It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s time for another Weekly Reader! As always, if there’s anything you’d like to share, drop a link in the comments!
Verified pro-Nazi X accounts flourish under Elon Musk (from NBC News): “NBC News found the Nazi propaganda posts by browsing the platform: scrolling through replies, clicking on user profiles and looking through the engagements on viral posts. NBC News conducted its review during one week in late March. The number of verified subscribers posting pro-Nazi material may be significantly more than 150. When NBC News conducted its review, Premium subscribers had the option to hide their verification check marks from the public.”
Two former execs of the company behind the Truth Social merger are caught up in a messy hacking lawsuit (from The Verge): “The details are fairly messy. Patrick Orlando, the CEO of DWAC until March 2023, claims he was ousted by Eric Swider, a Trump Media board member who was appointed CEO immediately after Orlando was fired. (Swider served as CEO until March of this year.) Orlando filed the suit against Swider through the Benessere Investment Group, a company he controls, according to Wired’s report.”
Louisiana HB 777 Would Criminalize Librarians and Libraries Who Join the American Library Association (from Book Riot): “Since the rise of book banning in early 2021, the ALA has been at the receiving end of criticism from right-wing politicians and organizations, despite no such similar pushback toward similar organizations for other professionals. Indeed, such attacks have served to not only skewer the profession and all it stands for, but they’ve also been one of several ways that certain groups have attempted to undermine the trust in these institutions.”
Ship that caused bridge collapse had apparent electrical issues while still docked, AP source says (from the Associated Press): “The FBI is now conducting a criminal investigation into the bridge collapse that is focused on the circumstances leading up to it and whether all federal laws were followed, according to a different person familiar with the matter. The person wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.”
The reality of being a criminal defendant on trial finally dawned on Trump. He didn’t take it well. (from Politico): “Although Trump has been a criminal defendant for more than a year, he’s rarely been required to show up to court and indeed has routinely skipped pretrial proceedings in the four criminal cases he’s facing. In all four cases, he was allowed to remain free pending trial, as long as he abided by certain conditions of release (conditions that he has, at times, flouted with few consequences).”
Critics call out plastics industry over “fraud of plastic recycling” (from CBS News): “Allen showed us documents and meeting notes they obtained from public archives, and from a former staff member of the American Plastics Council. “What we see in here is a widespread knowledge that plastics recycling was not working,” he said.”
Right-Wing Media Are in Trouble (from The Atlantic): “A simpler explanation is that conservative digital media are disproportionately dependent on social-media referrals in the first place. Many mainstream publications have long-established brand names, large newsrooms to churn out copy, and, in a few cases, large numbers of loyal subscribers. Sites like Breitbart and Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire, however, were essentially Facebook-virality machines, adept at injecting irresistibly outrageous, clickable nuggets into people’s feeds. So the drying-up of referrals hit these publications much harder.”
X-Men ’97 Using Ace Of Base’s Happy Nation Was Just For Me, Actually (from Comic Book Club–WARNING! MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR X-MEN ’97 EPISODE FIVE!): “I’m being a little facetious of course. But the 1992 hit is the perfect accompaniment for the episode and the scene it plays in, for a variety of reasons. Those reasons? The “Happy Nation” lyrics perfectly match the plot of the episode. And also, as an undertone, there’s Ace of Base’s not-so-secret Nazi past. No, I’m not joking about that one.”
Amazon and Walmart warehouse employees are so surveilled that they’re worried about breaking to use the bathroom: Oxfam report (from Business Insider): “”The conditions there are absolutely horrific,” one Amazon warehouse worker in Alabama was quoted as saying in the report. “I likened it to slavery because they care more about quotas and meeting production rates than actually caring about us as human beings inside there. I feel more like a number.””
Unearthed: CBS News Report -Climate Warning in 1982 (from This Is Not Cool): “Hansen flew to Washington to testify on March 25, 1982, performing before a gallery even more thinly populated than at Gore’s first hearing on the greenhouse effect. Gore began by attacking the Reagan administration for cutting funding for carbon-dioxide research despite the “broad consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is a reality.” William Carney, a Republican from New York, bemoaned the burning of fossil fuels and argued passionately that science should serve as the basis for legislative policy. Bob Shamansky, a Democrat from Ohio, objected to the use of the term “greenhouse effect” for such a horrifying phenomenon, because he had always enjoyed visiting greenhouses. “Everything,” he said, “seems to flourish in there.” He suggested that they call it the “microwave oven” effect, “because we are not flourishing too well under this; apparently, we are getting cooked.””
That’s all for this week but don’t worry. I’ll be back again with more reading material for you to consume. Until then, have a great rest of your week and happy reading!
Iacon East 