Matt Giles

They Helped Plan the January 6 Rally. Now Their Events Company Is Raking in Millions in Government Contracts The Trump administration has awarded Event Strategies several contracts—including one that could be worth up to $100 million—with little competition, according to federal filings.

SCOOP:

In 2021, they helped organize Trump's January 6 rally.

In the last year, Event Strategies has raked in federal contracts worth $26M, many of them with no other bidders

w/ @zoeschiffer.bsky.social @leahfeiger.bsky.social @hudsongiles.bsky.social

www.wired.com/story/they-h...

Lost Recipes | Defector In 1991, Spin magazine took the Compton rap collective N.W.A out to eat for a profile at the Russian Tea Room in Manhattan. The white author presents gangsta rap as a cynical enterprise, no different ...

I wrote about old rap magazines, the fight for the future of hip hop’s past, and the impact the digital age has had on history, for @defector.com
defector.com/lost-recipes

Social Security Workers Are Being Told to Hand Over Appointment Details to ICE The recent request goes against decades of precedent, and puts noncitizens at further risk of immigration enforcement actions.

SCOOP: ICE is asking Social Security for peoples' in-person appointment dates and times, and SSA staff are being told to give it to them. From me + @leahfeiger.bsky.social + @zoeschiffer.bsky.social @wired.com

wired.com/story/social...

A chart that shows habeas petitions cases in Minnesota incrasing dramatically in January 2026.

Remember that US attorney who was so burned out she asked to be held in contempt just so she could get some sleep? Here's @regret.bsky.social and @hudsongiles.bsky.social on just how far past the breaking point ICE has pushed the court system. www.wired.com/story/ice-cr...

ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next ICE plans to lease offices throughout the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

NEW: ICE is leasing offices throughout the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

ICE and CBP’s Face-Recognition App Can’t Actually Verify Who People Are ICE has used Mobile Fortify to identify immigrants and citizens alike over 100,000 times, by one estimate. It wasn't built to work like that—and only got approved after DHS abandoned its own privacy r...

NEW: Records reviewed by WIRED show DHS’s facial recognition app (Mobile Fortify) isn’t designed to actually "verify" identity—despite DHS claims and its agents relying on its matches to support probable cause in the field.

Tracker Newsletter: ICE in Focus As federal agents carry out Trump’s program of mass deportation, this limited-series newsletter will track what’s happening and what’s coming next.

As Trump’s mass deportation program unfolds, immigration policy and enforcement is shifting fast.

That’s why we’re launching Tracker, a limited-series newsletter navigating what’s happening and what’s next. Sign up for free: www.wired.com/newsletter/I...

A couple of us at the magazine were just talking about this. Dan wrote funny blogs, yes, but he also literally changed the course of conversation for an American icon.

Hi there, if you're in law enforcement, a legal observer, a government worker, or a tech worker and you're in MN/or have any info about what's happening now with ICE and law enforcement operations, you can reach me at Vittoria89.82.

We can speak anonymously.

US Judge Rules ICE Raids Require Judicial Warrants, Contradicting Secret ICE Memo The ruling in federal court in Minnesota lands as Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces scrutiny over an internal memo claiming judge-signed warrants aren’t needed to enter homes without consent.

NEW: A federal court ruling in Minnesota, which notes ICE agents broke the Fourth Amendment by entering a family's home sans warrant, lands as ICE faces scrutiny over a secret memo claiming their agents can enter homes w/ administrative paperwork alone.

When @opb.org ended Hush, even Harvard's Nieman Storyboard could see how short-sighted that was. After making four successful podcasts together, @ryanjhaas.bsky.social and I are committed to continuing our investigative work in the Northwest, and we're launching our own publication. More soon.

ripcorp.biz/episodes/202... the third annual RIP Corp In Memoriam episode is out, this year the team behind the show got together to do a bracket for saddest corporate collapse of 2025.

