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US President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that some workers placed on enforced leave during the government shutdown may not receive back pay if he deemed that they did not “deserve” the money.The Republican leader made the remark when asked by reporters about a draft White House memo arguing that 750,000 employees expected to be furloughed are not guaranteed to get their money when they return to work. “It depends on who we’re talking about,” Trump said. “I can tell you this, the Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy.”US media reporting on the memo described it as the latest broadside in a campaign by Trump to pressure Senate Democrats into backing a Republican resolution to reopen the government. Nonessential federal agencies began closing last Wednesday after Democrats — demanding an extension in expiring health care subsidies — refused to sign on to the temporary funding measure.Trump signed a law after the last shutdown in his first term — the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act (GEFTA) — stipulating that all federal staff “shall be paid for the period of the lapse.”But the new memo argues that, under an amended version of GEFTA, the money for those workers needs to be specifically authorized by Congress and is not automatic.”For the most part, we’re going to take care of our people,” Trump said when the subject of the shutdown came up during a Oval Office event with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.”There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”Withholding back pay would be seen as a significant escalation by Trump, who has already threatened the jobs of thousands of the furloughed workers if Democrats do not back down. But his stance sparked some backlash from some Republicans on Capitol Hill.”We’ve always paid back pay to the military and federal workers,” Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy told reporters at the US Capitol, predicting that nothing would change this time around.Fellow Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said it was “a horrible message to send to people who are basically hostages right now to the Democrats shutting down the government,” according to The Hill.On the Democratic side, Washington Senator Patty Murray said the memo “flies in the face of the plain text of the law, which could not be more clear.””Trump doesn’t get to change the rules and rob workers just because he’s worried his shutdown is backfiring,” she added.”Scaring and intimidating workers won’t work. He is not fooling anyone.”

The US Supreme Court appeared poised on Tuesday to back a challenge by a Christian therapist to a Colorado law that bans “conversion therapy” for minors who are questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation.The case was brought by Kaley Chiles, a licensed mental health counselor who argues that the prohibition from holding such conversations with minors is a violation of her First Amendment free speech rights.Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law, passed in 2019, prohibits licensed mental health professionals from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of their patients under 18 years old.Conversion therapy is banned in more than 20 US states and much of Europe, with both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association opposed to its use.”Miss Chiles is being silenced and the kids and families who want her help are unable to access it,” James Campbell, her lawyer, told the conservative majority court during 90 minutes of oral arguments.”She’s discussing concepts of identity and behavior and attractions and how they fit together,” Campbell said. “That absolutely has to be protected by the First Amendment.”Campbell, a lawyer with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group, dismissed studies showing conversion therapy can be harmful, saying they “treat voluntary conversations the same as shock therapy.”Chiles brought her case before the nation’s top court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority, after two lower courts ruled in favor of Colorado.- ‘Debunked’ -Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, asked Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson, who was defending the law, to point to the “best evidence” that talk therapy causes harm to minors.”All of the theories underlying conversion therapy have been debunked,” Stevenson said, adding that there is “not a single expert, not a single study, not a single mental health professional willing to endorse conversion therapy.””People have been trying to do conversion therapy for 100 years with no record of success,” she said.”The harms from conversion therapy come from when you tell a young person you can change this innate thing about yourself and they try and they try and they fail,” she said.”And then they have shame and they’re miserable and then it ruins their relationships with their family.”Justice Samuel Alito, an archconservative, pushed back, saying medical consensus is “usually very reasonable” but there have been occasions when it “has been politicized, has been taken over by ideology.”Alito cited “a time when many medical professionals thought that certain people should not be permitted to procreate because they had low IQs” or recommended that children with Down Syndrome be institutionalized.After taking office for his second term in January, President Donald Trump said the US government would henceforth only recognize two genders — male and female — and signed an executive order restricting gender transition medical procedures for people under the age of 19.In June, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold a Tennessee state law banning hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery for minors.The court is expected to rule on the conversion therapy case in June and its decision could impact more than 20 other states with similar bans.The Supreme Court will also hear a challenge this term to state laws in Idaho and West Virginia that ban transgender girls from taking part in girls’ sports — another issue at the heart of the American culture wars.

