• Donald Trump praised the Secret Service after he was shot at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
• However, critics have questioned why the Secret Service failed to prevent the shooting.
• Congress has launched an investigation into what it says were "inexcusable security breaches."

Donald Trump praised the Secret Service for its response to his shooting on Saturday, saying the agency rushed in like "linebackers" to whisk him to safety.

His comments were made in an interview with the New York Post, in which he recounted the moment he was shot as "very surreal."

'"They took him out with one shot right between the eyes," he said. "They did a fantastic job. It's surreal for all of us."

Trump's praise stands out among a sea of criticism against the agency following the incident.

Kenneth Gray, a retired FBI special agent and now a professor at the University of New Haven, told the Financial Times that the incident showed a breakdown in the security plan for the rally.

"The fact that this shooter was able to get off an attack like this here looks like they needed additional resources," he said.

Pressure is now mounting on the Secret Service, from both Republicans and Democrats, to explain why it allowed a shooter to come so close to Trump at a pre-planned event.

The shooter crawled onto an open rooftop at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania about 150 meters away from the former president and fired off multiple rounds.

He killed one rally-goer and critically injured two others before being shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper, who was on another rooftop.

One bullet hit Trump's right ear, leaving blood streaming down his face.

"This counter-sniper made an amazingly quick decision and clearly saved Trump's life," Bill Pickle, the former special agent in charge of Al Gore's vice-presidential Secret Service detail, told Business Insider.

However, he may have also lost crucial seconds in preventing the incident from happening in the first place.

Pickle said the extreme heat, a lack of anti-sniper backup, and a likely focus on a nearby treeline may have delayed the counter-sniper's reaction.

"Someone made a decision that that number of counter-snipers was sufficient," Pickle said.

"And obviously, in hindsight, they were wrong because there was a kid who was able to get up there on that rooftop and pull the trigger three times at least."

On Sunday, Congress said it would launch an investigation into what it described as "inexcusable security breaches" by the agency.

Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh Field Office, echoed the statements in a news conference on Sunday, saying: "There is going to be a long investigation into what took place."

Representatives for the Secret Service did not immediately reply to a request from Business Insider to comment.

The Secret Service's protection covers former presidents and vice-presidents, and their children under 16.

It also extends to major presidential and vice-presidential candidates within four months of presidential elections, both of which apply to Donald Trump.

The Secret Service's director, Kimberly Cheatle, is set to testify about the shooting at a hearing on Monday, July 22.

• A Democratic staffer resigned after an inflammatory post following the attempt on Trump's life.
• The Mississippi Republican Party demanded her dismissal after she wrote: "don't miss next time."
• Jacqueline Marsaw apologized and was visited by Secret Service officers, per local reports.

A woman who worked for Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson has stepped down after posting an inflammatory message on social media in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, according to multiple reports.

Jacqueline Marsaw, formerly a case worker and manager in Thompson's field office in Natchez, Mississippi, posted on Facebook soon after a shooter attempted to assassinate the former president.

At a campaign rally on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, a bullet grazed Trump's ear. Another rally attendee was killed, and two others were critically injured.

According to a screenshot saved by local outlet the Clarion Ledger, Marsaw's post read: "I don't condone violence but please get you some shooting lessons so you don't miss next time ooops that wasn't me talking."

It quickly attracted criticism, with the X account of the Mississippi Republican Party calling it "despicable" and calling for Marsaw to be fired.

The post was deleted about an hour after it appeared, the Clarion Ledger reported.

In a statement, Thompson said he was "made aware of a post made by a staff member and she is no longer in my employment," according to Fox News.

After the shooting on Saturday, Thompon had posted to X that there is "no room in American democracy for political violence."

Even so, Mississippi's state auditor, Republican Shad White, called on Thompson to resign, telling the Clarion Ledger that the congressman had hired "nut job staffers" and noting Thompson's backing of a bill that would have denied Trump, as a felon, Secret Service protection.

Speaking to local paper the Natchez Democrat, Marsaw said that she "got overwhelmed in the moment," adding: "I am a diehard Democrat."

The posts were meant as a joke, she said.

Secret Service officers contacted local law enforcement to interview Marsaw and visit her house on Sunday morning, Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten told the outlet.

"She was very remorseful and told the agents that what she did was unwarranted and uncalled for," he said, adding: "She continued to apologize throughout the entire 45-minute interview."

