USPS Shares Update For Holiday Season 2025
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) announced the release of its new holiday-themed and Elie Wiesel commemorative stamps on Thursday, marking preparations for the 2025 holiday season.
USPS also confirmed important 2025 stamp release dates, and directed customers to its official sales channels ahead of the holiday surge.
The holiday season remains the busiest period for USPS, with hundreds of millions of packages and cards sent between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.
New Holiday Cheer Stamp Designs for 2025
USPS released details of four new holiday-themed stamps, each presented in booklets of 20. The designs feature amaryllis flowers, a holly wreath, an evergreen branch with fruit, and cardinals on mistletoe.
The images were created using a collage technique, combining gouache and acrylic paint on vintage gardening book paper, then arranged on archival cotton board. The stamps were designed by Derry Noyes, with original artwork from Denise Fiedler.
Elie Wiesel Honored in New Stamp Issue
The 18th stamp in the "Distinguished Americans" series honors Elie Wiesel (1928–2016), Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor. The stamp features a black-and-white photograph from 1999 by Sergey Bermeniev and is designed for 2-ounce mail.
Wiesel's decades of writings and advocacy continue to serve as a source of inspiration, the USPS said in its announcement.
Release Dates and Ceremony Locations
The USPS confirmed release dates and cities for its upcoming specialized stamps. The Holiday Cheer stamps will be available starting September 13 in Washington, D.C., while the Elie Wiesel stamp will debut on September 17 in New York.
Additional 2025 USPS stamp releases include tributes to the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps on their 250th anniversaries, a World Stamp Show-themed issue for Boston 2026, and a new American Flag Forever stamp.
How to Purchase Holiday and Commemorative Stamps
USPS customers may buy stamps online at The Postal Store, by phone, by mail through USA Philatelic, and at select post offices nationwide. Licensed collectible stamp products are also available on Amazon.
Operational Plans and USPS Holiday Schedule for 2025
USPS will observe standard federal holiday closures, including no mail delivery on Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, and other official holidays.
The agency encourages customers to plan early for holiday season due to increased parcel volume and potential delays.
USPS chief performance officer and executive vice president Joshua Colin said ahead of the holiday season last year: "Thanks to the substantial progress we have made under the Delivering for America plan, we are ready and confident to handle the holiday surge... Our ability to move packages and mail throughout our network has never been stronger. USPS continues to be the most affordable and reliable way to ship packages and mail this holiday season and year-round."
Stamp issues planned for the rest of the year include a SpongeBob SquarePants series, a luna moth stamp, and the Boston 2026 World Stamp Show.
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Tom's Guide
an hour ago
- Tom's Guide
How to watch Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr: live stream boxing today, PPV price, start time, TV channel, fight card
The Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr live stream from Honda Center, in Anaheim, is a cruiserweight contest that is typically dripping in narrative. Paul, aka the Problem Child, is starting to make a name for himself in the squared circle and plenty think he'll get a world ranking with a win. Chavez Jr, from boxing royalty, won't let him have it all his own way, though — and you can watch Paul vs Chavez Jr live streams from anywhere with a VPN. ► Date: Saturday, June 28, 2025► Main card: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT / 1 a.m. BST (Sun.) / 10 a.m. AEDT (Sun.).► Paul vs Chavez Jr (approx.): 11 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT / 4 a.m. BST (Sat) / 1 p.m. AEST (Sun.).• U.S. PPV — DAZN • U.K. PPV — DAZN • Watch abroad — try NordVPN 100% risk-free Paul wants to be considered a boxer more than his next breath. And the former Disney star and YouTuber is making a pretty decent fist of it, too, his most recent win against former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson making plenty sit up and take note. