The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Friday, April 3rd 2026
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: 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 (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 -
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is slapping a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on third-party sellers using its platform starting later this month amid a spike in fuel prices since the war in Iran started. The temporary charge is effective April 17 for many of the sellers who use Amazon's fulfillment services, the online behemoth confirmed to The Associated Press in an email Thursday. "Elevated costs in fuel and ...
Source: apnews.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
The supreme court appears poised to reject Trump's attack on a foundation of US identity. We must hope it follows through A merican opponents of birthright citizenship – the right of all those born on the soil of a country to claim full legal rights and political representation in that nation – like to point out that many countries don't have it. On Wednesday at the supreme court, during the oral ...
Source: theguardian.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
President Donald Trump displays an executive order he signed Tuesday cracking down on mail-in voting ahead of midterm elections in the Oval Office. ( President Donald Trump's effort to curtail mail voting through executive order will likely be ruled illegal in at least one of several lawsuits filed this week, experts said, the latest in the president's long-running effort to assert federal control of elections. ...
Source: rollcall.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Republican leaders unveiled a plan to end the government shutdown on Wednesday Removed from bookmarks The US Senate is poised to swiftly approve a measure on Thursday aimed at funding the majority of the Department of Homeland Security , though the timeline for the House to follow suit and largely end ...
Source: independent.co.uk
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
After crashing his SUV last week in Florida, Tiger Woods took out his phone and told a deputy, "I was just talking to the president," according to body camera footage released Thursday showing Woods' arrest on a DUI charge. The phone conversation was not captured on video, but Woods could be heard saying, "Thank you so much," as he hung up and the deputy approached. It wasn't clear if Woods was referring to ...
Source: bostonglobe.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Tiny fragments of plastic have been found in nearly every organ in the body, including the brain and lungs. For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency is adding these microplastics to a list of drinking water contaminants the agency is considering for future regulation. "For too long, Americans have been ignored as they sound the alarm about plastics in their drinking water. That ends today," EPA ...
Source: nbcnews.com
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 -
WASHINGTON — The U.S. on Wednesday lifted sanctions on Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez, according to an Office of Foreign Assets Control entry on the Treasury Department website. The newly announced sanctions relief is the latest U.S. recognition of Rodríguez as a legitimate authority in Venezuela ever since the U.S. military captured her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, and his ...
Source: npr.org
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 -
A Colorado appeals panel has tossed out a nine-year prison term for Tina Peters , the first election official found guilty of a felony in connection with 2020 election conspiracy theories, and ordered that she be re-sentenced — declaring that the lower court violated her First Amendment right to free speech and "went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing." In a 78-page opinion released Thursday, ...
Source: lawandcrime.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 -
One doctor breaks down what makes Foundayo so noteworthy. If it seems like new medications for weight loss are coming out at a rapid rate, it's because they are. For a long time, the only options came in injectable form until recently, when the first oral GLP-1 pill became available earlier this year. Now, an even newer oral GLP-1 from drug company Eli Lilly—called Foundayo (orforglipron)— , and it's ...
Source: womenshealthmag.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
The Trump administration will impose tariffs of as much as 100% on certain imported medicines, albeit with several major exemptions, a maneuver to pressure drugmakers to manufacture more in the US. The new levy, which President Donald Trump authorized on Thursday, applies to patented drugs made in countries that lack tariff deals with the US by companies that don't have most-favored-nation-pricing agreements with ...
Source: news.bloomberglaw.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 -
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 -
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 -
By If your heart sank when you scrolled past news that Jonathan the Tortoise had died, here's the update you need: the beloved 194-year-old is perfectly fine, napping under a tree and living his best life on a remote island in the South Atlantic. What started as some of the saddest news imaginable in the animal kingdom turned out to be nothing more than a scam — and the people who know and love Jonathan most ...
Source: miamiherald.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 -
United Airlines is raising its fees for first and second checked bags, becoming the second U.S. airline to up the price this week. United is raising the price by $10 for flights in the U.S., Mexico and Canada and Latin America, the airline said Thursday in a statement, making the price for the first checked bag $45 for those who pay ahead of time and $50 for travelers who check their bag within 24 hours of their ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
Sensory organ in male cephalopod able to detect female hormone progesterone, even if male cannot see partner Sex might seem an intimate act, but scientists have shed fresh light on how octopuses manage it at arm's length. Male octopuses use a specialised arm called the hectocotylus to place a package of sperm inside the female's reproductive system. But how this arm detects a mate, or delivers the sperm to the ...
Source: theguardian.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