The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Saturday, April 4th 2026
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Before picking Todd Blanche to help lead and now run the Justice Department , President Donald Trump was his client. Blanche, whom Trump elevated Thursday from deputy attorney general to acting U.S. attorney general, rose to prominence representing the president in criminal cases that consumed the four years between his first and second terms. Blanche, a former federal prosecutor and law firm partner, led Trump's ...
Source: apnews.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Nasa has shared the first high-resolution images of the Earth taken by the Artemis II crew as they head on their trip around the Moon. The mission's commander, Reid Wiseman, took the "spectacular" images, Nasa says, after the crew completed a final engine burn that set them on a trajectory towards our closest celestial neighbour. The first image, called Hello, World, shows the vast expanse of blue that is the ...
Source: bbc.com
Iran fires on targets across Mideast while Israel and US hit Tehran as war shows no signs of slowing
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran fired on targets across the Middle East, sparking multiple blazes at a Kuwaiti oil refinery, while American and Israeli airstrikes hit the Islamic Republic on Friday as the war neared the end of its fifth week unabated. The U.N. Security Council prepared to meet over Tehran's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Despite claims from the U.S. and Israel that Iran's ...
Source: bostonglobe.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Washington — Officials from 23 Democratic states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to block President Trump's latest executive order that aims to restrict mail voting, arguing the directive unconstitutionally attempts to interfere with states' administration of elections. The lawsuit, led by California, was filed with the U.S. district court in Massachusetts. It asserts that neither ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Trump threatens to destroy Iranian infrastructure, saying its government 'knows what has to be done'
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Donald Trump threatened Iranian bridges and power plants as rhetoric escalated. His words come as a recently constructed bridge near Tehran was destroyed in an airstrike. China, Russia and France vetoed a resolution calling for military action against the country. Significant sections of the B1 Bridge are seen destroyed after an airstrike attributed to the United States and Israel targeted the site near Tehran, in ...
Source: cnbc.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Department of Labor releases closely watched March 2026 jobs report The U.S. economy added jobs in March as the labor market rebounded after it unexpectedly shed jobs a month ago. What are the key findings of the March 2026 jobs report? The Labor Department on Friday reported that employers added 178,000 jobs in March. That figure was well above the expectations of economists polled by LSEG, who predicted a ...
Source: foxbusiness.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
For Tiger Woods , another arrest on charges of driving under the influence has put golf on hold . There will be no chance of a return to the Masters next week. No Ryder Cup captaincy in 2027. Golf is being pushed to the side while Woods seeks treatment following his crash a week ago in Florida. Authorities say Woods had pain pills in his pocket and showed signs of impairment following the crash — his fourth ...
Source: apnews.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Proposal, a win for RFK Jr's Maha movement, is a 'first step' toward tackling plastic pollution, advocates say The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) proposed on Thursday to include microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a list of contaminants in drinking water for the first time, a step that could lead to new limits on those substances for water utilities. Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, said the agency was ...
Source: theguardian.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ousted the Army's top uniformed officer and two other generals, the Pentagon said Thursday without giving a reason for the departures while the United States is waging a war against Iran . Gen. Randy George "will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately," said Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's top ...
Source: wfla.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Judge threw out 10 of Lively's 13 claims against her It Ends With Us director and co-star on Thursday as trial nears Justin Baldoni's lawyers have responded after most of Blake Lively 's claims against the director were dismissed by a federal judge on Thursday. Judge Lewis Liman threw out 10 of the 13 claims that Lively had made against Baldoni and others, including allegations of sexual harassment, conspiracy and ...
Source: theguardian.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
This story was first published by Digiday sibling ModernRetail Amazon will impose a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on merchants' fulfillment fees beginning April 17, as rising fuel costs tied to conflict in the Middle East pressure supply chains. "Elevated costs in fulfillment and logistics have increased the cost of operating across the industry. We have absorbed these increased costs so far," the company wrote ...
Source: digiday.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Reading time 2 minutes It took just over a month for the war in Iran, which was first sparked by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28, to start hitting consumers back home. Beyond rising gas prices, flyers are now facing higher baggage fees, with two major U.S. airlines raising prices this week. United Airlines confirmed to media outlets on Thursday that it is raising the price of first and second checked bags by ...
Source: gizmodo.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced that federal officials arrested eight people – including three nurses, a chiropractor, and a psychologist – accused of several health care fraud schemes totaling $50 million from Medicare and other insurance companies throughout Southern California. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the arrests were conducted in coordination with an anti-fraud ...
Source: floridianpress.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Cuba begins prisoner release after mass pardon Cuban authorities began to free prisoners on Friday after announcing it would pardon 2,010 inmates, the second release in less than a month as it faces heightened US pressure. More than 20 inmates came out of La Lima penitentiary in east Havana, holding their release papers, crying and hugging relatives who had been waiting for them all morning, AFP journalists ...
Source: digitaljournal.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Follow Earth on Google What if love could happen without even seeing each other? In the mysterious world under the ocean, octopuses show that connection can go far beyond sight. A new study by Harvard biologists reveals a surprising and almost romantic story about how these creatures find their mates using touch and taste combined. Octopuses find mates without seeing Octopuses live mostly alone and meet others only ...
Source: earth.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
President Donald Trump's White House released a budget proposal on Friday that pairs an unprecedented, debt-exploding $1.5 trillion in military spending with tens of billions of dollars in cuts to domestic agencies and education, healthcare , climate, and housing programs. Trump's budget request for fiscal year 2027, which must be approved by Congress, includes $73 billion in total cuts to nondefense spending while ...
Source: commondreams.org
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Terrifying video shows the moment "Bob's Burgers" actor Eugene Mirman's car was entirely engulfed in flames just moments after he crashed into a toll plaza — and had to be pulled from the fiery wreck by the New Hampshire governor's security detail. The voice actor and comedian, best known for his role voicing Gene Belcher on the animated TV series, miraculously survived after plowing his electric ...
Source: nypost.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Amid bipartisan backlash to AI from federal lawmakers, nearly a dozen states are considering legislation that would prohibit new data center construction for a period of months to years. Maine is poised to be the first state to pass such a bill. On Tuesday, the Maine House of Representatives passed House Bill (H.B.) 307 , largely along party lines , to prohibit "approval for the development, construction or ...
Source: reason.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
A juvenile has been arrested in the case of a 12-year-old Reseda girl who died after she was hit in the head with a metal water bottle during an alleged bullying incident at Reseda Charter High School, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The suspect, whose age and gender have not been disclosed, was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa, according to a department ...
Source: latimes.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
More than 3.1 million bottles of eye drops sold at major retailers, including Walgreens and CVS, are being recalled due to concerns about their sterility, according to a notice from the Food and Drug Administration. The eyedrops have been recalled by their manufacturer, K.C. Pharmaceuticals, according to the March 3 alert. The products were sold under a number of brand names, including Dry Eye Relief Eye ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
OpenAI is making an unexpected media move, buying Silicon Valley tech talk show TBPN in a deal reportedly valued in the low hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Financial Times . The acquisition stands out because it pushes the ChatGPT maker beyond software and deeper into the business of shaping the public conversation around artificial intelligence. According to the FT, OpenAI has acquired the ...
Source: pymnts.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
The Justice Department has concluded that a federal law requiring the preservation of presidential records is unconstitutional, which could effectively permit White House lawyers to try to set their own voluntary presidential recordkeeping policy and, potentially, upend decades-old legal precedent established in response to Richard M. Nixon's effort to keep control of records upon his resignation from the Oval ...
Source: abajournal.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Microsoft just shipped the clearest signal yet that it is building an AI empire without OpenAI Six months after renegotiating the contract that once barred it from independently pursuing frontier AI, Microsoft has released three in-house models that directly challenge the partner it spent $13 billion cultivating. MAI-Transcribe-1, MAI-Voice-1, and MAI-Image-2 are now available in Microsoft Foundry, and they do not ...
Source: thenextweb.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Follow Earth on Google Life on Earth has a long and fascinating history, but scientists still uncover surprises that change what we know. A recent fossil discovery in China has revealed that complex animal life began earlier than previously believed. Scientists from Oxford University 's Museum of Natural History, the Department of Earth Sciences, and Yunnan University have uncovered a remarkable fossil site in ...
Source: earth.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Soaring energy prices caused by the US-Israeli war of choice on Iran is driving up global food prices while shrinking the economies of Gulf Arab states targeted in Iranian counterstrikes, according to a pair of reports published this week by United Nations agencies. On Friday, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published its latest Food Price Index (FFPI), which measures the monthly change in ...
Source: commondreams.org
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
International law experts allege violations in Iran war More than 100 experts on international law have signed an open letter expressing "profound concern" about what they see as serious violations of international law by the US, Israel and Iran in the Middle East war. They say the US-Israeli decision to attack on Iran was a clear breach of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the use of force outside of ...
Source: bbc.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Mortgage rates have increased for five consecutive weeks, sidelining potential buyers in the middle of the spring homebuying season. Processing Content The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit 6.46% this week, an eight-basis-point jump from last week's 6.38% and the highest mark since early September, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The 30-year rate is up 46 basis points month over month, ...
Source: americanbanker.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Tina Peters, an election denier, was found guilty in 2024 of allowing unauthorized access to county's voting equipment A Colorado appeals court on Thursday ordered the resentencing of a former state election official who was found guilty of allowing unauthorized access to her county's voting equipment, the latest development in a closely watched case that has attracted considerable attention from Donald Trump and ...
Source: theguardian.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
3 min read President Donald Trump is imposing a new 100% tariff on certain pharmaceutical companies that have not struck deals to sell their drugs directly to consumers as part of his "Most Favored Nation" pricing initiative, the White House announced on Thursday. The forthcoming tariff will apply to imports of patented drugs and their active ingredients, in an effort to pressure foreign manufacturers to move their ...
Source: edition.cnn.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
A planning commission has approved President Donald Trump's proposal to build an enormous ballroom at the White House, an effort to put his personal touch on a national landmark that has stoked backlash and legal challenges. The National Capital Planning Commission, tasked with overseeing proposed construction on federal sites in the Washington, DC area, voted in favour of the project on Thursday. "I believe that, ...
Source: aljazeera.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Google LLC is upping the stakes for open-weights artificial intelligence models with the release of Gemma 4, its most advanced "open" model family so far. Built on the same architectural foundation as Gemini 3, the models are designed to handle complex reasoning tasks and support autonomous AI agents running locally on low-power devices such as workstations and smartphones. With Gemma 4, Google DeepMind researchers ...
Source: siliconangle.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
While no longer in stores, the product may still be in freezers across the country If you have dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets in your freezer, federal officials say you may want to check the packaging. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on Wednesday issued a public health alert for certain frozen, ready-to-eat chicken nuggets that may contain "unsafe levels of lead." ...
Source: foxbusiness.com