Kendall Taggart
@kendalltaggart.bsky.social
Investigative reporter joining @ProPublica Sept 1. Formerly @bloomberg @buzzfeednews @reveal. Reachable on Signal: @kendall.12
“I didn’t really think I was doing groundbreaking journalism,” he said. “I was just like, this is another piece of homework that I have to do today." www.wired.com/story/epstei...
A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the Epstein Files. Adults Freaked Out
An Instagram post turned one California student newspaper into a free-speech flash point. The students say they were just doing their homework.
wired.com
“The Persian Gulf has been transformed into a vast nautical prison for low-wage sea workers, collateral damage in the standoff between the U.S. and Tehran. Not classified as prisoners of war, these seafarers are stuck…and running low on basic provisions.” www.wsj.com/world/middle...
Trapped in the Strait: The Sailors Low on Supplies and Stuck in a War Zone
Some 20,000 seafarers are stranded in the Persian Gulf. Many are dodging drones or rationing food as they wait for an escape plan.
wsj.com
“In January, the agent sent more than a dozen officials at other agencies an email summarizing his preliminary findings. He wrote that…he had concluded that Meta stores and can view WhatsApp messages.“ 🎁 link from @bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
US Ends Investigation Into Claims WhatsApp Chats Aren’t Private
A US agency abruptly closed an investigation into allegations that Meta Platforms Inc. can access encrypted WhatsApp messages, said two people familiar with the matter, ending a law enforcement inquir...
bloomberg.com
“The US gave a hall pass to the networks we’ve been tirelessly degrading for the past decade,” said David Tannenbaum, a former official at the Treasury. “This is a major shot in the arm — to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars” 🎁 link via @bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump Sanctions Pivot Helps Iran Oil Tycoons Boost War Profits
Sanctioned traders, including Hossein Shamkhani, have been able to move oil through the Strait of Hormuz and exploit higher prices.
bloomberg.com
The Pentagon has given the AI giant Anthropic until 5 pm Friday to remove guardrails that prohibit the use of its models for fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. Katrina Manson, Maggie Eastland and I dug into the ongoing feud and what it means for the future of war. 🎁 link
Anthropic’s Pentagon Showdown Is About More Than AI Guardrails
The high-stakes conflict between the Defense Department and a $380 billion tech powerhouse goes to the heart of just how far AI can go in warfare.
bloomberg.com
We have launched a new fundraiser to support The Washington Post's courageous international employees and local staff who were laid off, who are not eligible for Guild protections, and who face additional logistical challenges and security risks. Please give & share widely: gofund.me/e765aab9f
Donate to Support for Washington Post international employees, organized by Michelle Lee
Among the hundreds of journalists laid off by The Washington Post on … Michelle Lee needs your support for Support for Washington Post international employees
gofund.me
The annual Bloomberg Businessweek Jealousy List, where we each identify the one piece of journalism from the past 12 months that we think is absolutely not to be missed. The only stipulation: We only pick stories from rival outlets, never the home team. 🎁 link: www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
The Stories We Most Admired in 2025: Businessweek’s Jealousy List
The stories we admired most this year.
bloomberg.com
NEW: For months, my colleagues and I dug into YouTube's conservative airwaves and found a flourishing network of host-read ads on right-leaning podcasts. This phenomenon has enriched hosts, YouTube, and businesses that use ideology to sell. bloom.bg/3Kaio9w
We dug into a similar situation in Colombia a couple years ago. Four children died and more than a hundred fell ill after receiving a drug that’s often used in chemotherapy treatment, @bloomberg.com found. This shouldn’t keep happening. 🎁 link www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
How Sick Kids Got Contaminated Cancer Drugs
Hospitals around the world use drugs from a small but crucial Indian supplier. In Colombia four children died and more than a hundred fell ill.
bloomberg.com
Kendall Taggart@kendalltaggart.bsky.social · 11mo agoArgentina is going through one of its worst health crises: more than 100 people died after receiving contaminated fentanyl in hospitals in different provinces. @elhilopodcast.bsky.social talks with the families who were forced to investigate on their own what happened to their loved ones.
Argentina is going through one of its worst health crises: more than 100 people died after receiving contaminated fentanyl in hospitals in different provinces. @elhilopodcast.bsky.social talks with the families who were forced to investigate on their own what happened to their loved ones.
El hilo@elhilopodcast.bsky.social · 11mo agoArgentina atraviesa una de sus peores crisis sanitarias: más de 100 personas murieron tras recibir fentanilo contaminado en hospitales de distintas provincias. 🎧 En este episodio te contamos más: elhilo.audio/261
The idea of using private equity firms to manage foreign development is gaining steam. So we started digging into what happened after the Wall Street giant TPG took over hospitals in Africa and Asia. Here are the takeaways 🎁 link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Takeaways From Bloomberg Investigation of Hospitals Owned by TPG
After a private equity giant was brought in to manage facilities in Africa and Asia, complaints piled up.
bloomberg.com
Journalism has brought me into contact with a lot of sources who tried to blow the whistle. Often, those people ask to be anonymous. This is the rare story of someone who took on a major Wall Street firm and is willing to tell her story. 🎁 link www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
A Private Equity Giant Took Over African Hospitals. Then the Complaints Rolled In
TPG told investors — including the World Bank, the Gates Foundation and Bono — that it would expand access to health care. Whistleblowers say it put profit ahead of patient safety.
bloomberg.com
Important read from the always impeccable @azmatzahra.bsky.social among many other strong contributors. Every journalist, as well as open source researchers, should take a moment for this and take action now to defend press freedom in Gaza.
