Amazon workers in Georgia are the latest to go public with complaints about the retail giant’s labor practices. Workers at an Atlanta warehouse joined with United For Respect, at a press conference near the company’s ATL6 warehouse to detail new unfair labor practices complaints against Amazon.

The workers, who have petitioned Amazon for a wage increase, say the retailer exploits its warehouse staff with unsafe working conditions and low wages. In a statement, United for Respect noted that the demonstration in Atlanta comes just days after Amazon’s Prime Day, when warehouse workers face particularly stressful conditions.

According to United for Respect, workers at ATL6 previously asked managers for a $5 wage increase in a petition. The company has since fired two workers and “tried to intimidate associates,” the group said. United for Respect is a nonprofit group associated with UFCW, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

“Livable wages, safer working conditions, dignity and respect for all workers is long overdue," Karen Tucker, who has worked at Amazon’s ATL6 warehouse for eight years, said in a statement. "We’re fighting for what we deserve. We are the backbone of this company and without us, there is no Amazon. It’s time for the public to hear and know what we endure to get customers’ packages out on time. It’s time for change. It’s time we held Amazon accountable towards a better Atlanta for all Amazon workers and all working people.”

Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple isn't just facing unionization efforts among its retail workers. The New York Timesreports about 150 store staff went on strike for an hour Tuesday after negotiations for better pay and working conditions hit an impasse. On Wednesday, they refused to provide a mix of services that included repairing AirPods and managing deliveries. 

The striking employees showed support for unions and called for a range of improvements, including the higher income and schedules with two consecutive days off. Apple had offered staff a higher minimum wage of $27.64 AUD (about $17.35 US) in talks with unions, but the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association union called that a "real wage cut" that didn't account for inflation. That group wants a $31 AUD ($19.53 US) wage roughly equivalent to what American workers get. It's also difficult to have weekends with the current scheduling, the workers said.

As in the US, there are allegations Apple is using anti-union tactics. The Association claims Apple interfered with labor organizers trying to survey employees ahead of negotiations. Apple has supposedly tried to rush a vote on the deal.

Apple has denied rushing the vote, and said part-time workers could specify four or more days of availability. They also get schedules two weeks in advance. In a statement to The Times, the iPhone maker maintains that it's "among the highest-paying" companies in Australia and has made "many" improvements to its benefits.

The strike and task refusals were spurred in part by labor action in the US. There, workers at an increasing number of Apple stores have tried to join unions with varying success. Team members at a Towson, Maryland store managed to unionize, but reports surfaced that Apple was supposedly withholding benefits while negotiations with the union took place. At many stores, the company has apparently pushed anti-union talking points that suggested formal representation could make things worse. There's no certainty American employees will strike like their Australian counterparts, but it's evident that the outcry is getting louder.

The Apple Store workers who'd been planning to unionize since at least early this year have come long way from using encrypted chats to organize in secret. In June, an Apple Store in Maryland became the first location to unionize in the US. Now, another retail location in Oklahoma City has voted in favor of unionization, becoming the second Apple Store in the US to organize officially. According to The Wall Street Journal, the group is calling itself the Penn Square Labor Alliance, because the store is located at Oklahoma City's Penn Square Mall.

Around 100 employees are eligible for union membership in the store. Based on the information released by the National Labor Relations Board, 56 of those workers voted in favor of forming a union, while 32 voted against. The group is now planning to join the Communications Workers of America, which also represents workers from companies like AT&T and Verizon. Charity Lassiter, an employee at the Oklahoma City store and a member of the organizing committee, told The Journal: "Now that we've won the election, it is our hope that management will come to the table so that we may collectively work towards building a company that prioritizes workers over profit and encourages employees to thrive."

Meanwhile, an Apple spokesperson told the publication in a statement: "We believe the open, direct and collaborative relationship we have with our valued team members is the best way to provide an excellent experience for our customers, and for our teams. We're proud to provide our team members with strong compensation and exceptional benefits."

Previous reports indicate that Apple has been finding ways to dissuade workers to unionize. Just a few days ago, Bloomberg reported that the tech giant is offering its employees new perks, such as additional health benefits and funding for educational opportunities. However, the tech giant will reportedly withhold those benefits from unionized members who'll now have to negotiate for them. Back when talks about worker's organizing efforts started heating up, the company reportedly armed its managers with anti-union talking points. Employees formally accused the tech giant of union busting, and the NLRB found merit in the claims that Apple surveilled staff, limited access to pro-union fliers and help captive audience meetings to deliver its anti-union messaging. A hearing is scheduled to take place in December before an NLRB judge unless all parties involved agree on a settlement. 

