The Intercept Investgations

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How Investigators Tracked Down the D.C. Plane Crash Video Leaker

More than six months after the collision over the Potomac River that killed 67 people, there are still plenty of questions about how a U.S. Army helicopter and a passenger jet collided. Just last week, the Department of Transportation’s inspector general launched a fresh audit of how the Federal Aviation Administration manages the airspace around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

https://theintercept.com/2025/08/13/dc-plane-crash-washington-cnn-leak/?

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ICE Held an NYC Child Incommunicado at Secret Hotels, Then Deported Him

The case of a 7-year-old detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sparked indignation across New York City. The child, however, is not the first New York youth caught up in President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant dragnet. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/08/18/ice-children-hotel-detention-nyc-deported/?

Bari Weiss’s Free Press Wants You to Know Some Kids Being Starved by Israel Were Already Sick

What killed Anne Frank? 

The Nazis killed Anne Frank.

To suggest that any other cause was primary in her vastly premature death is tantamount to vile Holocaust denialism — which is why Holocaust denialists do indeed point out that Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

https://theintercept.com/2025/08/19/bari-weiss-free-press-gaza-starvation-famine/?

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The Student Newspaper Suing Marco Rubio Over Targeted Deportations

President Donald Trump has has long considered both the media and higher education as his enemies — which makes college media a ripe target. The arrest of Rümeysa Öztürk over an op-ed that she co-wrote for the Tufts University campus paper proved that student journalists are at risk, especially foreign writers who dared criticize Israel’s war on Gaza.

https://theintercept.com/2025/08/26/stanford-daily-lawsuit-international-student-deportations-visa/?

Even Former AIPAC Democrats Are Signing On to Block Arms Sales to Israel

Three House Democrats who collected thousands from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in recent election cycles have signed on to a bill that would block arms sales to Israel in the latest sign that support for the U.S. ally has become a political liability amid its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

https://theintercept.com/2025/08/27/block-bombs-israel-arms-gaza-aipac/?

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China Didn’t Want You to See This Video of Xi and Putin. So Reuters Deleted It.

Following a copyright takedown request, Reuters removed a hot mic video of Putin and Xi discussing life extension and immortality.

https://theintercept.com/2025/09/12/reuters-video-xi-putin-delete-takedown/?

Alex Karp Insists Palantir Doesn’t Spy on Americans. Here’s What He’s Not Saying.

In an exchange this week on “All-In Podcast,” Alex Karp was on the defensive. The Palantir CEO used the appearance to downplay and deny the notion that his company would engage in rights-violating in surveillance work.

https://theintercept.com/2025/09/12/palantir-spy-nsa-snowden-surveillance/?

Gaza Aid Security Contractor Hired Members of “Islamophobic Hate Group” Biker Club, Dem Rep Says

Democratic lawmakers are blasting a controversial Gaza aid group funded by the U.S. government for tapping armed members of a motorcycle club that one legislator called an “Islamophobic hate group.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/09/12/gaza-humanitarian-foundation-aid-ghf-infidels-security/?

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MIT Professor Cancels Israeli Military Grant After Student Pressure

Pro-Palestine student activists across the country have struggled to get their universities to respond to pressure for divestment from Israel and its military–industrial complex.

https://theintercept.com/2025/09/22/mit-israeli-military-funding-grant-protests/?

Who Wants to Join ICE? We Went to Utah to Find Out.

Tim is eyeing a career change. The 26-year-old has a full-time job with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Salt Lake City, but the pay isn’t enough. He recently spent a lot of money helping his husband, a Peruvian immigrant, settle in the U.S., so he’s looking for a higher salary. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/09/24/dhs-ice-recruitment-hiring-expo/?

Far-Right Demands for Informants About Charlie Kirk Comments Remind Me of Syria

Authoritarianism does not begin with prisons or torture chambers. It begins with suspicion — when loyalty is measured not by what you believe but by whom you are willing to expose. In East Germany, the Stasi turned neighbors into watchmen. In Chile under Pinochet, a whisper in a café could summon the police. In Iraq under Saddam, cousins betrayed cousins, sons betrayed fathers. And in Syria, where I grew up, even the walls were said to have ears. Everywhere, the pattern was the same: a society taught to police itself.

https://theintercept.com/2025/09/23/charlie-kirk-trump-free-speech-syria-surveillance/?

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Episode One: Dirty Business

In 2006, a 92-year-old Atlanta woman was gunned down in her own home by police during a drug raid. The police initially claimed the woman was a marijuana dealer who fired a gun at them. The story might have ended there. But an informant bravely came forward to set the record straight. Subsequent investigations and reports revealed that the police had raided the wrong home, killed an innocent woman, then planted marijuana in her basement to cover up their mistake.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/08/collateral-damage-episode-one-dirty-business/?

Prominent Palestinian Protester in Brussels Dies in Custody

Mahmoud Farajalah, a 26-year-old Palestinian living in Brussels, died after taking his life in a detention center near the Zaventem airport, sparking angry protests and a hunger strike among other detainees.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/07/mahmoud-farajalah-palestinian-protester-brussels-death/?

Jon Chait Thinks Kamala Harris Went Too Far Left. He’s Just Falling for Trump’s Demagoguery.

It was almost exactly a year ago that Jonathan Chait claimed that Kamala Harris’s moderate turn was a winning strategy. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/07/jonathan-chait-centrist-democratic-party-harris-trump/?

