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Tag: racism

  • Actor Nick Searcy Hammers Liberal Columnist Whining About Leftists Getting Canceled for Anti-Semitism: 'You Made The Rules, B****'

    Actor Nick Searcy Hammers Liberal Columnist Whining About Leftists Getting Canceled for Anti-Semitism: 'You Made The Rules, B****'

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    Conservative actor Nick Searcy unloaded on Peter Beinart after the MSNBC analyst suggested that outrage over Ivy League presidents failing to condemn anti-Semitism on their campuses was an affront to free speech.

    Several top university presidents took the banner of free speech and ran with it during a House committee meeting earlier this month, refusing to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews.

    The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) repeatedly offered excuses for the racist, often violent rants of left-wing students on campus.

    “We embrace a commitment to free expression – even views that are objectionable, offensive [and] hateful,” said Harvard President Claudine Gay. “It’s when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies against bullying and harassment. That speech did not cross that barrier.”

    Gay was responding to protesters on the campus calling for a “global intifada.”

    RELATED: Billionaire Cuts Off Donations To Columbia University Because College Kids Have ‘S*** For Brains’

    University Presidents Under Fire

    At the time of this post being written, Penn President Liz Magill had resigned following her testimony before the committee, a move critics celebrated as a notch against ‘woke’ universities letting their students run the asylum.

    There was pressure for Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth to follow suit.

    But Beinart didn’t feel the Ivy League presidents should be criticized or have to suffer the consequences of their actions.

    “The campaign to depose the presidents of Penn, Harvard + MIT is a campaign to restrict pro-Palestinian speech on campus,” he wrote on X. “If you support it, please have the decency never to sermonize about free speech, academic freedom or cancel culture again.”

    Searcy, best known for his role on FX’s Justified, gently reminded Beinart that it is liberals in this country that set the guidelines for what speech is allowed and what gets you canceled.

    “You made the rules about ‘hate speech,’ bitch,” he shot back. “Now you have to live by them. Tough titty.”

    RELATED: Actor Nick Searcy Blasts Open Borders After Illegal Immigrant Arrested For Raping 10-Year-Old Ohio Girl

    Ivy League Donor: Kids Have ‘S*** For Brains’

    Searcy is a frequent critic of liberals on social media, often subscribing to the James Woods School of obliterating the left using their own tactics.

    He shredded American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Randi Weingarten after she begged for a “pandemic amnesty” in which people would forgive and forget the actions taken by public officials and commenters during the COVID pandemic.

    “This bish ruined more children’s lives than the Grinch,” he countered. “Of course, she agrees with having no consequences for her stupid lies.”

    Beinart, meanwhile, likes to parrot anti-Semitic rants made by people like members of the ‘Squad.’ In an interview earlier this year, he cited sources denouncing Israel as an “apartheid state.”

    Beinart seems to share a common cause with some Ivy League students.

    Students that Leon Cooperman, an American billionaire investor and Columbia Business School graduate, recently described as being just shy of intelligent.

    “I think these kids at the colleges have s*** for brains,” he said.

    “We have one reliable ally in the Middle East, that’s Israel. We only have one democracy in the Middle East, that’s Israel. We have one economy tolerant of different people, you know, gays, lesbians, etc,” Cooperman said. “So, they have no idea what these young kids are doing.”

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  • Georgia election worker tearfully describes fleeing her home after Giuliani's false claims of fraud

    Georgia election worker tearfully describes fleeing her home after Giuliani's false claims of fraud

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    WASHINGTON — A former Georgia election worker suing Rudy Giuliani over false claims he spread about her and her daughter in 2020 cried on the witness stand on Wednesday as she described fleeing her home after she endured racist threats and strangers banging on her door.

    Ruby Freeman’s online boutique was flooded with threatening messages, including several that mentioned lynching, after Giuliani tweeted a video of her counting votes as a temporary election worker while he pushed Donald Trump‘s baseless claims of fraud, Freeman told jurors. Freeman, 64, said she had to leave her home in January 2021, after people came with bullhorns and the FBI told her she wasn’t safe.

    “I took it as though they were going to hang me with their ropes on my street,” Freeman testified about the threats on the third day of the trial in Washington’s federal courthouse. She added: “I was scared. I didn’t know if they were coming to kill me.”

    Lawyers for Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, rested their case after Freeman’s testimony. Giuliani is expected to testify in his defense, though U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell has barred him from attempting to argue his debunked claims.

    Freeman eventually had to sell her home, she told jurors. She said she lived out of her car for a time, as the relentless drumbeat of harassment made friends and fellow church members afraid to be associated with her. Now, she stays holed up inside and avoids introducing herself to neighbors out of fear her name will be recognized, she said.

    “It’s so scary, any time I go somewhere, if I have to use my name,” she said, gasping through her tears to get her words out. “I miss my old neighborhood because I was me, I could introduce myself. Now I don’t have a name, really.”

    The testimony came a day after her daughter, Moss, took the witness stand herself and detailed the nightmares, panic attacks and depression brought on by an onslaught of threatening and racist messages that turned her life upside down and forced her from a job she loves.

    They spoke as part of a trial to determine how much Giuliani will have to pay the two women for spreading conspiracy theories that they rigged the state’s 2020 election results. A judge has already determined he is liable for defamation and Giuliani has acknowledged in court that he made public comments falsely claiming Freeman and Moss committed fraud while counting ballots.

