The Intercept Briefing

This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Jordan Uhl talks with journalists Taylor Lorenz and Akela Lacy about how online disinformation is distorting public understanding of major events — from political violence to immigration to potential war with Iran. In this chaos-driven ecosystem, the right — and Trump especially — know how to thrive. Listen to the full episode of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the wake of the political assassination of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, prominent right-wing figures moved quickly to assign blame. Utah Sen. Mike Lee pinned the killings on “Marxism.” Elon Musk pointed to the “far left.” Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, said it “seems to be a leftist.” But the facts quickly told a different story: The suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter is a Trump supporter who held radical anti-abortion views. “There's an entire right-wing media machine aimed at pushing disinformation around breaking news events and specifically attributing violence to the left,” says Taylor Lorenz, independent journalist and author of “Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet.” “You see this over and over and over again, no matter who is perpetrating the violence.” “The reality is that the vast overwhelming majority of political violence in recent years has come from the right,” adds Akela Lacy, The Intercept’s senior politics reporter. “It basically treats that fact as if it's not real, as if it doesn't exist,” she says — a dynamic that then fails to address the root causes. This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Jordan Uhl talks with Lorenz and Lacy about how online disinformation is distorting public understanding of major events — from political violence to immigration to potential war with Iran. In this chaos-driven ecosystem, the right — and Trump especially — know how to thrive. You can hear the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. You can support our work at theintercept.com/join. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ICE agents are arresting day laborers and raiding businesses across the country. They didn’t expect community resistance. This week on The Intercept Briefing, Salvador Sarmiento, the campaign director and lawyer for the 70-member National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and Jonah Valdez, reporter for The Intercept joined host Jordan Uhl to discuss the wave of ICE operations sweeping Los Angeles that have sparked a week of protests and the militarized response from law enforcement. Attorney Isabella Salomão Nascimento also talks to us about our First Amendment right to protest. You can hear the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across the country, demonstrators are preparing for a weekend of protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, Donald Trump's planned June 14 military parade, and Trump himself. Ground zero for these demonstrations is likely to be Los Angeles, where heavily armed ICE agents have carried out raids at churches, graduations, parking lots, and scores of other gathering spots recently. “ The level of armament that these guys are wearing is out of a GI Joe movie,” said Salvador G. Sarmiento, the campaign director and lawyer for the 70-member National Day Laborer Organizing Network. “It seems like the federal police is just driving around willy-nilly — dressed up as a goon squad — picking up people that they see on a street corner.” “The federal government [is] violently taking people from their work sites in military fashion,” added Jonah Valdez, reporter for The Intercept. This week on The Intercept Briefing, Sarmiento and Valdez joined host Jordan Uhl to discuss the wave of ICE operations sweeping Los Angeles that have sparked a week of protests and the militarized response from law enforcement. As people head to the streets again this weekend, protesters should be informed about their constitutional rights and safety options. The episode also features practical advice from attorney Isabella Salomão Nascimento. You can support our work at theintercept.com/join. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump plays the working-class hero while Democrats cling to corporate donors. David Sirota, Jessica Washington, and Ilyse Hogue discuss how to turn the tide. You can hear the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At a recent rally at U.S. Steel in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump stood in front of a row of workers in hard hats and safety vests and proclaimed, “We're right now on the verge of passing the largest working class tax cuts in American history.” He framed his “Big Beautiful Bill” — a massive tax cut for the wealthy — as a blue-collar blessing. The sleight of hand is classic Trump, and what makes his appeal to voters enduring. “The Republican Party is building the multiracial working class coalition that the Democrats have always said that they want to build,” says David Sirota, founder of The Lever and a former Bernie Sanders speechwriter. This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Jordan Uhl speaks to Sirota and politics reporter Jessica Washington about how Trump has successfully used culture-war grievances to win