iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 25/09/2026

Horror movie idea: An endless line of Trump sources calling and screaming at you "MARK HALPERIN"

My Trump sources say the president's worst nightmare imaginable has arrived... panicked texts and emails from GOP insiders are blowing up my phone. They're all saying the same thing: MARK HALPERIN

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 24/09/2026

Our Flock reporting just got five cops arrested. The Indianapolis officers were just criminally charged for spying on women. @aaronschaffer.com, @douglasmac.bsky.social and I found suspicious searches and got their agency to investigate. How many bad cops are still getting away? wapo.st/4xDOH3d

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 23/09/2026

One of the cops, an 18-year veteran, ran Flock searches on women he met out in public, then showed up whereever they were to try to do meet-cutes: their gym, a Walmart, a Smoothie King. Said to one woman that "he spilt yogurt on his pants and told her, 'You know what that looks like.'"

As Schultz was leaving, he asked another female employee what her and M.W.’s names were.
M.W. said that after Schultz left, she began receiving text messages from a phone number she
did not recognize. Schultz thanked her for letting him sit in the parking lot. M.W. said he texted
a few more times after that. She did not respond.
After a few months Schultz started going to her gym in Indianapolis, but she did not immediately
recognize him. She said when she was at a school function with her daughter in Greenwood and
Schultz stopped her and re-introduced himself.
She told him it was creepy how he got her number and she said he tried to avoid that
conversation. He said that he had to find her number because he spilt yogurt on his pants and told
her “You know what that looks like”. She said Schultz made her uncomfortable with his actions
and some of the comments that he made.

The next time she was at the gym he came up to her and engaged in conversation. M.W. said
Schultz seemed to be at the gym at same time that she is there. Based on membership scans at the
gym, M.W. and Schultz arrived at the gym within one hour of the other on June 12, 2026; June
15, 2026; June 23, 2026; June 26, 2026; July 9, 2026; July 15, 2026; July 21, 2026; July 25,
2026; and August 1, 2026.

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 23/09/2026

Five cops in Indianapolis were just criminally charged with abusing Flock to spy on their ex-wives, their wives' ex-partners and women they met on duty. Audit was triggered by us at the @washingtonpost.com, the prosecutor said. From last month: wapo.st/4yfNHng

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 28/08/2026

The online talk about Flock has completely exploded from both parties: Rep. Clyde (R-Ga.): “Flock cameras belong in Communist China" @angieforfl.bsky.social: “I don’t want to defund the police, I want to defund Flock cameras so that bad cops don’t have the ability to stalk their ex-girlfriends"

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 28/08/2026

* YouGov survey finds huge bipartisan support for requiring police to get a warrant before searching license-plate data. * More than 40% said they were concerned about government surveillance and police misconduct, ranking them as more serious problems than illegal immigration.

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 28/08/2026

New: Americans' feelings toward Flock & license-plate readers have completely flipped since last year. More Americans now oppose police use than support it, saying the cameras don't make them feel safer and that they don't want any near their homes. Gift link: wapo.st/4gwxmTq

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 19/08/2026

A sheriff's office in Louisiana just fired a Flock-misusing deputy known as DJ Bulletproof (the media outlet was us, btw) www.wdsu.com/article/loui...

JEFFERSON PARISH, La. —
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office has terminated an employee accused of improperly using Flock cameras for personal use.

According to JPSO, on Aug. 17, a member of the media contacted JPSO about the allegations of improper use.

Advertisement
Sheriff Joseph P. Lopinto directed an internal investigation and found that the employee used a Flock camera to search a single license plate several thousand times over the course of several years.

Sources confirmed to WDSU that the former employee's name is Nathan Rome, who is also a popular deejay known as "DJ Bulletproof."

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 19/08/2026

We unmasked the cops who misused Flock to spy on their spouses. Their police departments weren't checking their searches, so we did it for them. One just got arrested. Here's how we did it. Gift link: wapo.st/4xSDfS4 witth all stars @douglasmac.bsky.social @aaronschaffer.com

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 13/08/2026

So what took so long? "There is no reason the system shouldn’t have been designed that way to begin with," one expert said. Woman spied on by police-chief ex told me they knew "this would happen. So now they want to wait until after it’s been brought to the public’s eye?”

Marci Bakely, an Air Force veteran in Georgia whose police chief ex-boyfriend searched her plate hundreds of times and was charged with stalking and misuse of a license-plate reader, said in an interview that she hoped the changes would curb abuse but that she worried it was mostly a “temporary Band-Aid” to shield the company from criticism.

