International
California sues Amazon for allegedly thwarting lower prices
AFP
California filed a suit Wednesday accusing Amazon of using its market influence to prevent merchants from offering buyers better deals elsewhere online, in violation of state antitrust law.
Amazon requires that merchants don’t list items at lower prices on other websites, which hurts sellers and consumers, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in the lawsuit.
“Amazon coerces merchants into agreements that keep prices artificially high, knowing full well that they can’t afford to say no,” Bonta said in a release.
“Many of the products we buy online would be cheaper if market forces were left unconstrained.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The attorney general in Washington had filed a similar suit against Amazon, but a judge dismissed the case in March.
Amazon is such a dominant e-commerce site that merchants feel they have little choice when it comes to agreeing to the titan’s selling conditions, Bonta’s lawsuit argued.
Those demands include agreeing not to offer lower prices elsewhere, whether it be at Amazon rivals such as Walmart or a merchant’s own website, the suit said.
Vendors who don’t comply can see their listings made less prominent or even have their ability to sell items on Amazon suspended, according to the suit.
Sellers have reported that they can offer goods at lower prices on their own websites and some other e-commerce venues because they save on fees charged by Amazon, state attorneys argued.
But “with other e-commerce platforms unable to compete on price, consumers turn to Amazon as a one-stop shop for all their purchases,” Bonta said.
“This perpetuates Amazon’s market dominance.”
Bonta is asking a state court in San Francisco to order Amazon to stop its price-floor practice and pay unspecified damages.
International
Trump to sign over 200 executive orders, declaring National Emergency at U.S.-Mexico Border
Donald Trump will sign over 200 executive orders this Monday, including declaring a national emergency at the southern U.S. border and designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorists on his first day as president, according to U.S. network Fox News.
A senior administration official familiar with the executive actions Trump will sign, and who was authorized to inform the media according to Fox News, said that the president will sign multiple “omnibus” executive orders, each containing dozens of significant actions.
The source indicated that Trump will declare a national border emergency, order the U.S. military to work with the Department of Homeland Security to fully secure the southern border, and make it a national priority to eliminate all criminal cartels operating on U.S. soil. This version of the emergency declaration had previously been reported by CNN News and was also confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
According to Fox News, Trump will close the border to all undocumented foreign nationals through a proclamation. He will also create task forces for national security protection, working with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other agencies to “completely eradicate the presence of criminal cartels.”
International
Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday the appointment of actors Sylvester Stallone (‘Rocky’) and Jon Voight (‘Midnight Cowboy’), as well as actor and director Mel Gibson (‘Braveheart’) as special ambassadors to the “very problematic” Hollywood.
“They will help me as special envoys to make Hollywood, which has lost many overseas businesses in the last four years, COME BACK BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER,” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The Republican lamented all the “problems” he claims Hollywood faces and created this role with the aim of improving the situation from a business perspective.
“These three talented men will be my eyes and ears. I will do whatever they suggest,” he said.
Stallone had previously described Trump as the second George Washington, the first U.S. president (1789–1797) and one of the nation’s founding fathers, during a dinner after his victory in the November presidential elections, where he served as the master of ceremonies.
Meanwhile, Gibson attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of having “the IQ of a fence.”
The Republican leader will be sworn in as president on January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.
International
Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
Diplomatic chiefs from ten Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their “serious concern” over the announcement of a mass deportation of migrants, a measure they consider incompatible with human rights, according to a joint statement released this Friday.
The statement, which does not attribute the measure to any specific country, refers to the announcement made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest foreign deportation operation in the history of the nation once he takes office next Monday. “The announcements of mass deportations are a serious cause for concern, especially due to their incompatibility with the fundamental principles of human rights and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration,” the statement said, released by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).
The signing countries—Brazil, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela (almost all migrant-sending nations)—also committed to “defend the human rights of all migrants.”
This includes “rejecting the criminalization of migrants at all stages of the migration cycle” and “protecting them as a priority from transnational organized crime that profits from migration,” the document adds.
-
Central America4 days ago
Venezuelan opposition leader to meet Costa Rican president Rodrigo Chaves on thursday
-
International4 days ago
The Government of Israel accuses Hamas of wanting to modify the truce agreement and postpones its vote
-
International4 days ago
Russia attacks Kiev in the middle of British Prime Minister Starmer’s visit
-
International4 days ago
An Australian influencer is accused of poisoning her baby to earn money
-
International4 days ago
Far-right Israeli minister will leave the Netanyahu government if his country does not resume the war after the truce
-
International3 days ago
Noboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
-
International3 days ago
Musk’s Starship was lost after a smooth takeoff
-
International3 days ago
Mark Carney announces his candidacy to replace Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada
-
International4 days ago
Marco Rubio warns of China’s threat and criticizes Venezuela and Cuba in Senate hearing
-
International3 days ago
HRW assures that Sheinbaum “inherited a crisis” from López Obrador due to “extreme violence” in Mexico
-
International4 days ago
Pope Francis suffers a fall without fractures and his arm is immobilized as a precaution
-
International3 days ago
The Prosecutor’s Office asks Boluarte to hand over the documents that justify the surgery he kept hidden
-
International4 days ago
Biden warns “Soul of America” still at stake ahead of farewell address
-
International4 days ago
Canadian business leaders meet with president Sheinbaum to boost investments in Mexico
-
International4 days ago
Emotional support dogs help firefighters fighting fires in California
-
International2 days ago
Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
-
International4 days ago
Indigenous peoples of Mexico help migrants stranded in the south far from the border
-
International4 days ago
Russia and Iran will sign a strategic agreement three days before Trump’s inauguration
-
International2 days ago
Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
-
International4 days ago
French justice saves a domesticated boar threatened with euthanasia by the authorities
-
International3 days ago
China, Israel and Burma, the countries in the world with the most journalists imprisoned in 2024
-
International3 days ago
Edmundo González Urrutia’s team says that the anti-chavista will attend Trump’s investiture
-
International3 days ago
Antony Blinken assures that the Panamanian sovereignty of the Panama Canal “will not change”
-
International3 days ago
At least five peace signatories and social leaders are killed in fighting in Colombia
-
International4 days ago
Separate negotiators and last-minute details, this is how the ceasefire in Gaza was negotiated
-
International4 days ago
The ‘Supersopa’, created during the great crisis of 2002, returns to the canteens of Argentina
-
International4 days ago
Carlos Correa, director of the Venezuelan NGO Espacio Público, has been released from prison
-
International3 days ago
Foreign Affairs confirms the kidnapping of a Spaniard in North Africa by a jihadist group
-
International9 hours ago
Trump to sign over 200 executive orders, declaring National Emergency at U.S.-Mexico Border
-
Sin categoría9 hours ago
Paraguayan president Santiago Peña meets Venezuela’s opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia in Washington