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The Intercept

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“This afternoon in Marble Hill, a New Yorker was shot by an ICE agent in a residential neighborhood. Early reports indicate agents surrounded him and a 5-year-old child in his car before firing multiple rounds,” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. “We believe the child was physically unharmed.”⁠ ⁠ “ICE’s violent tactics are a clear danger to all New Yorkers, as today’s shooting in a residential neighborhood demonstrates,” said Murad Awawdeh, the head of the advocacy group New York Immigration Coalition, in a statement. “This incident is another reminder of the unchecked, rampant violence ICE has been spreading throughout our communities.”⁠ ⁠ Get the full report at theintercept.com⁠ ✍️ Noah Hurowitz by @theintercept
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7 hours ago
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Columbia University students who doxed Mahmoud Khalil and other pro-Palestinian activists on campus remained enrolled in the school despite their actions. He joined @akela_lacy on The Intercept Briefing to discuss. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. by @theintercept
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7 hours ago
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For more than 70 days, dozens of activists and an ancient cottonwood tree on the Arizona–Mexico border have successfully disrupted the construction of President Donald Trump’s ruinous $50 billion border wall. ⁠ ⁠ Since July, one protester at a time has occupied the cottonwood, or the grandmother tree, as it is locally known. After three other cottonwoods in the area were torn down by government contractors, the remaining grandmother on the U.S. side of the border became the site of a growing protest camp in the remote town of Lochiel, Arizona, and neighboring Sonora, Mexico, where organizers gathered for more than a year to oppose the border wall’s construction.⁠ ⁠ On Monday, heavily armed federal agents moved in with force. Activists on the ground estimate that 150 Border Patrol officers — many of whom masked their faces — raided the encampment during the protesters’ morning prayer ceremony. At least 10 demonstrators were arrested, and the 200-year-old cottonwood was bulldozed. ⁠ ⁠ As Arizona-based journalist John Washington reported, “agents began cutting the tree while a person was still sitting in its branches. Agents removed that person with a cherry picker and then felled the tree. Screams could be heard as ‘grandmother’ fell around 8:30 a.m.”⁠ ⁠ In the 48 hours since the early morning raid, land defenders have refused to leave and remain in an ongoing standoff with federal agents. Numerous participants told The Intercept that around 50 people are holding the line against further construction, with dozens more en route following urgent calls to support the encampment and defend the imperiled borderland ecology.⁠ ⁠ On Tuesday, another tree sitter climbed the last remaining cottonwood standing in the path of the border wall construction, this one on the Mexico side. The tree was briefly occupied by demonstrators in mid-August and, according to a press release from the land defenders, “is once again halting construction.”⁠ ⁠ Get the full story at theintercept.com⁠ ✍️ Natasha Lennard⁠ 📸 Sierra Club Borderlands by @theintercept
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16 hours ago
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An Iranian exile group colluded with university officials and a state lawmaker in Arkansas in a relentless, ultimately successful campaign to get an Iranian American professor fired, according to a new lawsuit.⁠ ⁠ Shirin Saeidi, a tenured professor of political science at the University of Arkansas was removed from her post as the director of the school’s King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies in December over social media posts critical of Israel — a move that a national free-speech group criticized in a letter to the university.⁠ ⁠ Despite a unanimous vote by a faculty committee recommending her reinstatement, Saeidi was fired from the university in March, a decision that was upheld in May after an appeal by the professor.⁠ ⁠ The firing came after a monthslong campaign by the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, an Iranian American group opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran.⁠ ⁠ The group lobbied the university with accusations that Saeidi was working on behalf of the Iranian government and allegations of plagiarism in her doctoral dissertation at Cambridge University — both of which Saeidi has strenuously denied.⁠ ⁠ “When someone tries to take everything from you, and your identity, your scholarship, your entire labor of your adult life through framing you and lying to the media — it works,” Saeidi told The Intercept. “It makes people doubt you, and this is the big issue with defamation. So it’s been shocking to experience it, but I was not surprised.”⁠ ⁠ The 15-count suit seeks to void Saeidi’s termination and award her back pay and damages. It also aims to overturn Act 721, a law signed in April 2025 by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, which allows the state to cut off public funds to any academic institution found to have allowed or failed to act against antisemitism.⁠ ⁠ Get the full story at theintercept.com⁠ ✍️ @noahbhurowitz⁠ 📸 Wesley Hitt/Getty Images by @theintercept
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a day ago
