For families watching every dollar, Spirit Airlines was often the difference between affording a trip and staying home. Now, after 34 years of bright yellow planes and bare-bones fares, the airline is gone — and the fallout is landing hard on passengers, workers, and anyone who flies on a budget.

For millions of Americans, the ongoing U.S. military conflict with Iran isn't just a foreign policy story — it's showing up directly in their bank accounts, at the gas pump, and in the grocery aisle. New polling data and real accounts from everyday people paint a picture of growing financial stress that is reshaping how families spend, travel, and plan for the future.

A sitting pope and a sitting U.S. president trading public barbs is not something most Americans have ever seen. The ongoing dispute between Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump over war, rhetoric, and the role of faith in public life has grown into one of the most unusual clashes on the world stage in recent memory.