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has said the Problem Child deserves a world ranking if he beats Chavez Jr and such is Paul's pulling power a cruiserweight world title fight isn't out of the question. Chavez Jr, though, will be desperate to win. The son of three-weight former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Sr, the 39-year-old brings a wealth of experience to go with the family name. Junior also held the WBC world middleweight title between 2011 and 2012, has good hand speed and a solid defense. Frustrate Paul and there will be openings for him. Check out all the need-to-know information on how to watch Paul vs Chavez Jr live streams below, plus a stacked undercard – in the U.S. or abroad. Away from home at the moment and blocked from watching the Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr fight on your usual streaming service? You can still watch Paul vs Chavez Jr on it thanks to the wonders of a VPN (Virtual Private Network). The software allows your devices to appear to be back in your home country regardless of where in the world you are. So ideal for boxing fans away on vacation or on business. We think NordVPN is the best VPN on the market right now. NordVPN deal: FREE $50 / £50 Amazon gift card Boasting lightning fast speeds, great features, streaming power, and class-leading security, NordVPN is our #1 VPN. ✅ FREE Amazon gift card worth up to $50/£50✅ 4 months extra FREE!✅ 76% off usual price Use Nord to unblock your boxing streams and watch Paul vs Chavez Jr live online with our exclusive deal. Using a VPN is incredibly simple. 1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we've said, NordVPN is our favorite. 2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For instance, if you're away from the U.S. and want to view your usual American service, you'd select U.S. from the list. 3. Sit back and enjoy the action. Head to a service listed below that's showing the fight and tune in just like you would at home. Americans can watch the Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr live streams via DAZN PPV. The PPV cost is $59.99. There's also a bundle PPV package available with the Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois 2 fight from Wembley, London, U.K., on Saturday, July 19, or The Ring III - Edgar Berlanga vs. Hamzah Sheeraz & Shakur Stevenson vs. William Zepeda (July 12). For $94.99, you get access to both Paul vs Chavez Jr and one of those fights mentioned above, depending on your preference. You must also have a regular DAZN subscription to watch all the action unfold. DAZN prices start from $19.99 a month on a 12-month contract or $224.99 if you pay for a year up front. There is also a month-by-month flexible option for $29.99. Every option comes with a 7-day free trial, cancel any time. If you're an American stuck abroad, and want to tune into the Paul vs Chavez Jr live stream on your usual DAZN account, get yourself a VPN such as NordVPN. DAZN is home to some of the biggest showdowns in boxing and beyond — and this is just the beginning. If you're a fan of live sports, especially boxing or pool, a DAZN subscription is a must-have. The streaming service is available on the best streaming devices, including Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple tvOS, Chromecast and most smart TVs. The Paul vs Chavez Jr live stream, plus the undercard, is available on DAZN in the U.K.. The DAZN PPV costs £24.99. The same multi-flight deal applies across the pond as well, with U.K. customers pricing beginning at £39.99. Remember, you also need a DAZN subscription, available with a free 7-day trial that can be canceled at any time. When the trial ends, DAZN costs £14.99 a month on a 12-month contract, or £24.99 month-to-month. An annual subscription will cost £119.99 in the U.K. DAZN subscribers in the U.K. that have a HD-enabled Sky box can register to watch the fight on DAZN 1 HD on channel 429 on Sky here. Traveling away from the U.K.? Watch Paul vs Chavez Jr online as usual with a VPN, such as NordVPN. DAZN Canada is showing the Paul vs Chavez Jr fight in Canada for a PPV fee of $59.99. The same bundle applies in Canada as the U.S. which you can buy for $94.99. Don't forget that you will need to buy a usual subscription with prices beginning at $24.99 - buy now and you will be good to go to watch the 2025-26 Champions League as well. Outside the Great White North for the big fight? You'll need to get yourself a good streaming VPN, such as NordVPN so that you can catch your stream as usual. Let's not forget about boxing fans Down Under, too. The Paul vs Chavez Jr live stream follows the lead of other countries around the world in that it is also via DAZN. In Australia the PPV fee comes in at AU$49.99. If you want the aforementioned bundles, it'll set you back AU$65.99. You'll need to buy a subscription too, with prices starting at $13.99 for a 12-month contract, but a seven-day free trial is available to DAZN newbies. Alternatively, you can watch