A camper held two federal biologists hostage for 15 hours. He mostly wanted someone to talk to.

01 • 17 Minute Read

The Atlantic

Joshua Partlow

The Growing Lawlessness in California's Forests

On the morning of July 16, Joseph Charles Henrichsen approached two Forest Service biologists surveying frogs at Gumboot Lake, California, holding an AR-15-style rifle. He zip-tied their wrists and marched them to his camping trailer, where his 23-year-old son Phoenix was staying. He drove one biologist to their truck and radioed a Forest Service dispatcher, demanding an FBI investigator be sent so they could "talk things through." More than 50 FBI agents, local SWAT teams, and a hostage-rescue team flown in from Virginia surrounded the campsite. Henrichsen negotiated with an FBI agent for roughly nine hours, telling him to come unarmed. Just after 1 a.m., both biologists walked free unharmed. Ninety minutes later, after agents set off flash-bangs, Phoenix and then Charles surrendered. Both were later charged with kidnapping federal employees, a charge carrying the possibility of life in prison, and pleaded not guilty.

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02 • 16 Minute Read

The 19th

Shefali Luthra

Tina wanted another baby. She also needed an abortion. Texas made both harder.

Collage featuring a positive pregnancy test and two women standing back to back against the shape of Texas

Five weeks before Tina's surrogate, her sister-in-law, was set to give birth to her second child, Tina discovered she was pregnant. She had spent years battling uterine scarring, miscarriages, and an ectopic pregnancy. Now she was faced with two newborns eight months apart, and it was not something she and her husband could take on. Getting an abortion in Texas meant first ruling out another ectopic pregnancy, and neither Planned Parenthood nor an emergency room could tell her where the embryo had implanted. Her longtime OBGYN eventually confirmed it was in her uterus, then said she could not help beyond suggesting Tina look online. Tina ordered pills from a Massachusetts telehealth service for about $250 and took them on a weekend camping trip.

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03 • 15 Minute Read

The Atlantic

Ali Breland

Inside a Conservative Operation to Hijack Your Social-Media Feed

A phone with a red elephant and cash spiraling into it

A man going by Serviuos runs a campaign called Elephant Clipping from Riga, Latvia, paying subcontractors, many outside the U.S., to chop up video into clips designed to look like ordinary Americans spontaneously touting the GOP. Clippers are told to use U.S. proxy servers, hide their location, and add no disclosure that they're being paid, earning $300 per million views off a $300,000 monthly budget. Some accounts accidentally posted the campaign's own instructions in their captions, exposing the operation. Tracing the Google Drive folders behind Elephant Clipping and a related Norwegian-run campaign led to employees of Enclave & Key, a Las Vegas marketing firm run by Blake Wynn, nephew of conservative mega-donor Steve Wynn, who has described regular contact with FBI Director Kash Patel and a friendship with the late Charlie Kirk. When the reporter began reaching out for comment, the Discord listings and Google Drive folders started disappearing within a day, with the same files reappearing under an unaffiliated email address.

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04 • 20 Minute Read

The Guardian

Simon Hattenstone

'I don't chase the dollar. I never did': the astonishing hidden life of Mr T

Simon Hattenstone interviewed Mr. T for the Guardian ahead of Untold Mr T: I Pity the Fool, which premieres on Netflix September 8. Mr. T agreed to promote it and then spent most of two hours attacking it. His objection to the documentary is that it presents his exit from fame as a fall caused by ego and bad decisions, but his contention is that he says he simply stopped. Hattenstone writes well about Mr. T, born Lawrence Tureaud, and his journey from Chicago's South Side to the heights of television and movie fame to a quieter life as a 74 year old cancer survivor.

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A camper held two federal biologists hostage for 15 hours. He mostly wanted someone to talk to.

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