By Sarah Rappaport, Bloomberg News

The definition of “luxury travel” is changing. As hotels by big-name interior designers with outposts of renowned restaurants get copy-pasted all around the world, they’re coming off as overly predictable and even cookie-cutter. With demand at the top end of the luxury travel market higher than ever, hotels have to work harder to stand out. That means the most anticipated hotels for 2026 have one of two things in common: a true independent spirit or an ability to raise the bar in unquestionable ways.

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Take Zannier Bendor, a 17-acre private island retreat in Provence owned by the French family behind Pernod Ricard. It will open its doors as a hotel this spring, creating a new destination off the glittering Mediterranean coastline with restaurants, shopping, diving and — in keeping with the family business — multiple bars. La Réserve, a French hotel brand with just four intimate European locations, is opening six apartments in a grand Florentine palazzo near the Ponte Vecchio, aiming to make guests feel like they have their own home in the heart of the historic city.

Big players like Aman aren’t all out of tricks, however, and in fact such established brands are still the options consumers trust most when they’re visiting a less familiar destination or planning a once-in-a-lifetime trip. The group’s opening in Mexico will help cement the rise of the eastern cape of Baja California, about 90 minutes from Los Cabos. It’s away from the thumping clubs on a less developed section of coastline that claims a rare amenity in this corner of Mexico: swimmable beaches. Meanwhile, Singita, the most renowned luxury safari camp operator in Africa, is finally planting its flag in one of the most desirable private concessions of Botswana’s wildlife-rich Okavango Delta at the end of 2026, a dream combination for safari connoisseurs.

When big brands come to big markets, they have to pull out all the stops. So in London, Waldorf Astoria will transform the landmark Admiralty Arch into the latest jewel in its crown — just one year after wrapping a jaw-dropping $2 billion, eight-year renovation of its New York flagship. But even then it may not be the biggest opening in town. The smart money is on Cambridge House, a Georgian gem overlooking Green Park that’s currently being converted by Auberge Collection. With so much early buzz, snagging a room the minute reservations open may be your best odds at getting in.

The Vineta Hotel

West Palm Beach, Florida. (Sean Pavone/Dreamstime/TNS)

When: January

Where: Palm Beach, Florida

Palm Beach has its fair share of luxury hotels. But the Vineta is the American debut from Oetker Hotels, the European group behind Parisian palace Le Bristol. It’s a brand known for continental elegance, old-world glamour and impeccable service — qualities that aren’t typically native to South Florida. Now it’s setting up shop blocks away from the posh boutiques of Worth Avenue, in a Mediterranean-revival-style building that’s been standing for a hundred years.

Its extensive renovation has made for 41 spacious suites, with bedrooms decorated in soft pastels to fit the building’s heritage and pale-pink exterior. In a touch of whimsy, staffers will wheel bar carts around the hotel’s public spaces. One is dedicated to Champagne and another to poolside scoops of gelato. A third will be stocked with Barbara Sturm beauty products, delivering creams and serums to guests’ rooms so they can leave the hotel with not just a tan but also a radiant glow. Rooms from $1,497.

The Imperial Hotel

When: March

Where: Kyoto, Japan

It’s been three decades since homegrown Japanese luxury company Imperial opened a new property. That changes in spring 2026, with its update of a 90-year-old former theater in Kyoto’s famed Gion district. The main building has been respectfully preserved, with elements from the former performance space, including its distinct pillars and window frames, retained as visual focal points. A guests-only rooftop bar offers sweeping views of the cityscape and the lanterns’ glow on the streets below.

The Imperial’s 55 rooms use traditional materials such as Japanese cedar columns and tatami flooring, with design by local firms rather than imported big names, as has become the norm in town. The result is something more subtle, and more faithfully and authentically Japanese than the area’s shiny competition. From around $1,100.

Zannier Bendor

When: Spring

Where: South of France

When French spirits entrepreneur Paul Ricard purchased Île de Bendor — off the coast of rosé capital Bandol — in the 1950s, it was just an empty plot. He transformed the stony island into a socialite playground where Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and artist Salvador Dalí would visit. Now the Ricard family is turning its vacation home into a destination for modern luxury travelers. There will be a 93-room hotel but also a little village with three restaurants, four bars, an art gallery and artisan shops open to the public.

