In what may go down as a defining 2021 moment, Amazon has unveiled kiosks to help overworked employees destress, Vice has reported. Called the "ZenBooth," it's a tiny "mindful practice room" about the size of an old-school phone booth. There, works can practice the company's "AmaZen" program which guides them "through mindfulness practices in individual interactive kiosks at buildings," the company said. The booths are part of Amazon's WorkingWell program announced earlier this month.

In practice, employees sit in the tiny booth equipped with plants, pamphlets, a fan and a computer that can play employee-selected videos. As Amazon has touted, it was invented by an employee named Leila Brown. "With AmaZen I wanted to create a space that’s quiet, that people could go and focus on their mental and emotional well-being," she said. "The ZenBooth is an interactive kiosk where you can navigate through a library of mental health and mindful practices to recharge the internal battery."

The booths arrive at a time when Amazon is coming under fire for its employee quotas and workplace injuries above the industry average. It has also been criticized for issues like grueling 10-hour shifts and anti-union intimidation.

the AmaZen “ZenBooth” is here! a Porta Potty would be more useful to its intensely exploited and surveilled workers but I appreciate Amazon’s commitment to the bit https://t.co/U0GLysPqkP

Amazon was lampooned over the dystopian idea of supplying a meditation booth rather than dealing with basic worker rights. "I feel like liveable wages & working conditions are better than a mobile Despair Closet," tweeted user Talia Lavin. Another Twitter user, Alex Press, noted that a portable toilet would actually be more useful (above).

It's not clear when Amazon workers would even be able to use the booths. Workers recently sued the company for failing to schedule legally required 30-minute breaks then forcing employees to monitor their walkie-talkies if any problems arose. Employees also complained about "chronically understaffed" shifts that left them unable to take 10-minute rest breaks.

The Taliban have carried out hundreds of human rights violations in Afghanistan since seizing power last year, the United Nations said Wednesday, including extra judicial killings and torture.

MUMBAI (Reuters) -Lawmakers chose India's first president from the country's tribal communities on Thursday, which could boost the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party among marginalised groups ahead of the 2024 general election. Droupadi Murmu, a 64-year-old teacher turned politician, will be the second woman to hold the largely ceremonial role as head of the republic when she takes office on July 25 at the start of a five-year term. More than 4,500 state and federal lawmakers voted in the presidential election on Monday and ballots were counted on Thursday.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko Thursday said Russia, Ukraine and the West must agree to halt the Ukraine conflict to avoid the "abyss of nuclear war" and insisted Kyiv should accept Moscow's demands.

Japan will hold a state funeral for assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe on September 27, the government announced Friday, with foreign leaders expected to attend.

US planemaker Boeing triumphed this week as it scooped up more orders than its European rival Airbus at the first Farnborough Airshow since aviation was ravaged by Covid.

President Joe Biden, thwarted by lawmakers and the Supreme Court, sought Wednesday to revive his ambitions to tackle climate change as heat waves batter the United States and Europe.

Zubair was arrested by Delhi police on 27 June following a complaint by an anonymous Twitter user

After 18 stages of intense struggle, Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard put one hand on the 2022 Tour de France title on Thursday as defending champion and closest rival Tadej Pogacar wilted in the Pyrenees.

The Asian Development Bank on Thursday slashed its 2022 growth forecast for developing Asia and warned economic conditions could worsen, as the war in Ukraine and supply chain disruptions drive up prices.

As 90-year-old Indian woman Reena Varma stands on the balcony of the house in Pakistan where she was born, visiting on Wednesday for the first in 75 years, she recalls her playful childhood. "I would stand here and sing," said Varma, as her eyes filled with tears. Varma has vivid memories of the day she and her family left the small, three-storey home tucked away in the narrow alleys of the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where residents showered her with rose petals on her arrival on Wednesday.

Facebook has removed the accounts of at least two state-owned media outlets in Afghanistan, the company confirmed Thursday, saying it was complying with laws in the United States listing the Taliban as a "terrorist organisation".

While her election bodes well for tribal representation, analysts say there will be little impact on the federal government’s ‘anti-indigenous policies’

Snapchat's owner plans to "substantially" slow recruitment after bleak results Thursday wiped 25 percent off the stock price of the tech firm, which is facing difficulties on several fronts.

Disciplinary action, including financial penalties, will be taken against the two navy servicemen who had posed as student volunteers to solicit donations from HDB residents.

Ukraine and Russia were due Friday to sign an elusive deal designed to help relieve a global food crisis caused by blocked Black Sea grain exports.

Inside Koichi Miyatsu's blue, child-sized backpack are neatly folded cartoon-print sweatshirts and a pair of white sneakers -- all he has from before he was left at Japan's only "baby hatch".

The United States on Wednesday promised to send more precision rocket systems to Kyiv, soon after Moscow signaled it was aiming to seize more Ukrainian territory beyond the eastern industrial region of Donbas.

India's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release on bail of a prominent journalist arrested last month over what police said was a "highly provocative" 2018 tweet aimed at straining ties between majority Hindus and minority Muslims. Mohammed Zubair, a co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News and vocal critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was arrested after an anonymous Twitter user lodged a complaint over the four-year-old post. While granting Zubair bail, the judges stated that "power of arrests must be pursued sparingly".

Sri Lanka's six-time prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was set to be sworn in as president Thursday, with officials saying he would set up an all-party unity cabinet to confront the country's economic crisis.

Wickremesinghe received 134 votes putting him ahead of Dullas Alahapperuma, his main rival