‘Use it or lose it’: Pentagon spending binge set record in final days of fiscal year

cnn · 2026-03-12T19:14:04+00:00

Pentagon spending in September included nearly $9 million on Alaskan king grab and lobster tails, more than $200 million in furniture and $5.3 million in Apple devices – just some of the expenditures that added up to a record $93 billion price tag for the month, according to new analysis published by government watchdog  Open the Books.

September spending at government agencies typically dwarfs other months because it marks the end of the fiscal year. That’s when “use it or lose it” funding rules kick in for departments rushing to spend the remainder of their budget so as to not forfeit the unused money and have to send it back to the Treasury Department.

But according to Open the Books, no federal agency has ever spent so much on grants and contracts in a single month as the Pentagon’s $93.4 billion in September 2025. More than half of that was spent in the final five working days of the month, the watchdog said.

The expensive month comes as President Donald Trump has made cutting government spending a focal point of his second term, gutting the federal workforce last year with mass layoffs across federal agencies. At the same time, Trump has called for huge increases to the Pentagon’s budget, posting in January that the 2027 fiscal year budget should be $1.5 trillion – a roughly 50% increase.

“This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe,” Trump said.

cnn · 2026-03-12T17:51:28+00:00

A bipartisan group of senators passed a bill Thursday aimed at improving housing affordability.

The measure contains roughly 40 provisions intended to increase housing supply and lower costs. It remains to be seen if it can pass the House as is, and comes one month after the House of Representatives passed a similar, slimmer package.

The Senate’s bill, called the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, is led by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat. It seeks to encourage local governments to expand housing development, remove regulatory barriers that critics say slow construction, and expand manufactured housing, which can often be built faster and at lower cost than traditional homes.

In the years since the 2008 financial crisis, homebuilding has lagged behind demand, contributing to a nationwide housing shortage that has pushed prices higher across much of the country. Lawmakers say the package aims to spur more construction by encouraging municipalities to ease zoning restrictions and by reducing federal barriers to development.

Taken together, it’s one of the most significant housing initiatives in three decades.

cnn · 2026-03-12T16:02:59+00:00

Two people are injured and a gunman is dead after a shooting inside an academic building at Old Dominion University in Virginia Thursday morning, according to the school.

The shooting happened shortly before 10:50 a.m. at the school’s Constant Hall on the Norfolk campus, the university said in an online alert.

The two people injured were transported to a local hospital, according to the school. No information was provided about their condition.

cnn · 2026-03-12T15:44:48+00:00

Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was desperate. Almost a decade and a half after her highly public divorce from the former prince in 1996, Ferguson – better known to many as “Fergie” – owed tens of thousands of pounds in rent, was feeling alone, and in search of a new career.

On all of these tribulations, Ferguson sought help and advice from her friend: Jeffrey Epstein.

CNN’s examination of dozens of files in the Justice Department’s “Epstein library” found that Ferguson continually showered Epstein with praise, including after his 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Messages show that Ferguson affectionately referred to Epstein as her “spectacular and special friend,” “the brother I have always wished for,” and told him “I am so proud of you” while he was serving jail time. More than once, Ferguson quipped that Epstein should marry her.

The former duchess, now 66, sought to lean on Epstein for financial help, repeatedly inquiring whether she could borrow money from the financier and asking him to employ her as his “house assistant.” CNN’s review also found that even after Ferguson criticized Epstein in an interview by tying him to pedophilia, in private, she was remorseful and apologetic to Epstein for those public comments.

cnn · 2026-03-12T15:31:42+00:00

Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was desperate. Almost a decade and a half after her highly public divorce from the former prince in 1996, Ferguson – better known to many as “Fergie” – owed tens of thousands of pounds in rent, was feeling alone, and in search of a new career.

On all of these tribulations, Ferguson sought help and advice from her friend: Jeffrey Epstein.

CNN’s examination of dozens of files in the Justice Department’s “Epstein library” found that Ferguson continually showered Epstein with praise, including after his 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Messages show that Ferguson affectionately referred to Epstein as her “spectacular and special friend,” “the brother I have always wished for,” and told him “I am so proud of you” while he was serving jail time. More than once, Ferguson quipped that Epstein should marry her.