Marsaw's case will be turned over to the attorney general to see if any charges will be pressed, Patten told the Natchez Democrat.

Marsaw's post may have violated US Code 879, the law that prohibits threats to former presidents, he said. The crime is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Neither Marsaw nor Thompson's office immediately responded to Business Insider's requests for comment, sent outside of working hours.

• Russia shared a video of what it said was a 3-ton glide bomb being dropped on Ukraine.
• A pilot bragged the bomb was so big it's hard to "imagine a target that would not be destroyed."
• Russian glide bombs are devastating as they can be launched at distances that keep the aircraft safe.

Russia's defense ministry on Sunday shared a video of what is said was one of its Su-34 jets dropping a FAB-3000 glide bomb on a Ukrainian military position.

FAB-3000 bombs weigh 6,600 pounds or 3.3 tons.

A Russian pilot in the video bragged that "it is difficult to imagine a target that would not be destroyed by an aerial bomb of this size," according to a translation of his remarks by Ukrainian news outlet Pravda.

The video shows a bomb being attached to the underside of a plane, and then a similar-looking bomb is seen traveling through the air before aerial video of an explosion among a group of buildings is shown.

Russia has increasingly been using glide bombs in its invasion of Ukraine. The bombs are older munitions that have been upgraded with new guidance systems, allowing them to be launched at a distance.

This is a huge advantage and has allowed Russia to use them to a devastating effect: aircraft can launch the bombs from a far enough distance that Ukraine often can't shoot the planes down.

Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, said in March that Russia dropped 700 glide bombs on Ukraine between March 18 and March 24 alone.

And the bombs have been getting bigger. A video last month captured what appeared to be the first time Russia used a three-ton glide bomb on Ukraine.

Experts say the only way Ukraine can properly defend against these types of bombs is by intercepting Russian aircraft before they launch the bombs, or by hitting the aircraft while they're still on the ground.

But the US says that Ukraine cannot use the long-range equipment it has given to Ukraine to hit military targets deep inside Russia, which means that Ukraine cannot target many Russian airfields.

Hitting the bombs while they're in the air is also hugely challenging.

The bombs have short flight times, small radar signatures, and non-ballistic trajectories — all of which make them very difficult to intercept, Business Insider's Jake Epstein previously reported.

Ukraine also says it doesn't have enough air defense systems.

Ukraine is developing its own glide bombs and is also requesting more air defense systems from its allies.

• "House of the Dragon" fans were shocked by an incest scene in season two.
• Daemon Targaryen had a bizarre dream while staying at Harrenhal castle.
• He slept with his mother, Alyssa Targaryen, who died in the book the show is based on.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "House of the Dragon" season two, episode five.

Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) dreamed that he slept with his mother, Alyssa Targaryen (Emeline Lambert) in the latest episode of "House of the Dragon" season two, in a surprising incest scene that shocked fans.

In episode five, "Regent," Daemon is still in the haunted castle, Harrenhal, while he tries to rally an army for Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy).

So far, he's endured strange dreams and visions given to him by Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin). Alys is accused of being a witch in the book the series is based on, "Fire and Blood," but she hasn't been identified as one yet in "House of the Dragon."

These dreams are about Daemon facing his own demons, like the guilt of ordering a child's death in the season premiere, and his jealousy that Rhaenyra is the heir to the throne and not him.

In episode five, Daemon dreamed that he slept with an unknown woman with long white hair. The pair enjoyed themselves, and the woman told him, "Viserys was unsuited for the crown, but you, Daemon, you were made to wear it."

She continued: "If only you'd been born first, my favorite son." At that point, Daemon realized that the woman was his mother, Alyssa.

In "Fire and Blood," Daemon was three when Alyssa died giving birth to his brother, Aegon II, who also died several months later.

Although Daemon is obviously struggling with some complicated maternal issues, the dream is mainly about his insecurities regarding his role as a Targaryen prince.

The scene feels like another attempt from the show's writers to capture the controversial spirit that made "Game of Thrones" unique and different when it originally aired in 2011.

This season has already included the murder of a Targaryen toddler, new illegitimate children, raunchy sex scenes, and several brutal deaths.

The tactic seems to be working because fans were completely taken by surprise by the scene, which isn't in the book. And many took aim at the show's recurring theme of "mommy issues."