    An expert for the plaintiffs testified Wednesday that Giuliani’s defamatory statements, which were also spread by Trump and his campaign, were viewed up to 56 million times by people who were sympathetic to them. Northwestern University professor Ashlee Humphreys, who also testified in the defamation case filed against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll, said emotionally damaging statements were seen hundreds of millions of times.

    The cost of repairing their reputations alone could be as high as $47 million, Humphreys said. They are also seeking emotional and punitive damages, in the tens of millions of dollars.

    Giuliani’s lawyer grilled Humphreys on her methodology, and sought to raise questions about how much responsibility the former mayor should personally bear for the spread of conspiracy theories.

    Giuliani has continued to make unfounded allegations against the women and insisted outside the federal courthouse Monday that his claims about the women were true.

    As the defamation damagers trial unfolds, Giuliani is also preparing to defend himself against criminal charges in a separate case in Georgia. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges accusing him and others of scheming to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state and denied any wrongdoing.

    ___

    Richer reported from Boston.

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  • Elon Musk restores X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

    Elon Musk restores X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

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    Elon Musk has restored the X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, pointing to a poll on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that came out in favor of the Infowars host who repeatedly called the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax.

    It poses new uncertainty for advertisers, who have fled X over concerns about hate speech appearing alongside their ads, and is the latest divisive public personality to get back their banned account.

    Musk posted a poll on Saturday asking if Jones should be reinstated, with the results showing 70% of those who responded in favor. Early Sunday, Musk tweeted, “The people have spoken and so it shall be.”

    A few hours later, Jones’ posts were visible again and he retweeted a post about his video game. He and his Infowars show had been permanently banned in 2018 for abusive behavior.

    Musk, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist, said the move was about protecting those rights. In response to a user who posted that “permanent account bans are antithetical to free speech,” Musk wrote, “I find it hard to disagree with this point.”

    The billionaire Tesla CEO also tweeted it’s likely that Community Notes — X’s crowd-sourced fact-checking service — “will respond rapidly to any AJ post that needs correction.”

    It is a major turnaround for Musk, who previously said he wouldn’t let Jones back on the platform despite repeated calls to do so. Last year, Musk pointed to the death of his first-born child and tweeted, “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”

    Jones repeatedly has said on his show that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six educators never happened and was staged in an effort to tighten gun laws.

    Relatives of many of the victims sued Jones in Connecticut and Texas, winning nearly $1.5 billion in judgments against him. In October, a judge ruled that Jones could not use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying more than $1.1 billon of that debt.

    Relatives of the school shooting victims testified at the trials about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, who sent threats and even confronted the grieving families in person, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose children never existed.

    Jones is appealing the judgments, saying he didn’t get fair trials and his speech was protected by the First Amendment.

    Restoring Jones’ account comes as Musk has seen a slew of big brands, including Disney and IBM, stop advertising on X after a report by liberal advocacy group Media Matters said ads were appearing alongside pro-Nazi content and white nationalist posts.

    They also were scared away after Musk himself endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory in response to a post on X. The Tesla CEO later apologized and visited Israel, where he toured a kibbutz attacked by Hamas militants and held talks with top Israeli leaders.

    But he also has said advertisers are engaging in “blackmail” and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away.

    “Don’t advertise,” Musk said in an on-stage interview late last month at The New York Times DealBook Summit.

    After buying Twitter last year, Musk said he was granting “amnesty” for suspended accounts and has since reinstated former President Donald Trump; Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, following two suspensions over antisemitic posts last year; and far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was kicked off the platform for violating its COVID-19 misinformation policies.

    Trump, who was banned for encouraging the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, has his own social media site, Truth Social, and has only tweeted once since being allowed back on X.

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  • Elon Musk restores X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

    Elon Musk restores X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

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    Elon Musk has restored the X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, pointing to a poll on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that came out in favor of the Infowars host who repeatedly called the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax.

    It poses new uncertainty for advertisers, who have fled X over concerns about hate speech appearing alongside their ads, and is the latest divisive public personality to get back their banned account.

    Musk posted a poll on Saturday asking if Jones should be reinstated, with the results showing 70% of those who responded in favor. Early Sunday, Musk tweeted, “The people have spoken and so it shall be.”

    A few hours later, Jones’ posts were visible again and he retweeted a post about his video game. He and his Infowars show had been permanently banned in 2018 for abusive behavior.

    Musk, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist, said the move was about protecting those rights. In response to a user who posted that “permanent account bans are antithetical to free speech,” Musk wrote, “I find it hard to disagree with this point.”

    The billionaire Tesla CEO also tweeted it’s likely that Community Notes — X’s crowd-sourced fact-checking service — “will respond rapidly to any AJ post that needs correction.”

    It is a major turnaround for Musk, who previously said he wouldn’t let Jones back on the platform despite repeated calls to do so. Last year, Musk pointed to the death of his first-born child and tweeted, “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”

    Jones repeatedly has said on his show that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six educators never happened and was staged in an effort to tighten gun laws.

    Relatives of many of the victims sued Jones in Connecticut and Texas, winning nearly $1.5 billion in judgments against him. In October, a judge ruled that Jones could not use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying more than $1.1 billon of that debt.

    Relatives of the school shooting victims testified at the trials about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, who sent threats and even confronted the grieving families in person, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose children never existed.

    Jones is appealing the judgments, saying he didn’t get fair trials and his speech was protected by the First Amendment.

    Restoring Jones’ account comes as Musk has seen a slew of big brands, including Disney and IBM, stop advertising on X after a report by liberal advocacy group Media Matters said ads were appearing alongside pro-Nazi content and white nationalist posts.

