Month: March 2021

Categories
Health

Easy methods to Get a Peloton-Model Exercise With out Splurging

How to Get a Peloton-Style Workout Without Splurging

Lisa Whitney, a nutritionist in Reno, Nevada, came across the deal of a lifetime about two years ago. A gym went out of business and sold its equipment. She obtained an indoor exercise bike for $ 100.

Mrs. Whitney soon made some additions to the bike. She propped her iPad on the handlebars. She then experimented with online bike courses streamed on YouTube and in the app for Peloton, an internet-connected exercise machine maker that offers interactive fitness classes.

Ms. Whitney didn’t feel like upgrading to one of Peloton’s over $ 1,900 luxury exercise bikes, which includes a tablet for streaming classes and sensors that track your speed and heart rate. So she further modified her bike to become a home improvement peloton and bought sensors and indoor cycling shoes.

The grand total: approximately $ 300 plus a monthly subscription of $ 13 to the Peloton app. Not cheap, but a significant discount on what she might have paid for.

“I’m happy with my setup,” said Ms. Whitney, 42 years old. “I really don’t think upgrading would go a long way.”

The pandemic that has forced many gyms to close has led hordes of people to buy luxury items like Pelotons bikes and treadmills so they can work out at home. In response to this trend, Apple released Apple Fitness Plus last year, a fitness app for teachers that is only offered to people who have an Apple Watch that requires an iPhone to work.

But all of this can be expensive. The minimum pricing for an Apple Watch and iPhone is $ 600, and Apple Fitness Plus is $ 10 per month. To stream classes on a big screen TV instead of a phone while you workout, you’ll need a streaming device like an Apple TV, which costs around $ 150. The full peloton experience is even more expensive.

In the face of the poor economic climate, many of us are trying to cut our expenses while maintaining our health. So I experimented with ways to minimize the cost of video workouts at home, spoke to hobbyists, and assessed the pros and cons.

Here’s what I learned:

To begin my experiment on exercising at home cheaply, the first question I addressed was whether to subscribe to a fitness app or stream classes from YouTube for free. Both mostly offer videos from instructors to walk you through the workout.

So I bought an $ 8 yoga mat and a $ 70 pair of adjustable dumbbells and turned on my TV, which has the YouTube app on it. I then subscribed to three of the most popular YouTube channels that offer free content for working out at home: Yoga with Adriene, Fitness Blender, and Holly Dolke.

An immediate downside was almost too much content – often hundreds of videos per YouTuber – which made it difficult to choose a workout. Even when I finally decided on a video, I learned that I had to be prepared for some quality issues.

For example, in the “Yoga with Adriene” channel, I selected the video “Yoga for when you feel dead inside”, which felt appropriate for the time we live in. The video looked fine, but sometimes the teacher’s voice was muffled.

Production issues were more visible in the Holly Dolke Channel, which contains a collection of intense workouts that you can do without equipment. When I tried the Muffin Top Melter video, one instructor in the background was showing how to do a more challenging version of each exercise, but the other instructor in the foreground kept blocking it.

Then there were the ads. When I was lifting weights after doing a 10 minute fat burning workout from Fitness Blender, YouTube paused the video to play an ad for Dawn Soap. I then held a dumbbell over my neck while waiting for the ad to end.

Aside from these issues, I was able to do all of the exercises demonstrated by these YouTubers, and they left me churned and sweaty. For the cost of free, I can’t fault much. Most importantly, Yoga With Adriene managed to make me feel less dead inside.

To compare the free YouTube exercise videos with the paid experience, I subscribed to Peloton and Apple Fitness Plus on my Apple TV set-top box. I’ve trained with both products for the past two months.

Peloton and Apple Fitness Plus fixed many of the issues affecting the free exercise content.

For one, the workouts were categorized by type of workout including yoga, strength training, and core, and then by difficulty or duration of the workout. It took little time to choose a workout.

In both Peloton and Apple Fitness Plus, the video and audio quality was very clear, and the workouts were recorded from different angles to give a good overview of the instructors’ activities. The bonus of Fitness Plus was that it showed my heart rate and calories burned on both my Apple Watch and the TV screen.

In short, paying for these subscriptions provided convenience and shine, which resulted in a more enjoyable workout. I concluded that Peloton’s videos were worth paying $ 13 a month. And $ 10 a month is reasonable for Apple Fitness Plus, but only if you already own an Apple Watch and iPhone.

So what about exercise machines like spin bikes? If you want the technical bells and whistles of a peloton but don’t want to spend on the gear, there have been two main approaches.

To find the cheapest route, you can use an existing bike. This is where do-it-yourselfers can be particularly clever and resourceful.

Take Omar Sultan, a manager at the network company Cisco. He modified his racing bike with a few add-ons: a bike trainer that secured the rear wheel and bike frame and cost about $ 100; a $ 40 Wahoo cadence sensor that tracks its energy output and speed, and sends the data to a smartphone; and a heart rate monitor strapped around his chest, like the $ 90 Polar H10. Then he used a streaming device to watch the Peloton lesson on his television.

“The DIY setup is 80 percent on the way,” said Sultan.

The more expensive option was to buy an indoor exercise bike and use a tablet or phone to stream bike lessons on YouTube or the Peloton app, as Ms. Whitney did. For example, the $ 700 IC7.9 includes a cadence sensor and a mount for your tablet. You could then buy a heart rate monitor and a pair of $ 100 worth of indoor cycling shoes that snap into the pedals.

However, if you use your own bike or a modified spin bike and try out the Peloton app, you won’t be able to participate in the app’s so-called leaderboard, which shows a graph of your progress against other Peloton users online.

Also, with a DIY bike it can be difficult to figure out how to shift gears to simulate when the instructor tells you to increase the resistance – like pretending to be riding up a hill.

Nicole Odya, a Chicago nurse who modified a high-end indoor bike, the Keizer M3i, said the DIY route had great benefits. With her own iPad, she can flexibly choose which fitness apps she wants to use, e.g. B. Zwift and mPaceLine. It also gave her the freedom to customize her bike so she swapped the stock pedals for better ones.

“I didn’t want to be locked in their platform,” she said of Peloton.

