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Jay Carney, the former White House press secretary who now serves as Amazon's senior vice president of global corporate affairs, came under fire overnight for defending the retail behemoth's firing this week of a warehouse employee who had organized a worker protest demanding safer conditions amid the coronavirus outbreak.

In a tweet Wednesday night, Carney went after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a candidate for the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nomination, after the Vermont lawmaker defended Chris Smalls, a team manager at a fulfillment center in Staten Island who was terminated just a day after helping stage a walkout at the facility.

"That is absolutely immoral," Sanderssaidon Twitter Wednesday of Amazon's firing of worker Chris Smalls.

Carney, in response, claimed that Smalls was let go for violating social distancing rules put in place by Amazon for its workers and endangering the company's staff from the coronavirus, or COVID-19.

"Knowingly putting our team at risk is unacceptable," said Carney, who served in former President Barack Obama's White House as press secretary from 2011-2014.

.@SenSanders, Im confused. Thought you wanted us to protect our workers? Mr. Smalls purposely violated social distancing rules, repeatedly, & was put on Paid 14-day quarantine for COVID exposure. 3/30 he returned to the site. Knowingly putting our team at risk is unacceptable.https://t.co/WR49t6Qkij

Jay Carney (@JayCarney)April 1, 2020

But, as a number of observers pointed out, that reasoning rings hollow in the face of both the impetus for the strikeunsafe conditions, a lack of cleaning of the facilities, and little to no personal protective equipment (PPE) for employeesand an avalanche of reports indicating the company is putting profits over people as much as possible in its warehouses and distribution centers around the world.

"Why are you attacking your own workers for putting each other at risk of infection when your company is the one doing that?"askedeconomist Marshall Steinbaum.

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One week ago, on March 26,HuffPostreportedon the conditions in Amazon warehouses and the company's reluctance to take proactive measures to protect workers:

At least 10 Amazon warehouse workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Thursday, according topublic reports. Employees say many more are likely sick. The company is not making cases public; news about cases have filtered out via warehouse workers. The company just shut down aKentucky warehousebecause of the outbreak, only after staffers protested because three workers tested positive for coronavirus.

The retail giant's safety record has been the subject of in-depth reporting over the past year, including:

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, which observers noted in their tweets to Carney after his comments on Smalls' firing.

How does it feel to sell your soul to the worlds richest man?

onekade (@onekade)April 2, 2020

"Your boss is the richest person on Earth, and he just became $3.4 billion richer last month dumping stock in anticipation of this pandemic," said Claire Sandberg, national organizing director for the Sanders campaign. "How much does he pay you to pretend he can't afford to give his workers PPE and a sane paid sick leave policy?"

Smalls, in an open letterpublishedat theGuardianThursday to Bezos, wrote that it was clear his firing was related to the walkout.But, Smalls said, he remained undeterred in his efforts to help the company's workers ensure safe working conditions and promised there was more action to come.

"I believe they targeted me because the spotlight is on me," wrote Smalls. "The thing is, it won't work. I am getting calls from Amazon workers across the country and they all want to stage walk-outs, too. We are starting a revolution and people around the country support us."

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'How Does It Feel to Sell Your Soul to the World's Richest Man?': Obama Aide Turned Amazon Exec Ripped Over Fired Workplace Organizer - Common Dreams

Before launching Oprah Talks COVID-19 on her OWN Network, Oprah Winfrey went on a speaking tour to kick off the new decade. Oprahs 2020 Vision played nine dates around the U.S., with more than 120,000 in attendance. And while she could not have possibly envisioned the reality that has befallen 2020, she was still able to impart some meaningful insight onto sold-out arena crowds alongside a different celebrity moderator in each city.

One of those moderators was former first lady Michelle Obama, who staged her own sold-out speaking tour in 2019 in support of her memoir Becoming, playing more than 30 cities in North America and Europe.

Winfreys trek kicked off Jan. 4 at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., and wrapped at Denvers Pepsi Center on March 7. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the full tour earned $18.8 million and sold 120,379 tickets.

With only nine shows, the tour mainly hit major markets. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest grosses came from the biggest cities, playing best in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Winfreys Feb. 8 show at Brooklyns Barclays Center earned $2.7 million, followed by $2.5 million on Feb. 29 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and $2.4 million on Feb. 22 at San Franciscos Chase Center.

Guest moderators included Super Bowl Halftime alumni Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, comedians Tina Fey and Amy Schumer, and Winfreys longtime pal Gayle King. At the Brooklyn date, Michelle Obama joined Oprah onstage.

Final figures for Obamas 2019 tour were not reported in full, but based on the select submissions sent to Billboard Boxscore, she averaged $1.595 million and 13,176 tickets per night. That attendance figure is only 1.5% short of Winfreys, who paced 13,375 tickets per show. With a significantly higher average ticket, Oprah scaled to $2.1 million per show, leading Obama by 31% in nightly earnings. Obamas tour was far more widespread, bringing her to 31 North American cities, plus six stops in Europe. Billboard estimates that the full tour finished in the range of $55 million to $60 million.

Outside of small differences in performance, Obama and Winfrey stand tall in a class of their own. Very few speaking acts or book tours can fill large clubs or theaters, much less the arenas that this pair of titans tackled. In 2018-19, Hillary and Bill Clinton toured together in theaters and scaled-down arenas, averaging 3,700 tickets per show -- less than a third of what Winfrey and Obama sold. Other nontraditional tours, such as live podcasts or YouTube stars are often confined to clubs and small theaters stop short of theaters, in the range of 1,000-2,000 tickets per show. Without the proof of concept and tour history of an A-list band or singer, filling an arena remains an especially elusive achievement for speakers, rarely accomplished at the scale of Winfrey or Obama.