    They also were scared away after Musk himself endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory in response to a post on X. The Tesla CEO later apologized and visited Israel, where he toured a kibbutz attacked by Hamas militants and held talks with top Israeli leaders.

    But he also has said advertisers are engaging in “blackmail” and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away.

    “Don’t advertise,” Musk said in an on-stage interview late last month at The New York Times DealBook Summit.

    After buying Twitter last year, Musk said he was granting “amnesty” for suspended accounts and has since reinstated former President Donald Trump; Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, following two suspensions over antisemitic posts last year; and far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was kicked off the platform for violating its COVID-19 misinformation policies.

    Trump, who was banned for encouraging the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, has his own social media site, Truth Social, and has only tweeted once since being allowed back on X.

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  • Elon Musk restores X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

    Elon Musk restores X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

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    Elon Musk has restored the X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, pointing to a poll on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that came out in favor of the Infowars host who repeatedly called the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax.

    It poses new uncertainty for advertisers, who have fled X over concerns about hate speech appearing alongside their ads, and is the latest divisive public personality to get back their banned account.

    Musk posted a poll on Saturday asking if Jones should be reinstated, with the results showing 70% of those who responded in favor. Early Sunday, Musk tweeted, “The people have spoken and so it shall be.”

    A few hours later, Jones’ posts were visible again and he retweeted a post about his video game. He and his Infowars show had been permanently banned in 2018 for abusive behavior.

    Musk, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist, said the move was about protecting those rights. In response to a user who posted that “permanent account bans are antithetical to free speech,” Musk wrote, “I find it hard to disagree with this point.”

    The billionaire Tesla CEO also tweeted it’s likely that Community Notes — X’s crowd-sourced fact-checking service — “will respond rapidly to any AJ post that needs correction.”

    It is a major turnaround for Musk, who previously said he wouldn’t let Jones back on the platform despite repeated calls to do so. Last year, Musk pointed to the death of his first-born child and tweeted, “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”

    Jones repeatedly has said on his show that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six educators never happened and was staged in an effort to tighten gun laws.

    Relatives of many of the victims sued Jones in Connecticut and Texas, winning nearly $1.5 billion in judgments against him. In October, a judge ruled that Jones could not use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying more than $1.1 billon of that debt.

    Relatives of the school shooting victims testified at the trials about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, who sent threats and even confronted the grieving families in person, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose children never existed.

    Jones is appealing the judgments, saying he didn’t get fair trials and his speech was protected by the First Amendment.

    Restoring Jones’ account comes as Musk has seen a slew of big brands, including Disney and IBM, stop advertising on X after a report by liberal advocacy group Media Matters said ads were appearing alongside pro-Nazi content and white nationalist posts.

    They also were scared away after Musk himself endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory in response to a post on X. The Tesla CEO later apologized and visited Israel, where he toured a kibbutz attacked by Hamas militants and held talks with top Israeli leaders.

    But he also has said advertisers are engaging in “blackmail” and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away.

    “Don’t advertise,” Musk said in an on-stage interview late last month at The New York Times DealBook Summit.

    After buying Twitter last year, Musk said he was granting “amnesty” for suspended accounts and has since reinstated former President Donald Trump; Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, following two suspensions over antisemitic posts last year; and far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was kicked off the platform for violating its COVID-19 misinformation policies.

    Trump, who was banned for encouraging the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, has his own social media site, Truth Social, and has only tweeted once since being allowed back on X.

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  • Gaza war unleashes anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim sentiment in the US

    Gaza war unleashes anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim sentiment in the US

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    In the United States, speaking freely about Israel’s war on Gaza often has a price.

    For expressing their opinions on the Israel-Palestine, many Muslim Americans and Arab Americans have paid a hefty price, including the loss of jobs and suspension from college.

    Universities across the US are also cracking down on student activism.

    Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has received double the usual amount of reports of bias and requests for help, according to the executive director, Nihad Awad.

    Speaking to host Steve Clemons, Awad warns that as the Israeli narrative continues “falling apart”, more attempts to dehumanise the Palestinian people will be seen.

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  • Black Texas Student Suspended Again For His Locs After Refusing To Cut His Hair

    Black Texas Student Suspended Again For His Locs After Refusing To Cut His Hair

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    Darryl George, the 18-year-old Texan suspended from school for his locs, returned to classes this week only to be suspended again.

    This latest development comes following a series of suspensions that George had previously served for the same reason, sparking a wave of criticism and debates around issues of racial bias.

    RELATED: Vice President Kamala Harris Announces New Initiative To Prevent Racial Bias In Home Valuations

    The teenager has become the center of a nationwide controversy owing to the disciplinary actions set out by Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, TX. The district viewed the school’s policy against “locs” as violating the dress code if the hair extends “below the eyebrows or below the ear lobes.”

    Darryl George’s Exclusion From Classes Over His Locs

    In October, Darresha George, his mother, stated that the school had suspended her son for over a month due to his hairstyle. Furthermore, officials were considering referring him to an alternative education program.

    George returned to his class on Tuesday. But his relief was short-lived when they informed him again that he had violated the school’s dress code with his uncut hair.

    Officials referred George to in-school suspension because his let-down hair “does not comply with the BH dress code.”

    The Barbers Hill Independent School District responded to the backlash over George’s previous suspension. They insisted that though they allow students to wear locs, they limit the length of hairstyles for male students.

    The school has since punished him with an additional 13 days of in-school suspension before allowing him back to class. But under one condition: he would have to cut his locs to a length the school deemed appropriate.