Categories
Politics

Exxon Mobil’s Chief Says It Is ‘Supportive’ of Zero-Emission Objectives

Exxon Mobil’s Chief Says It Is ‘Supportive’ of Zero-Emission Goals

HOUSTON – Darren W. Woods seldom makes headlines despite being the executive director of Exxon Mobil, the oil company that some people consider top environmental villains and others consider it a major engine of the US economy.

Few have taken it seriously, or even noticed, that he is beginning to make promises to respond to climate change, which is at least a rhetorical break, if not a substantial one, with his predecessors.

“What society rightly demands is affordable, reliable energy that does not have the emissions associated with today’s energy systems,” he said Tuesday. “We are working on this development.”

While this may seem like a cautious statement, Mr. Woods, a quiet electrical engineer from Wichita, Kan., Is changing the tone of the company he acquired over four years ago. The bragging rights used by its predecessors in Texas, one of whom openly denied climate change concerns, has grown into something vaguely philosophical.

In an interview that was meant to raise the curtain on an annual presentation that executives will offer financial analysts and investors on Wednesday, Woods, 56, got poetic about the history of technology and the energy industry, and even suggested that there were similarities between him gives emission reduction plans and President Biden’s efforts to combat climate change. He went so far as to promise that Exxon would try to set a goal of not emitting more greenhouse gases than it removes from the atmosphere, though he said it was still difficult to say when that might happen.

“We support that ambition and our goal is to help society achieve it,” said Woods. “To be honest, the recognition of the challenge continues to grow. It’s an evolving conversation that I find very helpful in considering what needs to happen. “

Under pressure from activist investors, Exxon announced this week that it has added two new directors to its board with no prior commitment to fossil fuels. The company recently announced it would create a new company that will capture carbon dioxide from industrial facilities and bury it deep in the ground. It also recently invested in Global Thermostat, a company that aims to suck carbon dioxide out of the air.

Of course, many people are deeply skeptical of the company’s plans and motives. Unlike executives at European oil companies, Mr. Woods does not cut investments in oil and gas to spend money on wind and solar power. He refrained from commenting on BP’s promise made last year to bring net emissions to zero by 2050.

“Unlike their major oil competitors, who have begun to take action against climate change, Woods and Exxon Mobil continue to live in a fairytale world of inactivity while California burns and Texas freezes,” said Peter Krull, chief executive officer of Earth Equity Advisors. a study and investment firm specializing in sustainability.

After spending nearly three decades with a company traditionally known for its island location, rigid culture, and public indifference to global warming, Mr Woods suggested that he be ready to steer it on a different course if also gradually.

Updated

March 3, 2021, 8:05 a.m. ET

With Exxon’s stock price still lower than it was a decade ago, many investors have asked for no less.

“My interactions with investors reflect broader trends in society,” said Woods.

The four years that Mr. Woods spent as chief executive have been a difficult time for the industry. Oil and gas prices have risen and fallen several times in recent years. And last year, demand for petroleum products collapsed when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Exxon lost $ 22.4 billion in 2020, much of it from amortization of assets the company acquired at high prices prior to being acquired by Mr. Woods.

But in the past few weeks, oil and gas prices have rebounded, and Exxon and its stocks are doing better. Mr Woods said the revenue was flowing again, which allowed the company to run down debt and pay for future projects. The company’s dividend, which it has been raising every year for nearly four decades, now seems safe from cuts.

What Exxon doesn’t do is spend much of its assets on companies or ideas that aim to greatly reduce emissions. Only $ 3 billion will be spent on carbon capture from industrial facilities by 2025 – a small fraction of the $ 16 billion to $ 19 billion expected to be spent on oil exploration and capital projects this year.

Mr Woods said he would seek more change by researching breakthrough technologies. However, many of them still have years or decades to have a major impact on emissions.

“Until we know the way to go and what will be required and what the solutions are, it’s hard to know,” he said. “What we can do is make a commitment to find out, and once we find the answers you will see that we are committed and we are actually on our way to net zero.”

While Exxon invests in energy efficiency projects, biofuels and hydrogen, Mr. Woods was particularly excited about his company’s 20 carbon capture and storage projects. Although the technology is not yet widely used because it is very expensive, Woods and Exxon scientists argue that it could play an important role in reducing emissions from cement and steel making and other industrial processes that renewable energy does not can be operated easily.

“The capture and storage of carbon will be required,” he said.

He even suggested that “Exxon’s carbon capture and storage potential certainly has the potential” to fit right in with Mr. Biden’s policies and goals.

“Political support and the right legal framework to support these investments are needed and will be important,” said Woods. “We would like to start this conversation with you. You need an investment permit. You need pipeline systems, laws, regulatory reforms and legal frameworks for storing CO2. “

Mr. Biden has expressed his support for carbon capture and sequestration. It is an environmental policy that Republicans in Congress could support, although many Liberal Democrats are not interested in it because they see it as an extension of fossil fuel use.

Many climate researchers are deeply skeptical that the technology can be used to the extent necessary to significantly reduce emissions. Some energy managers share this skepticism.

Charif Souki, the CEO of Tellurian, a liquefied natural gas company, said carbon capture was one of many potentially promising technologies for combating climate change. But he added, “There is no efficient way of doing this on the scale it takes to do what we need to do.”

But Mr. Woods said he was optimistic about the path Exxon had chosen. “It is very difficult to predict when a breakthrough will occur,” he said, “but when you look back in time, it is consistent.”

Categories
Business

5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens March 3, 2021

5 things to know before the stock market opens March 3, 2021

Here are the top news, trends, and analysis investors need to get their trading day started:

1. Dow futures turn negative, giving up previous gains of 200 points

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Source: NYSE

The Dow is expected to fall on Wednesday with the futures wiping out previous gains of 200 points. Late-session selling also reversed a strong rally on Tuesday. The average of the 30 stocks fell 0.5% and the Nasdaq 1.7% on Tuesday as technology stocks pulled back. The S&P 500 was down 0.8% one day after its largest one-day gain since June.

US companies created a disappointing 117,000 new jobs in February, according to the latest ADP private sector employment report. Economists had expected an increase of 225,000 positions. The January additions have been revised up to 195,000. The ADP hasn’t been the best predictor of the government’s monthly job report lately, which comes out on Friday.

