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Walmart to Broaden Drone Delivery Service to Three Additional States

Walmart to Broaden Drone Delivery Service to Three Additional States

Yahoo11-06-2025

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is one of the best Dow stocks to invest in.
The company is expanding its drone delivery service to three additional states, aiming to boost convenience for its customers. The retail giant announced plans to roll out the service at 100 locations over the next year in cities including Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa. This expansion will bring drone deliveries to a total of five states: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas.
Customers can place orders through the app of Wing, the drone operator partnering with Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT). These drones can deliver within a six-mile radius of participating stores.
The move is part of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)'s broader strategy to stay competitive with rivals like Amazon by enhancing convenience alongside affordability. Leveraging its network of over 4,600 stores nationwide, Walmart has been focusing on faster delivery options. It already offers Express Delivery for rapid doorstep service and InHome, a subscription program that delivers directly to customers' refrigerators. The retailer also expanded same-day prescription delivery, which it introduced last fall.
Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is expanding its drone delivery service in response to high customer demand for fast, urgent deliveries like medicine, eggs, and fresh food. The service promises 30-minute delivery times, with over half of in-store items eligible.
Since 2021, Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has completed over 150,000 drone deliveries, though a previous plan to scale to 4 million homes fell short. It currently operates 21 drone sites in Arkansas and Texas through partners Wing and Zipline.
While we acknowledge the potential of WMT as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
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Graph Shows US Births Decline Over 50 Years
Graph Shows US Births Decline Over 50 Years

Newsweek

timean hour ago

  • Newsweek

Graph Shows US Births Decline Over 50 Years

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Newsweek has created a graph to show how births in the United States have declined over the last 50 years. This has happened for every age group, fluctuating across the decades, rising steadily in the 1980s and 1990s, and declining sharply after 2008, according to the U.N. Population Division. The Context America is one of many countries around the world struggling with falling birth rates. Fertility rates are projected to average 1.6 births per woman over the next three decades, according to the Congressional Budget Office's latest forecast released this year. This number is well below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman required to maintain a stable population without immigration. The Donald Trump administration has made this issue one of its priorities, the White House exploring giving women a "baby bonus" of $5,000, according to an April New York Times report. The Birth Rate Situation In America Different age groups have been affected differently by the shift in births. While mothers between the ages of 50 and 54 had no babies in 1975, this number gradually increased to more than 100 over the years and was 159 in 2024. Conversely, teen pregnancies have drastically and consistently declined since 1975, when there were 599,926 before this number started to go down in the early 2000s, to 136,376 in 2024. The issue with a lower number of births, taking place while the elderly live longer, means that is that the country is headed for a time when there are more elderly, dependent people than there are working-age people. At the beginning of this year, a report by the McKinsey Global Institute warned that major economies are heading toward a "population collapse" by 2100 because of falling fertility rates. Trump said during a speech in December: "We want more babies, to put it nicely." Many trying to tackle this issue have focused on public health policies and financial plans, often citing the 2008 financial crisis, its effect on housing, inflation and pay as a major contributor to why people delay having children, have fewer of them or to not have them at all. Parental leave, improved childcare services, and financial independence in general are all things advocates call for in the hopes of making it easier for people to have children. Earlier this month, Trump announced a $1,000 tax-deferred investment account for American babies born during his second term. The White House said the so-called "Trump Accounts" will "afford a generation of children the chance to experience the miracle of compounded growth and set them on a course for prosperity from the very beginning." Meanwhile, the United States could make childbirth free for privately insured families, in an effort to tackle declining birth rates. The bipartisan Supporting Healthy Moms and Babies Act, which would designate maternity care as an essential health benefit under the Affordable Care Act, was introduced in the Senate in May. Beth Jarosz, a senior program director of U.S. programs at the Population Reference Bureau, said that "reducing health care costs is important, but may not be enough to move the needle on births." "The cost of childbirth is just one of the many costs of having a child, and people are also reeling from the much bigger costs of child care, housing, and other necessities," she told Newsweek. Culture's Impact On America's Birth Rates However, while financial concerns are generally accepted as a major contributor to declining birth rates, they are not the lone cause. Bell said that even the policies she calls for "are also unlikely to increase the birth rate, as evidence from other countries with much more supportive policies suggest." Norway is considered a global leader in parental leave and child care policies, and the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) ranks it among the top countries for family-friendly policies. But it, too, is facing a birth rate crisis. The Nordic country offers parents 12 months of shared paid leave for birth and an additional year each afterward. It also made kindergarten (similar to a U.S. day care) a statutory right for all children aged 1 or older in 2008. And yet, Norway's fertility rate has dropped dramatically from 1.98 children per woman in 2009 to 1.44 children per woman in 2024, according to official figures. The rate for 2023 (1.40) was the lowest ever recorded fertility rate in the country. Newsweekspoke to several experts about Norway specifically, who all cited recent culture changes. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty For example, "young adults are more likely to live alone" and "young couples split up more frequently than before," Rannveig Kaldager Hart, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health's Centre for Fertility and Health, said. American Vice President JD Vance touched on cultural changes when he said in January: "We failed a generation not only by permitting a culture of abortion on demand but also by neglecting to help young parents achieve the ingredients they need to lead a happy and meaningful life. "Our society has failed to recognize the obligation that one generation has to another as a core part of living in a society. So let me say very simply, I want more babies in the United States of America."