Days on the 17-acre island can be spent playing pétanque, relaxing at the 1,200-square-meter (12,900-square-foot) spa or scuba diving (the hotel will have a dive center run in partnership with the Cousteau family). A ten-minute ferry will take guests to the mainland to explore Provencal vineyards, cobblestone villages and the region’s famed farmers markets. From around $600.

Amanvari

When: Spring

Where: Baja California, Mexico

Ultraluxe Aman is making a splash with its first Mexican hotel, with 18 casitas on a hillside along the quiet east cape of Baja California. Because Aman loyalists are often somewhat reclusive, choosing to hide away in their posh digs, each casita will include expansive views of the Sea of Cortez and the Sierra de la Laguna mountains, plus private pools flanked with plush loungers. The spa, one of the highlights of any Aman resort, will feature a modern temescal (sweat lodge), in a nod to local traditions.

One of the benefits of being here versus bustling Cabo is that the beaches of the east cape are very swimmable, with less strong currents, ideal for days spent exploring the gentle waters. Nearby is a golf course designed by the renowned Robert Trent Jones II, as well as 18 acres of organic farms and orchards to explore. Rates not currently available.

The Red Palace

When: Second quarter

Where: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The futuristic overwater bungalows in Saudi Arabia’s glimmering new Red Sea development are getting fresh competition in an unlikely location: the busy, traffic-clogged capital. It’s here that the kingdom’s royal residence — built in 1943 as the home of the country’s founding father, King Abdulaziz Al Saud, and famous for its art deco architecture — will open to the public as a 70-room hotel. Historic spaces that hosted royal celebrations and state banquets will become reception suites, each one scented with King Saud’s favorite flower, the native Taif rose.

In another display of discretion, the spa is also made up exclusively of private suites, with each treatment room sporting its own changing area, sauna and steam room. And as part of the royal experience, guests will have palace hosts who cater to their every request, within reason. Rates not currently available.

The Cooper

When: March

Where: Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston has long been beloved for its gracious Southern architecture, miles of white flowering magnolia trees and rich Lowcountry cuisine — but now it’s one of the top 2026 destinations for the ways in which it keeps raising the bar. The Cooper, for instance, will be the first hotel in town to marry all the amenities of an urban resort with a waterfront location, making it feel almost like a beach retreat within the city itself.

Among its draws will be a 7,000-square-foot wellness center, five restaurants and a rooftop infinity pool, plus preferential access to a yearlong chef’s residence by Daniel Humm (of Eleven Madison Park fame) at sibling hotel Charleston Place. And of course, seeing the city from the water will be a unique experience worth prioritizing too: Guests will have access to a private marina with cruising vessels to tour the shoreline, as well as a water taxi to Daniel Island. From $950.

Cambridge House, Auberge Collection

When: Spring

Where: London

London’s wildly competitive hotel market is getting a stellar new entrant, in a landmark building in Mayfair that was formerly home to a prince and a prime minister. The design of the 102 rooms and common spaces will channel the opulence of the Georgian era with intricate original ceiling designs, 19-foot-high ceilings and ornate fireplaces. They’ll overlook King Charles III’s current residence, with windows facing the greenery of the parks.

In keeping with its knack for decadent spas, Auberge is adding a wellness area inspired by ancient Roman bathhouses that’s set to span two floors, including a pair of heated swimming pools — a rarity in central London — and a relaxation area with a firepit. A new Major Food Group restaurant might not be the deciding factor in a booking for New Yorkers, but it will likely make Cambridge House a hot spot for Londoners in a similar way the new Carbone at the Chancery Rosewood has elsewhere in Mayfair. Rates not yet available.

Four Seasons Cartagena

When: May Where: Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena’s hotel scene — mostly composed of boutique spots in the new city, plus one stunning Sofitel behind the historic ramparts — is getting a big luxury upgrade this spring. Four Seasons, a brand still riding its White Lotus high, is taking over (and unifying) eight buildings including a 16th century San Franciscan temple and the 1920s Beaux Arts Club Cartagena, an old social hotbed. Inside will be 131 rooms and eight bars and restaurants, including a speakeasy and a steakhouse.