2. The Senate will soon begin debating the $ 1.9 trillion Covid Relief Act

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks on the second day of Trump’s second impeachment trial in Washington on February 10, 2021 with reporters in the Senate reception room.

Brandon Bell | Pool | Reuters

The Senate is expected to begin debating its version of the US $ 1.9 trillion Covid Relief Bill passed by the House of Representatives as early as Wednesday. However, it rules out raising the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour. President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on Democrats to come to an agreement and approve the measure, even as some party moderators attempted to recall parts of the package. Lowest margin Democrats in the Senate apply special rules that would allow them to pass the bill without the support of the GOP.

3. The US will have enough Covid vaccines for “every adult” by the end of May

A member of the U.S. Armed Forces administers a COVID-19 vaccine to a police officer at a FEMA vaccination center on March 2, 2021 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Mark Makela | Getty Images

The US will have sufficient supplies of coronavirus vaccines to vaccinate every adult in America by the end of May, two months earlier than expected, Biden said Tuesday. The announcement came as the government is working to ramp up production of Johnson & Johnson’s newly approved single vaccine, and rival Merck agrees to participate.

Republican governors of Texas and Mississippi announced Tuesday that they were lifting mask mandates in their states and allowing companies to reopen at full capacity even as the decline in new daily Covid cases slows. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned states Monday not to lift public health restrictions too quickly.

4. America’s Biggest Firms Pushing the Road to Citizenship for “Dreamers”

Protesters gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as the judges make oral arguments to consolidate three cases in court over the Trump administration’s offer to end the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program in Washington, United States, on Dec. November 2019.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

5. Stocks to watch: Rocket Companies, Las Vegas Sands, Oscar Health

Rocket Companies fell 6% in the pre-market on Wednesday after more than doubling in the past three sessions. On Tuesday, Quicken Loans and Rocket Mortgage parent company rose over 71% with no discernible news. The sharply cut stock appears to have piqued bullish interest from day traders on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum.

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands announced Wednesday that it will sell its Vegas real estate and operations to private equity giant Apollo Global Management for approximately $ 6.25 billion. Accommodations include the Venetian Resort Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. Las Vegas Sands shares rose nearly 3% in the pre-market. Apollo fell nearly 1%.

Oscar Health will debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The health insurance start-up, backed by Google parents Alphabet, valued its IPO at $ 39 per share on Tuesday evening, above the already raised expected range of $ 36 to $ 38. The initial public offering gives Oscar Health a market value of $ 7.7 billion prior to trading.

– Follow all developments on Wall Street in real time with CNBC Pro’s live market blog. Find out about the latest pandemics on our coronavirus blog.

Categories
Health

Charts present how Pfizer’s vaccine is working

UK hospitals use blockchain to track coronavirus vaccine temperature

1.8 ml sodium chloride is added to a vial of Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine concentrate ready for administration at Guy’s Hospital at the start of the largest vaccination program in UK history on December 8, 2020 in London, UK.

Victoria Jones – Pool | Getty Images

LONDON – New data from England has shown how effective coronavirus vaccines are in fighting the disease, even after just one dose.

In December, the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech became the first vaccine to be approved and launched in the UK

The elderly, health workers and nursing home workers were the first to be vaccinated. This was soon followed by the shot developed by the British company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, another vaccine that requires two doses.

Infection control

Figures in a research report by Public Health England released Monday, but pending peer review, showed Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines are highly effective in reducing Covid infections in people aged 70 and over.

Since the study began in January, protection against symptomatic Covid four weeks after the first dose has ranged between 57% and 61% for the Pfizer vaccine and between 60% and 73% for the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The effectiveness of the vaccine in the data for Public Health England is calculated using a mathematical ratio. Click here for full data and methods.

Reduce hospital stays and deaths

The study, which included data from over 7.5 million people, also found that a single dose offered additional protection against hospitalizations and death.

It is said that coronavirus cases in vaccinated people had about half the risk of severe outcomes compared to non-vaccinated cases. It combined this with estimates of their effectiveness against symptomatic disease and predicted that a single dose of either vaccine would be about 80% effective in preventing hospitalization in the elderly about three to four weeks after the first dose.

It has also been suggested that a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine is 85% effective in preventing death from Covid-19 in those over 80.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock called the results “very strong”.

“They could also help explain why the number of Covid ICU admissions for people over 80 in the UK has dropped to single digits in recent weeks,” he said.

UK policymakers feel vindicated after deciding to postpone the second dose to around three months in order to vaccinate more people with a first dose faster. Experts in the US hesitated with the strategy, and White House chief medical officer Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that “there are risks on both sides”.

As of Sunday, 20,275,451 Brits have received their first dose of vaccine and 815,816 have received both doses, government data said.

The UK vaccination program was widely hailed as a triumph amid tragedy. The UK has the fifth highest number of infections in the world after the US, India, Brazil and Russia, with nearly 4.2 million infections and over 123,000 deaths. This is the fifth highest number of deaths in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.

—CNBC’s Bryn Bache contributed to this article.

Explanation: This story has been updated to better reflect the vaccine effectiveness calculations.

Categories
Business

With out Backpackers to Choose Them, Crops Rot by the Ton in Australia

Without Backpackers to Pick Them, Crops Rot by the Ton in Australia

SHEPPARTON, Australia – Peter Hall ran a hand over the gala apples in a wooden box in his orchard in southeast Australia, lamenting the yellow sheen of fruit that would ideally be crisp red and green.

With the borders closed to the backpackers who do much of the country’s farm labor, Mr. Hall employed only 15 workers. That had made him run against the clock. Just a few extra days on the tree, and apples can be referenced in juice for little profit.

“We have never seen such a labor shortage in my 40 years,” said Hall. “I suspect we just won’t get there in time for a lot of harvest.”

“It’s extremely frustrating,” he added.

The pandemic has disrupted the rhythm of work and migration around the world. In Western Europe, for example, the borders were tightened early last year to keep seasonal workers out of Eastern Europe.

But in isolated Australia, the pandemic has dealt a particularly hard blow, exposing the unstable foundation of its agricultural industry, a growing $ 54 billion-a-year goliath that has been underpinned for years by the work of young, temporary foreigners.

Measures to keep the coronavirus out of the country have left Australia with a 26,000 farm worker deficit, according to the country’s leading agricultural association. As a result, tens of millions of dollars in crops have been wasted from coast to coast.