Social Security's 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Estimate Is Getting a "Trump Bump" -- Here's How Much Extra You Might Receive
Social Security's 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Estimate Is Getting a "Trump Bump" -- Here's How Much Extra You Might Receive

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Social Security's 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Estimate Is Getting a "Trump Bump" -- Here's How Much Extra You Might Receive

As many as nine out of 10 retirees rely on their Social Security income to cover some portion of their expenses. Estimates for Social Security's 2026 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) are climbing, and President Trump's tariff and trade policy looks to be the culprit. Though an above-average COLA for a fifth-consecutive year would be welcome on paper, retirees continue to get the short end of the stick when it comes to annual raises. The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook › Last month, Social Security's retired-worker benefit made history, with the average payout topping $2,000 for the first time since the program's inception. Although this represents a modest monthly benefit, it's nevertheless proved vital to helping aging workers cover their expenses. In each of the prior 23 years, pollster Gallup surveyed retirees about their reliance on the Social Security income they're receiving. Between 80% and 90% of respondents noted it was a "major" or "minor" income source. In other words, only around one in 10 retirees could, in theory, make do without their Social Security check. For an overwhelming majority of Social Security beneficiaries, nothing is more important than knowing precisely how much they'll receive each month -- and that begins with the program's annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which is announced during the second week of October. This year's COLA announcement will be of particular interest, with President Donald Trump's tariff and trade policies expected to directly affect how much Social Security beneficiaries will receive per month in 2026. But before digging into the specifics of how President Trump's policies are expected to impact the pocketbooks of seniors, survivors, and workers with disabilities, it's important to understand the building blocks of what Social Security's COLA is and why it matters. The program's COLA is effectively the "raise" passed along on a near-annual basis that accounts for the impact of inflation (rising prices) on benefits. For example, if a large basket of goods and services increased in cost by 3% from one year to the next, Social Security benefits would need to climb by a commensurate amount, or buying power for Social Security recipients would decrease. In the 35 years following the issuance of the first retired-worker check in January 1940, COLAs were assigned at random by special sessions of Congress. Only a total of 11 COLAs were passed along during this timeline, with no adjustments made in the 1940s. Beginning in 1975, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) was adopted as Social Security's inflationary measure that would allow for annual cost-of-living adjustments. The CPI-W has over 200 spending categories, each of which has its own unique percentage weighting. These weightings are what allow the CPI-W to be expressed as a single figure each month, which leads to crisp month-to-month and year-to-year comparisons to see if prices are, collectively, rising (inflation) or declining (deflation). When calculating Social Security's COLA, only CPI-W readings from the third quarter (July through September) are taken into consideration. If the average CPI-W reading in the third quarter of the current year is higher than the comparable period of the previous year, inflation has occurred, and beneficiaries are due for a beefier payout. Following a decade of anemic raises in the 2010s -- three years during the decade (2010, 2011, and 2016) saw no COLA passed along due to deflation -- beneficiaries have enjoyed four consecutive years of above-average cost-of-living adjustments and are hoping for this streak to continue. A historic increase in U.S. money supply during the COVID-19 pandemic sent the prevailing rate of inflation soaring to a four-decade high. This resulted in COLAs of 5.9% in 2022, 8.7% in 2023, 3.2% in 2024, and 2.5% in 2025, respectively. For context, the average annual increase in benefits since 2010 is 2.3%. While estimates for