WBZ, CNN

By Chris Isidore, CNN

(CNN) — Spirit Airlines, the pioneering discount airline that shook up the budget travel business, is shutting down its operations.

The company is in its second bankruptcy and was in serious financial trouble well before the Iran war sent jet fuel prices surging. America’s eighth-largest carrier tried to reach a deal with the Trump administration on an 11th-hour rescue package, but a key group of creditors balked at the proposal.

Spirit is the first major US airline in 25 years to go out of business because of financial problems. Its demise has stranded thousands of passengers who have to adjust plans and millions who have tickets for future dates — Spirit canceled all flights, shut down its customer service and instructed customers not to go to the airport. Customers with Spirit tickets will be issued refunds, and they have been instructed to rebook travel on other carriers.

“We are proud of the impact of our ultra-low-cost model on the industry over the last 34 years and had hoped to serve our guests for many years to come,” Spirit said in a statement. “It is with great disappointment that on May 2, 2026, Spirit Airlines started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately.”

The decision will put 17,000 workers out of a job, including 14,000 Spirit employees and thousands of contractors and other people whose jobs depend on Spirit. Eliminating the airline’s flights may also result in higher fares across the entire US airline industry.

Stranded passengers

Passengers holding Spirit tickets will have to scramble to make other travel arrangements.

In a note to its customers, Spirit said it is not able to help rebook flights to another airline, but it will automatically issue refunds to passengers who bought tickets through Spirit with a credit or debit card. Passengers who booked flights via a travel agent “should contact the travel agent directly to request a refund,” Spirit said.

Customers who booked flights using any other method, including a voucher, credit or Free Spirit points, may be out of luck. Companies that go out of business typically stop honoring rewards, coupons and vouchers after they cease operations. Spirit said potential refunds of those payment methods will be determined in the company’s bankruptcy court process.

Passengers in the middle of a trip must now find a seat on another airline. That could be a costly problem: Last-minute “walk-up” fares are the most expensive in the industry, and Spirit said it wouldn’t reimburse customers for incidental travel costs associated with canceled trips — but insurers might cover the cost for customers who purchased travel insurance.

Several US carriers announced they would support affected Spirit passengers, including fare caps for nonstop routes that Spirit had flown.

Out of money; out of time

Spirit has been unprofitable since the pandemic, warning repeatedly in recent years that there was “substantial doubt” over its ability to continue flying. Spirit had filed for bankruptcy twice, most recently in August 2025.

The company announced it had reached a Read more

Por Kaanita Iyer, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn y Aleena Fayaz, CNN

Cuando los turistas vean esta primavera una estatua de Gustavus Cheyney Doane, un explorador del siglo XIX, en un centro de visitantes del Parque Nacional Grand Teton, la placa que solía estar debajo ya no estará.

La exposición preguntaba a los visitantes: “¿Cómo reconocemos lo bueno y lo malo de una figura?”, señalando que la expedición de Doane condujo a la designación del primer parque nacional, pero también que ayudó a liderar una masacre de al menos 173 miembros de los Piegan Blackfeet, un acto del que se jactó durante toda su vida.

Su eliminación fue citada en una demanda contra el Departamento del Interior, que administra los parques nacionales del país, como uno de los muchos cambios provocados por el decreto del presidente Donald Trump de marzo de 2025, que ordenaba a la agencia “tomar medidas” contra el contenido público que “menospreciara inapropiadamente a los estadounidenses, tanto del pasado como del presente”.

La administración Trump argumenta que el decreto garantiza que la historia estadounidense se presente de forma positiva. Pero los críticos afirman que está borrando elementos del pasado de la nación.

“Los estamos matando de nuevo”, declaró Tom Rodgers, miembro de la Nación Blackfeet, conocido como “El Que Cabalga hacia el Este”, refiriéndose a las víctimas de la masacre, que calificó como una de las “experiencias históricas más despreciables” para los nativos americanos.

“Creo que hemos llegado a un punto en nuestro país donde la gente piensa que si dices la mitad de la verdad, es como si hubieras dicho toda la verdad, y eso, en sí mismo, es una mentira”, afirmó. “Es orwelliano”.

A medida que el país se adentra en la temporada alta de turismo, las pruebas de la reforma cultural sin precedentes impulsada por la administración se harán patentes en los parques nacionales de todo el país.

La eliminación de las palabras en Grand Teton es uno de los al menos 45 cambios que se llevaron a cabo en virtud de la orden ejecutiva, según Save Our Signs, un grupo que monitorea las modificaciones en las exhibiciones del Servicio de Parques Nacionales.