Black People Knew This Would Happen

Before dawn, federal agents moved on Chicago’s South Shore in camouflage uniforms with rifles drawn, the thrum of chopper rotors breaking the sky. Officially, it was a “targeted immigration enforcement operation.” In reality, it looked like a military incursion into a historic Black neighborhood — home to working families, elders, and churches that have held the South Side together for generations. By the end of the night, an entire apartment building was under siege.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/08/chicago-ice-blitz-black-surveillance-state-violence/?

Mothers in Gaza Give Life to the Next Generation of Palestinians Despite Genocide

The first bombs of the current genocide fell during Tasneem’s final weeks of pregnancy. When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, she was 25 years old, seven months pregnant, and eagerly awaiting her second child.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/06/mothers-pregnant-gaza/?

Fetterman Is Sole Democrat to Vote Against Blocking Caribbean Drug Boat Attacks

Republican Senators, with an assist from Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., voted down an attempt block the Trump administration’s missile strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boats on Wednesday, hours after a nominee to serve as the CIA’s top lawyer dodged questions from Democrats about the secret legal justification for the strikes at his confirmation hearing.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/08/venezuela-boat-strikes-senate-war-powers/?

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Zohran Mamdani Has Pushed the Liberal Consensus on Palestine. The Left Isn’t Satisfied.

As election day creeps closer in a mayoral race that New York Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani is heavily favored to win, critics to his left are voicing concerns over his flirtation with the political mainstream. Detractors have balked at Mamdani’s decision to apologize for his past criticisms of the New York Police Department, questioned whether he’s really a socialist prepared to take on corporate power, and mused that — maybe — he’s a closet Zionist. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/16/zohran-mamdani-palestine-israel-nyc-mayor-debate/?

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Teachers Scrambled After ICE Released Tear Gas Outside a Chicago Elementary School

Maria Heavener had opened the windows of her first-grade classroom to let in the unusually warm October breeze when the sound of helicopters, sirens, and a flood of notifications compelled her to slam them shut. During a raid on a nearby grocery store, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had hurled tear gas canisters into a parking lot across the street from Chicago’s Funston Elementary School, spreading a thick, choking smog toward the building while class was in session. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/19/chicago-schools-ice-national-guard-trump/?

The U.S. Isn’t Even Bothering With Its Usual Lies to Sell Its Regime Change War in Venezuela

On October 16, an unusual warning went out on Trinidadian airwaves. “Fishermen are being warned to slow down and stay close to shore amid fears of being bombed by the United States military,” the anchor on CNC3 began, “which continues its anti-narcotics operations in the Caribbean Sea.” Two Trinidadian fishermen, Chad Joseph and Richie Samaroo, had been killed in a U.S. Navy airstrike targeting their boat as they left Venezuela for Trinidad, a short 6-mile trip that Joseph had told his family about. President Donald Trump had claimed the boat was a “vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization,” without naming the drug cartel it was supposedly affiliated with, and that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics” along a known “DTO route.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/22/trump-venezuela-boat-war-justification/?

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The Absurd Prosecution of a Man Who Posted a Charlie Kirk Meme

By the time the cops showed up to arrest him for sharing a derisive meme responding to the killing of Charlie Kirk, Larry Bushart Jr. had posted on Facebook more than 100 times on Sunday alone.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/23/charlie-kirk-meme-arrest-tennessee-larry-bushart/?

This 16-Year-Old American Is Among Hundreds of Palestinian Children Jailed in Israel

On the morning of October 13, Zaher Ibrahim desperately tried to find his son among the dozens of newly freed Palestinians streaming from Red Cross buses in the occupied West Bank city of Beitunia.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/26/mohammed-ibrahim-palestinian-american-child-israel-prison/?

As Israel Bombed Gaza, Amazon Did Business With Its Bomb-Makers

Amazon sold cloud-computing services to two Israeli weapons manufacturers whose munitions helped devastate Gaza, according to internal company materials obtained by The Intercept.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/24/amazon-weapons-gaza-israel-rafael-iai/?

The Left Put Its Faith in Graham Platner. Will He Break Its Heart?

Support for the Maine Senate candidate suggests that voters are so sick of what the establishment has to offer, they might look past a Nazi tattoo.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/25/graham-platner-tattoo-fetterman-democrats/?

ps:I know I wouldn't!!

Admiral’s Mystery Retirement Amid Secret War Leaves Key Command in Turmoil

U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, is in turmoil after the announcement of the sudden retirement of the four-star Navy admiral overseeing that region where President Donald Trump is waging an undeclared war on supposed drug smugglers.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/23/military-southcom-alvin-holsey-hegseth-trump-boat-strikes/?

Trump Is Rewriting History to Justify His Sketchy Pardon of a Crypto King

After Donald Trump pardoned a billionaire crypto king on Thursday, he claimed that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was “persecuted” by Joe Biden’s Justice Department as part of what the White House called a “war on cryptocurrency.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/24/trump-pardon-crypto-binance-cz/?

DHS Is Billing Unaccompanied Immigrant Kids $5,000

The Department of Homeland Security has sent unaccompanied immigrant teenagers $5,000 fines for illegally entering the United States, according to youth advocates and fine notices reviewed by New York Focus and The Intercept.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/24/dhs-ice-immigrant-teenagers-detention-fines/?

