Article:

Howard Stern said on his program Wednesday that Trump will hate being president and the role will be detrimental to his mental health.

 Stern and Trump are long-time friends, with Trump making numerous appearances on Stern's radio show over the years.

 "I personally wish that he had never run, I told him that, because I actually think this is something that is gonna be detrimental to his mental health too, because, he wants to be liked, he wants to be loved," Stern said. "He wants people to cheer for him."

 "I don't think it's going to be a healthy experience. And by the way, he's now on this anti-Hollywood kick. He loves Hollywood. First of all, he loves the press. He lives for it. He loves people in Hollywood. He only wants hobnob with them. All of this hatred and stuff directed towards him. It's not good for him. It's not good. There's a reason every president who leaves the office has grey hair."

 Trump frequently appeared on Stern's radio program over the past two decades, engaging in the kind of crude talk about women and celebrities typical of the shock-jock's show. During the campaign, CNN's KFile surfaced demeaning comments Trump made about women on the show.

 Stern said he considers Trump a friend, but is opposed to his politics.

 "I like Donald very much personally. I was shocked when he decided to run for president, and even more shocked that sort of, people took it seriously," Stern said.

 "I remember saying to him when he announced his presidency, I remember being quite amazed, because I remember him being for Hillary Clinton," Stern added.

 "And I remember him being very--I mean he was pro-abortion. So the new Donald Trump kind of surprised me."

 Stern said he doesn't believe Trump has had a change of heart on issues like abortion, but is instead playing to his base.

 The radio host said he also believed Trump ran for president solely to get a larger contract from NBC for "The Apprentice."

 "I think it started out as like a kinda cool, fun thing to do in order to get a couple more bucks out of NBC for The Apprentice, I actually do believe that," Stern said.

 "He just wanted a couple more bucks out of NBC, and that is why Donald is calling for voter fraud investigations. He's pissed he won. He still wants Hillary Clinton to win. He's so f—ing pissed, he's hoping that he can find some voter fraud and hand it over to Hillary." ||||| Howard Stern wishes Donald Trump had never run for president — for Trump’s own sake.

 During Wednesday’s episode of his eponymous radio show, Stern said he doesn’t think running the country is “going to be a healthy experience” for Trump, whom he considers a longtime friend even though their political beliefs are very different.

 “I personally wish that he had never run,” Stern said. “I told him that because I actually think this is something that is going to be detrimental to his mental health too, because he wants to be liked, he wants to be loved. He wants people to cheer for him.”

 Trump has made numerous appearances on Stern’s show over the years, and the veteran shock jock said Wednesday, “I like Donald very much personally. I was shocked when he decided to run for president and even more shocked that people took it seriously.”

 An avowed Hillary Clinton supporter, Stern said he remembers a time when Trump backed her as well. Questioning the sincerity of Trump’s shift to the other end of the political spectrum, Stern added, “I don’t believe that, for example now, that he’s had some sort of rethink on abortion and all this. I think he’s sort of playing it to his constituency, which is this religious right.”

 Stern also addressed Trump’s recent feuding with the entertainment industry and the media. “He’s now on this anti-Hollywood kick,” Stern said. “[Trump] loves Hollywood. First of all, he loves the press. He lives for it. He loves people in Hollywood. He only wants to hobnob with them. And all of this hatred and stuff directed towards him, it’s not good for him. It’s not good. Listen, there’s a reason every president who leaves the office has gray hair.”

 Hear more of Stern’s thoughts on Trump here. |||||
What is a summary?

– Howard Stern goes back a ways with President Trump, who has been a regular guest on his show for decades. On Thursday, Stern generated headlines for voicing a concern about the man he considers a friend: Becoming president "is something that is gonna be detrimental to his mental health, too, because, he wants to be liked, he wants to be loved," Stern said, per Entertainment Weekly. "All of this hatred and stuff directed towards him. It's not good for him. It's not good." Also of note: Stern says he thinks Trump ran only as a contract ploy. "I think it started out as like a kinda cool, fun thing to do in order to get a couple more bucks out of NBC for The Apprentice, I actually do believe that," Stern said, per CNN. He added that Trump always liked Hillary Clinton and thinks the "new Donald Trump" merely latched onto a conservative base because it was the most effective route to victory. “I don’t believe that, for example now, that he’s had some sort of rethink on abortion and all this." No response, at least yet, from Trump himself.


Story highlights Five Israeli soldiers killed in militant tunnel attack, IDF says

 The death toll in Gaza rises above 1,100, Palestinian health official says

 Netanyahu tells nation to prepare for "protracted campaign" in Gaza

 At least eight children killed at Gaza refugee camp, Gaza's Health Ministry says

 Despite calls for a new cease-fire, fighting intensified in Gaza on Monday and Tuesday morning, with Palestinians saying more than two dozen people died as rockets or mortars struck a refugee camp, a hospital and the center of Gaza City.

 Eighteen people died as powerful and continuous air strikes rained down on Gaza City early Tuesday morning, the Palestinian Health Authority reported. And the Israeli military reported that 10 of its soldiers were killed Monday.

 Al Aqsa TV reported that Israeli strikes hit the Ministry of Finance in western Gaza and the house of Ismail Haniyeh, a senior political leader of Hamas. A radio station run by Hamas was bombed.

 Ten people, including eight children, were killed Monday when shells hit a refugee camp near the beach in Gaza where parents went to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

 The children were playing in the street near their homes when an explosion shook the ground. Holes as large as fists pockmarked a nearby building, and 10 people -- eight of them children -- were killed, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

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 In the chaos, they were rushed to nearby Shifa Hospital. A TV news outlet run by Hamas showed live footage of the hospital. The channel blamed the carnage on an Israeli drone.

 Shifa Hospital had been hit, too. Two people there were injured, the ministry said.

 As before, Israel and Hamas accused each other of sending the bombs that killed people in Gaza. A short time later, Israel sent a text message to the media blaming Gaza "terrorists" for the attacks.

 "In the blink of an eye," a father said, "I found body parts and heads cut off, no arms, no legs. I started to collect limbs, heads I couldn't recognize, I couldn't recognize my own children."

 Though world leaders pleaded for a humanitarian cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a message on Israeli television Monday.

 "We need to be prepared for a protracted campaign in Gaza," he said.

