Favorite As protests against Elon Musk proliferated at Tesla dealerships, law enforcement analysts quietly warned of a threat from “violent opportunists” — and from the cars themselves. In California, intelligence analysts said opportunists might exploit peaceful gatherings “to mask criminal intentions, including vandalism, arson, or other disruptive acts.” In Nevada, analysts said that electric cars…
Favorite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the bloated Pentagon budget is a thing of the past. He has welcomed the cost-cutting efforts of Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency on social media, while making a major show of canceling $580 million in Defense Department contracts and grants. The “total cuts” to the…
Favorite Five years after Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian assured employees that the company was “not working on any projects associated with immigration enforcement at the southern border,” federal contract documents reviewed by The Intercept show that the tech giant is at the center of project to upgrade the so-called virtual wall. U.S. Customs and…
Favorite Megan Wallace had just been booked at the St. Johns County Jail in St. Augustine, Florida, when she started hearing gossip about its most notorious resident. Michelle Taylor had allegedly set fire to her own house in 2018, killing her 11-year-old son. The motive was insurance money. Everyone at the jail seemed disgusted by…
Favorite The crackdown is already happening. First, Mahmoud Khalil was snatched from his home in New York. Then, immigrants in the U.S. were targeted for their political views, and foreigners reported being denied entry at the border after having their devices searched. Even before Donald Trump was sworn in, border searches of electronics were steadily…
Favorite The ongoing conflict in Gaza has emerged as the deadliest war for journalists in modern history. Two Palestinian journalists were killed in Israeli attacks just this week, underscoring the extreme risks faced by reporters in the region. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 165 journalists have been killed since October 2023…
Favorite In partnership with This investigation, conducted by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, is part of the Gaza Project, a collaboration involving over 40 journalists from 12 organizations coordinated by Forbidden Stories. The image of Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi lying motionless on the pavement quickly spread among journalists in Gaza. His press vest is…
Favorite The American political landscape has been rattled by revelations that the Trump administration discussed plans to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen in a chat group containing a journalist from The Atlantic. Senior Trump administration officials are facing tough questions about their operational security, use of consumer technology, and even their emoji usage. So far,…
Favorite For years, U.S. officials villainized end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal as the domain of criminals and terrorists and a threat to national security. As fallout over a Signal group chat about Yemen war plans ricocheted through Washington, however, CIA Director John Ratcliffe revealed at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday that the…
Favorite Earlier this month, all of the employees at 18F, a unit of government technologists under the General Services Administration, awoke to a surprise. The entire department — which helps build, buy, and share technological products across government agencies — discovered they’d been placed on administrative leave. 18F, named after its headquarters at 18th and…