    George’s mom informs the Associated Press that the family is taking a stand against the perceived discriminatory behavior towards a Black student. They insist that the school should not suspend him because of his hairstyle.

    For many people of color, locs symbolize racial identity, heritage, and history.

    Darryl George’s mom says suspending a student for embracing his cultural identity puts the school’s ethos and commitment to inclusivity into question.

    Darryl George’s Family Take Legal Action

    The family argues that the school has violated the CROWN Act, which prohibits race-based hair discrimination in Texas. However, officials contended that the act makes no mention of hair length.

    The repeated suspensions have raised family members’ concerns about the potential impact on George’s academic performance and mental health.

    Singling out someone for their physical appearance can cause feelings of isolation and damaged self-esteem.

    Darresha says they “do not see the light at the end of the tunnel.” But they refuse to back down.

    Darryl George’s family has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the school district, the state’s governor and attorney.

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    Maurice Cassidy

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  • Illinois appeals court affirms actor Jussie Smollett's convictions and jail sentence

    Illinois appeals court affirms actor Jussie Smollett's convictions and jail sentence

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    An appeals court upheld the disorderly conduct convictions Friday of actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself in 2019 and lying about it to Chicago police.

    Smollett, who appeared in the TV show “Empire,” challenged the role of a special prosecutor, jury selection, evidence and many other aspects of the case. But all were turned aside in a 2-1 opinion from the Illinois Appellate Court.

    Smollett had reported to police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks. The search for the attackers soon turned into an investigation of Smollett himself, leading to his arrest on charges he had orchestrated the whole thing.

    Authorities said he paid two men whom he knew from work on “Empire,” which filmed in Chicago. Prosecutors said Smollett told the men what slurs to shout, and to yell that he was in “MAGA Country,” a reference to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan.

    A jury convicted Smollett in 2021 on five felony counts of disorderly conduct, a charge that can be filed in Illinois when a person lies to police.

    He now will have to finish a 150-day stint in jail that was part of his sentence. Smollett spent just six days in jail while his appeal was pending.

    Lawyers for Smollett, who is Black and gay, have publicly claimed that he was the target of a racist justice system and people playing politics.

    “We are preparing to escalate this matter to the Supreme Court,” Smollett spokeswoman Holly Baird said, referring to Illinois’ highest court and also noting that the opinion at the appellate court wasn’t unanimous.

    Appellate Justice Freddrenna Lyle would have thrown out the convictions. She said it was “fundamentally unfair” to appoint a special prosecutor and charge Smollett when he had already performed community service as part of a 2019 deal with Cook County prosecutors to close the case.

    “It was common sense that Smollett was bargaining for a complete resolution of the matter, not simply a temporary one,” Lyle said.

    Special prosecutor Dan Webb was appointed to look into why the case was dropped. A grand jury subsequently restored charges against Smollett in 2020, and Webb concluded there were “substantial abuses of discretion” in the state’s attorney office during the earlier round.

    Smollett was not immune to a fresh round of charges, appellate Justices David Navarro and Mary Ellen Coghlan said in the majority opinion.

    “The record does not contain any evidence that (prosecutors) agreed Smollett would not be further prosecuted in exchange for forfeiting his bond and performing community service,” they said.

    ___

    More AP coverage of the Jussie Smollett case: https://apnews.com/hub/jussie-smollett

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  • Musk uses expletive to tell audience he doesn’t care about advertisers that fled X over hate speech

    Musk uses expletive to tell audience he doesn’t care about advertisers that fled X over hate speech

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    Billionaire Elon Musk has said advertisers who have halted spending on his social media platform X in response to antisemitic and other hateful material are engaging in “blackmail.”

    ByThe Associated Press

    November 29, 2023, 6:58 PM

    FILE – Elon Musk, who owns X, formerly known as Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX, speaks at the Vivatech fair, June 16, 2023, in Paris. Musk said Wednesday, Nov. 29, that advertisers who have halted spending on his social media platform X in response to antisemitic and other hateful material are engaging in “blackmail” and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

    The Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Billionaire Elon Musk said Wednesday that advertisers who have halted spending on his social media platform X in response to antisemitic and other hateful material are engaging in “blackmail” and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away.

    “Don’t advertise,” Musk said.

    He appeared to specifically call out Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger, saying, “Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience … that’s how I feel.”

    In an on-stage interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit, Musk also apologized for endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory in response to a post on X that helped fuel an advertiser exodus.

    The comments come just two days after Musk visited Israel, where he toured a kibbutz attacked by Hamas militants and held talks with top leaders.

    Musk has faced accusations from the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish civil rights organization, and others of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it last year. The content on X, formerly Twitter, has gained increased scrutiny since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October.

    A slew of big brands, including Disney and IBM, this month stopped advertising on the platform after a report by liberal advocacy group Media Matters said their ads were appearing alongside pro-Nazi content and white nationalist posts.

    X has since sued Media Matters, saying the Washington-based nonprofit manufactured the report to “drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”

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  • Ex-Obama official charged with hate crime in alleged harassment of halal food cart worker

    Ex-Obama official charged with hate crime in alleged harassment of halal food cart worker

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    Ex-Obama official charged with hate crime in alleged harassment of halal food cart worker – CBS News


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    A former State Department official who worked in the Obama administration was arrested on hate crime and harassment charges after police say he was caught on video making Islamophobic remarks to a halal food cart worker in New York City. Roxana Saberi reports.

