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Amazon Web Services has confirmed that customer data hosted in its Bahrain and United Arab Emirates regions was permanently lost following Iranian drone strikes on data centers six months ago. AWS said one of three UAE availability zones and all three Bahrain zones suffered damage beyond what its backup systems could withstand, and it remains unable to restore access to some resources.
Amazon's Prime membership bundles a wide range of benefits beyond fast shipping, including Prime Video streaming with originals and live sports, member-only discounts, and early access to Lightning Deals. The company confirmed its next Prime Big Deal Days event will run October 6-7, following an earlier Prime Day held in June. WIRED noted it only recommends deals its team has personally tested, rather than covering all promotions indiscriminately.
Amazon Web Services has confirmed that customer data hosted in its Bahrain and United Arab Emirates data centers was permanently lost following Iranian drone strikes in March. The damage wiped out data across all three availability zones in Bahrain and one of three zones in the UAE, with AWS saying the destruction exceeded what its systems were built to survive. Amazon had already halted billing in the affected regions and spent six months trying to restore services before disclosing the losses.
Amazon has discounted the BLUETTI Elite 10 Mini Portable Power Station from its $199 list price to $119, a 40% cut. The compact unit uses a 128Wh LiFePO4 battery with 200W AC output and includes 10ms UPS switching for light electronics like routers and laptops.
Amazon has discounted the HyperDrive Next Thunderbolt 5 Dock to $319.99, an $80 cut from its $399.99 list price, matching its lowest price to date. The dock combines a Thunderbolt 5 hub with a built-in M.2 NVMe SSD enclosure, letting users store files directly inside the unit rather than using a separate external drive.
Amazon is selling the 40mm Bluetooth version of Samsung's Galaxy Watch 8 for $259.99, a $40 cut from its $299.99 list price. The watch runs Wear OS 6 with One UI 8 Watch, offers up to 40 hours of battery life, and includes health tracking features tied to Samsung Health and Galaxy AI.
Amazon is currently selling the Google Pixel 10a for $424, a 15% markdown from its $499 list price. The mid-range 2026 Pixel features a 6.3-inch Actua display, Tensor G4 chip, 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, a 5,100mAh battery, and a 48MP main camera. This is the lowest price outside of the earlier Prime Day sale.
Amazon has discounted Samsung's 2025 flagship HW-Q990F soundbar system by 33%, cutting $600 off the package price. The bundle includes an 11.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar along with a subwoofer and rear surround speakers.
Amazon has acknowledged that its Bahrain AWS Region (me-south-1) suffered irreversible damage from Iranian missile and drone strikes during the US-Iran conflict, rendering hosted data and resources permanently inaccessible. The company also reported ongoing operational issues at its UAE region, where one availability zone was destroyed and two others are still being assessed for recovery.
Amazon Web Services disclosed on September 15 that drone strikes attributed to Iran destroyed data center infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain so severely that customer data and resources could not be recovered. AWS said the damage crossed multiple availability zones, exceeding the redundancy built into its regional and multi-zone systems, following earlier strikes in March and April that had already caused structural, power and fire-related damage.
Amazon has raised the minimum hourly wage for its frontline warehouse staff by $1, bringing starting pay to $20 an hour just as the company enters its busiest shopping period. The change affects hundreds of thousands of workers across its fulfillment network.
Amazon received warrants to buy up to 1.69 million Generac shares at $200.93 each, potentially worth up to $8 billion, as part of a deal for Generac to supply backup power generators to Amazon's data centers. Generac shares jumped more than 40% in after-hours trading following the news, with initial generator deliveries expected to total $2.4 billion between 2027 and 2028.