Several major Trump donors, including tech billionaires and investment firms, are positioning themselves to potentially profit from the Trump Administration’s continued pursuit of strategic interests in Greenland, focusing on rare earth mineral rights and geopolitical positioning.
The 2025 White House Easter Egg Roll marked an unprecedented moment of corporate capture, with tech giants Meta, YouTube, and Amazon purchasing sponsorship packages ranging from $75,000 to $200,000. These packages included branded activation spaces, event brunch tickets, and potential meet-and-greet …
Amazon agreed to pay $40 million for a documentary and limited series about Melania Trump, directed by Brett Ratner. The deal, far above market rates for similar content, came after Jeff Bezos met with Trump and as Amazon faced multiple federal investigations. The documentary, with Melania as an …
Amazon significantly increased its advertising spending on X (formerly Twitter) in a major reversal, after largely boycotting the platform since 2023 due to concerns about hate speech and content moderation. This decision follows broader tech industry discussions about returning to the platform, …
More than 750 Washington Post journalists and staff members staged a one-day strike on December 7, 2023—the first work stoppage at the paper in nearly 50 years—to protest stalled contract negotiations, planned layoffs of 240 workers, and management’s refusal to bargain in good faith. The …
On April 1, 2022, workers at Amazon’s massive JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island voted 2,654 to 2,131 to form the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), creating the first unionized Amazon facility in the United …
On December 10, 2021, an EF-3 tornado struck Amazon’s DLI4 delivery facility in Edwardsville, Illinois, causing catastrophic structural damage that killed six workers: Deandre S. Morrow (28), Kevin D. Dickey (62), Clayton …
On May 18, 2021, Amazon extended its global ban on police use of Rekognition facial recognition software indefinitely “until further notice,” prolonging what was originally announced as a one-year moratorium in June 2020. The extension came just weeks before the original moratorium was …
On April 9, 2021, vote counting concluded in the historic union election at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse (BHM1), with workers decisively rejecting unionization by a margin of 1,798 votes against to 738 …
In early February 2021, Amazon launched one of the most aggressive and expensive anti-union campaigns in recent U.S. labor history, spending millions of dollars on consultants, lawyers, and captive-audience meetings to defeat …
On October 1, 2020, after months of resisting transparency demands from workers, labor groups, politicians, and regulators, Amazon disclosed that at least 19,816 of its frontline employees had tested positive or been …
On Wednesday, June 10, 2020, Amazon announced a one-year moratorium on police use of its Rekognition facial recognition software, shocking civil rights activists and researchers who had spent two years fighting to stop the company from selling surveillance technology to law enforcement. The …
On April 20, 2020, Business Insider revealed that Amazon-owned Whole Foods had created an interactive “heat map” system that tracked and scored all 510 of its stores based on their risk of …
On March 30, 2020, Amazon fired warehouse worker Christian Smalls hours after he organized a walkout at the Staten Island JFK8 facility to protest inadequate COVID-19 safety measures. The termination occurred during the early, …
The Pentagon awards the $10 billion, 10-year Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract to Microsoft, stunning observers who widely expected Amazon Web Services to win based on its established relationship with the intelligence community through the CIA’s C2S contract. Under …
On September 2, 2019, Billy Foister, a 48-year-old Amazon warehouse worker, suffered a fatal heart attack at the Amazon fulfillment center in Etna, Ohio. According to his brother and coworkers, Foister lay on the …
The Intercept published an investigation on January 10, 2019 revealing that beginning in 2016, Ring provided its Ukraine-based research and development team with virtually unfettered access to a folder on Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service containing every video created by every Ring camera …
Amazon announced on November 13, 2018 that it would split its HQ2 project between Long Island City in Queens, New York and Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia (rebranded as “National Landing”). While Amazon claimed the combined subsidies totaled approximately $2.8 billion, analysis by …
On October 2, 2018, one month after Bernie Sanders introduced the “Stop BEZOS Act,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the company would raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour for all U.S. employees, effective …
On September 26, 2018, Gizmodo published a leaked 45-minute union-busting training video that Amazon had distributed to Whole Foods team leaders, exposing the company’s systematic program to identify …
On September 5, 2018, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the “Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act”—the “Stop BEZOS Act”—legislation designed to force large corporations like Amazon …
In June 2018, at the height of the Trump administration’s family separation crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, Amazon Web Services officials met with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) representatives in Redwood City, California to pitch Rekognition facial recognition technology for …
Seattle’s City Council unanimously passed a “head tax” on large employers on May 14, 2018, taxing companies earning $20 million+ annually at $275 per full-time employee to fund affordable housing and homeless services. Amazon—with 45,000 Seattle employees and facing a $12 million …
Amazon announced its acquisition of Ring, a maker of smart doorbell cameras and home security systems, in a deal Reuters reported cost over $1 billion. The acquisition marked one of Amazon’s largest purchases and represented a major expansion into home surveillance infrastructure. Ring, …
Amazon paid zero federal income tax for the second consecutive year despite nearly doubling its U.S. profits to $11.2 billion in 2018. Beyond avoiding all federal taxes, Amazon actually received a $129 million tax rebate from the federal government—yielding a negative 1% effective tax rate. This …
Amazon announced in September 2017 that it would build a second headquarters (HQ2) equal to its Seattle campus, sparking a bidding war among 238 North American cities desperate to win 50,000 promised jobs. Cities competed to offer the largest subsidy packages—with bids averaging $6.75 billion from …
The Federal Trade Commission approved Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market on August 23, 2017, without an in-depth investigation. This decision demonstrated regulatory challenges in addressing 21st-century tech monopolies, as the FTC did not find substantial anticompetitive …
The Washington Post introduced “Democracy Dies in Darkness” as its first official slogan in the newspaper’s 140-year history, launching it on the website on February 22, 2017 and adding it to print editions a week later. The slogan positioned the Bezos-owned newspaper as a defender …
Amazon reported $5.6 billion in U.S. profits for 2017 yet paid zero federal income tax, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The company used various tax credits and deductions—particularly tax breaks for executive stock options—to completely eliminate …
In November 2014, Amazon workers in Germany organized by the Ver.di union launched strikes during Black Friday, one of Amazon’s most profitable shopping periods, as part of an escalating labor dispute that had begun in …
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos personally purchased The Washington Post and its affiliated publications for $250 million, ending the Graham family’s four-generation stewardship of one of America’s most influential newspapers. The sale marked a watershed moment in billionaire media capture, …
Beginning around 2012, Amazon deployed comprehensive automated surveillance systems in its warehouses that tracked worker productivity per second through handheld scanners, creating what labor advocates described as algorithmic …
On September 18, 2011, The Morning Call newspaper published a landmark investigation exposing brutal working conditions at Amazon’s warehouse in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania (Lehigh Valley). The investigation revealed that during …