over working-class voters, and why the Democratic Party continues to hemorrhage support. The episode also features Ilyse Hogue, the former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America and the co-creator of a new $20 million project called Speaking With American Men, or SAM. The initiative aims to understand — and win back — young male voters who’ve drifted to the right. “ A lot of what we heard from people is that they feel invisible to the Democratic coalition,” she says. You can hear the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Catch and revoke” — the phrase sounds like something from a dystopian thriller, but it's Secretary of State Marco Rubio's very real characterization of the Trump administration's new one-strike visa cancellation policy targeting foreign students. A State Department spokesperson said that "full social media vetting" will be used for visa interviews and will be ongoing while the student remains in the U.S. for studies. On this week's episode of The Intercept Briefing, host Akela Lacy speaks to anthropologist Sophia Goodfriend and Chris Gelardi, a reporter for New York Focus investigating surveillance and the criminal legal system. They unpack how AI and surveillance technology are being weaponized to silence dissent on American campuses and fuel the deportations of immigrants nationwide. "In the past few months, as we see the expansion of government surveillance, the crackdown of ICE on both legal residents and undocumented people in this country, we see these technologies lending a veneer of algorithmic efficiency to increasingly draconian policies," says Goodfriend. To understand more about the tech infrastructure powering deportations and what this digital crackdown means for everyone, listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LATE SUNDAY NIGHT, police in El Salvador arrested one of President Nayib Bukele’s sharpest critics, Ruth Eleonora López, an anti-corruption attorney who has spent years exposing government abuses. “[She] is one of the strongest voices in defense of democracy,” says Noah Bullock, her colleague and the executive director of Cristosal, a human rights group operating in northern Central America, including El Salvador. López, a university professor and former elections official, heads Cristosal’s anti-corruption unit. She has also been an outspoken critic of Bukele’s crackdown on gang violence that has resulted in “arbitrary detentions, human rights violations,” and the imprisonment of people not connected to gangs, according to Cristosal. The organization has documented widespread abuses in the country’s prison system. “There's a clear pattern of physical abuse, and on top of that, a clear pattern of systematic denial of basic necessities like food, water, bathrooms, medicine — medical care in general," says Bullock. “Those two factors have combined to cause the deaths of at least 380 people” in custody in recent years. That’s a prison system “that's been contracted by the U.S. government,” Bullock adds. This week on The Intercept Briefing, Bullock speaks to host Jessica Washington about López’s continued imprisonment and what her work and detention reveals about the Trump administration’s interest in El Salvador’s prison system. Facing vague corruption charges, López has seen her family and lawyer but not yet a judge. “The type of jails and the prison system that the United States has contracted is one of a dictatorship — one that operates outside of the rule of law,” says Bullock. But El Salvador isn't the only country the U.S. is looking to partner with to outsource immigration detention. “Now in addition to El Salvador, the U.S. has reportedly explored, sought, or struck deals with at least 19 other countries,” says Nick Turse, national security fellow for The Intercept. “Many of these countries,” says Turse, “have been excoriated by not only human rights groups and NGOs, but also the U.S. State Department.” “ These policies did not leap fully formed from the head of Donald Trump,” says Turse. They have a legacy largely stemming from the post-9/11 counterterrorism policies of the George W. Bush administration. “The Trump administration has expanded the Bush and Obama-era terrorism paradigm to cast immigrants and refugees as terrorists and as gang members,” says Turse. Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Elon Musk steps away from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the chaotic legacy of his aggressive assault on federal agencies continues to reverberate throughout the government. Musk’s goal — slashing $1 trillion from the federal budget — has fallen far short. At most, it has cut $31.8 billion of federal funding, a number that the Financial Times reports is “opaque and overstated.” Notably, the richest man on Earth’s businesses have received a comparable amount of government funding, most of it going to SpaceX, which remains untouched by DOGE’s budget ax. Stepping in to carry the torch is Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and a key architect of Project 2025, the sweeping conservative playbook to consolidate executive power. Under his stewardship, DOGE will continue its mission to dismantle the federal government from within. ”Access to all of this information gives extraordinary power to the worst people,” says Mark Lemley, the