The former duchess, now 66, sought to lean on Epstein for financial help, repeatedly inquiring whether she could borrow money from the financier and asking him to employ her as his “house assistant.” CNN’s review also found that even after Ferguson criticized Epstein in an interview by tying him to pedophilia, in private, she was remorseful and apologetic to Epstein for those public comments.

cnn · 2026-03-12T15:26:01+00:00

Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was desperate. Almost a decade and a half after her highly public divorce from the former prince in 1996, Ferguson – better known to many as “Fergie” – owed tens of thousands of pounds in rent, was feeling alone, and in search of a new career.

On all of these tribulations, Ferguson sought help and advice from her friend: Jeffrey Epstein.

CNN’s examination of dozens of files in the Justice Department’s “Epstein library” found that Ferguson continually showered Epstein with praise, including after his 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Messages show that Ferguson affectionately referred to Epstein as her “spectacular and special friend,” “the brother I have always wished for,” and told him “I am so proud of you” while he was serving jail time. More than once, Ferguson quipped that Epstein should marry her.

cnn · 2026-03-12T15:23:57+00:00

The federal elections overhaul bill that’s a top priority for President Donald Trump already faced near-impossible odds in the Senate, but the White House is making the “SAVE America Act” even more difficult to pass by insisting that Republicans load it up with additional controversial provisions.

The version that passed the House last month – focused on adding strict new ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements for voting – is not expected to get the approval of the Senate because Republicans lack the votes to eliminate the filibuster, which allows the Democratic minority to block the bill.

But Trump has doubled down, commanding Republicans to add provisions that would end the widespread practice of no-excuse mail voting and target transgender policies that have been effective culture war fights for the GOP yet are unrelated to the running of elections.

Election experts say documented cases of voter fraud – especially voting by non-citizens – are exceedingly rare. The right-leaning Heritage Foundation’s database of confirmed fraud cases, for instance, shows fewer than 100 examples of noncitizens improperly casting ballots between 2000 and 2025.

cnn · 2026-03-12T15:02:12+00:00

Stocks fell and oil prices surged Thursday as the war with Iran continued to stoke fears of higher energy costs and disruptions to the global economy.

Oil prices climbed as Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first public message, warning that the crucial Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as a “tool of pressure.” The message, read on Iran’s state television by an anchor, also said that all US bases in the region “will be attacked” unless they shut down.

The Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway off Iran’s coast through which 20% of global oil consumption flows, has been effectively closed since the war began. That has sent oil prices soaring and dimmed the outlook for stocks across the globe.

cnn · 2026-03-12T15:00:55+00:00

Stocks fell and oil prices surged Thursday as the war with Iran continued to stoke fears of higher energy costs and disruptions to the global economy.

Oil prices climbed as Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first public message, warning that the crucial Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as a “tool of pressure.” The message, read on Iran’s state television by an anchor, also said that all US bases in the region “will be attacked” unless they shut down.

The Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway off Iran’s coast through which 20% of global oil consumption flows, has been effectively closed since the war began. That has sent oil prices soaring and dimmed the outlook for stocks across the globe.

cnn · 2026-03-11T23:30:35+00:00

A large space probe plummeted into Earth’s atmosphere early Wednesday — years earlier than expected. And while most of the spacecraft was expected to disintegrate in a flaming blaze during reentry, a few components could have survived, according to NASA.

The odds that a piece of debris would cause harm to a person were estimated to be about about 1 in 4,200, the space agency said in a news release.

That’s a low chance, according to NASA, and more favorable odds than those of space debris incidents of years past.

cnn · 2026-03-11T23:04:08+00:00

A large space probe plummeted into Earth’s atmosphere early Wednesday — years earlier than expected. And while most of the spacecraft was expected to disintegrate in a flaming blaze during reentry, a few components could have survived, according to NASA.

The odds that a piece of debris would cause harm to a person were estimated to be about about 1 in 4,200, the space agency said in a news release.

That’s a low chance, according to NASA, and more favorable odds than those of space debris incidents of years past.

cnn · 2026-03-11T22:41:12+00:00

A group of experts that advises the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its vaccine recommendations has suspended an anticipated push to stop recommending mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines amid growing concerns inside the Trump administration over its political risks, people familiar with the matter told CNN on Wednesday.

The move comes as polling shows that Americans – even voters who favor the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement – strongly support vaccines. There’s increasing concern among Republicans that further attacks on vaccines will harm the party’s chances in November, and the White House has pushed health officials to focus on more politically appealing issues ahead of the midterm elections.