Por ejemplo, en el Monumento Nacional Muir Woods de California, se han retirado los letreros sobre las contribuciones de los nativos americanos y las mujeres, incluida una nota que informaba a los visitantes que John Muir se refirió en una ocasión a los pueblos indígenas con un lenguaje racista en sus diarios e ignoró “el genocidio que sobrevivieron”.

“Esto contribuye a la idea de que los pueblos indígenas no pertenecen a los parques”, decía el cartel en una ocasión.

La administración también ha arremetido contra las advertencias sobre el cambio climático, un factor que afecta a los monumentos ubicados en paisajes naturales.

En el Monumento Nacional Fort Sumter de Carolina del Sur, se ha retirado por completo un cartel que incluía detalles sobre los inminentes impactos del cambio climático, incluida información sobre cómo “el aumento del nivel del mar podría inundar la mayor parte de las murallas del fuerte y anegar la histórica plaza de armas”.

El Departamento del Interior declaró a CNN que en Fort Sumter “actuó para sustituir los materiales que no se basaban en la ciencia real por información precisa, basada en pruebas y acorde con el funcionamiento real del mundo”.

Mientras tanto, en Washington, una exposición sobre George Mason, uno de los padres fundadores, ha eliminado las referencias a que, paradójicamente, poseía esclavos a pesar de ser un defensor de los “derechos individuales”.

Estas demoliciones se producen en un momento en que Estados Unidos atraviesa una etapa repleta de oportunidad

By Anabella González, Djenane Villanueva, Ana María Cañizares, CNN

(CNN) — The ceasefire between the United States and Iran is holding but the war’s impact is still being felt in the daily lives of millions of people in Latin America – and could continue to be for months to come.

From rising fuel prices to the frequency of public transport and the cost of popular foods like tortillas, Latin American households say they feel strained by a war they’re not involved in.

Even if the conflict in the Middle East were to end soon, it would continue to affect Latin American economies for a long time, analysts say.

The world is expected to suffer an oil shortage this year, and the longer the war drags on, the greater its effects will be, potentially pushing the world into a recession, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Argentina

Argentina, a country that has been working to bring down skyrocketing inflation, is seeing another rise in the cost of living, which the government of President Javier Milei attributes, in part, to the Middle East conflict.

Since the start of the war, fuel prices in Argentina have risen by more than 20%.

Passengers using public transport in Buenos Aires have dealt with delays since the beginning of April as transport authorities cut bus services due to an increase in the cost of diesel fuel.

Long lines in the streets and frustrated passengers have been a common sight in recent weeks, especially in downtown areas and during peak hours. Some commuters say their travel time has almost doubled.

Inflation, which has been steadily rising for months after falling from its highest point in decades in 2023, undermines Milei’s prediction months ago that inflation would disappear “by mid-2026.”

In March, the inflation rate was 3.4%. That month, according to the minister of economy, the war contributed to a 9% increase in fuel prices, 24% in domestic air fares and 22% in intercity transportation fares.

Hugo Vasques, a graduate in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and former auditor general of the City of Buenos Aires, said higher prices could continue in the coming months.

“The impact of the war has not yet been fully realized in the Argentine economy, and that is a problem, because there is a feeling that everything happened in March, but the truth is that it didn’t,” Vasques said.

Rising fuel prices are also impacting costs in the freight transport sector, which saw a 10% increase in March compared to the previous month – the highest rise in two years, according to the Transport Cost Index (ICT) of the Argentine Federation of Business Entities of Freight Transport (FADEEAC).

Vasques predicted the war’s impact on the Argentine economy would “still be felt at least until the middle of the year, perhaps even into the following months” even if the conflict ends soon.

Costa Rica

For countries that are “net importers” of fuel, such as Costa Rica and much of Central America, the effect of the war is “clearly negative” as it generates “higher fuel costs, transportation and more expensive food, and (is) increasing pressure on family budgets,” said Cecilia Godoy, analyst for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

At Costa Rican gas stations, two questions are often heard by customers: “Has it gone up yet?” and “Am I lucky today, has it not gone up yet?”

Kevin Calvo, a nursing assistant who lives in Cartago province, says his biggest worry is that his daily expenses wi

By Jeff Zeleny, CNN

(CNN) — Two decades have passed since California last elected a Republican governor, but GOP candidate Steve Hilton points to 6 million reasons why he believes it’s possible to do so again.

Those are the number of votes President Donald Trump won in California in 2024, despite losing the state to Kamala Harris by 20 points. Yet it was 1.6 million more votes than Trump earned there during his first presidential bid in 2016, a rare sign of growth in a deep-blue Democratic bastion.

