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U.S. autonomous drone delivery and logistics startup Zipline said Wednesday it will set up operations in Houston and Phoenix early this year, as part of an expansion that will be propelled by $600 million in fresh investment. The round, which values the company at $7.6 billion, will be used to expand to at least four U.S. states in 2026, the company said. Several existing and new investors, including Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, and Tiger Global participated in the funding round. Founded in 2014, Zipline developed its own drone delivery ecosystem, including the logistics software,...

(NewsNation) — It’s never been easier to tap a button and have dinner show up at your door, but the line between convenience and cost is drawing new attention. A recent New York Times story explored the rise of America’s food-delivery culture, prompting fresh scrutiny of how much people are spending on apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub. The Times spoke to a 34-year-old woman in San Diego with a $50,000 annual salary who said she spends at least $200 to $300 a week on food delivery — a pattern she said has eaten away at her savings. Another...

Huang Kaihong, often described online as 'China’s loneliest rider', works in Medog county in Nyingchi, located in the Tibet region of south-western China. Medog, which sits at the foothills of the Himalayas and has a population of fewer than 15,000 people, was the last county in the country to gain road access, South China Morning Post reported.A 24-year-old delivery rider has become an essential link for residents and businesses in one of China’s most isolated counties, handling up to 200 orders a day as the only full-time delivery worker in the area. Huang Kaihong, often described online as “China’s loneliest...

A foul-mouthed Amazon delivery driver was caught on a doorbell camera criticizing the customers, claiming they would buy slaves if the tech giant sold them. The unidentified worker began his rant as he approached the front door of a home in the Detroit suburb of Redford Township, Michigan. “Got a million multi stops because these people out here in Dearborn Heights, they can’t go anywhere and get their own f------ s--- so now I’m sitting out here delivering a million packages to a million and f------ one houses,” the Amazon worker said, according to video obtained by ABC 7 Detroit....

Everyone loves a good party, even when they're behind bars. One shindig at a South Carolina prison was ruined, however, when authorities intercepted a drone carrying items needed for a heck of a crab boil. A photo from the Bishopville prison showed a raw steak still in the grocery store packing, crab legs and Old Bay with side plastic baggies of marijuana and a couple of cartons of cigarettes. The drone was also seized Sunday morning, authorities said. All in Piggly Wiggly bags, so you know it's high quality.

Nov 18 (Reuters) - Kroger (KR.N) will close three automated delivery fulfillment facilities and record an impairment charge of about $2.6 billion in its third quarter, as the U.S. grocer expands its third-party delivery partnerships. The company said on Tuesday it would shutter the centers it operates with British online supermarket and technology group Ocado (OCDO.L) in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Florida in January, while monitoring the rest. Kroger, which had partnered with Ocado in 2018 to deploy the company's Smart Platform for automated fulfillment centers, expects the closures to have no impact on its core sales. Ocado said it would...

The timing of Israel’s plan to attack Iran was top-secret. But Washington pizza delivery trackers guessed something was up before the first bombs fell. About an hour before Iranian state TV first reported loud explosions in Tehran, pizza orders around the Pentagon went through the roof, according to a viral X account claiming to offer “hot intel” on “late-night activity spikes” at the US military headquarters. “As of 6:59 pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity,” the account Pentagon Pizza Report posted on Thursday. Not confining its analysis to pizza, the...

When food delivery “superapps” started operations in Indonesia, users started putting on weight – and that’s not an entirely bad thing. So argue the authors of a University of Bonn Center for Development Research paper [PDF] published this month. Titled “Impact of Super Apps on the Nutrition Transition in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Evidence from Indonesia”, the paper considers health data from Indonesia covering the years 2015 to 2018 – a time that coincides with widespread the widespread adoption of “superapps” Grab and Gojek. The authors found that the debut of food delivery apps saw an increase in body mass...

CNBC just reported the following:https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/04/amazon-sued-by-dc-ag-over-excluding-areas-from-prime-delivery.htmlAmazon sued by DC attorney general for allegedly excluding neighborhoods from Prime deliveryDecember 4, 2024Washington, D.C.’s attorney general sued Amazonon Wednesday, accusing the company of covertly depriving residents in certain ZIP codes in the nation’s capital from access to Prime’s high-speed delivery.The lawsuit from AG Brian Schwalb alleges that, since 2022, Amazon has “secretly excluded” two “historically underserved” D.C. ZIP codes from its expedited delivery service while charging Prime members living there the full subscription price. Amazon’s Prime membership program costs $139 a year and includes perks like two-day shipping and access to streaming content.“Amazon is...