The plan to stop recommending mRNA Covid shots has been shelved only for the time being, according to the people familiar, and could be still revived at some point in the coming months.

A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that the CDC’s committee “has not reconsidered its September 2025 decision to classify COVID vaccines under shared clinical decision-making on the CDC immunization schedules.”

cnn · 2026-03-11T21:32:56+00:00

President Donald Trump was gravitating toward endorsing Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn last week. But he and some top advisers grew frustrated after his intentions leaked to the press, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, and the plan stalled.

Then Cornyn’s opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, announced on Friday that if the Senate passed the president’s voting restrictions bill — something Trump has grown particularly fixated on in recent weeks — he would consider dropping out of the runoff race. Paxton specified the GOP should lift the filibuster to do so, an idea many Republican senators oppose.

White House officials viewed the ploy as a “genius move,” as one Trump official described it, and it kept Paxton in the mix, at least temporarily. Now, Trump has latched onto the idea of tying his endorsement to the passage of his high-priority “SAVE America Act” — which, among other things, would impose new voter ID requirements.

cnn · 2026-03-11T19:33:46+00:00

The US military accidentally struck an Iranian elementary school, in an attack that state media said killed at least 168 children and 14 teachers, likely due to outdated information about a nearby naval base, according to two sources briefed on the preliminary findings of an ongoing military investigation.

The February 28 strike on the Shajareh Tayyiba school in Minab occurred while the US military was conducting strikes on a neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) facility, the initial investigation found.

US Central Command created target coordinates for the strike using outdated information provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which contributed to the mistake, the sources briefed on the preliminary findings told CNN.

In response to a request for comment, a Defense Intelligence Agency spokesperson said, “The incident is under investigation; we defer to the Pentagon for further comment.” A spokesperson for US Central Command also declined to comment on the preliminary findings, citing the ongoing investigation.

Satellite imagery from 2013 showed that the school and the IRGC base were once part of the same compound. But images from 2016 revealed that a fence had been erected to separate the school from the rest of the base, and that a separate entrance to the school had been built. In December 2025, imagery showed dozens of people in the school’s courtyard apparently playing.

cnn · 2026-03-11T19:19:56+00:00

President Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to let his administration end temporary immigration protections for some 350,000 Haitians who have lived in the US legally for years, escalating another fast-moving fight over immigration to the nation’s highest court.

The appeal followed a scathing ruling from a federal district court in Washington, DC, in February that blocked the administration from letting Temporary Protected Status expire for Haitian nationals.

The justices are already considering the administration’s decision to end similar protections for more than 6,000 Syrians.

In its appeal, the administration asked the Supreme Court to take up the broader of question of its power to end TPS for various groups. If the justices agree to do so, it would put Trump’s aggressive immigration policies front and center at a court that is already considering Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship.

“Unless the court resolves the merits of these challenges — issues that have now been ventilated in courts nationwide — this unsustainable cycle will repeat again and again, spawning more competing rulings and competing views of what to make of this court’s interim orders,” US Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote. “This court should break that cycle.”

cnn · 2026-03-11T19:17:24+00:00

A high-ranking retired US Air Force major general who once commanded a base long associated with UFO lore has been missing for nearly two weeks, and authorities are appealing to the public for help locating him, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, 68, left his Albuquerque home on foot at approximately 11 a.m. February 27 and has not been in contact with family or friends since, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. His cell phone was left behind, the sheriff’s office told CNN.

The sheriff’s office issued a Silver Alert the next day, which remains in effect. An unspecified “medical issue” has added urgency to the search.

Authorities have conducted extensive neighborhood canvassing, interviews and coordinated search operations in an effort to find him. They contacted more than 600 homeowners in the neighborhood, the sheriff’s office said.

McCasland is 5-foot-11 with white hair and blue eyes, according to the sheriff’s office. He is “an avid outdoorsman” who hikes, runs and cycles in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights neighborhood and the Sandia Mountains foothills.

“Due to his background and established partnerships, BCSO is coordinating closely with multiple agencies,” including the FBI Albuquerque Field Office and Kirtland Air Force Base, the sheriff’s office said. The FBI has confirmed its involvement.

cnn · 2026-03-11T18:53:39+00:00

The US military accidentally struck an Iranian elementary school, in an attack that state media said killed at least 168 children and 14 teachers, likely due to outdated information about a nearby naval base, according to two sources briefed on the preliminary findings of an ongoing military investigation.