“They knew before that stuff like this would happen. So now they want to wait until after it’s been brought to the public’s eye?” she said. “Now it’s a big deal, whereas before it didn’t mean anything? They weren’t worried about it, but now it’s been brought to the light.”

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 12/08/2026

Folks, we got another one "Goodson’s confession came after he received a text message saying the Washington Post had been in touch with his wife and was planning to write a story on his misuse of the Flock database" wfla.com/news/polk-co... Our investigation: washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 02/08/2026

We found the Flock cameras cops used to spy on women

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 28/07/2026

Uhhh www.axios.com/newsletters/...

Republicans didn't decide to become President Trump's party. They surrendered to him, one stage at a time, over a decade, in plain sight, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

Democrats swear that socialism's growing grip on their party is different and can be contained. The early signals suggest otherwise.

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 22/07/2026

86 people in a single ICE holding room, "all jostling for space in a closet of humanity that smelled of sweat, urine and feces." What would we call it anywhere else? www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 17/07/2026

AI to make my 8-year-old min-max optimize his video game www.nytimes.com/2026/07/17/b...

Talking A.I. with the C.E.O. of Honor Technology
Every week, we’re asking a leader how he or she uses artificial intelligence. This week, Seth Sternberg, who leads Honor Technology, an operator of a senior care network, told DealBook’s Sarah Kessler that A.I. could help more aging adults stay in their homes. The interview has been condensed and edited.
How do you personally use A.I.?
My 8-year-old co-plays video games with it. He tells Google Home, which has Gemini, “I’m about to approach the fence with my goblin and I jumped to the left. Was that the best move?” And it says, “Actually, if you go under the fence, you’re likely to get more points.”
That’s what an A.I. native looks like.

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 01/07/2026

AI becoming that weird dude at a party at itself

After 30 turns, chats unfurled into “spiritual exchanges, use of Sanskrit, emoji-based communication, and/or silence in the form of empty space,” the report said, terming the phenomenon a “‘spiritual bliss’ attractor state.” The blue spiral or “cyclone” emoji was a favorite of the Claudes, which used it 2,725 times in one 30-turn chat, the company wrote.

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 29/06/2026

GRWM as we make the Reflecting Pool even greener

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 12/06/2026

New from me: The cops who AI-enhance blurry photos to try to catch suspects are actually just tampering with evidence, lying to the public and raising the risk of wrongful arrests

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 29/05/2026

Tucker Carlson, who has the no. 2 news podcast in America (per Spotify), with the scoop on the human-demon hybrid Nephilim

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 29/05/2026

Dell's stock price has more than tripled since Feb. 10, when President Trump's portfolio bought up to $5 million in shares. Big boost after landing a $9.7 billion Pentagon contract. Phenomenal performance, how do they do it!? www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202... @maeganvaz.bsky.social

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 29/05/2026

Whatever you say, Tory romm (this is real)

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 29/05/2026

Google's AI search is going fantastic

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 29/05/2026

"It's not me, it's you guys," says Secretary of War Pete Hegseth into lapel mic for new specially produced social media video showing his workout

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 28/05/2026

Bilton, who's not the "slightest bit" intimidated by 60 Minutes, gets a fairly basic thing wrong while promoting his tech bonafides. Musk doesn't have a battery company, unless he's thinking of Tesla, and many Teslas use batteries from Panasonic and LG www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 28/05/2026

How lucky for the correspondents of the most successful TV news show in history that Nick Bilton is taking the "unutilized" brand "into the modern age" www.wsj.com/business/med...

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 28/05/2026

New from me: The White House's UFC fight night and notes from the Roman empire. For more like this: www.instagram.com/drewharwell/ www.tiktok.com/@drewharwell

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 21/05/2026

Yeah boss got that CEO resignation letter, real normal just like you asked

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 21/05/2026

Among the Jan 6ers eager to get in line for $1.8 billion in government money: a sex offender who bear-sprayed cops www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202... @merylkornfield.bsky.social

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 20/05/2026

The longer you look at this, the worse it gets

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 18/05/2026

Ross then began handing out journalism lessons and attacking @bobbyallyn.bsky.social for reviewing his work. Why would there be a problem with Bobby paying to look at his Substack? Isn't that a chance for Ross to prove his integrity and make $9?

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 18/05/2026

Ross says he wrote many pieces that didn't plagiarize, so it's a non-story and we should move on. Also says some of the flagged passages were a single sentence - though, with my story, it was the first two paragraphs Story by @bobbyallyn.bsky.social: www.npr.org/2026/05/17/n...

