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Meta Bought Rivals Instagram, WhatsApp Instead of Competing: FTC Trial Attorney (Maria)
The author writes, “Facebook parent Meta Platforms bought up nascent rivals Instagram and WhatsApp after its attempts to compete failed, an attorney for the U.S. Federal Trade commission said at the beginning of a high-stakes trial in Washington on Monday, in an effort to unwind the deals. FTC attorney Daniel Matheson said that the unlawful strategy ‘established entry barriers that for more than a decade protected Meta’s dominance. Consumers do not have reasonable alternatives they can turn to.’”
This Is Not About Antisemitism, Palestine, or Columbia. It’s Trump Dismantling the American Dream. (Laura)
From The Intercept: “The chaos unfurling at Columbia is no longer about Palestine, Israel, or divestment. And insofar as it ever was, the administration’s ever-tightening grip on Columbia is not about antisemitism — and it is not at Harvard University, where the specter of antisemitism is being used to threaten funding there just as it was at Columbia. It is about freedom of speech, immigration policy, constitutional equality, police, and control over people’s lives. The crackdown is a declaration about upward mobility and dictating what ‘opportunity’ looks like for different people.”
Seattle Federal Judge Again Orders Trump to Allow Refugees Into US (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “A federal judge in Seattle ruled Friday the Trump administration must take tangible steps to comply with an order to admit refugees who were approved for resettlement before Inauguration Day. U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead granted a preliminary injunction in February, ordering the Trump administration to resume bringing refugees into the U.S. if they were conditionally approved before Jan. 20. The Trump administration has withheld funding for resettlement agencies and stopped admissions. On April 2, the administration sent letters reinstating agreements with resettlement agencies, as ordered, ‘only to perform a bait and switch by immediately suspending those agreements,’ according to the International Refugee Assistance Project, a legal advocacy organization suing the federal government.”
Who’s In and Who’s Out at the Naval Academy’s Library? (Dana)
From The New York Times: “Gone is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou’s transformative best-selling 1970 memoir chronicling her struggles with racism and trauma. Two copies of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler are still on the shelves. Gone is Memorializing the Holocaust, Janet Jacobs’s 2010 examination of how female victims of the Holocaust have been portrayed and remembered. The Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail is still on the shelves. The 1973 novel, which envisions a takeover of the Western world by immigrants from developing countries, has been embraced by white supremacists and promoted by Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser. The Bell Curve, which argues that Black men and women are genetically less intelligent than white people, is still there. But a critique of the book was pulled.”
Coal Miners’ Health Care Hit Hard in Job Cuts to CDC (Mili)
The author writes, “[Sam] Petsonk’s whole law practice in Oak Hill, W.Va., exclusively represents coal miners. He often takes cases of people sickened on the job, and he relies on the records gathered by the respiratory health unit of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that runs the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program. It offers, essentially, a very unique kind of guaranteed workplace healthcare: By law, it gives every miner in the country — roughly 50,000 — access to care for free. The 25 people working in that unit were put on immediate administrative leave on April 1; they are out of their jobs, along with about 10,000 other federal health workers later this spring.”
The Composer Still Making Music Four Years After His Death — Thanks to an Artificial Brain (Sean)
From The Guardian: “In Australia, a team of artists and scientists have resurrected the US composer Alvin Lucier. It raises a storm of questions about AI and authorship — and it’s also incredibly beautiful.”