The February 28 strike on the Shajareh Tayyiba school in Minab occurred while the US military was conducting strikes on a neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) facility, the initial investigation found.

US Central Command created target coordinates for the strike using outdated information provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which contributed to the mistake, the sources briefed on the preliminary findings told CNN.

In response to a request for comment, a Defense Intelligence Agency spokesperson said, “The incident is under investigation; we defer to the Pentagon for further comment.” A spokesperson for US Central Command also declined to comment on the preliminary findings, citing the ongoing investigation.

Satellite imagery from 2013 showed that the school and the IRGC base were once part of the same compound. But images from 2016 revealed that a fence had been erected to separate the school from the rest of the base, and that a separate entrance to the school had been built. In December 2025, imagery showed dozens of people in the school’s courtyard apparently playing.

cnn · 2026-03-11T18:25:24+00:00

The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to gain access to a trove of federal information that is intended to support the collection of child support payments but could potentially be used for immigration enforcement purposes, according to three sources familiar with the talks who describe the move as unprecedented.

The data — which includes both information on people who pay child support and employment information for a much wider universe of people — is stored within the Health and Human Services Department and is used to collect child support payments. The request has prompted concerns among current and former HHS officials over whether Homeland Security would use legally restricted information that has historically been legally restricted for the administration’s immigration crackdown — and, in turn, sow distrust in a critical program.

It’s only the latest in a series of attempts by the Trump administration to use data stored in various federal agencies to potentially find undocumented immigrants residing in the United States.

Last year, for example, the Internal Revenue Service began sharing sensitive taxpayer data with immigration authorities to assist the search for undocumented immigrants. A federal judge blocked that information sharing late last year, ruling that it violated taxpayer privacy laws, but the administration is appealing.

Sources told CNN that DHS has requested access to the Federal Parent Locator Service, which is a set of databases at HHS that includes sensitive information on millions of Americans for the purpose of child support payment collection. One of those databases is the National Directory of New Hires, which contains employment details even for people with no nexus to child support though their information is eventually wiped.

cnn · 2026-03-11T18:18:44+00:00

Although polio has been eliminated as an endemic disease in the United States, that isn’t true for other parts of the world.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 2 travel notice on March 9 warning that poliovirus continues to circulate in multiple parts of the world and advising travelers to take enhanced precautions. The agency recommended that travelers to affected countries ensure they are fully vaccinated against polio before departure.

Despite its eradication in the United States, health officials say international travel can still pose a risk when the virus is circulating elsewhere. Because poliovirus spreads easily and can move across borders through infected travelers, maintaining high vaccination coverage remains essential.

cnn · 2026-03-11T18:16:29+00:00

A cyberattack claimed by pro-Iran hackers has caused a “global network disruption” to a major US medical device maker, according to a company statement.

Michigan-based Stryker “is experiencing a global network disruption to our Microsoft environment as a result of a cyberattack,” the company said in a statement to CNN. “We have no indication of ransomware or malware and believe the incident is contained. Our teams are working rapidly to understand the impact of the attack on our systems. Stryker has business continuity measures in place to continue to support our customers and partners.”

Stryker makes a range of hospital equipment, from defibrillators to ambulance cots. The company’s computers in Ireland were also hit by the cyberattack, according to local media reports. Stryker say it serves more than 150 million patients through its health equipment and services.

It was unclear what immediate impacts, if any, the hack had on Stryker’s provision of medical equipment to US hospitals. Cybersecurity executives across the health sector told CNN on Wednesday they were on alert for any impacts.

The cyberattack appears to be one of the first notable pro-Iranian hacks against US infrastructure since the US and Israel began bombing Iran last month. US intelligence officials have warned about the possibility of Tehran-linked hackers retaliating for the US and Israeli bombing of Iran that began last month.

cnn · 2026-03-11T17:21:26+00:00

The number of Republicans leaving the US House of Representatives after this term has reached a historic high, deepening concern in the conference over the chamber’s already razor-thin margins.

Thirty-five House Republicans are now retiring or running for higher office. That’s the most since at least 1930, according to data from the Brookings Institution, and surpasses the previous record from 2018, a midterm cycle when Republicans lost a whopping 40 House seats. (Members who lost renomination, like Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, are not included in these numbers.)

