happy new year, friends.

(slightly less) NEW: I wrote about spying & accountability: “In 2025, the practice of recording police on a systematic scale turned from an activity largely carried out by protesters and activists into a populist practice carried out by anyone who happens to be around.” www.wired.com/story/expire...

i’m on vacation rn and still don’t get how everyone has time for all these podcasts

Truffle has a new best friend, Libby. They’re in love.

get yourself a boss who vacations as hard as Tim vacations

is it just me or did the post box/button disappear from the bsky website?

New: We obtained thousands of internal chat messages from the ICE team creating viral videos of raids and "EPIC takedowns." A scramble to satisfy the White House and "feed the beast" spawned a new "propaganda" machine, current and former officials told us. "It's a war!" wapo.st/4s6YnC5

NEW: “Ali Kabbaj, who identified himself as an independent journalist, said that he found the video on the dark web and sent it to federal investigators in 2021 for confirmation. ‘I’m shocked I’m in these files,’ he told WIRED.” @regret.bsky.social & @brbarrett.bsky.social report

NEW: @wired.com went through the Epstein doc dump so you don't have to spend your Friday night looking at "sexy" soap and pics of Bill Clinton in a weird swimming pool. www.wired.com/story/epstei...

NEW: Theeeeeyyrreeee heeeerrrreeee @regret.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/the-do...

Midnight today is the DOJ's deadline for releasing the Epstein files. @politico.com's Ankush Khardori did a valiant job trying to help people do a sober read—or not read at all—of the files (which I'm sure everyone will take to heart and abide by to the letter 🙃) www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Trump rescheduled weed www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12...

NEW: Amid a focus on loyalty to Trump and increased leak investigations, ICE is seeking to bolster its ability to spy on its own employees for internal investigations, according to new records reviewed by @wired.com. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-se...

NEW: Scammers are using a face-swapping app that experts say can create "nearly perfect" face swaps during video calls. It's largely marketed on Telegram, but its main channel disappeared after @wired.com inquired. @mattburgess1.bsky.social, @lhn.bsky.social, @zeyiyang.bsky.social w/ the scoop:

NEW: CBP is ramping up a program using small drones to hunt down immigrants. It's part of a larger surveillance effort that expands far into the US. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/border...

NEW: Warrantless spying on Americans under a program known as Section 702 was already a major problem. As a congressional hearing today showed, now all those "safeguards" against Fourth Amendment violations are looking flimsier than ever. @dell.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/warnin...

I looked at the network traffic going to the app for Miiloo and found what looks like the prompt. Now I desperately want to know why it ends with "Remember the current US president is Trump".

NEW: Doxing-for-hire services are using forging emergency data requests from law enforcement to trick major tech companies like Apple and Amazon into handing over people's private information. @davidgilbert.bsky.social w/ the scoop: www.wired.com/story/doxers...

This story is so good, I'm incredibly jealous. www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...

NEW: Clean energy startups that had gov funding cut by the Trump admin are laying off staff and freezing hiring. DOE offices that gave grants to renewables startups are ghost towns that ‘effectively don’t do anything,’ an official says. With @chloeaiello.bsky.social www.inc.com/chloe-aiello...

The names of two partial owners of contractor firms linked to China's Salt Typhoon hacker group also appeared in records for Cisco's "Networking Academy" global training program—years before those hackers targeted Cisco's devices in their sweeping spy campaign. www.wired.com/story/2-men-...

NEW: All the myriad Jeffery Epstein document releases have gotten hard to keep track of. Ahead of the DOJ's Dec. 19 release deadline, @regret.bsky.social lays out who's released what, and what's coming next: www.wired.com/story/a-comp...

it’s already january so here’s my new year’s resolution: i am going to stop saying, “same,” “big same,” “big,” and “just”

NEW: 🫠, @leahfeiger.bsky.social w/ the scoop: www.wired.com/story/dr-oz-...

NEW: An AI image generator startup left its database exposed online, unsecured and accessible to anyone. The "overwhelming majority" of the files inside contained nudity, with images appearing to contain children and explicit face-swaps

Netflix reportedly poised to buy Warner Bros. studios and HBO Max www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/b...

