By Funto Omojola, NerdWallet Mobile wallets that allow you to pay using your phone have been around for well more than a decade, and over those years they’ve grown in popularity, becoming a key part of consumers’ credit card usage. According to a “state of credit card report” for 2025 from credit bureau Experian, 53% of Americans in a survey say they use digital wallets more frequently than traditional payment methods. To further incentivize mobile wallet usage, some credit card issuers offer bonus rewards when you elect to pay that way. But those incentives can go beyond just higher reward rates. In fact, mobile wallets in some ways are becoming an essential part of activating and holding a credit card. For example, they can offer immediate access to your credit line, and they can be easier and safer than paying with a physical card. From a rewards perspective, it can make a lot of sense to reach for your phone now instead of your physical card. The Apple Card offers its highest reward rates when you use it through the Apple Pay mobile wallet. Same goes for the PayPal Cashback Mastercard® when you use it to make purchases via the PayPal digital wallet. The Kroger grocery store giant has a co-branded credit card that earns the most when you pay using an eligible digital wallet, and some major credit cards with quarterly rotating bonus categories have a history of incentivizing digital wallet use. But again, these days it’s not just about the rewards. Mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and PayPal can offer immediate access to your credit line while you wait for your physical card to arrive after approval. Indeed, most major issuers including Bank of America®, Capital One and Chase now offer instant virtual credit card numbers for eligible cards that can be used upon approval by adding them to a digital wallet. Additionally, many co-branded credit cards — those offered in partnership with another brand — commonly offer instant card access and can be used immediately on in-brand purchases. Credit cards typically take seven to 10 days to arrive after approval, so instant access to your credit line can be particularly useful if you need to make an urgent or unexpected purchase. Plus, they allow you to start spending toward a card’s sign-up bonus right away. As issuers push toward mobile payments, a growing number of merchants and businesses are similarly adopting the payment method. The percentage of U.S. businesses that used digital wallets increased to 62% in 2023, compared to 47% the previous year, according to a 2023 survey commissioned by the Federal Reserve Financial Services. Wider acceptance is potentially good news for the average American, who according to Experian has about four credit cards. While that won’t necessarily weigh down your wallet, it can be hard to manage multiple cards and rewards categories at once. Mobile wallets offer a more efficient way to store and organize all of your workhorse cards, while not having to carry around ones that you don’t use often. They can also help you more easily monitor your spending and rewards, and some even track your orders’ status and arrival time. Plus, paying with a digital wallet offers added security. That’s because it uses technology called tokenization when you pay, which masks your real credit card number and instead sends an encrypted “token” that’s unique to each payment. This is unlike swiping or dipping a physical card, during which your credit card number is more directly accessible. And again, because a mobile wallet doesn’t require you to have your physical cards present, there’s less chance of one falling out of your pocket or purse. More From NerdWallet Funto Omojola writes for NerdWallet. Email: fomojola@nerdwallet.com. The article Activating Your Credit Card? Don’t Skip the Mobile Wallet Step originally appeared on NerdWallet .

