The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Saturday, April 4th 2026
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
— President Trump's budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 asks Congress for $1.5 trillion in defense spending — a 42% increase — while cutting nondefense spending by $73 billion, or 10%. on Friday, accompanied by of the administration's key priorities across the executive branch. The proposed increase for the military comes as the U.S. is spending billions of dollars for the , and the White House ...
Source: news.yahoo.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Capsule's engine fires up for six minutes, putting crew on track to reach farthest distance travelled by humans in space Four astronauts on the Artemis II mission are approaching 100,000 miles from Earth as they head towards the moon, putting them on track to reach the farthest distance humans have ever travelled in space. The crew have now left Earth's orbit and fired their engines on Thursday for a "translunar ...
Source: theguardian.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Washington — A U.S. F-15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran on Friday, and one crew member from the plane was later rescued by American forces, U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News. The F-15E is flown by a two-member crew, and the search for the second crew member, a weapons system officer, is continuing, two U.S. officials said. The jet was shot down by Iranian forces, the ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
Over 20 attorneys general challenge the executive order and say it's an unconstitutional move to disenfranchise voters More than 20 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit Friday challenging Donald Trump's Tuesday executive order to restrict who can vote by mail. In his order, Trump directed the US Postal Service to abstain from sending mail-in or absentee ballots to people who are not on a pre-ordained list ...
Source: theguardian.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 -
The United States added 178,000 jobs in March, blowing past expectations and showing a resilient labor market just as the war with Iran began escalating, sending up oil prices. The unemployment rate fell to 4.3% last month, down from 4.4%. The gains were concentrated in health care, construction, transportation and warehousing. Despite the outsized headline figure, there were further indications that the job market ...
Source: nbcnews.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 -
Amazon is shifting higher fuel and logistics costs onto third-party sellers as oil prices climb Amazon will impose new fees later this month on third-party sellers as rising oil prices tied to the ongoing war with Iran ripple through the U.S. economy, a shift that could ultimately push costs onto consumers. The company said it will begin charging a 3.5% "fuel and logistics-related surcharge" on sellers who use its ...
Source: foxbusiness.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 -
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is asking Congress to boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion, the largest such request in decades and the latest signal of the president's emphasis on U.S. military investments over domestic programs. The 2027 plans for the Pentagon were confirmed in a White House outline of Trump's 2027 budget proposal released Friday. The White House summary says Trump's proposal ...
Source: military.com
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 -
April 3 (UPI) -- More than three million bottles of eye drops sold at stores across the United States have been recalled by their manufacturer because they may not be sterile. K.C. Pharmaceuticals earlier this month issued a nationwide U.S. recall of roughly 3.1 million bottles of eight different eye drop products because of a "lack of assurance of sterility," an FDA notice about the recall said. The drops have ...
Source: upi.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 -
April 3 (UPI) -- The war in Iran has driven up global food prices and freight costs in March for the second month in a row, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The prices have risen mostly because of energy-related pressures due to the war in Iran, the U.N. FAO Food Price Index report said. The report tracks monthly changes in international prices of globally traded food commodities. ...
Source: upi.com
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 -
Average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 6.46%, Freddie Mac says Mortgage rates rose this week as the conflict in Iran continues to weigh on markets, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage climbed to 6.46% from last week's reading of 6.38%. The average ...
Source: foxbusiness.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
The Colorado Court of Appeals has thrown out election denier Tina Peters' nine-year prison sentence , finding that the lower court violated her First Amendment right to free speech related to her allegations of election fraud. "The trial court's comments about Peters's belief in the existence of 2020 election fraud went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing," a three-judge panel wrote in a 77-page ...
Source: nbcnews.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
The Trump administration imposed new tariffs on branded drugs from pharmaceutical companies that have not struck landmark deals with the president to lower their U.S. drug prices. Patented medications and their active ingredients would be hit with a 100% tariff, but there are pathways for drugmakers to reduce or avoid the levies, a senior administration official said. The plan would represent another shift in ...
Source: cnbc.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
April 2 (UPI) -- The National Capital Planning Commission voted Thursday to approve President Donald Trump 's plans for a White House ballroom in the now-demolished East Wing. Most of the 12-person commission voted in favor of the plans and there were several "present" votes. The only no came from Phil Mendelson, chair of the Council of the District of Columbia. Before the vote, Mendelson said he felt the ballroom ...
Source: upi.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Built from the same research as Gemini 3, the new family spans a 2B edge model that runs on a Raspberry Pi to a 31B dense model currently ranked third on the Arena AI open-model leaderboard. The Apache 2.0 licence is a significant shift from previous Gemma releases. Google has released Gemma 4 , the latest generation of its open-weight model family, in four sizes designed to cover everything from on-device ...
Source: thenextweb.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Lead-contaminated dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets sold at Walmart have triggered a nationwide public health alert, with federal officials warning the products may still be sitting in consumers' freezers. The US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said frozen, ready-to-eat chicken nuggets produced by Dorada Foods may contain unsafe levels of lead. The alert covers 29-oz. bags of "Great ...
Source: nypost.com