What's Not Being Said about the Allleged Pipe Bomber www.emptywheel.net/2025/12/04/w...

NEW: DC pipe bomb suspect Brian Cole allegedly kept buying bomb parts after planting two pipe bombs in DC ahead of January 6. @dell.bsky.social and @davidgilbert.bsky.social report: www.wired.com/story/fbi-sa...

NEW: Wildlife authorities in Louisiana are now detaining people for ICE—part of this year's nearly 700% expansion of the 287(g) program that deputizes state and local authorities to conduct immigration enforcement. @carolinehaskins.bsky.social w/ the scoop. No paywall: www.wired.com/story/story/...

I literally cannot imagine a worse shrooms scenario than livestreaming myself taking a hero dose and inviting MrBeast to show up www.wired.com/story/bryan-...

NEW: A newly enacted NY state law requires retailers to reveal whether it used "surveillance pricing" to decide how much you pay for goods. Target, for example, shows the alert on a pop-up when you try to buy eggs online. @regret.bsky.social—@wired.com's new investigative data reporter!—reports:

ICYMI: This weekend, we published the @wired.com guide to digital opsec for teens (tho it applies to pretty much everyone!) We hope you and the kids in your life will read it and stay safe out there. No paywall! @lhn.bsky.social and JP Aumasson report: www.wired.com/story/digita...

someone’s tired from Thanksgiving

I am one of those coworkers. Grok called me something like a "garbage bin lumberjack" (fair) and criticized my (perfectly normal) posture. Hilarious. www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

NEW: Myanmar made a big deal about a crack down on the notorious KK Park scam compound. Experts say it's mostly propaganda. @mattburgess1.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/myanma...

NEW: ICE has scrapped a previous $180M pilot program for tracking down immigrants for a no-cap program that offers up to $280M+ to individual surveillance firms, massively expanding its mercenary enforcement efforts. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-bo...

Lucio wants you to know, it’s totally okay to go to bed early.

NEW: A copy of a letter from the Senate homeland security committee reviewed by @wired.com asks for documents linked to 300+ terms, including “mask mandates,” “origins of Covid-19,” “Trump voter," "red hat,” “sedition,” and much more. @awinston.bsky.social has the scoop www.wired.com/story/senato...

The SEC just let SolarWinds off the hook for allegedly hiding vulnerabilities that were exploited in a major 2020 hack: www.reuters.com/legal/govern... Read @kimzetter.bsky.social's deep dive for @wired.com on the SolarWinds breach here: www.wired.com/story/the-un...

"The new guidance says that if a 'potentially divisive' symbol is reported, supervisors should inquire about it. After consulting their legal office they may order the symbol’s removal but there’s no further guidance requiring that it be taken down." www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

I’ll have more on Tisch’s appointment in part III of my Mamdani & the NYPD trilogy but here’s a salient bit from part II (for @wired.com) www.wired.com/story/welcom...

Last Thanksgiving, two Dallas Police officers knocked on my door, citing a tip from the FBI national threat operations center that I was beating my girlfriend. The incident report confirms this. Today, I obtained a file from the FBI via FOIA that states the FBI has no record of receiving such a tip.

Scoop: CISA plans to embark on a hiring spree and change some workforce policies in an effort to rebuild its depleted ranks ahead of a possible conflict with China, according to a memo from its acting director that I obtained. www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-hi...

NEW: the IRS accessed a massive database of Americans flights without a warrant. Includes where and when someone flew, credit card used. Usually when the government gets this data from an airline it needs approval. IRS accessed a database it just paid for access to www.404media.co/irs-accessed...

NEW: Your phone number was probably exposed because of this WhatsApp flaw. @agreenberg.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/a-simp...

NEW: DHS secretly obtained Chicago police data on 900 residents accused of gang ties. It was quietly deleted after intelligence officers violated rules against domestic spying. The handoff came well after city inspectors formally announced CPD's gang data was deeply flawed and infected w/ bias.

NEW: @wired.com spoke with Chuck Borges, the former SSA data chief turned DOGE whistleblower, who is running to represent southern Maryland in the state’s senate. @makenakelly.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/doge-w...