Guests can sign up for salsa lessons led by professional dancers, then cool down in one of the rooftop’s two swimming pools. As for the rooms, they’ll start at a spacious 388 square feet, many with balconies overlooking the old cloisters. Consider it the best of both worlds: old Colombian charm and all the modern creature comforts. Rooms from around $800.

La Réserve Firenze

When: June

Where: Florence, Italy

La Réserve’s first Italian hotel is located on the Via Santo Spirito, a street lined with Renaissance-era buildings and artisan workshops. It took a meticulous four-year renovation and a collaboration with celebrated designers Gilles & Boissier to transform the 600-year-old palazzo into a luxe hotel, but the result includes frescoed ceilings, ornate tilework, arched windows and the best of Italian craftsmanship, in a nod to the history and art-world heritage that defines Florence.

There are just six standalone apartments in one- to three-bedroom configurations. All have full kitchens and separate living areas, plus access to a gym, library and lounge. There’s also a roof terrace where you can sip on the region’s wines, as well as a “secret bar” to explore in the heritage building. Experiences will include Tuscan culinary adventures and the opportunity to play tennis at the owner’s Florentine house, truly making guests feel at home on the city’s storied streets. Rates not yet available.

The Malkai

When: Fourth quarter

Where: Oman

Rather than a single hotel, this is a trio of ultraluxe lodges forming a circuit — giving guests an easy way to explore an entire country in the most streamlined and amenity-rich way possible. (We’ve noted these circuits as one of the most compelling trends in travel right now.) The Malkai will have one tented camp in the sweeping sands of Oman’s desert and another in the coastal farmlands; the final lodge will be up in the jagged Al Hajar Mountains. The camps include spas and marble swimming pools in dramatic shades of dark red and beige. And unlike most hotels, these can’t be booked individually. Instead itineraries spanning all three lodges will last 4 to 10 days.

In a unique twist, guests will get paired with a personal so-called murshid, a butler who doubles as a driver. They’ll guide guests on every leg of their big Omani sojourn, shuttling them from lodge to lodge in Land Rover Defenders and arranging all sorts of adventures along the way, be it dune-bashing in the desert or snorkeling off Oman’s coast. Rates not yet available.

Singita Elela

When: December

Where: Botswana

Singita has made its reputation as the king of five-star safaris without a lodge in Botswana, one of Africa’s most coveted destinations. So safari insiders are eager to see what the company can achieve now that it’s planting its flag in the famed Okavango Delta, a region made up of wildlife-rich islands, lagoons, grasslands and swamps. The specific area Singita has taken on — the privately managed, 400,000-acre Abu concession, where Wilderness Safaris long ran the iconic Abu Camp — teems with herds of elephants, lions and cheetahs. And its topographical diversity lets guests appreciate the animals from many distinct vantages, including wooden mokoro canoes as well as traditional open-top jeeps, offering a wider range of wildlife adventures.

Each of the lodge’s eight tents comes with its own private heated plunge pool, and there are ample outdoor decks to take in the clear skies. Expect a decadent level of luxury, even by the high standards that exist in the bush. As with most of Singita’s latest projects, Elela will have reliable Wi-Fi, in-room wellness treatments and a deep wine cellar for evening tastings. Plus, design will be as bold as the predators in the savannah: Singita’s aesthetic relies heavily on the works of top African artisans, including weavers, textilers and ceramicists who contribute to a colorful and local feel. All-inclusive rates from $4,500.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Music documentaries have long offered more than just behind-the-scenes access.

At their best, they serve as time capsules, preserving pivotal moments in culture while peeling back the layers of the artists who helped shape them. From intimate portraits of reinvention to deep dives into eras that altered the course of popular music, the genre continues to evolve alongside the stories it tells.

In 2026, a new slate of music documentaries promises to do just that, spotlighting artists at moments of transformation, reckoning, and creative rebirth. Whether revisiting legendary careers or examining the fleeting intensity of modern pop, these films offer music lovers a chance to experience the stories behind the sound.