 Calling life under the threat of death "inconceivable" for Israel, Netanyahu said the military will not end its incursion into Gaza until it has destroyed tunnels Hamas is using to attack civilians outside Gaza.

 Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Israel will not negotiate while Hamas is still attacking. "We will not hesitate to expand our operation," he said.

 Deaths in Israel, too

 Ten Israeli soldiers were killed Monday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

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 Five were killed fighting militants who tried to attack Israeli civilians using a tunnel shaft leading to the Nahal Oz community, the IDF said. Israeli soldiers stopped the attempted attack, killing one of the attackers, the military said.

 One Israeli soldier died in combat in southern Gaza. And another four were killed and eight were injured by mortar fire near Beeri, close to the Israeli-Gaza border, the IDF said.

 Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for Gaza health ministry, said 1,101 people have been killed and more than 6,500 wounded in Gaza since the current conflict began. A total of 53 Israeli soldiers have died.

 The tunnels

 A central goal of Israel's military is to destroy tunnels that Hamas uses to smuggle weapons and launch attacks.

 CNN's "New Day" asked chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat what the purpose of the tunnels were.

 "I know the situation is so much complex -- I'm not saying I know the picture as a whole," he responded. But, he said, Gaza is now like a burning building. "We need to get the people out, and then we need to extinguish the fire, and then we sit down and talk."

 Erakat called for Israel to pull troops out of Gaza.

 Israel isn't acting in self-defense, he said. "They're the occupying power. They should be responsible for the human lives there."

 Erakat said U.N. figures show "90% of those killed are women and children."

 It was unclear what he was basing those figures on. The United Nations estimates that more than 70% of the Palestinians killed were civilians, including 226 youths and 117 women. More than 150 were members of armed groups, the United Nations says.

 UNICEF said Monday that about two-thirds of the children killed were 12 or younger.

 Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths, saying militants encourage people to stay in their homes despite Israeli warnings that strikes are coming. Militants also use civilian facilities such as homes, schools, mosques and hospitals to launch attacks on Israeli civilians and store weapons.

 Calls, hopes for peace

 The Gaza crisis was discussed Monday in a joint call involving U.S. President Barack Obama. British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

 A statement from Cameron's office said the leaders agreed on "the urgent need for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and Israel, backing the efforts of the Egyptian government to achieve this."

 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry returned to Washington after a trip to the Middle East and Paris, where he held discussions in an attempt to calm the violence. His efforts were criticized by Israeli media and Palestinian leaders.

 A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday night that he was concerned the IDF had dropped leaflets in the northern Gaza Strip, warning thousands of residents to leave their homes and evacuate to Gaza City. If true, this would have a "devastating humanitarian impact" on Gaza residents, he said.

 At a midnight meeting, the U.N. Security Council proclaimed its support for "a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace with secure and recognized borders as envisioned in Security Council resolution 1850 (2008) ."

 That fell short of Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour's desires. He wanted the body to pass a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

 "The equation is simple," Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor said. "When it is quiet in Israel, it will be quiet in Gaza."

 Obama had another phone conversation with Netanyahu on Sunday, reiterating concern about the rising Palestinian civilian deaths, Israeli deaths and the "worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza."