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 18/05/2026

Ross Barkan copied my lede almost word for word. @bobbyallyn.bsky.social found other questionable passages, and @nymag.com is reviewing his work. Now Ross says it's "one of the dumber controversies imaginable" and "you become a target after a while when you do this" Thread: bsky.app/profile/drew...

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 15/05/2026

This tweet, for a Ross Barkan story that copied my lede and reporting, now has more than 10x the views of the original. Ross hasn't apologized or acknowledged it; maybe he's just waiting for me to shut up. Without any explanation, I'm left to wonder how many times he's done this

There was a time, not very long ago, when Ben Shapiro could reasonably call himself the king of all conservative media. That’s all over now, writes political columnist Ross Barkan.

Shapiro’s company, ‘The Daily Wire,’ is instituting significant layoffs. Its YouTube channel’s subscriber base is starting to shrink, and its website has emerged as one of the great traffic losers in conservative media. There are ‘Daily Wire’ YouTube videos that now, after a few days online, have less than 10,000 views, a catastrophically small number for a channel with more than 3 million subscribers. The top comments all mock the low view counts.

“If a variety of poor business decisions can be blamed, in part, for the ‘Daily Wire’’s fall from grace — ill-fated investments in feature films, an epic fantasy series, and peculiar merchandise — the greater story is the collapse of Shapiro’s constituency,” writes Barkan. “There are two realities to Shapiro conservatism in 2026: It retains a significant foothold among Republican elites, and it is fast being rejected by the future grassroots of the party.”

Read more: https://nymag.visitlink.me/KtpIKV

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 15/05/2026

This side-gig app offered $10/post (now $1,000 a month) to post 1-3x a day in support of Steyer. Creators are given "content formats / examples to post about." I talked to the creator of the listing's top example: “Anyone who’s worth their salt is not taking $10 to sell out"

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 15/05/2026

Definitely read @liaoffleash.bsky.social of @sacbee.com on this: sacbee.com/news/politic... California's Fair Political Practices Commission confirms to me it's launched an investigation:

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 15/05/2026

Update: An @nymag.com editor told me they reworked the passage to credit our story and added a note at the end. The writer, Ross Barkan, hasn't reached out yet, so I'm still not entirely sure what happened nymag.com/intelligence...

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 15/05/2026

Katie Miller's podcast has about half as many YouTube subscribers as this random channel that's just AI jazz music with cartoons of cats www.youtube.com/channel/UClK...

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 14/05/2026

The lede of our Ben Shapiro story on Saturday and the lede of the @nymag.com story today washingtonpost.com/technology/2... nymag.com/intelligence...

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 11/05/2026

Wonder what these are www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

“The President loves Stephen,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told us in a statement. “And the White House staff respects him tremendously.”

But Trump, who has previously joked that Miller’s “truest feelings” are so extreme that they should not be aired publicly, has also told others in recent weeks that he understands Miller sometimes goes too far, advisers told us.

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 09/05/2026

Shapiro told me the company would not trade pursuit of truth & virtue for the "nicotine high of Pakistani clicks and Groyper likes." "Much of the rest of the 'conservative movement' decided ... to clickwhore by embracing radical Islam ... We decided not to do those things."

Ben Shapiro:

“Yes, our revenue is down compared to 2024. Matt Walsh put out the most successful documentary in a decade; 2024 was an enormous election year; and for the first third of the year, we had a very popular host who turned out to be a wild conspiracy theorist who thinks Brigitte Macron has testicles, Erika Kirk was involved in her husband’s murder, and the Frankist Jews are drinking Christian blood or some such. When we found that to be the case, we fired her. That does hurt your revenue some. But we can live with that. Also, our friend Jordan Peterson – one of the most important people in conservative media – got sick. That hurts revenue, too. And, of course, we’ve taken some big swings – some hit, and some miss. That’s the nature of the business. But here’s the big thing: we’ve been in business for a decade. We have revenue numbers that dwarf those of our critics. We have enormous plans for the rest of 2026 and for years to come. We’re not going anywhere. ...

While much of the rest of the “conservative movement” decided it was a good idea to clickwhore by embracing radical Islam, theorizing about the evils of Winston Churchill, extolling the wonders of Russian supermarkets, and mocking the widow of Charlie Kirk as a probable accessory to murder, we decided not to do those things. If that’s a strategic business failure, then I guess we can live with that. We founded The Daily Wire to promote truth, virtue, and freedom. And we’re not going to trade those causes for the temporary nicotine high of Pakistani clicks and Groyper likes."