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Duke coach Manny Diaz says quarterback Maalik Murphy will face discipline “internally” after extending both of his middle fingers skyward in celebration after throwing a long touchdown pass early in the weekend win against Virginia Tech . Diaz said Monday that Murphy's exuberant gesture, caught on the ACC Network national broadcast, was directed at offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer in the booth after a bit of practice “banter” from a few days earlier. Diaz said the Texas transfer just let his excitement get away from him but still called it “unacceptable in our program." “There was a practice in the middle of last week when we throwing post after post after post, and we weren't completing them,” Diaz said. “And it was again and again and again and again. And at the end of that, there was a remark made in jest that, ‘If you throw a post for a touchdown in the game, then you can flick me off,’ from Coach Brewer.” Murphy's gesture came after he uncorked a deep ball from deep in Duke's own end and caught Eli Pancol perfectly in stride across midfield, with Pancol racing untouched for an 86-yard score barely 2 minutes into the game. As he began skipping downfield to celebrate, Murphy chest-bumped teammate Star Thomas and then extended both arms in the air with his middle fingers raised. Brewer said Monday he missed the gesture in real time, but then saw it on a replay moments later. “Some things you say on the field when you're coaching obviously isn't meant to be taken literally when you're trying to get after somebody in that world,” Brewer said. Murphy threw for 332 yards and three touchdowns with three interceptions in the 31-28 win for the Blue Devils (8-3, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who close the regular season at Wake Forest. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballMan City stumble again while Arsenal and Bayern Munich earn dominant wins

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Man City collapse ‘difficult to swallow’ – Pep GuardiolaWhat if construction materials could be put together, taken apart, and reused as easily as Lego bricks? That’s the vision a team of MIT engineers hopes to realize with a new kind of masonry it’s developing from recycled glass. Using a custom 3D-printing technology provided by the MIT spinoff Evenline, the team has made strong, multilayered glass bricks, each in the shape of a figure eight, that are designed to interlock and stack. The bricks can easily be taken apart for reuse in new structures. “Glass as a structural material kind of breaks people’s brains a little bit,” says Evenline founder Michael Stern ’09, SM ’15, coauthor of a on the work. “We’re showing this is an opportunity to push the limits of what’s been done in architecture.” Stern and Kaitlyn Becker ’09, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and another coauthor, got the inspiration for the bricks partly from their experience as undergraduates in MIT’s Glass Lab. “I found the material fascinating,” says Stern, who went on to design a 3D printer capable of depositing molten recycled glass. “I started thinking of how glass printing can find its place.” “I get excited about expanding design and manufacturing spaces for challenging materials with interesting characteristics, like glass and its optical properties and recyclability,” says Becker, who began exploring those ideas as a faculty member. “As long as it’s not contaminated, you can recycle glass almost infinitely.” For their new study, Becker, Stern, and coauthors Daniel Massimino, SM ’24, and Charlotte Folinus ’20, SM ’22, of MIT and Ethan Townsend at Evenline used a glass printer that pairs with a furnace to melt crushed glass bottles into a material that can be deposited in layered patterns. They printed prototype bricks using soda-lime glass that is typically used in a glassblowing studio. Two round pegs made of a different material, similar to the studs on a Lego brick, are incorporated into each one so they can interlock. Another material placed between the bricks prevents scratches or cracks but can be removed if a structure is to be dismantled and recycled. The prototypes’ figure-eight shape allows assembly into curved walls, though recycled bricks could also be remelted in the printer and formed into new shapes. The group is looking into whether more of the interlocking feature could be made from printed glass too. The bricks’ mechanical strength was tested in a hydraulic press that squeezed them until they began to fracture. The strongest held up to pressures comparable to what concrete blocks can withstand. The researchers have used the bricks to construct a curved wall and aim to build progressively bigger, self-supporting structures. “We’re thinking of stepping stones to buildings,” Stern says, “and want to start with something like a pavilion—a temporary structure that humans can interact with, and that you could then reconfigure into a second design. And you could imagine that these blocks could go through a lot of lives.”

Rays asked to declare intention on stadium deal by Dec. 1

NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare pleaded not guilty on Monday to state murder and terror charges while his attorney complained that comments coming from New York’s mayor would make it tough to receive a fair trial. Luigi Mangione, 26, was shackled and seated in a Manhattan court when he leaned over to a microphone to enter his plea. The Manhattan district attorney charged him last week with multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism . Mangione's initial appearance in New York’s state trial court was preempted by federal prosecutors bringing their own charges over the shooting. The federal charges could carry the possibility of the death penalty, while the maximum sentence for the state charges is life in prison without parole. Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks , with the state charges expected to go to trial first. One of Mangione’s attorneys told a judge that the “warring jurisdictions" had turned Mangione into a “human ping-pong ball” and that New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other government officials had made him a political pawn, robbing him of his rights as a defendant and tainting the jury pool. “I am very concerned about my client’s right to a fair trial,” lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said. Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stood among a throng of heavily armed officers last Thursday when Mangione was flown to a Manhattan heliport and escorted up a pier after being extradited from Pennsylvania. Friedman Agnifilo said police turned Mangione’s return to New York into a choreographed spectacle. She called out Adams' comment to a local TV station that he wanted to be there to look “him in the eye and say, ‘you carried out this terroristic act in my city.’” “He was on display for everyone to see in the biggest stage perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career. It was absolutely unnecessary,” she said. She also accused federal and state prosecutors of advancing conflicting legal theories, calling their approach confusing and highly unusual. In a statement, Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus wrote: “Critics can say all they want, but showing up to support our law enforcement and sending the message to New Yorkers that violence and vitriol have no place in our city is who Mayor Eric Adams is to his core.” “The cold-blooded assassination of Brian Thompson — a father of two — and the terror it infused on the streets of New York City for days has since been sickeningly glorified, shining a spotlight on the darkest corners of the internet,” Mamelak Altus said. State trial court Judge Gregory Carro said he has little control over what happens outside the courtroom, but can guarantee Mangione will receive a fair trial. Authorities say Mangione gunned down Thompson as he was walking to an investor conference in midtown Manhattan on the morning of Dec 4. Mangione was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s after a five-day search, carrying a gun that matched the one used in the shooting and a fake ID, police said. He also was carrying a notebook expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and especially wealthy executives, according to federal prosecutors. At a news conference last week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the application of the terrorism law reflected the severity of a “frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.” “In its most basic terms, this was a killing that was intended to evoke terror,” he added. Mangione is being held in a Brooklyn federal jail alongside several other high-profile defendants, including Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried. During his court appearance Monday, he smiled at times when talking with his attorneys and stretched his right hand after an officer removed his cuffs. Outside the courthouse, a few dozen supporters chanted, “Free Luigi,” over the blare of a trumpet. Natalie Monarrez, a 55-year-old Staten Island resident, said she joined the demonstration because she lost both her mother and her life savings as a result of denied insurance claims. “As extreme as it was, it jolted the conversation that we need to deal with this issue,” she said of the shooting. “Enough is enough, people are fed up.” An Ivy-league graduate from a prominent Maryland family, Mangione appeared to have cut himself off from family and friends in recent months. He posted frequently in online forums about his struggles with back pain. He was never a UnitedHealthcare client , according to the insurer. Thompson, a married father of two high-schoolers, had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021. The killing has prompted some to voice their resentment at U.S. health insurers, with Mangione serving as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills. It also has sent shockwaves through the corporate world , rattling executives who say they have received a spike in threats.TAMPA, Fla. — Pinellas County Commission Chairperson Kathleen Peters sent a two-page letter to the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday asking the team to put in writing whether it intends to move forward on a $1.3 billion stadium voted on in July or provide a notice of termination by Sunday. “I am requesting that you officially declare your intention regarding this Agreement and whether you intend to see it come to fruition,” Peters wrote. Peters sent the letter to team presidents Brian Auld and Matt Silverman Monday morning. They had written a letter last week that arrived two hours before the County Commission met to consider final approval of bonds to finance the county’s share of the stadium. Auld and Silverman wrote that the Rays cannot move forward with a stadium deal under the current terms and the team stands “ready to work on a new solution” in Tampa Bay. A spokesperson for the Rays did not immediately respond to a phone call and text message requesting comment. Peters told the Tampa Bay Times she alone worked on the letter over the past few days with Assistant County Attorney Don Crowell. Due to Florida’s public meeting laws, Peters cannot communicate with other commissioners regarding items that would go before the board. She said she and County Administrator Barry Burton “talked extensively” about what was in the letter. “They’re doing a lot of verbal statements and no one really knows what the true intent of those statements are,” Peters said, referring to the Rays. “If (team officials) put in writing they want out of the contract, the deal’s dead. It’s not dead on our side or on the city’s side.” Asked what would happen if the Rays do not give an answer by Sunday, Peters said she’ll discuss what’s next with Crowell and Burton. In a text message to the Times, Pinellas commissioner Chris Latvala said he agreed with the letter “100%.” “The County hasn’t done anything to violate the deal,” said Latvala, who in October initiated the delay the final vote on the bonds then. The commission went on to vote 6-1 last week to delay issuing bonds to provide the county share — $312.5 million — paid for with hotel and short-term rental taxes. The commission is scheduled to vote on the bonds Dec. 17. “The county can be in a position to offer its bonds for sale pursuant to the agreement weeks (and potentially months) before the Rays’s deadline to meet its conditions precedent to such offering,” Peters wrote. Auld spoke publicly Thursday at a St. Petersburg City Council meeting, where that board was scheduled to vote on bonds to finance its share of stadium costs, as well as funding for roads and sewers in the surrounding Historic Gas Plant District. Auld was asked by a reporter if a deal is still on the table, and he replied, “No, there is not.” The City Council also voted 5-2 to delay bonds until no later than Jan. 9. At that meeting, City Administrator Rob Gerdes also asked for a written notice of termination from the Rays. “Based on the comments that were made by Mr. Auld tonight, I think the respectable thing (for the Rays) to do would be to deliver us a written notice of termination,” Gerdes said Thursday. In Monday’s letter, Peters lambasted Auld and Silverman for making a “fallacious statement” regarding it being “clear” that a “2029 ballpark delivery would result in significantly higher costs that we are not able to absorb alone.” Peters said that, per the agreement, the Rays are responsible for all cost overruns and the agreement cannot be terminated by the city and county unless the stadium project is not completed by Feb. 1, 2030. “Pinellas County has operated in good faith, working toward the stadium deal while balancing the needs of our community after back-to-back hurricanes,” Peters wrote. “If the Rays want out of this agreement, it is your right to terminate the contract. Clear communication about your intentions will be critical to the next steps in this partnership.” ©2024 Tampa Bay Times. Visit tampabay.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Luigi Mangione pleads not guilty to murder and weapons charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO's death

As Elon Musk takes charge of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), created to advise the White House on optimizing federal spending, the F-35 stealth jet program has become a key target of his criticism. Over the weekend, the Tesla CEO and a surrogate for Donald Trump criticized the fighter jet program on his social media platform, X, calling it outdated and inefficient compared to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). "Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35," Musk posted, alongside a video showcasing synchronized Chinese drones in action. Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35 🗑️ 🫠 pic.twitter.com/4JX27qcxz1 Musk's critique aligns with his and DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy 's push for sweeping federal spending reforms. Their ambitious goal of cutting at least $2 trillion from the federal budget has put the Pentagon under particular scrutiny. The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, developed by Lockheed Martin, is the Department of Defense's most expensive and ambitious weapons program. While hailed as critical to U.S. national security, the program has faced relentless criticism for soaring costs and delays. The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates the program's lifetime cost at over $2 trillion, making it the costliest military project in history. On Monday, Musk doubled down on his criticism, arguing that the jet's design was fundamentally flawed from the outset due to an attempt to meet too many conflicting requirements. "The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level because it was required to be too many things to too many people. This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes," Musk said. "Manned fighter jets are outdated in the age of drones and only put pilots' lives at risk," he said, garnering support from Trump ally Matt Gaetz , who wrote: "The F-35 is a failed platform. It's time to shift entirely to drones." UAVs have played a crucial role in modern conflicts, particularly in Ukraine, where drones have been instrumental in countering Russian forces. Musk, a longtime advocate for replacing traditional fighter jets with drones, argues that UAVs—whether remotely piloted or autonomous—offer greater precision and eliminate the risks faced by human pilots. He has often pointed to the role. Despite Musk's assertions, the F-35 program has its defenders. Proponents highlight the jet's performance in real-world combat, citing its use by Israel's F-35I Adir variant to strike Iranian military installations and neutralize advanced Russian-made air defenses. Supporters also note that China, a country Musk has praised for its drone capabilities, has spent years attempting to replicate the F-35's cutting-edge technology. A spokesperson for the Pentagon's F-35 joint program office defended the aircraft's value. "We have combat-capable aircraft in operation today, and they perform exceptionally well against the threats for which they were designed. Pilots continually emphasize that this is the fighter they want to take to war if called upon," the Pentagon said. Lockheed Martin echoed these sentiments, calling the F-35 "the most advanced, survivable, and connected fighter aircraft in the world" and a cornerstone of joint all-domain operations. Still, the program's flaws are well-documented. A recently declassified Pentagon report revealed ongoing issues with the F-35's reliability, maintainability, and availability. Lockheed Martin responded by emphasizing that the aircraft "consistently meets or exceeds the reliability performance requirements we are contracted to deliver." Aviation enthusiasts weighed in on Musk's remarks, with some defending the symbolic and morale-boosting role of manned fighter jets. "No kid dreams of piloting a drone," one user commented, "but plenty dream of flying a fighter jet with an American flag on its tail."Nothing's guaranteed, but Bucs need to win out to give themselves best shot to make the playoffs