Here are 11 music documentaries to add to your watchlist in 2026.

 

 

Ann Wilson performs on stage as Woman’s Day Celebrates 16th Annual Red Dress Awards on February 12, 2019 in New York City. The singer is set to release a documentary of her life sometime in 2026. (Photo by Anna Webber, Getty Images)

Ann Wilson- In My Voice

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ann Wilson is ready to tell her story in her own words. Wilson’s upcoming documentary, “Ann Wilson- In My Voice,” chronicles the life of one of the most iconic singers who brought us “Crazy On You,” “Barracuda,” and “Magic Man.”

The documentary’s announcement states that the film draws from a “personal archive of home movies, photographs, journals, and never-before-seen footage.” Wilson will give additional commentary from friends, family members, music executives, and fellow bandmates.

“This film is my story in my own words, told the way I’ve always wanted to tell it. I can’t wait to take you behind the scenes of my music and my story,” Wilson wrote in an Instagram post about the film.

Although the post mentioned it is slated for this year, no details have been shared on an exact release date.

Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters at Y100 Radio Show in Philadelphia, PA on December 3, 1999. The documentary film, “The Best Summer,” will feature rare archival footage of 90s bands, including Foo Fighters, before their big breaks. (Photo by Scott Gries, Getty Images)

The Best Summer

Tamra Davis, known for her insightful documentary on Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, is back with a new project that also dusts off rare archival footage. The film features behind-the-scenes looks at some of the most prominent up-and-coming indie-rock and punk bands of the 90s. Some of the acts include the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Rancid, Beck, The Amps, and some more Bikini Kill.

The inspiration for the film came after Davis evacuated from the Palisades fires last January and discovered a box of videotapes she shot in 1995 at Summersault, a little-known Australian indie music festival.

“The Best Summer” tells an oral and visual history of the tour, featuring performances, candid interviews, and never-before-seen backstage footage. The documentary serves as a nostalgic time capsule of archival footage from 30 years earlier, capturing a moment in time before the groups’ launch into stardom.

According to Billboard, Davis’ film will be available to view online after its Sundance premiere between Jan. 22-Feb. 1.

The late English singer, actress and ’60s icon Marianne Faithfull is the subject of a new documentary, “Broken English,” scheduled for its U.S. debut on March 20. (Photo by Fred Mott, Getty Images)

Broken English

The British Invasion is often associated with the groups that led the charge onto American charts, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, and others. Among the leading female acts of the British Invasion was the late singer and actress Marianne Faithfull. While she was a popular figure in the musical movement taking over America, much of her success was overshadowed by personal problems in the ’70s, when she became anorexic, homeless and addicted to heroin.

Faithfull’s signature, distinctive, melodic, high-register vocals had defined her career, but her voice was permanently altered by severe laryngitis and her persistent drug abuse. After nearly a decade, Faithfull made a musical comeback in 1979 with the release of a critically acclaimed seventh studio album, “Broken English.” The album signified a resurgence of her musical career, earning her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and is now the title of the upcoming documentary.

“Broken English” stars Faithfull (before she passed away last year at 78), alongside Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, Sophia Di Martino, Zawe Ashton, and Calvin Demba. Additional appearances include Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Jehnny Beth, Courtney Love, Suki Waterhouse, and Beth Orton.

The documentary dramatizes Faithfull’s life and career by presenting real events and framing them within the fictionalized group, known as the “Ministry of Not Forgetting,” composed of Swinton and MacKay, to explore and correct the often-misrepresented legacy of the singer.

Although the film was released at a few film festivals last year, its U.S. theatrical debut is scheduled for March 20.

RZA of Wu-Tang Clan performs during a stop of the N.Y. State of Mind tour at MGM Grand Garden Arena on October 21, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The hip-hop group and the creation of their album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” will be the subject of the documentary “The Disciple,” slated for wider theatrical release this year after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. (Photo by Ethan Miller, Getty Images)

The Disciple

Wu-Tang Clan is among the most prolific rap groups in the genre’s history. In her directorial debut, Joanna Natasegara dives into the legends and myths surrounding Wu-Tang Clan’s 2015 album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” There was only ever one copy of the album created, an intentional choice by RZA, the leader of the group, and Dutch Moroccan rapper and producer Cilvaringz, who felt the streaming age was cheapening music.