 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinians in Gaza celebrate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Tuesday, August 26. After more than seven weeks of heavy fighting, Israel and Hamas agreed to an open-ended ceasefire that puts off dealing with core long-term issues. Hide Caption 1 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinians inspect the damage to a residential building following several late night Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on August 26. Hide Caption 2 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Gila, center, mother of 4-year-old Israeli boy Daniel Tragerman, sits next to his grave during his funeral near the Israel-Gaza border on Sunday, August 24. Hide Caption 3 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinians run away from debris after a bomb from an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Gaza on Saturday, August 23. Hide Caption 4 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An Israeli soldier smokes a cigarette in a large concrete pipe used as shelter at an army deployment point near the Israeli-Gaza border on Wednesday, August 20. Hide Caption 5 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Light trails made by rockets fired from the Gaza Strip stand out against the night sky on Tuesday, August 19. Despite efforts to come to a peaceful agreement, Gaza militants launched rockets into Israel on Tuesday, and Israel responded with its own rockets. Hide Caption 6 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An injured Palestinian man is helped into the Shifa hospital in Gaza City on August 19. Hide Caption 7 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Police examine the remains of a rocket launched from Gaza that landed near the kibbutz of Yad Mordechay on August 19. Hide Caption 8 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City on August 19. Hide Caption 9 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Islam El Masri begins to sort through the rubble of her destroyed home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, on Thursday, August 14. Hide Caption 10 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israelis gather in Tel Aviv during a protest August 14 calling on the government and the army to end Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza once and for all. Hide Caption 11 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Smoke rises in Gaza City after an airstrike on Saturday, August 9. Hide Caption 12 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli soldiers walk past a Merkava tank as they patrol a field near Israel's border with Gaza on August 9. Hide Caption 13 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A Palestinian boy salvages family belongings from the rubble of a four-story building after an airstrike in Gaza City on Friday, August 8. Hide Caption 14 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israelis flee after a rocket fired from Gaza hit the residential neighborhood of Sderot, Israel, on August 8. Hide Caption 15 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A Palestinian man looks out over destruction in the al-Tufah neighborhood of Gaza City on Wednesday, August 6. Hide Caption 16 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Displaced Palestinians carry their belongings as they leave a United Nations school in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, to return to their homes Tuesday, August 5. Hide Caption 17 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – The body of Avrohom Wallis is carried during his funeral in Jerusalem on Monday, August 4. Wallis was killed in what Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld called a "terror attack," when a man drove an earthmover into a bus in Jerusalem. Hide Caption 18 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli soldiers fire a mortar shell toward Gaza from the Israeli side of the border on August 4. Hide Caption 19 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinians remove rubble from a house hit by an airstrike in the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on August 4. Hide Caption 20 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An Israeli drone circles over Gaza City on Sunday, August 3. Hide Caption 21 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A Palestinian man sits in a hospital in Rafah, Gaza, on August 3. Hide Caption 22 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An honor guard caries the coffin of Israeli Lt. Hadar Goldin during his funeral in Kfar-saba, Israel, on August 3. Goldin was thought to have been captured during fighting in Gaza but was later declared killed in action by the Israel Defense Forces. Hide Caption 23 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A Palestinian boy looks for belongings after an airstrike in Rafah on Saturday, August 2. Hide Caption 24 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli soldiers walk to their tank at a staging area near the border with Gaza on August 2. Hide Caption 25 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A young Palestinian carries damaged copies of the Quran from the rubble of the Imam Al Shafaey mosque in Gaza City on August 2. Hide Caption 26 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinians displaced from their houses return to check their homes in Gaza City on Friday, August 1. Hide Caption 27 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An Israeli soldier carries a shell as he prepares a tank along the Israel-Gaza border on Thursday, July 31. Israel called up 16,000 additional reservists, bolstering forces for its fight against Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. Hide Caption 28 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Smoke rises from a building after an airstrike in Rafah on July 31. Hide Caption 29 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – The parents and a sister of Israeli soldier Guy Algranati mourn during his funeral in Tel Aviv on July 31. Hide Caption 30 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – U.N. workers remove a donkey injured at a U.N.-run school in Gaza on Wednesday, July 30. Hide Caption 31 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinians walk under the collapsed minaret of a destroyed mosque in Gaza City on July 30. Hide Caption 32 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinians gather leaflets that fell from an Israeli plane on July 30. The leaflets warned residents of airstrikes in Gaza City. Hide Caption 33 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israelis take cover from a Palestinian rocket attack from Gaza during the funeral of Israeli soldier Meidan Maymon Biton, which was held at a cemetery in Netivot, Israel, on Tuesday, July 29. Hide Caption 34 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Smoke and fire rise above Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike on July 29. Hide Caption 35 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An Israeli soldier prays on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza on July 29 as smoke billows from the only power plant supplying electricity to Gaza. Hide Caption 36 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Near the rubble of their home in Rafah, Palestinian men mourn July 29 for people killed during an airstrike. Hide Caption 37 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A Palestinian man places a portrait of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya on the rubble of Haniya's Gaza City home July 29 after it was hit by an overnight airstrike. Hide Caption 38 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Flares from Israeli forces light up the night sky of Gaza City on July 29. Hide Caption 39 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli soldiers carry the coffin of 2nd Lt. Roy Peles, an infantry officer who was killed in combat, during his funeral in Tel Aviv on Sunday, July 27. Hide Caption 40 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – During a 12-hour cease-fire in Gaza City's Shijaiyah neighborhood on Saturday, July 26, a Palestinian man sits atop a car filled with belongings that were salvaged from a destroyed home. Hide Caption 41 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli soldiers watch a bomb explode along the border with Gaza before the 12-hour cease-fire on July 26. Hide Caption 42 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – As her brother-in-law Mazen Keferna weeps on the ground, Manal Keferna cries upon discovering her family home destroyed by airstrikes in Beit Hanoun on July 26. Hide Caption 43 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinians dig a body out of the rubble of a destroyed house in Gaza during the cease-fire on July 26. Hide Caption 44 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An Israeli soldier mourns at the grave of reserve Master Sgt. Yair Ashkenazy during his funeral at the military cemetery in Rehovot, Israel, on Friday, July 25. Ashkenazy was killed during operations in northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces reported. Hide Caption 45 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A Palestinian man cries after bringing a child to the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya on Thursday, July 24. The child was wounded in a strike on a school that was serving as a shelter for families in Gaza. It's unclear who was behind the strike. The Israeli military said it was "reviewing" the incident, telling CNN that a rocket fired from Gaza could have been responsible. Hide Caption 46 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli soldiers carry a wounded soldier to a helicopter near the Israel-Gaza border on July 24. Hide Caption 47 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli soldiers patrol the Israel-Gaza border on July 24. Hide Caption 48 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A trail of blood is seen in the courtyard of the school that was hit July 24 in the Beit Hanoun district of Gaza. Hide Caption 49 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An Israeli tank fires toward Gaza from a position near Israel's border on July 24. Hide Caption 50 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A photograph tweeted by astronaut Alexander Gerst on Wednesday, July 23, shows major cities of Israel and Gaza. Gerst said in his tweet: "My saddest photo yet. From #ISS we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over #Gaza & #Israel." Hide Caption 51 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A woman in Philadelphia passes by a departure board that shows US Airways Flight 796, scheduled to fly to Tel Aviv, has been canceled on Tuesday, July 22. The Federal Aviation Administration told U.S. airlines they were temporarily prohibited from flying to the Tel Aviv airport after a Hamas rocket exploded nearby. Hide Caption 52 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Smoke and fire from the explosion of an Israeli strike rise over Gaza City on July 22. Hide Caption 53 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A relative of Israeli soldier Jordan Ben-Simon mourns over his coffin during his funeral in Ashkelon, Israel, on July 22. Hide Caption 54 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinians inspect destroyed buildings and collect usable items after an Israeli air assault on July 22. Hide Caption 55 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli soldiers weep at the grave of Israeli Sgt. Adar Barsano during his funeral Sunday, July 20, in Nahariya, Israel. Hide Caption 56 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinian medics carry a body in Gaza's Shaja'ia district on July 20. Hide Caption 57 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli soldiers give medical care to soldiers who were wounded during an offensive in Gaza on July 20. Hide Caption 58 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A Palestinian boy injured during an Israeli airstrike is taken to the hospital by his father in Gaza City on July 20. Hide Caption 59 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Palestinians flee their homes as Israeli troops focus their firepower on the Gaza town of Shaja'ia on Sunday, July 20. The shelling and bombing killed at least 60 people and wounded 300, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Hide Caption 60 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Smoke rises after an Israeli missile hit Shaja'ia on July 20. Hide Caption 61 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A Palestinian child walks on debris from a destroyed house following an overnight Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya on Saturday, July 19. Hide Caption 62 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An explosion rocks a street in Gaza City on Friday, July 18. Hide Caption 63 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli ground forces move to the Gaza border on July 18. Hide Caption 64 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Israeli soldiers patrol near the Israel-Gaza border on July 18. Hide Caption 65 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A relative mourns July 18 during the funeral of Rani Abu Tawila, a Palestinian who was killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza City. Hide Caption 66 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A Palestinian demonstrator, protesting Israel's military operation in Gaza, runs through smoke July 18 during clashes with Israeli soldiers at the entrance of the Ofer prison in the West Bank village of Betunia. Hide Caption 67 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – This image, made from video shot through a night-vision scope, was released by the Israeli military on July 18. It shows troops moving through a wall opening during the early hours of the ground offensive in Gaza. Hide Caption 68 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Children stare as Palestinians flee Khan Yunis, Gaza, to safe areas July 18. Hide Caption 69 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An Israeli tank fires a shell into Gaza on July 18. Hide Caption 70 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – A Palestinian carries a gas cylinder salvaged from the rubble of an apartment building after it was hit by Israeli fire on July 18. Hide Caption 71 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – An Israeli reservist prays July 18 near the Gaza border by Sderot, Israel. Hide Caption 72 of 73 Photos: Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Israel-Gaza crisis – Flare smoke rises into the Gaza City sky on Thursday, July 17. Hide Caption 73 of 73