President Donald Trump struck a friendly tone with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney Tuesday, hailing progress towards a trade deal but offering few concrete concessions on steep US tariffs.Trump repeatedly showered praise on “great leader” Carney, who was under pressure at home to show progress from his second visit to the White House since taking office in April.”I think they’re going to walk away very happy,” Trump told reporters as he sat alongside Carney in the Oval Office. “And I think we’ve come a long way over the last few months, actually, in terms of that relationship.”Trump said that the North American neighbors had “natural conflict” over business as their manufacturers were competing for the same market but said there was “nothing wrong with it.”Carney said he was confident that Canada would “get the right deal” from the United States, his country’s main economic partner.The pair shared a series of light-hearted moments, even laughing as Trump joked about a Canadian “merger” in a reference to his previous calls for Canada to become the 51st US state.”He is a world-class leader,” Trump said of the former central banker. “He’s a nice man, but he can be very nasty.”But Trump and Carney studiously avoided giving any precise details on how they might ease US tariffs on lumber, aluminum, steel and automobiles. On Monday, the US president announced 25 percent tariffs on all imported heavy trucks starting November 1.The 60-year-old Carney entered politics less than a year ago after campaigning on his extensive crisis management experience as a way of countering Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats.But while the vast majority of Canada’s trade remains protected by the USMCA, a free-trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico, Trump has called for revisions when it comes up for renegotiation soon.Seventy-five percent of Canada’s exports are sold across its southern border. Canada saw its GDP decline by 1.5 percent in the second quarter, adding to the economic pressure.- ‘Broken promises’ -Before the visit Canada’s opposition heaped pressure on Carney, as the country is the last major US ally not to seal a deal with Washington.”If you return with excuses, broken promises and photo ops, you will have failed our workers, our businesses and our country,” conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre wrote in an open letter to Carney on Monday.Carney faces particular criticism for making concessions to Trump while getting little in return.At the end of June, Carney canceled a tax targeting American tech giants under pressure from Trump, who called it outrageous. He also lifted many of the tariffs imposed by the previous government. “Mark Carney has no choice, he must return from Washington with progress,” said Daniel Beland, a political scientist at McGill University in Montreal, pointing to the steel and aluminum tariffs as key areas.But Carney at least seemed to have negotiated the first hurdle of an Oval Office visit.While the Canadian safely navigated his first appearance there six months ago, Trump has previously savaged visiting foreign leaders in the gilded room, including Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky.”These meetings can easily go off track, and everything plays out publicly,” said Genevieve Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa.Last week, Trump once again brought up the possibility of annexing Canada during a speech to US generals and admirals, referencing the country’s potential participation in a new “Golden Dome” missile shield.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met President Donald Trump at the White House Tuesday seeking to ease US tariffs that are hitting Canada’s economy — and his popularity at home.Carney is making his second visit to the Oval Office since April, but unlike other US allies Canada has still not sealed a deal with Washington to take the edge off Trump’s trade wars.The 60-year-old former central banker entered politics less than a year ago but now faces growing criticism domestically, where he campaigned on his extensive crisis management experience.”I wore red for you!” Carney joked, pointing to his tie as the US president greeted him outside the West Wing. Trump often wears a red tie, although on this occasion he was wearing a blue one.A day earlier, Trump said when asked about Carney’s visit that “I guess he’s going to ask about tariffs, because a lot of companies from Canada are moving into the United States.”The 79-year-old US president has also recently repeated his desire to make Canada “the 51st state”, an issue that caused tensions before Carney’s previous trip.The Canadian government said that during Carney’s “working visit” he seeks to restore bilateral relations and discuss “shared priorities in a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the US.”Unlike other US allies such as Britain and the European Union, Canada has not yet cut a deal for a comprehensive trade agreement with its North American neighbor.The United States is Canada’s main economic partner, with 75 percent of Canada’s exports being sold across its southern border. Canada saw its GDP decline by 1.5 percent in the second quarter, adding to the economic pressure.Trump has already imposed tariffs on lumber, aluminum, steel and automobiles. On Monday, he announced 25 percent tariffs on heavy trucks starting November 1.For now, the vast majority of trade remains protected by the USMCA, a free-trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico. But the agreement faces renegotiation soon, and Trump has already called for a revision that would favor US industries.- ‘No choice’ -The Canadian premier is under major pressure at home to seal a deal.”Mark Carney has no choice, he must return from Washington with progress,” said Daniel Beland, a political scientist at McGill University in Montreal, pointing to the steel and aluminium tariffs as key areas.Carney faces particular criticism for making concessions while getting little in return.At the end of June, Carney canceled a tax targeting American tech giants under pressure from Trump, who called it outrageous. He also lifted many of the tariffs imposed by the previous government. “If you return with excuses, broken promises and photo ops, you will have failed our workers, our businesses and our country,” conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre wrote in an open letter to Carney on Monday.Carney faces risks, too, as he appears in the Oval Office. The Canadian safely navigated his first appearance there six months ago, but Trump has previously savaged visiting foreign leaders in the gilded room including Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky.”These meetings can easily go off track, and everything plays out publicly,” said Genevieve Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa.Last week, Trump once again brought up the possibility of annexing Canada during a speech to US generals and admirals, referencing the country’s potential participation in a new “Golden Dome” missile shield.”Canada called me a couple of weeks ago, they want to be part of it,” Trump claimed. “To which I said, well, why don’t you just join our country” and “become the 51st state, and you get it for free.” 

