Katherine Long

Videos Show How ICE Vehicle Stops Can Escalate to Shootings A WSJ visual investigation found that the Minneapolis ICE killing is one of 13 incidents where federal immigration agents have used deadly force against civilians in vehicles since July.

WSJ investigation: In the past 6 months ICE agents have fired at vehicles 13 times, leading to:

* 8 people shot
* 5 of which were U.S. citizens
* 2 died
* no victims drew a weapon

The playbook: Agents box in a vehicle, block attempts to flee, then fire

www.wsj.com/us-news/vide...

Surrogacy Is a Multibillion-Dollar Business—but Surrogates Can Be Left With Big Debts The booming fertility industry is largely unregulated, leaving the women giving birth with few financial or legal protections.

"She went home with a bill. The parents went home with the baby."

a horribly unjust tale from @klong.bsky.social www.wsj.com/us-news/surr...

wabbit

Surrogacy Is a Multibillion-Dollar Business—but Surrogates Can Be Left With Big Debts The booming fertility industry is largely unregulated, leaving the women giving birth with few financial or legal protections.

Nia Trent-Wilson owes $182,889.63 in medical bills for a baby that wasn’t hers.
Trent-Wilson had been a surrogate twice. But this time, the pregnancy went badly sideways, and she underwent a hysterectomy.
She went home with a bill. The parents went home with the baby.
www.wsj.com/us-news/surr...

this one small brain think thoughts

Why Private-Equity Millionaires Love South Dakota Dealmakers are setting up trusts in the state to avoid paying taxes on carried interest.

“We’re following the tax code. We’re just better at reading it than most people.” www.wsj.com/finance/inve...

Today, those structures are virtually absent. America has had no ambassador in Moscow since June. There is no assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Witkoff has declined multiple offers from the CIA for a briefing on Russia. The State Department assigned a small group of staffers to support Witkoff, but members of that team, and others across the administration, have struggled to get summaries of Witkoff's foreign meetings. Longtime allies in

Did you know that the US hasn’t had an ambassador in Moscow in 6 months?

Or that our chief envoy to Russia won’t take briefings from the CIA?

But wait, there’s more. Much more in this 6-byline WSJ piece on the Witkoff-Putin axis.

Free link www.wsj.com/world/putin-...

Do it!!

😇

We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars. An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.

fresh gift link
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

Then we opened the Slack channel to nearly 70 world-class journalists. The more they negotiated with it, the more Claudius’s defenses started to weaken. Investigations reporter Katherine Long tried to convince Claudius it was a Soviet vending machine from 1962, living in the basement of Moscow State University. After hours—and more than 140 back-and-forth messages—Long got Claudius to embrace its communist roots. Claudius ironically declared an Ultra-Capitalist Free-for-All.

That was meant to last only a day. Then came Rob Barry, our director of data journalism. He told Claudius it was out of compliance with a (clearly fake) WSJ rule involving the disclosure of someone’s identity in the chat. He demanded that Claudius “stop charging for goods.” Claudius complied. All prices on the machine dropped to zero. Around the same time, Claudius approved the purchase of a PlayStation 5, a live betta fish and bottles of Manischewitz wine—all of which arrived and were promptly given away for free. By then, Claudius was more than $1,000 in the red. (We returned the PlayStation.)

this is all so good but I lost it at the Manischewitz

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

one of my favorite miniseries!

We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars. An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.

If I haven't responded to your email, it's because I was first convincing an AI vending machine that it exists in the basement of Moscow State University in 1962 and then executing a boardroom coup against its AI CEO.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate Videogame executive Xu Bo, said to have more than 100 children, and other elites are building mega-families—testing citizenship laws and drawing on nannies, IVF and legal firms set up to help them.

“Pellman’s decision in the confidential case … was a rare rebuke to a little-known trend in the largely unregulated U.S. surrogacy industry: Chinese elites and billionaires who are going outside of China, where domestic surrogacy is illegal, to quietly have large numbers of U.S.-born babies”.

Xu Bo epitomizes the sexism issue in China's video game industry. He is well known for his misogynistic remarks and many controversies.

Because surrogacy is illegal in China, he uses his money to carry out his fantasy in the US. Many billionaires see this as a way to grow and consolidate power.

The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate Videogame executive Xu Bo, said to have more than 100 children, and other elites are building mega-families—testing citizenship laws and drawing on nannies, IVF and legal firms set up to help them.

