By Chris Isidore, CNN

(CNN) — For years, a huge Amazon contract has been one of the few bright spots in the US Postal Service’s finances. But now the USPS plans to offer those last-mile services to additional customers to stem billions in ongoing losses – a move that risks losing its biggest customer.

The USPS faces a tight squeeze. With fewer people using the mail, it’s lost more and more money: $9 billion in the 12 months ending in September alone.

“We certainly have a precarious cash position. You know, within probably 12 to 24 months, we are out of cash,” USPS Commissioner David Steiner said in a recent interview with Reuters. Simply making additional cost cutting measures won’t solve the problem, he said.

The Amazon contract reportedly brings in about $6 billion a year to the agency, money it can’t afford to lose.

But the post office now plans to accept bids from other shippers for access to the service’s distribution centers – even though Amazon says that might prompt it to pull back from the using the USPS so much.

“We’ve been working for nearly a year to extend our partnership that started more than 30 years ago,” said Amazon spokesman Steve Kelly.

“We were surprised to hear they want to run an auction after nearly a year of negotiations, and, given the change of direction and the uncertainty it adds to our delivery network, we’re evaluating all of our options that would ensure we can continue to deliver for our customers.”

Universal service

The very thing that makes the postal service so attractive to Amazon is also the reason why the agency so badly needs more money: universal service.

The postal service is legally required to deliver mail all across the United States all at the same price, what’s called universal delivery. That includes rural, far-flung or hard-to-reach destinations, expensive places for mail carriers to get to.

For Amazon, that means it’s sometimes cheaper to use USPS for that last stretch of delivery to a customer’s door.

But while that contract is important to USPS, it’s not nearly enough.

“We may not have sufficient liquidity to meet all of our existing legal obligations when due while also repaying our maturing debt and making the critical infrastructure investments… without putting our ability to fulfill that primary mission at undue risk,” it said in its most recent annual report.

Trying to get more customers to deliver pre-sorted packages in bulk directly into the USPS system makes operational sense, said Elena Patel, senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute and an expert in Postal Service finances. But she said there is a risk if those negotiations with smaller shippers pushes Amazon to no longer use the USPS as much as it has in the past.

“I don’t know what the state of negotiations is, but it certainly would not be good for the financial situation at the Postal Service for the negotiations with Amazon to fall apart,” she said.

USPS has already started to see package volumes start to slip after years of growth fueled by online consumer purchases. Total parcel and package volume slipped nearly 6% in the most recent fiscal year. But packages are still up nearly 500% from where they were 20 years ago, while first-class letter volume has plunged in the same period.

Patel said that it’s in the national interest for the government to continue to provide universal service, even if it means between $6 billion to $10 billion in annual congressional appropriations to USPS.

“The premise of (the USPS) is that it would deliver everywhere at an affordable rate, and we will let you keep the letter monopoly to pay for that,” she said. “Well, the second half of that is

Análisis por Brett H. McGurk, CNN

Hace un año esta semana, Joe Biden era presidente. Yo estaba en Doha, Qatar, negociando con Israel y Hamas para finalizar un acuerdo de alto el fuego y liberación de rehenes.

El equipo entrante de Trump colaboró ​​estrechamente con nosotros, una inusual muestra de imparcialidad para liberar rehenes y poner fin a una guerra. Parece que fue hace una década. Mucho puede pasar en un año, como lo ha demostrado 2025.

Hoy, Estados Unidos cuenta con la mayor concentración militar en el Caribe desde la crisis de los misiles de Cuba.

Enviados rusos participan en encuentros en Miami para discutir una nueva propuesta de alto el fuego para Ucrania, mientras el presidente Vladimir Putin continúa intensificando la guerra contra el país europeo.

Estados Unidos designó a un general de tres estrellas en Israel para supervisar un alto el fuego en Gaza tras bombardear Irán durante el verano.

El presidente Donald Trump planea una cumbre en Beijing que podría determinar el destino de Taiwán, así como nuestra competencia con China en los campos de las tecnologías avanzadas y la inteligencia artificial.

Este año que ha pasado se sintió más transformacional que transicional, y 2026 se perfila como un año decisivo, con múltiples puntos de inflexión en la agenda global.

Vamos a desglosarlo, con siete cuestiones que seguiré de cerca:

La administración Trump ha desplegado la mayor armada en el Caribe y el Atlántico occidental desde el apogeo de la Guerra Fría.

Esta fuerza incluye un grupo de ataque de portaviones, múltiples destructores, fuerzas de asalto anfibio, bombarderos furtivos y unidades de operaciones especiales.

El objetivo aún no está claro, pero las fuerzas estadounidenses está llevando a cabo una campaña letal contra presuntos narcotraficantes, con casi 30 ataques sin autorización del Congreso ni debate público.

Durante la última semana, Trump aumentó la tensión con un bloqueo militar declarado contra los cargamentos ilícitos de petróleo y la incautación de más tanqueros.