Natasegara tells the story of how Cilvaringz, as an outsider, worked his way into Wu-Tang’s inner circle to craft the album that sparked discussions about art’s material value and controversy over who gets to own rare art.

The only copy of the album was sold in 2015 for $2 million to Martin Shkreli, the disgraced CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. It remains the most expensive piece of music ever sold, after NFT company PleasrDAO bought it for $4 million. The album can only be legally played at private listening parties and is barred from use for any commercial purpose until 2130.

Billie Eilish performs onstage during “Hit Me Hard And Soft: The Tour” at Kaseya Center on October 09, 2025, in Miami, Florida. The singer teamed up with director James Cameron for a documentary of her tour, which is set for a 3D release in theaters on March 20. (Photo by Arturo Holmes, Getty Images)

Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)

Billie Eilish, known for megahits such as “Lovely,” “Bad Guy” and “Birds of a Feather,” is teaming up with director James Cameron for her next documentary project. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Eilish first teased the project over the summer during a sold-out concert in Manchester, England, but couldn’t share many details beyond the fact that it was a 3D collaboration with the Oscar-winning director known for “Titanic,” “The Terminator,” and the “Avatar” franchise.

“So you may have noticed that there are more cameras than usual in here,” she told the crowd at the time. “Basically, I can’t say much about it, but what I can say is that I’m working on something very, very special with somebody named James Cameron, and it’s going to be in 3D. So, take that as you will, and these four shows here in Manchester, you and I are part of a thing that I am making with him. He’s in this audience somewhere, just saying. So don’t mind that, and also I’ll probably be wearing this exact outfit for like four days in a row.”

Eilish’s previous documentaries include “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” directed by R.J. Cutler, and the concert movie “Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles.”

“Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)” is scheduled to be released in theaters on March 20.

Take That members Mark Owen, Gary Barlow and Howard Donald perform on stage during the Bambi Awards ceremony on November 16, 2018, at the Stage Theatre on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Take That will be the focus of a Netflix Documentary series scheduled for release on Jan. 27. (Photo by Tobias Schwarz, Getty Images)

Take That

When it comes to classic ’90s boy bands, the English group Take That is one of the stars. The group successfully climbed the charts with their combination of catchy pop hits with heartthrob appeal. However, just a little over a decade into their budding career that captured millions, the band split. Now, a three-part Netflix documentary, dubbed “Take That,” will take fans and viewers back to the group’s beginnings in the early ’90s, through the present day, and chart their rise, reunion, and transition into a three-piece act.

The documentary features interviews with the three remaining musicians, Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen, while former bandmates Robbie Williams and Jason Orange will be featured in archival footage. The series was directed by David Soutar, who has worked on music documentaries for acts such as Ed Sheeran and Bros. “Take That” will stream on Netflix on January 27, 2026.

Courtney Love appears in a scene from the documentary “Antiheroine,” an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Edward Lovelace/Sundance Institute via AP)

Antiheroine

Few figures loom as large — or as polarizing — in alternative rock history as Courtney Love.

The former “Hole” singer, songwriter, and actor helped define the sound and attitude of 1990s alt-rock, often commanding as much attention for her public persona as for her music. “Antiheroine,” a new documentary slated to drop this year, aims to shift that narrative by allowing Love to tell her story on her own terms.

Set against the backdrop of her life in London, where Love relocated in 2019, the film traces her evolution as an artist, mother, and cultural figure. While her marriage to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain inevitably factors into the story, the documentary positions it as only one chapter in a much larger, more complex life shaped by fame, loss, addiction, and survival.

The film features appearances from longtime peers and collaborators, including Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, former R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, and Hole bandmates Melissa Auf der Maur and Patty Schemel.

“Antiheroine” is scheduled to make its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival between Jan. 22 and Feb. 1.