US Attorney General Pam Bondi faced fiery questioning Tuesday from senators who accuse her of transforming the Justice Department into a tool of President Donald Trump’s efforts to target his perceived enemies.Bondi has courted huge controversy since taking over as the nation’s top law enforcement official, amid criticism that she has failed to maintain the guardrails keeping the department separate from the White House. “President (Joe) Biden never directed the attorney general to prosecute his political opponents… What has taken place since January 20, 2025 would make even President Nixon recoil,” Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told her in a blistering opening speech.He said the Justice Department under Bondi had “become a shield for the president and his political allies when they engage in misconduct.” Trump warned repeatedly during the 2024 election campaign that he would go after his political foes, and appeared to berate Bondi in a recent social media post, dressing down someone he referred to as “Pam” over the lack of action. Shortly after, federal prosecutors sent shockwaves through Washington by indicting former FBI director James Comey, who led a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.Comey is due in court on Wednesday, accused of lying to Congress in a case many legal experts say looks specious. The launch of investigations into US Senator Adam Schiff, former national security advisor John Bolton and New York Attorney General Letitia James — all of whom have publicly opposed Trump — have added to the controversy.All three were named in Trump’s post apparently upbraiding Bondi.Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, said he was “gravely concerned” that Trump’s post “urging you to go after and to indict and to prosecute specific, named people (seems) to have led to dramatic and sudden action by the department.”Senators also pressed Bondi on the legal basis for Trump’s use of federal troops in cities he says are rife with crime, a crackdown critics say is unconstitutional.Trump has focused on Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Memphis and Portland — all of which have Democratic leaders.- ‘Weaponization’ -Bondi offered a defiant defense of her record, telling senators that she was working to reinstate public faith undermined by the weaponization of her department under the previous administration.”We are returning to our core mission of fighting real crime. While there is more work to do, I believe in eight short months, we have made tremendous progress towards those ends,” she said.Before his election wiped away his own legal woes, Trump was facing multiple indictments for allegedly hoarding classified government documents and leading a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election result.  Republicans say the Justice Department under Biden — which led two of the indictments — has more questions to answer over weaponization than Bondi’s team.On the eve of the hearing, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley published FBI documents showing that Special Counsel Jack Smith secretly gathered phone records on the contacts of eight Republican senators while investigating Trump. “That’s what we’ve been talking about when we refer to the weaponization of government… we are ending this weaponization,” Bondi said when Grassley brought up the issue. Bondi also faced heat on her handling of the files relating to the federal investigation into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. House Democrats — supported by a handful of Republicans — have been pressing for the release of the entire case file, after Bondi announced that the case was closed and that she had no new information to offer.