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  • Musk’s X sues liberal advocacy group Media Matters over its report on ads next to hate groups’ posts

    Musk’s X sues liberal advocacy group Media Matters over its report on ads next to hate groups’ posts

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    Elon Musk’s social media company X filed a lawsuit against liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America on Monday, saying it manufactured a report to show advertisers’ posts alongside neo-Nazi and white nationalist posts in order to “drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”

    Media Matters, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, called the lawsuit “frivolous.”

    Advertisers have been fleeing the site formerly known as Twitter over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content — and hate speech on the site in general — while billionaire owner Musk has inflamed tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

    IBM, NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast said last week that they stopped advertising on X after the Media Matters report said their ads were appearing alongside material praising Nazis. It was a fresh setback as the platform tries to win back big brands and their ad dollars, X’s main source of revenue.

    The Media Matters report pointed to ads from Apple and Oracle that also were placed next to antisemitic material on X. On Friday, it said it also found ads from Amazon, NBA Mexico, NBCUniversal and others next to white nationalist hashtags.

    But San Francisco-based X says in its complaint filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, that Media Matters “knowingly and maliciously” portrayed ads next to hateful material “as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform.”

    X’s complaint claims that Media Matters manipulated algorithms on the platform to create images of advertisers’ paid posts next to racist, incendiary content. The juxtapositions, according to the complaint, were “manufactured, inorganic and extraordinarily rare.”

    It says Media Matters did this by using X accounts that just followed X users known to produce “extreme fringe content” and accounts owned by X’s major advertisers. This, the complaint says, led to a feed aimed at producing side-by-side placements that Media Matters could then screen shot in an effort to alienate X’s advertisers.

    Media Matters said Monday that it stands by its reporting and expects to prevail in court.

    “This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X’s critics into silence,” the non-profit’s president, Angelo Carusone, said in a prepared statement.

    Advertisers have been skittish on X since Musk’s takeover more than a year ago.

    Musk has also sparked outcry this month with his own posts responding to a user who accused Jews of hating white people and professing indifference to antisemitism. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk tweeted in a reply last Wednesday.

    Musk has faced accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it last year, and the content on X has gained increased scrutiny since the war between Israel and Hamas began.

    X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the company’s “point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.”

    “I think that’s something we can and should all agree on,” she wrote on the platform last week.

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  • Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, sues Media Matters as advertisers flee over report of ads appearing next to neo-Nazi posts

    Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, sues Media Matters as advertisers flee over report of ads appearing next to neo-Nazi posts

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    Elon Musk’s social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit against liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America on Monday, saying it manufactured a report to show advertisers’ posts alongside neo-Nazi and white nationalist posts in order to “drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”

    Advertisers have been fleeing X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content — and hate speech on the site in general — while billionaire owner Musk has inflamed tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

    IBM, NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast said last week that they stopped advertising on X after the Media Matters report said their ads were appearing alongside material praising Nazis. The Media Matters report also pointed to ads from Apple and Oracle that appeared next to antisemitic material on X, and the group said it had found ads from Amazon, NBA Mexico, NBCUniversal and others next to white nationalist hashtags.

    Other major companies including Apple, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Paramount Global (the parent company of CBS) announced they were pulling advertising from the platform. It was a fresh setback as the platform tries to win back big brands and their ad dollars, X’s main source of revenue.

    But San Francisco-based X says in its complaint filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, that Media Matters “knowingly and maliciously” portrayed ads next to hateful material “as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform.”

    X’s complaint claims that Media Matters “manipulated algorithms governing the user experience on X to bypass safeguards and create images of X’s largest advertisers’ paid posts adjacent to racist, incendiary content, leaving the false impression that these pairings are anything but what they actually are: manufactured, inorganic and extraordinarily rare.”

    The filing followed Musk’s post over the weekend vowing, “The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company.”

    Media Matters, which is based in Washington, D.C., responded to the lawsuit Monday evening with a statement from its president, Angelo Carusone, saying: “This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X’s critics into silence. Media Matters stands behind its report.”

    Carusone said in an earlier statement that Media Matters will continue its work. “If he sues us, we will win,” he said.

    In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Carusone said the group’s findings suggest safety protections touted by X were failing to prevent ads from appearing next to harmful content.

    “If you search for white nationalist content, there are ads flourishing. The system they say exists is not operating as such,” he said.

    Shortly after X announced its lawsuit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released a statement saying his office would investigate Media Matters for “potentially fraudulent activity,” echoing X’s claim that the nonprofit manipulated its results.

    Advertisers have been skittish on X since Musk’s takeover more than a year ago. Under his ownership, the site dramatically cut its workforce, disbanded its Trust and Safety advisory group and did away with its user verification system. 

    In July, Musk posted that the site he paid $44 billion for had “negative cash flow” due to about a “50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.”

    Musk has also sparked outcry with his own posts, including one last week in which he responded to a user who accused Jews of “pushing … hatred against whites” by writing: “You have said the actual truth.” 

    Musk has faced accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it last year. Under his ownership, X rolled back rules that removed “violative hateful content” on the platform, the Anti-Defamation League said in a June report. According to the ADL’s analysis, 27% of online harassment in the first half of 2023 occurred on X, up from 21% in 2022. 

    X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who joined the company in May, said the company’s “point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.”

    “I think that’s something we can and should all agree on,” she wrote on the platform last week.

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  • Elon Musk Finally Files Threatened Suit Over White Supremacist Ads Placement On X/Twitter 

    Elon Musk Finally Files Threatened Suit Over White Supremacist Ads Placement On X/Twitter 

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    It wasn’t exactly the “split second” the courthouse opened this morning as promised, but Elon Musk has now filed his self-described “thermonuclear lawsuit” against Media Matters.

