Olivia Bensimon

Empty NYCHA Apartments Pose Safety Risks, Opportunities for Squatters: Report - City Limits Squatters took up illegal residence in hundreds of empty NYCHA apartments in recent years, as the units waited for often extensive repair work before they could be rented out again.

The growing number of vacant apartments at NYCHA is creating safety risks in buildings, a Department of Investigation report warns—including opportunities for squatters and trespassers, who’ve taken over hundreds of empty units in recent years. citylimits.org/empty-nycha-...

Lots of dog shit articles these days but this is the only one where you also get a lesson in philosophy!!

@oliviabensimon.bsky.social hot on turd beat arguing that winter isn't an excuse to be a shitty neighbor

New York City Is Drowning in Dog Poop The disgusting calling cards of jerk dog owners are everywhere—on our sidewalks, in our darkest thoughts, and yes, smeared across our shoes.

For every heartwarming scene of a New Yorker helping their neighbor dig out of the snow, there are seemingly 10 other instances of people letting their dogs defecate on the social compact. Read why @oliviabensimon.bsky.social is now measuring her life in frozen turds:

Reader: she did get the fuck out 🫶

Insight: Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped. Hundreds of judges around the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully, a Reuters review of court records found.

Hundreds of judges around the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully, a Reuters review of court records found.

U.S. Deports Nine Migrants in Secret, Ignoring Legal Protections

In a secret deportation arrangement, the Trump administration flew nine people, nearly all of whom had been granted U.S. court protections from being sent back to their home countries, to Cameroon.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/w...

Looking to speak to a philosopher about the erosion of our social contract!!!!!!!!!

ICE Moved Detainees to Previously Undisclosed Floor of 26 Federal Plaza A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reduce overcrowding and squalid conditions at a Manhattan holding room. Months later, he finds ICE merely shifted floors.

ICE officials, under a judge’s order to clean up overcrowded and squalid conditions inside holding cells at 26 Federal Plaza detained migrants on a separate floor where they decided the the ruling didn't apply. The revelation comes in a hearing today:

www.thecity.nyc/2026/02/09/2...

Williamsburg Changes, But Toñita Still Reigns - Hell Gate For 50 years, Maria Antonia "Toñita" Cay has overseen the Caribbean Social Club in Williamsburg. It's now the last Puerto Rican social club in Brooklyn.

Eagle-eyed watchers of Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show would have spied Toñita, the queen of Los Sures, AKA Williamsburg.

Read all about Maria Antonia “Toñita” Cay here: hellgatenyc.com/williamsburg...

When Prison Body Scanners Mistake Tampons and Piercings for Contraband

When Prison Body Scanners Mistake Tampons and Piercings for Contraband www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/n...

February Books: Maci, Reimann, Clark Essays from Enis Maci, a novella by the GDR's Brigitte Reimann, and Christopher Clark's nineteenth-century Prussia.

The Auflauf, a new newsletter for Berlin books, is here! Fresh out the oven: book reviews from me, @return2sanders.bsky.social and @brynstole.bsky.social; not to mention some hot literary gossip... Interviews and more to come!

‘Das glut’: why Germans are handing out free potatoes Tracking the ambitious plan to distribute 4 million kg of surplus spuds

Sleuth @ruthbetold.bsky.social was hot on the potato trail around Berlin in search of free spuds amid the great glut. Really delightful dispatch in the FT magazine. www.ft.com/content/1554...

Uhoh

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

Border Czar Tom Homan: ‘I’m staying ‘til the problem is gone’
minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/29/h...

read ALL about the german potato glut by @ruthbetold.bsky.social

An American Street

In One Image

An American Street

By David Guttenfelder and Thomas Gibbons-Neff

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u...

Video: New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti A frame-by-frame assessment of actions by Alex Pretti and the two officers who fired 10 times shows how lethal force came to be used against a target who didn’t pose a threat.

This devastating video analysis of the execution of Alex Pretti makes it clear: a CPB coward shot an unarmed man in the back. www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...

They ‘Had Done Everything Right.’ ICE Detained Them Anyway.

We profiled refugees who:

Arrived in the country legally.

Applied for green cards.

Were arrested by ICE and detained.

One refugee who was arrested found out they got their green card after being released.

This is an unprecedented operation.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/u...

Update from Hamed Aleaziz

"John Mitnick, who once was the head attorney at the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration, criticized his former agency on Saturday night. 'I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty,' he wrote" www.nytimes.com/live/2026/us...

Live Updates: Federal Agents Kill a 37-Year-Old Minneapolis Man

"Videos contradict the federal government’s description of the shooting, a New York Times analysis found." www.nytimes.com/live/2026/us...

The People vs. ICE Renee Good’s death galvanized a city eager to push back against Trump’s invasion.

I wrote about Minneapolis.

nymag.com/intelligence...

ICE detains five-year-old Minnesota boy as he came home, say school officials Superintendent says Liam Ramos and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway and sent to Texas

ICE detained a 5-year-old Minnesota boy coming home from school + took him and his dad to Texas, school officials say. The family has an active asylum case + entered the US at a port of entry.

"They’re taking children. They're not violent criminals. They're little kids," the superintendent told me.

Video: Videos Contradict Trump Administration Account of ICE Shooting in Minneapolis An analysis of footage from three camera angles shows that the motorist was driving away from — not toward — a federal officer when he opened fire.

A New York Times video analysis of an ICE agent’s fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis contradicts the Trump administration’s account. Watch our investigation here.

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

"Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents.

They’ve had their necks kneeled on.

They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear.

At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them."

(Published Oct. 2025)

ICE officer fatally shoots driver through car window in Minneapolis • Minnesota Reformer The driver then slowly backs up and appears to be leaving, when another officer fires three shots.

ICE officer fatally shoots driver through car window in Minneapolis minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/07/i...

Europe and Rest of World Try to Come to Terms With Trump the Imperialist

“Europe and Rest of World Try to Come to Terms With Trump the Imperialist:
Needing U.S. support to fend off Russia in Ukraine, European leaders have been cautious about criticizing President Trump on Greenland, Iran, Venezuela and much else.” — www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/w...

Live Updates: Explosions Are Reported in Venezuela’s Capital It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts. The United States has been building pressure on Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian president, for months.

Breaking News: Explosions were reported in Venezuela’s capital, with eyewitnesses describing smoke coming out of military installations and aircraft overhead. Follow live updates.

Video: How ‘Turn and Burn’ Immigration Operations Unleash Chaos — and Sweep up U.S. Citizens A video analysis of one early morning raid in Los Angeles revealed the vast web of consequences brought by new aggressive Border Patrol tactics.

Take 25 minutes to watch the "turn and burn" tactics used in U.S. raids targeting migrants and citizens alike -- meticulously reconstructed by @robinsteinnyt.bsky.social @devonlum.bsky.social @ajcardia.bsky.social & more.
www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...