One month before the California primary, a spirited free-for-all has broken out in the race for governor, with a half-dozen Democrats and two Republicans among the leading contenders vying for the top two positions that will advance to the November election. There are 61 total candidates who will be on the nonpartisan primary ballot.

If the Democratic candidates split the vote among their supporters, it’s hardly a far-fetched scenario that the Republican hopefuls – Hilton, a former Fox News host, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco – could emerge as the top two winners in the June 2 primary.

“It’s a perfect opportunity,” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, told CNN. “The mismanagement of Gavin Newsom and such a weak field gives voters a chance to actually look at somebody new and better for California.”

While Democrats concede that such an outcome is mathematically possible, they argue it’s not politically probable in the era of Trump, toward whom disdain and disapproval run deep among the state’s electorate.

But even the prospect of an all-Republican general election is enough to rattle Democratic leaders who are trying to bring order to an unwieldy contest to succeed Newsom after his eight years as governor.

“I continue to believe there are too many Democrats in the field,” Rusty Hicks, chairman of the California Democratic Party, said. “I have deep respect for the Democrats who step forward to serve and I also know they understand the importance of electing a Democrat as our next governor, including the need to narrow the field to ensure we win in November.”

Hicks’ blunt assessment underscores the uncertainty in the race. The gubernatorial campaign in the nation’s most populous state was thrown into chaos when Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out and resigned from Congress last month amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Democratic hopefuls Xavier Becerra, Tom Steyer and Katie Porter are among the party’s candidates who are scrambling to gain the upper hand – and fighting for the same voters – in an unusual contest that could create an opening for a head-to-head match between the Republicans.

Hilton, for his part, has won Trump’s endorsement in the race.

Bianco, a sheriff who has embraced claims of election fraud, is also among the upper tier of candidates who received double-digit support in the crowded field, according to the latest CBS/YouGov California poll.

While Republicans comprise a far smaller share of California voters, only Hilton and Bianco are seriously competing for them. Even as Trump’s endorsement has given Hilton a boost among Republicans, it could also reduce the likelihood that he and Bianco may emerge as the top two

By Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN

(CNN) — For more than 30 years, the answer to who killed Cindy Wanner remained much of a mystery to loved ones and law enforcement after she vanished from a Northern California home leaving everything behind, including her baby.

Her sudden disappearance in 1991 rattled residents of Granite Bay, a suburb of Sacramento where the 35-year-old mother of two had gone to clean her sister’s home, investigators said. Wanner’s 11-month-old baby was buckled into a high chair and crying, without her mom, when a relative arrived to the home that day.

An extensive search for Wanner ended three weeks later when her body was found in a remote area about 40 miles from her sister’s home, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.

But many questions remained about who was behind Wanner’s death – and why.

Over the years, law enforcement continued testing evidence without any sufficient results until newer DNA testing technology gave them new hope in finding Wanner’s killer.

Suspect flew under the radar for decades

Detectives recently submitted a “final piece of evidence” from Wanner’s case to a neighboring sheriff’s office forensics lab, which yielded a match identifying James Lawhead Jr., 64, as a suspect, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said.

While the latest DNA match pointed them to Lawhead finding him became a challenge.

Investigators looking for Lawhead found no trace of him and “it appeared that he just disappeared since 2005,” Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said in a news conference earlier this week.

“We explored all possibilities on what could have happened, whether he was still living under a fake identity, whether he had left the country, or whether he was even deceased,” Woo said, noting the sheriff’s office checked records in both the US and Canada.

Detectives asked other agencies for help and the Scottsdale Police Department, using the Arizona Department of Transportation’s facial recognition system, identified a match, Woo said. The system is typically used to flag fake driver’s licenses, state IDs and suspected identity theft.

In Arizona, he wasn’t known by his real name. Lawhead went by the name of Vincent Reynolds, the sheriff’s office said, and was living in Bullhead City – near the state’s border with Nevada and nearly 600 miles away from Placer County.

Authorities believe suspect could be linked to other crimes

The man was arrested on the driveway of his home in Bullhead City on April 24, Woo said. After Lawhead’s arrest, investigators searched the house and found loaded firearms, a bag with $15,000 and a burner phone, the sheriff said.

Lawhead is facing charges of murder and kidnapping, Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said. He was extradited to Placer County on Thursday. CNN has not been able to identify an attorney for Lawhead.

“This arrest is a powerful reminder that time does not erase responsibility, and it does not diminish our commitment,” Gire said in a statement following the arrest.

Lawhead’s Bullhead City neighbors told CNN affiliate KPHO they were shocked to learn the man had been living among them. Investigators later learned the home was owned by Lawhead’s sister, who previously told authorities she hadn’t heard from her brother “in more than 20 years,” the sheriff’s office said.

The