ART DIRECTOR: Ken Kelley EDITOR: Craig Pyes FEATURE EDITOR: David Weir MANAGING EDITOR: Alison Weir COPY EDITOR: Cheryl Bishop DESIGN CONSULTANT: Bob Roth POETRY EDITOR: Anne Waldman MUSIC EDITOR: Alec Dubro PHOTOGRAPHERS: Detroit Annie. Gary Weineke CONSULTING EDITOR: Abbie Hoffman WANDERING HISTORIAN: Harvey Wasserman BUSINESS BUSINESS CONSULTANT: Charles Fracchia ADVERTISING MANAGER: Jay Odell OFFICE MANAGER: Aloma Sue DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Keith Wilson BUSINESS STAFF: Tia Odell, Tamara Baltar, Sharon Murphy PUBLICITY. Kathy Streem ART STAFF: Joe DiVencenzo, Michael Hamilton, Carl Muecke Terry Taube, Good Times PRODUCTION MANAGER: Wade Carey FRONT AND BACK COVERS BY PHIL CARROLL Contributing Editors: Frank Bardacke, Robert Bazell, Richard Boyle, Kate Coleman, Banning Garrett, Jeff Gerth, Todd Gitlin, Howard Kohn, Sandra Levinson, J. Marks, Harold Rossman, Robert Scheer, Walte Shapiro, Allen Young. Correspondents: Sandy Carter (Omaha), Izzy Cohen (erusalem), Claudia Dreifus (New York), Thomas Dupree (Atlanta), Bob Hartley (San Diego), Kenji Kanesaka (Tokyo), Mike Kazin (Portland), Tom Miller (Dallas), Abe Peck (Chicago, Jeff Nightbird (Houston), Clark Norton (Charlotte), Larry Werner (Louisville), Daniel Zwerdling (Washington, D.C.). Special Thanks: Suzanne Allen, Mark Bramhall, Elliott Buckdrucker, Alvin Duskin, Bob Fisher, Karen Freedman, Erik Ipsen, Dan Weinstein

Masthead of SunDance magazine #3, 1972.

A lot of future heavyweights in the world of journalism.

It’s officially time for end-of-year posts and I am honestly SO eager to brag about my brilliant colleagues at @wired.com. there are way too many people to talk about in the newsroom, but this wild, exhausting, and absolutely ridiculous year wouldn’t have happened without any of them!!

Rick Telander = stud

Ugh, this is such a gut punch. @leahsottile.bsky.social is one of the best reporters I’ve ever worked with, and her reporting is more vital than ever.

14,445 and Counting - The Atavist Magazine Inside a Texas nurse’s quest to document the life and death of every woman killed by a man in America.

"This is sacred work."

Inside a Texas nurse’s quest to document the life and death of every woman killed by a man in America.

magazine.atavist.com/2025/14445-a...

This is a really hard day and I want to just add as WIRED's politics editor -- WIRED's politics reporting isn't going anywhere. We are very much here and won't stop.

Please continue to read and support us - canceling your subscription to WIRED is not standing in solidarity with our journalists.

WIRED is focused on reporting the forces shaping the most terrifying administration in a generation already plagued by terror wars, financial ruin, and a global pandemic. The best way to help us keep doing that today is to stay reading. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Mark Zuckerberg Opened an Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. His Neighbors Revolted Neighbors complained about noise, security guards, and hordes of traffic. An unlicensed school named after the Zuckerbergs’ pet chicken tipped them over the edge.

SCOOP (free, as it's FOIA-based!): I obtained 1,665 pgs of documents about "Bicken Ben," a growing private school the Zuckerbergs ran illegally out of their Palo Alto compound

Neighbors complained the school for years. Then, in 2024, they reached their breaking point:
www.wired.com/story/mark-z...

ok what's next? let's just say after 10+ years in journalism this is the most excited and responsible i feel to contribute to something because i believe in it so much. beating out everyone else's coverage of ICE/tech/your privacy in this dystopia, @404media.co, its an honor to join your badass team

Parents Fell in Love With Alpha School’s Promise. Then They Wanted Out In Brownsville, Texas, some families found a buzzy new school’s methods—surveillance of kids, software in lieu of teachers—to be an education in and of itself.

On one wall: A constantly updating dashboard with students' lesson completion rates and other metrics

On the other: A shop of toys (at 6x markup) they can buy with Alpha bucks, earned by hitting learning quotas

In the middle: 6 yos tapping silently away at laptops

www.wired.com/story/ai-tea...

AI of a Thousand Faces What happens now that AI is everywhere and in everything? WIRED can’t tell the future, but we can try to make sense of it. Behold: 17 readings from the furthest reaches of the AI age.

🎇New package alert @wired.com! This one has been in the works for months. If WIRED was going to tackle AI -- something we cover daily -- we had to go big. So here are 17 different stories about the way AI is changing us, even as the technology itself keeps moving www.wired.com/ai-issue/

Words I never thought I’d read: “we’ve sold through the initial printing of your hardcovers.” More copies of Blazing Eye Sees All are being printed as we speak! Thanks to everyone who has supported this book!

It’s the weekend. We have a new podcast. You know what to do.

Logo for Hush podcast, featuring a photo of Sarah Zuber

Why was 18-year-old Sarah Zuber found dead 400 feet from her front door? And how is it possible, six years later, that no one knows what happened to her?

Hush, Season 2, "Love Thy Neighbor" — my investigation with @ryanjhaas.bsky.social — starts today.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...