Helen Li

Who are ICE’s newest recruits? For @theintercept, I traveled to Provo, Utah to find out. Prospects ran the gamut from college students seeking debt relief to those parroting white nationalist talking points. theintercept.com/2025/09/24/dhs…

On a side note: I read Chang-Rae Lee, Frank Chin, and Karen Tei Yamashita in my Asian American Lit course. I think years from now, just like how we looked to diasporic authors who wrote about the California gold rush, classrooms might use this to talk about the 2020s AI boom.

Viola always makes sure to include the small colorful details about room decor and human mannerisms that really paint the scene. Incredible reporting and incorporation of a first person perspective.

Who actually shapes AI policy in the U.S.? We mapped 1,812 entities: 745 people, 918 organizations, 2,925 relationships. Frontier Labs, AI Safety orgs, Think Tanks, Government, VCs, and more. mapping-ai.org

I'm a reporter (and lawyer) covering Musk v. Altman for @techreview. Here's what's going on day 2 of the trial at the Oakland federal courthouse. Elon Musk and Sam Altman are here. Musk will likely testify today. Opening statements from both parties' lawyers to come soon.

This narrative is so detailed and juicy. I finished it and now I feel excited to read the next installment. Hard to describe, but it almost taps into the same nostalgic feelings of counting down the days, waiting for Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins to come out in high school.

“As you start to grow up, and your body changes, and things are harder, and school gets harder, you can’t fulfill all of your dreams. They look at Alysa and say: ‘Hey, I’m gonna go back and I’m gonna finish my dreams here,’” her coach Phillip DiGuglielmo said. So true!

Back in March 2025, I flew to Oakland to interview a figure skater who was making a comeback on her own terms. Alysa Liu said that she takes her skating very seriously, but she doesn’t take competitions seriously. She is now the new women’s figure skating Olympic champion🥇!

Thank you to @kaylawebley for the edits and commission! I always love the opportunity to write about the intersection of sports and culture.

For many athletes, the road to the Milan-Cortina Games not only included months of intense training, but also fertility treatments, birth, spontaneous runs for breastfeeding coolers, and pushing for systemic change.

Often as the race to medal closes, the next race—to have a baby in time to train for the next Olympics—begins. For @ELLEmagazine , I got to speak with athlete moms about their journeys and the meticulous planning involved with having a kid as an Olympian. elle.com/life-love/sex-…

MY LATEST ⁦@latimes⁩ COLUMNA: The ex-landscaper behind the deportation diary L.A. never wanted. RT, porfas! latimes.com/california/sto…

Law enforcement physically attacked 72 journalists covering immigration in LA this year—more than double the city’s 2020 BLM protest total, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. lapublicpress.org/2025/11/indy-r…

Zohran Mamdani built an anti-loneliness campaign. He met voters who were attached to screens, isolated from the pandemic, spiritually unmoored — and got them out of the house, because the political, to them, was personal. W/ the wonderful @boreskes nytimes.com/2025/11/04/nyr…

You can read our full story here, as well as a note about how we decided to include and categorize cases propublica.org/article/immigr…

Wdym it’s both time for the 2025 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Jakarta AND the ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix de France in Angers?? 🤸🏾‍♀️⛸️ for those of us who love technical and artistic sports, t’is the season!

Many supported the administration’s hard-line approach to immigration, or were convinced that whatever ethical quibbles they might have with current immigration enforcement could be separated from the job itself. A wide array of characters. I hope you’ll give the story a read.

Who are ICE’s newest recruits? For @theintercept, I traveled to Provo, Utah to find out. Prospects ran the gamut from college students seeking debt relief to those parroting white nationalist talking points. theintercept.com/2025/09/24/dhs…

After anti-corruption #GenZprotests and a deadly uprising forced the prime minister and government to resign, #Nepal searches for a new politics that can jettison its failed establishment. Himal editor @romangautam writes from #Kathmandu himalmag.com/politics/nepal…

Richmond’s new memorials expose hidden history beyond the Confederacy wapo.st/3V6Vnq2 @SchneiderG