It’s finally Friday, friends. I’m Diamond Naga Siu. Big thanks to my amazing colleagues Hallam Bullock, Nathan Rennolds, and Lara O’Reilly for holding down the newsletter while I was out.
To ease back into work, I’ve been playing the 24/7 livestream of the I-95 highway getting rebuilt after a section of it collapsed over the weekend. I find that the construction stream is pretty calming to play in the background.
My colleague Sonam Sheth, however, is quite confused as to why hundreds of other people are also watching it.
Now, let’s dive into today’s tech.
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1. Amazon is planning to make more items eligible for free shipping. Amazon is reopening the Seller Fulfilled Prime program. It allows sellers to ship Prime-eligible products directly, instead of going through Amazon warehouses.
- This setup means Amazon gets to list more items as eligible for free Prime shipping without having to significantly expand warehouses.
- Amazon said sellers that want to join the program now need to pass a trial period. They have to ship over 99% of their orders on time with an order cancellation rate of less than 0.5%.
- My colleague Eugene Kim has the details of the program, which he breaks down in his latest story.
Get the full story here.
In other news:
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2. The five planets aligning this week. Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will line up close together on one side of the sun this week. It’s an extremely rare event. Here’s when, where, and how to see it.
3. Rescinded job offers and layoffs at Oracle. Its ailing health division slashed hundreds of employees on Thursday. The job cuts come amid ongoing troubles with a massive government project. More on the layoffs here.
4. Employees really don’t want to return to the office. Remote workers anonymously shared the lengths they’d go to continue working from home. That included taking a 20% pay cut. See what else they’d sacrifice here.
5. Twitter is getting booted from its Colorado office. The company has reportedly gone months without paying rent. And now, its Colorado landlords have legal permission to kick the company out. More on the tenant troubles here.
6. AI helped Ikea design a “couch in an envelope.” The portable couch only weighs 22 pounds and doesn’t require any tools to assemble. Plus, it can be configured in more than 30 different ways. Check out the foldable furniture here.
7. CEOs share what’s next. Insider talked with 33 CEOs at prominent companies about how rapidly evolving trends impact their leadership. They discussed tech, sustainability, DEI, and more. Dive into their outlooks here.
8. Mercedes-Benz + ChatGPT. The carmaker just announced a pilot program testing this partnership. They’re allowing some 900,000 drivers to have full-on conversations with their vehicles. More here.
Odds and ends:
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9. Daily orca sightings in Spain and Portugal. Orca encounters are happening very frequently off the coasts of Spain and Portugal. They’ve become more common in recent months and could continue to rise. Find out more.
10. The US gives Russia’s nuclear program about $1 billion every year. Many US companies rely on Russia’s cheap nuclear fuel to produce emissions-free energy. The money goes to Russia’s state-owned nuclear agency. Read more.
What we’re watching today:
- Elon Musk is slated to speak at the VivaTech conference in Paris.
- Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova).
- Washington DC’s Comic Con — dubbed Awesome Con — kicks off today.
- Happy birthday, Tupac! Thanks for all the California Love.
Curated by Diamond Naga Siu in San Diego. (Feedback or tips? Email dsiu@insider.com or tweet @diamondnagasiu) Edited by Alistair Barr (tweet @alistairmbarr) in San Francisco and Nathan Rennolds (tweet @ncrennolds) in London.
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