Minerva Canto

Longtime journalist. Ex LA Times, OC Register, AP and more. BOD president of @InlandiaInst literary org. VONA /StonecoastMFA alum writing memoir. CDMX native.

[Nieman Lab @NiemanLab]

Erin Brockovich, the environmental activist whose name and work you may recognize from the Oscar-winning movie Erin Brockovich, has created a tool to map data centers across the country.

https://t.co/4bFvu0B4wN

[Max Tani @maxwelltani]

The AP is licensing its election data to OpenAI through the 2028 election

[David Folkenflik @davidfolkenflik]

Some veteran NPR journalists depart in buyouts & layoffs in aftershock of elimination of federal subsidies for public media.

Editor in chief Tommy Evans: "Today has been incredibly heavy." Cuts amount to 4% of content division.

My story:
https://t.co/UJDoveEUUL

[Juan Forero @WSJForero]

Criticize a close U.S. ally — get your visas to visit the U.S. yanked.

In this case, the weapon was leveled at Costa Rican journalists who’ve written mean things about the government.

https://t.co/ENQvuMuBaS

[Garance Burke @garanceburke]

Deeply honored that my work in collaboration with our incredible global @AP team today won the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting.

Huge thanks to our sources, editors + the @PulitzerPrizes.

Grateful for these stories' continued real-world impact: https://t.co/tyZxNqVlax

[Phil Stewart @phildstewart]

(Reuters) - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday she was not aware U.S. embassy officials were working with the northern state of Chihuahua to combat drug cartels and said her government would review whether national security law was broken, after the officials died in a car crash.

Two U.S. officials and two Mexican state officials were killed in a car crash on Sunday where they had been working to destroy clandestine drug laboratories.

Speaking at her daily morning press conference, Sheinbaum said she would ask U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson to meet with Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco to discuss the incident.

The role of U.S. personnel in anti-cartel missions is highly sensitive in Mexico and Sheinbaum has repeatedly said that while intelligence sharing and security cooperation are essential to fighting organized crime, Mexico will not accept U.S. boots on the ground.

In contrast, U.S. President Donald Trump has called for greater use of U.S. military force to combat Mexican cartels.

The embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Mexican officials killed in the accident were the director of the state's investigation agency and an officer, state authorities said on Sunday. Ambassador Johnson, in a post on X mourning the incident, did not identify the U.S. embassy staff that died.

[Ronan Farrow @RonanFarrow]

Separate research on California mayoral races found that when newsrooms shrink, elections grow less competitive: fewer candidates run, margins widen, and more incumbents go unopposed.
https://t.co/Fl9iwlRNuA

[Jennifer Griffin @JenGriffinFNC]

At high stakes Pentagon meeting today Sec Hegseth gave Anthropic head Dario Amodei ultimatum to allow the Pentagon to use Anthropic’s AI model for mass domestic surveillance and kinetic autonomous operations without human oversight or face censure and be labeled “supply chain threat.”

According to a source familiar:
The meeting was cordial, not a dressing down, not a screaming match, all business.

Hegseth praised the Anthropic product but then said if by Friday Anthropic does not agree to the Pentagon’s use of the model without restrictions, then Hegseth would terminate the contract and use the Defense Production Act to force Anthropic to comply AND/OR designate Anthropic a supply chain threat and national security risk. (EDIT: Both are mutually exclusive. You can’t be a supply chain risk but also invoke the DPA to say that the country needs this product so much for national security that it will override any restrictions put in place by the company that limits govt access to the product. Both cannot be true.)

At issue is Anthropic’s two stipulations that its advanced AI model currently used in the Pentagon’s classified systems is NOT used for autonomous kinetic operations (Anthropic currently requires human oversight of autonomous operations when used to kill things for safety reasons because they don’t know how the autonomous system will react and could even endanger soldiers using the model; soldiers and others could lose control of the model and automatically start killing large groups without humans in the “kill chain.”) Second Anthropic bars its models from being used for mass domestic surveillance. Hegseth wants these restrictions lifted.

According to a source familiar with the talks, Anthropic has never objected to the use of its models for “legitimate military operations.” It also told the Hegseth it never complained to the Pentagon or Palantir about the use of its models in the Maduro raid.

[Rolling Stone @RollingStone]

How the United States Arms the Mexican Cartels

In an excerpt from "Exit Wounds," author Ieva Jusionyte traces the deadly pipeline of assault weapons into the hands of organized crime.
https://t.co/CSl1LOUsHq

[Minerva Canto @MinervaCanto]

👁️👁️

[Megan Menchaca @meganmmenchaca]

Editor of a major Ohio news organization says they have removed “writing” from certain reporters’ workloads.

Reporters collect facts and an “AI rewrite specialist” writes the article.

That article is then reviewed by editors + reporters before publication.

[Rosie Birchard @RosieBirchard]

Sánchez really leaning into his image now as Europe’s anti-Trump — always ready to rile the administration.

Here he is exchanging book gifts with Gavin Newsom: Sánchez offers Don Quixote and talks of “standing against giants.” Newsom offers a copy of the Handmaid’s Tale.

[Lauren Goode @LaurenGoode]

A new petition signed by more than 800 Googlers urges the co to at least acknowledge recent events and any work it may be doing with immigration authorities. It was organized by Google & Amazon workers who oppose what they call tech militarism https://t.co/MKnquyE3yh via @peard33

[Eric Lee @EricLeeAtty]

UT Southwestern Prof & infectious disease expert Dr. Krutika Kuppalli publishes letter titled "Measles in an ICE facility is a public health failure."

"This outbreak should not be framed as an anomaly or a breakdown in operations. It is the foreseeable result of policy choices that confine people, including children, in high-risk environments without the basic protections required to safeguard health and life."

[Rozina Ali @rozina_ali]

Gutting international desks is troubling for another reason : deeply reported coverage helps shape foreign policy, and affects thousands of lives abroad.

Washington Post journalists have done tremendous work documenting the horrors of US wars, and shifting national convo.

[Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney]

JUST IN: Judge Simon bars ICE from using aggressive tactics against protesters and journalists, beginning his opinion with this preamble:

"Our nation is now at a crossroads. In helping our nation find its constitutional compass, an impartial and independent judiciary operating under the rule of law has a responsibility that it may not shirk."

https://t.co/2tjtRm7vqW

[Minerva Canto @MinervaCanto]

@capitalandmain Congratulations @LAJourno and team for this award recognizing your investigative reporting and work on an important topic. The stories detailed disturbing findings. Glad to see increased enforcement action following publication.

[capitalandmain.com @capitalandmain]

Robert J. Lopez, Barbara Davidson and Lorena Iñiguez Elebee have won the December Sidney Award for an investigation that found California is failing to protect underage farmworkers.
https://t.co/H0loMhM0DJ

[Mariel Garza @marielgarzaGS]

For those of you who may have wondered what I have been up to during my post-L.A. Times year, it's this 👇

Please check it out at https://t.co/e8gkfu6XWJ and let me know what you think

[Minerva Canto @MinervaCanto]

"They intentionally wanted to harass us for reporting the news, and you’re not supposed to do that in a democracy,” said Eric Meyer, the editor and publisher.

[The Associated Press @AP]

BREAKING: A Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million and apologize over a 2023 police raid on a small-town newspaper, editor says. https://t.co/M1eYR8m5NP

[Natasha Korecki @natashakorecki]

DHS takes credit for crime being down in Chicago. Data shows that was happening before they arrived. https://t.co/EYQVpYtkSL