Headlines 

Amazon sales of ‘non-essentials’ hit by French court ruling

Online supplier to appeal against staff virus safety plan in France which sought to limit orders to food and medicine Amazon must stop selling non-essential items or face a fine of 1m a day until it can come up with a safety plan to protect the health of its employees, a French court has ruled. The ruling, which has already been suspended pending appeal, required the company to only accept orders for groceries, toiletries and medical products as part of the wider lockdown imposed in France. The company was sued…

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Headlines 

Amazon fires New York worker who led strike over coronavirus concerns

Chris Smalls led workers who demanded protective gear and hazard pay while Bill de Blasio orders investigation into dismissal An told Vice News on Tuesday. To fire someone after five years for sticking up for people and trying to give them a voice. Strikers at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island demanded Amazon temporarily shut down the large facility for cleaning, after reports of multiple employees testing positive for killed more than 3,000, more than died in the 9/11 terror attacks. The workers also demanded more protective gear and hazard…

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Odds and Ends 

Amazon employee tests positive for coronavirus

An employee at Amazon tested positive for coronavirus, according to multiple reports, and was then sent home from work.Amazon shared the message with its employees in an email on Tuesday, which was reviewed by the Seattle Times. According to a screenshot of the email shared by Twitter user @LiberalCEO, the employee returned home on Tuesday as they were feeling unwell and has not entered Amazon offices since that time. The user did not respond to the Daily Dots request for further details.

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Odds and Ends 

Chris Rock and Steve Martin Roast Oscars for Hiding Black Actors and Female Directors

The Academy Awards plenty of stars vying to fill that role anyway. After the Academys continued lack of diversity. This year, 19 out of the 20 acting nominees are white and all five director nominees are male. Theres so many great directors nominated this year, Rock said, to which Martin replied, I dont know, Chris, I thought there was something missing from the list this year. Vaginas? Rock asked to loud applause from the audience. He then honored Cynthia Erivo, the one and only black actor nominated this year by…

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Odds and Ends 

Indian bike rental startup Bounce raises $105M

Bounce, a Bangalore-based startup that operates more than 20,000 electric and gasoline dockless bikes and scooters in nearly three dozen cities in India, said today it has raised $105 million in a new funding round as it explores sustainable ways to expand within the nation and build its own electric vehicles. The new financing round, a Series D, was co-led by existing investors Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital and Accel Partners, the startup said. The new round valued Bounce at a little over $500 million, up from about $200 million in…

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Odds and Ends 

A Security Cam Captured the Greatest Delivery Attempt of All Time

Not all heroes wear capes! From the uploader, Walt Gorczowski: Last week we had an ice storm. My driveway was smooth, wet ice… super slippery. I heard the UPS truck pull up so I opened the garage and told him to just leave the package at the sidewalk and I’d figure out a way to get it, but he insisted on getting it to me. Above and beyond… this guy is awesome. Read more: https://twistedsifter.com/videos/the-greatest-delivery-attempt-of-all-time/

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Odds and Ends 

Amazon and Google double down on hands-free recipes to help sell their smart displays

Amazon and Google have identified a solid use case for their smart speaker devices, powered by Alexa and Google Assistant, respectively: recipes. The companies this week have both announced new product features that aim to help users cook hands-free while guided by the voice assistant. Amazon this week rolled out a new feature integration in partnership with BuzzFeed’s recipe site Tasty to offer step-by-step voice and video instructions to Alexa users. Meanwhile, Google partnered with entrepreneur and chef Ayesha Curry to bring her recipes to Google Assistant. Curry’s recipes will…

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