avoid Amazon: the definitive guide to online shopping – without the retail titan

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Amazon’s sales have hit £8,800 a second, while concerns persist about its tax affairs, treatment of staff and effect on small retailers. Here’s how to buy everything from technology to beauty to books without it

With the shutters down on high streets and retail parks around the world, meaning that home delivery is the only option for almost anything other than food and medicine, it’s no surprise that Amazon is seeing business boom. The online retailer, already a one-stop shop for many people, has seen customers flock through its virtual doors in the weeks since coronavirus hit.

The site is experiencing an extended period of sales at the level usually reserved for the shopping frenzy of Black Friday, with reported surges reaching $11,000 (£8,800) a second. Its share price is booming, too, making its already rich founder, Jeff Bezos, even richer.

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Amazon given €294m in tax credits as European revenues jump to €32bn

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Company says it made a loss last year due to investment and the competitive market

Amazon received €294m (£258m) in tax credits last year that it can deduct from future bills for its European business, as revenues at the online retailer rose significantly to €32bn.

The company said it received the tax credits because it made a loss last year due to its investment programme and the highly competitive retail environment across Europe and the UK.

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Amazon to close French warehouses over coronavirus concerns

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Court decision has led to a five-day closure for deep cleaning and protective measures for staff

Amazon has ordered the temporary closure of all six of its French distribution centres, one day after a French court ruled it was not doing enough to protect its workers in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The online giant said in a statement that “this week, we are requesting employees of our distribution centres to stay at home. In the longer term, we will evaluate the impact of that [court] decision for them and our French logistic network”.

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Amazon fires two employees who condemned treatment of warehouse workers

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User experience designers Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa say they lost their jobs after circulating a petition about Covid-19 risks

Amazon has fired two employees after they publicly denounced the company’s treatment of warehouse workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

The user experience designers Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa said on Tuesday they had been fired after internally circulating a petition about health risks for Amazon warehouse workers during the Covid-19 crisis. Costa had worked at the company for more than 15 years and Cunningham had been an employee for more than five.

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‘Jeff Bezos values profits above safety’: Amazon workers voice pandemic concern

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Workers at facilities where there had been at least one coronavirus case said they were not being closed for deep cleaning

Workers at Amazon’s warehouse and shipping facilities say they fear going to work amid the coronavirus outbreak, and called on the company to do more to improve safety.

“We have no more wipes and hand sanitizer. We aren’t provided masks, don’t have the proper gloves, and not everything is being sanitized and cleaned before it comes to use,” said one Amazon warehouse associate in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Amazon to suspend non-essential shipments to UK and US warehouses

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The company is prioritising five categories of goods which it classifies as essential products

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    • Online retail giant Amazon is stopping sellers from sending non-essential items to its UK and US warehouses until 5 April, to make space for vital items needed by its customers during the coronavirus outbreak.

    Amazon wrote to its third-party sellers, some of whom use the company’s logistics to store and dispatch their products, to inform them that stocks of medical supplies and certain household items are running low due to increased demand from online shoppers.

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    Amazon bans sale of most editions of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf

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    Ban, which also includes other Nazi propaganda books, follows decades of campaigning by Holocaust charities

    Amazon has banned the sale of most editions of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and other Nazi propaganda books from its store following decades of campaigning by Holocaust charities.

    Booksellers were informed in recent days that they would no longer be allowed to sell a number of Nazi-authored books on the website including Hitler’s autobiographical screed and children’s books designed to spread antisemitic ideas among children.

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    Auschwitz Memorial criticises Amazon for Hunters show and antisemitic books

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    • Prime show stars Al Pacino as head of band of Nazi hunters
    • Memorial wants books by Nazi Julius Streicher removed

    The Auschwitz Memorial criticised Amazon on Sunday, for fictitious depictions of the Holocaust in its TV series Hunters and for selling books of Nazi propaganda.

    Related: Outcry after MSNBC host compares Sanders’ Nevada win to Nazi invasion

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    Amazon to donate to drug charity linked to Scientology

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    Exclusive: experts have queried methods of Narconon, which has given talks in UK schools

    Amazon has agreed to channel funds to a controversial drug rehabilitation charity linked to the Church of Scientology, the Guardian has learned.

    The web giant will make donations to Narconon – which runs programmes for drug addicts based on the teachings of the Scientology founder, L Ron Hubbard – when supporters buy products through the site, with shoppers able to pledge 0.5% of purchases to selected charities under Amazon’s “Smile” feature.

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    Concerns over safety at Amazon warehouses as accident reports rise

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    Figures obtained by GMB show safety at its UK warehouses could be worsening

    More than 600 Amazon workers have been seriously injured or narrowly escaped an accident in the past three years, prompting calls for a parliamentary inquiry into safety at the online retailer’s vast UK warehouses.

    Amazon, whose largest shareholder is the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos, recently launched an advertising campaign fronted by contented staff members, after a string of embarrassing revelations about working conditions.

