Kyle Swenson

I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to

NEW: Per source familiar with meeting: Hegseth threatened to terminate Anthropic’s $200M contract by Friday if it does not comply to Trump admin's terms. Amodei reiterated Anthropic’s red lines around AI- powered weapons and domestic surveillance.

Discovering this band recently has been the gift of a lifetime. Whole catalog is blast of art-punk genius.

I grew up with Alex Pretti The kind-hearted ICU nurse shot by ICE agents was my childhood best friend.

I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com

Emily Nussbaum on Jane Kramer’s “Founding Cadre” Her startling 1970 article, based on months of reporting on radical feminist pioneers, was an outlier for the period—coolly observational but full of emotion.

I wrote a TNY Take about Jane Kramer’s The Founding Cadre, a reported piece from 1970 in which Kramer embedded with a radical feminist CR group for nearly a year— which ended up getting published using pseudonyms, bc the editors found the topic too alarming: www.newyorker.com/magazine/tak...

Alex Pretti, who is identified as the man fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, was an intensive care nurse dedicated to treating veterans.

Read more about him here: https://wapo.st/3M62eyV

They quit their day jobs to bet on current events. A look inside the prediction market mania Prediction market apps are thriving in Trump's second term, with traders betting on migrant deportations to election outcomes. A community of young, mostly male and very online traders are driving the...

i talked to die-hard traders on Kalshi and Polymarket and spent some time in prediction market spaces on Discord and Reddit to try to understand how this techno-financial wild west is utterly flourishing right now www.npr.org/2026/01/17/n...

They quit their day jobs to bet on current events. A look inside the prediction market mania Prediction market apps are thriving in Trump's second term, with traders betting on migrant deportations to election outcomes. A community of young, mostly male and very online traders are driving the industry's bonanza.

Prediction market apps are thriving in Trump's second term, with traders betting on migrant deportations to election outcomes. A community of young, mostly male and very online traders are driving the industry's bonanza. n.pr/4b3JdYb

The Washington Post Guild is alarmed and appalled by federal law enforcement’s search and seizure of reporter Hannah Natanson’s property and personal devices. Hannah is a valued member of our union whose work covering the federal workforce has been essential (1/3)

U.S. Citizens Are Joining the Military to Protect Undocumented Parents

"She along with hundreds of other recruiters around the country, had been offering something else: protection from the government she served."
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/u...

Remembering 10 extraordinary lives lost in 2025 They never got a Post obituary. They rarely made the news. But across the Washington area, they shaped and enhanced their communities.

In looking back on 2025, we also wanted to showcase some of the everyday but extraordinary people who *didn't* get an obit. For @washingtonpost.com, we profiled 10 Washingtonians who were mainstays of their communities, even if their names were not well known.

🎁🔗 wapo.st/49aCcC5

Here's my addition to the "performative dude reader" discourse. Lutz was my biggest find, amazing. Ian Penman, would read anything they write. Bruce Wagner is as important a novelist we have working today. Robert Stone continues to be a favorite

News Team, Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier. I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity. Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now-after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one. We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. If the administration's refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we

have effectively handed them a "kill switch" for any reporting they find inconvenient. If the standard for airing a story becomes "the government must agree to be interviewed," then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state. These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless. CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that "low point." By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones.

We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of "Gold Standard" reputation for a single week of political quiet. I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight. Sharyn

Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:

Astonishing book on so many levels, especially the meta turn.

Five jokes with a former conservative journalist, now a trans comedian Jamie Mack came out as transgender at 49, after years of struggling with their identity. Could comedy help them work through their new life?

For a year, I've been hanging at comedy nights, shadowing a standup. Why? Because they're a former conservative reporter who came out as trans at 49, and now are using the most vulnerable public art form to work out the most personal of all life changes www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/int...

Five jokes with a former conservative journalist, now a trans comedian Jamie Mack came out as transgender at 49, after years of struggling with their identity. Could comedy help them work through their new life?

For a year, I've been hanging at comedy nights, shadowing a standup. Why? Because they're a former conservative reporter who came out as trans at 49, and now are using the most vulnerable public art form to work out the most personal of all life changes www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/int...

Five jokes with a former conservative journalist, now a trans comedian Jamie Mack came out as transgender at 49, after years of struggling with their identity. Could comedy help them work through their new life?

Jamie Mack had been an investigative reporter at the Washington Times, frequently appearing on Fox News.

In 2020, they came out as transgender. Stand-up comedy has since become a way for them to work through a new life by mining the old for material.

Mom of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew rejects White House narrative of her ICE arrest In an interview, Bruna Ferreira, who chose the White House press secretary as her son’s godmother, contested the portrayal of her as a criminal, absentee mom.

EXCLUSIVE:

Mom of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew rejects White House narrative of her ICE arrest

www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Absolutely buzzing over this new video of a rarely seen giant squid

Been meaning to read G. Got it on my shelf

At this ultramarathon, runners tackle 32 miles and eat at nine Taco Bells Puking is discouraged, but allowed. Pepto-Bismol is not.