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In the spring of 2023 an Army veteran of the Afghanistan War walked into the unique Prairie-style police headquarters in Banning, California. He acknowledged, according to exclusive criminal investigation documents obtained by The Intercept, that he killed an unarmed man and wounded a woman. More than that, he said that he “needed to be held accountable for his actions.” He told CID that he had “committed a war crime.”⁠ ⁠ In April or May of 2010, that veteran said he was carrying an M4 carbine as his unit moved about 3 kilometers into the Arghandab and occupied an abandoned building at the edge of a village. When the Americans were attacked, they returned fire, killing a couple Taliban members.⁠ ⁠ The unit readied themselves, expecting the Taliban to regroup and mount another assault. The Americans intercepted a radio transmission. A translator told them that a single male militant on a motorcycle, transporting rocket-propelled grenades, was headed toward them, according to the documents. The unit’s chain of command authorized the use of force.⁠ ⁠ About 500 feet away, close to 20 Americans raised their rifles.⁠ ⁠ An M4 carbine shoots lightweight bullets at extremely high speeds. In the spring of 2010, M855 5.56-mm bullets were de rigueur for U.S. forces. Fast with low mass, the rounds produce a tremendous amount of kinetic energy. When they slam into a human body, that energy is transmitted to the soft tissue of the victim creating a “wound channel” that causes massive blood loss.⁠ ⁠ Nobody knew how many rounds hit him, but the damage to the Afghan man’s body was so extensive that he was “unidentifiable,” according to another witness. The mutilation was so devastating that the Americans were unable to even collect his “biometrics”: fingerprints, iris scans, facial images. No RPG’s were present. ⁠ ⁠ The dead man, said the veteran, wasn’t alone. There was a wounded woman, too. He told the CID agent that the “woman was crawling on the ground.” There may also have been a baby or child present as well — CID’s redactions make it impossible to know for certain. ⁠ ⁠ To read more about the coverup, visit the intercept.com⁠ ✍️ @nick_turse⁠ 📸 Kevin Frayer/AP by @theintercept
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2 days ago
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AN IRANIAN EXILE group colluded with university officials and a state lawmaker in Arkansas in a relentless, ultimately successful campaign to get an Iranian American professor fired, according to a new lawsuit. Shirin Saeidi, a tenured professor of political science at the University of Arkansas was removed from her post as the director of the school’s King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies in December over social media posts critical of Israel — a move that a national free-speech group criticized in a letter to the university. Despite a unanimous vote by a faculty committee recommending her reinstatement, Saeidi was fired from the university in March, a decision that was upheld in May after an appeal by the professor. The firing came after a monthslong campaign by the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, an Iranian American group opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The group lobbied the university with accusations that Saeidi was working on behalf of the Iranian government and allegations of plagiarism in her doctoral dissertation at Cambridge University — both of which Saeidi has strenuously denied. “When someone tries to take everything from you, and your identity, your scholarship, your entire labor of your adult life through framing you and lying to the media — it works,” Saeidi told The Intercept. “It makes people doubt you, and this is the big issue with defamation. So it’s been shocking to experience it, but I was not surprised.” The 15-count suit seeks to void Saeidi’s termination and award her back pay and damages. It also aims to overturn Act 721, a law signed in April 2025 by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, which allows the state to cut off public funds to any academic institution found to have allowed or failed to act against antisemitism. by @theintercept
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2 days ago
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Jewish Currents Live is a collective effort. We're proud to partner with these powerful organizations, publications, and communities to bring you Jewish Currents Live: a Day of Politics and Culture on October 11, 2026. Register at jewishcurrents.org/live or find the link in our bio. by @theintercept
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3 days ago
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“If they are able to deport someone for their views on Palestine, they would be able to deport anyone on their views, whether it is pro-Palestine or pro-Israel or anything.” Mahmoud Khalil joined @akela_lacy on this week’s episode of The Intercept Briefing to discuss his targeting by zionist groups & the Trump administration. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. by @theintercept
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3 days ago
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The U.S. Army announced last year that it had enough of a specific model of armored vehicle and that any more deliveries would be “excess.” But even so, Congress found a way to keep funding alive for the vehicle — and executives at the company that produces the vehicle found a way to flood key members of Congress with campaign donations.⁠ ⁠ In the weeks after this year’s appropriations bill passed, employees of AM General or its parent company donated tens of thousands to key appropriations committee members in both chambers, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif.⁠ ⁠ Collins is separately facing scrutiny over a report from ProPublica that the FBI investigated an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving a major donor, an ex-defense contractor. Collins’ office denied that there was any kind of pay-to-play arrangement and said she fully cooperated with the FBI. There is no indication that AM General’s donations were part of such a scheme, but the giving nonetheless demonstrates how Collins’s campaign account has grown with help from employees at defense contractors doing business with the government.⁠ ⁠ Before the Army put the future of the vehicle in jeopardy, Collins was not a frequent beneficiary of contributions from the company’s workers. She last received campaign funds from AM General or its parent company’s employees more than a decade ago. But after the Army’s “excess” announcement last year, employees and the company’s PAC donated over $58,000 to committees associated with Collins.⁠ ⁠ “Members of the appropriations committees in Congress are extremely powerful. These lawmakers can steer huge sums of money to private companies. Government contractors today routinely try to leverage a broken campaign finance system to their advantage,” said Michael Beckel, money in politics reform director at Issue One.⁠ ⁠ Read the full story at theintercept.com⁠ ✍️ Matt Sledge + Jorge Medellin⁠ 📸 J. Scott Applewhite/AP by @theintercept