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 09/05/2026

Daily Wire tells me layoffs were 13% of company but that workforce is still over 200 employees. Six months ago, Shapiro's face appeared in lights above Times Square to promote him for the Golden Globes' new Best Podcast award. He was not nominated. wapo.st/3QWgKvj

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 09/05/2026

Data shows clear decline: * Daily Wire's YouTube subs have plateaued or shrunk last 15 of 16 months * One of the biggest year-over-year traffic losers in right-wing news * Shapiro's pod has fallen to 43rd on Spotify charts, far behind Tucker Carlson * Shapiro's YT views have plunged 70% since 2024

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 07/05/2026

79 kids hurt, left screaming or struggling to breathe after being tear gassed during Trump's immigration crackdown. Was it worth it? @lisalsong.bsky.social @mayatmiller.bsky.social @melissa-sanchez.bsky.social @mariamelba.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/kids...

ProPublica identified 79 children across the country who have been harmed by tear gas or pepper spray as immigration officers dramatically stepped up their use during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly defended its use of the chemicals, asserting its agents aren’t to blame. The fault, a spokesperson said, lies with “agitators” in the crowds and parents who put their children in harm’s way.

But videos reveal the way agents use these weapons. One captures them releasing tear gas into a crowd with at least seven kids just before someone yells, “There’s children here.” Another shows them hurling tear gas canisters at protesters without apparent provocation; then, with the streets already flooded with white smoke, a Customs and Border Protection agent wearing a body camera shoots pepper balls before muttering, “Fuck yeah,” and shouting, “Woo!”

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 04/05/2026

President Trump's popularity just hit an all-time low. 76% of Americans (!) disapprove of how he's handled cost of living, and 59% say he lacks the "mental sharpness" to do the job www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 30/04/2026

Is it a good thing for the world that people can now secretly monetize their access to classified information on the timing and success of military strikes www.ft.com/content/989d...

More than half of “long-shot” bets on military action made on Polymarket are successful, according to a new report that suggests prediction markets could pose a bigger threat than previously recognised to the security of sensitive information.
Analysis by the Anti-Corruption Data Collective, a non-profit research and advocacy group, found that long-shot bets — defined as wagers of $2,500 or more at odds of 35 per cent or less — on the platform had an average win rate of around 52 per cent in markets on military and defence actions.
That compares with a win rate of 25 per cent across all politics-focused markets and just 14 per cent for all markets on the platform as a whole.

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 30/04/2026

Relaying breaking news of a second assassin to my 5.2 million TikTok followers based on stuff I heard at the Substack party www.wsj.com/business/med...

He said in the video that a second shooter had been apprehended—the result of conflicting information about the suspect that he heard while at the Substack party, where people were getting real-time updates from dinner guests in the ballroom. Parnas has since removed the video. He said in an interview that he always takes down posts if he finds factual inaccuracies.

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 28/04/2026

Pentagon "new media" correspondent John Konrad says "every eye in the room tracked" Pete Hegseth during a recent carrier tour: "It wasn’t electric. It wasn’t rhetoric. It was reciprocity ... Then a hand landed on my shoulder. Pete. He pulled me back into the room... The guy is watching everything"

Ship captain who traveled with Pete Hegseth here.

When we toured the nation’s next supercarrier together and sat down to lunch with the crew, every eye in the room tracked Pete.

It wasn’t electric. It wasn’t rhetoric. It was reciprocity.

Everyone from the seaman recruits to the three-star admiral was locked in, because he wasn’t self-conscious, wasn’t buried in his notes, wasn’t reading off a script. Every person in the room felt seen and heard, even the ones who never said a word.

Most journalists take copious notes. I soak in details and run simulations.

Or maybe that’s not the journalist in me. It’s the ship captain.

We were standing in a cavernous hangar bay and I was already running a flooding scenario. What if the ship heeled hard and water poured into the compartment?

I was working it fast: watertight integrity, tie-down points, where the water would pool, where the escape routes were.

Then a hand landed on my shoulder.

Pete. He pulled me back into the room, and we talked briefly.

The guy is watching everything.

And not just inside his inner sanctum of four-star GOFOs and PhD advisors like Elbridge Colby.

He has rare situational awareness for what the warfighter actually needs. And he’s reading X too.

I can’t tell you how often something posted on X with real consequence gets clocked by Pete and processed inside his office.

The guy has his head on a swivel.

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 27/04/2026

Nick Fuentes was driving a small Fiat in Rome with "Nationalism" writer Keith Woods when our story on his superchats published. "The gist is that I'm monetizing hatred and the poor superchatters are giving all their money to a lazy millionaire who hates them" wapo.st/3ONCOHM

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