FCC orders review of 'Cyber Trust Mark' program over China ties
June 20 (Reuters) - Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr said on Friday he had ordered a review of the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark program over "potentially concerning ties to the government of China."
Carr said the review was being carried out by the FCC's Council on National Security. He did not provide details. The review was earlier reported by Fox News, opens new tab.
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The Independent
35 minutes ago
- The Independent
Texas may soon enact restrictions on when and how students can protest
T he state of Texas could be set to pass a law putting major limits on protests at its public universities, including banning demonstrations at certain times of day and barring all protests during the final two weeks of the semester. The law, whose Republican backers describe as an explicit response to the state's pro-Palestine campus protests, would impact more than one million students at one of the nation's largest public university systems and has drawn criticism from free speech advocates and students. 'While the world watched Columbia, Harvard and other campuses across the country taken hostage by pro-terrorist mobs last year, Texas stood firm. UT allowed protest, not anarchy,' State Senator Brandon Creighton told The Washington Pos t about his bill. 'No First Amendment rights were infringed — and they never will be. This is how we protect student safety, defend our institutions, and safeguard freedom for generations to come.' The bill, Senate Bill 2972, would prohibit protests between 10pm and 8am, ban students from erecting tents and wearing disguises like masks, bar the use of drums and microphones, and halt 'expressive activities' during the final two weeks of class. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has until the end of the week to decide on the law, which will go into effect if he declines to act. His office has not indicated how he will proceed. Civil rights advocates argue the bill's provisions contradict the spirit of a 2019 Texas law, passed when Republicans largely argued campuses overly restricted conservative speech, that mandated universities ensure all outdoor common areas were considered traditional public forums where anyone could protest as long as they weren't breaking the law or disrupting university functions. 'S.B. 2972 threatens the free expression of all Texans, regardless of political beliefs,' Caro Achar of the Texas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in a statement. 'This bill imposes broad restrictions that allow school officials to restrict how, when, and where Texans can speak on campus — undermining the First Amendment rights of students, faculty, staff, and the general public.' 'I don't know that we've seen a law regulating campus expression that's this restrictive,' Tyler Coward, a lawyer with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told The New York Times of the bill. The 'expressive activity' limited in the bill could range from a conversation to a t-shirt with a slogan, others warned. In 2024, Texas saw large-scale campus pro-Palestine protests, and state officials responded by sending in over 100 state troopers to clear out a protest encampment at the University of Texas at Austin. All told, over 150 were arrested at state universities last April. In the wake of widespread pro-Palestine encampments on campus last year, universities across the country reiterated existing restrictions and imposed new rules on protest, including mask bans and time-place-and-manner limits. During the recent Los Angeles protests against federal immigration raids, Donald Trump unilaterally claimed masks were no longer allowed at protests, despite having no legal authority to make such a demand. Protest restrictions have also been a key sticking point in the administration's negotiations with top universities like Harvard and Columbia, which the White House has alleged aren't doing enough to stop campus antisemitism that flared during the protests. The administration has sought to pause funding to these Ivy League schools unless they submit to wide-ranging reforms. Harvard has challenged the administration, while Columbia has largely acceded to the Trump demands, including partially banning face masks.