Sure, vomiting is allowed (but discouraged), according to the rules of this ultramarathon. Each participant must run to nine Taco Bells scattered across Virginia and D.C. At each location, they must purchase and eat an item off the menu. Drinks don’t count.

LAW dork = I am certain that someone thought this was particularly witty when they came up with the name, but it's honestly one of the more offensive possibilities these hateful authoritarians could have used. Even on its face, using the name of a beloved children's book as the name of your anti-immigrant, mass-arrest operation is appalling. But, to use a book authored by E.B. White as your name is an offense to history. White was a leading voice for American democracy and freedom and against fascism and tyranny. Abusing his life's work like this cannot stand without a response.

When DHS dared to call its anti-immigrant racial profiling weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” I knew I was going to have to write about it.

Tonight, at Law Dork, here it is: www.lawdork.com/p/gregory-bo...

New Epstein emails claim Trump ‘spent hours’ with victim Democrats on the House Oversight say the emails provide evidence of a cover-up by the White House

BREAKING: (Gift) New Epstein emails reveal that Epstein claimed he had kompromat on President Trump. www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...

She survived a stabbing. Now her attacker is accused in a deadly cold case. A D.C. man recently arrested in a 1999 cold-case homicide carried out a similar unprovoked attack in 2004, but a timely intervention saved the victim.

Twenty years after her assault, a victim’s fear resurfaced when her attacker was arrested for a 1999 cold-case murder.

Police say DNA links him to the rape and killing of another woman — who lived just blocks from the 2004 attack.

Cover of BACKBEATS

Interior photo pages featuring Ringo, the Stones, the MGs and more.

PRAISE FOR BACKBEATS "[Exhibits] passion and deep knowledge... The only moments I put this book down were to pause and listen to the perfect examples that Lingan, a drummer himself, cites as crucial.... Here we see and hear the music of our lives." -BILL JANOVITZ, author of Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History "A thrilling ride... In exquisite detail and deft prose, John Lingan relates the creative insights and technical mastery of fifteen of rock's most influential groove merchants-many still unsung. In doing so, he reclaims the rock narrative from all those frontmen and guitarists, showing how the wizards at the back of the stage were moving the music all along." -IAN S. PORT, author of The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll "An intelligent, heartfelt, and long-overdue tribute to the unsung heroes of modern music. Because, let's face it—if it ain't got that swing, it don't mean a thing." -BRAD TOLINSKI, coauthor of Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound, and Revolution of the Electric Guitar "Backbeats glows with enthusiasm and delivers an insightful glimpse into the sultans of swing who create fire by rubbing two sticks together." —BOB SPITZ, author of The Beatles: The Biography and Led Zeppelin: The Biography "Sitting ten feet from stardom, drummers have had a central but slightly removed view of rock 'n' roll. A drummer himself, John Lingan captures that unique perspective.... Backbeats delivers to the reader something fresh and different. It's a hit." -PRESTON LAUTERBACH, author of The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock

A sticker book plate

BACKBEATS is out today!

Come see me & @andreapitzer.bsky.social at Kramers in DC tonight at 7: kramers.com/events/36367...

DM me a receipt if you’d like a signed book plate in the mail.

And read an excerpt in @rollingstone.com: www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

Breaking news: Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former three-term congresswoman and CIA agent will become Virginia’s first female governor, the AP projects. https://wapo.st/3LqdiWU

BREAKING: After ICE refuses to allow detained migrants to receive the Eucharist, Pope Leo calls on Trump and Vance to respect migrants‘ dignity and religious liberty.

“They must allow ministers to assist with their needs. They've been separated from their families and no one knows what happens.”

Dick Cheney, powerful vice president during war on terrorism, dies at 84 After the Sept. 11 attacks, perceiving an elemental threat to American society, Mr. Cheney used his role as Bush’s chief strategist to approve the use of torture and steer U.S. occupations of Afghanis...

Breaking news: Former vice president Dick Cheney, who became chief architect of a post-9/11 war on terrorism that involved bypassing restrictions against torture and domestic espionage, died Monday night.

He was 84.

Missing money, staged break-in alleged in AU professor murder trial Defendant Jorge Rueda Landeros, who fled to Mexico in 2011 and spent more than a decade on the FBI’s most-wanted list, has denied any part in the murder.

I was in the courtroom every day for the @washingtonpost.com as the state built a case of financial wrongdoing and emotional gaslighting, a mix of infatuation and stock trading, hidden money, DNA testing and unexplained evidence. Landeros faces 35 years. (3/3) www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

On Oct. 25th, 2010, Marcum was found battered and asphyxiated in her Bethesda home. That sparked a 15 year legal saga that included an international FBI manhunt. Over the last two weeks, the case culminated a trial in Montgomery County ending with Landeros's conviction of second-degree murder. (2/3)