Trump Would Rather Let Birth Control Expire Than Give It to Africans as Aid

The Trump administration is allowing a stockpile of nearly $10 million worth of contraceptives to expire in a Belgian warehouse — despite pleas from nonprofit organizations to allow them to deliver the life-saving aid intended for low-income women primarily in sub-Saharan Africa.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/24/trump-expiring-birth-control-contraceptive-africa-aid/?

Internal Report Shows the Military Always Wanted to Join the Drug War

A decade before President Donald Trump boasted of “hunting” alleged “narcoterrorists” on boats off the coast of Venezuela, the Defense Department was looking for new ways to get involved in the war on drugs.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/26/drug-war-counternarcotics-report-trump-boat-strikes/?

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The Business of Killing

Newly Released Data Reveals Air Force Suicide Crisis After Years of Concealment

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/27/air-force-suicide-deaths-maintainers/?

Her Mentor Sent Richard Glossip to Death Row. Can She Give Him a Fair Trial?

Inside her chambers at the Oklahoma County Courthouse, Judge Susan Stallings was defending her refusal to step down from the third trial of Richard Glossip when she made a startling admission to his defense attorneys.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/29/richard-glossip-judge-recusals-susan-stallings/?

Shinzo Abe Killer’s Trial Is Exposing the Christian Cult Entrenched in Japanese Politics

He has a stan culture to rival K-pop idols, a fund bankrolled by sympathizers, and has been labeled one of the “most successful assassins” in history. Beginning on Tuesday, Tetsuya Yamagami, the man who shot Japan’s longest-serving prime minister with a homemade gun, is standing trial. But in the eyes of many of his countrymen, the real defendant in the dock is Japan’s political system itself.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/29/japan-shinzo-abe-assassination-trial-unification-church-moon/?

Netanyahu Is Blowing Up the Gaza Ceasefire — and Trump Is the One Losing Face

Israeli bombs rained down once again across Gaza on Tuesday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military to “immediately carry out powerful strikes,” in the most serious challenge to the current ceasefire agreement to date. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/28/ceasefire-gaza-israel-netanyahu-bombing/?

Trump DOJ Charges House Candidate Kat Abughazaleh With Conspiracy for Protesting ICE

The Department of Justice has brought federal charges against Illinois House candidate Kat Abughazaleh and five other activists for protesting outside of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview, a suburb of Chicago.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/29/kat-abughazaleh-ice-protest-broadview-trump-doj/?

Feds Say Kat Abughazaleh “Impeded” ICE Agents. That Would Put Her on the Right Side of History.

In yet another overreaching and nakedly political prosecution, the Justice Department on Wednesday indicted Democratic Illinois congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh on federal charges for taking part in a nonviolent protest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near Chicago.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/29/kat-abughazaleh-ice-protest-indictment/?

Did TSA Rely on Controversial “Counter-Extremism” Group to Put Names on a Secret Watchlist?

Since Donald Trump returned to office nine months ago, his administration has launched high-profile investigations of universities that he believes were too slow to crack down on pro-Palestine protesters.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/27/rand-paul-tsa-watchlist-gwu-extremism-surveillance/?

Trump’s Yemen Strike Killed 61 Immigrants and No Combatants

The U.S. military attacked an immigrant detention center in Yemen earlier this year, killing and injuring dozens of Ethiopian civilians, according to a new report by Amnesty International shared with The Intercept. Conducted during the Trump administration’s campaign of air and naval strikes — codenamed Operation Rough Rider — against Yemen’s Houthi government, the strike constituted an indiscriminate attack under international humanitarian law and should be investigated as a war crime, according to Amnesty.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/28/trump-yemen-strike-civilian-deaths-rough-rider/?

An NYPD Camera Points Directly Into Their Bedroom. They’re Suing the City Over It.

On a quiet street in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, a camera owned and operated by the New York City Police Department points directly at the bedroom window of Pamela Wridt and Robert Sauve.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/28/nypd-camera-mass-surveillance-lawsuit/?

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Man Jailed for Facebook Meme Is Freed in Tennessee

More than a month after he was arrested for sharing a meme on Facebook, 61-year-old Larry Bushart Jr. walked out of the Perry County jail in Linden, Tennessee, on Wednesday, where his wife was waiting to take him home. He wore a weary smile and the same white T-shirt he had on the night he was jailed. A reporter from a local news station, which had previously splashed his mugshot on its website, approached for an interview.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/30/larry-bushart-tennessee-free-speech-charlie-kirk-meme/?

Kat Abughazaleh on the Right to Protest

Illinois congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh was charged earlier this week with federal conspiracy charges for protesting outside of Broadview ICE Processing Center last month.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/01/briefing-podcast-kat-abughazaleh-indictment-protest/?

An Obscure Military Program Helps Local Cops Buy Armored Cars and Spyware. It Might Balloon Under Trump.

Local cops have gotten tens of millions of dollars’ worth of discounted military gear under a secretive federal program that is poised to grow under recent executive action from Donald Trump, according to a new report.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/30/military-gear-police-trump-1122/?

Dark Money Drives Anti-China Crackdown Across State Legislatures

States are passing a flurry of anti-China bills that critics warn could chill free speech, create an administrative albatross for ordinary citizens, and invite politically motivated civil penalties. Though framed as efforts to curb Chinese influence, civil liberties advocates contend that the bills bear the hallmarks of modern-day McCarthyism — propelled by newly created dark-money organizations.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/31/dark-money-china-state-legislature-nebraska/?