Esto parece una política de cambio de régimen con el respaldo de la fuerza militar. La Casa Blanca parece esperar que el líder de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, deje el poder voluntariamente para vivir el resto de sus días en Rusia o en otro lugar. Según informes, Trump hizo esa demanda directamente.

Pero es poco probable que eso suceda. Hay pocos ejemplos de presiones económicas y amenazas externas que, por sí solas, obliguen a un líder como Maduro a ceder el poder. (La destitución del líder militar haitiano Raoul Cedras en 1994 es un ejemplo, pero en ese caso, las fuerzas estadounidenses ya estaba en el aire listo para invadir el país antes de que sucumbiera).

Trump ahora afirma que Estados Unidos será la potencia predominante en el hemisferio occidental, dispuesta a usar la fuerza cuando sea necesario para promover los intereses estadounidenses.

La administración califica su nueva política como un “Corolario Trump” de la Doctrina Monroe, que advertía a las potencias coloniales europeas que se mantuvieran alejadas de nuestro territorio.

Sin embargo, en la época de Monroe, Estados Unidos no contaba con una armada. Ahora, una parte significativa de la fuerza naval más poderosa del planeta está desplegada frente a Venezuela.

¿Qué significa todo esto? El destino de Maduro en 2026 podría responder a esa pregunta. Si se mantiene en el poder, Trump corre el riesgo de ser visto como alguien que ladra y no muerde. Si se va, pocos podrían dudar de la seriedad de Trump como hegemón hemisférico.

En mi opinión, nada de esto parece bien pensado, pero la suerte está echada y cómo se resuelva durante el próximo año dirá mucho sobre qué esperar del “Corolario Trump” durante el resto de su segundo mandato.

En febrero, la invasión rusa de Ucrania entrará en su quinto año. La intenc

By Svitlana Vlasova and Caitlin Danaher, CNN

(CNN) — Two police officers and a third person were killed early Wednesday by a bomb in Moscow, close to the scene of a car bombing that killed a top Russian general two days ago.

The two police officers approached a suspicious person who detonated an explosive device near a police car, Russia’s investigative committee said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Investigators and forensic experts from the Moscow Investigative Committee are continuing to examine the scene of the incident,” Svetlana Petrenko, a representative for the investigative committee, said in the statement.

Police are also studying CCTV and interviewing witnesses in an attempt to uncover the perpetrator, the statement added.

The deadly blast comes just days after a Russian general was killed by a car bomb on a neighboring street in the Russian capital.

Lt. Gen Fanil Sarvarov, who ran the armed forces operational training department, died after an explosive device installed under the chassis of a car exploded on Monday morning, investigators said.

Russian officials suggested Ukraine could have behind the apparent assassination of the senior military officer. “Investigators are pursuing various motives for the murder. One of the theories is that the crime was organized by Ukrainian special services,” the investigative committee said Monday.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack on Sarvarov, but several prominent Russians have been killed in Moscow in attacks blamed on the Ukrainian security services since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The investigative committee did not comment on whether the two incidents are linked.

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By Toni Odejimi, CNN

(CNN) — Lottery hopefuls can try their luck for the estimated $1.7 billion Powerball jackpot in Wednesday’s drawing after no winners took home the grand prize Monday night.

Monday night’s winning numbers were 3, 18, 36, 41 and 54, with a Powerball of 7 and a Power Play multiplier of two, meaning most prizes were doubled in a separate drawing if people paid $1 more, according to a Powerball press release.

The jackpot is the fourth-largest in Powerball history and the second- largest this year, rivaling September’s jackpot of an estimated $1.787 billion, split between two winners in Missouri and Texas. The lottery game has generated some of the largest jackpots in US history, including the record $2.04 billion in 2022.

If it seems as if this jackpot has been rising for a long time, it has — with a record 46 drawings in the current series, according to Powerball. Wednesday’s drawing will be the 47th.

Though no one took home the big check, some winners got an early Christmas present of $1 million by matching all five white balls on Monday. These nine tickets were sold in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Multiple jackpots have been won either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, according to Powerball, but none of them have ever reached $1 billion.

If someone won tonight’s jackpot, it would be the first ticket to do so.

Lottery winners won’t see every cent of that $1.7 billion. That value — and the estimated $781.3 million lump sum — are before taxes, though a handful of states don’t tax their lottery winnings.

Jackpot winners have two options to get paid: either through an annuitized prize plan, with one upfront payment and 29 yearly payments increasing by 5%, or through one lump sum payout. The annuitized prize plan takes interest into account. Most lottery winners take the lump sum.

Before scrambling to buy a ticket, know that the odds for winning the jackpot are 1 out of 292.2 million, but odds improve for smaller prizes, some as low as $4. A ticket to play is $2.

The drawings are scheduled for every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 ET.

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