Some fans are also desperate for Daemon's Harrenhal subplot to end, which is understandable since the main storyline is about the war between the Greens and Blacks.

Meanwhile, Daemon is staying in a haunted castle, like he's in an episode of "Scooby-Doo."

"House of the Dragon" season two airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and is streaming on Max.

• My brother and I were raised by my grandparents and my great aunts helped. 
• My kids have a special relationship with them, and I'm grateful. 
• The benefits of their intergenerational bond go both ways.

When I was a kid, my aunts were the coolest. Auntie Pauline lived in a ranch house with a pool in Long Island, New York. Her husband, Sy, was the kindest of all my uncles and would stick up for me when my brother and cousin, who were three years older than I was, made fun of me. Pauline's daughter would become and remain one of my closest friends.

Auntie Joanne drove a Chevy Vega hatchback and was the first in the family to go to college. She was a teacher who lived within walking distance. She always made time for me and my brother.

My aunts were always there for my brother and me

After my brother and I went to live with our grandparents in Everett, MA, my aunts became a constant. When my mother died, it tied us together even more tightly. Of course, I was a generation removed because all my aunts were great-aunts. Though the age divide was great, it never stopped us from creating a unique bond.

My aunts helped my grandparents raise me. My Auntie Joanne took me to doctor's appointments, and Auntie Pauline had me over for Thanksgiving when I was in college in New York. I couldn't return home so she made a turkey and we celebrated together. After Auntie Joanne had her son, I became his unofficial nanny, accompanying them on vacations.

When my first marriage ended, I received little support from my brother and grandparents, who could not understand why I would divorce a man they loved. Auntie Pauline called me and left a message on my answering machine. "Nicole," she said, "I don't know what happened, but I wanted to say you are my niece. I love you, and I am on your side." It remains one of the kindest and most loyal things anyone has ever told me.

When I had kids, my aunts loved them, too

When my children came along, my aunts loved them fiercely. Auntie Joanne came for a week after the birth of my fourth child because my grandmother, who had come with my first three children, was battling ovarian cancer. Auntie Pauline made treats for my kids and purchased gifts for all the major milestones.

When my daughter was struggling during middle school, my Auntie Joanne took her for a girls' weekend, providing her a reprieve from the horrors of being 12. Both of them have taken my kids to the zoo and the mall, and they drive close to two hours to attend our family Christmas parties, a tradition I made my own after my grandparents died and our family Christmases changed.

These intergenerational relationships are important

My aunts fostered relationships with my children that allowed my kids to remain close to my side of the family. Through these women, my kids learned about family traditions and heard stories about my life before them. My grandparents died in 2013, and by the time my youngest kids were old enough to remember things, the size of the family had decreased significantly.

This weekend, we are headed to Boston to celebrate my Auntie Pauline's 90th birthday. When I told my 11-year-old son I was making the trip alone, he told me he had to go. He refused to miss seeing her on such an important day.

Throughout every event in my life — and now in my children's lives, too — the aunts, as we've come to refer to them, have been there. Despite the generational differences, they have remained a constant in our lives. They have taught us lessons, made us laugh, and pulled all of us through some of the most challenging times. It is impossible to remember every fun thing and every milestone moment we've celebrated with our great aunts. Without them, a part of my history, and my children's, would not have existed.

• A Colorado couple credits the FIRE movement with helping them grow their net worth to $800,000. 
• FIRE is an acronym for "financial independence, retire early."
• The duo shared their top strategies for increasing their savings. 

Chrissy Arsenault and her husband, Ryan, didn't grow up wealthy. To get ahead financially, they've long known that a combination of "hard work and frugality" would be necessary, Arsenault told Business Insider via email.

So when the couple learned about the FIRE movement in their mid-20s, it was music to their ears.

FIRE is an acronym for "financial independence, retire early." Generally, people who've embraced the FIRE movement want to grow their savings so they can achieve financial freedom and retire before they turn 65 — though some people prefer to keep working. To accomplish their goals, some FIRE advocates save most of their income, take on side hustles, or delay costly life milestones like having kids. Many FIRE advocates trace the movement's philosophy to the 1992 best-selling book "Your Money or Your Life."

To learn more about the FIRE movement, in particular strategies for maximizing savings and reaching financial independence, the couple sought out FIRE-related YouTube videos, Facebook groups, newsletters, and podcasts. They then tried to apply some of that information to their financial strategies.

