Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Amazon staff in the US received a warning email from the firm for not spending enough time in the office after their attendance was tracked, BBC reported on Aug.11. Some employees were told they were “not currently meeting our expectation of joining your colleagues in …
Read More »Amazon to cut another 9,000 jobs
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Online retail giant Amazon plans to cut another 9,000 jobs as it seeks to save costs, the BBC reported on March 22. The firm, which employs 1.5 million people worldwide, said the cuts would fall mainly in areas including cloud computing and advertising. It did …
Read More »Amazon to lay off over 18,000 people, CEO says
San Francisco, USA | Xinhua | Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Wednesday evening the company planned to eliminate over 18,000 people, thousands more than originally expected. Last November, the company said that the layoffs would affect about 10,000 people and that the job cuts would extend into the new year. In a …
Read More »EU, Amazon reach settlement in 3 antitrust cases
Brussels, Belgium | Xinhua | Amazon, the world’s biggest retailer, has committed to making changes to its practices on its e-commerce marketplace in response to the European Commission’s competition concerns, Margrethe Vestager, the Commission’s executive vice president, said on Tuesday. Vestager, who is also the European commissioner for competition, said in …
Read More »Disrupting the disruptors
Why Crypto, Twitter, and Meta’s best days appear to be behind them as Amazon, Apple limp along COMMENT | Roger McNamee | After a decade of unconstrained growth – when it seemed that a new billionaire was minted every day – the tech industry has finally hit a rough patch. Elon Musk’s …
Read More »Facial recognition: IT and police in delicate dance
Paris, France | AFP | Tech giants love to portray themselves as forces for good and as the United States was gripped by anti-racism protests a number of them publicly disavowed selling controversial facial recognition technology to police forces. Facial recognition has numerous applications that could simplify our lives as we’ve …
Read More »‘Bada… Bing… Bang’? HBO throws out rulebook with streaming launch
Los Angeles, United States | AFP | Decades before glossy Netflix and Amazon shows began luring Hollywood A-listers to the small screen, cable network HBO helped invent premium television. Now the home of “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” and “Game of Thrones” is scrambling to catch up with its newfound online …
Read More »A world redrawn: virus a ‘genocide’ threat for Amazon, warns Salgado
Paris, France | AFP | Legendary photographer Sebastiao Salgado has warned of a “genocide” of the Amazon’s indigenous peoples if the Brazilian government does not do more to protect them from the coronavirus. The country’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro — who has dismissed the virus as a “little flu” — has …
Read More »British supermarkets threaten Brazil boycott over Amazon land law
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Leading British supermarket chains have warned Brazil they may be forced to boycott its goods if lawmakers in the South American country pass a bill that would “encourage further land grabbing” in the Amazon. In an open letter to Brazilian senators and deputies, the companies …
Read More »Amazon hit from all sides as crisis highlights growing power
San Francisco, United States | AFP | As Amazon becomes an increasingly important lifeline in the pandemic crisis, it is being hit with a wave of criticism from activists, politicians and others who question the tech giant’s growing influence. Amazon has become the most scrutinized company during the health emergency. It …
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