In the state of Victoria, rows of baby spinach and arugula, also known as arugula, have been plowed back into the ground and peaches have been sent to the shredder. In Queensland, citrus growers have leveled acres of trees and rotted blueberries. And in Western Australia, watermelons have been sliced ​​open and dug under.

This tremendous devastation has led to increasing calls for Australia to reconsider farm labor security, and many are pushing for an immigration overhaul that would provide farm workers with a permanent residency route.

The current system should never be a permanent solution to the decades of labor disputes among farmers. But as the industry expanded and fewer Australians were willing to pick grain, the so-called backpacker program provided a lifeline.

Since 2005, the government has drawn young travelers to farms by offering a working holiday visa extension from one year to two for those who have worked in agriculture for three months. Backpackers can earn expansions by working in other industries like construction or mining, but 90 percent do so from farm work.

In a normal year, more than 200,000 backpackers would come to Australia, which is 80 percent of the country’s harvesting workforce, according to industry groups. According to the government, there are currently only 45,000 left in the country.

Attempts to fill the labor shortage with unemployed Australians have been largely unsuccessful. Only 350 applicants have signed up for a federal government program that offers grants of A $ 6,000 or approximately $ 4,600 to work in rural areas. A final proposal by a state government to use prison labor was postponed after a riot among farmers.

The federal government has flown in workers from nearby Pacific islands who have largely avoided the pandemic. It is part of an existing program that is one of Australia’s major resources for the Pacific.

With existing border restrictions, the regulations sometimes became confused.

After months of pressure from the federal government and industry associations, Victoria agreed in January to accept 1,500 Pacific island workers. They must first be quarantined for two weeks on the island of Tasmania before being flown to Victoria. In return, 330 Tasmanians stranded overseas can return via the quarantine hotels in Victoria.

Nationwide, only about 2,400 workers have been flown into the country since the borders were closed, according to the National Farmers’ Federation.

Updated

March 3, 2021, 6:34 p.m. ET

Industry groups have been pushing for a special agricultural visa for years, but the idea repeatedly encounters obstacles.

The last time it was seriously raised in 2018, it raised alarms in Pacific island nations that it might divert money away from their workers. Some scholars said such a move could reduce Australia’s influence in the region and allow China to make greater progress.

The idea was quietly put on hold.

A dedicated, stable workforce would not only benefit farmers. According to researchers and unions, this could also reduce the abuses that are widespread in the temporary work system.

“The workforce was easily exploitable and there was no protection,” said Joanna Howe, an expert on temporary labor migration at the University of Adelaide, of the working holiday visa. “It has lowered wages and conditions in the industry. Failure to comply became the norm, and as a result, locals left the industry. “

The abuses uncovered in a number of media reports over the past few years have set the tone range.

“We have seen cases of sexual abuse, physical violence and passports taken against people’s will,” said Dan Walton, secretary of the Australian Labor Union. “We have seen every form of shady work practice, from rip-offs of wages, withholdings of wages, to false deductions from people’s wages.”

Kiah Fowler, 23, a backpacker from Pennsylvania, came to Bundaberg, Queensland to pick strawberries in March 2020 after losing her job as a host elsewhere in Queensland.

“There are some wonderful farmers out there, but by chance I ended up in a region known for the exploitation of backpackers,” she said. “I was desperate for money and thought it couldn’t be as bad as people said it was. It was.”

The contractor she worked for paid her $ 19 an hour, or $ 14.75 – below the minimum wage of $ 24 – and only offered two to four hours of work a day, she said. The same contractor charged her $ 210 a week to stay in a cramped house with nine other backpackers.

She and the other backpackers, she said, were aware that they were being exploited, “but during Covid many of us said, ‘What choice do we have?'” Eventually she left the job.

Ben Rogers, general manager of labor relations and legal affairs for the National Farmers’ Federation, admitted that the industry’s reputation for underpaying and mistreating workers was not entirely undeserved.

But he added that the organization was doing everything it could through quality assurance programs and was calling for new recruitment policies.

Hopefully solving these issues could help get some Australians back into the industry. Farmers talk about changing the way the industry sees the industry starting in school and advancing technology that would make it less labor intensive.

The Australian Labor Union has filed a challenge with the Fair Work Commission to set a minimum wage for the industry. It believes that a lower wage limit would reduce the likelihood of underpayment and encourage a stronger local workforce.

But these possible solutions, as well as changes to immigration regulations, are years away if they ever occur. Farmers are currently struggling with national borders, which closed in March 2020 and are not expected to reopen until 2022.

The Shepparton area, a town two hours north of Melbourne where Mr. Hall wanted to harvest his apples, is one of the worst hit by labor shortages.

Typically, backpackers flock to Victoria Park Lake in the middle of town to take advantage of the free BBQ grills and set up tents and parking cars. However, this year it is calm and quiet.

Most of the hostels are also empty.

One Australian, Brett Jones, 38, said he would be returning to a construction job soon.

“When you build it, you end up feeling like you’ve achieved something instead of just filling a container with pears for someone,” he said.

He also admitted, “I’m not very good at picking fruit.”

“My thoughts wander on,” he said. “I keep thinking that there has to be an easier way to make money.”

Categories
World News

Epic Video games buys Fall Guys developer Mediatonic

Epic Games buys Fall Guys developer Mediatonic

Gameplay from Mediatonics successful battle royale game Fall Guys.

Mediatonic

LONDON – Fortnite developer Epic Games has acquired Tonic Games Group, the British studio behind the hit video game Fall Guys.

Fall Guys was an instant hit when it launched last summer and attracted millions of players within a month of its release. The game features up to 60 players as gummy bears who compete over a series of candy-colored obstacle courses to win crowns, a game currency that players use to purchase cosmetics.

It was aided in large part by a wave of video game demand during the coronavirus pandemic. The deal with Epic comes amid a series of acquisitions in the gaming industry. Last year, Microsoft agreed to buy legendary gaming group Bethesda for $ 7.5 billion, while EA recently completed the acquisition of British racing game maker Codemasters, valued at $ 1.2 billion.

“It’s no secret that Epic is invested in building the Metaverse and Tonic Games shares that goal,” said Tim Sweeney, Epic founder and CEO, in a statement. “As Epic works to build this virtual future, we need great creative talent who know how to create high-performing games, content and experiences.”

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Fortnite and Fall Guys are similar in the sense that they both fall into the popular battle royale genre, made popular even by the massive success of Fortnite. Since its release in 2017, Fortnite has amassed more than 350 million players. This has caught the attention of notable investors like Sony, who invested $ 250 million in Epic over the past year. The company was last valued at $ 17.3 billion.

At the same time, Epic was embroiled in a tense legal battle with Apple over the iPhone manufacturer’s App Store guidelines. Epic released a version of Fortnite on the Apple App Store last year that included a method that allowed users to make in-app purchases without giving Apple the usual 30% cut. Apple then delisted the Fortnite app and Epic sued Apple later in the day.

Categories
Business

Japanese manners and customs that each traveler to Japan ought to know

Japanese manners and customs that every traveler to Japan should know

Customs and manners are so important to Japanese culture that many travel websites have sections devoted to the subject.

Japan is currently closed to international travelers, but the country is looking for ways to safely reopen before the Tokyo Summer Olympics begin, which is slated for late July. Tourists are not expected to understand all of Japan’s complex social rules, but they can avoid the most common gaffe.

Here’s a guide on what to do – and what to avoid – based on advice from the Japanese government-affiliated tourism organizations.

Don’t touch the geisha

What many travelers call “geisha” is called “maiko” or “geiko” in Kyoto. This is considered to be one of the best places in Japan to see the decorated female entertainers.

If anyone is spotted, the Kyoto City Tourism Association (KCTA) travel website advises travelers not to stop or ask Maiko to pose for photos.

“Don’t bother her or grab her by the kimono sleeves,” the website said.

A maiko or appentice geisha walks in the snow in the Gion district of Kyoto, Japan.

Koichi Kamoshida | Getty Images News | Getty Images

This is one of Kyoto’s Akimahen Manners, a list of 18 tips, recommendations, and warnings for those traveling in Japan’s Capital of Culture.

The list of “Akimahen” (which means “not” in the local dialect) ranges from tips on automatic taxi doors (“Make sure you stand far enough for the door to open without bumping into you”) to trash can result in a fine of 30,000 Japanese yen (US $ 280).

Emoticon ratings indicate the severity of each crime. Tipping, which is frowned upon in all of Japan instead of thanking people in the local dialect (“okini”), takes on a sad face. Riding a bike drunk gives you three angry faces – the worst rating – not to mention a possible prison sentence of up to five years.

Expect pushing but not talking on trains

Travelers should expect to push and push on crowded trains, according to Go Tokyo, the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau’s travel guide website.

“But remember that this is not aggressive behavior, just the product of daily life in a metropolis,” the website says.

Japanese people rarely talk or eat on trains, especially when they are crowded.

Junko Kimura | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Videos of white-gloved train attendants cramming people into Japanese trains have delighted travelers for years. They also make it easy to understand one of the most important rules of Japanese public transport: no cell phone calls. In fact, travelers are advised not to even let them ring the doorbell.

“If you have a phone with you, leave it in silent mode,” the Go Tokyo website said.

“Etiquette in public places is serious business in Japan,” said the travel website of the government-affiliated Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). “Public observance of these rules is probably the main reason a big city like Tokyo can function so smoothly.”

Eat sushi with your hands

Travelers unfamiliar with chopsticks can request cutlery, advises the JNTO travel website, although they “may not be available, especially in more traditional locations”.

Instead of fighting with chopsticks, the tourism organization recommends travelers to follow another local custom.

In Japan, it is common to eat sushi with your hands, especially nigiri sushi, which translates as “two fingers”.

Makiko Tanigawa | DigitalVision | Getty Images

“If you came to Japan for sushi, remember that you can eat it with your hands,” the website says.

Shrines and temples

A tourist attraction for one person is a sacred place of worship for another person. According to the KCTA website, travelers should “be calm and respectful in shrines and temples”.

The Kyoto Tourism Association also asks visitors to remove hats and sunglasses in places of worship.

Dai Miyamoto, founder of Tokyo Localized Tour Company, said he often saw tourists “sitting all over the place … shrines and temples”, even in places “where there is no bank or place to rest.” He also sees tourists taking photos of Buddha statues and places where photography is prohibited.

Go Tokyo recommends travelers to enjoy the “full cultural experience” of the Shinto shrines by walking along the sides of the path leading to the shrine, as the center is “technically reserved for the anchored deity”.

At the entrance to the site, travelers can rinse their hands and mouth with “cleansing water” before approaching the main hall. There they can “bow slightly, ring the bells, put a small offer of money in the box, bow twice, clap twice, and bow again to complete the ritual,” according to the website.

The rules of the ryokan

Staying in a traditional inn or ryokan is a popular way to experience Japanese hospitality, but this involves more social rules than staying in a hotel.

Ryokans tend to be neither cheap nor exceptionally classy, ​​which may surprise travelers who associate higher prices with sprawling suites and plush bedding. Ryokans are typically one-bedroom accommodations that are spartan and lined with straw tatami mats.

Ryokan prices are often quoted per person rather than per night.

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KCTA has a list of guidelines for ryokan guests, including changing into (provided) slippers before entering. Luggage wheels must not touch the inner floor. And bags should never be kept on the wall molding or the tokonoma where flowers and scrolls are displayed.

Meals are often served in rooms and visitors dress in casual kimonos called yukata to eat. After dinner, plates are cleared and futon-style mattresses are placed on the floor for sleeping.

Onsen etiquette

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s How to Enjoy Tokyo: Manners & Custom Handbook advises travelers to remove all clothing and use onsens, which are bathing areas associated with Japan’s natural hot springs.

As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsens, many of which are part of a hotel or ryokan and are segregated by gender.

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According to the government manual, bathers must rinse off before entering and not swim, jump, or dive into the water. Hair and towels must not touch the water.

People with tattoos may be denied access to more traditional onsens as tattoos are linked to Japan’s “yakuza” or organized crime groups, Miyamoto said. This is on the decline due to the popularity of tattoos among younger generations and foreign travelers.