Inside the World of Leftist Gun Nuts

When news broke that a Marine veteran running for U.S. Senate as a Democrat had taught military-style firearms courses to left-wing activists, many reacted in disbelief. Reddit posts revealed that Graham Platner — who’s running to try to flip the seat long held by Republican Susan Collins — not only joined the Socialist Rifle Association but even taught a “defensive handgun course” for its members. A socialist-leaning gun club training with AR-15s, and a Democrat involved, might seem downright scandalous. But as an owner of one of America’s big scary black rifles, living in the most armed developed nation in the world, with a track record of targeted right wing domestic violence, I was more surprised that anyone was surprised at all. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/01/left-gun-ownership/?

From Trump, With Impunity

Jonah Valdez and Matt Sledge discuss the latest on the Gaza “ceasefire,” an eyebrow-raising crypto pardon, and more published on The Intercept this week.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/31/briefing-podcast-gaza-ceasefire-trump-binance-crypto/?

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Zohran Mamdani Beats Andrew Cuomo in Victory for the Left in NYC Mayoral Race

Zohran Mamdani Won the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday night, becoming the first Muslim elected mayor in the city’s history in a race that garnered national attention as a test for the future of the Democratic Party.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/04/nyc-mayor-election-results-zohran-mamdani-cuomo/?

They Tried to Smear Zohran Mamdani as an Antisemite. Voters Saw Right Through It.

On Friday night, early votes had already been cast in their many thousands for Mayor-elect of New York City Zohran Mamdani. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, who leads the prominent Central Synagogue in Manhattan, took the occasion to slander the democratic socialist candidate, purportedly in the name of Jewish New Yorkers.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/04/zohran-mamdani-antisemitism-islamophobic-israel/?

YouTube Quietly Erased More Than 700 Videos Documenting Israeli Human Rights Violations

A documentary featuring mothers surviving Israel’s genocide in Gaza. A video investigation uncovering Israel’s role in the killing of a Palestinian American journalist. Another video revealing Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/04/youtube-google-israel-palestine-human-rights-censorship/?

Are You on Trump’s List of Domestic Terrorists? There’s No Way to Know.

The U.S. government has long maintained lists of terrorist organizations. Groups classified as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” or “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” have been hit with financial penalties, immigration restrictions, or other sanctions. Groups on the FTO list, such as Al Qaeda and ISIS, have been targeted with lethal strikes.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/04/trump-terrorist-list-nspm7-enemies/?

A Journalist Asked Why Israel Isn’t Paying to Rebuild Gaza. It Cost Him His Job.

An Italian journalist who asked a European Commission official why Israel shouldn’t pay for the reconstruction of Gaza was let go by his news agency.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/04/journalist-israel-gaza-nova-gabriele-nunziati/?

Zohran Mamdani Avoided Campaigning Against the Police. Will They Work With Him?

Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday night, ushering in a rare moment of optimism for progressives seeking to push the Democratic Party left and New Yorkers hoping he’ll make the city more affordable.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/05/zohran-mamdani-mayor-police-reform-nypd/?

Dick Cheney Doesn’t Deserve Your Heartfelt Eulogies

Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s death on Monday could be the perfect opportunity for media institutions in the U.S. to take a sober look at the George W. Bush era — but it’s more likely they’ll fire up the nostalgia machine than confront reality. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/04/dick-cheney-death-iraq-war/?

Local Cops Aren’t Allowed to Help ICE. Did the Feds Dupe Them Into Raids That Rounded Up Immigrants?

For the first half of the summer, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement field office in Medford, Oregon, remained relatively quiet. It was out of the way, tucked up against the regional airport and next to a preschool and an undeveloped lot. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/03/ice-oregon-sanctuary-cannabis-farm-dea/?

From Gaza to Sudan: “Their Pain Is Ours”

In Gaza, we are used to waking up to the sounds of explosions, counting the days between meals, and cycling constantly between fear and hope. We thought our pain was unlike any other in the world until we saw Sudan burning under the same silence. There, as here, people die from hunger and under rubble, cameras and lenses absent, as if pain in the Global South is not meant to be heard in the North.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/03/sudan-gaza-war-displacement-solidarity/?

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Judge Failed to Disclose Personal Ties to Prosecutor in Two Death Row Cases

From her perch on the witness stand, 81-year-old Fern Smith cast a flinty stare at the defense attorney standing before her. Once a veteran prosecutor at the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office, she wore a black chiffon scarf, gold earrings, and an obstinate air, her gray hair pulled back in a tight bun. She did not look at Richard Glossip, sitting across the Oklahoma City courtroom alongside his lawyers. Smith had last seen him more than two decades earlier, not long after convincing a jury to sentence him to die.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/12/richard-glossip-tremane-wood-susan-stallings-judge-recusal/?

Human Rights Campaign Rejects Weapons Company Sponsorships After Pressure Around Israel Genocide

Following years of organizing by LGBTQ+ activists, advocates for queer rights and Palestinian solidarity announced Tuesday that the Human Rights Campaign, one of the largest LGBTQ+ organizations in the world, has stopped taking cash from manufacturers Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, according to the statement from the Gender Liberation Movement and Adalah Justice Project. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/11/human-rights-campaign-weapons-israel-genocide/?

Lawmaker Challenges ICE Plan to Hire Bounty Hunters

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., says he has “grave concerns” over a plan by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to award monetary bonuses to private bounty hunters, according to a letter reviewed by The Intercept.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/10/ice-bounty-hunters-immigrants/?

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Epstein Gave NY Times Journalist Tips About Trump. Why Did They Never Get Reported?