Social Security's 2026 cost-of-living adjustment came in below this average shortly after President Donald Trump took office for his nonconsecutive second term, the script has now been flipped. Nonpartisan senior advocacy group The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) was forecasting a 2.2% COLA for 2026 as recently as March. Meanwhile, independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst Mary Johnson, who retired from TSCL last year, was calling for a 2.2% increase in April following the release of the March inflation report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). After the release of the May inflation report from the BLS, both TSCL and Johnson are now forecasting a 2026 COLA of 2.5%. A 2.5% COLA would increase the average retired-worker benefit by $50 per month next year, as well as lift monthly checks for the typical worker with disabilities and survivor beneficiary by $40 and $39, respectively. This 0.3% increase in both forecasts over the past couple of months is estimated to boost the average Social Security payout (for all beneficiaries) by approximately $5.57 per month in 2026. This "Trump bump" is the result of the president's tariff and trade policies having a very modest inflationary impact on domestic prices. Charging a global import duty on all countries while imposing higher "reciprocal tariff rates" on dozens of countries that have historically run adverse trade imbalances with the U.S. can result in these higher costs being passed along to consumers. Though a lot can change with Trump's tariff and trade policy in the coming weeks and months, its current design points to a modest bump in the 2026 COLA. On paper, a fifth consecutive year where COLAs are above average (compared to the previous 16 years) probably sounds great. With the average retired-worker payout cresting $2,000 per month, an added $50 per month would be welcome in 2026. But the fact of the matter is that a 0.3% bump in COLA estimates since Trump introduced his tariff and trade policy doesn't remotely move the needle when it comes to what retirees have been shortchanged for more than a decade. Though the CPI-W is designed to be an all-encompassing measure of inflation, it has an inherent flaw that can be seen in its full name. Specifically, it tracks the spending habits of "urban wage earners and clerical workers," who, in many instances, are working-age Americans not currently receiving a Social Security benefit. Urban wage earners and clerical workers spend their money very differently than seniors. Whereas the former has a higher percentage of their monthly budgets devoted to things like education, apparel, and transportation, seniors spend a higher percentage on shelter and medical care services. Even though an overwhelming majority of Social Security beneficiaries are aged 62 and above, the CPI-W doesn't factor in this added importance of shelter and medical care services inflation. The end result for retirees has been a persistent decline in the buying power of a Social Security dollar. According to a study conducted by TSCL, the purchasing power of a Social Security dollar has dropped by 20% since 2010. A very modest "Trump bump" isn't going to offset this. What's more, the aforementioned two costs that matter most to retirees -- shelter and medical care services -- have had higher trailing-12-month (TTM) inflation rates than the annually issued Social Security COLA. The BLS inflation report for May showed TTM increases of 3.9% for shelter and 3% for medical care services, respectively. As long as the program's cost-of-living adjustment trails the annual inflation rate for these two key expenses, retirees will continue getting the short end of the stick. If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. One easy trick could pay you as much as $23,760 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Join Stock Advisor to learn more about these Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Social Security's 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Estimate Is Getting a "Trump Bump" -- Here's How Much Extra You Might Receive was originally published by The Motley Fool

Those security codes you ask to receive via text leave your accounts vulnerable. Do this instead
Those security codes you ask to receive via text leave your accounts vulnerable. Do this instead

Fast Company

time2 hours ago

  • Fast Company

Those security codes you ask to receive via text leave your accounts vulnerable. Do this instead