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Oprah & Michelle Obama Are in a League of Their Own With Blockbuster Speaking Tours - Billboard

TV presenter Stacey Solomon has revealed her delight and shock after Michelle Obama shared a message about her on Instagram.

The former US lady posted a collection of messages and pictures from social media that praise healthcare workers in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic.

One message, in particular, was from the child of an NHS nurse who told her mother to "get some sleep, relax and let Stacy (sic) Solomon get you giggling".

When Solomon discovered the sweet message was shared by Michelle Obama she told her Instagram followers that she couldn't stop laughing.

The Loose Women panelist said: "So many of you are tagging me in this.

"Me and Hoe can't stop laughing that I'm on Michelle Obama's grid.

"I'm 100% sure the queen has no idea who I am but it has made my day nonetheless."

Obama had shared the handwritten note to the nurse alongside a message urging people to let healthcare workers know "if you're feeling grateful" for their work.

"From our medical providers and hospital staff to our grocery, transit and delivery workers, so many extraordinary people are putting their lives on the line to get us all through this moment," she said.

"Let's take the opportunity to tell them and their families that we see their sacrifices and we're behind them.

"A handwritten letter, an Instagram post, or a simple 'thank you' text can go a long way in letting someone know just how incredible they are and how much you appreciate what they're doing."

Read more:
Stacey Solomon shocked as Obama shares Insta tribute Trending - RTE.ie

The Trump administration will dramatically relax automobile emissions and fuel economy standards so that only modest efficiency gains are required through 2026, according to people familiar with the matter.

In a rule to be announced as early as Tuesday, March 31, the administration will require automakers to boost the fuel efficiency of new vehicles each year by a 1.5% fleet-average starting in 2021, said three people, who asked not to be named discussing the measure ahead of its release. The required improvements are far more modest than requirements for roughly 5% annual gains under rules charted during the Obama administration.

The final regulation's release will conclude a years-long effort to dismantle the ambitious standards, which supporters have called the most effective policy ever enacted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Transportation Department in August 2018 proposed capping the standards after 2020 instead of rising to a roughly 50-mile-per-gallon fleet average midway through this decade. That proposal argued easing mileage standards would reduce vehicle prices and make it easier for consumers to replace older, less-efficient cars with newer, safer vehicles, avoiding thousands of traffic fatalities in the process.

The administration has scaled back those earlier safety estimates as it abandoned the initial plan to freeze the standards and is now requiring modest 1.5% annual improvements instead. Under the new approach, far fewer highway fatalities would be averted than originally projected, according to a draft of the final rule obtained earlier this month by Democratic Sen. Tom Carper's office, which released a summary of its contents to reporters.

"This rule utterly fails to deliver any of its promised benefits of safer, more affordable fuel-efficient cars," Carper said in a statement after reviewing the draft rule. "It is likely to be overturned by the courts and subject automakers to years of costly litigation and confusion in the process."

A spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Transportation Department agency responsible for the regulation, declined to comment.

The EPA and Transportation Department already concluded a major portion of the push last fall when it stripped California of its authority to regulate tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, sparking a flurry of lawsuits by the state and others challenging the move.

The car rule comes as part of a broader Trump administration effort to dial back environmental regulations, including mandates on power plants and oil wells.

"Of all the bad things President Trump has done to the environment, this is the worst," said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign. "He is rolling back the biggest single step any nation has taken to fight global warming, cut oil use and save money at the pump. He is rejecting cleaner, efficient cars in favor of pollution-spewing, gas-guzzling Trump-mobiles."

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Trump to gut mileage requirements Obama brokered with automakers - Crain's Cleveland Business

Kate and William will be celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary later this month. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are currently under intense pressure as they attempt to assist with the coronavirus pandemic, while reassuring the nation - but they are likely to be thinking back to the momentous occasion on April 29. Their wedding was considered an international moment of cheer. However, the two unintentionally caused a stir when they left the then-President and former FLOTUS off their invite lists.

According to The Telegraphs Tim Walker, Michelle Obama was particularly disappointed.

Back in 2011, he wrote: Even after it was clear that Prince William and Kate Middleton would not be sending a wedding invitation to the White House, Michelle Obama still appears not to have given up hope.

She told US TV programme Live With Regis and Kelly Show two months before the wedding that if I get invited, Ill go.

However, she was still waiting for her invitation at the time.

Mr Walker pointed out: Her comments are likely to exasperate senior courtiers, who had to put off naming the wedding date until a week after announcing the engagement because White House officials were not at first certain when Barack Obama and his wife would make their first state visit to Britain.

Obama's men, adamant that the two events should not clash, subsequently agreed May 24 to 26, almost a month after the royal wedding, as the dates for his visit.

However, Mr Walked added that the President may feel he had a lucky escape.

Political tensions could have arisen at the event, after Hamad bin Isa Khalifa, the King of Bahrain, confirmed his attendance.

READ MORE:How Obama accused Prince George of protocol breach

Their first overseas tour was to the US as well, which started later that same year.

They then invited Mr and Mrs Obama over to their Kensington Palace apartments in 2016.

The couple were delighted to meet the third-in-line to the throne Prince George, who was in his dressing gown at the time.

The US President was visiting the UK to congratulate the Queen on her 90th birthday.

Read more:
Royal snub: Why Kate Middleton and Prince William did not invite the Obamas to wedding - Express