Their efforts have paid off.

Over the past several years, the couple has grown their combined net worth to more than $800,000, according to documents viewed by BI. Arsenault said their goal is to grow their investments to roughly $2.5 million over the next 10 to 15 years — which she hopes will allow them to retire before she turns 50. Both she and Ryan are in their early 30s.

"Retiring at 65-plus years old just doesn't sound appealing," said Arsenault, who works as a marketing director and is based in Colorado. "I'm sure we'll still be active and healthy at that age, but there's a lot more that we can enjoy when we're in our 40s and 50s."

As many Americans struggle to save for retirement — and many retirees feel they don't have enough to stop working — the FIRE movement has offered a potential blueprint for people who desire financial security. While some people have found success with FIRE, it hasn't been a good fit for everyone, in part because it can require significant savings goals that might not always be realistic. However, FIRE proponents live a wide range of lifestyles. And experts say some principles of FIRE — like the benefits of saving and investing at a young age to take advantage of compounded investment returns — are applicable to a wide audience.

Arsenault shared her and Ryan's top strategies for growing their savings — and the one change to their lifestyle that could make an early retirement a bit more difficult.

How to live a FIRE lifestyle

Arsenault summed up the couple's financial strategy as "spend less, make more, and invest more."

To spend less, she said they've reduced how much they dine out at restaurants, bought in bulk from Costco, planned their own vacations rather than using travel agents, avoided gym memberships by working out at home, and limited alcohol consumption.

They've also postponed certain expenses to save some extra cash.

"I went many years with a broken phone screen and really didn't mind," she said.

To make more money, Arsenault said they've "aggressively pushed for additional income." For Arsenault, this has taken on the form of "climbing the corporate ladder" — she said she landed a six-figure salary at age 26. She also started a side hustle working as a registered dietician, something she focuses on during evenings and weekends.

Ryan works full-time as a human resources professional. In his spare time, Arsenault said he focuses on managing the couple's three investment properties which provide them with passive income. The couple's combined taxable income was roughly $250,000 in 2023, according to a document viewed by BI.

When their strategies generate extra money, the couple invests as much as possible in their 401(k) plans and low-cost index funds.

In case of emergencies, the couple keeps about six months of funds in savings.

Arsenault said saving money was easier when she and Ryan lived in Indiana. The couple relocated to Colorado during the pandemic, a few years into their FIRE savings journey.

One of the biggest differences between the two states has been the housing costs, Arsenault said. The couple is based in Monument, Colorado, where the average home value is about $743,000, per Zillow. In Fishers, Indiana, where they used to live, the average home value is $426,000.

In the years ahead, one lifestyle change could put some additional pressure on the couple's finances: They're expecting their first child, which they know will come with many new monthly expenses.

However, Arsenault said she thinks her financial goals are still achievable, in part because she and Ryan have been planning for life with a newborn. They've even planned how to finance their child's potential college education.

"We've started to save up for his 529 plan so that they can attend college," she said, referring to the investment account that offers tax-free withdrawals when the money is used for certain education expenses.

Are you part of the FIRE movement or living by some of its principles? Reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.

• A Business Insider analysis reveals the household income needed to be middle class in major US cities.
• Some parts of the Bay Area require over $100,000 to even be considered middle class.
• Middle-class cutoffs vary widely; they're highest in the West and lowest in the South.

Most Americans consider themselves middle class, but in reality, the cutoffs are more limiting. In some states, just over 40% of residents fall in the middle-income bracket.

This chart shows exactly how much it takes in each major US city to be considered upper, middle, and lower class.

A Business Insider analysis of US Census Bureau data for about 400 metropolitan areas reveals that in some parts of the Bay Area, your household needs to make six figures to be considered middle class, while in a few cities in the South, making six figures is upper class.

Inspired by a GoBankingRates analysis, BI looked at all large metro areas tracked by the US Census Bureau in 2022. BI determined middle-class cutoffs using Pew Research Center's definition of earning between two-thirds and double each metro's median income.

The following table shows our results for all 392 metro areas, sorted from highest to lowest. You can find your hometown using the search bar:

In the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area in California, being middle class means a household must earn between $99,267 and $297,800. Meanwhile, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, middle-class households make between $29,509 and $88,526.

The Census Bureau notes the real median household income nationally was $74,580 in 2022. This would be considered below middle class in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley and Washington DC-Arlington-Alexandria metro areas.