Trevor Milton, the founder and former executive chairman of Nikola, has been found guilty on three counts of fraud for misleading the electric vehicle company’s investors about its business and technology.

In total, he was found guilty on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud. He was acquitted on one charge of securities fraud. His sentencing has been scheduled for January 27th. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Milton was indicted by a federal grand jury on the charges last year, with prosecutors citing numerous alleged lies, including many made on Twitter, in podcast interviews and other media appearances. Prosecutors alleged he had lied about “nearly all aspects of the business” in an effort to boost the stock of the EV maker.

The SEC began investigating the company in 2020, after Hindenburg Research publicly accused Nikola of staging an “elaborate ruse” to mislead the public about the status of its electric semi, Nikola One. While the company had published a video purporting to show the truck “cruising on a road at a high rate of speed,” Hindenburg said the truck had actually been “towed to the top of a hill on a remote stretch of road and simply filmed it rolling down the hill.” The company ultimately paid $125 million to settle civil charges with the SEC in 2021.

During the trial, Milton’s defense lawyer argued that the video was merely “special effects” and that “it’s certainly not a crime to use special effects.” But prosecutors raised several other false claims by Milton, who was extremely active on Twitter. According to The Times, prosecutors said Milton also lied about having “binding contracts with trucking companies” that in reality were cancelable reservations for vehicles. Prosecutors also cited Milton's claims about making “green hydrogen” when the company had not yet produced any.

Apple is reportedly declining to offer new benefits to employees at its only unionized retail store. According to Bloomberg, the unionized workers at the store in Towson, Maryland, will need to negotiate for benefits with Apple as they hash out a collective bargaining agreement. The perks in question haven't been announced publicly as yet, but they're said to include additional health plan benefits in some jurisdictions, funds to take educational classes and a free Coursera membership.

The report suggests that by withholding benefits from the unionized workers, who have organized Apple may be dissuading workers at other retail stores from attempting to form a union. Workers at an Oklahoma City location are set to vote in a union election this week. Apple has faced labor tensions on other fronts, with some staff resisting a mandate to return to the company's offices (a stance that Apple eventually backed down from). The company has also been accused of union busting.

Withholding perks from unionized workers or those who plan to organize is not exactly a new issue. Starbucks has provided some benefits to non-union cafes, and claimed it couldn't offer them to unionized locations in one fell swoop. In April, Activision Blizzard said workers who were organizing at Raven Software (they've since voted to form a union) were ineligible for raises due to its legal obligations under the National Labor Relations Act. The National Labor Relations Board determined last month that the company withheld raises due to the workers' union activity.

The workers at Apple's Towson store will soon start formal union contract negotiations with Apple. Engadget has contacted the company for comment. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers' Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (I AM CORE) provided the following statement to Engadget:

“Despite the news from Apple today, our goal is still the same. We are urging Apple to negotiate in good faith so we can reach an agreement over the next few weeks. The IAM CORE negotiating committee is dedicated to securing a deal that gives our IAM CORE members the proper respect and dignity at work and sets the standard in the tech industry.”

After 23 years in prison, Adnan Syed is a free man. Baltimore prosecutors on Tuesday announced they were dropping charges against the 41-year-old and subject of the hit podcast Serial, reports The New York Times. Prior to his release in September, Syed had been serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee.

The decision comes after a judge last month overturned Syed’s prison sentence on the recommendation of prosecutors, who said the state was no longer confident of the conviction. At that point, prosecutors had 30 days to decide whether to move forward with a new trial or drop charges. Where the case of Lee's murder goes from here is hard to say. In September, following a nearly yearlong investigation, the state said it had found two possible “alternative suspects.” However, the public identity of those individuals is not known yet.

While Syed maintained his innocence throughout the two decades he was in prison, it’s fair to he probably wouldn’t be free today if not for Serial. His case attracted global attention in 2014 after it was chronicled by former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig in the podcast’s breakout first season. Koenig spent more than a year investigating the specifics of Syed’s case, paying particular attention to the conduct of Cristina Gutierrez, his lawyer at the time. The issues she highlighted proved to be critical in the state's reassignment of Syed's case. 

In 2019, Maryland’s highest court found Gutierrez had failed to properly investigate an alibi witness ahead of Syed’s trial. Moreover, the recent state investigation found “reliability issues” with some of the evidence that was used to convict Syed and that prosecutors may have failed to disclose evidence that would have aided his case.

