The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Friday, April 3rd 2026
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — There was little sign Friday of the war in the Mideast winding down as Israel said it faced incoming fire from Iran, Kuwait and Bahrain reported being under attack, and Iran said eight people were killed while celebrating the close of Persian new year near a major bridge hit by a U.S. strike. Tehran continued to demonstrate its ability to strike its neighbors even as U.S. ...
Source: wfla.com
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
April 3 (UPI) -- NASA's Artemis II crew left Earth orbit Thursday evening en route for the moon, marking a milestone not reached in more than 50 years. The Orion spacecraft began a scheduled 5-minute, 50-second burn at 7:49 p.m. EDT, successfully propelling it and its four-person crew out of Earth orbit. "Nominal translunar injection burn complete. The Artemis II crew is officially on the way to the moon," NASA ...
Source: upi.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 -
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
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
WASHINGTON -- A majority of the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of President Donald Trump's efforts to limit birthright citizenship during arguments Wednesday. Key conservative justices raised doubts about the constitutionality of the president's executive order that would end automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to immigrants in the country illegally and some temporary foreign visitors. When a ...
Source: bostonglobe.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
A new lawsuit has been filed challenging a recently enacted Florida law that mirrors the language of the federal Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act — President Trump's self-described "No. 1" legislative priority . The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court by the Elias Law Group on behalf of the state's NAACP branch and the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, pointed to a ...
Source: wfla.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Senate-passed funding plan for DHS languishes despite agreement between Republican congressional leaders The US House of Representatives on Thursday took no action on a compromise measure that would end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), raising questions about how much longer the record-long funding lapse will persist. The department has been without funding since mid-February, ...
Source: theguardian.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Body camera footage of Tiger Woods' arrest has been released, less than a week after the golf icon was taken into custody following a car crash in Florida and charged with driving under the influence . The video shows Woods being handcuffed after failing a sobriety test. The Martin County Sheriff's Office, which responded to the collision, shared video of the arrest on Thursday. It shed more light on the incident ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Food & Water Watch calls on EPA to monitor for microplastics in drinking water Today, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the EPA is including microplastics on the draft Sixth Contaminant Candidate List (CCL 6), a list of unregulated contaminants that are known or likely to occur in public water systems that the EPA may regulate in the future. The announcement, however, did not mention the inclusion of ...
Source: commondreams.org
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed for the fifth straight week, reaching its highest level in nearly seven months, another setback for home shoppers in the midst of the spring homebuying season. The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate rose to 6.46% from 6.38% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the rate averaged 6.64%. The last time the average rate was higher was ...
Source: apnews.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
US moves towards reestablishing working relations between two countries after abducting President Nicolás Maduro The US has lifted sanctions on Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez , in the latest step towards normalising relations between the two countries after US forces abducted her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife. The couple were taken to New York after their abduction in ...
Source: theguardian.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Judge Lewis Liman dismissed 10 of Lively's 13 claims against Baldoni, including claim of sexual harassment A federal judge has thrown out the majority of Blake Lively 's claims against Justin Baldoni. In a court ruling on Thursday, Judge Lewis Liman dismissed 10 of the 13 claims in Lively's lawsuit against her co-star and director of the domestic violence film It Ends With Us . Among the 10 claims that Liman threw ...
Source: theguardian.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado appeals court ruled Thursday that a former county clerk convicted in a scheme that sought to prove fraud in the 2020 presidential election should be resentenced because a judge wrongly punished her for statements protected as free speech. Tina Peters is serving a nine-year prison term after being convicted of state crimes for sneaking in an outside computer expert to make a copy of ...
Source: apnews.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Help Net Security newsletters : Daily and weekly news, cybersecurity jobs, open source projects, breaking news – subscribe here! Apple has extended security updates to a wider range of devices still running iOS 18, aiming to protect users from the DarkSword exploit kit. This is not the first time Apple has backported fixes for older devices based on vulnerability severity. Allowing iOS 18 users to receive ...
Source: helpnetsecurity.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
The weight-loss drug rivalry heats up as another GLP-1 pill gains FDA approval The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of Eli Lilly's once-daily pill orforglipron as a weight loss and obesity treatment this week was the fastest approval of a new medication in decades. Clinical trial results showed that the highest doses of the oral medication, which will be marketed as Foundayo, caused people to lose an ...
Source: scientificamerican.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 -
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
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Ted Bundy's rampage of violence spanned at least four years and left dozens of victims behind, including at least 30 women and girls who were killed — and several others who escaped or survived despite serious injuries. Though the serial killer has been dead for nearly 40 years, the tally of his confirmed victims continues to grow as DNA testing has advanced. A Utah sheriff confirmed Wednesday that Bundy was ...
Source: apnews.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Gemma 4 brings the first major update to Google's open models in a year. Google's Gemini AI models have improved by leaps and bounds over the past year, but you can only use Gemini on Google's terms. The company's Gemma open-weight models have provided more freedom, but Gemma 3, which launched over a year ago , is getting a bit long in the tooth. Starting today, developers can start working with Gemma 4 , which ...
Source: arstechnica.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal officials on Thursday arrested eight people they say were involved in various health care fraud schemes totaling $50 million in and around Los Angeles. Five of the cases involved hospice-care centers in cities of Glendale, Artesia, Tarzana and Simi Valley in the Los Angeles area that allegedly billed Medicare for patients that were not terminally ill and did not qualify for hospice ...
Source: apnews.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Jonathan, the world's oldest tortoise , is not dead. The amphibian is very much alive despite what you may have heard. An internet hoax labeled the animal dead earlier this week. On April 1, a fake post claiming to be the tortoise's owner, Joe Hollins, said Jonathan had died. The tortoise is 193 years old. Following the hoax, many outlets (not us) reported that the animal had died, according to The Guardian . ...
Source: wideopenspaces.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
The National Capital Planning Commission has given the green light to the US president's plan to build a 90,000sq ft ballroom on the site of the White House's demolished East Wing. Donald Trump's plan to build a ballroom at the White House has been given final approval by a key commission - just days after a judge ordered construction to stop. The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), the agency responsible ...
Source: news.sky.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
First and second checked bag fees rise $10, while third bag jumps $50 starting with tickets purchased Friday United Airlines is raising checked bag fees by $10 to $50 for travelers purchasing tickets starting Friday, the company confirmed to FOX Business on Thursday. The increase, which the airline said marks its first bag fee hike in two years, comes after JetBlue announced similar measures in late March. ...
Source: foxbusiness.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Reading time 3 minutes Octopuses are some of the most mysterious animals living in the sea. In research out today, however, scientists have pulled back the curtain on the male octopus' penis-like arm, formally known as the hectocotylus. Researchers at Harvard University and elsewhere studied octopus mating across a series of experiments. To their surprise, they discovered the hectocotylus isn't just used to deliver ...
Source: gizmodo.com
Wednesday, Apr 1st, 2026 -
Luigi Mangione's federal and New York state trials over the killing of a UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson were pushed back Wednesday, with the first case set to start on Sept. 8. New York State Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro on Wednesday moved Mangione's murder trial to September from June 8. A few hours earlier, US District Judge Margaret Garnett had postponed jury selection in the federal ...
Source: news.bloomberglaw.com