OUR PICKSGigantic Ships Are a Danger—and a Lifeline | Online Conspiracies About the Baltimore Bridge Collapse Are Out of Control | The Case Against TikTok Is Thin at Best, and more
· Online Conspiracies About the Baltimore Bridge Collapse Are Out of Control
Conspiracy theorists are calling the Baltimore bridge collapse a “black swan event” and are blaming everything from Israel to DEI to Covid vaccines.
· The Case Against TikTok Is Thin at Best
There are real issues—but they go far beyond one app.
· Gigantic Ships Are a Danger—and a Lifeline
The vessel that hit Baltimore’s Key Bridge is more than three times as large as its biggest counterparts 50 years ago.
· Appeals Court Keeps Texas’ Migrant Arrest Law on Hold
The order prevents Texas from arresting and deporting migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S. while the case challenging the law is under consideration.
· The Supreme Court Is Shaming Itself
No good legal reason exists to delay Donald Trump’s January 6 trial any further.
Online Conspiracies About the Baltimore Bridge Collapse Are Out of Control (David Gilbert, Wired)
Conspiracists and far-right extremists are blaming just about everything and everyone for Tuesday morning’s Baltimore bridge collapse.
A non-exhaustive list of things that are getting blamed for the bridge collapse on Telegram and X include President Biden, Hamas, ISIS, P. Diddy, Nickelodeon, India, former president Barack Obama, Islam, aliens, Sri Lanka, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, Wokeness, Ukraine, foreign aid, the CIA, Jewish people, Israel, Russia, China, Iran, Covid vaccines, DEI, immigrants, Black people, and lockdowns.
The Francis Scott Key truss bridge collapsed when the MV Dali cargo ship collided with one of the bridge supports. Six construction workers, who were filling potholes on the bridge’s roadway at the time, are presumed dead. The ship is owned by Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and the 22-person crew were all Indian. The ship was en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the time of the accident.
The Case Against TikTok Is Thin at Best (Zachary Karabell, Foreign Policy)
The U.S. Congress hasn’t passed a budget on time since 1996, and many members spend more time preening and posturing than legislating. Yet at the beginning of the month, the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives voted 50-0 on a bill that would have de facto given the president the authority to force ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to divest its control of U.S. operations or face a ban of the app. The full House passed the bill less than a week later by a margin of 352-65.
But that speed should give us pause. The question of what to do about TikTok depends on what TikTok is actually doing. And the evidence of clear and present danger just isn’t there yet. As things stand, banning TikTok is not just bad policy; it’s hollow as well. It won’t make the United States safer, and it will allow those in government—both in the national security bureaucracy and in Congress—to pretend that it is doing something without doing much at all to address the real issues of data, privacy, and foreign influence. (Cont.)