 Map of the Middle East

 Israel: We're not responsible for last week's school deaths

 The Israeli military said it was not responsible for anyone killed last week when an "errant Israeli mortar" hit the courtyard of a U.N. school that was shelter to many Gaza residents.

 U.N. and Palestinian officials said 16 people were killed and hundreds were wounded Thursday when the school in northern Gaza was struck.

 Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said militants had fired anti-tank missiles from the immediate area of the school, and the IDF fired several mortar shells back in that direction.

 "A single errant Israeli mortar landed in the courtyard in the school," Lerner said. "The footage we have shows the courtyard was empty."

 "We reject the claim that people were killed by the IDF mortar on the school premises," he added. But Lerner said there could have been people who were wounded by shrapnel.

 Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev said, "The question is who is responsible, and for that we have to look at seriously and judiciously and make sure we get to the truth."

 A CNN team that visited the shelter several hours after the mortar attack saw evidence that people were badly wounded at the courtyard.

 The team saw blood and strewn possessions concentrated close to the edge of the courtyard along the wall of the building, the area that would have been shady around 3 p.m. when the school was hit.

 The IDF released a high-altitude aerial video of the round hitting the school, but it did not have high resolution and it is impossible to tell if anybody was sitting on the courtyard edge. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ban Ki-moon: "In the name of humanity, the violence must stop"

 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged an immediate halt to violence in Gaza, saying the Palestinian territory is in a "critical condition".

 "In the name of humanity, the violence must stop," he told reporters.

 Shortly after he spoke, there were reports of two explosions in Gaza City - one in a children's playground and one near Gaza's main hospital.

 Israel launched an offensive against Hamas militants in the territory three weeks ago after a surge in rocket fire.

 More than 1,030 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 43 Israeli soldiers and two Israeli civilians have been killed. A Thai national in Israel has also died.

 Police and health officials said separate Israeli airstrikes had hit the compound of Gaza City's main hospital and a nearby playground on Monday afternoon, causing casualties.

 But a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said both explosions were caused by misfired rockets that were launched from Gaza by "terrorists".

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Martin Patience in Gaza: "Many Palestinians will think there isn't a great deal to celebrate"

 Mr Ban, who spoke at UN HQ in New York after returning from a visit to the region, was critical of both sides for firing into civilian areas of the small coastal strip.

 He said Hamas had fired missiles into civilian areas of Israel, while Israeli forces had used high-explosive weapons in the crowded Gaza Strip.

 Mr Ban said the people of Gaza had nowhere to run to, and he emphasised that participants in conflicts had a responsibility to protect civilians.

 He reiterated the UN's call for an immediate, unconditional humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza during the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.

 Both sides had behaved in an irresponsible, "morally wrong" fashion, Mr Ban said, in allowing the violence to continue despite the efforts of the UN and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

 "It's a matter of their political will. They have to show their humanity as leaders, both Israeli and Palestinian," he told reporters at UN HQ.

 Image copyright AP Image caption Palestinian children play at a UN school in Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp

 Image copyright AP Image caption More than 100,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Palestinian women visit a grave in Gaza

 Image copyright AFP Image caption An Israeli soldier asleep on the border with Gaza on Monday

 Image copyright EPA Image caption Empty shells beside an Israeli tank near the Gaza border

 There were no Israeli air strikes overnight though they resumed on Monday morning after a rocket hit the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.

 Israel's military launched three air strikes on rocket sites after the rocket attack on Ashkelon. A boy aged four was killed in one of the strikes, Gaza's health ministry said.

 Rockets were also fired at the Sdot Negev and Eshkol districts of Israel, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reports.

 An Israeli soldier was wounded in northern Gaza where the military wing of Hamas, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it had "clashed" with Israeli infantry.

 'Widespread support'

 On Sunday night, the UN Security Council called for a "durable" truce based on an Egyptian initiative, under which a pause in hostilities would lead to substantive talks on the future of Gaza, including the opening of Gaza's border crossings.

 The Palestinian representative at the UN, Riyad Mansour, said the statement did not go far enough and that a formal resolution was needed demanding that Israel withdraw its forces from Gaza.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Orla Guerin reports on Israel's response to rocket attacks

 Israel's ambassador Ron Prosor accused the Security Council statement of bias for not mentioning Hamas and the firing of rockets at Israel.

 Opinion polls published at the weekend suggest there is still widespread support among Israelis for the military operation.

 Israel launched its military offensive on 8 July with the declared objective of stopping Hamas, the Islamist group which controls Gaza, firing rockets from Gaza into Israel.

 On 18 July, it extended operations with a ground offensive, saying it was necessary to destroy tunnels dug by militants to infiltrate Israel.