director of Stanford Law School’s program in law, science, and technology. Lemley is suing DOGE on behalf of federal employees for violating the Privacy Act. This week on The Intercept Briefing, Lemley and Intercept newsroom counsel and reporter Shawn Musgrave join host Jordan Uhl to take stock of the legal challenges mounting against the Trump administration’s agenda. As the executive branch grows more hostile to checks on its powers, the courts remain the last, fragile line of defense. “ There have now been hundreds of court decisions on issues, some involving the Privacy Act, but a wide variety of the Trump administration's illegal activities,” says Lemley. In partnership with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and State Democracy Defenders, Lemley’s suit accuses the U.S. Office of Personnel Management of violating the federal Privacy Act by handing over sensitive data to DOGE without consent or legal authority. Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald Trump’s all-caps executive order on policing — “STRENGTHENING AND UNLEASHING AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT TO PURSUE CRIMINALS AND PROTECT INNOCENT CITIZENS” – is less about policy and more about intent. And that intent is clear: To give Trump direct control over local law enforcement and further shield police from accountability. As journalist and author of “Rise of the Warrior Cop” Radley Balko puts it, “It’s a statement of intent and whether or not Trump is able to do a lot of the more pernicious and unconstitutional things he wants to do.” The executive order calls for “military and national security assets” to assist in local policing, directs federal resources and protections for state and local law enforcement, and enhances police protections, among other proclamations. But it reflects a deeper ambition. “He wants more federal militarized law enforcement under his thumb instead of under the thumb of governors or mayors,” says Balko. “He wants to use them to help with immigration deportations. He wants help with cracking down on protest.” And the concern and fear, says Balko, is that Trump will also “use law enforcement to go after his critics and people he perceives to be his enemies.” This week on The Intercept Briefing, Balko joins senior reporter Akela Lacy and host Jessica Washington to break down the Trump administration’s push to federalize local law enforcement and “unleash” police who already face minimal meaningful restraint. Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Intercept Briefing is sharing a recent live podcast recording The Intercept's Senior Politics Reporter Akela Lacy joined about the unlawful detention of Rümeysa Öztürk — a graduate student who was seized by federal immigration agents for co-authoring an op-ed in her school's newspaper. The live event, hosted by Question Everything with Brian Reed – which you can listen to on KCRW – and the Tufts Daily where Rümeysa published her op-ed, gathered journalists, editors, and attorneys, including Carol Rose, who is part of Rümeysa's legal team and executive director of the Massachusetts ACLU. They discussed the status of Rümeysa’s case and the conditions she’s enduring under ICE detention, and the chilling effects her case has had on speech, journalism, and academic freedom. Full episode description: Where better to huddle up and discuss what to do about Rümeysa Öztürk and the chilling effect that is happening in journalism than on campus at Tufts University with the student journalists at The Tufts Daily? This week Brian and Question Everything co-host a live event with the editor-in-chief and associate editor from The Tufts Daily – Arghya Thallapragada and Ellora Onion-De. Together they interview journalists and attorneys, including Carol Rose, part of Rümeysa's legal team and executive director of the Massachusetts ACLU, to learn what all happened to Rümeysa and why. What did her abduction by federal agents a month ago have to do with her immigration status as a Turkish graduate student studying child development, here on a student visa? Why did Secretary of State Marco Rubio say her Op-ed was cause for incarceration? Why is she still in ICE’s custody? And what happened to the constitutional protections around free speech and a free press that we depend on in a free society? Joined by former editor-in-chief of both the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, Marty Baron; First Amendment lawyer Robert Bertsche; and senior politics reporter at The Intercept Akela Lacey; the group wrestles in real time with the gravity of this moment, not just for Rümeysa Öztürk, but for all of us. Read the Op-ed Rümeysa and others wrote that ran in The Tufts Daily a year ago in March. Watch the video of federal agents in plainclothes, forcing Rümeysa Öztürk into an SUV on March 25, 2025. Quick thing: In our discussion Carol Rose says the ACLU has filed 100 legal actions in President Trump’s first 100 days. The specific count on those is actually higher: the ACLU filed 110 legal actions in the Trump administration’s first 100 days. Sign up for our newsletter: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., joined forces with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., to introduce ambitious Medicare for All legislation that would provide comprehensive