The case centers around a decision by the Montgomery County School Board to end opt-out requests and notice requirements for the reading and discussion of storybooks that feature LGBTQ characters.

The case sets up another clash involving LGBTQ rights and religious rights.

It's unclear whether the Supreme Court will hear arguments in its current term, which ends this summer , or its next term.

John Beck , chairman of Toronto -based Aecon Group , makes $ 100,000 donation to Windsor university .

Beck was impressed with Assumption University’s work in building bridges with various faith traditions.

Beck is the founder and chairman of construction and infrastructure development company.

Assumption was the first Catholic university in the world to affiliate with Canterbury College , an Anglican college.

Rep. Elise Stefanik testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Jan. 16, 2025 , as part of her confirmation process to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Stefanik : Diplomacy is an art, not a science, and a good ambassador can make a real difference.

Abiodun Williams : The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is a public figure who is expected to frequently travel outside of the country to make the case for why the United States ’ participation and leadership at the United Nations matters.

In a democracy, a successful foreign policy approach must have public support, Williams says.

Labor Department says QSI employed 54 children at 13 meatpacking plants in eight states on overnight shifts sanitizing industrial carving and slicing machines.

QSI disputes the way the Department describes the problem and points out that investigators weren't able to find any current juvenile workers.

Earlier this week , Perdue Farms agreed to pay $4 million after children were found working at one of its chicken processing plants in Virginia .

Perdue was employing children at a Virginia plant using dangerous knives and other tools to slaughter chicken.

The JBS agreement didn't include a finding that children were working directly for that company.

The Labor Department has more than 1,000 open child labor investigations it is pursuing.

Companies are also expected to set up hotlines where people can report any child labor concerns.

President Joe Biden pardons nearly 2,500 nonviolent drug offenders.

Biden is now the president with the highest number of pardons in history.

He did not provide additional details as to the exact number of people affected by the pardons.

In the 1980s , Biden supported several bills that increased penalties for drug users.

A new study analyzes the most complete set of galaxy clustering data to test the CDM model.

CDM is the standard model of cosmology describing the universe's evolution, expansion, and structure.

It fails to account for phenomena like cosmic inflation, dark energy, and dark matter.

The research team's approach is new because they want the same underlying physics could explain these anomalies.

Data from upcoming galaxy surveys will provide clarity on these discrepancies.

We need to find out if we need a fundamental change in our understanding of large-scale structures in the universe, say Shi-Fan Chen and his colleagues.

The study was published in Physical Review Letters ( 2024 ).

Bereaved parents have called for urgent review into maternity safety in Leeds .

BBC investigation found deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers may have been prevented.

NHS Trust says vast majority of births at its two maternity units were safe.

But two whistleblowers have told the BBC they believe the units are unsafe.

Astrophysicists led by a team from Trinity College Dublin have—for the first time—imaged a large number of exocomet belts around nearby stars, and the tiny pebbles within them.

The crystal-clear images show light being emitted from these millimeter-sized pebble within the belts that orbit 74 nearby stars of a wide variety of ages.

In these regions, it is so cold that most compounds, including water, are frozen as ice.

The U.S. Space Force will participate in a presidential inauguration for the first time.

Representing the military branch will be 45 Guardians .

The Space Force was founded in 2019 , during President-elect Donald Trump's first term.

It's the first new branch of the military since the Air Force was established in 1947 .

The oldest daughter's testimony wrapped the first week in the trial of Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Ray Lantz .

The couple is accused of mistreating their five adopted children, all of whom are Black.

The daughter, now 18 , was the first of the siblings to testify.

The children were made to stand in their rooms for hours “to prevent us from falling asleep,” she testified.

The daughter said the children were made to sleep in tents on a hill because Whitefeather said “we were dirty and that we stunk” She said she attended public school in Washington until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic but received no formal education after arriving in West Virginia .