Is Amazon Limiting Shared Prime Free Shipping Perk To One Household?


In September 2025, reports began spreading online that from Oct. 1, 2025, online retailer Amazon would no longer allow members of its Prime subscription service to share free shipping with someone else unless they lived at the same address.

For example, CNET, a publication covering consumer technology, produced a post on Facebook stating that Amazon’s Prime Invitee Program was changing to “Amazon Family.”

The caption read, in part:

Starting October 1st, Amazon is replacing its free shipping perk, more specifically the “Prime Invitee Program” with Amazon Family which won’t allow free shipping to addresses outside of your home address.

According to an update on Amazon’s website, “If you’re a Prime Invitee: You can either ask the Prime member in your household to add you to their Amazon Family, or sign up for your own Prime Membership.”

However, to share Prime benefits, “you and your invitee must live together at the same primary residential address.”


(Facebook page CNET)

The post had amassed more than 20,000 reactions and 19,500 comments as of this writing. Besides, the claim also appeared elsewhere on Facebook and on Reddit.

In short, the claim was true. Amazon announced the change on its website, though when the announcement went live was unclear, saying that: “Amazon Family is replacing the Prime Invitee Program”:

To share benefits, you and your invitee must live together at the same primary residential address. This is the address you consider to be your home and where you spend the majority of your time.

The benefit would cover two adults, up to four teens who were added before April 7, 2025, and up to four children.

Amazon added that the Prime Invitee Program would end on Oct. 1, 2025. “Prime invitees will lose access to the shared Prime delivery benefit, but can use Amazon Family instead,” the page read. Those in the program could manage their family members on the Amazon Family page, which would be accessible once a member logged in.

The Verge, another website covering consumer tech news, reported that Amazon’s decision to switch to this system was an effort to attract more subscribers for the perks. According to a Sept. 2, 2025, article by Reuters news agency, Amazon failed to hit its subscription goal in the run-up to Prime Day, an annual event during which the company runs steep discounts on a range of its products across four days.

The benefits will cost former Prime invitees $14.99 for the first year and then $14.99 a month, The Verge’s report added.

 

 

A Rare Spotless Giraffe Lives In Tennessee Zoo. Reports Suggest It’s Not The Only One


In August 2025, posts about a supposed “spotless giraffe” living in a Tennessee zoo spread online.

“Meet Kipekee — the only spotless giraffe alive today. In rural Tennessee, Brights Zoo welcomed a giraffe unlike any seen in half a century,” said one Aug. 14 Facebook post, a claim echoed by similar posts. This was not the first time social media spread claims about Kipekee; posts about the allegedly solid-colored giraffe have circulated on Facebook, Instagram and Reddit since 2023.

An extremely rare spotless giraffe born yesterday at a Tennessee zoo
byu/TheSentinelsSorrow ininterestingasfuck


Kipekee is a real spotless giraffe who, as of this writing, lives at Brights Zoo in Tennessee — with “no plans” of moving anywhere else, according to an email from David Bright, the zoo’s director. At the time of Kipekee’s July 31, 2023, birth, news outlets reported that Brights Zoo may have welcomed the only giraffe without spots alive in the world, as evidenced by Kipekee’s name, which means “unique” in Swahili. However, just a month later, another spotless giraffe was … spotted … in Namibia.

Given that the August posts accurately described Kipekee’s existence and living situation but relied on outdated information about the rarity of the giraffe’s coat, we rate this claim a mixture of truth and falsehood.

Numerous legitimate news outlets, including NPR and National Geographic, covered Kipekee’s birth. Broadcast journalists have filmed Kipekee at the private, family-owned zoo. Furthermore, zoo visitors have posted various images and videos of the giraffe online at different angles, and the dates of these posts range from 2023 to 2025. As such, we are confident that the giraffe exists.

@lushandbashful Shes soo cute ? #fyp #spotlessgiraffe #tennessee #kipekee #animalsoftiktok ? so this is love – soft girl aesthetic


Kipekee was reportedly the first known spotless giraffe born since 1972, when one such giraffe was born at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, according to archival photos.

