Leaders of major media companies are urging Israel to lift a ban preventing foreign journalists from independently entering Gaza. This restriction has been in place since the war began in October 2023. The executives released a statement Thursday emphasizing the importance of on-the-ground reporting for questioning official accounts and speaking directly with civilians. Despite a ceasefire and reduced fighting, Israel has not responded to discussions about lifting the ban. Initially, Israel said the ban was necessary because foreign journalists allowed into Gaza could give away the positions of Israeli soldiers and endanger them.

The Supreme Court is siding with a faith-based pregnancy center that raised First Amendment concerns about an investigation into whether it misled people to discourage abortions. The high court’s ruling Wednesday is a procedural victory for First Choice Women’s Resource Centers. The group is challenging a New Jersey investigation of its practices. The Supreme Court’s decision lets First Choice sue over a state-issued subpoena in federal court, though the ruling doesn't resolve the underlying case. The conservative-majority court has given abortion opponents high-profile wins in recent years. But this case also drew support from the American Civil Liberties Union, which favors abortion rights but backed the group’s First Amendment concerns.

Supreme Court sides with anti-abortion pregnancy center raising First Amendment concerns about state investigation.

Officials say prominent journalist Andrzej Poczobut has been released from jail in Belarus in a swap with Poland that also saw a total of 10 people freed as the authoritarian leader of Belarus seeks improved relations with the West. Poczobut, a correspondent for the influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a leading figure among Belarus’ Polish minority, was serving eight years in prison in a case condemned as politically motivated. His 2021 arrest drew criticism and he was later awarded the European Union’s most prestigious human rights award, the Sakharov Prize. The swap is the latest in a series of U.S.-negotiated prisoner releases that have marked stronger relations between Washington and Minsk.

Rescue workers say a Lebanese journalist was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon. The daily Al-Akhbar newspaper says its reporter Amal Khalil was killed on Wednesday in the southern village of al-Tiri. Khalil had been covering the Israel-Hezbollah war, which resumed in early March, in the shadow of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. Earlier on Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders had called on the international community to pressure the Israeli army to allow the rescue of Khalil and others who were in the house. However, rescuers say her body was only retrieved hours later from the rubble.

A U.S. appeals court says Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. The ruling Tuesday by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals was a victory for conservatives who have long sought to incorporate more religion into schools. The ruling sets up a potential clash at the U.S. Supreme Court over the issue in the future. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said in the decision that Texas’ law did not violate the First Amendment, which protects religious freedom and prevents the government from establishing a religion. Critics have said the law violates the separation of church and state.