    “Defendant Media Matters for America is a self-proclaimed media watchdog that decided it would not let the truth get in the way of a story it wanted to publish about X Corp,” proclaimed the jury trial seeking complaint filed in federal court in Texas.  Musk and X’s three-claim disparagement suit wants a preliminary and permanent injunction against Media Matters’ report on the alleged placing of corporate ads next “Pro-Nazi Content.”

    Enraged about studies by the media watchdog that claimed X/Twitter is placing the advertising of major brands and big corporations aside such vile material, Musk lashed put with his legal threats late on November 17. More fallout from the Media Matters study saw Apple, Disney Comcast, Paramount Global, Warner Bros Discovery and others suspend their ad buys and presence on X/Twitter.

    Condemned by the White House last week for his additional amplification of antisemitic screech, Musk clearly wanted to shift the narrative. First, as more deep pocket advertisers jumped ship, the Tesla/Space X boss took to his social media platform to lash out “Many of the largest advertisers are the greatest oppressors of your right to free speech.” Then he swore to take down Media Matters and their so-called “fraudulent attack on our company” while kind of confirming the truth of their research at the same time.

    After Musk threatened late last week to unleash his lawsuit first thing Monday, Media Matters President Angelo Carusone took a swing back. “Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate,” Carusone said. “Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified. If he does sue us, we will win.” 

    Today, Carusone added: “Elon Musk has spent the last few days making meritless legal threats, elevating bizarre conspiracy theories, and lobbing vicious personal attacks against his ‘enemies’ online. Even if he does not follow through with his threat to sue, the volatility of actions reinforce why major brands are rightly skittish of partnering with X. We are going to continue our work undeterred. If he sues us, we will win.”

    Now that an actual suit has been filed, Musk will have to hand over material on the platform’s algorithms internal ad decision and more, a pulling back of the curtain that could prove to be the make-or-break in the matter.

    Coming off a weekend that also saw yet another Space X launch end in an explosion, Musk took to X/Twitter repeatedly this morning to take another pre-litigation swipe at Media Matters:

    This is not Musk’s first lawsuit against a media watchdog. 

    Last summer, X/Twitter sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate for defamation over the group’s reports on the platform’s lack of hate speech guardrails. On November 16, the group filed a motion to dismiss and an anti-SLAPP motion last week, arguing that Musk’s platform had “ginned up baseless claims” in taking issue with how CCDH gathered its data.

    “Apparently unhappy with how it is faring in the marketplace of ideas, X Corp. asks this court to shut that marketplace down—to punish the CCDH Defendants for their speech and to silence others who might speak up about X Corp. in the future,” the group’s attorneys wrote. “Thus, X Corp. seeks ‘at least tens of millions of dollars’ in damages based on how advertisers reacted to what the CCDH Defendants said about X Corp. in their public reports.”

    The erratic Musk has previously threatened legal action against other critics over the years, but didn’t follow through. In September, when the Anti-Defamation League sharply criticized X/Twitter for increasing antisemitic and other hate speech, Musk promised to sue – but never did. The South African billionaire blamed ADL for an advertising decline of 60% on the social media platform he bought for over $44 billion last year.

    Musk came up again Monday at the White House, which reiterated its criticism of his antisemitic retweet:

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    Dominic Patten

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  • Musk Strategy to Contain Anti-Semitism Fallout Is to Go ‘Thermonuclear’

    Musk Strategy to Contain Anti-Semitism Fallout Is to Go ‘Thermonuclear’

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    Elon Musk employed an aggressive strategy—including the threat of a “thermonuclear” lawsuit— to contain the fallout after his endorsement of anti-Semitic rhetoric on X that prompted an advertising backlash at the billionaire’s social media company and some on Wall Street to call for his censure.

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  • Wisconsin governor condemns neo-Nazi demonstration at state capitol

    Wisconsin governor condemns neo-Nazi demonstration at state capitol

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    Wisconsin governor condemns neo-Nazi demonstration at state capitol – CBS News


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    A group of nearly two dozen new-Nazis held a march and demonstration at the Wisconsin state capitol in Madison Saturday. In response, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers wrote that “neo-Nazis, antisemitism, and white supremacy have no home in Wisconsin.”

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  • IBM, EU, Disney and others pull ads from Elon Musk’s X as concerns about antisemitism fuel backlash

    IBM, EU, Disney and others pull ads from Elon Musk’s X as concerns about antisemitism fuel backlash

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    Advertisers are fleeing social media platform X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with billionaire owner Elon Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

    IBM, NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast said this week that they stopped advertising on X after a report said their ads were appearing alongside material praising Nazis — a fresh setback as the platform formerly known as Twitter tries to win back big brands and their ad dollars, X’s main source of revenue.

    The liberal advocacy group Media Matters said in a report Thursday that ads from Apple and Oracle also were placed next to antisemitic material on X. On Friday it said it also found ads from Amazon, NBA Mexico, NBCUniversal and others next to white nationalist hashtags.

    “IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” the company said in a statement.

    Spokespeople for Comcast and NBCUniversal confirmed on Saturday that the companies had “paused” their advertising on X but did not provide additional details on the decision. Media Matters said it found ads for NBCUniversal’s Bravo network and its brand agency Catalyst next to antisemitic or white nationalist content.

