The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Friday, April 3rd 2026
Friday, Apr 3rd, 2026 -
After President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 2, 2026, news reports suggested that she fell from grace, not for being too independent, but for not being effective enough at defending him and prosecuting his political enemies . As The New York Times reported the previous day, Trump was disappointed with "Ms. Bondi's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which has become a political ...
Source: theconversation.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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
The Department of Health and Human Services will is introducing a first-of-its-kind program to study microplastics and the effect they have on the human body, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday. Kennedy said the $144 million national program will be called STOMP, which stands for "Systemic Targeting of MicroPlastics." The program will bring toxicologists, data scientists and other experts ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2026 -
By Hopes that the U.S. housing market was starting to thaw have ebbed as the war in the Middle East extended into April, raising costs for many Americans. The average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rate hit 6.46%, the mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac said on Thursday. That's up from 6.38% the week before and the highest since the first week of September. Mortgage rates fell below 6% before the war started, but they ...
Source: miamiherald.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 -
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 -
Apple has expanded the availability of iOS 18.7.7 and iPadOS 18.7.7 to more devices to protect users from the DarkSword exploit kit, a hacking tool used in targeted cyber-attacks. The update allows devices still running iOS 18 to receive security patches without upgrading to the latest operating system. The security fixes included in the update were originally released in 2025, but Apple broadened access on April ...
Source: infosecurity-magazine.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 -
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 -
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
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 -
Now open-source under Apache 2.0, Gemma 4 brings offline, multimodal AI to servers, phones, and Raspberry Pi - giving developers total local control over edge and on-premises deployments. Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Google announced today that its DeepMind AI research division is releasing Gemma 4, its latest generation of open large language models . The ...
Source: zdnet.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 -
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's White House ballroom is expected to win approval from a key agency on Thursday, days after a federal judge ordered a halt to construction unless Congress allows what would be the biggest structural change to the American landmark in more than 70 years. The National Capital Planning Commission, the agency tasked with approving construction on federal property in the ...
Source: apnews.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 -
Mangione accused of killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York in 2024 Luigi Mangione 's much anticipated state and federal trials stemming from the killing of a top healthcare executive on a Manhattan street were both postponed on Wednesday. Mangione's state trial was moved from 8 June to September, the judge in that case said in an order made public this afternoon. Hours earlier, the ...
Source: theguardian.com