The United States issued nearly one-fifth fewer student visas in August following a crackdown by President Donald Trump, led by a steep drop for India which was overtaken by China as top country of origin, data showed Monday.The United States issued 313,138 student visas in August, the most common start month for US universities, a drop of 19.1 percent from the same month in 2024, according to the International Trade Administration.India, which last year was the top source of foreign students to the United States, saw the most dramatic drop with 44.5 percent fewer student visas issued than a year earlier.Visa issuance also dropped for Chinese students but not nearly at the same rate. The United States issued 86,647 visas to students from mainland China in August, more than double the number issued to Indians.The statistics do not reflect overall numbers of US-based international students, many of whom remain on previously issued visas.Trump has put a top priority since returning to the White House both on curbing immigration and on weakening universities, which his administration sees as a key power base of the left.Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefly suspended processing of student visas in June, a peak month, as he issued orders that US embassies vet applicants’ social media.Rubio has revoked thousands of student visas, often due to criticism of Israel, on the grounds that he can refuse entry to people who go against US foreign policy interests.In rules that affect Indians in particular, the Trump administration has made it more difficult for applicants to apply for visas outside jurisdictions of the US consulates in their home countries, even if there are backlogs.Trump has taken a series of actions at odds with India, which for decades had been courted by US policymakers of both parties who saw the billion-plus nation as a natural counterweight to China.Trump has also imposed a hefty new fee on H-1B visas, which are used largely by Indian technology workers.Trump, however, has voiced hope for ramping up the number of Chinese students to boost relations between the two powers, a sharp contrast to earlier messaging from Rubio who had vowed to “aggressively” revoke visas from Chinese students he accuses of exploiting US technical knowhow.The latest figures also show a sharp drop in student visas from many Muslim-majority countries, with admissions from Iran dropping by 86 percent.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi faced fiery questioning Tuesday from senators who accuse her of transforming the Justice Department into a tool of President Donald Trump’s efforts to target his perceived enemies.Bondi has courted huge controversy since taking over as the nation’s top law enforcement official, amid criticism that she has failed to maintain the guardrails keeping the department separate from the White House. Former president Joe Biden “never directed the attorney general to prosecute his political opponents,” Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told her in a blistering opening speech.”This is your legacy, Attorney General Bondi. In eight short months, you fundamentally transformed the Justice Department and left an enormous stain in American history.”Trump warned repeatedly during the 2024 election campaign that he would go after his political foes, and appeared to berate Bondi in a recent social media post, dressing down someone he referred to as “Pam” over the lack of action by government prosecutors. Shortly after, federal prosecutors sent shockwaves through Washington by indicting former FBI director James Comey, who led a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.Comey is due in court on Wednesday, accused of lying to Congress in a case many legal experts say looks specious. The launch of investigations into US Senator Adam Schiff, former national security advisor John Bolton and New York Attorney General Letitia James — all of whom have publicly opposed Trump — have added to the controversy.Both Schiff and James were singled out in Trump’s post apparently upbraiding Bondi.Senators also pressed Bondi on the legal basis for Trump’s use of federal troops in cities he says are rife with crime, a crackdown critics say is unconstitutional.Trump has focused on Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Memphis and Portland — all of which have Democratic leaders.- ‘Weaponization’ -Bondi offered a defiant defense of her record, telling senators that she was working to reinstate public faith undermined by the weaponization of her department under the previous administration.”We are returning to our core mission of fighting real crime. While there is more work to do, I believe in eight short months, we have made tremendous progress towards those ends,” she said.Before his election wiped away his own legal woes, Trump was facing multiple indictments for allegedly hoarding sensitive state secrets and leading a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election result.  Republicans say the Justice Department under President Joe Biden — which led two of the indictments — has more questions to answer over weaponization than Bondi’s team.On the eve of the hearing, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley published FBI documents showing that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the federal prosecutions into Trump, secretly gathered phone records on the contacts of eight Republican senators. “That’s what we’ve been talking about when we refer to the weaponization of government… we are ending this weaponization,” Bondi said when Grassley brought up the issue. “Our FBI is targeting violent criminals, child predators and other law breakers, not sitting senators who happen to be from the wrong political party.”Bondi also faced heat on her handling of the files relating to the federal investigation into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. House Democrats — supported by a handful of Republicans — have been pressing for the release of the entire case file, after Bondi announced that the case was closed and that she had no new information to offer.

