Elizabeth Warren’s Senate stand goes viral, but does nothing to stand in the way of Sessions’ confirmation vote. Trump goes after Nordstrom’s department store for discontinuing his daughter’s fashion line, prompting uproar, and leading White House officials to rise to his defense. Trump also doubles down on his attacks on the court, saying Ninth Circuit judges missed what would be obvious to even “a bad high school student.” -Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director

DARE: Daily Alert on Rights and Expression

PEN America’s take on today’s most pressing threats to free expression

U.S.

Trump administration halts penalties against firms that punish nuclear whistleblowers
The Department of Energy has halted an Obama administration regulation that allowed for civil penalties against federal nuclear contractors that retaliate against whistleblowers who report waste, fraud, abuse and dangerous conditions.
THE WASHINGTON POST

Nancy Pelosi To Press: Donald Trump Is ‘Coming After You’
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says the press has a key role in holding President Donald Trump accountable in the years to come.
HUFFINGTON POST

US Olympic hero being detained is why Muslim ban not who we are
Ibtihaj Muhammad, a fencer who brought home bronze in Rio to become the first female Muslim-American to medal for the U.S., revealed on Tuesday that she recently was detained for two hours by U.S. Customs while traveling.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Melissa McCarthy on ‘SNL’ shows the power comedians have under a Trump presidency
Trump is running the government as a president who cares deeply about appearances – so much so that a “Saturday Night Live” sketch could affect how he does it.
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

To Reject Trump the Perverse, Poets Wage a Battle in Verse
Some people stand up to President Trump in the courts, others in street protests. And the poets among us, they battle President Trump with an arsenal of verse.
NEW YORK TIMES

Global

Jerusalem Gallery Shuttered After Government Demands It Cancel Anti-occupation Group Event
The Jerusalem municipality is shutting down the Barbur Gallery, a nonprofit art space in the downtown area, because it planned to host an event by Breaking the Silence, an Israeli veterans’ anti-occupation group which collects testimonies from soldiers serving in the Palestinian territories.
HAARETZ

Bangladeshi government to make list of ‘genuine journalists’
The Information Minister yesterday told parliament that the government has taken an initiative to prepare a list of “genuine journalists”.
THE DAILY STAR

Specter of censorship haunts S. Korea artists
The existence of a government blacklist has sent shivers across the country’s filmmakers, who say it took a devastating toll on the freedom of expression that helped transform an army-ruled backwater into a cultural powerhouse.
AFP

Mapping Countries That Censor the Internet
Now, there’s an app that will test your internet connection not for speed, but for freedom. The program, ooniprobe, is part of a 5-year-old project called the Open Observatory of Network Interference, or OONI.
THE ATLANTIC

Artists Faced Sharp Rise in Attacks and Censorship in 2016, Report Says
A new report on artistic freedom by the Danish free speech advocacy group Freemuse has recorded a sharp rise in attacks and censorship.
ARTNET

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