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The U.S. Postal Service said Thursday it has informed federal budget officials it will temporarily suspend its employer contributions to Federal Employees Retirement System annuities, allowing it to keep making payroll, paying suppliers and delivering the mail. The step taken by the Postal Board of Governors is meant to preserve cash and liquidity due to the Postal Service's ”ongoing, severe financial crisis," Postal Service Chief Financial Officer Luke Grossmann said in an internal message to USPS employees. Officials have warned the USPS is on course to run out

US Postal Service to suspend employer payments to workers' pensions, citing cash crunch

Maryland settles with owner and operator of ship that crashed into bridge, causing deadly collapse

Pittsburgh Pirates lock up Konnor Griffin with long-term contract extension

Crime|Economy|Finance|US

Woman says jury duty scam cost her $5,000. Now she's warning others

BUNCOMBE COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) -- An Asheville woman is sharing her story after she says she was scammed out of $5,000 by a person pretending to be with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office.The woman was so shaken up that she didn’t want to reveal her identity. She said it started with a phone call on Wednesday, April 8, when a man accused the victim of failing to appear for jury duty and said she was in contempt of court.“Two warrants for my arrest were active, and that I needed to pay in order to get those dismissed and suspended,” she explained, addi

The Iran war is making life more expensive for Americans

What is Israel’s war in Lebanon and why could it shatter the Iran ceasefire?

Average US long-term mortgage rate eases to 6.37% after rising five weeks in a row

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate eased this week, a modest relief for prospective homebuyers who have been facing higher borrowing costs as mortgage rates climbed to the highest level in nearly seven months. The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate dropped to 6.37% from 6.46% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the rate averaged 6.62%. This week’s decline in rates follows five straight increases. When mortgage rates rise, they can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for home shoppers, limiting what t

IMF chief warns that Iran war will slow global economic growth

Argentina approves Milei's bill that eases protections for glaciers despite environmental backlash

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Elissa Slotkin is testing whether winning in Trump country is a winning message for Democrats

��s trying to show her fellow Democrats the way.“We don’t help ourselves by pretending we don’t have a problem, OK?” Slotkin told Democrats at a party dinner here Tuesday night. “Staying on defense only doesn’t win anything. You must go on offense to win.”The Michigan senator brought a dose of tough medicine for Democrats as she visited Iowa, the latest stop on a tour of states that President Donald Trump won, which she believes can be the center of the party’s revival in the midterm elections and beyond.“If we can figure out how to win in the middle of the country, we can wo

Would you go to the moon? Board an alien spacecraft? What nearly 80 years of polls say about US attitudes on space

Americans’ opinion of space exploration is pretty high.In an Ipsos poll conducted last week just after the launch of Artemis II, US adults say, 62% to 34%, that the benefits of NASA sending people into space are worth the costs, with nearly identical levels of support among both parties.Even amid dismal ratings for the US government overall, views of NASA remain relatively starry-eyed. The agency gets an 80% favorability rating in Ipsos’ survey. And, in contrast to opinions of many other agencies, opinions of the space program are relatively unpolarized.That stands out because views about

Parking garage collapses in Grays Ferry, Philadelphia; 1 dead, search for 2 others underway

Former Fort Bragg employee charged with leaking classified information to journalist

Crime|US

Judges keep knocking down weak DC gun cases brought by Jeanine Pirro’s office

The Trump White House touted its surge of National Guard members to Washington, DC, last summer as the way to put more dangerous perpetrators in the nation’s capital behind bars. But in nearly a dozen criminal cases since the surge began, people who were found to be carrying weapons and charged in federal court have walked free.The Justice Department has had to drop illegal gun possession cases in recent months after judges on the federal trial-level court in DC have repeatedly found fatal flaws in the cases — largely because the guns were found during unconstitutional police searches.Seve

Americas|Crime|Travel|US|World

Husband’s arrest in disappearance of American woman in the Bahamas puts his account under scrutiny

The arrest of an American man who told authorities his wife fell overboard while on a dinghy in rough waters in the Bahamas has brought greater scrutiny to his account of what happened as the search for her enters a fifth day.Brian Hooker was arrested by the Royal Bahamas Police Force on Wednesday in connection with the disappearance of 55-year-old Lynette Hooker, his lawyer confirmed to CNN.He was arrested “for additional questioning based on some probable cause we have,” Royal Bahamas Police Force Assistant Commissioner Advardo Dames told Reuters. He was taken into custody as a suspect,

Angels' Jorge Soler and Braves' Reynaldo López receive suspensions following brawl

What does the Iran ceasefire deal mean? It depends on which side you talk to

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Economy|Health|Science|World

US fertility rate dropped to another record low in 2025

The fertility rate in the United States has been trending down for decades, and new federal data shows that another drop last year brought the rate down to the lowest on record.About 3.6 million babies were born in the US in 2025, according to provisional data published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 53 births for every 1,000 women of reproductive age. That rate is down about 1% from 2024 and nearly 20% lower than it was two decades ago.A pronatalist movement has gained momentum under the Trump administration, buoyed by policy moves geared toward encouragi

Business|Crime|Europe|World

Polish man arrested following undercover CNN investigation into online rape networks

Polish authorities have arrested a man in connection with the alleged rape of an “unknowing victim” that was recorded and shared online, the District Prosecutor’s Office in Lublin said Thursday.The arrest follows an undercover investigation by CNN into online networks of men teaching each other how to drug and rape their partners.Polish media outlets have identified the man arrested as “Piotr,” the pseudonym given to the Polish man at the center of CNN’s investigation.Marek Zych, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, would not confirm the suspect’s name to CNN but did con

Netanyahu authorizes direct talks with Lebanon in potential boost to ceasefire efforts

The first predictions for hurricane season are in and El Niño’s fingerprints are all over it

Science|Technology|Travel|World

Artemis II astronauts follow Apollo tradition of naming lunar features after loved ones

Lunar love knows no bounds. Now hurtling home from the moon, the Artemis II astronauts took a poignant page from Apollo 8 earlier this week, proposing deeply personal names for a pair of lunar craters. Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew asked permission to name one small, fresh crater after their capsule called Integrity and another after his late wife, Carroll. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen made the request right before Monday's lunar fly-around. Wiseman was too emotional to talk. Carroll Wiseman, a neonatal nurse, died of cancer in 2020.

MidEast|Political|World

After Trump’s Iran ultimatum and a fragile ceasefire, Iranian Americans brace for what’s next

Zainab Haider was making the drive home after work with her two young children Tuesday as she contemplated what might come from the deadline President Donald Trump had set for Iran to concede to U.S. demands. Would her relatives in Iran be safe or would they be wiped off the map? Her emotions were heavy, ranging from anxiety and fear to even loneliness as others seemed to be going about their lives as normal despite what could have been pending doom. Ultimately, Trump did not make good on his threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” instead agreeing