 Are you in Israel or Gaza? How are you affected by the situation? Email your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject 'Israel Gaza'. ||||| Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour, center, speaks following a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the situation in Gaza at United Nations headquarters, Monday, July 28, 2014. The U.N. Security... (Associated Press)

 United States U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, left, speaks with Israeli U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the situation in Gaza at United Nations headquarters,... (Associated Press)

 A Palestinian woman visits the graves of relatives marking the first day of Eid al-Fitr in a cemetery in Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 28, 2014. Monday marked the beginning... (Associated Press)

 Palestinians pray in the courtyard of a U.N. school in Gaza City, Monday, July 28, 2014. The school, one of dozens of emergency shelters for those who have fled the fighting. It's the morning of Eid al-Fitr,... (Associated Press)

 United States U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, center, reaches out to shake hands with Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour, center right, following a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the worsening... (Associated Press)

 Palestinians listen to a sermon as they pray in the courtyard of a U.N. school in Gaza City, Monday, July 28, 2014. The school, one of dozens of emergency shelters for those who have fled the fighting.... (Associated Press)

 Palestinian check a crater caused by an Israeli strike at a cemetery in the Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 28, 2014. Monday marked the beginning of the three-day Eid al-Fitr... (Associated Press)

 Minarets from a mosque are seen in this view of Gaza city, early Monday, July 28, 2014. Monday marked the beginning of the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, which caps the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.... (Associated Press)

 Clouds hover over Gaza city, early Monday, July 28, 2014. Monday marked the beginning of the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, which caps the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Muslims usually start the day... (Associated Press)

 Palestinian Muslims visit the graves of a relatives on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, in the Jenin refugee camp, West Bank, Monday, July 28, 2014. Monday marked the beginning of the three-day Eid holiday,... (Associated Press) |||||

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– Explosions have hit Gaza City's main hospital and a nearby park, killing at least nine children and an adult in the latter, reports the AP. But the source of those explosions is anybody's guess: Hamas claims they were Israeli airstrikes, while the Israeli Defense Force says they were misfired Hamas rockets. Camera crews were prevented from filming the area of impact at Shifa Hospital, but CNN notes that Hamas-run television is showing live images that reportedly show at least one dead body in what appears to be an emergency room. The report follows a UN Security Council call for an "immediate" ceasefire, the BBC notes. Hamas also managed to briefly infiltrate an Israeli village today, reports Reuters. Hamas says it killed 10 Israeli soldiers in the incursion; Israel claims it killed five militants.


– Amazon has an open secret that few pay heed to: a "nearly invisible workforce" that works to get consumers their packages on demand, per Gizmodo. Bryan Menegus dives into the company's Flex program, responsible for the firm's "last-mile" service, which involves getting ordered goods to a customer from the last local shipment site on the delivery chain. But while the driving program is described online by Amazon as letting those interested "be your own boss, set your own schedule, and have more time to pursue your goals and dreams," Menegus—who chatted with 15 current or ex-drivers from nine states and two countries, as well as with three contractors from local courier companies tied to Amazon—instead paints it as an exploitive system that considers its drivers "utterly expendable" and offers them little recourse to address issues or unfair practices. What he found is that getting into the Flex program can be simple: Entry criteria are "modest" (e.g., being over 21, having a smartphone with the Flex app), as is training. One UK driver says: "Honestly, it seems they take on anyone." But once on board, drivers say they face faulty data systems, altercations between drivers vying for prime routes (and high-tech cheating to claim those routes), and a lack of support from "hot-headed warehouse managers" who take a "customer is always right" attitude. And one labor attorney thinks not everything is on the up-and-up when it comes to how the company handles its drivers: considering them contractors, but treating them like employees, with all of the responsibility and few benefits. "I think it's breaking the law in a pretty widespread way," she says. More on the Flex program, part of the "constantly shifting, secretive nature of Amazon," here.

Expand this summary.

Be your own boss, set your own schedule, and have more time to pursue your goals and dreams. Join us and put the power of Amazon behind you.

 Build your own schedule. Opportunities available 7 days a week.

 Schedule ahead or pick up any available block of time.

 Make $18-$25 an hour and easily track your earnings with the Amazon Flex app.

 Want to build the future of delivery? Amazon is hiring for job openings in engineering & technology, product management, and design.

 © 2018, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates ||||| Who delivers Amazon orders? Increasingly, it’s plainclothes contractors with few labor protections, driving their own cars, competing for shifts on the company’s own Uber-like platform. Though it’s deployed in dozens of cities and associated with one of the world’s biggest companies, government agencies and customers alike are nearly oblivious to the program’s existence.

 In terms of size, efficiency, and ruthlessness, Amazon has few equals. The least publicly accountable of the big tech companies—Google, Apple, and Facebook face considerably greater scrutiny—Amazon’s stock is one of the most valuable on the market, it’s among the fastest-growing companies in the United States. Atop its vast empire, CEO Jeff Bezos commands the single largest personal fortune on the planet. Estimates place Amazon as the recipient of approximately one third of all dollars spent online. Control over the manufacture, storage, sales, and shipping of an extraordinarily diverse set of products has led the company to expand into film and TV production, web hosting, publishing, groceries, fashion, space travel, wind farms, and soon, pharmaceuticals, to name just a few. It’s a new kind of company, the likes of which the American economy has never before seen and is legislatively ill-prepared for.

 Ingenuity alone doesn’t account for Amazon’s dominant position. The company’s Economic Development Team works hard to secure state and local subsidies, which research from watchdog group Good Jobs First indicates surpasses $1 billion, a figure which the advocacy group’s executive director, Greg LeRoy, freely admitted to Gizmodo is far from comprehensive. Infrastructure in the company’s home base of Seattle has strained to keep pace with Amazon’s meteoric growth, and the city has experienced massive increases in housing costs. While North America’s metro areas—including Seattle—scramble to offer attractive incentives to host Bezos’s second headquarters, research indicates that when Amazon comes to town, it might be killing more jobs than it creates.

 The majority of consumers, however, either don’t know or don’t care. Strip Amazon to its most familiar elements, and it’s a devilishly simple everything-store with limitless stuff-supply. You buy it. It shows up. Fast.

 Demand for those blocks and the desire to finish them quickly led to what one driver described as “physical fights [...] when someone tries to jump the line.”

 Near the very bottom of Amazon’s complicated machinery is a nearly invisible workforce over two years in the making tasked with getting those orders to your doorstep. It’s a network of supposedly self-employed, utterly expendable couriers enrolled in an app-based program which some believe may violate labor laws. That program is called Amazon Flex, and it accomplishes Amazon’s “last-mile” deliveries—the final journey from a local facility to the customer.

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 While investigating the nature of the program, we spoke to 15 current or former independent drivers across nine states and two countries whose enrollment spanned between a few weeks and two years, as well as three individuals attached to local courier companies delivering for Amazon. Their identities have all been obscured for fear of retribution.

 A great opportunity to be your own boss

 To understand the issues faced by the independent contractors handling last-mile delivery for Amazon requires some knowledge of how Flex works.