    Apple, Oracle and Amazon did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

    The European Union’s executive branch said separately Friday it was pausing advertising on X and other social media platforms, in part because of a surge in hate speech. Later in the day, Disney, Lionsgate and Paramount Global also said they were suspending or pausing advertising on X.

    Musk sparked outcry this week with his own tweets responding to a user who accused Jews of hating white people and professing indifference to antisemitism. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk tweeted in a reply Wednesday.

    Musk has faced accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it last year, and the content on X has gained increased scrutiny since the war between Israel and Hamas began.

    “We condemn this abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said Friday in response to Musk’s tweet.

    X CEO Linda Yaccarino said X’s “point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.”

    “I think that’s something we can and should all agree on,” she tweeted Thursday.

    Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal executive, was hired by Musk to rebuild ties with advertisers who fled after he took over, concerned that his easing of content restrictions was allowing hateful and toxic speech to flourish and that would harm their brands.

    “When it comes to this platform — X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop,” Yaccarino said.

    The accounts that Media Matters found posting antisemitic material will no longer be monetizable and the specific posts will be labeled “sensitive media,” according to a statement from X. Still, Musk decried Media Matters as “an evil organization.”

    The head of the Anti-Defamation League also hit back at Musk’s tweets this week, in the latest clash between the prominent Jewish civil-rights organization and the billionaire businessman.

    “At a time when antisemitism is exploding in America and surging around the world, it is indisputably dangerous to use one’s influence to validate and promote antisemitic theories,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said on X.

    Musk also tweeted this week that he was “deeply offended by ADL’s messaging and any other groups who push de facto anti-white racism or anti-Asian racism or racism of any kind.”

    The group has previously accused Musk of allowing antisemitism and hate speech to spread on the platform and amplifying the messages of neo-Nazis and white supremacists who want to ban the ADL.

    The European Commission, meanwhile, said it’s putting all of its social media ad efforts on hold because of an “alarming increase in disinformation and hate speech” on platforms in recent weeks.

    The commission, the 27-nation EU’s executive arm, said it is advising its services to “refrain from advertising at this stage on social media platforms where such content is present,” adding that the freeze doesn’t affect its official accounts on X.

    The EU has taken a tough stance with new rules to clean up social media platforms, and last month it made a formal request to X for information about its handling of hate speech, misinformation and violent terrorist content related to the Israel-Hamas war.

    X isn’t alone in dealing with problematic content since the conflict.

    On Thursday, TikTok removed the hashtag #lettertoamerica after users on the app posted sympathetic videos about Osama bin Laden’s 2002 letter justifying the terrorist attacks against Americans on 9/11 and criticizing U.S. support for Israel. The Guardian news outlet, which published the transcript of the letter that was being shared, took it down and replaced it with a statement that directed readers to a news article from 2002 that it said provided more context.

    The videos garnered widespread attention among X users critical of TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. TikTok said the letter was not a trend on its platform and blamed an X post by journalist Yashar Ali and media coverage for drawing more engagement to the hashtag.

    The short-form video app has faced criticism from Republicans and others who say the platform has been failing to protect Jewish users from harassment and pushing pro-Palestinian content to viewers.

    TikTok has aggressively pushed back, saying it’s been taking down antisemitic content and doesn’t manipulate its algorithm to take sides.

    ____

    AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this story.

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  • Hit-and-run which injured Stanford Arab-Muslim student investigated as possible hate crime

    Hit-and-run which injured Stanford Arab-Muslim student investigated as possible hate crime

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    California authorities are investigating a hit-and-run Friday afternoon which injured an Arab-Muslim student on the campus of Stanford University as a possible hate crime.

    The Stanford Department of Public Safety reports that the incident occurred just before 2 p.m. Friday.

    According to campus police, the victim told investigators that the driver made eye contact, then accelerated and struck the victim. Campus police said that as the driver was speeding away, he allegedly yelled, “f— you and your people,” the victim told investigators.

    The victim’s injuries were not life threatening, campus police said. The incident is being investigated by California Highway Patrol.

    According to campus police, the suspect was described as a White male in his mid-20s, with short dirty-blond hair, a short beard and round-framed glasses.

    His vehicle was described as a black Toyota 4Runner, model year 2015 or newer, with an exposed tire mounted on the back and a California license plate with the letters M and J.

    Campus police did not disclose if any part of the incident was captured on security or cell phone video.

    Anyone with information is asked call highway patrol at 650-779-2700.

    Stanford University Campus In California
    Stanford University in Stanford, California, on Sept. 14, 2023. 

    David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images


    Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group, has raised concerns about a rise in threats and violence against Muslim Americans, and a “spike in Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric.”  

    On Oct. 14, a 6-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and his mother wounded in a stabbing attack at their home near Chicago. Their landlord has since been indicted on murder and hate crime charges in the attack, which was condemned by President Biden. Authorities said the suspect targeted them because of their Muslim faith.

    The Anti-Defamation League reported last month that it has also documented a spike in antisemitic incidents in the U.S. since the start of the war. According to numbers compiled by the ADL, between Oct. 7 and Oct. 23, there was a 388% rise in antisemitic incidents — including harassment, vandalism and/or assault — compared to the same period in 2022.

    Earlier this week, A Cornell University junior was arrested on federal charges, accused of making violent online threats directed toward Jewish students at the school.

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  • UN forum says people of African descent still face discrimination and attacks, urges reparations

    UN forum says people of African descent still face discrimination and attacks, urges reparations

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    UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. body formed to promote respect for and protect people of African descent around the world says in its first report that they continue “to be victims of systemic racial discrimination and racialized attacks” and calls for reparations.