as a one-off PPV on Kayo Sports Main Event. It costs AU$49.95. Those not in Australia can unblock your usual stream with NordVPN. For New Zealand boxing fans wanting to catch the Paul vs Chavez fight, it's DAZN again, with a PPV cost of NZ$49.99. For the Kiwis, a monthly subscription to the streaming service costs NZ$14.99, but you can get a free 7-day trial if you only want to watch Paul vs Chavez Jr. Remember, if you're away from NZ at the moment, you might want to consider subscribing to NordVPN so you can catch all your streams as you usually would. For more or less every other country around the world (up to 200 of them, in fact) it's DAZN again for a Paul vs Chavez Jr live stream, with the vast majority of non-subscribers getting a 7-day free trial to the platform. Visit this handy DAZN guide to tell you how much the PPV is in your country. Remember, if you're away from home at the minute, you'll need to get yourself a VPN, such as NordVPN so that you can stream all the boxing. No, there are no free Paul vs Chavez Jr live streams. You'll need to pay for the PPV to watch the action as it happens. To be fair it's pretty reasonably priced for a huge boxing bout, and if you buy from DAZN you get a 7-day free trial included in the price. Just remember to cancel before the 7 days are up else you will be charged for a monthly subscription. Jake Paul Julio Cesar Chavez Jr Nationality U.S. Mexican Date of birth January 17, 1997 February 16, 1986 Height 6' 1" 6' 0" Reach 76" 73" Total fights 12 62 Record 11-1 (7 KOs) 54-6-1-1 (34 KOs) Zurdo Ramirez is the biggest name on the undercard as he defends his WBA and WBO cruiserweight world titles against Yuniel Dorticos. Expect Paul to calling Zurdo out if he wins later in the night. We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
Business Insider
4 hours ago
- Business Insider
Parents will do anything for their kids — even tracking down a Labubu
She first noticed the plush monsters with toothy grins dangling from kids' belt loops. Carly Anderson, 45, had discovered the Labubu craze. She was truly initiated into the obsessed fandom when she was gently laughed out of the Pop Mart store at her local mall for trying to buy one of the coveted toys in person. While she stood morosely by a Pop Mart vending machine, a "nice gentleman" gave her tips and a list of third-party stores where she might find a monster, she said. After 20 hours of legwork and around $180, she tracked down three of the little monsters at third-party sellers and local stores. What drove the obsession? Love. "Everybody jokes, 'Oh my gosh, who spends all this time looking for a Labubu?' But for me, this is much more about my daughter — seeing that she's excited about something, and I want to get excited about that thing with her," Anderson said. They've bonded and brainstormed over places they can try to acquire a Labubu, and have more time to devote to the hunt now that school is out for the summer. Anderson has also experienced a strange side effect afflicting other parents: She's grown to find the monsters endearing. "I have to say, at first I did not understand them at all and I thought they were so ugly, but somehow now I want one too," Anderson said. "I don't know what happened." Anderson is part of a new class of Labubu seekers: The parents, grandparents, and guardians conscripted into the hunt and became endeared to the little monsters along the way. Labubus first skyrocketed to popularity in Asia, where consumers clamored to get the snaggle-toothed monsters and adorn their bags with them. Their popularity has reached all corners of the globe, with Americans, Brits, and South Koreans all fiending to get their hands on the collectible. That's led to a feeding frenzy on the Pop Mart website, app, and reseller groups. To get a Labubu is no easy feat; it requires knowing when they'll drop on the app, on TikTok live, or — in very rare cases — if and when they'll make an appearance in a physical storefront. There's a whole online world of tricks for trying to get a Labubu. Behind those computer screens, Discord chats, Reddit posts, and Facebook groups are parents and grandparents desperate to get their hands on one of the fuzzy creatures. Some parents are now in the Labubu game for themselves: Lora Martin, 41, has been trying her best to get an authentic Labubu, but, in the meantime, acquired a knockoff, called a " Lafufu," that she's named Lil Debbie. "They're strictly for me. These collectibles are for me. I'm not ashamed to say it," Martin said. "It may sound selfish and weird, but I'm 42. I've worked hard and I love these kinds of things. I've been a collector my whole life; this is nothing new." She said that her kid, who also enjoys collecting things, isn't interested in Labubus; after all, as she noted, Labubus are explicitly marketed to adults. Her son, 5, is more interested in things like Bluey. Martin now has a Labubu from a reseller on the way. 