Ahmed Zidan@zidan.bsky.social · 12mo ago"We need to alter our mindset and make structural changes to how we operate and how we advocate, or we will watch our colleagues be wiped out in place after place and conflict after conflict," @nickturse.bsky.social tells @columjournreview.bsky.social.
It would be unthinkable for an urban firefighter to enter a burning home with no mask. But internal records revealed the US Forest Service’s rationale for not equipping firefighters with masks: to admit the dangers of smoke, triggering a cascade of costly changes. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/u...
Wildfire Fighters, Unmasked in Toxic Smoke, Are Getting Sick and Dying
nytimes.com
How the new health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is dismantling the F.D.A. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/m...
Inside the Collapse of the F.D.A.
nytimes.com
Eye-opening reporting from @tchristianmiller.bsky.social and Sebastian Rotella about how El Salvador’s government impeded a U.S. Probe of MS-13 www.propublica.org/article/buke...
“Delay, Interfere, Undermine”
President Donald Trump has praised Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele as a crime fighter, but new reporting based on interviews and documents reveals how senior Salvadoran officials have impeded a U.S....
propublica.org
The government’s own data, obtained by @propublica.org, @texastribune.org and journalists from Venezuela, showed that officials knew that only 32 of the deportees had been convicted of U.S. crimes and that most were nonviolent offenses www.propublica.org/article/trum...
Trump Administration Knew Vast Majority of Venezuelans Sent to Salvadoran Prison Had Not Been Convicted of U.S. Crimes
Homeland Security records reveal that officials knew that more than half of the 238 deportees were labeled as having no criminal record in the U.S. and had only violated immigration laws.
propublica.org
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 for the reporting, sources and #foia work that led to the release of this important memo, which further undercuts the Trump administration’s rationale for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport scores of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/u...
Spy Agencies Do Not Think Venezuela Directs Gang, Declassified Memo Shows
nytimes.com
"Washington Post review of websites operated by the National Park Service — among the key agencies charged with the preservation of American history — found that edits on dozens of pages since Trump’s inauguration have already softened descriptions of some of the most shameful moments of the nation"
Big Ol’ Mush@chadstanton.blacksky.app · last yr.“Tubman’s photograph is now gone. In its place are images of Postal Service stamps that highlight “Black/White cooperation” in the secret network and that feature Tubman among abolitionists of both races.” wapo.st/4jdXL8m
Incredible @laurawags.bsky.social profile of NPR's Anas Baba, whose bravery is unmatched www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/...
For NPR’s Anas Baba, covering the war in Gaza also means living it
The NPR producer is one of few Palestinian journalists working with a U.S. news organization to file dispatches from Gaza.
washingtonpost.com
For more than a year, my colleague Justin Scheck and I looked into why domestic workers from across East Africa, who are promised jobs and a better life in Saudi Arabia, continued to face abuse, starvation and death. Here's what we found.
East African Housekeepers Face Rape, Assault and Death in Saudi Arabia (Gift Article)
East African leaders and Saudi royals are among those profiting off a lucrative, deadly trade in domestic workers.
nytimes.com
Scoop: As federal health agencies are gutted, Kyle Diamantas, a Florida attorney w/ a slim resume + no prior gov't experience, is the new head of food safety at @US_FDA. Turns out, he's Donald Trump Jr.'s hunting buddy, @vanityfair.com is reporting exclusively: www.vanityfair.com/news/story/f... /1
America’s Food Safety Is Now in the Hands of Don Jr.’s Hunting Buddy
As federal health agencies are gutted with abandon, a Florida attorney with a history of hunting with the president’s son has been put in charge of food safety at the FDA, overseeing the nation’s food...
vanityfair.com
Incredible stuff in here: They ID'ed him, in part, by going to court hearings and watching him post
steven monacelli@stevanzetti.bsky.social · last yr.REVEALED: we identified the operator of an overtly racist X account, "GlomarResponder," as ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden, based on an overwhelming number of biographical details matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation.
The Dep't of Health and Human Services laid off employees Saturday evening across some of its biggest agencies, including the FDA and CDC. Those laid off included people who evaluate the safety of medical devices. @rachelcohrs.bsky.social @bloomberg.com Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
US Health Department Layoffs Expand to Medicare, FDA
The Department of Health and Human Services laid off employees Saturday evening across some of its biggest agencies — the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, ...
bloomberg.com
"The administration has put members of the team within USAID responsible for maintaining the notification system on leave or locked out those remaining...The move has put at risk the lives of US citizens & other aid workers in countries where the US has military operations, including Yemen & Syria."
Kendall Taggart@kendalltaggart.bsky.social · last yr.New story on one of consequences of the Trump administration’s cuts at USAID: The system designed to alert the military about humanitarian aid workers locations in war zones is offline 🎁 link www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
New story on one of consequences of the Trump administration’s cuts at USAID: The system designed to alert the military about humanitarian aid workers locations in war zones is offline 🎁 link www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
USAID Shutdown Imperils Humanitarian Convoys in Conflict Zones
The Trump administration’s push to shutter the agency means it's unable to warn the US military where aid workers are operating
bloomberg.com
New from @bloomberg.com: A 19-year-old member of Elon Musk’s squad that’s criss-crossing US government agencies was fired from an internship after he was accused of sharing information with a competitor. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Musk’s DOGE Teen Was Fired By Cybersecurity Firm for Leaking Company Secrets
Edward Coristine posted online that he had retained access to the firm’s servers. Now he has access to sensitive government information.
bloomberg.com
🎁 Gift Link: Most USAID Staff Across the World Will Be Put on Leave This Week www.bloomberg.com/news/article... by @jasonleopold.bsky.social and John Harney
Most USAID Staff Across the World Will Be Put on Leave This Week
Most employees of the US Agency for International Development will be placed on administrative leave starting Friday.
bloomberg.com
