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☆ Anti-immigration rioters in Dublin torched vehicles and looted stores after a knife attacker injured 3 children
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An assailant injured four people including three young children in a knife attack in central Dublin on Thursday. In the evening, rioters looted and set vehicles on fire in the area. AdvertisementAnti-immigration rioters torched vehicles and looted stores in central Dublin on Thursday night after a knife attack near a primary school earlier in the afternoon. Garda Síochána, the Irish police force, said in a press release the attacker injured an adult woman and three young children, one of whom sustained "serious injuries." "This is not about immigration, this is not about the young children who are in hospital this evening," she said .

Persons: —, Garda Síochána, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Drew Harris, Helen McEntee, Patrick McMenamin, Garda Organizations: Service, Garda, Irish, RTE, Ireland's, BBC, Police Locations: Dublin, Irish, Garda

☆ Apple illegally denied benefits to the first unionized store in the country, says National Labor Relations Board
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Apple improved its benefits to Apple Store employees nationwide last year. In June 2022, the Towson Apple Store became the first Apple Store in the country to unionizeThe NLRB and the Towson union allege that Apple illegally denied these benefits to unionized workers. AdvertisementThe National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Apple on Wednesday, alleging that the company violated US labor law by withholding benefits from unionized workers at its Towson, Maryland, store, which became the first Apple Store in the country to unionize in June 2022. The initial IAM complaint , filed November 2, 2022, alleges that Apple improved its health and education benefits for Apple Store workers nationwide the month prior but excluded the unionized Towson workers from the improvements. Representatives for Apple, the Towson Apple union, and the NLRB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Persons: —, Kayla Blado Organizations: Apple, Apple Store, Towson Apple Store, NLRB, Service, Labor Relations, International Association of Machinists, Aerospace Workers, Towson, IAM, Office, Towson Apple Locations: Towson, Towson , Maryland, unionize

☆ Amazon will stream the first-ever NFL Black Friday game
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The NFL is hosting its first-ever Black Friday game on November 24. The game will be exclusively streamed on Amazon Prime Video. The Black Friday game gives Amazon a chance to tempt shoppers to stay at home and shop on their website instead. AdvertisementThe NFL is broadcasting its first-ever Black Friday game exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, where the New York Jets will face off with the Miami Dolphins at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium. The Black Friday game, which kicks off at 3 p.m. EST , presents a chance for Amazon to tempt would-be in-person Black Friday shoppers to stay at home instead, and shop on online e-commerce platforms like Amazon.

Persons: —, Hans Schroeder, Amazon Organizations: NFL, Amazon Prime, Amazon, Service, New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, New, MetLife, Black, CBS, NBC, Fox . Representatives Locations: U.S

☆ Amazon has an office in a former prison in the Netherlands
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In 2022, Amazon opened office space in de Koepel, a former prison in Haarlem, Netherlands. AdvertisementAdvertisementAmazon Web Services debuted a new office space in Haarlem, Netherlands in 2022 , but there's one unusual thing about it, which has gained traction on social media this week: the office is inside a former prison. Amazon uses space on the third floor of de Koepel, where prison cells have been converted into office spaces, and communal desks are available for individuals. The video shows a few former prison cells, with the AWS logo plastered just above the cell numbers. The prison is a dome-shaped building, with multiple stories of prison cells facing the central space.

Persons: —, De Koepel, underpaid, they're, Valerie Vallenduuk, Koepel Organizations: Amazon, Service, Federal Trade Commission, Rabobank Locations: Koepel, Haarlem, Netherlands, TikTok

☆ Billionaire FBI informant Peter Thiel dished about two Kremlin invites to private Putin meetings
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | Hans-Martin Tillack | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

It was Angermayer who introduced Bisslinger to Thiel at the party, Thiel would later tell the FBI. After some small talk, Bisslinger made a pitch to Thiel: Thiel should travel to Russia to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. If Thiel chose to attend, Bisslinger said, Bisslinger would arrange for him to meet privately with Putin. "Even if Mr. Angermayer did introduce Mr. Thiel and Mr. Bisslinger," the lawyers wrote in another letter, "Mr. Angermayer is not—and cannot be—responsible for whatever Mr. Bisslinger and Mr. Thiel may or may not have discussed." At his 40th birthday, he connected Peter Thiel with a Russian diplomat, Thiel later told the FBI.