Charli XCX’s “The Moment” documentary will arrive in theaters worldwide in late January.
(Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP) (Photo by BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)

The Moment

“The Moment” captures Charli XCX at the height of her pop-culture takeover, offering a stylized, mockumentary-style look at a fictionalized version of her explosive summer 2024 rise. Conceived by Charli and directed by longtime collaborator Aidan Zamiri, the film blends real concert footage with scripted scenes to explore fame, pressure, and the chaos behind the scenes.

Rather than presenting a straightforward portrait of stardom, the documentary leans into the strange in-between spaces of pop life, backstage hours, rehearsals, and the emotional whiplash of being both celebrated and scrutinized in real time. It’s a self-aware examination of what it means to “be the moment,” and the inevitability that it won’t last forever.

The film features a stacked cast of cameos, including Alexander Skarsgård, Kylie Jenner, Rachel Sennott, Rosanna Arquette, and Jamie Demetriou, adding to its sharp, satirical edge. The Moment is set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival before arriving in theaters worldwide in late January.

Paul McCartney’s “Man on the Run” documentary will screen in select theaters before arriving worldwide on streaming beginning Feb. 25.
(Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Man on the Run

The newest Paul McCartney documentary takes fans on a ride of his creative rebirth in the years following the breakup of The Beatles, tracing his transition from one of the most famous musicians in the world to an artist rebuilding himself on his own terms. The documentary focuses on the formation of Wings with his wife, Linda McCartney, and the challenges of defining a new musical identity in the 1970s.

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Morgan Neville, the film draws from extensive interviews with McCartney, his personal journals, and Linda McCartney’s photographs, offering an intimate look at a period often overshadowed by Beatlemania. Rare archival footage and previously unseen material help illuminate the doubts, risks, and reinvention that shaped McCartney’s solo career.

Man on the Run premiered in 2025 and will screen in select theaters before arriving worldwide on streaming beginning Feb. 25, 2026.

The Earth, Wind & Fire documentary is set to air on HBO sometime later this year.
(Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

Earth, Wind & Fire

A new documentary directed by Questlove will explore the legacy and lasting cultural impact of Earth, Wind & Fire, one of the most influential bands in American music history. Founded by Maurice White, the group helped shape the sound of funk, soul, R&B, and pop while delivering a message rooted in spirituality, unity, and joy.

The film examines the band’s expansive body of work through rare and previously unseen archival material, drawing from visual, audio, and written records with the full support of the band and White’s estate. Rather than functioning as a traditional career overview, the documentary aims to contextualize Earth, Wind & Fire’s music within the broader cultural and social movements that surrounded it. Following acclaimed projects such as Summer of Soul and Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), Questlove brings his historian’s eye to a story that has long deserved deeper exploration.

The Earth, Wind & Fire documentary is set to air on HBO sometime later this year.

“Bowie In Berlin” is set to air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer in autumn 2026.
(AP Photo/Stephen Chernin, File)

Bowie In Berlin

“Bowie In Berlin” studies one of the most transformative periods in David Bowie’s career, when he retreated from fame and relocated to Berlin between 1976 and 1978. Seeking distance from the pressures of stardom and a reset both personally and creatively, Bowie’s time in the city would ultimately lead to the creation of Low, Heroes, and Lodger, collectively known as the Berlin Trilogy.

The documentary uses archival footage and rare interviews with four women who played pivotal roles during Bowie’s Berlin years, offering an intimate perspective on a side of the artist rarely seen by the public. Their reflections frame a period of deep artistic reinvention, as Bowie shed his theatrical personas and began performing as himself rather than through characters.

Directed by longtime Bowie documentarian Francis Whately, the film places Berlin at the center of Bowie’s regeneration, capturing a moment when he hit a personal low while simultaneously producing some of the most influential work of his career.

“Bowie In Berlin” is set to air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer in autumn 2026.

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Goliad County police kicked off one human smuggling investigation not with a suspect’s name, but with a discarded receipt and cell phone surveillance software. In June 2021, Chief Deputy Tim Futch chased a speeding F-150 headed toward Houston on U.S. Highway 59; he believed the vehicle was carrying undocumented immigrants, concealed in the truck bed beneath plywood, according to a police report. Trying to evade the cops, the driver pulled into a ditch, and around ten people bailed out and took off sprinting. 

