Hidden Agenda

January 20 was supposed to be a day of unity for the West. Instead, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was accused of lying, dividing the West, and failing to act.

European Member of Parliament Guy Verhofstadt wrote that Scholz is “incapable of making the right decisions.” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, “Germany’s attitude is unacceptable.” United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had a “fierce exchange of words” with head of the chancellor Wolfgang Schmidt, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan “read the riot act” to his German counterpart, Süddeutschen Zeitung reported. “Germany will never get over the shame of its cowardice on Ukraine,” the Telegraph concluded.

Read more at “Germany Pursues a Hidden Agenda With Russia”

AmazonSmile

Dear charitable organization,

In 2013, we launched AmazonSmile to make it easier for customers to support their favorite charities. We were excited about the potential for the program and the impact it could have for many charitable organizations. We want to thank you for your partnership during all these years.

After almost a decade of running AmazonSmile, we learned that with so many eligible organizations—more than 1 million globally—our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen that Amazon can have a more significant and lasting impact if we invest in specific areas and focus our philanthropic efforts in the communities where our employees live and work. We’ve started to see the benefits of a more focused approach with our investments in programs like Amazon Future Engineer and our $2 billion investment in building affordable housing in our hometown communities through the Amazon Housing Equity Fund—and we will continue to pursue and invest in other areas where we’ve seen we can make meaningful change.

We are writing to let you know that we have made plans to wind down AmazonSmile by February 20, 2023. Until this date, customer purchases made via AmazonSmile will continue to accrue funds for your charity as normal. To help nonprofits like you plan ahead, we will also provide you with a one-time payment equivalent to three months of payments based on what you accrued in 2022 through this program. The timing of this final payment will be approximately 60 to 90 days after February 20, 2023. We hope that this will help minimize the impact that this decision might have.

You will be able to continue asking for the support from Amazon customers in other ways, like creating your product lists.

We will keep supporting thousands of charities across the U.S. in many ways, and focus on the areas we believe can help create an even greater impact. Our long-term commitment to our communities remains the same: We are determined to help create a better world for our customers, our employees, and the communities we serve across the country.

Thank you,
AmazonSmile Team