 When Amazon selects one of its facilities—what drivers refer to as a Fulfillment Center* (FC)— for participation in Flex, it blankets Craigslist and other sites with local ads describing Flex as “a great opportunity to be your own boss,” sometimes as many as twelve ads a day. Each FC is distinguished by three letters and a number—DLA5, for instance, refers to Riverside, California—and many of the over 50 cities Flex operates in have more than one.

 An interested driver goes through a preliminary screening online and finishes their application through the app, passes a background check allegedly administered by a company called Accurate Background. Accurate Background did not respond to multiple requests for comment and Amazon declined to comment on which companies or services it uses for this purpose, but claimed the check pulls from, among other signals, court records, the sex offender registry, and data analysis from US and global organizations. One driver told Gizmodo he was approved in under four hours. Others wait over a month. According to a Flex contract furnished to Gizmodo, the only requirements to entry are modest: be 21 or older, pass Accurate Background’s vetting, own a smartphone with Flex installed, and have access to a car, bike, or public transportation. No company cars. No uniforms. Just a non-photo ID badge.

 The training is similarly minimal. One driver attended an optional hour-long training at an FC. A veteran driver alleged he was asked to participate in a conference call. The consistent element reported to Gizmodo was being made to watch approximately 20 videos which fresh Flexers view from the comfort of their phones. “Watch videos of their expectations of you and their rules, agree to the rules,” a Georgia-based driver said. “That’s about it.” No drivers reported being trained on matters of workplace safety, and as one UK-based driver succinctly put it, “honestly it seems they take on anyone.” Amazon declined to describe its Flex driver training except to say that videos were among the materials used in onboarding.

 Work is secured by grabbing “blocks” through the app, measured in hours, with an associated route and payout. Flex’s blocks cover multiple local arms of Amazon—including Fresh and Restaurants—but the two most common, based on individual testimony and online posts, are Logistics, which covers standard packages, and Prime Now which handles same-day purchases. Regardless, the procedure is largely the same once a driver lands a block: get in line behind the other cars at the FC, check in, receive a pre-sorted rolling cart or shelf of goods for the route, scan and pack them into the car, then follow the Flex app’s “suggested” driving directions to each stop.

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 A driver sharing his experience with and tips for Flex on YouTube

 Block length and package count vary considerably between Prime Now and Logistics: Prime Now blocks can be as little as two hours, while five hour blocks have reportedly been offered to Logistics drivers with larger vehicles; 15 packages for a slim Prime Now block and as many as 90 on a Logistics run. Amazon’s own Craigslist ads show compensation varies by location, but among the drivers Gizmodo spoke to, pay averaged $20.50/hr—not bad by the standards of the gig economy. And similar to Uber’s “surge pricing” in the rare event that blocks go unclaimed, Amazon will sometimes increase to incentivize drivers to accept it. Still, all but three drivers we spoke to did not consider Flex their primary means of income, and of those who did one also contracts with UberEats and Grubhub, another was seeking additional work, and the third alleged to have been deactivated by Amazon despite delivering through floodwaters in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

 Arguably Amazon Flex, like Uber, is best used as supplemental income, and for many drivers it works well for that purpose. For others it’s a necessity. In major cities like New York and San Francisco—coincidentally located in the states that employ the largest numbers of couriers—Uber can be a living. Flex can’t.

 A difficult road

 Despite being able to fulfill hundreds of millions of orders per year, drivers report Amazon’s data at the local level can be lacking, leading to misalignments between block times and package numbers. “The block that I signed up for was four hours, but when I got to the facility they were struggling to find something for me to do, so I only ended up having three packages to deliver,” a driver told Gizmodo of a recent block picked up from a newly-opened FC. But according to a more veteran driver, Amazon’s bad bets cut both ways. “They won’t pay you for working over your allotted block time,” he told Gizmodo. “They said it evens out because when you work a three hour block and finish in two they still pay you for three, but it doesn’t even out.” Another alleged that Amazon’s systems struggle to estimate door-to-door time or handling large apartment buildings, leading to a “99% probability that you will exceed your block end time.”

 Additionally, two drivers in completely different regions of the US both claimed Flexers’ hours are capped at 40 hours per week. “As [independent contractors], we should be able to work as much as we wish since we take the blocks we want to work. It used to not be this way when I first started working for them,” the San Antonio-based driver bemoaned. But lately, drivers at a number of FCs have found it harder and harder to secure enough hours for 40 hours to be a meaningful limitation. A Philadelphia-based driver told Gizmodo, “Last year when I started it was easy to secure two four hour blocks a day and I was complaining that they would put us on payroll locks so I wouldn’t exceed 40 hours a week. How times have changed!” Demand for those blocks and the desire to finish them quickly led to what one driver described as “physical fights [...] when someone tries to jump the line.”

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 Amazon would not comment on whether it caps drivers’ hours, but characterized the program as a part-time opportunity. It claimed, in a statement to Gizmodo, that it “received overwhelmingly positive response[s] from drivers participating in the program.” The company also suggested that workers seeking more traditional full-time arrangements are encouraged to apply elsewhere within Amazon.

 A number of drivers have alleged they’re reprimanded by FC workers if their vehicles are unable to fit all the packages for a block, and fear being “ticketed” for returning packages they weren’t able to deliver. One reported getting written up by one FC employee for following the explicit instructions of another.

 While in and of themselves these incidents tend not to have serious repercussions, as little as two incidents have led to drivers being deactivated. Amazon told Gizmodo that it has performance expectations for its contractors which it expects them to meet or exceed, and sometimes those metrics are used to justify a termination. Other times, being notified your time with Amazon Flex has ended comes as a vague boilerplate email about violating the program’s terms of service.

 A Flex contract provided to Gizmodo states that drivers “may provide Amazon with data about your use of such Licensed Materials, your geo-location and related tracking data, including your location, movements, speed at which you are traveling, and other personally identifiable information,” and that “ if you choose to deny Amazon access to this information, this could affect the availability and functionality of the Amazon Flex App and your participation in the Program.” Presumably, this data is used to increase the company’s own routing efficiency. While Amazon does not pay drivers for work if it exceeds a given block’s time, it’s unclear if Flex continues to track drivers while off-hours.