The dizzying investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure do not constitute a bubble but rather represent today’s “new normal” to meet skyrocketing user demand, Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s de facto number two, said on Monday.The French-born executive made her comments in an interview with AFP, her first since taking up her role as Chief Operating Officer of OpenAI’s applications, including its flagship model ChatGPT.In the past few weeks, her company, under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, has made a series of huge investments in data centers and AI chips, despite no real signs that the fast-emerging AI business is close to breaking even.The answers were lightly edited for length and clarity.- Is the AI investment frenzy a bubble right now? -What I am seeing here is a massive investment in compute (or computing power), with us meeting that need for computing power so incredibly badly for a lot of use cases that people want. [Video AI generator] Sora is a great example right now — there’s much more demand than we can serve.From that perspective, I really do not see that as a bubble. I see that as a new normal, and I think the world is going to switch to realizing that computing power is the most strategic resource.- What do you say to those who fret over AI’s dangers? -I see my job as really making sure that the good side of this technology happens and we mitigate the bad side.Take mental health, for example. I’m hearing tons of users say that they go to ChatGPT for advice in tough moments where they may not have other people to talk to. Many people can’t afford to go to a therapist. I talk to a lot of parents who are telling me: God, I got this really awesome advice that helped me unlock a situation with my child. But at the same time, we need to make sure that the model behaves as expected.On mental health, we have announced a very robust roadmap. We started with parental controls. We have plans to launch age prediction: if we can predict that the user is a teenager, we give them a model that is less permissive than we would give to an adult.Jobs are also very much on my mind, and it’s a similar approach. AI is going to create a lot of jobs, like prompt engineering, that absolutely did not exist before. At the same time, there are some professions that are going to be directly impacted, and we see our role as helping with the transition.- What are the next steps toward intelligent AI? -I think the breakthroughs are about models understanding your goals and helping accomplish them proactively.Not just give you a good answer to a question, not just have a dialog, but actually tell you, ‘Oh, okay, you’re telling me that you want to spend more time with your wife. Well, there might be some weekend getaways that would be helpful, and I know it’s a lot to plan, so I’ve already done all the planning for you and I’ve already made some reservations. Just tap one button to approve and everything gets done.’We’re still very early, but we’re on that journey to capture that.- In San Francisco, you sometimes hear: ‘America innovates, China copies, Europe regulates’ -As a European, every time I hear this saying, my heart breaks a bit. I think there has certainly been a tendency in Europe to focus on regulation a little too much.On China, we continue to be extremely focused on continuing to have a lead, because we see China continuing to invest heavily in being competitive — whether in terms of innovation or in terms of computing — and so we think it’s incredibly important to continue investing across a democratic bloc to advance AI that has these [democratic] values.- Do you let your child use ChatGPT? -ChatGPT is not supposed to be for under 13, but my kid is 10 — I still let her use it under supervision. It’s magical to see what she’s able to create. Just this weekend, she was telling me about creating a new business. She was using ChatGPT to make banners for the new business, to create taglines.In our childhood, we couldn’t turn our imagination into something real that fast. And I see that really giving her superpowers, where she thinks anything is possible.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is slated to visit Washington again Tuesday in hopes of convincing President Donald Trump to ease US tariffs that are negatively impacting Canada’s economy.In Carney’s “working visit” to the White House — his second trip since winning office in April — the 60-year-old former banker seeks to restore bilateral relations and discuss “shared priorities in a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the US,” Ottawa said in a statement.White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed the visit, saying Monday: “I’m sure trade will be a topic of discussion tomorrow, and all of the other issues that are facing both Canada and the United States.”Unlike other US allies, such as the European Union, Canada has not yet cut a deal for a comprehensive trade agreement with its neighbor.The United States is Canada’s main economic partner, with 75 percent of Ottawa’s exports being sold across its southern border.Canada saw its GDP decline by 1.5 percent in the second quarter, adding to the economic pressure.Trump has already imposed tariffs on lumber, aluminum, steel and automobiles. On Monday, he announced 25 percent tariffs on heavy trucks starting November 1.For now, the vast majority of trade remains protected by the USMCA, a free-trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico. But the agreement faces renegotiation soon, and the Republican president has already called for a revision that would favor American industries.- Mounting pressure -As a former central banker who entered politics less than a year ago, Carney faces growing criticism domestically, where he campaigned on his extensive crisis management experience.Six months later, “pressure is mounting to, at minimum, secure a reduction in certain tariffs, like those on steel and aluminum,” said Daniel Beland, a political scientist at McGill University in Montreal.”Mark Carney has no choice, he must return from Washington with progress,” he added, noting Carney has already made several concessions without getting anything in return.At the end of June, Carney canceled a tax targeting American tech giants under pressure from Trump, who called it outrageous. He also lifted many of the tariffs imposed by the previous government, but Washington’s lack of reciprocal response to these moves has sparked strong criticism from the opposition in Canada.”If you return with excuses, broken promises and photo ops, you will have failed our workers, our businesses and our country,” conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre wrote in an open letter to Carney on Monday.While Canadians await outcomes, “they are also aware there’s always a risk when negotiating with Donald Trump. These meetings can easily go off track, and everything plays out publicly,” said Genevieve Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa.Last week, the 79-year-old American president repeated his desire to make Canada “the 51st state” during a speech to US generals and admirals, referencing the country’s potential participation in a new “Golden Dome” missile shield.”Canada called me a couple of weeks ago, they want to be part of it,” Trump claimed. “To which I said, well, why don’t you just join our country” and “become the 51st state, and you get it for free.”