Wednesday morning news: April 1, 2026

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National voter list » President Trump has signed an executive order directing the creation of a national list of eligible voters. It’s part of what the administration calls an effort to ensure election integrity. 

The president told reporters at the White House:

TRUMP:  This came up, uh, with some great legal minds. They looked at the various documents and everything that was going on because the cheating on mail-in voting is, is legendary.

White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf explained explained that the process would start with federal data:

SCHARF:  We're going to ensure that each state's election officials are provided with a comprehensive view of who the eligible voters in their jurisdiction actually are, allowing them to properly verify that everybody voting in their elections is legally able to vote.

The order calls on the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to build the list, and instructs the Postal Service to send mail ballots only to verified voters on  the list. 

Ballots would also be required to carry unique tracking barcodes. States and localities that don't comply could lose federal funding.

The move is drawing immediate legal pushback with various groups and some state election officials pledging to sue within minutes of the signing.

Iran war latest » The president last night also said once more that he does not see the war in Iran stretching on much longer.

TRUMP: And I think within maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer, to do the job. But we wanna knock out every single thing they have.

The president says it's possible Iran reaches a ceasefire deal before then, but he said, one way or the other, the important thing is to accomplish the primary objectives. And the president said that is to put Iran’s military and nuclear program “into the stone ages.”

And Secretary of State and Acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio added that the United States has already largely destroyed Iran’s airforce:

RUBIO: We were going to destroy their navy, which we have largely achieved that. We were gonna destroy a significant percentage of their missile launchers, we are well on our way to achieving that, and we were gonna wipe out their defense industrial base, meaning the factories that make the drones and the missiles.

President Trump plans to address the nation about the war in Iran tonight at 9pm Eastern Time.

Israel buffer zone » Meanwhile, in southern Lebanon:

SOUND: [Israel strikes Beirut]

Israel continuing strikes targeting the Iran-linked terror group Hezbollah in Beirut.

A spokesman for the European Union on Tuesday condemned strikes that they say killed UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, calling the events deeply troubling.

ANOUNI: We call for a thorough investigation to shed light on these grave attacks. These attacks are a grave violation of international law, are totally unacceptable, and must stop immediately.

But Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Tuesday that his country is not to blame.

DANON: One thing is clear: this did not happen in a vacuum. Israel did not choose this conflict; Hezbollah did.

He went on to say it was Hezbollah explosives—not an Israeli airstrike—that killed those peacekeepers.

And Israel’s government said Tuesday that it plans to create an expanded buffer zone in southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah terrorists away from Israel’s northern border.

Supreme Court rules against Colorado » The U.S. Supreme Court almost unanimously affirmed the free speech rights of a Christian counselor in Colorado.

WORLD’s Harrison Watters has more now from Washington.

HARRISON WATTERS: Colorado state law bars mental health professionals from trying to help minors overcome same-sex attraction—a practice critics call “conversion therapy.”

In the 8-1 decision, the court ruled that Colorado’s ban regulates speech based on viewpoint, and that violates the First Amendment.

That came after counselor Kaley Chiles sued the state in 2022.

The justices said lower courts wrongly agreed with Colorado’s argument that talk therapy can be regulated as professional conduct.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, arguing the decision would open the door to substandard care.

But Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, said the First Amendment stands as a shield against government efforts to censor speech it may deem harmful.

The case heads back to lower court for further review, with instructions to take Chiles’ First Amendment claim more seriously.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters in Washington.

We’ll have more on this case later in the program.

Consumer confidence » American consumer confidence is up this month, holding its ground even as gas prices have surged amid the war in Iran.

The Conference Board reports that its confidence measure rose modestly to 91.8 in March, up from 91 in February. And spending has been holding steady, according to credit card data.

The survey did show, however, that consumers are expecting prices to climb higher, with U.S. gas prices now topping $4.00 on average.

I'm Kent Covington.

And straight ahead: Birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court. Hunter Baker is here for Washington Wednesday. Plus, how hymns can help bring the aging back to the Lord.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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