Sightseeing and shopping

Cutting lines is banned in most countries, but in Japan, keeping a place for friends or family members is also considered inappropriate, according to Tokyo’s Manner Guide.

It also advises travelers not to go up or down escalators. If you are in a hurry, you should use the stairs.

Negotiating better prices is not common when shopping. And the clothing sizes differ from those in western countries. An oversized men’s shirt in Japan is similar to a medium-sized US men’s shirt.

Miyamoto, 5 feet 9 inches tall and 185 pounds, wears a Japanese size XL because “big is too small”. However, he said Americans who need larger sizes are out of luck.

“Uniqlo, the most famous casual brand in Japan, sells over XXL sizes … in online stores,” he said.

Categories
Politics

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pushes podcast as felony probe continues

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pushes podcast as criminal probe continues

Michael Cohen, former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, leaves the U.S. Capitol after testifying before a closed House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on February 28, 2019.

Joshua Roberts | Reuters

Podcasts make for strange bedfellows.

Michael Cohen, who worked as Donald Trump’s personal attorney and fixer for years, is now allied with people investigating the former president – and uses a podcast to promote both his criticism and fellow critics of Trump.

Cohen’s ironically titled show “Mea Culpa” – a Latin phrase for “through my fault” – premiered last year with Rosie O’Donnell, a longtime Trump target, who made teenage cracks in her personal looks, among other things.

Cohen, 54, recently featured porn actress Stormy Daniels as a guest on his show. In 2016, Cohen paid her $ 130,000 to buy her pre-election silence over her claim that she had sex with Trump once years ago.

“You and I have both gone through hell and back,” Cohen said to Daniels. “I’m sorry for the unnecessary pain I caused you.”

“Our stories will forever be linked to Donald Trump, but also to each other,” Cohen said.

That’s probably an understatement.

Trump denies Daniels’ claim and also denies allegations of an affair with another woman, Playboy model Karen McDougal, who herself received hush money from the Trump-friendly editor of The National Enquirer before the 2016 election.

Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, reimbursed Cohen for the payoff from Daniels.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on this article.

The discovery of this payment led to a federal criminal investigation into Cohen, a Manhattan resident who pleaded guilty in 2018 to violating the financial rules for organizing the Daniels and McDougal payouts, as well as other financial crimes unrelated to Trump fight.

Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in prison, said Trump directed him to arrange the hush money deals so as not to affect his chances of winning the presidency.

These payments were likely the first issue investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Cyrus Vance Jr. It examined how the Trump organization accounted for them.

However, court records suggest that the investigation may now have expanded to include potential banking and insurance fraud, as well as tax crimes.

These areas became a focus after Cohen Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., said during a testimony to Congress in early 2019 that Trump provided insurance companies with excessive real estate values ​​and undervalued assets in an effort to cut his taxes.

“They dump the asset’s value and then file a request with the tax department for a deduction,” Cohen told Ocasio-Cortez.

New York attorney general Letitia James credited Cohen’s testimony for launching her own ongoing civilian investigation into the Trump Organization’s asset valuations.

“I’m ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He’s a racist. He’s a cheater. He’s a cheater,” Cohen said during his testimony. He also called himself a “fool” for working for Trump and believing in him for so long.

Even when he was in jail, Cohen helped Vance’s probe, and he reportedly continued to help after being released from jail last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The concept for creating the podcast came when I was on leave,” Cohen told CNBC in an interview.

“Mea Culpa” promotes its host as a man who “once vowed to take a ball for the president”.

“But that was before the country was brought to its knees by the president’s own lies and personal insanity,” the podcast’s homepage reads.

“Now, locked in his house, his life, reputation and livelihood shattered, Cohen is on a mission to correct the wrongs he committed on behalf of his boss.”

Transport and goods

For someone released from jail less than a year ago, Cohen’s podcast, which now has more than 50 episodes in its archive, has done very well and is at times among the top 10 political podcasts in the US on Apple and other platforms.

“We’re increasing our audience by over 20% week in, week out,” said Cohen.

“Am I surprised?” Cohen replied when asked if it was him. “I’m happy about it. I don’t want to be surprised.”

Rob Ellin, CEO of digital media company LiveXLive, said of Cohen’s podcast, “Traffic is just skyrocketing.

“The competition from podcasts is much tougher than it used to be,” said Ellin. But he added, “I can’t think of anyone who showed up as quickly as him.”

Ellin’s publicly traded company owns PodcastOne, which sells and handles sales for “Mea Culpa,” and another company that does the merchandising for the podcast. Another unaffiliated company, Audio Up, produces “Mea Culpa”.

Cohen’s show this week added a new clothing line for sale that reflects his current take on Trump.

Items include inmate orange jumpsuit that may contain the initials “DJT” – which also happens to be Trump’s initials – or the seal of the President of the United States over the left breast pocket.

Cohen told CNBC the merchandise was inspired by a rift he made about Trump last week after the US Supreme Court ruled against the ex-president to prevent the prosecutor’s office from filing his tax returns and other financial records to receive from his accountants as part of his criminal investigation.

“He should maybe start talking to someone about custom jumpsuit because it doesn’t look good, that’s my prediction,” Cohen told MSNBC’s Katy Tur.

Ellin said Cohen’s criticism of Trump, coupled with the accelerated pace of the DA and New York AG probes, was a justification for his friend and a driver of interest in “Mea Culpa.”

“Michael said a lot of it,” said Ellin.

“A lot of people didn’t believe him before and are starting to believe him.”

Two years before the January 6th invasion of the Capitol by a crowd of Trump supporters seeking to undo the affirmation that day of President Joe Biden’s election, Cohen warned Congress: “Given my experience with Mr. Trump, I’m afraid that if he loses the 2020 election, there will never be a peaceful change of power. “

Trump was indicted by the House of Representatives shortly before he left office on January 20 for instigating the invasion of Congress with false claims of electoral fraud. He was acquitted by the Senate in a lawsuit last month.

Cohen’s podcast discussed the Capitol uprising in an episode that also included an interview with actor and filmmaker Ben Stiller. Another episode was titled “Why Trump Must Be Indicted”.

Friendship and opportunity

Rob Ellin, LiveXLive Media

Source: LiveXLive Media

Ellin has been friends with Cohen since they played tennis together in Long Island High School.