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    Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pledges $10bn to save Earth’s environment

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    Move comes a month after Amazon threatened to fire employees who spoke out about company’s role in the climate crisis

    Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and Washington Post owner, announced on Monday that he was donating $10bn to save the Earth’s environment – barely a month after it was revealed Amazon threatened to fire employees who spoke out about the company’s role in the climate crisis.

    The new Bezos Earth Fund will start distributing the money this summer, the multi-billionaire said in an Instagram post to his 1.4 million followers.

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    Jeff Bezos buys lavish Beverly Hills estate for record $165m – report

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    Amazon founder purchases nine-acre estate once owned by Warner Bros president, Wall Street Journal says

    Jeff Bezos has set a new property price record in Los Angeles with the purchase of a $165m Beverly Hills estate, the Wall Street Journal reported.

    The Amazon founder’s purchase of the home from the media mogul David Geffen is the largest amount paid for a single-family Los Angeles-area home. The nine-acre estate originally belonged to Jack Warner, the late former president of Warner Bros Studios. Warner built up the estate’s 13,600-sq-ft Georgian-style mansion in the 1930s, reportedly with the wood floor that Napoleon was standing on when he proposed to Josephine.

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    UN experts demand US inquiry into Jeff Bezos Saudi hacking claims

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    ‘Grave concern’ expressed at evidence of possible ‘effort to silence Washington Post’

    UN experts are demanding an immediate investigation by the US into evidence indicating that Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Washington Post, was hacked with spyware deployed in a WhatsApp message sent from the personal account of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

    The special rapporteurs – Agnès Callamard and David Kaye – said in a joint statement they were “gravely concerned” by evidence they had reviewed about the apparent surveillance of Bezos in what they described as a possible “effort to influence, if not silence, the Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia”.

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    Revealed: the Saudi heir and the alleged plot to undermine Jeff Bezos

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    Apparent targeting of Amazon billionaire’s phone fits into broader pattern of behaviour by Saudi Arabia

    Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Washington Post, had no reason to be suspicious when he received a WhatsApp message from the account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia in May 2018.

    Bezos and Mohammed bin Salman had attended a dinner together in Hollywood a few weeks earlier hosted by Brian Grazer, the Oscar-winning producer, and Ari Emanuel, the powerful talent agent, as part of the young crown prince’s tour of America, which was hailed by some observers as an effort to rebrand the kingdom and set it on a new course.

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    Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s phone ‘hacked by Saudi crown prince’

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    Exclusive: investigation suggests Washington Post owner was targeted five months before murder of Jamal Khashoggi

    The Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone “hacked” in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, sources have told the Guardian.

    The encrypted message from the number used by Mohammed bin Salman is believed to have included a malicious file that infiltrated the phone of the world’s richest man, according to the results of a digital forensic analysis.

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    Amazon plans $1bn investment in India despite trader backlash

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    Jeff Bezos pledges funds to help digitise small businesses as anti-Amazon protests spread

    Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has pledged to invest $1bn (£776m) in small businesses in India, despite a growing backlash against the online retailer by the country’s powerful local traders.

    During a three-day visit to India, where Amazon has its sights set on dominating the burgeoning e-commerce market, Bezos laid out his ambitious plans for Amazon’s investment in India over the next five years, including helping to digitise millions of small businesses.

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    Amazon threatened to fire employees for speaking out on climate, workers say

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    Revealed: emails show group of employees who called for stronger climate action by the company were told they risked dismissal

    Amazon has threatened to fire employees for speaking publicly about the company’s role in the climate crisis, tech workers at the retail giant have revealed.

    Related: Trump campaign credits impeachment for helping to fundraise $46m – live

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    India primed: what Amazon’s vast new Hyderabad campus reveals about its plans

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    Amazon have arrived in force in rapidly expanding Hyderabad, with designs on the currently almost non-existent Indian e-commence market

    The futuristic lobby of the new Amazon building in Hyderabad feels as though it should have a permanent orchestra blasting out Also Sprach Zarathustra. The scale is intended to awe. A large slogan on a wall suggests the company is “Delivering smiles”. The only sound that rises above the hush is a synthesised beep, coming from a giant screen playing a video of the campus at various stages of its construction.

    Built on nine acres in this Indian city’s financial district, it is Amazon’s single largest building globally and the only Amazon-owned campus outside the US. It can house over 15,000 employees, but its size is its main architectural feature: it resembles the same cube of glass steel and chrome seen in corporate offices across Hyderabad, though a flash of magenta reflected in one of the top floor windows, from a billowing sari across the road, is a nice Indian touch.

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    US considers putting Amazon overseas websites on counterfeit blacklist – report

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    Amazon says in response it ‘strictly prohibits’ counterfeit products and invests heavily to protect customers from them



    The Trump administration is considering putting some of Amazon.com Inc’s overseas websites on a list of global marketplaces known for counterfeit goods, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

    The action would be taken by the US Trade Representative’s Office through its annual “notorious markets” list, the report said, adding that no decisions had been made and that similar proposals last year were eventually discarded.

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