Good news: Your package has been delivered. Bad news: It isn’t on your porch, under the mailboxes or in a package room, if you have one. Unfortunately, your package might have been stolen by a porch pirate, like an estimated 120.5 million last year in the United States, according to a study by SafeWise. More people shopping online during the holiday season means more packages — and an increased risk of theft. This year, holiday spending is expected to reach a record high of $902 per person, with 57 percent of adults opting to shop online, according to a survey...

Experts urge consumers to keep an eye on packages they never orderedThe U.S. Postal Service has warned about the scam in the past, which uses unexpected gifts delivered to a doorstep to lure victims. Brushing scams are an emerging threat to unsuspecting consumers as Black Friday shopping begins. The first type of the scam begins when fraudsters gain information such as a name and home address. From there, scammers will set up an Amazon account with the victim’s information and send a package to the targeted person’s home with no return address. “Once you have signed to confirm receipt of...

BOMBSHELL - the United States Postal Service recently changed the delivery method of absentee mail-in ballots! They are hiding the evidence of absentee mail-in ballot fraud - by not allowing the evidence to be created in the first place. Here's how and what changed: You can't get the absentee mail-in vote ballot images from the USPS because they are not sending them to the central sorting facilities! Normally, you mail a letter to someone or a bill goes out, it goes to your local post office, then it gets to a central sorting facility. Wisconsin for example has six: Madison,...

"...just pretend you got a tip like you pretend you're a girl..."

Migrants in the District of Columbia are driving unregistered mopeds and motorcycles, making food deliveries on popular apps, such as Uber Eats and DoorDash—violating both companies’ terms of use in the process. In April, The Daily Signal launched an investigation into the unprecedented rise in motorcycle and moped traffic in Washington, D.C. The news outlet uncovered that drivers, many of whom entered the country illegally over the past four years, were operating unregistered motorized vehicles in broad daylight, facing no consequences for those actions. Following The Daily Signal’s reporting, D.C. police launched Operation Ride Right to clamp down on these...

HOUSTON – A Houston woman is in custody after firing a weapon towards a food delivery driver after a dispute from an order. On Friday, police say Jalyn Searcy-Williams, 24, ordered alcohol on DoorDash, but the driver refused to leave it at the location because the original purchaser was not present. In response, Searcy-Williams fired a gun at him. Deputies responded to the 12500 block of May Laurel Dr. after a nearby resident reported hearing the gunfire. Searcy-Williams was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. According to Constable Mark Herman, her bond has not been set...

Ukraine will reportedly need to wait up to an additional half year before receiving the F-16 fighter jets promised to the war-torn country from the Kingdom of Denmark, according to the Danish defence ministry. President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has long lobbied Western powers for American-made F-16 warplanes, will apparently need to wait longer until the first jets are handed over, with the Danish Ministry of Defense announcing on Saturday that the first delivery F-16 jets will be delayed by at least six months.

Clown World: Entitled Delivery Driver Holds Woman's Groceries Hostage Over Tip

Concerned New Yorkers and industry leaders are warning that the giant “green” delivery e-bikes currently being planned by the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) will kill cyclists and crowd bike lanes. “If this passes, there is no doubt this will end in dead cyclists,” community member Joel Gelb warned at a public hearing last week regarding New York City’s DOT proposal, according to a report by W42ST. In an effort to cut carbon emissions, the NYC’s DOT is planning to bring 500-pound, four-wheeled cargo bikes — that can be up to 48 inches wide and will have a maximum speed...

A mugger possibly posing as a UPS delivery man beat a woman with a weighted sock and robbed her of $25 inside the elevator of a Manhattan building over the weekend, police said Sunday. The 26-year-old victim was getting off the lift in the building at East 27th Street and Third Avenue in Kips Bay at around noon on Saturday when the creep pulled her back in and beat her “multiple times” in the back of the head with what cops described as “a sock filled with an unknown object.” He then grabbed the small amount of cash from her...

Australia announced Monday it will deploy an E-7A Wedgetail surveillance aircraft to help ensure the uninterrupted flow of military and humanitarian aid into Ukraine. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) asset will be based in Germany. The early warning and control asset will help protect multinational logistics hubs but won’t enter the war-torn nation’s airspace. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the deployment will include up to 100 crew and support personnel from Australia, adding to previous contributions to the war zone from Canberra including lethal munitions, weaponry, and fighting vehicles.