The trove of documents from a House investigation dumped online Wednesday reveals explosive new details about how the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein wielded influence with prominent and powerful people across the political spectrum.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/14/epstein-new-york-times-trump/?

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You Will Never Send Money Digitally Without a Private Company — If the GOP Gets Its Way

Americans who want to transfer money online have options. They can go with services like Venmo and PayPal, make transfers from their personal bank, or do a transaction with stablecoins issued by cryptocurrency companies.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/17/money-transfer-cbdc-digital-currency/?

How California Spent Natural Disaster Funds to Quell Student Protests for Palestine

Cal Poly Humboldt students had been occupying a campus building in solidarity with Palestine for three days when then-university President Tom Jackson decided to bring the demonstration to an end. But he didn’t think the university could break the occupation, some two dozen members strong, on its own. In an email to the sheriff of the Humboldt Police Department on April 25, 2024, Jackson asked to tap a pool of policing cash clothed in the language of anarchist solidarity: the “law enforcement mutual aid system.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/19/cal-poly-humboldt-university-palestine-wildfire-funds/?

How Many People Has the U.S. Killed in Boat Strikes?

Since September, the Trump administration has conducted an undeclared war in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing scores of civilians. The Intercept is chronicling all publicly declared U.S. attacks and providing a tracker with information on each strike.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/17/trump-boat-strikes-death-toll-caribbean-pacific/?

Everyone Wants to Ban Congressional Stock Trades, but Some Supporters Worry Mike Johnson Is Stalling

On paper, the idea of banning congressional stock trades has all the ingredients for success: supermajority support in polls, bipartisan sponsors, and public backing from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/19/stock-trade-ban-cogress-mike-johnson/?

War in Venezuela, Brought to You By the Same People Who Lied Us Into Iraq

The United States is amassing power off Venezuela’s coast. Warships, Marine detachments, and surveillance aircraft are flowing into the Caribbean under the banner of “counter-narcotics operations.” Military officials have presented Donald Trump with various game plans for potential operations. The U.S. president is openly tying Nicolás Maduro to narco-terror networks and cartel structures, while dangling both “talks” and threatening the use of military force in the same breath. It’s all pushing toward the culmination of crowning Maduro and his government America’s next top “terrorists” — the magic movie-script label that means the bombs can start heating up.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/18/venezuela-iraq-war-new-york-times/?

Don’t Let Larry Summers Back Into Polite Society

Larry Summers is the archetype of the technocratic Democratic insider. A prodigy whose abilities in the academy propelled him to powerful roles in government, he has for decades enjoyed close relationships with nearly every important figure in left-of-center politics, including advising former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and (in an informal role) Joe Biden. His CV gives the impression of the sort of shrewd politico who might broker an epic compromise to save the day in an episode of “The West Wing.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/18/larry-summers-jeffrey-epstein-emails/?

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The Feds Want to Make It Illegal to Even Possess an Anarchist Zine

Federal prosecutors have filed a new indictment in response to a July 4 noise demonstration outside the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, during which a police officer was shot.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/23/prairieland-ice-antifa-zines-criminalize-protest-journalism/?

Nydia Velázquez Hears Calls for Generational Change, Setting Up a Fight on the Left in New York

Rep. Nydia Velázquez knew it was time to retire when Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/22/new-york-democrats-nydia-velazquez-retire/?

How Universities Used Counterterror Intelligence-Sharing Hubs to Surveil Pro-Palestine Students

From a statewide counterterrorism surveillance and intelligence-sharing hub in Ohio, a warning went out to administrators at the Ohio State University: “Currently, we are aware of a demonstration that is planned to take place at Ohio State University this evening (4/25/2024) at 1700 hours. Please see the attached flyers. It is possible that similar events will occur on campuses across Ohio in the coming days.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/21/fusion-centers-gaza-student-protests-surveillance/?

AIPAC Donors Back Real Estate Tycoon Who Opposed Gaza Ceasefire for Deep-Blue Chicago Seat

Pro-Israel donors have picked a candidate to replace Rep. Danny Davis in Chicago.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/22/chicago-congress-aipac-jason-friedman/?

Wyden Blasts Kristi Noem for Abusing Subpoena Power to Unmask ICE Watcher

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is calling on the Department of Homeland Security to cease what he describes as an illegal abuse of customs law to reveal the identities of social media accounts tracking the activity of ICE agents, according to a letter shared with The Intercept.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/21/wyden-noem-dhs-customs-unmask-social-media/?

Abdul El-Sayed Wants to Be the First Pro-Palestine Senator From Michigan

Abdul El-Sayed didn’t want to talk about his opponents. Running for Senate in the swing state of Michigan, he’s been pitching his progressive agenda against the familiar antagonist Democrats have in Donald Trump — not against the other two viable candidates competing to become his party’s nominee.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/20/abdul-el-sayed-michigan-senate-israel-gaza/?

The FBI Wants AI Surveillance Drones With Facial Recognition

The FBI is looking for ways to incorporate artificial intelligence into drones, according to federal procurement documents.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/21/fbi-ai-surveillance-drones-facial-recognition/?

Robert Reich Thinks Democrats Are On the Brink of a New Era

The Labor Department reported September jobs numbers on Thursday, showing employers added 119,000 jobs to the economy but also an increase in unemployment to 4.4 percent. “The September report shows fairly good job growth, but every other report we have for October shows a slowdown,” says Robert Reich, the former secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/21/briefing-podcast-robert-reich/?