 Lack of oversight and scarcity of work through Flex have caused cheating to proliferate. Drivers turn to auto-tap applications like FRep and Repetitouch to scoop up blocks much faster than human fingers are capable of, and once these practices become widespread at an FC, more scrupulous drivers either stoop to these methods or accept that regular hours won’t be possible. Though nearly every Flexer we contacted was familiar with the use of these types of software only one admitted to using it personally. “Most drivers at my warehouse are using some form of bot or macro to secure blocks, including myself,” he wrote. “Though Amazon recently sent out a threatening email regarding their use (threatening to terminate us for using them). That email is the main reason why I’ve cut back on my own use of them.” Video uploaded to YouTube even appears to show one such app running on an iPhone left charging inside inside a Fulfillment Center, screen blinking away at a feverish pace. Amazon told Gizmodo such software violates its Terms of Service.

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 Neither FRep or Repetitouch were built specifically for Flex, according to their respective creators. “From what I heard, there are people who heavily rely on it for their income and apparently there’s a lot of competition for jobs in general. Thus, I’m not surprised that some Flex drivers try to get an edge,” Erwin Goslawski, the German student behind Reptitouch told Gizmodo. “I can imagine that this makes it rather difficult for other users to grab jobs, however, which makes it more likely that more and more users decide to use such tools.” Despite the enormous amount of access Amazon is afforded to its drivers’ phones, “botting” remains popular and poorly policed. At least one device was built specifically to increase the likeliness of landing blocks—the Flexbot. It’s creator, a former driver named Tim McDaniel who suffers from arthritis, claims to have made it “just to level the playing field to able-bodied folks,” though certainly some of the customers who have paid $130 for the contraption—a pair of Arduino-controlled mechanical fingers—do so to avoid detection by Amazon’s software. Unlike software alternatives, Amazon told Gizmodo that Flexbot does not violate its terms of service. McDaniel originally sold Flexbot 6 on Amazon, but had his account shut down after he “fell behind on customer relations.”

 Add to this a general sense of disorder, from simple issues of whether or not Flexers are allowed to drive with passengers, to integral aspects of the gig like when new blocks become available. “When Flex first started all blocks were released at 10 PM. Then they changed to all blocks being released exactly 24 hours in advance. Now they have changed to completely random times,” one driver told Gizmodo. “This causes us to have to constantly use our phone to look for blocks and waste time that we are not being paid for just to find work.”

 There’s no easy way for this disposable workforce to have their problems addressed. While drivers are given a support number, Flexers claim its only purpose is to assist during the course of a block—to get the door code to an apartment building, for instance. “There’s no liaison, just hot-headed warehouse managers that will terminate a driver for anything they want,” a driver reported. And from other testimony, terminations occur frequently and with little explanation. Boilerplate emails reprimanding drivers for supposedly missed packages contain little information: only the date of the infraction, but not the package or address. Whether the package was stolen or an unscrupulous customer merely took advantage of Amazon’s willingness to offer refunds, it’s the courier who takes the fall. “It’s frustrating because Amazon will always believe the customer,” a driver claimed, echoing the sentiments of many others. “Even with photo or bodycam evidence. We have no support. And one customer too many and we’ll get that termination email.”

 To combat confusing rules—due both to changes in the program over time and quirks of individual FCs—drivers tend to share information over closed Facebook groups, Reddit, and gig economy forum Uberpeople. The largest of these boasts a membership of over 20,000. According to a moderator of one such community, a change in the Flex program takes place approximately every six weeks, sometimes buried inside a Terms of Service update. Many of the posts in these digital break rooms can be summarized as: Here’s what happened to me. Is this normal? But no matter how experienced, the advice of other, equally powerless people can only go so far in certain situations.

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 So where can a driver go to resolve an issue or dispute their termination? That leaves one final option: Flex’s reviled support email line.

 “It’s as if they scan it for keywords and then have a copy-and-paste type response to everything,” a Detroit-based driver told Gizmodo. “Literally I got the same email twice.” Unfortunately this appears to be a common occurrence.

 Flex, as part of a pilot program Amazon is rumored to be using to take on UPS, Fedex and others, is a constantly shifting set of systems with a number of redundancies. Besides drivers, some cities also employ motor scooter couriers and—in Manhattan at least—“Johnny walkers” who gather around delivery trucks and roll their packages to buildings on foot. But by far the biggest threat to self-employed Flexers (and vice versa) are “white vans”—third-party local couriers Amazon also contracts to do last-mile work.

 Joining the fleet

 The arrangement is virtually the same as Flex, only scaled up to accommodate bigger vans and larger package counts—as many as 270 per run, according to one source—and with pay going to the company to distribute as it sees fit, rather than to individual drivers. The major draw for Amazon—though it declined to comment on most aspects of these local business arrangements—appears to be the ability to count on a reliable number of couriers all capable of hauling an equally reliable volume (300 cubic feet or large is the required van size) of parcels.

 Amazon considers these companies, just like individual Flexers, to be contractors, though drivers still have to run Amazon’s software while working, and still have to pass a check from Accurate Background. “We have to background check the guys [that deliver Amazon packages]. We have to use their background check company. They won’t even tell us what the criteria is,” a California-based courier business owner said with clear frustration. A dispatcher for another last-mile courier claimed that applicants who don’t pass Accurate Background’s vetting simply aren’t hired by the company he works for. UPS spokesman Dan McMackin told Gizmodo that Amazon is not a threat to UPS—whose drivers are both full employees and the single largest contingent of long-lived Teamsters labor union—because “ecommerce is bigger than one customer.” In his opinion, good courier work requires a skilled, consistent workforce, and retaining that pool of labor means providing solidly middle-class wages and benefits. However much he claims to dislike doing business with large, often pushy customers, the California courier said he finally agreed work with a company like Amazon because, “the writing’s on the wall that Amazon’s gonna take over the whole delivery industry in the next ten years.”

 “The writing’s on the wall that Amazon’s gonna take over the whole delivery industry in the next ten years.”

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 Worryingly, courier company owners allege their drivers can be individually deactivated from using the Flex app. “They tier people out, it’s called, because you get a tier one offense, you cannot log into the app anymore,” the California boss claimed. “Amazon does fire people.” But deactivation is only the most extreme action within a larger scheme of control. “Fulfillment center managers control [...] what drivers can come, what can’t,” a New Jersey courier company owner told Gizmodo. “If you make a mistake in there, if you have a mouth on you and use curse words, they don’t allow that whatsoever, and they’ll take you out in a heartbeat. They’ll even take out the whole company if they want to.”