In the aftermath, Roy Boyd, the sheriff in this county of 7,000 situated halfway between Laredo and Houston, surveyed the scene. The driver proved hard to identify via the pickup’s plate. But, on the ground, he spotted a fresh receipt from a liquor store in Pasadena, a Houston suburb, he recalled in a June 2024 interview with the Texas Observer. 

The stub of paper was enough, Boyd said, to justify deploying an expensive—and controversial—artificial intelligence-powered surveillance tool called Tangles. A specially-trained analyst used the receipt, Boyd said, to conduct warrantless surveillance on the suspected driver—and on other smart phone users—by utilizing a Tangles add-on feature called Webloc, which tracks mobile devices’ movements in a client-selected virtual area through a capability called “geofencing.” 

After the bailout incident, Boyd acquired a license for the tool with about $300,000 in state border security grants—though the sheriff admits that he’s not a tech guy: In 2024, he still used a hand-me-down iPhone 10, which hit the market in 2017. 

A tall, slim, seventh-generation Texan, Boyd fits the archetype of a small-town Southern sheriff with his firm handshake and light drawl. He usually wears his sand-colored cowboy hat, leather belt, and a matching holster manufactured by prisoners in a neighboring county. The latter encases a silver Colt pistol engraved with “Remember Goliad,” referencing the Mexican army’s massacre of Anglo combatants who lost a battle in which Boyd says his ancestors died.

Boyd worked as a career cop in the neighboring South Texas city of Victoria before being elected sheriff of Goliad County in 2020. He’s since hobnobbed with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago and met repeatedly with border czar Tom Homan, and he leads a multijurisdictional task force named after Operation Lone Star, Governor Greg Abbott’s multi-billion dollar border militarization mission. The task force pools deputies and resources from nearly 60 Texas agencies mainly for anti-smuggling operations. It began with mostly rural departments, but it expanded to include more populous counties, the Texas National Guard, the U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Coast Guard. Task force members have spent at least $300,000 on Tangles, and according to emails obtained from Goliad County, many have been granted access to the software, which can track mobile device movements via third-party commercial data. 

Tangles scrapes information from the open, deep, and dark webs and is the premier product of Cobwebs Technologies, a cybersecurity company founded in 2014 by three former members of special units in the Israeli military. In 2023, the Nebraska-based tech firm PenLink Ltd acquired the company. 

The software has been met with criticism from civil liberties advocates, especially given that its WebLoc add-on enables warrantless device tracking. Normally, when U.S. police officers seek cell phone records or location data, they must obtain a warrant by presenting probable cause of a crime to a judge. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that warrants are required for obtaining location data from cell phone providers. But the rise of the multi-billion dollar data broker industry has created a free-for-all that enables police and others to purchase massive amounts of cell phone location data without judicial review.

Nathan Wessler, an ACLU attorney who argued the Carpenter case, said data broker-built services like Tangles pose the same privacy issues as those decided in the supreme court case and that law enforcement’s ability to buy location data constitutes an erosion of constitutionally protected rights. “Police are doing an end run around this well-articulated system of judicial oversight by just paying money instead of going to a judge,” he said. “There’s just no checks of police abuse against that.” 

In the Goliad County case, a police analyst drew a virtual fence to examine an area that spanned about 300 miles between the Pasadena liquor store and the U.S.-Mexico border based on the day and time stamped on the receipt. He discovered that six phones used within a mile of the store had been tracked again later at a Texas immigration checkpoint, Boyd said. He didn’t specify which checkpoint; the U.S. Border Patrol has over a dozen of them in Texas, some permanent and some temporary. 

Boyd rattles off statistics about the success of his task force in tracking gangs, but he provided only the one example involving Tangles and never said whether the information they obtained by geofencing helped lead to any arrest. In response to records requests, the department said it had no reports that mentioned Tangles, despite the fact that Goliad has had the software for more than three years. The corresponding incident report for the case Boyd cited doesn’t mention Tangles, though he said an analyst used the software. It does state that the department collaborated with a Homeland Security Investigations analyst.

Generally, Boyd said his office uses the software to find “avenues for obtaining probable cause” or “to verify reasonable suspicion that you already have”—not as a basis by itself to make arrests.