    The report, which was delivered to the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, says reparations are essential to rectify past injustices against people of African descent and are “a cornerstone of justice in the 21st century.”

    Epsy Campbell Barr, chair of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, said at a news conference Tuesday the report underlines that “the legacies of colonialism, enslavement and apartheid are still alive today.”

    These legacies still have a real impact on the lives of millions of people of African descent who “are more exposed to violence and death as a result of encounters with law enforcement officials,” she said. “It also makes them more exposed to health disparities” from “the profound impact that racism and racial discrimination have on both physical and mental health.”

    Campbell Barr said the report highlights that “there is an invisibility of people of African descent,” especially for vulnerable groups.

    The forum was established by a General Assembly resolution in August 2021 as a U.N. consultative body for improving the safety, quality of life and livelihoods of people of African descent. It also serves as an advisory body to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.

    The forum’s report and recommendations are based on its two initial sessions, one last December in Geneva and one May 30-June 2 in New York.

    “During the sessions of the Permanent Forum, halting and reversing the lasting consequences of enslavement, colonialism, genocide and apartheid were seen as key to addressing systemic and structural racism against people of African descent, both internationally and domestically,” the report says.

    On the issue of reparations, it recommends that all 193 U.N. member nations “educate themselves and the public on the histories and legacies of colonialism and enslavement.” It says they should recognize how they contributed to or suffered from these legacies, and eliminate all forms of racial discrimination at the local, national, regional and global levels.

    Campbell Barr, who was Costa Rica’s first vice president in 2018-2022, said the report also recommends fostering panel discussions, holding a global summit and seeking legal opinions and studies on the reparations issue.

    The forum has been invited to participate in a global conference on reparations hosted by Ghana in November, and next year it is planning to have consultations with representatives from civil society, she said.

    The idea for the forum was conceived at the start of the International Decade of People of African Descent, which began in 2014 and ends in 2024. The forum calls in the report for an extension to a second decade, through 2034.

    The 2021 assembly resolution called for the forum to consider drafting a U.N. declaration on the promotion, protection and respect for the human rights of people of African descent.

    In the report, the forum strongly supports such a declaration, saying it would fill gaps in existing human rights instruments and “be a vital tool to guarantee dignity, inclusion, equity and reparatory justice for Africans and people of African descent.”

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  • White House announces new measures to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia at U.S. universities

    White House announces new measures to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia at U.S. universities

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    White House announces new measures to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia at U.S. universities – CBS News


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    The Biden administration announced on Monday that it would send cybersecurity experts to schools after a sharp rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents amid the Israel-Hamas war. In recent days, Jewish students at Cornell University and others have expressed fear of being targeted. CBS News’ chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes has the latest.

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  • House Speaker Mike Johnson Responds to New Round of Scrutiny About Black Son

    House Speaker Mike Johnson Responds to New Round of Scrutiny About Black Son

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    Mike Johnson’s meteoric elevation from an under-the-radar congressman from Louisiana to second-in-line to the U.S. presidency sent journalists, Democrats and Republicans alike to uncover information about the personal and professional history of the most right-wing and least experienced House Speaker in history, who took the top job on Wednesday. 

    On the day Johnson was voted in, several major right-wing social media accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter, began circulating clips of an interview Johnson gave to PBS in 2020, in which he told journalist Walter Isaacson that the police killing of George Floyd was “an act of murder” and called for “systemic change.” Notably, Johnson said in the interview that he had learned about racism in America through the experience of raising a Black son, Michael. 

    Johnson said his Black son had a more difficult life than his white son “simply because of the color of his skin.” “Michael being a Black American, and Jack being white Caucasian. They have different challenges,” he said. “My son Jack has an easier path. He just does.”

    Daily Wire podcaster Matt Walsh described Johnson’s comments as a “full-fledged endorsement of the Left’s racial narrative,” while far-right anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer accused the new Speaker of being an “undercover Democrat.” Pro-DeSantis conservative influencer Pedro Gonzalez wrote that Johnson had “completely internalized left-wing racial libel about white supremacy and privilege.”

    Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall noted on Friday that there were no photos of Michael on Johnson’s House website or his Facebook page. His son also does not appear in Johnson’s official biography.

    Speculation about whether Michael was a real person prompted Johnson’s office to clarify. “When Speaker Johnson first ran for Congress in 2016, he and his wife, Kelly, spoke to their son Michael—who they took in as newlyweds when Michael was 14 years old,” said Corinne Day, Johnson’s communications director, in a statement first reported by Newsweek. “At the time of the Speaker’s election to Congress, Michael was an adult with a family of his own. He asked not to be involved in their new public life.” Day added that Johnson “maintains a close relationship with Michael to this day.”

    Day told Newsweek that the Johnson family did not formally adopt Michael because of the “lengthy … process,” and declined to say whether Michael used the same surname as the family.

    Johnson’s Black son came up in 2019, when Johnson testified before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee considering a resolution that would establish a commission to examine possible reparations proposals. In comments that drew boos from some in the hearing, Johnson said that he had asked his son about the idea of reparations for slavery, and that his son said he opposed it.

    In his first major interview after ascending to the top House job last week, Johnson appeared to downplay his previous comments about how racism affected Michael’s life. “Having raised two 14-year-old boys in America and the state of Louisiana, they had different experiences,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “And I’m not so sure it was all about skin color, but it is about culture and society. Michael, our first, came from a really troubled background and had a lot of challenges.”

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    Jack McCordick

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