Fearless, Adversarial Journalism – Spoken Edition

Marielle Franco’s killers were notout to rid themselves of a 38-year-old member of Rio City Councilwho dedicated her days to pressing political causes. They wanted to silence an idea. Franco was killed in a nighttime ambush with no chance to react.

The Intercept produces fearless, adversarial journalism, covering stories the mainstream media misses on national security, politics, criminal justice, technology, surveillance, privacy, and human rights. A SpokenEdition transforms written content into human-read audio you can listen to anywhere. It's perfect for times when you can't read - while driving, at the gym, doing chores, etc. Find more at www.spokenedition.com

It’s not easy to say which country America will fight in its next ill-advised war. Iran? Or, assuming President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un don’t hit it off at their summit, North Korea? Maybe even Venezuela or Russia? It’s easier to say what one of the major causes of the war will be: the failure by many Americans — notably politicians, journalists, think tankers, and other elites — to employ a specific mental power that we’re all capable of employing.

About a month after Hurricane Harvey, Karla Lopez saw a post on Facebook about a job repairing a flooded apartment complex in north Houston. When she called to find out more, a man named Gilberto urged her to come into work that same day. “He said he could pay me $11 an hour for a 10-hour day for six days a week, including Saturdays, with no overtime.” Lopez recalled. “But I was OK with what he offered because I really needed the work.

Things looked to be going well for Jay Chen. A son of Taiwanese immigrants and a Navy reservist, Chen entered the race for California’s 39th Congressional District, which covers parts of Orange, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles counties, two days after incumbent Republican Ed Royce retired in early January. By the end of the month, he had already racked up several endorsements and earned 47 percent of the vote at the Democratic Party’s endorsement conference.

A week and a half after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election, Jason Reza Jorjani took the stage at a white supremacist conference in Washington, D.C. Richard Spencer gave him an awkward hug and pat on the back before he shuffled to the podium and spoke into the microphone.

The last twotimes that Democrats seized both the White House and Congress, in 1993 and 2009, they immediately embarked on efforts to reform the national health care system. Both times, the efforts contributed to wave-election wipeouts the following cycle. That has veteran Democrats skittish about a third go at it in 2021, but the choice likely won’t be theirs to make.

Politiciansaround the country are seizing upon highly publicized episodes of conservatives faced with harassment and heckling on college campuses by responding with a wave of legislation supposedly aimed at preserving free speech rights for campus speakers.But that commitment, while draped in the mantle of a principled defense of the First Amendment, does not always extend tospeakers who criticizeIsrael and its policies.

TigerSwan, the mercenary security company best known for its efforts to suppress indigenous-led resistance to the Dakota Access oil pipeline, is stepping up its pursuit of profits in areas hit by climate change-driven natural disaster. Three blog posts published on TigerSwan’s website in February describe the firm’s response efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and Hurricane Matthew in North Carolina in 2016.

Earlier this week, the Senate got 50 Republicans, 16 Democrats, and one Democratic-leaning independent to move forward on S.2155, the bipartisan bank deregulation bill. With that base of support, prospects for passage are extremely bright — or dark, depending on how you view a bill that the Congressional Budget Office says heightens the risk of a financial crisis for the purpose of loosening rules on banks. A final vote could come as early as Friday.

A spectre was haunting the Inner Harbor. Gathered at the Hilton Baltimore last weekend were the members ofthe Congressional Progressive Caucus. For decades, the CPC has been a well-meaning but largely ineffectual expression of the left wing of the House Democratic caucus. But something has changed, and this year their strategy session was joined by delegates from openly left-wing parties around Europe, all members of parliament in their respective countries.

Emilie Rose Hanscomeremembers the first timeher boyfriend overdosed in their bed. He was breathing strangely, keeping her awake. “I kept poking him because I was annoyed,” says Hanscome, a petite blonde. When sheflicked on the light, she found the father of her children foaming at the mouth. “Then he was almost turning gray, black,” she recalls. Paramedics got there in time and administered Narcan, the opioid antidote that reverses overdoses.

Last summer, Teresa Dank, a third-grade teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, gained national attention after she began panhandling to raise money for her classroom. Like many other teachers in a state with some of the lowest education spending in the country, Dank was at her wit’s end. Her frustration came to a head two weeks ago, following yet another failed legislative attempt to increase teacher pay.

Ivanka Trump is the ghost of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation: She is connected, either directly or tangentially, to events at the heart of the probe, yet all but invisible to the public. But as Mueller’s investigation broadens, the so-called first daughter is becoming a long overdue part of the bigger story of alleged corruption at the Trump Organization.

Just weeks ago, immigration reform was all Congress could talk about. But in the whirlwind that is Washington politics, lawmakers’ attention spans can be short, and they’ve moved on from looking in earnest for a solution for 800,000 “Dreamers” — immigrants whose protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program President Donald Trump rescinded last year. Trump had given Congress until March 5 to come up with a legislative solution for DACA.