Many of the highest-cutoff metro areas are in the West, with seven of the top 20 in California, two in Colorado and Washington, and one in Utah. Among the lowest 20, almost all were in the south in states like Arkansas, Texas, and Georgia.

The New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area was outside the top 20 with cutoffs of $61,041 to $183,124. The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area was not in the top 50, with cutoffs of $55,276 to $165,828.

Though many Americans may fall into the middle class, according to these calculations, many are still struggling to afford their basic necessities. Some in the ALICE — asset limited, income constrained, employed — demographic have told BI they're worried they may never retire as much of their income goes to expenses such as food, rent, and transportation. For many older Americans, Social Security doesn't cover everything, forcing many to take part- or full-time jobs in their retirement years.

This stress often doesn't go away even as Americans climb the income ladder. HENRYs — or high earners, not rich yet — often make six figures but have told BI that their savings feel inadequate in the case of an emergency or job loss, forcing some to delay having kids or buying a home.

An earlier BI analysis on a state level found that states like New York and California had the lowest percentages of residents in the middle class at under 45%, meaning that more residents were either upper or lower class. California's statewide cutoffs were $61,034 to $183,102, while New York's were $53,038 to $159,114.

Do you feel middle class? Did you move to another state where you could feel more financially secure? Tell this reporter why or why not at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

• Airbus forecasts that it'll be able to double the size of its global fleet to 48,230 planes by 2043.
• The demand comes from strong growth in Asia and the Middle East, per Airbus.
• The optimistic outlook stands in stark contrast to Boeing's losses, which have been in the billions.

As its competitor Boeing bleeds millions of dollars in the face of legal issues, Airbus has reported a much more optimistic future outlook.

The aircraft manufacturer revised its 20-year demand outlook in an annual global market forecast, saying it expects to more than double its global fleet size in the next two decades.

The current size is 24,260, per Airbus documents seen by Business Insider. Airbus forecasts that this number will rise to 48,230 by 2043, with 42,430 new deliveries expected until then.

"We see particularly strong growth in Asia and the Middle East, led particularly by India and China," Bob Lange, head of market analysis and forecasts at Airbus, told Reuters.

To be sure, Airbus' positive outlook for the future might be a bright spot in the aviation industry.

Companies like Boeing, for instance, have been bleeding cash. In its first-quarter earnings report, Boeing reported that it burned through $3.9 billion in cash. Boeing also posted a net loss of $355 million in that quarter.

Boeing has also agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and will cough up $243.6 million to resolve a US Justice Department investigation into two 737 Max fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.

The department said Boeing violated a 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement, which stipulated that Boeing had to pay $2.5 billion — mostly to the victims' families — and agree to strengthen its safety and compliance program.

The two crashes, which involved its Max 8 models, killed a combined 346 people.

A representative for Airbus did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

When Bob Iger returned to Disney in late 2022 for his second tour as CEO, the company was in dire straits. It had just reported poor earnings, was scrambling from unpopular business moves, and was left reeling from previous CEO Bob Chapek's bad press.

Just a year later, Iger began to put the Mouse House back in order: He delivered a strong earnings report in February, announced partnerships with Epic Games and Taylor Swift, and trumpeted a sports streaming platform. "We have entered a new era," Iger effused to investors during his February earnings call, a nod to the news that Swift's "Eras Tour" film would stream exclusively on Disney+. In response, the company's stock price got a much-needed boost, and investors rejected a public challenge by the activist investor Nelson Peltz to exert control over the company.

Investors' celebration, however, was short-lived. Amid the declining TV business, dismal box-office numbers, and the need to name a successor, Iger continues to face significant problems. Perhaps most concerning of all: Disney is losing its monopoly on kids.

The Disney Channel, once a gateway to all things Disney, plummeted from a top-10 network with nearly 2 million average daily primetime viewers in 2014 to No. 80 with a measly 132,000 in 2023. Kids are now getting their TV fix on streaming, which accounts for two-thirds of TV watch time for children 2 to 11, per Nielsen estimates. There, YouTube has become king. Kids increasingly prefer to zone out for hours watching free short-form videos instead of full-length TV episodes and movies. In April, Nielsen estimated, kids 2 to 11 watched three times as much YouTube as Disney+ content. Meanwhile, Disney said in 2022 that over 60% of Disney+ subscribers were adults without kids at home.

