IRS WEBSITE BACK TO NORMAL

The IRS said Wednesday its processing systems were fully back up and running after an outage on Tax Day. The agency said that a hardware issue caused an outage at some of its processing systems, which frustrated many visitors to its website on Tuesday. The IRS extended the tax deadline until Wednesday night following the massive snag.

Blackout hits Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — An island- wide blackout hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday after an excavator accidentally downed a transmission line, officials said, as the U. S. territory struggles to repair an increasingly unstable power grid nearly seven months after Hurricane Maria. Officials said it could take 24 to 36 hours to fully restore power to more than 1.4 million customers. “This is too much,” said Luis Oscar Rivera, a computer technician. “It’s like the first day of Maria all over again.”

Trump: Actress pulling ‘ con job’

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that porn actress Stormy Daniels is pulling “a total con job” by promoting an artist’s sketch of a man she says threatened her to keep silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump years ago. Also Wednesday, Trump said that nobody has been tougher on Russia than him and that he’ll hit Moscow with new sanctions “as soon as they very much deserve it.” He refused to say Wednesday whether he plans to fire special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

‘ Black Panther’ shown in Saudi Arabia movie launch

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia held a private screening on Wednesday of the Hollywood blockbuster “Black Panther” to herald the launch of movie theaters in the kingdom. Tickets go on sale Thursday for public showings on Friday. The Saudi government dubbed Wednesday’s event as “the showing of the first commercial film in the kingdom after more than 35 years.”