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Senior Biden administration aides summoned Amazon officials to the White House during the height of the pandemic to discuss “propaganda and misinformation” in books for sale on the retail giant’s website that questioned the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. White House officials “spent a week berating Amazon” in March 2021 over books related to “vaccine misinformation” and asked what steps company officials could take “to reduce the visibility of these titles,” according to Amazon emails released Monday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican. The Amazon pressure campaign overseen by Andy Slavitt, who was Mr. Biden’s senior...

Following a recent announcement that Amazon and iRobot have terminated their $1.4 billion merger agreement, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Associate Director for Merger Analysis Nathan Soderstrom released a statement expressing the Biden regulators’ pleasure at the dissolution. “We are pleased that Amazon and iRobot have abandoned their proposed transaction…The Commission’s investigation revealed significant concerns about the transaction’s potential competitive effects,” Soderstrom said in the statement. U.S. federal lawmakers, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, previously called on the FTC to block the merger in a joint letter. “iRobot is a powerful market incumbent, and Amazon, given its vast resources, history...

Once an EV darling thought to revolutionize EV production with its concept of micro-factories that crank out delivery vans for the likes of Uber and UPS, UK startup Arrival is in a desperate search for funding after being delisted from Nasdaq this week. Nasdaq suspended trading of Arrival shares this week, followed by a formal delisting, Reuters reports. The action is the result of Arrival being late in posting financial results and failing to file a remediation plan and hold an annual shareholder meeting. After announcing it was slashing its workforce by 50% last year, Arrival said it had received...

We live in an environment of complete and utter lawlessness. When predators boldly roam the streets without fear but good people are literally afraid to leave their own homes, that is clearly a sign that our societal collapse has reached a very advanced stage. Even in the rare instances when they are actually caught and convicted, our system will still often allow violent criminals to go free. For example, a woman in California that was convicted of stabbing her boyfriend more than 100 times was given a sentence that didn’t include even a single day in prison… The family of...

ITALY -- Italian regulators said they told OpenAI that its ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot has violated European Union’s stringent data privacy rules. The country’s data protection authority, known as Garante, said on Monday that it notified San Francisco-based OpenAI of breaches of the EU rules, known as General Data Protection Regulation. The watchdog started investigating ChatGPT last year, when it temporarily banned within Italy the chatbot that can produce text, images and sound in response to users’ questions. Based on the results of its “fact-finding activity,” the watchdog said it “concluded that the available evidence pointed to the existence of...

Technology company iRobot is undergoing major layoffs after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and European regulators opposed its acquisition by Amazon on Monday, multiple outlets reported. Amazon had planned to acquire iRobot, which is most known for making robot vacuums, but the deal could not go through because of regulatory hurdles, according to a press release announcing the termination. iRobot immediately disclosed impending layoffs affecting about 350 employees, constituting 31% of its total workforce, after the termination announcement. The companies primarily attributed the dissolution of the deal to the European Union (EU), stating in the press release that “Amazon’s proposed...

VIDEO AT LINK.............. Health Canada is warning that a battery sold on Amazon for Dyson vacuum cleaners could pose a risk of fire and burns after a report of “significant” property damage. The FirstPower 4000mAh V6 battery replacement for Dyson V6 Series vacuums were sold online between January and April 2022. According to the product manufacturer, the battery is also compatible with the following Dyson vacuum cleaners: SV04, DC58, DC59, DC61, DC62, DC72, DC74, Absolute Animal Motorhead Slim, SV03, SV04, SV05, SV06, SV07, SV09. PICTURED: FirstPower replacement battery for Dyson Vacuums sold to 1,731 Canadians on Amazon. Health Canada The...

New cartoon show ‘Hazbin Hotel’ praises Lucifer, demonizes ‘Heaven’ The gory, raunchy cartoon portrays the bisexual daughter of Lucifer as trying to save 'sinners' in hell from the 'extermination' raids of heaven. (LifeSiteNews) — Amazon Video released an animated adult show on Friday called Hazbin Hotel, which praises “Lucifer” and perversely demonizes “Heaven” and “angels” without mentioning God. The series has been widely praised by critics and viewers alike, signaling today’s rampant moral and spiritual confusion. The raunchy, gory, filthy-mouthed cartoon show is set in hell, where “sinners” live under the threat of “extermination” raids conducted by angels. The daughter...

With the deployment of airborne laser sensors as well as more traditional excavation techniques, archeologists have discovered evidence of a massive and sophisticated lost city in the dense Amazon rain forest region of eastern Ecuador in the Andes foothills. Lead researcher Stephen Rostain of the National Center for Scientific Research in France told the BBC, “This is older than any other site we know in the Amazon. We have a Eurocentric view of civilization, but this shows we have to change our idea about what is culture and civilization.” According to the survey of about 200 miles in the Amazon,...