coverage to every American without premiums, co-payments, or deductibles. The move comes at a striking moment — with Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, the bill's passage remains unlikely. In this week's episode of The Intercept Briefing, Jayapal delivers a candid assessment of Democratic strategy in the Trump era. "You can't just be an opposition party. You do have to also be a proposition party.” It's why Medicare for All was so important, she explains. “We have to show people that we are willing to un-rig the system.” Jayapal acknowledges critical missteps by her party. "A lot of my colleagues may have gotten scared off and somehow thought that what the American people wanted was for us to play footsie with Donald Trump instead of go toe to toe with him," she says. "And I think it is very clear now, after the first three months of destruction and chaos and cruelty, that that is not the way to go. This is not an administration that you want to try and get in bed with. This is an administration that we have to fight if we want to preserve our democracy." She has been particularly frustrated by her colleagues in the Senate. "The Senate had the ability to confirm Trump's Cabinet, and you saw many Democrats going along with those confirmations as if somehow this was OK to put these people who are completely incompetent and have no understanding whatsoever, and even worse have lots of things in their backgrounds that never should have allowed them to be confirmed as Cabinet members." The Senate, she adds, had “a certain power to stand up early that they didn't use." Now is the time, says Jayapal, to offer a clear roadmap for resistance. "My job now is to use the platform I have and the relationships I have to build the resistance movement on the outside and on the inside. And that is really on every level from Congress to the courts to the public." Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the eve of his second inauguration, Donald Trump did something no U.S. president had ever done: He launched a meme coin. The cryptocurrency — whose value hinges more on hype than utility — surged to an all-time high of $75.35 a token. The next day, First Lady Melania Trump dropped her own meme coin, debuting at about $13 a share. Both coins have since tumbled, but on Wednesday Trump’s token briefly bumped up again to $15.47 before dipping. The latest surge came after the coin’s official website announced that 220 top meme coin holders will be invited to a gala dinner with the president in May — black tie optional. These tokens, that are not tied to any real world assets, have proven lucrative for Trump and his family. Last month, the Financial Times estimated Trump made upwards of $350 million from the project. While small traders have lost big, the Trump Organization and its affiliates — controlling 80 percent of the token supply — have made hundreds of millions in just trading fees. Trump, once a crypto skeptic, is now the industry’s most powerful advocate. “ He went to a big bitcoin conference in Nashville last July. That's where he declared he would make the U.S. the crypto capital of the planet,” says Intercept reporter Matt Sledge. “And the crypto industry started showering money on him. They saw somebody who would be friendly to their industry.” This week on The Intercept Briefing, Sledge, who covers crypto’s political reach, discusses how investing in the president has paid off for the industry and for the Trump family. “So far in Trump's presidency, things have gone great for the crypto industry. Even as the rest of the economy is on pretty perilous footing, a bunch of crypto companies have seen the SEC and other regulatory agencies drop investigations or lawsuits. Trump has created a 'bitcoin reserve,' and in general, regulators and Congress are behaving much more friendly toward the industry.” For more on how Trump is reshaping the crypto landscape and what it means for the rest of us, listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode of The Intercept Briefing, we examine the case of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student whose decadelong journey toward American citizenship ended not with the oath of allegiance, but in handcuffs. On Monday, the Columbia student arrived at his long-awaited citizenship interview in Vermont. Instead, immigration agents arrested him, and he now faces deportation to the occupied West Bank. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., who represents his district, is outraged and told The Intercept Briefing, “If you'll deny due process from somebody who was in this country with a green card for 10 years, who is somebody who talked about peace and connection between Palestinians and Israelis who was looking to build bridges — if this man is somehow a threat to our society, then we are down a sick path.” Mahdawi spoke to The Intercept the night before his fateful appointment and said he understood the risk he might be facing. He is now the ninth Columbia student targeted for deportation. The Trump administration has revoked or changed over a 1,000 student visas, according to Inside Higher Ed. Mahdawi’s case exemplifies how immigration enforcement is being weaponized, says Balint. “ If they're so proud of what they're doing, then show your damn face, then show your ID. Then talk