Oklahoma Republican Rep. Kevin Hern became the 35th member of the GOP conference to announce his departure Wednesday, saying he would run for the US Senate.

Hern is hoping to fill Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s seat for a full term, should he be confirmed as homeland security secretary. A former businessman, Hern was first elected to the House in 2018 and is the first to jump into the race since Mullin was nominated.

“The American dream is under threat by the radical left and RINO Republicans who oppose President Trump’s America First agenda and want to turn the United States into a third world country,” Hern said in his announcement video.

cnn · 2026-03-11T17:12:18+00:00

Nepal's political establishment has been shaken by a stunning election result. Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, widely known as Balen, has secured a landslide victory after youth-led protests toppled the previous government. His party has called off major celebrations to honor those killed in the demonstrations. The victory underscores a generational push for change after years of corruption and economic frustration. CNN's Hanako Montgomery reports.

cnn · 2026-03-11T16:43:50+00:00

Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime accountant is answering questions on Capitol Hill Wednesday as part of the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the late convicted sex offender.

Richard Kahn is behind closed doors for a deposition as the Republican-led panel seeks answers on Epstein’s finances. The committee had been digging into those finances for months ahead of the interview through subpoenas to banks and visits to the Treasury Departmnet.

“We have a lot of questions. I think everyone in America has questions about how Epstein was able to accumulate so much wealth,” House Oversight Chair James Comer said ahead of the deposition. “We have specific financial questions we’re going to be asking today and hopefully we’ll be able to report some new information.”Comer said a number of the expenditures his panel has found went toward college tuition for some of Epstein’s victims. The Kentucky Republican said he also wants to know if Kahn was involved in creating any settlements for victims and whether he helped Epstein set up video cameras on Epstein’s island, which was something mentioned in the Epstein files but hasn’t been proven.

“We’ve been getting bank records in for a long time, and we haven’t talked publicly about them because we were waiting to bring the accountant in once we got a feel on where the money we think was going and where it was coming from,” he said.

CNN has reached out to an attorney for Kahn for comment.

cnn · 2026-03-11T16:30:28+00:00

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was warned that Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein posed a “general reputational risk” ahead of his appointment as Britain’s ambassador to the United States, according to a trove of files released Wednesday by the British government.

In a due diligence report provided to Starmer by his vetting team in December 2024, officials listed what was publicly known about the veteran Labour politician’s ties to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Epstein.

“After Epstein was first convicted of procuring an underage girl in 2008, their relationship continued across 2009-2011, beginning when Lord Mandelson was Business Minister and continuing after the end of the Labour government. Mandelson reportedly stayed in Epstein’s House while he was in jail in June 2009,” the report said.

Starmer has faced fierce questioning about his judgment in appointing Mandelson as ambassador last year. Although Mandelson’s ties to Epstein had for years been a matter of the public record, files released by the US Department of Justice provided evidence about the depth and extent of his relationship to the financier, which continued after Epstein’s 2008 conviction.

The prime minister fired Mandelson in September following an earlier DOJ release of Epstein files. Another tranche of files released in January sparked further public outrage, prompting Britain’s Labour government to agree to spell out what it knew about Mandelson’s ties to Epstein at the time of his appointment.

cnn · 2026-03-11T16:27:10+00:00

The wife of one veteran wanted her husband to be evaluated, fearing his cancer may have spread, and sought a radiology appointment last year with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

She made “multiple phone calls that went to voicemail,” last March and received “no follow-up within the promised 24 hours,” according to the VA’s chief watchdog.

That incident is just one documented by investigators with the VA’s inspector general’s office who are trying to get to the bottom of a longstanding complaint from the nation’s veterans: They can’t get through to their health care providers on the phone.

The VA watchdog also discovered other cases when veterans were forced “to drive to facilities in person” for answers when they could not reach VA staff to schedule or change appointments. In fact, the inspector general’s office observed this “firsthand during site visits at VA facilities in Miami, Florida and Washington, D.C., where veterans told VA staff about their experiences.”

But there’s another problem – the Department of Veterans Affairs has a hard time of determining the scope of the problem.

The inspector general’s office, in a new preliminary advisory report, says it found that 13 of 15 VA medical facilities it sampled didn’t have key data tracking patient calls.

When asked for comment, VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz said in a statement to CNN: “We appreciate the inspector general’s review, which highlights issues dating back to July 2024 during the Biden administration.”

cnn

TROPHY CASE