Snapchat has launched a set of new lenses that you can use to find Halloween costumes for parties and events you're attending this month. These new AR lenses will give you a way to virtually try on costumes from some of the shows and movies in recent history that had helped define pop culture as we know it. And yes, you can purchase them from within the app. The selection includes characters and costumes from Harry Potter, Squid Game, Stranger Things, Hocus Pocus, Transformers, Power Rangers and other titles.

Snap says it conducted a study with consulting firm Ipsos and found that shopping has become the number one reason why people use augmented reality. Indeed, more and more retailers and companies have started offering augmented reality tools that you can use to try on the goods they're selling. Snap itself has been expanding its AR try-on features for a while now and launched the ability for brands to connect their catalogs to their AR Lens experiences on the app back in August. In its announcement, it says it's creating more tools centered around augmented reality shopping.

If you want to shop for Halloween costumes on Snapchat, you only need to take full-body features. Snapchat's computer vision tech will overlay the product image onto your body in the photo, and you can take a Snap and share with friends if you want. You can find the Halloween try-on Lenses in Disguise Costumes' account. Simply search for that username in the app or search for specific show or movie titles in Snapchat's Lens Explorer.

The cafeteria workers at Waymo's offices are forming a union, according to NBC News. As the news organization notes, that makes them the latest group of people to organize at one of Silicon Valley's most prominent companies. Waymo's food service personnel are also following in the footsteps of the 4,000 Google cafeteria workers who quietly unionized during the COVID-19 pandemic. The autonomous driving tech company used to be an experimental unit under Google before it became an Alphabet subsidiary. 

Like Google's other food service workers, Waymo's are employed by contracting firm Sodexo. Workers cited the high cost of living in the Bay Area where Alphabet's offices are located as the reason why they want to unionize. They said their $24-per-hour pay isn't enough to live adequately in the city, where rents are astronomical, and that their health plan is prohibitively expensive. The workers are also asking for better treatment and benefits, since they don't enjoy the same perks as full-time Alphabet employees. 

Organizers for the unionization efforts at Waymo told NBC News that they've already gathered signatures from majority of the workers. Sodexo said that it "respects the rights of [its] employees to unionize or not to unionize" but didn't say whether it will voluntarily recognize the union. If it does, the workers will have to file for an NLRB election to be able to join the other Alphabet cafeteria workers at Unite Here.

Kanye West’s return to Twitter has been short-lived. Less than a day after Elon Musk welcomed him back to the platform, the rapper saw his account suspended for posting an antisemitic message. On late Saturday night, West, who goes by Ye now, said he would go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” In the same message, West defended himself, suggesting he wasn’t antisemitic because “black people are actually Jew.”

According to BuzzFeed News, it took some time before Twitter removed the hateful tweet. However, as of Sunday, it’s no longer possible to see the message on West’s timeline. “The account in question has been locked due to a violation of Twitter’s policies,” a company spokesperson told Engadget.

The suspension comes after West’s Instagram account was similarly restricted by Meta. In a post that has since been deleted, West shared a screenshot of a message he sent to Sean “Diddy” Combs where he implied the rapper was being controlled by a group of powerful Jewish people, reports NBC News. 

The American Jewish Committee condemned the post and comments West made during an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier in the week. "The behavior exhibited this week by Kanye West is deeply troubling, dangerous, and antisemitic, period,” the organization said on Twitter. “There is no excuse for his propagating of white supremacist slogans and classic antisemitism about Jewish power, especially with the platform he has.”

After his Instagram suspension, West took to Twitter to lash out at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. That post is still on the platform.

Amazon has responded swiftly to the impromptu strike at its unionized Staten Island warehouse. The company and workers have confirmed to CNN that about 50 workers were suspended with pay at JFK8 after they occupied the human resources office and refused to work in allegedly unsafe conditions following a ship dock fire. One of the workers, Connor Spence, said the suspension would continue while Amazon investigated the work stoppage.

We've asked Amazon for comment. In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson said there was a "small fire" in a cardboard compactor, and that it asked night shift workers (including those in the protest) to report to their usual shifts after firefighters said the warehouse was safe. The "vast majority" of workers complied, Amazon said. Day shift team members were sent home with pay. 

The suspensions won't help ease the conflict between Amazon and workers at JFK8, the company's only unionized warehouse. In May, Amazon fired several senior managers in a move that employees claimed was retaliation for labor organization efforts. There's also broader tension across the company. Staff at multiple American warehouses have pushed for unionization (albeit with limited success), while Amazon has been accused of using anti-union tactics.

The affected staffers won't necessarily lose their jobs. However, it signals that Amazon isn't keen to tolerate labor disruptions even with a union present.