But in September 2023, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation announced that another patternless giraffe was photographed at Mount Etjo Safari Lodge in central Namibia — the first recorded in the wild. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation, which partners with organizations like the Smithsonian Institution, says it is the only nongovernmental organization in the world dedicated solely to the conservation of wild giraffes.

The foundation’s news release included images of the spotless Namibia giraffe. At the time, experts said they did not know why the giraffes had no spots.

“The lack of spots could be caused by genetic mutations or recessive genotype in one or more genes related to the pattern, but without detailed genetic analysis, these are mere speculations,” Julian Fennessy, the organization’s co-founder and director of conservation, said in the statement.

 

 

Stephen Colbert Quote About United States Being ‘Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor’?

 (?@marlenagraves.bsky.social? on BlueSky)
An alleged quote attributed to late night TV host Stephen Colbert circulated on social media in late July and early August 2025, purporting that the comedian made a cutting remark about the state of Christianity in the United States.

The quote has been shared on social media for years, as evidenced by a post on X from 2022.

In the wake of CBS announcing the end of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” however, users on social media started sharing the alleged quote once more on platforms like BlueSky, Threads and Facebook.

The alleged quote in question states:

If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition … and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.

Some users agreed with Colbert’s alleged sentiment and shared the statement alongside an image of Colbert sitting at a desk, adding, “It’s time to reiterate what the teachings of Jesus or prophets/revered enlightened leaders of any religion were actually saying to help humankind evolve. It’s about love and inclusion. Not hate, violence, or power.”

The quote above was correctly attributed to Colbert.

The comedian said it during a Christmas-themed episode of “The Colbert Report” that aired on Comedy Central on Dec. 16, 2010, with featured guests comedian Amy Sedaris and musician Paul Simon. The segment in which the quote appeared was titled, “Jesus was a Liberal Democrat.”

It’s worth noting that “The Colbert Report,” which ran on Comedy Central from 2005 to 2014, featured Colbert playing a satirical characterization of himself as a conservative commentator.

However, we must also note that episodes of “The Colbert Report” are no longer available on any streaming services, and clips posted to YouTube are primarily limited to 2014, the show’s final year before Colbert moved on to host “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS.

Nevertheless, there is substantial reporting about the quote from the time it aired, as well as an audio clip of the moment on YouTube that was published on Sept. 21, 2011. As such, we are confident in attributing the quote in question to Colbert despite a lack of visual evidence online.

Business Insider reported on the segment at the time, citing it as the latest in an ongoing war of words between Colbert and (real) conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly over Jesus’ teachings. The article cited a summary of an upcoming episode of O’Reilly’s show that read, “Colbert … Jesus … and the poor. The late night comic is now a theologian — and attacks Bill in the process! But does he have his Biblical facts straight?”

A writer for State of Formation, an “online forum for emerging religious and ethical leaders,” discussed the segment on Dec. 20, 2010:

It makes an argument that as both a religious and a political liberal I am all too happy to hear. It is Stephen Colbert — a person universally known and, among my generation in particular, almost universally esteemed and, yes, respected — calling out those who profess to be Christians yet espouse policies that further neglect or oppress those in the lowest income brackets. Beneath (and also because of) its satirical aim, this is a powerful argumentative blow to some on the religious and/or political Right.

Further, a writer for the alternative newspaper Portland Mercury discussed the segment the day after it aired and stated:

What really got me was a piece that brilliantly satirizes an issue near and dear to my heart: the inherent hypocrisy of Christianity in the West. Since this is Blogtown and not Obvious Theology 101 I know I don’t have to spell this s*** out; we all know that the basic tenants of Christ’s teachings (give away all your money, judge not lest ye be judged, divorced people are committing adultery, etc.) are ignored by pretty much everyone, especially those who claim to be Christians.

Finally, TV Tropes also listed the quote as Colbert’s, though it denotes it as attributable to “the character” rather than “the person.”