Do you receive login security codes for your online accounts via text message? These are the six- or seven-digit numbers sent via SMS that you need to enter along with your password when trying to access your bank accounts, health records, online photos, and more. This type of security is known as multifactor authentication (MFA) and is designed to keep your account secure even if someone knows your password. Without the additional security code, bad actors can't gain access to your data. Or at least that's the idea. It's increasingly becoming evident that security codes sent by text message may leave our data less secure than we thought. Fortunately, there are other, more secure ways to keep your accounts safe. Here's why it's probably a good idea to stop using SMS for your security codes, and what you can use instead. An opaque security code industry You may think that the text message you receive with the code you need to log into your account is coming from Amazon, Google, Meta, or whoever provides the service you are logging into. But it's probably not—and therein lies the security risk. Bloomberg and Lighthouse Reports just released an alarming report revealing that some of the most prominent tech companies recommending that users enable multifactor authentication—including Amazon, Google, and Meta—have used third-party companies to send their security codes to users via text. Some of these third-party companies have been linked to institutions in the surveillance industry and even government spy agencies. Additionally, some of the security codes that these third-party companies were responsible for transmitting have been associated with data breaches of individuals' accounts. Worse: the intermediaries operating in this space do so with little oversight from their tech giant clients or regulators. And Bloomberg and Lighthouse Reports' piece isn't the first to warn about the vulnerability that texted security codes expose users to. In December, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a warning to the public, urging people to migrate away from receiving security codes via text. 'Do not use SMS as a second factor for authentication,' the CISA's memo warned. 'SMS messages are not encrypted—a threat actor with access to a telecommunication provider's network who intercepts these messages can read them.' But this vulnerability in texted security codes doesn't mean you should revert to using merely a password to access your accounts. Instead, you should consider a superior form of multifactor authentication—or upgrade to passwordless logins entirely. Get your security codes from an authenticator app instead Some websites and services are stuck in the past when it comes to multifactor authentication. That is, these websites do offer their users MFA, but only give the option of receiving security codes via text message—something the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency now warns against. Thankfully, plenty of websites offer a more secure way to receive security codes: via an authenticator app. Simply put, an authenticator app is an application that resides on your phone or computer, storing all the various security codes for your online accounts that have multifactor authentication enabled. The code for each account in the authenticator app is unique, and it changes every 30 seconds. When you need to log in to a site that you have set up with multifactor authentication, you'll be prompted to enter your security code, which can be found in your authenticator app. And since these authenticator app codes always reside on your device, they can never be intercepted in transit, because they are never sent to you in the first place. Regardless of whether you use Windows, Mac, iPhone, or Android, you have numerous authenticator apps to choose from. These include Apple's own Passwords app, Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, LastPass Authenticator, and more. Even better, start using passkeys While authenticator apps are vastly more secure than text messages for getting your security codes, the safest login method no longer relies on codes—or even passwords—at all. I'm referring to passkeys, the passwordless login technology spearheaded by the FIDO Alliance, a consortium of tech companies including Amazon, Apple, Dell, Google, Meta, Microsoft, NTT, Samsung, and others. Passkeys are cryptographically complex from a technology perspective, but easy to use from a consumer perspective. When you add a passkey for one of your online accounts, you get one digital key, saved to your device, and the website gets a matching key. When you log into that website, the passkeys must match; otherwise, you won't get access to the account. You verify that you are the true holder of your passkey by confirming your identity with your biometrics—a facial or fingerprint scan, right from your phone or laptop. Passkeys can't be phished or guessed. And if one of your passkeys were stolen and put on someone else's device, it wouldn't work either. That's because the thief couldn't fool the passkey into thinking they were you since they don't have your face or fingerprint. And because passkeys don't require any alphanumeric input authentication—such as security codes—there's no code you need to worry about either. Passkeys are also synced to the cloud via your device's password manager, so if you lose your device, you can quickly regain access to all your passkeys from your, for example, Apple or Google account. The only drawback to passkeys is that not all online accounts support them. Still, each month, more and more sites are offering users the option for passkey logins. However, if your accounts don't support passkeys yet, you should still enable multifactor authentication. Just remember to opt to receive your security codes via an authenticator app rather than a text message.

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