Persons: Peter Thiel, Christian Angermayer, Thiel, Daniil Bisslinger, Bisslinger, Vladimir Putin's, Angermayer, Putin, Maksim Konstantinov, —, Frank Figliuzzi, Vladimir Putin, — Charles Johnson —, Johnathan Buma, Johnson, Welt, Dmitry Peskov, John Lamparski, Donald Trump, — Thiel, Der Spiegel, he'd, Elon Musk, Musk, Thiel —, he's, Palantir, He's, Uma Thurman, Robbie Williams, Queen Latifah, Paul Kagame, Dan McCrum, John Kerry, Richard Grenell, Kerry, Sensei Biotherapeutics, Trump, Dmitry Medvedev, Medvedev, Maureen Dowd, Alexander Schütz, Eva Schütz, Schütz, — Heinz, Christian Strache, Markus Braun, Jan Marsalek, Marsalek, Caroline Haskins, Katherine Long, Jack Newsham, Mattathias Schwartz, Hans, Martin Tillack Organizations: Kremlin, Tech, Pentagon, CIA, Facebook, SpaceX, Kremlin's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russian Embassy, Thiel, St ., Economic, Getty, FBI, Atlantic, Bisslinger, Germany, Elon, Russia, NSA, US Special Operations Command, National Health Service, Apeiron Investment, Munich Security, intel, Trump, State Department, Angermayer's, PayPal, Nasdaq, Sciences, The New York Times, Deutsche Bank, Welt Locations: Silicon Valley, Schloss Neuwaldegg, Vienna, Silicon, Moscow, Russian, Berlin, Russia, St, St . Petersburg, Petersburg, Ukraine, Europe, Germany, NATO, Crimea, Ukrainian, Sevastopol, Palantir, Washington, Rwanda, Baltic, Belarus, Iran, Angermayer's Malta, Munich, China, China's, Austrian, Austria, Exxpress, Wirecard, schwartz79@protonmail.com

☆ Google contractors who helped train the Bard AI chatbot vote to unionize
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

AdvertisementAdvertisementGoogle contractors with Accenture, who write Google Help articles and review AI-generated content from the Bard chatbot, voted on Monday to unionize with the Alphabet Workers Union, which represents Google employees and contractors. The vote comes after a coalition of 118 Accenture workers announced their union in June. Google is currently appealing the NLRB's September ruling that it is joint employer of Accenture contractors. Accenture contractors worked on BardGoogle rushed its release of Bard in an effort to make a product to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Other Google contractors have unionizedMonday's vote marks the second time this year that contractors for Google successfully voted to unionize with the NLRB.

Persons: Cognizant, —, Bard chatbot, Monday's, Bard, Organizers, Jen Hill, Courtenay Mencini, Bard Google, OpenAI's, Hill, Laura Greene, Greene, OpenAI Organizations: Accenture, Service, Alphabet Workers Union, Google, National Labor Relations, Alphabet Workers, Bloomberg, Workers, . Workers, Meta Locations: Manila

☆ Raytheon's CEO said on an earnings call that the company stood to 'benefit' from DoD budget increases due to the war in Israel
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

President Biden requested an additional $106 billion to the DoD budget, citing the Israel-Hamas war and other global conflicts. The CEO of military contractor RTX said Tuesday the company could "benefit" from an increased DoD budget. RTX Corporation, formerly known as Raytheon, is a long-time US defense contractor which has worked on supplying Israel's Iron Dome since 2014. Liwag asked how quickly RTX Corporation, formerly known as Raytheon Corporation, could profit if Congress approves President Biden's request for a DoD budget increase in 2024. He called the budget request "a smart investment" in American security and emphasized the need to support Israel's Iron Dome.

Persons: Biden, RTX, —, Greg Hayes, Hayes, Kristine Liwag, Morgan Stanley, Liwag, Biden's, you've, Liwang, Israel, Kevin McCarthy's, Jake Sullivan, USA, Sam Deneke Organizations: RTX Corporation, Raytheon, Service, RTX, US Department, Raytheon Corporation, Israel, Raytheon Defense, CNBC, Israeli Defense Force, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, DoD, Republican Party, National, U.S . Department of Defense, Corporation Locations: Israel, Ukraine, Gaza, U.S, Egypt

☆ New details emerge about Amazon's Ring staff spying on customers, and also reveals that 55,000 were hacked in 2019
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

It also revealed new details about incidents of Ring employees and contractors spying on customers. The FTC complaint revealed that in between June and August 2017, a male Ring employee viewed "thousands" of videos captured on Ring cameras belonging to "at least 81" women, including Ring customers and employees. More than 55,000 hack victimsPrior to the publication of Wednesday's complaint, public knowledge about Ring employees spying on customers has been known, but vague. The complaint also reveals how many people were the victims of a series of 2019 hacks, which targeted Ring customers in several high profile incidents. Between January 2019 and March 2020, the FTC said in its Wednesday complaint, "more than 55,000 U.S. customers" were the victims of hackers targeting Ring accounts.

