Five of Amazon's foreign websites — in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. — were included on the U.S. government’s latest “notorious markets” list due to concerns about counterfeits. The e-retailer's U.S. site was not included on the 2020 list, which identifies the world's e-commerce companies and websites believed to engage in piracy, intellectual property violations, and/or counterfeit product sales.

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• This is the second year in a row that foreign Amazon sites have been included on the U.S. Trade Representative's "black list."
• Critics have argued that Amazon is slow to remove alleged counterfeits, fails to properly audit third-party sellers, and doesn't clarify well enough “who is selling the goods" on its marketplaces.
• The company called the report "a personal vendetta against Amazon," which it said, "does more to fight counterfeit than any other private entity we are aware of.”
• In November, Amazon filed lawsuits against two TikTok influencers and dozens of other third-party sellers over counterfeit goods being sold on Amazon's website. Per Amazon, the sellers were advertising, promoting, and facilitating the sale of the fake merchandise.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin plans to launch its first commercial passengers into orbit as early as April, according to CNBC. The aerospace company plans to launch tourists, scientists, and professional astronauts on short trips over West Texas, purportedly for a minimum of $200,000 a seat.

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• Blue Origin completed its fourteenth test flight last week of the New Shepard rocket booster and capsule, which will carry the passengers if a final fifteenth test proves successful.
• The two “stable configuration” tests mark the final demonstrations before crews can actually launch in the suborbital vehicle, which has a newly-redesigned crew capsule and booster. The second test is scheduled for late February, followed by the first crewed flight in early April.
• The six-seater crew capsule, known as the RSS First Step, has sound suppression, a crew alert system, and mics for speaking with ground control.
• A Blue Origin spokesperson called CNBC's report still "speculative."

Ali Abbas Zafar, the creator of Amazon's political drama “Tandav," has apologized after Indian lawmakers complained about how the series depicts Hindu gods and goddesses. Protests are planned in India today against Amazon, which debuted the drama on Prime last week.

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• India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party filed a formal complaint against the series yesterday, citing religious insensitivity. The complaint argued that characters playing Hindu gods and goddesses in the show "have been shown in an uncharitable way and using objectionable language, which can incite religious tension."
• In a statement posted on Zafar’s Instagram, cast and crew members said "Tandav" is a work of fiction and there was no intent to harm or offend. Still, they said they "take cognizance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments.”
• "Tandav," which debuted Jan. 15, follows a politician who is seeking to become India's prime minister. It has been compared to Netflix's "House of Cards."
• Last year, Amazon removed doormats and rugs depicting Hindu gods from its international website following complaints.

A majority of Amazon employees support the company's decision to remove Parler from its cloud hosting services, according to a survey by market research firm Blind. Nearly 70% of Amazon workers supported the move, the highest among the FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) companies.

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• Parler is suing Amazon after it followed through on its promise to remove the social media platform from Amazon Web Services earlier this month.
• Amazon said Parler violated its terms of service by failing to moderate and remove content that "encourages or incites violence against others" following the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
• Blind surveyed 4,100 big tech and finance workers to gauge their support. Among Amazon workers, 69% were in favor of AWS' decision, higher than Apple (64%) and Google (56%).
• One Amazon worker wrote: "Amazon is a business, and should have a choice about who they decide to do business with, according to Republicans."
• Citing similar concerns, Apple and Google have also removed the mobile app, associated with far-right sentiments, from their stores. Amazon's move took it one step further by taking Parler fully offline. The website came back online yesterday.

Amazon says it will invest $278M to build two new logistics centers in Italy later this year. The distribution and fulfillment centers — in the cities of Novara and Modena, respectively — are expected to create 1,100 jobs over three years.

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• Amazon said it's expanding its Italy logistics footprint to increase its product selections, satisfy growing client demands, and support small and medium businesses selling on its platform.
• Amazon employs 8,500 workers in Italy, where it has invested $7B since it opened its first logistics center there in 2011.
• Amazon's logistics costs have grown as the company seeks to become less dependant on outside service providers. Its shipping costs rose from $11.5B in 2015 to $30B in 2018.

Amazon is opening up its Alexa AI technologies to third-party companies so they can build their own virtual assistants. Through Alexa Custom Assistant, companies like auto manufacturers can customize the voice, features, and wake word of their branded assistants, which will “co-exist” with Alexa, the company said.

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• Announced at today's CES 2021, the conversational AI platform is initially focused on digital voice assistants for the auto market. Fiat Chrysler, the first client, says it will use the service to incorporate its own branded voice assistant built into its cars.
• Automakers and others will be able to access “tens of thousands of Alexa skills and integrations" for their bots, Amazon said. Each company's assistant will be the "produce specialist" for specialized features, with Alexa acting as a sort-of generalized backup to help with daily needs, like directions and music.
• Amazon says this will lower the "cost, complexity, and time to market" for companies to create their own intelligent assistants. It's available as of today in major world markets.

A version of this story first appeared in Inside AI. You can read the full issue here.

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• Season 2 of the CW sci-fi drama series "Pandora" comes to Amazon today.
• Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft now provide 66% of the European market for cloud services.
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