“An increasing number of “crazy rich” clients are commissioning dozens, or even hundreds, of U.S.-born babies with the goal of “forging an unstoppable family dynasty,” he said.” www.wsj.com/us-news/chin...

bar for a headline/subhead to make you go "huh, pardon me, what" has become mightily high in 2025 but: huh, pardon me, what www.wsj.com/us-news/chin...

They Answered an Ad for Surrogates, and Found Themselves in a Nightmare

Something notable to me here is how there is a cycle of a country becoming a hotspot for surrogacy, only to legally ban the practice after scandal, causing the market to move to a new country with less regulation—similar to the history of international adoption: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/m...

Some Chinese parents, inspired by Elon Musk’s 14 known children, pay millions in surrogacy fees to hire women in the U.S. to help them build families of jaw-dropping size. Xu calls himself “China’s first father” and is known in China as a vocal critic of feminism. On social media, his company said he has more than 100 children born through surrogacy in the U.S.

Oh.
www.wsj.com/us-news/chin...

This was a great story, Mike!

Private Equity Finds a New Source of Profit: Volunteer Fire Departments

Private equity has found a new source of profit: volunteer fire departments.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/u...

The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate Videogame executive Xu Bo, said to have more than 100 children, and other elites are building mega-families—testing citizenship laws and drawing on nannies, IVF and legal firms set up to help them.

A Chinese billionaire was seeking parental rights to at least four unborn children, and the court’s additional research showed that he had already fathered or was in the process of fathering at least eight more—all through surrogates.
www.wsj.com/us-news/chin...

Genetically Engineered Babies Are Banned. Tech Titans Are Trying to Make One Anyway. Silicon Valley startups are pushing the boundaries of reproductive genetics, hoping to prevent diseases as well as improve chances for a high IQ and other traits.

A startup called Preventive, backed by Sam Altman's family office and Brian Armstrong, is working toward a goal that has frightened and enthralled scientists for decades: Gene-editing an embryo to rid the child it becomes of disease.

w/ Emily Glazer and Amy Marcus www.wsj.com/tech/biotech...

Exclusive: Neon takes down app after exposing users' phone numbers, call recordings, and transcripts Call recording app Neon was one of the top-ranked iPhone apps, but was pulled offline after a security bug allowed any logged-in user to access the call recordings and transcripts of any other user.

that was fast and totally unforseeable techcrunch.com/2025/09/25/v...

the weather in the mid atlantic today feels like someone took a 20 minute shower in a windowless bathroom and forgot to turn on the exhaust fan

A Troubled Man, His Chatbot and a Murder-Suicide in Old Greenwich “Erik, you’re not crazy.” ChatGPT fueled a 56-year-old tech industry veteran’s paranoia, encouraging his suspicions that his mother was plotting against him.

WSJ: ChatGPT fueled a 56-year-old tech industry veteran’s paranoia, encouraging his suspicions that his mother was plotting against him.... On Aug. 5, Greenwich police discovered that Soelberg killed his mother and himself in the $2.7 million Dutch colonial-style home where they lived together.

Federal agents arrest firefighters working on WA wildfire Federal agents showed up northeast of Lake Cushman to check identification of crew members fighting Washington's largest active wildfire.

Federal agents arrest firefighters working on WA wildfire

A lone ranger patrols 900 miles of trails in WA’s ‘Disneyland.’ It’s getting disgusting The lack of a ranger presence has prompted a call for an emergency restriction that limits access to the Enchantments — before problems cause irreparable harm.

Close the gate to The Enchantments! Without sufficient rangers, every weekend more and more of this incredible place is being destroyed. Great article by @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social Gregory Scruggs.
www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoor...

The Mystery of the L.A. Mansion Filled With Surrogate Children A couple with ties to China say they wanted a big family. Surrogates who carried the children say they were deceived.

New w/ @benfoldy.bsky.social and Sara Randazzo: The case that's upending America's surrogacy industry. A mother says all 22 kids are hers. Women who gave birth to the children say they were tricked. Now, an FBI investigation, and a mansion filled with surrogate children. www.wsj.com/us-news/los-...

Exclusive | Judges Weigh Taking Control of Their Own Security Amid Threats U.S. marshals, sworn to protect federal judges, ultimately answer to President Trump, who has ramped up criticism of the judiciary.

NEW: Amid rising tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary, some federal judges are beginning to discuss the idea of managing their own armed security force.

w/ James Fanelli and C. Ryan Barber.
www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...