about what grounds you are holding this person. But it's being done in secret, and it is meant to shock and awe and to get the rest of us to remain silent. They have no evidence, they have no details, which is what we're demanding of both Secretary [Marco] Rubio and Secretary [Kristi] Noem." Immigration lawyer Matt Cameron spoke to The Intercept about the broader implications of the administration’s agenda and said that this is much bigger than just students and immigrants. “ It's a message to student protesters obviously to start with, but it's a message to all of us that our free speech is a liability,” he warned. Cameron pointed to the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was illegally deported to El Salvador and is now imprisoned despite no criminal record. The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the government to facilitate his return, but so far, the administration has resisted. "This is going to be one of the most important cases of our lifetimes,” said Cameron. “ Even for people who don't think they're interested in following immigration issues: This is for all of us. And you know, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia will be all of us pretty soon here if we don't stay on our rights.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald Trump’s presidency continues to challenge all conventional understanding of executive authority. His administration's extensive use of executive orders has reshaped the political landscape, testing established laws, ethical boundaries, and institutional norms. Among those raising alarms is Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who has consistently questioned what happens when governmental powers are directed against the very citizens they were designed to protect. On this week’s episode of The Intercept Briefing, she discusses these concerns, including the administration's immigration enforcement tactics targeting international students — among them, one of her own constituents. Rümeysa Öztürk, a Ph.D. candidate at Tufts University who has a valid student visa, was abducted off the streets by ICE agents. “ She was kidnapped in broad daylight. There is no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. The only — the only — thing that she did was co-author an op-ed centering the humanity and the dignity of the Palestinian people and because that is a dissenting opinion of the hostile Trump administration, she finds herself a political prisoner,” says Pressley. “So I need people to understand that this could be anyone when constitutional rights are being violated, when due process is being violated. It could be you tomorrow for reading a banned book. It could be you tomorrow for suffering a miscarriage. It could be you tomorrow for practicing diversity, equity, and inclusion,” she warns. In a broad ranging conversation with host Jessica Washington, she also raises fundamental questions about executive authority and democratic safeguards. “It was all laid out in Project 2025, which was not a blueprint — it was a playbook. And they're making good on that playbook. And I think people didn't take it seriously,” Pressley points out. “They recognized that a lot of what he was laying out in that playbook was unlawful — was unconstitutional. So they said, how could it ever happen? And yet, you know, here we find ourselves.” And despite widespread criticism and anger about the Democratic Party’s response — or lack thereof — she believes her party is stepping up. “Even though I believe that we are — as a party — being exhaustive, being strategic, [we] have found our footing. I believe we are being more effective as an opposition party in resistance to this hostile administration,” Pressley says. But she acknowledges the Democrats can do more. “ I do believe that we have a sound strategy of litigation, legislation, agitation, mobilization, and I think we are finding our footing. We have to match their energy. They're flooding the zone. We have to do the same thing.” Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tesla’s stock plummeted more than 30 percent in the first quarter of 2025, losing its post-election gains, as the electric vehicle pioneer grapples with an unexpected challenge: a consumer revolt against CEO Elon Musk's leadership of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and his political alliances. Once celebrated across the political spectrum, Tesla has transformed from an environmental icon into a political flashpoint. Tesla dealerships have become symbols, explains Lara Starr, who organized a 200-person demonstration in Marin County, California. "You can't disentangle Tesla from Musk, and you can't disentangle Musk from Trump. And the one thing I can say about Musk positively is he has handed us a place in almost every community around the country that is symbolic of everything wrong that is going on in Washington." The impact of this grassroots rebellion is beginning to show in Tesla's financial reports. Global sales have hit historic lows for the company, with particularly sharp declines in traditionally strong markets. Despite Tesla's business challenges, the billionaire poured considerable resources on reshaping America's political landscape. His political spending — including with his super PAC spending $25 million in a single