'It's the crazy things we do for our kids' On the other end is Mia Ponzo, who used to hate Labubus. Then she found herself waking up at 4:30 a.m. every day for a week to get one. Ponzo is a grandmother based in Kuwait. She first became aware of the cultlike following that has sprung up around the fuzzy monster dolls through Hermes Facebook groups. She noticed that her fellow Hermes fanatics were posting about dangling the trendy creatures, which come adorned with a key ring, on their bags. "I initially thought they were the most disgusting things on earth, and I was like, 'who the hell would put this stuff on their bag, why would you ruin a beautiful Hermes bag with a Labubu?'" Ponzo said of the Hermes-to-Labubu pipeline. But then, "I don't know, the whole thing started to grow on me." Ponzo had been on the Labubu hunt for her granddaughter, who would only settle for a pink one. She woke up early to try to snag one when China-based Pop Mart drops a select few on its website; by chance, she ended up being able to order a full set of Labubus off of Pop Mart's Thailand website, but hasn't had success on the US-based site. In the meantime, she's gotten hooked on the thrill of the chase. She's now deep into everything Pop Mart and has three Labubus of her own, although she's drawn a line in the sand: "I would never put one on a bag. I don't think so. I don't even wear regular Hermes charms anymore." Meanwhile, Kellie Crawford, a 49-year-old mother in Pennsylvania, recently found herself conscripted into what she's deemed the great Labubu hunt. Her daughter went down a rabbit hole after encountering the monsters on TikTok, even going so far as to create an Excel spreadsheet and index cards on how best to acquire one. While her daughter was trying to game the system, Crawford found herself Labubu backchanneling: She posted on Facebook groups, tried to meet people locally, and did all that she could to secure a Labubu for her daughter's 16th birthday. "It was crazy. I think several parts of my life are just gone because of the time spent sitting trying to tap on a box and watching a clock tick down," Crawford said, referring to the Pop Mart virtual game that is often one of the easier routes to get a Labubu in a cart. She added: "It's the things we do for our kids. It's the crazy things we do for our kids." Finally, she found one on eBay for not too high of a markup, and bought it as a surprise. Before it arrived, her daughter finally purchased the exact same one through Pop Mart. Crawford had to come clean: The same one was already en route. "I was excited for her, but I felt like I burst her bubble a little bit," Crawford said. Then, they suddenly realized what this means: Now Crawford and her daughter could have twin "Labuskis" — the nickname her daughter has coined for the toys. "We have it dressed, and mine — I guess it's now my Labubu — is named Tilly Snack Pac Labuski," Crawford said. "She's the cutest thing, to be quite honest." jkaplan@
6 hours ago
Fans criticize Beyoncé for shirt calling Native Americans 'the enemies of peace'
A T-shirt worn by Beyoncé during a Juneteenth performance on her 'Cowboy Carter' tour has sparked a discussion over how Americans frame their history and caused a wave of criticism for the Houston-born superstar. The T-shirt worn during a concert in Paris featured images of the Buffalo Soldiers, who belonged to Black U.S. Army units active during the late 1800s and early 1900s. On the back was a lengthy description of the soldiers that included 'Their antagonists were the enemies of peace, order and settlement: warring Indians, bandits, cattle thieves, murderous gunmen, bootleggers, trespassers, and Mexican revolutionaries.' Images of the shirt and videos of the performance are also featured on Beyoncé's website. As she prepares to return to the U.S. for performances in her hometown this weekend, fans and Indigenous influencers took to social media to criticize Beyoncé for framing Native Americans and Mexican revolutionaries as anything but the victims of American imperialism and promoting anti-Indigenous language. A publicist for Beyoncé did not respond to requests for comment. The Buffalo Soldiers served in six military units created after the Civil War in 1866. They were comprised formerly enslaved men, freemen, and Black Civil War soldiers and fought in hundreds of conflicts — including in the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II — until they were disbanded in 1951. As the quote on Beyoncé's shirt notes, they also fought numerous battles against Indigenous peoples as part of the U.S. Army's campaign of violence and land theft during the country's westward expansion. Some historians say the moniker 'Buffalo Soldiers' was bestowed by the tribes who admired the bravery and tenacity of the fighters, but that might be more legend than fact. 