The Intercept

The surprising and divisive mayoral campaign of right-wing reality TV star Spencer Pratt came to an end on Monday, when Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, claimed her spot on the general election ballot against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.  The second-place finish for Raman means that in the coming months, Bass will have to grapple with a challenger from her left. The incumbent mayor’s establishment bonafides at once lend her a s

A controversial insertion in the National Defense Authorization Act currently winding its way through the House would permanently intertwine U.S. and Israeli defense technology, including artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. Lawmakers and military experts told The Intercept that Section 224, named “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” is highly irregular — and closely resembles a bipartisan bill backed by the pro-Israel lobby that died in Congress earlie

Incarcerated activist Malik Muhammad’s standing client call in March with their lawyer had been canceled without any real explanation. When Muhammad’s attorney, Lauren Regan, went to check their status on the Oregon Inmate Tracker, she found nothing. They seemed to have vanished without a trace.  Friends and family feared the worst. Muhammad, an army veteran and activist serving the longest federal sentence of any 2020 Black Lives Matter protester, had been a target inside the state pris

Casey Wasserman, the entertainment super-agent, has attracted his fair share of controversy as the head of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee. In addition to passionate debates about the Olympics themselves — the geopolitics of the Games and their effect on local hosts — Wasserman has come in for criticism over his ties to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, his support for Israel, and the potential that the Games might bring him profits through his role as a talent manager fo

Anthropic’s high-profile spat with the Pentagon gave it a killer marketing advantage, burnishing its public image as a principled AI company that puts values over profits — unlike more mercenary rivals such as OpenAI or Google. But Anthropic’s double standard on authoritarianism suggests the nearly trillion-dollar firm is as calculating and ethically flexible as any of its competitors. In a recently published policy paper arguing a full-throated embrace of data center nationalism, Anthropic s

Hundreds of detained people launched a hunger and labor strike at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, over Memorial Day weekend to protest inhumane conditions at the immigration detention facility run by the for-profit company GEO Group. Protesters flocked to the scene to echo detainees’ pleas for release and better conditions — and were met with brutal tactics from federal, local, and state law enforcement officials, who beat, tear-gassed, and arrested protesters. “Detainees are raising that

As an Ebola outbreak continues to rage in Central Africa, the Trump administration keeps trying to blame the World Health Organization — revealing what experts say is a deep misunderstanding about global disease response. In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local health workers have been battling the devastating virus without adequate supplies, testing materials, or international support. The outbreak is further complicated by the rare strain of the disease, known as Bundibugyo, that

House Democrats voted unanimously on Wednesday against continuing the Iran war without congressional approval — but a day later, Democratic leaders helped defeat a similar measure aimed at Israel’s parallel war in Lebanon. The second measure failed 324-92 Thursday afternoon, a day after passage of a war powers resolution focused on Iran sent a message to the Trump administration. Ninety-one Democrats voted for the measure sponsored by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., to block U.S. support for

A supporter of Israel counterprotests as Palestine solidarity activists take part in a demonstration on Nakba Day on May 15, 2026, in New York City. Photo: Adam Gray/Getty Images As Israel’s standing in the U.S., and among liberals in particular, continues to crater, the mainstream American media is vaguely taking notice. But when they report on this increasingly potent political dynamic, national publications continue to frame it as a tension among Democratic voters — rather th

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli strike on the village of Arnoun in the southern Lebanese area of Marjayoun on June 3, 2026.  Photo: AFP via Getty Images To any reasonable person, a ceasefire is exactly what it sounds like: It is the total cessation of military attacks to end a war. But to the mainstream American media outlets covering the U.S.–Israel war with Iran, what constitutes a “ceasefire” is a rhetorical exercise. Today, Iran launched missiles at the internatio

With many votes still to be counted in California and little certainty in most of Tuesday’s closest-watched primary elections, one early pattern is taking shape: Progressive candidates for Congress across the state are failing to top their more moderate Democratic opponents.  In the race for Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat in San Francisco, the YIMBY state Sen. Scott Wiener secured a comfortable victory with more than 40 percent of the vote, according to The Associated Press, which made the ear

A former U.S. Army combat surgeon with backing from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, streamer Hasan Piker, and an anti-AIPAC super PAC won a New Jersey primary on Tuesday despite last-minute negative attacks. Adam Hamawy beat a crowded field of Democrats in the state’s 12th Congressional District. The winner of the primary is expected to coast to victory over Republican Gregg Mele in the November general election. His victory came despite a flurry of right-wing media reports that sought to t

The United States is feeding Pentagon propaganda to internet users in Latin American countries using a new AI-laden content mill, an investigation by The Intercept has found. La Tilde quietly began development early this year and appears to still be a work in progress, pitching itself as a modern media brand for Latin American audiences with articles published in both Spanish and English. Its name references the accent mark emphasizing vowels in Spanish; “news with an accent” is the site’s ca

Americans speaking out against artificial intelligence data centers on social media are falling under police surveillance, a confidential law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Intercept reveals. A fusion center in Philadelphia combed through spicy internet comments from AI critics and concluded there is a growing risk of physical violence against data centers from “domestic violent extremists,” ranging from white supremacists to anarchists. “Domestic violent extremists (DVEs) are likely

A New York state oversight board raised ethics concerns about a trip by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli to Israel that a local pro-Israel Jewish group sponsored. The revelation comes amid renewed scrutiny of DiNapoli’s spending spree on Israel Bonds, a financial instrument that directly funds the state of Israel. DiNapoli, the administrator of New York pension funds, is facing his first primary fight in 18 years as comptroller, and the branded, non-tradeable assets have become an issue in the

Kareem’s father was furious when he heard the rumors circulating in Ramallah about the sexuality of his 22-year-old son. “My dad aimed his gun towards me,” Kareem recalled, “and said that if he ever finds out that I’m gay, he would ‘rest a bullet between my eyes.’” Kareem, whose name has been changed to protect his safety, had lived in the close-knit West Bank city for years, but he’d long known he would one day need to leave. It was March 2024, and the Tel Aviv Court for Administrative

For three decades, Richard Glossip lived on concrete. First at the Oklahoma County jail, after his arrest for murder in 1997, and then in the underground bunker housing death row inmates at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. As with the rest of his surroundings, he eventually got used to the hard, unforgiving floors, although recently he’d developed painful swelling in his legs. It was only when he stepped onto the carpeted courtroom at the Oklahoma County Courthouse last June that Glossip, now

There are two democratic socialists running for mayor in Los Angeles, but many West Coast leftists are already feeling the crush of defeat.  Rae Huang and Nithya Raman have each, at varying times, been hailed as Southern California’s analogue to Zohran Mamdani. Yet when the rallies and canvassing sessions have wrapped up, leftists admit that neither has the coalition nor the talent that fueled the New York City mayor’s rise. Huang voices the platform they like; Raman has demonstrated som

Guards at a New Jersey immigrant detention center are retaliating against detainees for nonviolent protests over poor conditions, including a hunger and labor strike, according to relatives and members of Congress. Staff at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Delaney Hall Detention Facility — a Newark immigration jail operated by the private prison giant GEO Group — took steps to crack down on the strikes, including attacking immigration detainees with pepper spray and batons, transfer

Police officers stand outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022. Photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images If there’s one thing we know about the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead, it is this: The police failed to stop it. This was not for an absence of well-funded, trained officers on the scene. They were there. Rather than placing themselves potentially in harm’s way, however, the cops waited outsid