OUR PICKSU.S. Needs a Grand Defense Industrial Strategy | Elon Musk’s Disturbing ‘Truth’ | Top MS-13 Leader Faces Terrorism Charges, and more
· X Races to Contain Damage After Elon Musk Endorses Antisemitic Post
IBM, a major advertiser on X, has pulled its spending from the social media platform, whose employees are grappling with what to tell its other advertisers, according to internal messages.
· Elon Musk’s Disturbing ‘Truth’
The billionaire affirmed the deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in recent American history
· One Size Fits None: The United States Needs a Grand Defense Industrial Strategy
The scale and complexity of resourcing Ukraine’s requirements has challenged Western backers
· TikTok to Prohibit Videos Promoting Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’
The letter, which was written after al Qaeda’s attack on the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people, criticized U.S. support for Israel
· From Pixels to Punches: Geolocating a Neo-Nazi and White Nationalist Combat Event in Los Angeles
Chapters of an emerging white nationalist network from across the United States participated in a joint combat sports event in the Los Angeles area this August
· Top MS-13 Leader to Stand Trial in New York on Terrorism Charges
El Salvador citizen Elmer Canales, known as “Crook de Hollywood,” was arrested by Mexican authorities last week and sent to Texas
· Inside the $1.5-Trillion Nuclear Weapons Program You’ve Never Heard Of
A road trip through the communities shouldering the U.S.’s nuclear missile revival
· The US Is Normalizing the Cruelest Mass Killing Method to Stop Bird Flu
Bird flu is surging again. We failed to prepare, and now animals are paying the price.
X Races to Contain Damage After Elon Musk Endorses Antisemitic Post (Ryan Mac, New York Times)
Less than 24 hours after Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on X as “the actual truth” of what Jewish people were doing, IBM paused its advertising on the social media platform as X’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, and others at the company scrambled on Thursday to contain the fallout.
IBM cut off about $1 million in advertising spending that it had committed to the platform for the last three months of the year.
Mr. Musk, who bought Twitter last year and renamed it X, has faced increasing criticism that he has tolerated and even encouraged antisemitic abuse on his social media platform. He has attacked George Soros, the financier who is a frequent target of antisemitic abuse, and threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League, a rights group that has highlighted the rise in antisemitism on X.
On Wednesday, Mr. Musk went further when he agreed with a post from an X account accusing Jewish communities of pushing “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” Jewish people are now “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much,” the account added.
“You have said the actual truth,” Mr. Musk replied to the post.
Elon Musk’s Disturbing ‘Truth’ (Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic)
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people … Screw your optics, I’m going in.” Those were the last words posted online by Robert Bowers before he massacred worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.
On Wednesday night, the world’s wealthiest man affirmed this same conspiracy theory on X, formerly Twitter, the social-media site he owns. Like so many of Elon Musk’s acts of self-immolation, it happened in the space of a tweet. The incident began with a post from a conservative Jewish user who complained about anti-Semitic content on social media during the current Gaza conflict. “To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting ‘Hitler was right,’” he wrote. “You got something you want to say? Why dont you say it to our faces.” A small-time white-nationalist account soon responded by attributing this anti-Semitism to minorities, and blaming it on the Jews. (Cont.)