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Newly Unveiled Photos of MLK Jr. Show Depth of NYPD’s Surveillance

At first glance, the photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his entourage outside New York’s City Hall suggest nothing other than a joyous public celebration. Taken on December 17, 1964, just one week after the civil rights leader had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. is seen formally receiving King as though he were a visiting head of state. Later that day, Wagner awarded the city’s Medallion of Honor to King, praising him as “a great American who has returned home after a great triumph abroad.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/29/mlk-nypd-surveillance-photos/?

Elon Musk’s Anti-Woke Wikipedia Is Calling Hitler “The Führer”

In late October, Elon Musk released a Wikipedia alternative, with pages written by his AI chatbot Grok. Unlike its nearly quarter-century-old namesake, Musk said Grokipedia would strip out the “woke” from Wikipedia, which he previously described as an “extension of legacy media propaganda.” But while Musk’s Grokipedia, in his eyes, is propaganda-free, it seems to have a proclivity toward right-wing hagiography.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/26/grok-elon-musk-grokipedia-hitler/?

This Commission That Regulates Crypto Could Be Just One Guy: An Industry Lawyer

Republicans in the Senate are racing to confirm a lawyer with a long list of crypto industry clients as the next Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair, a position that will hold wide sway over the industry.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/26/trump-crypto-regulation-cftc-mike-selig/?

How Corporate Partnerships Powered University Surveillance of Palestine Protests

A cluster of tents had sprung up on the University of Houston’s central lawn. Draped in keffiyehs and surrounded by a barricade of plywood pallets, students stood on a blue tarp spread over the grass. Tensions with administrators were already high before students pitched their tents, with incidents like pro-Palestine chalk messages putting university leaders on high alert.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/24/gaza-student-protests-surveillance-uconn-houston/?

 

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Border Patrol Raided Arizona Medical Aid Site With No Warrant, Showing Growing “Impunity”

U.S. Border Patrol agents raided a humanitarian aid station in the Arizona desert late last month, taking three people into custody and breaking into a trailer without a warrant.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/02/border-patrol-raid-no-more-deaths-arizona/?

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A Journalist Reported From Palestine. YouTube Deleted His Account Claiming He’s an Iranian Agent.

In February 2024, without warning, YouTube deleted the account of independent British journalist Robert Inlakesh.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/07/youtube-deleted-journalist-israel-palestine-censorship/?

Boat Strike Survivors Clung to Wreckage for Some 45 Minutes Before U.S. Military Killed Them

Two survivors clung to the wreckage of a vessel attacked by the U.S. military for roughly 45 minutes before a second strike killed them on September 2. After about three quarters of an hour, Adm. Frank Bradley, then head of Joint Special Operations Command, ordered a follow-up strike — first reported by The Intercept in September — that killed the shipwrecked men, according to three government sources and a senior lawmaker.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/05/boat-strike-survivors-double-tap/?

CE Denies Pepper-Spraying Rep. Adelita Grijalva in Incident Caught on Video

Federal immigration agents pepper-sprayed and shot crowd suppression munitions at newly sworn-in Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva during a confrontation with protesters in Tucson on Friday.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/05/adelita-grijalva-pepper-spray-ice-protest/?

“I’m Not Fleeing” — Alleged Antifa Cell Member Says He Was Accidentally Released From Jail

For five months, Daniel Sanchez Estrada was the prisoner of a government that has branded him an “Antifa Cell operative.” He was accused of moving a box of anarchist zines from one suburb of Dallas to another after a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/04/antifa-zines-accidental-release-texas-ice-protest/?

Video of U.S. Military Killing Boat Strike Survivors Is Horrifying, Lawmakers Reveal

Lawmakers who saw a video of a U.S. attack on wounded and helpless people clinging to the wreckage of a supposed drug boat on September 2 described the footage as deeply disturbing.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/04/boat-strike-survivors-video/?

She Lost Her Job for Speaking Out About Gaza. Can It Power Her to Congress?

Attorney Melat Kiros lost her job in 2023 after she wrote a post on Medium criticizing law firms, including her own, for opposing pro-Palestine protests and “chilling future lawyers’ employment prospects for criticism of the Israeli government’s actions and its legitimacy.” Now, she’s running for Congress to replace a nearly three-decade incumbent in Denver and calling to end U.S. military aid to Israel.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/04/denver-primary-melat-kiros-diana-degette-justice-democrats/?

Pentagon Claims It “Absolutely” Knows Who It Killed in Boat Strikes. Prove It, Lawmaker Says.

After Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson declared the War Department was certain about the identities of supposed drug smugglers killed in boat strikes, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., had some questions about the intelligence. When Houlahan called on Wilson to appear before Congress, however, the outspoken and controversial spokesperson suddenly went silent.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/04/boat-strikes-evidence-hegseth/?

Israel Revoked Palestinians’ Work Permits — Then Launched a Deadly Crackdown on Laborers

For many years, Arafat Qaddous worked construction jobs in Israel.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/04/israel-palestinians-work-permits-laborers/?

U.S. Citizens With Somali Roots Are Carrying Their Passports Amid Minnesota ICE Crackdown

As dozens of agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surged into Minnesota’s Twin Cities this week as part of a federal crackdown targeting the Somali diaspora, it struck fear in the hearts of community members.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/06/trump-ice-minnesota-somali/?