Wisconsin Supreme Court race — has yielded disappointing returns. His preferred candidate was defeated. In this week’s episode of The Intercept Briefing, reporters Matt Sledge and Sunjeev Bery examine this grassroots rebellion and what it reveals about Musk's power and the future of political activism. "There's been a lot of talk about how the Democrats are in disarray and not sure how to recover from the election last year. But the Wisconsin election — and the way that Elon Musk got involved and personalized it and made it about him himself — gave Democrats an easy yes-no vote on Elon Musk, and I think that was really significant here," says Sledge. He points out how that election is also a rebuke of the Trump–Musk alliance: " It is fascinating that it is happening through this electoral mechanism, and that people are being allowed to give a referendum on this relationship, and that the democratic process is potentially having a direct input on this relationship." Intercept contributor Sunjeev Bery says the Tesla protests are much bigger than just Tesla or Musk. "The Tesla takedown movement has become this astonishing wave of opposition to Trump, the fascist directions of the Trump regime, everything Elon Musk is pushing with DOGE. It's a place where lots of people who are angry about all of the different things that the Trump regime is up to. All of the fires they're setting can come together and focus on Elon Musk, Tesla, and the physical place of his dealerships." Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 — a staggering number that surpasses the total journalist fatalities during the entire span of World War II. The conflict has escalated to a critical point, with Israel resuming strikes on Gaza after breaking a ceasefire with Hamas. Amid this humanitarian catastrophe, journalists persist in their crucial role, risking their lives to document the unfolding events and bring critical information to the world. In response to attacks on Palestinian journalists, Forbidden Stories launched the Gaza Project — a collaboration bringing together over 40 journalists from 12 organizations, including the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism and The Intercept. Their mission: investigate and expose the unprecedented threats facing journalists in Gaza and the West Bank. On this week's episode of The Intercept Briefing, Hoda Osman, the executive editor of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, says the killings have become hauntingly familiar: “A repeated scene seeing a journalist is being killed, and you get the news, and then you see their bodies with a bloodied press vest. And then you see the mourning of their colleagues and their families.” In addition to this extreme risk, Osman says the daily realities confronting Palestinian reporters are difficult to imagine. “I was speaking to a journalist there and she's telling me how hard it is because it's Ramadan and they fast, and at the end of the day at sunset, they're supposed to break fast, but there is no food. And how they're all starting to become extremely weak because of the lack of food. And that was before even the strikes began again,” she says. “Most of them are living in tents,” Osman adds. “A few weeks ago when the weather was really cold, one of the journalists was texting me how they don't know what to do to be warm. They're constantly cold. And then she sent me videos of — it had rained — the whole tent just completely flooding.” But despite all these personal challenges, they keep going. Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Anything that shows solidarity of Palestine is being mischaracterized quite erroneously as antisemitism. That's the way in which they are trying to get us to stop speaking about Palestine," says Momodou Taal, a Cornell University graduate student and activist now facing deportation after challenging the Trump administration in court. The risks of political speech have escalated dramatically for international students like Taal. He spoke to The Intercept Briefing yesterday, underscoring the chilling reality he and his peers now face. “It’s not just that you might get kicked out of school or suspended,” says Taal, “but you are threatened with deportation and ICE custody now. That's what's at stake here." Late last week, federal officials sent Taal's attorney a midnight email demanding he appear before Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday. The email provided no grounds for the request. This typically marks the beginnings of removal proceedings against an individual in the U.S. Only afterward, over the weekend, did the Department of Justice claim Taal's student visa had been revoked on March 14th by the State Department due to "disruptive protests" and "creating a hostile environment for Jewish students." The timing is telling—just days after Taal, a dual Gambian and British citizen, joined other Cornell plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of targeting international students for supporting Palestinian rights. In their complaint the plaintiffs state “The First Amendment protects ‘people’ and not citizens alone. This includes non-citizens living in the U.S.” Taal had participated in pro-Palestine protests at Cornell. His legal team argues the order to appear before ICE demonstrates their central