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The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a challenge to law in Colorado that bans “conversion therapy” aimed at young people questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The justices took up an appeal brought by Kaley Chiles, a Christian therapist, who argued that the restriction violates her free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment.
Favored by some religious conservatives, the practice is aimed at encouraging gay or lesbian minors to change their sexual orientations and transgender children to identify as the gender identities assigned to them at birth. More than 20 states have bans on therapy aimed at minors.
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Ten Grand Canyon workers received termination letters last month as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to downsize the federal government, according to NBC affiliate KPNX.
In interviews with KPNX, current and former park workers expressed concern that the layoffs would make the upcoming busy season even more challenging.
“Even when the fee booths are fully staffed, you can get a line that goes all the way back past Tusayan that lasts well over two hours,” Jim Landahl, who was fired, told KPNX. “Some people are probably going to see that line and just want to turn around and go back home to where they came from.”
Read the full story here.
The U.S. government is days away from a potential shutdown with funding set to run out Friday. NBC’s Garrett Haake reports for “TODAY” on what’s in the Republicans’ stop-gap plan.
Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., are reintroducing legislation today that would bar companies from receiving federal contracts if they’ve been found to have made serious, repeated or pervasive violations of child labor laws.
The senators reintroduced the bill ahead of the confirmation vote scheduled for this evening for Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the former Republican House member from Oregon who is President Donald Trump’s choice to serve as labor secretary.
Hawley and Booker’s legislation would require companies seeking federal contracts to disclose child labor violations by the company or any subcontractors during the prior three years. It would also require the labor secretary to compile a list of companies that are ineligible for federal contracts based on any violations.
The push comes after a number of American companies were found to have employed young teenagers illegally and in dangerous jobs, as investigations from NBC News and The New York Times found. Many of those children who were illegally employed were unaccompanied migrants who entered the U.S. in recent years.
Read the full story.
TORONTO — Former central banker Mark Carney will become Canada’s next prime minister after the governing Liberal Party elected him its leader yesterday as the country deals with President Donald Trump’s trade war and annexation threat, and a federal election looms.
Carney, 59, replaces Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January but remains prime minister until his successor is sworn in in the coming days. Carney won in a landslide, winning 85.9% of the vote.
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Trump told reporters yesterday on Air Force One that the U.S. “really just about” has lifted the intel pause on Ukraine.
Trump had previously decided to pause intelligence assistance to Ukraine. NBC News has previously reported that former intelligence officials have said would hamper but not cripple Ukraine war efforts.
The Trump administration paused military and intelligence aid shortly after an explosive Oval Office confrontation between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where the U.S. leaders berated a long-standing U.S. ally.
Zelenskyy will be in Saudi Arabia today ahead of a meeting with U.S. officials.
Reporting from Beijing
Chinese tariffs on a wide range of U.S. agricultural products take effect today in the latest escalation in trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
China, which is the largest overseas market for U.S. farm products, announced the tariffs last week in retaliation for the Trump administration doubling its tariff on Chinese imports to 20%. They include a 15% tariff on chicken, wheat, corn and cotton and a 10% tariff on sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, fruits, vegetables and dairy and fish products.
Goods that were shipped before today and are imported by April 12 are exempt from the new tariffs, Beijing said.
Though there remains hope that the U.S. and China can reach a deal to avoid an all-out trade war, China has warned it will “fight till the end” and that it is the U.S. that will suffer more from imposing trade barriers.
“Whether it is a tariff war or a trade war, both begin with harming others and end with harming oneself,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said today at a regular briefing in Beijing.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an overnight X post that the vast majority of U.S. Agency for International Development programs would be cut.
“After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID,” Rubio said, adding that the 5,200 contracts being canceled “spent billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the national interests of the United States.”
Rubio said the administration would consult with Congress with the aim of administering the remaining USAID programs “more effectively under the State Department.”
“Thank you to DOGE and our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform,” he wrote.
The administration previously said it was eliminating more than 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts.
Congressional Republicans unveiled their plan for a spending bill to avert a government shutdown as the deadline approaches Friday. NBC News’ Yamiche Alcindor reports.
The Senate is set to hold a vote this evening on former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination for labor secretary.
The Oregon Republican will be the last of Trump’s Cabinet nominees to get a confirmation vote.
Chavez-DeRemer has received Democratic support both at the committee level and on the Senate floor. She also has received the support of several labor unions.
As a House lawmaker, Chavez-DeRemer supported a bill called the PRO act, which aimed to promote unions’ ability to organize. She walked back her support for that legislation during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling to Saudi Arabia today to meet with Ukrainian officials.
The goal is to “advance the President’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
Trump told reporters yesterday that he expects “pretty good results” out of Rubio’s meetings in Saudi Arabia, and expressed optimism that Ukraine will sign a minerals deal agreement with the United States.
The president maintained his belief that Ukrainian leadership has not sufficiently expressed a desire to end the war, but signaled that would change “over the next two or three days.”
“We want to do anything we can to get Ukraine to be serious about getting something done,” Trump said.
Rubio last month traveled to Saudi Arabia, where he initiated efforts to negotiate an end to the war directly with Russian officials, excluding at the time Ukrainian and European allies from participating in the talks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dismay at not being included in the negotiations at the time incited Trump’s fury. That frustration, paired with Zelenskyy’s demand that concrete security guarantees be included in any U.S.-Ukraine minerals agreement, contributed to an Oval Office clash between the two leaders last month that has since resulted in Trump suspending military aid and intel sharing with Ukraine.
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