"YouTube is their primary platform of choice," said Alexia Raven, a former Warner Bros. Discovery research vice president who cofounded the consultancy Maverix Insights & Strategy, where she studies kids' viewing behavior. "It meets them where they are and meets their passions in nuanced ways. It really has shifted the entertainment landscape."

Media companies have increasingly incorporated YouTube into their distribution strategies by releasing shorts and trailers there, but it's not an ideal setup. Companies don't control the distribution or revenue from their content, and it's not clear whether YouTube works as an on-ramp to their own properties in the same way the Disney Channel did for Disney. Kids watching Disney clips on YouTube may have no need for Disney+.

Meanwhile, the movie theater is also faltering. The company had a string of box-office bombs and has focused more on creating content just for its streaming service. But by reaching for streaming dominance, Disney seems to be missing kids in a big way.

In some ways, Disney has the same challenges as other long-standing media and entertainment companies like Comcast and Paramount. For years, the conventional wisdom was that they had to get bigger to compete with the tech giants like Google and Netflix. But streaming, advertising, and the box office aren't panning out the way they were supposed to. For Disney, the problem is existential. Without a steady stream of kids growing up on Disney content, the downstream effects for the other arms of its business — such as theme parks and merchandise — look grim. Unless it can recapture the hearts of Gen Alpha, the House of Mouse risks losing its next generation of fans to other brands.

Over the course of a century, Disney transformed a quaint cartoon about a mouse into a sprawling $185 billion empire. It became synonymous with wholesome entertainment for millions of children around the world.

Now, not so much. The most popular kids show for the past two years was "Cocomelon," a show made by Moonbug Entertainment that airs on Netflix. Moonbug — which was acquired in 2021 by two former Disney execs — has quickly gained on giants like Disney, Paramount, and Comcast, clinching the No. 5 spot for kids' entertainment on YouTube in 2023, according to Tubular, a social video analytics company. On YouTube, shows featuring child stars reign supreme — channels like "Kids Diana Show" (123 million subscribers) and "Ryan's World" (37 million) have each captured the attention of millions of children.

"Kids are growing up seeing themselves on these platforms; they're seeing kids like themselves creating the content," Liz Huszarik, a former research executive vice president at WarnerMedia who is now a managing partner at Maverix, said.

It's a trend that parents like Nick Macknight, a streaming media executive who lives in Dallas, knows firsthand. He used to try to get his daughters, ages 2 and 4, to watch his favorite Disney movies from childhood over top YouTube shows like "Kids Diana Show." "I tried desperately because I love 'The Lion King' and 'Aladdin,' but they will just say, 'I'd rather watch something on YouTube,'" he said.

This drift toward YouTube threatens a foundational gateway to the wider world of Disney. The Disney Channel, which started in 1983, used to be a marketing juggernaut for all things Disney — kids were introduced to stars like Justin Timberlake and Zendaya and hit TV movies like "High School Musical." But it's become just another casualty of cable's erosion.

By reaching for streaming dominance, Disney seems to be missing kids in a big way.

Disney is certainly trying to meet kids where they are. To promote "Disney Junior's Ariel," it released a series of shorts on YouTube. And earlier this year, it launched a short-form Winnie the Pooh series on YouTube to test interest in a long-form version. In Disney's biggest games investment ever, Iger bought a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games to bring Disney characters to mega-popular games like "Fortnite," where kids and young adults are increasingly spending their time and money. The bet is that efforts like these will entice kids to seek out more content on Disney's own platforms. But while Disney is now the top media company on YouTube, gaining traction on other companies' platforms isn't really a solution to its problem. (Disney declined to comment on the record for this story.)

Kids are known to watch things on repeat and play a key role in keeping their families subscribing to streaming services, which makes them especially valuable to media companies. But it can take a long time to develop new franchises that stick in order to realize that lifetime value. Another problem is that the number of kids in the US is rapidly shrinking. Increasingly, media companies are throwing in the towel. When Netflix's growth hit a speed bump in 2022, it and other streamers pulled back on kid programming as they promised investors to make streaming profitable.

In some ways, Disney has followed suit. It's branched out beyond kids into sports, news, and general entertainment, moving to acquire the remaining third of Hulu that it didn't own in 2023. It is also investing more in the growing "Disney adult" market, which makes up about half of its theme-park visitors — a figure that an insider said had gradually increased over time.