Reuters
43 minutes ago
- Reuters
Louisiana's Ten Commandments law struck down by US appeals court
June 20 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday blocked Louisiana from enforcing a law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in all classrooms of the state's public schools and universities. Calling the law "plainly unconstitutional," a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans unanimously upheld a November 2024 ruling by a lower court judge who enjoined the law's enforcement. It is a victory for parents and students who accused Louisiana of trampling on their religious rights, and a defeat for Republicans and conservative groups trying to make expressions of faith more prominent in society. The appeals court is widely considered among the country's most conservative, though two judges on Friday's panel were appointed by Democratic presidents. According to published reports, Louisiana's Republican attorney general, Liz Murrill, will ask the full appeals court and perhaps eventually the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, to review the case. Murrill's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nine families, including several clergy, with children in public schools sued to block the law, saying it violated the First Amendment prohibition against state establishment of religion. "We are grateful for this decision, which honors the religious diversity and religious-freedom rights of public school families across Louisiana," said Darcy Roake, a Unitarian Universalist minister who with her Jewish husband Adrian Van Young is among the plaintiffs. Louisiana's law requires the display of posters or framed versions of the Ten Commandments that are at least 11 inches by 14 inches, with the Commandments being the "central focus" and printed in a large, easy-to-read font. The law, signed by Republican Governor Jeff Landry, covers K-12 schools and state-funded colleges, and was scheduled to take effect on January 1. In Friday's decision, Circuit Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez cited a 1980 Supreme Court decision, Stone v. Graham, that struck down a Kentucky law requiring similar displays of the Ten Commandments because it had no "secular legislative purpose." Louisiana said the Stone decision no longer applied because it relied on a precedent that the Supreme Court has disavowed. It also said that even if Stone applied, Louisiana's case differed because schools could display the Ten Commandments with documents such as the Declaration of Independence, reflecting a secular "historical and educational" purpose. Ramirez, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, nonetheless cited several legislators who expressed religion-based justifications for Louisiana's law. These included that the Ten Commandments were "God's law," and that opponents were waging an "attack" on Christianity. "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments," Ramirez wrote, quoting the Stone decision. "This is not a permissible state objective." Ramirez also rejected Louisiana's argument that the Supreme Court's 2022 decision favoring a Washington state high school football coach who prayed with players at the 50-yard line after games required upholding the Ten Commandments law. She said this was in part because the Washington case primarily concerned First Amendment provisions governing free speech and the free exercise of religion. Louisiana was the first U.S. state requiring displays of the Ten Commandments since the Kentucky law was struck down. The case is Roake et al v Brumley et al, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 24-30706.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Utterly staggering sum Barron Trump has already made at 19... outshining his dad and brothers
Barron Trump just completed his freshman year of university. But in a year attending introductory NYU business classes, President Donald Trump's youngest son amassed a giant crypto sum that could make some of Silicon Valley's executives blush. Barron, 19, is reportedly sitting on a fortune of up to $40 million, largely thanks to a family-linked cryptocurrency firm called World Liberty Financial. The venture, co-founded by Trump and his three adult sons, has quickly exploded in value, selling at least $550 million of tokens. After the first $30 million in sales, the money flowed directly from investors and into the Trump family members' bank accounts. Barron is reportedly one of the biggest beneficiaries of that cashflow, with the executive title 'Web3 ambassador,' alongside his half-brothers Don Jr. and Eric. Each of Trump's sons is believed to hold a 7.5 percent stake in the company. There are some disclosure and partial interest sales that could complicate the overall take-home pay from the venture. But at just 19 years old, he appears to have earned far more than his older siblings did at the same age — thanks to a digital gold rush that's become the centerpiece of the Trump family's modern empire. The college student may have raked in $25 million after taxes while his father returned to the White House, according to Forbes. Barron, who reportedly introduced his father to the concept of digital wallets, has been credited by Trump as the family's crypto brain. 'Barron's a young guy, but he knows it — he talks about his wallet,' Trump said in a previous interview. 'He's got four wallets or something, and I'm saying, "What is a wallet?"' President Trump is also making a healthy sum, too. A newly released 234-page financial disclosure revealed the President raked in more than $57 million last year from cryptocurrency ventures. Trump himself owns a 52.5 percent stake in the company, per his disclosure. He also made millions off retail offerings, like gold-plated shoes, high-end watches, collectible coffee table books, and electric guitars. Trump watches are another retail avenue of revenue for the Trump empire President Trump had long railed against the Biden administration for allegedly allowing the the then-President's son, Hunter, to profit off his White House proximity But the cryptocurrency is ruffling the feathers of White House watchdogs. Investments in the currency are shielded from public view, making skeptics nervous about potential foreign investment or unseen lobbying via trades in the Trump-branded coin. In May, the President hosted a lavish dinner with some of the biggest investors in his crypto empire. The White House has long argued that President Trump remains walled off from political corruption because he ceded financial power of his profit-making organizations to his sons. But that argument also came after President Trump railed against the Biden administration for allowing the former President's son, Hunter, 55, to allegedly profit from his closeness to the White House. 'Ultimately, no matter what it is, I always put the country way ahead of the business,' President Trump said, adding 'You can't say that about Hunter.'