Persons: Yarger, Ring, Elisa Jillson, Jillson Organizations: FTC, Morning, Federal Trade Commission, FTC's, Consumer Locations: Ukraine, U.S, Washington ,

☆ IBM salaries revealed: Engineers can earn nearly $200K. See how much analysts, managers, and others at the tech giant make.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

IBM is among the oldest and largest computer companies in the world and has more than 350,000 employees. These offers must be equal to what US employees earn making them a great guide to employee salaries at the company. When Insider analyzed IBM salary data in 2021, the highest offer was to an engineering program director, earning $335,000. A technical team lead, for instance, earned $57,500 in Monroe, LA, and as much as $114,500 in Parsippany, NJ. Insider has also compiled a database of salaries across other big tech companies like Google, Apple, Tesla, Amazon, and more.

Organizations: & & $, & $, & $

☆ Activist groups call on T-Mobile to stop providing cell service to the Guantánamo Bay prison site
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

T-Mobile had at least 11 contracts providing service to the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base and prison. Almost 800 people have been imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay since the prison opened in 2002. At least 11 of these contracts, according to research conducted by the coalition and shared with Insider, are for providing cell service to the Guantánamo Bay prison site. T-Mobile's Guantánamo Bay contracts are worth a meager amount compared to its other contracts worth more than a million a piece. The US has held almost 800 people in the Guantánamo Bay prison, often without being charged with a crime, since it opened in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.

☆ Exclusive emails show Austin officials bragging about its lack of oversight of a new self-driving delivery service from Ford and Argo AI
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Several cities launched an autonomous vehicle delivery service for Walmart orders with Ford vehicles using Argo AI's self-driving car technology. In 2016, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced Uber's self-driving car pilot by proclaiming that Arizona "welcomes Uber self-driving cars" while states with regulatory laws do not. Part of the companies' motivation for the self-driving car delivery service is the drive to meet Walmart's consumer demands for "next-day or same-day delivery." Argo AI was founded in 2016 by two former engineers from Google and Uber's self-driving car programs, respectively. Argo AI hired more than 1,700 people in 6 years but laid off many of its recruiters in July.

☆ Palantir salaries revealed: Some engineers at the controversial analytics software company earn nearly $300,000. Here's what managers, analysts and other employees make.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Palantir is known for its controversial contracts providing analytics software to the US government and private companies. The company doesn't disclose salary data, but US companies must share offers made on H-1B visa applications. However, US companies have to disclose offers on work-visa applications. Notably, these figures only represent base salaries, but Palantir also offers some employees additional stock grants. The logo of the data analysis company Palantir can be seen at the company's headquarters in 2018.

☆ Twitter 'official partner' Dataminr, which police used to monitor Black Lives Matter protests, will soon get a surveillance contract for the White House
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Dataminr has a contract for surveilling social media and providing news alerts for the White House. Dataminr is in Twitter's official partner program, which gives it more access to Twitter data. Dataminr, one of Twitter's official partners, will soon get a new social-media-surveillance contract for the White House, according to a newly published government document. A contract justification document mentions that Dataminr would be used on a "Watch Floor," which refers to the watch floor of the White House Situation Room, Dataminr said. The DISA contract is the latest contract in Dataminr's controversial history.

☆ Salesforce has sold its tech to US Customs and Border Protection dozens of times in recent years, ignoring a history of employee protests
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-03 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Salesforce sold its tech to federal agencies through over 1,400 contracts in the past five years. Employees have protested Salesforce's work with CBP. Employees protested a Salesforce contract with CBP throughout summer 2018. Since then, the company has continued to work with agencies involved in immigration enforcement, as well as military agencies. Public-contract data shows that over the past five years, Salesforce has entered into at least 46 contracts with CBP.