Luigi, a Year Later: How to Build a Movement Against Parasitic Health Insurance Giants

Luigi Mangione’s legal defense fund has swelled to more than $1.3 million and is still growing daily. As the December 4 Legal Committee, we created that fund — but it would mean nothing without the donations, prayers, and support of people from around the world. As corporate social media platforms censored support for Luigi, the fundraiser page became a place for people to share stories of senseless death and suffering at the hands of the for-profit health insurance industry in this country.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/04/luigi-mangione-health-care-insurance-costs/?

Lethal Illusion: Understanding the Death Penalty Apparatus

As of December 1, officials across the U.S. have executed 44 people in 11 states, making 2025 one of the deadliest years for state-sanctioned executions in recent history. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, three more people are scheduled for execution before the new year.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/05/malcolm-gladwell-liliana-segura-death-penalty-lethal-injection/?

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AIPAC Spent Millions to Keep Her Out of Congress. Now, She Sees an Opening.

A progressive North Carolina official who lost her 2022 congressional race after the pro-Israel lobby spent almost $2.5 million against her sees a fresh opening this midterm cycle, as a public disturbed by the genocide in Gaza has turned pro-Israel spending into an increasing liability.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/11/aipac-valerie-foushee-nida-allam-nc/?

Lawmakers Pave the Way to Billions in Handouts for Weapons Makers That the Pentagon Itself Opposed

For the better part of a century, there was one thing even the U.S. government would not do to pad the profits of defense contractors.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/12/pentagon-defense-contractors-budget-interest-payments/?

The Brand-New Pentagon Press Corps Is Gaga for Hegseth

The welcome was so warm it could’ve been the first day of school for a new class of kindergarteners, and with the so-called reporters’ level of skepticism for the administration, they might as well have been.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/13/hegseth-new-pentagon-press-reporters/?

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StopAntisemitism Takes Credit for Getting Hundreds Fired. A Music Teacher Is Suing.

When Oregon music teacher Susan Lewis logged onto a Zoom meeting with her boss one afternoon in August 2024, she thought she would be preparing for a sixth year teaching at Valley Catholic School. Instead, she lost her job.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/20/stopantisemitism-israel-blacklist-teacher-job-firings/?

Secretive Georgia Clemency Board Suspends Execution After Its Conflicts of Interest Are Exposed

On the same day the state of Georgia issued a death warrant for Stacey Ian Humphreys, setting his execution for December 17, Gov. Brian Kemp announced his latest appointment to the Board of Pardons and Parole, the five-member body that would ultimately decide whether Humphreys would live or die.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/18/georgia-clemency-board-stacey-humphreys-execution/?

Anti-Palestinian Billionaires Can Now Control What TikTok Users See

The TikTok deal announced on Thursday poses a fundamental threat to free and honest discourse about Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Under the reported deal, the Chinese company that owns the short-video social media app, ByteDance, will transfer control of TikTok’s algorithm and other U.S. operations to a new consortium of investors led by the U.S. technology company Oracle. The long-gestating deal will give Oracle’s billionaire pro-Trump board members Larry Ellison and Safra Catz the power to impose their anti-Palestinian agenda over the content that TikTok users see.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/21/tiktok-ellison-oracle-israel-gaza/?

NY Times’ David Brooks Said There’s Too Much Focus on Jeffrey Epstein. Here He Is Hanging With Epstein.

In November, in the wake of the release of tens of thousands of new documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, New York Times columnist David Brooks announced his intention to sit this one out.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/18/david-brooks-jeffrey-epstein-photos/?

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10 Companies Have Already Made $1 Million as ICE Bounty Hunters. We Found Them.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has already hired 10 contractors to carry out its immigrant bounty hunting program, according to records reviewed by The Intercept. The firms included companies that had previous deals with spy agencies and the military, private investigators that boast of their physical surveillance skills, and a private prison giant.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/23/ice-bounty-hunters-track-immigrant-surveillance/?

Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Rebranding for the Post-MAGA Era. Centrists Are Falling for It.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the three-term Georgia representative, is leaving office in January, a decision that comes after a year of mounting tensions between her and President Donald Trump. The right-wing superstar has watched Trump’s popularity wane and has distanced herself from him and his administration. It appears she’s angling for something bigger than Congress — but what that is remains to be seen.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/23/marjorie-taylor-greene-trump-maga-2028/?

Anti-Palestinian Billionaires Can Now Control What TikTok Users See

The TikTok deal announced on Thursday poses a fundamental threat to free and honest discourse about Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Under the reported deal, the Chinese company that owns the short-video social media app, ByteDance, will transfer control of TikTok’s algorithm and other U.S. operations to a new consortium of investors led by the U.S. technology company Oracle. The long-gestating deal will give Oracle’s billionaire pro-Trump board members Larry Ellison and Safra Catz the power to impose their anti-Palestinian agenda over the content that TikTok users see.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/21/tiktok-ellison-oracle-israel-gaza/?

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Dan Goldman Supported Warrantless Spying on Americans. Now His Primary Opponent Is Hitting Him for It.

The House was debating a powerful National Security Agency spying program when Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., rose to side against privacy hawks.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/28/fisa-warrant-surveillance-dan-goldman-primary/?

My Quest to Make the Pentagon Care About the Crimes It Covered Up

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth took the unusual step last month of threatening to recall Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., to active duty to possibly face court-martial, after the retired Navy captain reminded service members in a social media video that it is their duty to disobey illegal orders. President Donald Trump suggested Kelly ought to be killed for his viral video, then seemed to call for him to be imprisoned.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/27/pete-hegseth-mark-kelly-investigation-vietnam/?