claim that deportation is being weaponized "in retribution" for lawful political speech. Despite the pressure, Taal sees the government's actions as evidence of weakness, not strength. "You don't repress to this level when you're in a position of strength. When you have to quell speech, it means that you are realizing that the outside world or public opinion is swaying in one direction. So I think now would not be the time to be afraid. I know it's a very frightening moment, but for me, this is the time to double down." As Tuesday approaches, Taal remains resolute about the potential consequences. "If I have to leave the country, it would be back to the UK. I know the weather's terrible and your listeners probably don't like beans and toast either, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world going back to the UK. I think about what the Palestinians have endured for 76 years and more—what I'm going through pales in comparison." Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After breaking a two-month ceasefire, Israel launched an assault on Gaza on Tuesday, killing more than 400 people in pre-dawn strikes. The death toll continues to climb as airstrikes persist, and Israel pushes forward with a ground invasion. At least 200 children have been killed in recent attacks, according to UNICEF. The assault — the deadliest in over a year — came after Donald Trump gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the green light to break the ceasefire. Netanyahu has warned, “This is only the beginning.” Author Pankaj Mishra argues Israel operates within a “culture of impunity,” emboldened by global far-right movements that admire Israel’s “brazen cruelty.” This week on The Intercept Briefing, reporter Jonah Valdez speaks to Mishra about his latest book, "The World After Gaza,” which examines how the war on Gaza isn’t just another conflict — it’s a turning point reshaping global politics, exposing institutional failures, and forcing a reckoning over who sets the rules on the world stage. “Some of the worst people in the world today are drawn to Israel," Mishra says. “Not because they believe in Zionism, not because they are protective of Jewish population of Israel, but because Israel again represents to them — embodies this opportunity to take whatever you can and hold on to it using extreme violence if necessary.” Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When government agents surrounded Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil and his pregnant wife outside their New York City apartment over the weekend, it marked a chilling escalation in the battle over free speech in America. Those agents weren't enforcing immigration policy; they were sending a message about the consequences of political expression. After serving as a negotiator during campus protests against Israel's war on Gaza, Khalil became the target of what his attorney called "a profound doxing campaign for two months related to his First Amendment protected activities" — harassment so severe he had desperately sought help from university leadership. Despite being a lawful permanent resident entitled to constitutional protections, Khalil was transported to a detention facility thousands of miles away, effectively "disappeared" for over 24 hours. The political motivation became explicit when President Donald Trump celebrated the arrest on social media, calling it "the first arrest of many to come." On this week's episode of The Intercept Briefing, we discuss the profound implications Khalil’s case raises for free speech and due process with Edward Ahmed Mitchell, civil rights attorney and national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Columbia Journalism Review reporter Meghnad Bose. "It's very clear the administration is waging a war on free speech — free speech for Palestine. They said they were going to do it when they took office. And that is what they are doing. Their issue with him is that he is a Muslim who is a lawful, permanent resident of America and he exercised his right to speak up for Palestinian human rights," says Mitchell. Bose adds, “ It's this sort of thinking that if you are somehow critical of a certain position of the United States government, except this isn't even a position of the United States government. You're basically saying, if you're critical of the position of a foreign government — in this case, the Israeli government — that you can be penalized in the United States, even if you've not broken any law.” Mitchell warns even U.S. citizens face risk: "American citizens should be safe in all this, but Stephen Miller and others have said they want to review the naturalization of citizens to see whether or not there are grounds to remove their citizenship. So in the worst-case scenario, you can imagine them trying to find or manufacture some way to target even the citizenship status of people who were lawful permanent residents and then attained citizenship. So they're going all out to silence speech for Palestine." Bose says it's not just about immigration status; the government has other draconian tools at its disposal as well. "They can jail U.S. citizens too. They don't have to deport you or take away your citizenship, he says. “They can incarcerate U.S. citizens too." Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.