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4 days ago
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How much does it cost to get more information about a cop who punched someone in the face? If you guessed anything lower than $2.5 million, you’d be wrong — at least according to the city of Eugene, Oregon. In August, the local news outlet @double.sided.media filed a public records request for records about police officer Justin Peckels, which focused on potential misconduct between 2018 and 2026. Peckels has been the subject of community complaints, including for punching a resident in the face during a traffic stop, making the records vital for oversight and their release clearly in the public interest. The city’s response is beyond belief. In its response to the request on Monday, the Eugene Police Department claimed searching for records and processing the request would take at least 44,816 hours of staff time and cost approximately $2,484,599.04. This goes far beyond incompetence. It’s an intentional effort to make a response artificially voluminous — and cost prohibitive — to intimidate the journalist into dropping it entirely. Double Sided Media is rightly appealing the fee estimate, and it should prevail. But cities like Eugene will continue these efforts unless lawmakers across the country force agencies to adopt fee caps, mandate public-interest fee waivers for journalists, and require agencies to procure software that allows them to respond to records requests in an efficient and timely manner. Until then, police departments will likely continue to issue multimillion-dollar ransoms for their records, weaponizing the public’s right to know into another avenue for police to operate with impunity. Comment “link” and we’ll send you the full article by FPF’s Lauren Harper in @TheIntercept 📷: Eugene Police Department via Facebook by @theintercept
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6 days ago
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The Alabama legislature passed a bill in late March requiring all state and local entities to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” The legislation does not set forth penalties for noncompliance, but its sponsor, state Rep. David Standridge, R-Hayden, called it “an opportunity to make a patriotic statement” on the House floor in January. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Trump ally, signed the bill into law. Birmingham public radio station @wbhm903 told its listeners in a letter from Will Dahlberg, the station’s executive director and general manager, that due to the law, which took effect Thursday, the @uab.edu is forcing it to use the legislature’s preferred language in its reporting. The move puts it at odds with @NPR, of which it is a member station; The Associated Press, which publishes the style guide used by newsrooms across the country; and other journalistic institutions. Just as law firms, news outlets, colleges, and others that have settled with Trump to stay in his good graces chose to cave when they could have easily fought back, the University of Alabama at Birmingham made the cowardly choice to comply in advance. If anything, its capitulation is worse, because there’s no indication that the state intended to, or could, put up a fight. It is worth noting that Ivey is an ex officio member of the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees. That same board published an annual freedom of speech report in August. It consists of a single identical paragraph, copy-pasted each year with the only change being the date and the number of “events” held on its campuses that year, concluding that “the requirements of the [free speech] Policies have been repeatedly satisfied without a single alleged violation, which further speaks to their effectiveness in appropriately achieving the Board’s objectives.” One is left to wonder if, despite pressuring WBHM to echo Trump talking points, the university will once again copy-paste that conclusion next year. Read the full article by Seth Stern, FPF chief of advocacy, and Clayton Weimers, the executive director of @RSFUSA, in @TheIntercept at the link in our profile. 📷: Aaron M. Sprecher via AP by @theintercept
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6 days ago
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Alabama's legislature passed a bill in late March requiring all state and local entities to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America."⁠ Now Birmingham's public radio station WBHM has told its listeners that due to the law, which took effect October 1, the University of Alabama at Birmingham is forcing it to use the legislature’s preferred language in its reporting. The move puts it at odds with NPR, of which it is a member station; The Associated Press, which publishes the style guide used by newsrooms across the country; and other journalistic institutions. Will Dahlberg, the station’s executive director and general manager, wrote that not implementing the new language “may result in disciplinary action or termination of employees and affect WBHM’s relationship and support from UAB.”⁠ ⁠ The station is licensed to the university, making its employees both state and UAB employees. Still, WBHM’s Journalism Code of Integrity emphasizes the newsroom’s independence and states that the university “should not — and cannot — expect to exert influence on WBHM’s journalists and its independent editorial process.”⁠ ⁠ Dahlberg also announced in the letter that he is stepping down from his position and leaving the station. His resignation was supposed to be effective October 16, but he posted an update that the university told him on Monday morning that he should pack his bags immediately. We cannot say for sure whether the university hastened Dahlberg’s departure due to his message to listeners and the criticism it generated, but the timing is certainly suspicious.⁠ ⁠ Published in partnership with the Freedom of the Press Foundation⁠ Read the full story on theintercept.com⁠ ✍️ Seth Stern + Clayton Weimers⁠ 📸 Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via Getty Images⁠ by @theintercept
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6 days ago
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