17 views

Sept. 29, 2025, 10:30 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 30, 2025, 4:16 PM EDTBy Tim StellohNicole Kidman and Keith Urban are separating after nearly two decades of marriage.The Academy Award-winning actor filed for divorce Tuesday from the Grammy Award-winning country singer, according to a complaint in Davidson County Circuit Court in Tennessee.In the filing, Kidman cites irreconcilable differences. TMZ was first to report the separation Monday. Kidman and Urban, 57, were married in 2006 and share two daughters. The complaint asks that Kidman be named the primary parent.Kidman has two other children with Tom Cruise, to whom she was previously married. Keith Urban talks new album, upcoming tour, being a girl dad, more04:29She recently wrapped the filming of “Practical Magic 2” and had a series “summer memories” on Instagram, which noticeably did not include Urban.The Australian actor has appeared in dozens of films and shows and nominated for several Oscars. She won the award for best actress in 2003 for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”Urban, who was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, won four Grammy Awards from 2005 to 2010 for best male country performance.He is on his High and Alive World Tour and has been sharing photos and videos from his time on the road.Tim StellohTim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.Carla Kakouris contributed.

- Latest News - September 30, 2025

Nicole Kidman files for divorce from Keith Urban after nearly two decades of marriage.

Source link

TAGS:
15 views

Sept. 30, 2025, 4:56 PM EDTBy Scott Wong and Frank Thorp VWASHINGTON — Millions of federal workers won’t get paid during a government shutdown. But the people who could prevent or end a shutdown — members of Congress — will still receive a paycheck.That’s because their pay is protected under Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution, which states: “The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.”The Constitution “says members will be paid,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, explained to reporters Tuesday.Some lawmakers don’t like that practice — or the optics of it.Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., is one of a handful of lawmakers asking that their paycheck be withheld in the event of a shutdown.“It’s wrong that the President and Members of Congress get paid during a government shutdown when our military and public servants don’t,” Kim said in a statement Tuesday. “I will be refusing my own pay if we end up in a shutdown. Government leaders shouldn’t be playing with other people’s chips.”Government heads toward shutdown as lawmakers fail to reach agreement02:48Presidents also get paid during a funding lapse. President Donald Trump donated his government salary during his first term and said he’s doing the same this time as well.In a letter to the head of the Senate Disbursing Office, Kim formally requested that his paycheck be withheld until the government reopens. Across the Capitol, Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., made a similar request in a letter Tuesday to the House’s chief administrator that she shared on X.“The Democrats want to shut down the government because we won’t give them free healthcare for illegals. On top of that, they won’t even pass a bill that protects our military or border patrol agents pay in the event of a shutdown!,” she wrote on X. “So let’s see if they are willing to give up their pay as well; I’ll start.”Democratic leaders have disputed that they want to give undocumented immigrants free health care, calling that a lie. In their funding proposal, Democrats are pushing to extend Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of the calendar year and roll back cuts and changes to Medicaid enacted in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.””If our service members and federal workers won’t get paid because of Trump and far-right extremists, Members of Congress shouldn’t either,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., posted on X Tuesday. “I’ll keep fighting to lower health care costs and work across the aisle to keep the government open.”Some lawmakers said they can’t afford missing a pay period.“I’m not wealthy, and I have three kids. I would basically be missing, you know, mortgage payments, rent payments, child support,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told NBC News. “So it’s not feasible, not gonna happen.”Most members of Congress receive a salary of $174,000; lawmakers in the top leadership poss receive more.While most federal workers will be furloughed and sent home during a shutdown, active-duty servicemembers still need to show up for work without getting paid. The same goes for so-called “excepted” or essential civilian workers as well.That includes people like air traffic controllers and TSA agents, who help ensure public safety and national security.In previous shutdowns, employees at intelligence agencies typically have been treated as essential workers and were required to continue to report to work.But according to internal policy guidance for the Defense Department obtained by NBC News, employees working on intelligence that is not directly related to current or planned military operations, such as political and economic intelligence, will not be required to report to work and are not in the “excepted” category of federal workers.Under the Pentagon contingency plan, employees working on intelligence activities deemed essential for national security would continue to report to work.Because of a law passed by Congress in 2019, federal employees — including legislative branch employees — are guaranteed to receive back pay following a shutdown, regardless of if they were in furlough status.At the Department of Homeland Security, most Customs and Border patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees will not be paid during the shutdown, but they will still be required to work, said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.Roughly 150,000 employees from CBP, ICE and the U.S. Secret Service would be impacted by a shutdown, as well as about 47,000 U.S. Coast Guard employees.Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Frank Thorp VFrank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.Dan De Luce, Julia Ainsley, Brennan Leach and Syedah Asghar contributed.

- Latest News - September 30, 2025

Some House and Senate lawmakers are requesting that their paychecks be withheld as millions of federal workers prepare to go without pay.

Source link

TAGS:
14 views

By Lawrence HurleyWASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday heavily criticized the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech as he ruled in favor of foreign students the government has targeted for their support of Palestinian rights.Massachusetts-based Judge William Young, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, ruled that foreign students enjoy the same free speech protections under the Constitution’s First Amendment as American citizens do.He found that government officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, “deliberately and with purposeful aforethought, did so concert their actions and those of their two departments intentionally to chill the rights to freedom of speech and peacefully to assemble.”Touching upon tensions within the judiciary on how to respond to harsh criticism from the administration, Young included a threatening message he had received via a postcard from an anonymous critic that read, “Trump has pardons and tanks …. what do you have?”Young responded in a note at the top of his ruling, saying he had “nothing but my sense of duty.”The 161-page decision included a final 13-page section that served as a damning indictment of President Donald Trump’s second term in office so far, portraying him as a vainglorious bully who is enacting an agenda based on retribution.Young cited Trump’s orders that targeted law firms, universities and the media, which have fared badly in court, as examples.”The Constitution, our civil laws, regulations, mores, customs, practices, courtesies — all of it; the President simply ignores it all when he takes it into his head to act,” Young wrote.”The president’s palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech,” he added.U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston.U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts / ReutersThe lawsuit — brought by the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association — alleged that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment by creating an ideological deportation policy to remove non-citizen campus activists for expressing pro-Palestinian sentiments.During the trial, Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed that a majority of the names of student protesters flagged to the agency for potential deportation came from Canary Mission, a website run by an anonymous group that maintains a database of students, professors and others who, it claims, shared anti-Israel and antisemitic viewpoints.High-profile examples include the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, who was involved in protests at Columbia University, and Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk.Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute, which represents the challengers, said in a statement the ruling should have an immediate impact on the Trump administration’s policies.”If the First Amendment means anything, it means the government can’t imprison people simply because it disagrees with their political views,” he added.The foreign students’ case is not the first occasion on which Young has been involved in a high-profile dispute involving the Trump administration.He previously blocked a Trump administration effort to cut teacher training grants, a decision that the Supreme Court overturned.Young subsequently issued a similar decision against the administration over its planned cuts to health research grants. This too was blocked by the Supreme Court, prompting conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch to accuse Young of defying the justices.In response, Young said in a later court hearing he had no intention to disobey the Supreme Court.Lawrence HurleyLawrence Hurley is a senior Supreme Court reporter for NBC News. Chloe Atkins and Tyler Kingkade contributed.

- Latest News - September 30, 2025

A judge criticized the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech as he ruled in favor of foreign students targeted for deportation over support of Palestinian rights.

Source link

TAGS: