President Donald Trump and his team are increasing the pressure on journalists to cover the war in the Middle East the way the administration wants. The Republican president has complained on social media about stories he doesn't like and berated a reporter on Air Force One over the weekend. The government's top media regulator warned broadcasters risk losing their licenses to operate if they don't stay away from "fake news." Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have questioned the patriotism of some news outlets because of their reports. Antagonism between presidential administrations and the press isn't unusual, but Trump's team has shown a hostility toward the very idea of being questioned.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly has sued the Pentagon over attempts to punish him for his warnings about illegal orders. He's claiming the Trump administration trampled on his constitutional rights to free speech. Kelly, a former Navy pilot who represents Arizona, is seeking to block his censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week. Hegseth said he censured Kelly over his participation in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders.
Texas' attorney general is praising a Supreme Court ruling upholding a state law aimed at blocking children from seeing pornography online. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton said Friday companies "have no right to expose children to pornography and must institute reasonable age verification measures." Nearly half the states have passed similar age verification laws as smartphones and other devices make it easier to access online porn. The Free Speech Coalition says the Texas law puts an unfair burden on adults by requiring them to submit personal information that could be vulnerable to hacking. District courts initially blocked laws in Indiana, Tennessee and Texas, but appeals courts let the laws take effect.
A federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to stop blocking The Associated Press' from presidential events has refused to take immediate steps to get White House officials to comply. It's an incremental development in a two-month dispute between the global news agency and administration officials over access. The case has significant free-speech implications under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. It centers on the government blocking AP's access to cover events because the outlet won't rename the Gulf of Mexico in its reports. U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden says it's too soon to say that President Donald Trump is violating his order — as the AP suggests.
TikTok is asking the Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis to block the federal law that would ban the popular platform in the United States unless its China-based parent company agrees to sell it. Company lawyers and China-based ByteDance on Monday urged the justices to act before the law's Jan. 19 deadline. Content creators who rely on the platform for income and some of TikTok's more than 170 million users in the U.S. filed a separate plea. The companies say a shutdown lasting just a month would cause TikTok to lose about a third of its daily users in the U.S.