Diversifying, though, has had its challenges. Like the rest of traditional TV, Disney's TV business is in decline. The highly profitable Experiences arm, which houses its theme parks and resorts along with merchandise tie-ins, has grown more important over time, contributing 70% of the company's operating income in 2023 compared with less than 25% a decade prior, per Bernstein. But those figures can be misleading. For the past decade, the division has increasingly relied on higher spending per guest rather than increased attendance, Bernstein found. While park and resort attendance has stayed relatively flat, spending per guest grew 7%, raising questions on Wall Street about how much growth is left in parks.

In theory, going after adult audiences — which, unlike kids, advertisers can freely target — could help Disney get its streaming business in the black, but it also puts Disney up against a bigger field of competitors like Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery's Max — platforms that have a head start since they aren't seen as "just for kids" the way Disney is. Iger himself has acknowledged that general entertainment content tends to be undifferentiated compared with Disney's franchises.

For Disney to secure its future, it needs to replenish its pipeline of young fans. Unfortunately, it doesn't have any easy fixes. When he first became CEO of the company in 2005, Iger went on a massive buying spree, snapping up Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. But today, there's no big equivalent company for it to buy to shore up its kid appeal. Disney already distributes the global kids phenomenon "Bluey," but it doesn't have the merchandising or theme-park rights to it.

It's far too soon to count Disney out, though.

The company has survived plenty of challenges over the decades, from the Great Depression to expensive flops like "The Black Cauldron" and "Mars Needs Moms" to criticisms over its portrayal of minority groups and a surreal public battle with Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis over what critics dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law.

Kids preferring short-form videos on YouTube over full-length episodes and movies is a problem that Disney doesn't seem to be able to solve.

One silver lining is the strength of Disney's franchises. The company had six of the top 10 streaming movies of 2023, including 2019's wildly popular "Moana," "Encanto" (2021), and "Elemental" (2023), according to Nielsen. And it's still captivating fans with "Star Wars" and Marvel spinoffs like "Andor" and "Ahsoka," which dominate Disney+. After a string of box-office flops, Iger has been public about his plan to course-correct, starting with making fewer titles and leaning on sequels over original titles. In June, Pixar's "Inside Out 2" became the year's biggest-grossing box-office hit, just a week and a half after its release. Its other highly anticipated films of the year are also sequels or spinoffs, like "Moana 2" and "Deadpool & Wolverine." Disney is also shifting resources from digital series to theatrical releases that can make a big splash, as evidenced by recent Pixar cuts that targeted teams focused on streaming.

Disney's reliance on franchises comes with risk, though. When Marvel releases stumbled last year, it cast a pall on the company and left Iger vulnerable to losing control of the company. To regain its dominance in the future, Disney will need some fresh stories.

Whether all this can help Disney get ahead of changing consumer behavior is an open question. Kids preferring short-form videos on YouTube over full-length episodes and movies is a problem that Disney doesn't seem to be able to solve.

When Macknight, the Dallas media executive, sat his kids down to prepare them for a family trip to Disneyland, he showed them a video about the famed theme park. The platform they watched it on? YouTube, of course.

Lucia Moses is a senior correspondent at Business Insider.

• Companies like Walmart are shifting to digital price tags and menus in many of their stores.
• They said they won't use the technology to surge prices at times when products might be in high demand.
• But new pricing strategies could present risks to consumers down the road. 

There's not much the American consumer loves more than a discount, and companies are constantly competing with each other to offer the best prices — or at least make the shopper think that they are.

Take Walmart, the latest big company rolling out new pricing innovations. In early June, it announced it would begin implementing digital, on-shelf labels in 2,300 stores by 2026.

A Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider that, even with the ability to quickly adjust prices via the digital shelf labels, the company will not surge prices for consumers when demand is high: "There is no plan to change the frequency of price changes or implement different pricing methods."

However, the practice brings up major questions for some experts concerned about the implications of shifting pricing strategies. While airlines and ride-hailing companies like Uber have been using surge pricing for decades, experts worry that if dynamic pricing becomes even more prevalent in retail and grocery stores, enabled by technology like digital price tags, consumers could struggle to budget for basic necessities. On the other hand, those with the time and resources to shop around and wait could take advantage of lower prices.

To be sure, adjusting prices based on supply and demand is a basic tenant of the capitalistic system in the US. Many retailers and restaurants have long had differentiated pricing at different times, whether it's a back-to-school sale or a happy hour. However, the digitization of shelf tags and menus, as well as other shopping methods like apps and websites, speeds up the process and allows companies to offer a wide range of prices to different customers — and shoppers could struggle to keep up.

A new era in pricing — rooted in old strategies

The Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider that the primary goal of digital price tags is to streamline tasks for employees, such as the time-consuming process of manually switching out price tags for hundreds of items each day to accommodate changes due to inflation or discounts.

"The new operational efficiencies enabled by digital shelf labels allow associates to spend less time on onerous tasks and more time serving customers and meeting their needs," Greg Cathey, senior vice president of innovation and transformation at Walmart, said in a statement to BI.

Elizabeth Pancotti, the director of special initiatives at the left-leaning think tank Roosevelt Institute, told BI that while digital pricing strategies are not new, she's concerned to see it applied to necessities.

"There are so many folks that are relying on more stable prices. Prices are high, but they're at least stable," Pancotti said. "And you could see a lot more instability. I think when you think about our macroeconomic tools, the Fed doesn't have the ability to fight for price stability when they're waging a war against digital price tags that can change every three seconds."

Imagine it's pouring rain, and you find yourself outside without an umbrella. You see a seller on the corner charging $20 for an umbrella, up from his usual $5 price on a sunny day. You're likely more willing to spend that $20 because you need the umbrella to stay dry, and you have no other option. With digital price tags, big retailers, in theory, could do the same.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has said that type of dynamic pricing is "incredibly important in our economy."

"I think we need to give companies the freedom to do that as long as they're not fixing prices or failing to disclose the nature of the price changes to the public," Powell said during a Senate hearing on monetary policy in March.

Some experts agree, saying dynamic pricing practices could benefit consumers who are able to gain some understanding of the system and shop around. Z. John Zhang, a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, told BI that changing prices throughout the day would allow consumers who cannot afford a full-price product to seek out lower prices and discounts.

"In the airline industry, if you're patient, you can probably wait to buy tickets and get a lower price," he said. "But imagine if you only had one price. That's not very efficient for the company, and certainly that would deny a lot of people access to flights."

But as Wendy's learned earlier this year, some customers are skeptical. Its CEO announced during a February earnings call that it would begin testing out dynamic pricing features like digital menus that could change prices and menu items throughout the day. After customers complained online that those changes would surge prices, a spokesperson announced the company did not intend to implement surge pricing.

Wendy's said the digital menu boards would instead be used to offer discounts to customers more easily. But this type of pricing experimentation is what's making some consumers and experts nervous, especially when they can make these changes without significant oversight, Pancotti said.

"I commend companies for being creative and trying to find these places where they can operate without regulations and without a lot of government capacity," she said. "But I think it's a huge risk for consumers."

What's at stake for shoppers

Some Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern over the rise of new pricing strategies. Sen. Sherrod Brown held a Senate banking hearing in May to address that topic, saying in his opening statement that some companies are "adding electronic menu boards to restaurants and digital price labels to shelves so that corporations can raise the price at a moment's notice."

"It's frustrating, and it makes it impossible for people to compare prices and shop around – key ingredients in any fair, open market," he said. "Families with fixed budgets cannot afford to walk into the grocery store or pharmacy not knowing how far their paycheck will get them."

While many of the companies adopting digital strategies have denied that they will engage in surge pricing, Pancotti said there could be consequences down the road should they do so. For example, Americans relying on federal benefits like SNAP could be impacted the most because the amount of assistance they receive is based on pricing data, and it would be difficult to calculate those benefits accurately should prices constantly change.

As The American Prospect highlighted in a recent series on price gouging, shifting prices could lead to highly personalized pricing in which companies collect data on consumers' shopping habits — they could even find information on income and family size — and tailor prices of products based on that data.

With dynamic pricing already a part of consumers' lives, think changing prices at gas stations, Zhang said shoppers just might have to get used to it as it makes its way into other industries. But they — and lawmakers — will be watching.

"All of this is a game," Pancotti said. "They all have the same goals of maximizing profits, and we're just finding new ways to do so as our economic conditions change."

Where have you seen surge pricing in your life? How does dynamic pricing impact you? Share your story with this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com.