'At the end of the day, we really don't have that kind of information,' said Cale Carter, director of exhibitions at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston. Carter and other museum staff said that, only in the past few years, the museum made broader efforts to include more of the complexities of the battles the Buffalo Soldiers fought against Native Americans and Mexican revolutionaries and the role they played in the subjugation of Indigenous peoples. They, much like many other museums across the country, are hoping to add more nuance to the framing of American history and be more respectful of the ways they have caused harm to Indigenous communities. 'We romanticize the Western frontier,' he said. 'The early stories that talked about the Buffalo Soldiers were impacted by a lot of those factors. So you really didn't see a changing in that narrative until recently.' There has often been a lack of diverse voices discussing the way Buffalo Soldiers history is framed, said Michelle Tovar, the museum's director of education. The current political climate has put enormous pressure on schools, including those in Texas, to avoid honest discussions about American history, she said. 'Right now, in this area, we are getting push back from a lot of school districts in which we can't go and teach this history," Tovar said. "We are a museum where we can at least be a hub, where we can invite the community regardless of what districts say, invite them to learn it and do what we can do the outreach to continue to teach honest history.' Beyoncé's recent album 'Act II: Cowboy Carter' has played on a kind of American iconography, which many see as her way of subverting the country music genre's adjacency to whiteness and reclaiming the cowboy aesthetic for Black Americans. Last year, she became the first Black woman ever to top Billboard's country music chart, and 'Cowboy Carter' won her the top prize at the 2025 Grammy Awards, album of the year. 'The Buffalo Soldiers play this major role in the Black ownership of the American West,' said Tad Stoermer, a historian and professor at Johns Hopkins University. 'In my view, (Beyoncé is) well aware of the role that these images play. This is the 'Cowboy Carter' tour for crying out loud. The entire tour, the entire album, the entire piece is situated in this layered narrative.' But Stoermer also points out that the Buffalo Soldier have been framed in the American story in a way that also plays into the myths of American nationalism. As Beyoncé's use of Buffalo Soldiers imagery implies, Black Americans also use their story to claim agency over their role in the creation of the country, said Alaina E. Roberts, a historian, author and professor at Pittsburgh University who studies the intersection of Black and Native American life from the Civil War to present day. 'That's the category in which she thought maybe she was coming into this conversation, but the Buffalo Soldiers are even a step above that because they were literally involved in not just the settlement of the West but of genocide in a sense,' she said. Several Native influencers, performers, and academics took to social media this week to criticize Beyoncé or call the language on her shirt anti-Indigenous. 'Do you think Beyoncé will apologize (or acknowledge) the shirt,' an Indigenous news and culture Instagram account with more than 130,000, asked in a post Thursday. Many of her critics, as well as fans, agree. A flood of social media posts called out the pop star for the historic framing on the shirt. 'The Buffalo Soldiers are an interesting historical moment to look at. But we have to be honest about what they did, especially in their operations against Indigenous Americans and Mexicans,' said Chisom Okorafor, who posts on TikTok under the handle @confirmedsomaya. Okorafor said there is no 'progressive' way to reclaim America's history of empire building in the West, and that Beyoncé's use of Western symbolism sends a problematic message. 'Which is that Black people too can engage in American nationalism," she said. "Black people too can profit from the atrocities of American empire. It is a message that tells you to abandon immigrants, Indigenous people, and people who live outside of the United States. It is a message that tells you not only is it a virtue to have been born in this country but the longer your line extends in this country the more virtuous you are.'