Both Cohen and Ellin describe this period ironically, including playing doubles against opponents that include Patrick McEnroe, brother of tennis legend John McEnroe, and himself a future professional player.

“I think we won 2 points,” Ellin said of the match in which Cohen yelled at him to adjust to McEnroe’s shots.

“Wasn’t that when I smashed the bat?” he asked Cohen while on a call with CNBC.

Cohen and Ellin both remember inventing the phrase “hug it, b —-” to smooth out their sometimes inconsistent arguments on the tennis court.

Ellin’s brother, Douglas Reed Ellin, later used it as one of the signature phrases for the HBO television series “Entourage” which he created.

Despite their four decades of friendship, the connection between Ellin’s company and Cohen’s podcast was the result of chance.

Months after the launch of “Mea Culpa” last summer, the podcast’s distribution platform was moved to PodcastOne. This company, founded by the founder of radio giant Westwood One, Norm Pattiz, has since been taken over by LiveXLive, Ellin’s company.

Cohen said he was on the phone with PodcastOne one day when he was told that Ellin happened to be in the room.

“I said, ‘Put him on the speakerphone with me,'” Cohen said.

Cohen said doing business with Ellin was “incredible”.

“But it brings me back a lot of nostalgia, whichever is the same,” added Cohen.

Ellin also has a warm personal feeling for Cohen, whom he called “a great father and a great husband”.

“I think Michael is humble,” said Ellin. “That was painful.”

But Ellin sees the business opportunity on his friend’s podcast too.

“We now have the opportunity to help Michael,” by attracting more high-profile guests and expanding marketing opportunities, Ellin said. “Who knows? There could be a second podcast.”

Adam Carolla, a radio host and comedian, recently made crossover appearances with Cohen on “Mea Culpa” and his own high-profile podcast, distributed by PodcastOne.

“It was just a great engagement between the two of them,” said Ellin. “Michael did a great job as an initial radio host at staying in the ring with him.”

Ellin credits Cohen for having the moxie to reinvent himself as a podcast host.

“He’s not afraid to take a swing,” said Ellin. “I think he did an exceptional job driving this.”

Categories
Health

Photographer Captures ‘Final Cease’ in Britain’s Covid Conflict

Photographer Captures 'Last Stop' in Britain's Covid War

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and provides a behind-the-scenes look at how our journalism comes together.

I had reported on wars in the Balkans and Afghanistan before. They waged wars in which journalists – often foolishly – convinced themselves that they had a chance to recognize dangers and avoid them.

But in the British war on Covid-19, the days I spent as a freelance photojournalist in the intensive care unit at Homerton Hospital in east London were dangerous with every breath. The project for the New York Times documenting the nation’s fight against the coronavirus was terrifying and impressive. Terrifying because of possible exposure to an invisible killer who killed over 120,000 people in the UK and over 2.5 million lives worldwide. Awe-inspiring because I saw the remarkable courage, professionalism and sheer strength of the medical staff whose daily routine brought them to the threshold of life and death.

Even the most advanced modern medicine does not offer magical cures. For those who can’t make it out of the intensive care unit, there is only death. This is the last stop. What remained after that was the fear in people’s eyes as they joined what might be the final battle. The responsibility for the medical staff is enormous.

As Britain approaches gradual easing of its most draconian lockdown and secures access to vaccines for millions of people, images of this end conflict don’t easily fit the official narrative.

Many Britons are probably unaware of the brutal reality of the ICU: the constant beeping of monitors everywhere; staff rushed to turn patients over or “tilt” them to make it easier for them to breathe; the overly short breaks, the frenetic activities give way.

It took months to raise awareness. My editors – Gaia Tripoli in London and David Furst in New York – and researcher Amy Woodyatt and I called hospitals, funerals, crematoriums, undertakers and ambulance depots to get access to chronicles at this moment of the pandemic, only to be turned down . We have often been told that photography is incompatible with the dignity of the dead.

Eventually some agreed to cooperate and after seeing their work we started putting together a portfolio to tell the story of the British struggle. We wanted our images to reflect more than one area of ​​London or one ethnic group. The list of subjects grew from a nursing home in Scarborough on the northeast coast to an undertaker in the English Midlands to people engaged in Islamic and other rites in the capital.

With this assignment came a new and unfamiliar set of ground rules and procedures designed to protect not just me but the people around me – both at work and at home.

In the intensive care unit in Homerton, they called it “putting on and taking off” personal protective equipment. I exchanged my day clothes for scrubs and a surgical gown. a tight fitting mask and protective goggles; Overshoes; and a hair covering. I’ve reduced my equipment to two cameras. And at the end of the shooting, I followed a very strict protocol developed by the ICU staff for removing protective equipment.

When I got home, I washed all of my clothes, took a shower, cleaned the equipment with antiviral wipes, and exposed it to UVC light disinfectant. I was not eligible for the vaccination, but had a precautionary coronavirus test during the mission, which turned out negative.

In the end, I told myself, I just had to trust my equipment. But there are always nagging doubts. The coronavirus scares you twice: first, by its ability to infect you personally, and second, by the overwhelming fear that you might accidentally pass it on to your family.

There is no question about its power. On my second day in the intensive care unit in Homerton, two people died within 25 minutes. Usually, medical authorities try to give family members access to say goodbye. But for patients in induced coma and beyond hope, it is a cruel one-sided goodbye exchange.

And yet the counter-image of devotion is always there, just as clearly in these images as the losses. As one survivor noted, medical teams always go one step further. “You are blessed,” he said.

Categories
Business

Amazon Staff’ Union Drive Reaches Far Past Alabama

Amazon Workers’ Union Drive Reaches Far Beyond Alabama

National Football League players were among the first to express their support. Then came Stacey Abrams, the Democratic star who helped turn Georgia blue in the 2020 election.

Actor Danny Glover traveled to Bessemer, Ala. For a press conference last week, where he spoke about the union-friendly leanings of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called to urge workers in the Amazon warehouse there to organize. Tina Fey weighed, as did Senator Bernie Sanders.

And on Sunday, President Biden made a resounding declaration of solidarity with the workers who are now voting on whether to form a union in Amazon’s Bessemer camp without naming the company. His video, posted on his official Twitter account, was one of the most haunting statements in recent history in support of union formation by an American president.

“Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union,” said Biden.

A union campaign that had purposely stayed under the radar for months has turned into a showdown with stars in recent days to influence workers at Amazon, one of the world’s dominant corporations whose power has grown exponentially during the pandemic. On one side is the retail, wholesale and department store union and its many work-friendly allies in politics, sports and Hollywood. On the flip side, it’s an e-commerce behemoth that has fought off previous union efforts in its U.S. facilities in its more than 25-year history.

This union vote in a referendum not only draws attention to the working conditions in the Bessemer camp, which employs 5,800 people, but also, in particular, to the plight of low-wage and color workers. Many of the workers at the Alabama camp are black, a fact that union organizers highlighted in their campaign to link the vote to the struggle for civil rights in the south.

The Retail Workers Union has a long history of organizing black workers in the poultry and food industries and helping them obtain basic benefits such as paid time off and safety protection, as well as a means of economic security. The union portrays its efforts in Bessemer as part of that legacy.

“This is an organizing campaign on the right to work in the south during the pandemic at one of the largest companies in the world,” said Benjamin Sachs, professor of work and industry at Harvard Law School. “The importance of a union victory there really couldn’t be emphasized enough.”

Warehouse workers began voting by post on February 8, and ballots are due by the end of that month. A union can be formed if a majority of the votes cast is in favor of such a move.

Amazon’s counter-campaign, both inside the warehouse and nationally, has focused on pure economics: the starting wage is $ 15 an hour plus benefits. That’s far more than the competition in Alabama, where the minimum wage is $ 7.25 an hour.

“It is important that employees understand the facts of union membership,” said Heather Knox, an Amazon spokeswoman, in a statement. “We will provide information about this and the electoral process so that you can make an informed decision. If the union vote is successful, it will affect all local employees, and it is important that employees understand what this means for them and their daily lives at Amazon. “The company, which went through a major hiring frenzy last year when domestic customers had sales of $ 386 billion, posted profits of more than $ 22 billion.

In Alabama, some workers are getting tired of the process. One employee recently posted on Facebook: “This union stuff is getting on my nerves. Let it be March 30th !!! “

The situation is getting worse and union leaders accuse Amazon of a number of “anti-union” tactics.

The company has posted signs throughout the warehouse, next to hand disinfection stations and even in toilet cubicles. It sends texts and emails regularly and draws attention to the problems with the unions. The internal company app publishes photos of employees in Bessemer showing how much they love Amazon.

During certain training sessions, company representatives have pointed out the cost of union dues. If some workers asked specific questions in the meetings, then the representatives from Amazon followed them in their workplaces and again emphasized the disadvantages of unions, say employees and organizers. The meetings were called off when the voting began, but the signs are still there, said Jennifer Bates, a union-friendly worker at the warehouse.

In this charged atmosphere, even routine matters have become suspicious. The union has raised questions about changing the timing of a traffic light near the warehouse where work organizers try to speak to workers if they are stopped in their vehicles as they exit the facility.

Amazon asked district officials to change the timing of the light in mid-December, although there is no evidence in the district’s records that the change was made to thwart the union. “Traffic for Amazon is secured by changing shifts,” said the public records as the reason the district changed the light.

Amazon regularly navigates to traffic issues at its facilities, and wasting unpaid time in congested parking lots is a common complaint from Amazon employees on Facebook groups.

However, retail workers union president Stuart Appelbaum questioned the timing of the request in Bessemer, as it did at the height of the organization. “When the light was red, we could answer questions and have a quick chat with the workers,” he said.

Last week the union questioned an offer by the company to Alabama warehouse workers to pay them at least $ 1,000 if they quit by the end of March.

“They are trying to remove the most likely union supporters from their workforce by bribing them to leave and giving up their vote,” said Appelbaum.

But “The Offer,” as it is known among employees, was the same thing Amazon made to workers in all of its warehouses across the country. It’s an annual program that allows the company to reduce its headcount without layoffs after the busy season. It’s been around since at least 2014 when Jeff Bezos wrote about it in a letter to shareholders.

“Once a year we offer our employees to pay for the termination,” said Bezos at the time.

Mr. Appelbaum was not influenced. He said he believed Amazon decided to make the offer in all camps to rule out possible yes votes in Bessemer.

Mr Biden stopped pushing Amazon workers to unionize, but his testimony immediately increased the streak of an already momentous campaign.

“Let me be really clear,” said Mr Biden. “It’s not up to me to decide whether anyone should join a union. But let me be even more clear: It is not up to an employer to decide either. The decision to join a union rests with the workers. Point.”

He added, “Workers in Alabama and across America are voting on whether to unionize in their workplace. This is critical – an extremely important decision. “And it is one, he said, that should be done without intimidation or threats.

Despite the union’s suspicions, she has not filed any formal complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, Appelbaum said. Typically, unions can object to a company’s tactics before an election and the labor authority can intervene.

Should a complaint be filed, the labor authority may find that the election is invalid due to Amazon’s actions. After months of working to build support inside and outside the Amazon camp, the union’s last thing they want is for the labor authority to step in and decide that the elections must be held again.

Harvard Law School’s Mr Sachs said that, despite Mr Biden’s admonitions to meddle in elections, the current labor law allows Amazon to hold certain mandatory meetings with workers to discuss why they should not union and this enables the company to post anti-union messages in the workplace.

By aggressively targeting the union, Amazon risks angering the Washington Democrats, many of whom are already calling for greater antitrust control over large tech companies. Amazon launched a public campaign in support of legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour and bought prominent ads in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other publications.

In his video on Sunday, President Biden specifically mentioned how unions can help “black and brown workers” and vulnerable workers struggling during the economic crisis sparked by the pandemic.

Ms. Bates, 48, one of the leaders of the union action, started working in the Bessemer camp in May.

She said she was offended by some anti-union efforts by Amazon, particularly what the company told employees that they had to pay nearly $ 500 in union dues every year. Because Alabama is a right to work, there is no such requirement that an employee pay dues in a unionized workplace.

“It annoys me a little because I feel like they know the truth and they are not telling the truth and they take advantage of them because they know that employees come from a community that is considered black and low-income,” said Mrs. Bates, who is black. “It felt really horrible that you were standing there deliberately misleading people. Give them the facts and let them decide. “