 That capriciousness, coupled with having significantly more at stake, also explains why, of the many dozens of courier companies advertising for Amazon route drivers, only three spoke to Gizmodo about working with Amazon. One company owner, who did not agree to answer questions about his relationship with Amazon, wrote back in an email that “anything Amazon related is really not up to me to accept on interview or not.” Asked if such companies are under non-disclosure agreement, Amazon declined to comment.

 Worse still, Amazon has a history of contracting courier services that themselves subcontract their drivers, which led to it being named in lawsuits in 2015 (against Scoobeez) and 2016 (against Courier Logistics Services.) The complaints in these suits included failure to pay minimum wage, failure to compensate overtime, failure to provide meal periods, employee misclassification, and violations of the unfair competition law. Still, at least one recent hiring ad on Craigslist from a courier company explicitly sought independent contractors to run Amazon routes.

 Technically, all drivers in these arrangements are required by Amazon to be full employees of those local delivery outlets, not contractors like individual Flexers. Yet Amazon’s background check policy insinuates itself into the hiring decisions these companies are able to make—especially if Amazon is provides the lion’s share of work for these local outfits—and testimony around pushy FC workers and app deactivations suggests Amazon also wields the power to functionally fire drivers as well. Amazon declined to comment specifically on any facet of its arrangement with third-party couriers, except to confirm that they are subject to the same background checks.

 Over the limit

 “I do think that Amazon is breaking the law. I think it’s breaking the law in a pretty widespread way,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney well known within courier circles for representing drivers from Lyft, Grubhub, Uber, and more recently few Amazon Flex, told Gizmodo. Though Amazon would likely disagree, the legality of the relatively new mass-contractor model remains an open question.

 “I do think that Amazon is breaking the law. I think it’s breaking the law in a pretty widespread way.”

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 The way Liss-Riordan sees it, the issue at hand is labor misclassification: Amazon and similar companies pay drivers to do the work of employees, but treat them as independent contractors, denying them basic amenities like health care, benefits, and workers’ compensation in the event of an on-the-job injury—something which two of the drivers we spoke to reported experiencing. As Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel and program director for the National Employment Law Project, explained, the determination of whether a worker is doing the job of a contractor or employee comes down to a few key factors: among them, the right to control how the work is done, its permanence, the level of specialization required, and how integrated it is into the business paying for it.

 Some of the drivers we spoke to had run deliveries for Flex for up to two years, which suggests continuing rather than gig-based work. And where integration is concerned, the Prime Now arm of Flex is particularly suspect, in Ruckelshaus’s opinion. “If Amazon’s promoting one-day delivery, that’s likely to be found to be integrated to Amazon’s overall products or services that it’s providing to customers,” she said.

 Most damning though is Amazon’s apparent level of micromanagement. “If something’s relatively low-skill, you don’t have to show that the company, like an Amazon, told them exactly ‘take a left here, take a right there, drop this package off first,’ they mostly just want you to go from A to B, get this thing done, they don’t tell you how to get the thing done,” Ruckelshaus said. “So if Amazon is actually taking that amount of detailed oversight and control, that’s very powerful, strong evidence that it has the right to control because it’s actually exercising control over pretty minute details of the job.”

 If Amazon has been engaging in misclassification on a massive scale, why haven’t there been lawsuits? Beyond the expense of retaining legal representation, Flex’s terms of service also include an arbitration agreement which waives drivers’ rights to a class-action lawsuit against Amazon. It’s a common practice for comparable gigs, affecting some 25 million contracts. And though the version of the Flex contract made available to Gizmodo gives drivers the ability to opt out within two weeks of signing, it seems few do. Individual drivers looking to escalate an issue can’t bring it to court, keeping whatever ruling might have resulted from becoming valuable case law.

 “These companies have been very effective at wielding their arbitration clauses,” Liss-Riordan said. The result, in Ruckelshaus’s view, is that “the company doesn’t feel the heat because it doesn’t have to pay off all of its drivers, it only has to pay off the ones that bring their claims, and then nobody else knows—Did that guy win? What happened? It’s harder to change the practices across an entire company when it’s individual private arbitration.” While drivers are free to opt in to Liss-Riordan’s current Flex suit, the class-action gag keeps her from sending notice to driver who might benefit from joining.

 Compounding the difficulty of driver going up against a powerful and well-insulated company, of the governmental and regulatory regulatory agencies Gizmodo reached out to for comment on Amazon’s business practices, few seem to have ever heard of the Flex program or have an official stance on it. Even the National Labor Relations Board, which by its own description “acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices,” declined to comment on Flex, and further declined to comment on whether or not Flex even fell under the purview of the agency. Mounting regulatory pressure against Uber may have led Instacart to start walking back it’s contractor model, but no such outrage is directed at Flex, one imagines, because so few people even know it exists.

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 Both lawyers seemed most troubled to see these practices employed by a company of the size and wealth of Amazon. “It’s too bad that Amazon is continuing to pursue these structures, because it doesn’t have to. All it has to do is pay the minimum wage, that’s all,” Ruckelshaus said, sounding defeated. “It seems like they’re jumping through a lot of hoops to avoid being an employer for not really a good economic reason.” Similarly, Liss-Riordan, pointing to structural legal issues, said that “difficulties in enforcement are leading a company like Amazon, which is a major player and obviously could afford to do it right, to lead it to shift to a system where more and more of its drivers don’t have the benefits of employment.”

 “It’s too bad that Amazon is continuing to pursue these structures, because it doesn’t have to.”

 Flex is indicative of two alarming trends: the unwillingness of legislators to curb harmful practices of tech behemoths run amok, and a shift towards less protected, more precarious opportunities in a stagnant job market. Under the current administration, it’s unlikely either will receive the attention it deserves. There is a glimmer of hope for Liss-Riordan and the scores of Flexers she hopes to help though. On October 2nd, the US Supreme Court’s new term began. Among its cases is one which will determine the legality of arbitration clauses like the one Amazon uses to shield itself against the drivers it refuses to acknowledge as employees.

 The constantly shifting, secretive nature of Amazon makes it difficult to report its activities to the public. If you have information about company, we’d like to hear from you. Reach out to the author via email with tips or to request secure communications through Signal, Wickr, or SecureDrop.

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