☆ Salesforce has quietly become a giant government contractor, racking up over 1,400 deals with federal agencies in the last five years
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Salesforce has become a big software seller to the government, with over 1,400 contracts since 2017. Salesforce has become a prolific contractor with US government agencies, nearly quadrupling the number of government contracts it has engaged with in the past five years. The cloud-software giant has landed at least 1,443 contracts with government agencies since 2017. In comparison, Salesforce had engaged in only 363 government contracts between December 1, 2005, and September 1, 2017. All but two of these contracts were executed using third parties that sold its technology to government agencies.

☆ Google and Amazon ignore employee protests and plow ahead with deals involving the US military, ICE, and CBP
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Google and Amazon used third parties for contracts with DHS and DOD agencies in the past year. Their dissent has been largely ignored, according to an Insider review of contracts involving Google and Amazon. In the same time frame, Amazon used third parties to work with DHS agencies at least 28 times, including at least 14 contracts with CBP. As Insider previously reported, these companies have used third parties to work with CBP as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Google and Amazon employees have a history of speaking out against their companies' work with the military and immigration enforcement.

☆ Special interest groups representing Amazon to Uber oppose possible crypto regulation in California
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Industry groups representing Amazon, Apple, Block, Coinbase, Genesis, Google, GrubHub, Lyft, Facebook/Meta, Uber, and other companies wrote to the state assembly opposing the law. Nine organizations representing consumers and advocating for economic justice wrote to the state assembly expressing support for the law. Several tech industry groups representing major companies and venture capital firms wrote in to oppose the law. Several organizations advocating for consumers and economic justice wrote to the state assembly expressing support for the law. Interest groups argued that regulation presents an "undue burden"on crypto companiesBlockchain Advocacy CoalitionThe Blockchain Advocacy Coalition wrote to Assemblymember Grayson on August 26.

☆ Palantir accused of securities fraud in class-action suit after the company did not profit from 'armed conflicts' and 'economic crises' as claimed
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A lawsuit alleges that Palantir made "materially false and misleading statements" about the company ahead of its earnings reports released May 9. The complaint says that the COVID-19 pandemic and Russo-Ukrainian War are the "destabilizing conditions" that Palantir had said would be "tailwinds for its business." A Palantir investor hit the company with a suit seeking class-action status on September 15, alleging that the software company committed securities fraud by making "materially false and misleading statements" by claiming "armed conflicts" and "economic crises" would help its business and earnings. "As a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times," the complaint says. The law offices of Howard G. Smith also announced it was launching an "investigation" into possible violations of US securities law.

☆ Salesforce, Oracle, Palantir and other tech companies are interested in building a new Army tool to manage weapons distribution and troop deployment
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The US Army is looking for tech companies to build a prototype for its new "operational back-bone." Palantir, Gitlab, Salesforce, Oracle, RedHat, IBM, and others submitted "Requests for Information" to build the prototype, a step before submitting a bid. The prototype would manage the deployment of troops, and the supply and distribution of missiles, guns, tanks, and other weapons. Palantir has an $823 million Army contract for data mining and analytics. It's also unclear if Amazon, Google, or Microsoft will contribute to the project in some capacity, including as a subcontractor.

☆ A NYFW show that couldn't quite bridge the chasm between the 'insular, and male' world of web3 and fashion
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

At New York Fashion Week, veteran designer Vivienne Tam showcased a metaverse-themed collection featuring various NFT characters. Kerry Chrapliwy — CEO of a marketing agency representing Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange platform that co-sponsored the show — said web3 world has a reputation for being geeky, insular, and male, which needs to change. A divide became clear, though, despite the overlap between the fashion world and the NFT world — like being environmentally disastrous and needing disposable income to participate — their communities do not easily merge, even in a space dedicated to facilitating just that. They didn't seem to know about the NFT element of Tam's collection, didn't care, or both. Their jobs involve a combination of working with the clothes, with models, and in the case of this collection, with people in the NFT world.

☆ In Amazon's future world, robots may detect your screams
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Thirty-one of Amazon's Astro patents mention using the sound of a "human yell" to stop robots. Amazon has been granted 31 patents for Astro, its $1000 home robot, that mention using the sound of a "human yell" to stop the robot. US Patent and Trademark OfficeThe patents say that Astro has safety features that use a "minimum sound threshold" to stop the robot. As an example, the patents say that "detection of sound such as a human yell" would stop Astro. An Amazon spokesperson declined to answer questions from Insider, including whether Astro actually has the feature where a human yell stops the robot.

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