This LIDAR image provided by researchers in January 2024 shows complexes of rectangular platforms arranged around low squares and distributed along wide dug streets at the Kunguints site, Upano Valley in Ecuador. Antoine Dorison, Stéphen Rostain via AP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A study based on over 20 years of research into an ancient site in the Amazon rainforest has revealed evidence it was once a large-scale hub of interconnected cities that date back more than 2,500 years. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Science and detail the researchers’ work in mapping the network of settlements, which may be the earliest...

For four years, Amy Nelson and her family have endured one of the most disgusting abuses of power and privilege we’ve seen waged against an American family. It involves mega-retailer Amazon, their team of fifty attorneys, and the Department of Justice. In short, the Nelson family have been targeted for complete financial destruction. Seizures have been made. Threats continue incessantly. All the while, no charges have been filed and all of the evidence points to the Nelsons being innocent. ...

Perplexity, a startup going after Google’s dominant position in web search, has won backing from Jeff Bezos and venture capitalists betting that artificial intelligence will upend the way people find information online. Started less than two years ago, Perplexity has fewer than 40 employees and is based out of a San Francisco co-working space. The company’s product, which it calls an answer engine, is used by about 10 million people monthly. Those ingredients were enough to persuade Institutional Venture Partners, Bezos and other tech executives to invest $74 million in the company, the largest sum raised by an internet search...

Hilarious footage shows the moment a carjacker weirdly tumbles off the driver's seat in an Amazon delivery van just moments after he stole it. Dashcam video was released by the Houston Police Department's Robbery Division after a suspected carjacker targeted an Amazon driver and his delivery van. The dramatic incident took place at around 7 pm on November 16 as the deliveryman was dropping off a package at an apartment complex on West Airport in Houston, Texas, KHOU11 reported. The carjacker had approached the driver, threatened him with a gun and demanded that he hand over the keys to his...

Disturbing video shows a black Amazon delivery driver in Texas being savagely assaulted by two white women inside a luxury building — one of whom accused her of being a “thief” as she tried to drop off a package. JaMaiya Miller, 25, was out on delivery at the Belle Mead at River Oaks apartment complex near Houston on Dec. 16 and was buzzed into the complex by a resident, KHOU reported. However, once she was in the building, the same resident who let her in to deliver the package told her she was not supposed to be there.

A white man pointed a gun at an innocent, law abiding, black female amazon driver, threatened to shoot her, and used racial slurs. Since the video proves that a criminal pointed a gun at an innocent person, I support executing him. And the execution should take place within 24 hours of sentencing. It should not take 20 or 30 years to execute someone when there is video proof. This kind of behavior should not be tolerated. What the legal system does or does not do to this criminal will send a message to everyone else about whether or not this...

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — An Amazon delivery driver who allegedly had a gun pointed at her and was called racial slurs by an angry neighbor is speaking out after the terrifying ordeal. The driver, Linquita Schley, was delivering packages in Brentwood on Dec. 21 on Brownsville Road when the alleged incident happened. KDKA-TV obtained video of when Brian Dengler confronted Schley. "What was going through my mind? I got flashbacks of my stepson," she said. "I was getting flashbacks of my girlfriend, flashbacks of my mom. I was getting flashbacks of my life and how grateful I need to start being...

Shuttered stores at Schuylkill Mall in Pennsylvania in 2017. By the 1980s, the mall had become the center of American social life and accounted for the bulk of all retail sales. But a shrinking middle class, the rise of online shopping, and the fact that there were simply too many malls contributed to the decline of the American mall.

The new capability enables cashierless shopping for softline goods like clothing, fan gear, hats and shoes. Dive Brief: Continuing to enhance its retail tech, Amazon is adding radio-frequency identification to its Just Walk Out tech, the company announced Tuesday. The company partnered with Avery Dennison, an RFID sensor and digital identification tech provider, to add the capability. At locations using the technology, shoppers can take their desired items, each of which has a unique RFID tag, and pay as they pass through an exit gate using their debit or credit cards or by scanning their hand at an Amazon One...

Amazon on December 1, 2023 announced it has signed a three-launch contract with SpaceX to place its Kuiper satellites into orbit, supplementing the launch contracts it presently has with ULA, Arianespace, and Blue Origin. From the Amazon press release: ""SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage launch vehicle designed for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond, and it has completed more than 270 successful launches to date. Project Kuiper has contracted three Falcon 9 launches, and these missions are targeted to lift off beginning in mid-2025."" In 2022 Amazon had signed contracts...

Amazon has claimed the title of the largest nongovernment delivery service in the nation, outperforming both UPS and FedEx in parcel volumes. The e-commerce giant sent out more residential deliveries to U.S. homes in 2022 than UPS, according to the Wall Street Journal. In 2020, Amazon surpassed FedEx for the number of packages delivered to homes, and Amazon officials expected to widen that margin this year. The U.S. Postal Service is still the largest domestic parcel service by volume, handling deliveries for Amazon, UPS, and FedEx. Amazon exceeded 4.8 billion parcel deliveries in the United States before Thanksgiving, the Wall...