These Apps Let You Bet on Deportations and Famine. Mainstream Media Is Eating It Up.

How many people will the Trump administration deport this year? Will Gaza suffer from mass famine? These are serious questions with lives at stake.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/29/polymarket-kalshi-betting-prediction-cnn-news-media/?

CIA Was Behind Venezuela Drone Strike, Source Says

The CIA conducted the first known U.S. attack on Venezuelan territory when it carried out a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela last week, a government official familiar with the operation told The Intercept. The strike marks a new escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign against President Nicolás Maduro’s government, which has included dozens of attacks on supposed drug smuggling boats. A separate U.S. strike on Monday killed two alleged “narco-terrorists” in the Pacific Ocean.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/30/cia-venezuela-drone-strike-dock-tren-de-aragua/?

Prosecutor Floating Death Penalty for Nick Reiner Knows It’s an Empty Threat

The headlines came fast and furious: Nick Reiner, 32, could face the death penalty for murdering his own parents, beloved Hollywood couple Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/24/nick-reiner-death-penalty-nathan-hochman-la/?

AIPAC Is Retreating From Endorsements and Election Spending. It Won’t Give Up Its Influence.

The pro-Israel lobby is confronting a growing problem.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/30/aipac-campaigns-elections-israel-congress/?

International Pressure Was Building to Hold Israel Accountable. What Happened?

In September, the European Union seemed poised to suspend trade agreements with Israel over its human rights violations in Gaza. In the United States, a record number of Democratic lawmakers began to support calls to limit weapons transfers to Israel. In Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government issued a ban in August on sending weapons to Israel that could be used in Gaza, with Merz saying he was “profoundly concerned” for “the continued suffering of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/24/gaza-israel-palestine-ceasefire/?

Cop Group Alleges “Discrimination” by Prosecutor for Being Too Nice to Immigrants

A pro-police group is reportedly planning to ask the Department of Justice to investigate an elected prosecutor over allegations that he’s been lenient toward undocumented immigrants.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/26/steve-descano-immigrants-justice-department/?

Reuniting With Family in Gaza During the Break Between Bombings

From the very beginning of the genocide, I barely left my room. Three waves of displacement defined my movements: the first, on October 17, 2023, took me to my sister Doaa’s house in Khan Younis for nearly a month and a half. The second led me to my other sister Tasneem’s home in Al-Zawayda for about a week. The third displacement brought me to Rafah, where I stayed from December 31, 2023, until May 6, 2024.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/25/gaza-ceasefire-family-friends-reunions/?

The Feds Keep Prosecuting Protesters Against ICE — and Losing

The Trump administration is on a losing streak against some of its loudest critics, as federal cases targeting opponents of aggressive immigration enforcement fall apart in courts nationwide.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/31/trump-ice-protests-tow-truck-los-angeles/?

Kat Abughazaleh Thinks Campaign Funds Should Help Feed People

Nearly $7 billion couldn’t keep President Donald Trump from returning to the White House and Republicans from controlling the House and Senate.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/26/kat-abughazaleh-mutual-aid-campaign-illinois/?

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Israel Accuses Zohran Mamdani of Antisemitism for Reversing Orders Adams Gave Under Indictment

The Israeli government and its allies are coming for the new mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, over his decision to erase much of former Mayor Eric Adams’s tumultuous swan song, including two executive orders related to Israel.

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/02/israel-zohran-mamdani-antisemitic-antisemitism/?

It’s 2026. Why Is Richard Glossip Still in Jail?

Richard Glossip woke up on Christmas morning at the Oklahoma County Detention Center, a 13-story, red-brick tower in downtown Oklahoma City. He did a video visit with his wife Lea, then talked to her on the phone as he was served his dinner tray — a bit of turkey and some instant mashed potatoes.

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/01/richard-glossip-oklahoma-jail-new-trial-supreme-court/?

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Video Shows ICE Agent’s Fatal Shooting of Civilian in Minneapolis

The Intercept obtained video of a federal law enforcement agent shooting multiple rounds into the vehicle of a civilian, as locals protested an ICE raid in a residential neighborhood of Minneapolis on Wednesday morning. 

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/07/video-ice-shooting-civilian-minneapolis/?

This Isn’t the First Killing by ICE — and It Won’t Be the Last

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Video and eyewitness testimonies have already circulated widely. There can be little doubt that this was a cold-blooded killing, for which there is no justification.

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/07/ice-mineapolis-shooting-death/?

Chicago Woman Shot by Border Patrol Reacts to Minneapolis ICE Killing: “Of Course This Happened”

In October, a Border Patrol agent shot a U.S. citizen accused of hitting his vehicle while trailing an immigration operation in Chicago. The Border Patrol agent then took to a work group chat to react to the news that he was being deployed to another city.

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/07/chicago-shooting-ice-killing-minneapolis/?

The U.S. Is Leaving Boat Strike Survivors to Drown

The United States left the survivors of a recent boat strike to die at sea, formally abandoning search efforts Friday.

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/07/boat-strikes-survivors/?

Three Cheers for Hilton Hotel Workers Who Banned ICE — Until Their Corporate Bosses Stomped Them Out

“NO ROOM AT THE INN!” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted on its official X account on Monday. “HiltonHotels has launched a coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to REFUSE service to DHS law enforcement. When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations.”

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/06/hilton-ban-ice-minneapolis-workers/?