Beyond Goliad, Tangles has more powerful, deep-pocketed users. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), for example, has invested heavily in the software. DPS spent nearly $200,000 on Tangles in 2021 as an emergency purchase related to Operation Lone Star, and the agency has repeatedly expanded its contract. In 2024, DPS inked a 5-year, $5.3-million contract for 230 named users. ICE’s Office of Intelligence signed a contract worth around $2 million to use the software in 2025, and the DEA in that same timeframe committed more than $10 million. 

Boyd and Caleb Breshears, a Goliad County deputy and the task force commander, argued in interviews that Tangles presents no privacy concerns since its location tracking software doesn’t reveal names, only device identification numbers in the online advertising ecosystem. Tangles users cannot search by name or by phone number; its location data is sourced from applications in which consumers consented to sharing their whereabouts, Breshears said.

Nor does Tangles reveal what vehicle is associated with a device, but combined with Texas’ broader arsenal of surveillance tools, which includes a fleet of drones and a network of automated license plate readers, “Those are things that we might be able to piece together,” Boyd said.

PenLink Ltd, Tangles’ present owner, touts its worldwide successes in combating human trafficking, drug smuggling, and money laundering, but the company declined to provide specific examples to the Observer of how the platform has assisted in U.S. cases. “Penlink is proud to provide law enforcement with solutions that keep communities safe, protect people, rescue victims and solve crimes,” company spokesperson Kristine German said in a written statement. “Our technology enables law enforcement to spot threats faster and use evidence more efficiently to advance criminal investigations. The solutions we provide to the government exclusively use commercially available data. We follow industry best practices and comply with all relevant privacy laws, platform policies, and ethical standards.” 

In El Salvador, where authoritarian president Nayib Bukele has suspended civil liberties, the national police force purchased Tangles in 2020, according to the investigative outlet El Faro. Just 13 months later, the state’s Bukele-controlled legislative assembly approved criminal code reforms that allowed the judicial use of information obtained via warrantless surveillance by tools like Tangles, clearing the way for the dictator’s state police to legally spy on citizens, El Faro reported. When asked about a repressive regime using its products, PenLink said the company does “not discuss specific customers or contracts.”

PenLink pitches Tangles as an “open source intelligence” software that compiles publicly available information. Yet even Meta, the social media giant that owns Facebook and Instagram and has been denounced for stockpiling too much of its own users data, has accused Cobwebs Technologies, the company that invented Tangles, of operating as a “surveillance-for-hire” outfit; Meta banned Cobwebs Technologies from its platforms in 2021.  

In a separate emailed statement, PenLink distanced itself from the Meta ban: “Penlink acquired Cobwebs in 2023, after those issues had been addressed and we are not aware of any issues since.” 

But critics find U.S. law enforcement’s growing domestic use of an array of surveillance tools presents major risks to civil liberties by enabling police to build a robust profile of almost anyone’s life and movements without a warrant or probable cause. They find phone-tracking tools like Tangles to be particularly troubling. 

“There’s this veneer of respect for privacy that is painted over all of this data aggregation and consolidation,” said Beryl Lipton, a researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a California-based nonprofit focused on digital privacy-related civil liberties. Watchdog organizations like the EFF and ACLU have been forced to go to court to discover more information about its use: Last January, PenLink sued a California sheriff’s office in an attempt to prevent the department from releasing public records to EFF that contained details about the company’s products and prices, arguing they were “trade secret-protected information.” EFF intervened in the case and ultimately prevailed. The sheriff’s office handed over the records.

So far, federal and Texas agencies combined have committed to spending at least $8 million dollars specifically for Tangles, according to a year-long Observer investigation. Yet, agencies refuse to say how Tangles has benefitted Texas criminal or immigration probes. Boyd said he couldn’t think of a time that phone-tracking data has been directly linked to any arrest or prosecution in Goliad County, despite his agency’s task force role. “Most of that is probably going to be on the federal side and not so much on the state side,” Boyd said. “I can’t think of any time when [Tangles] has been used for the prosecution of somebody. … It has not been a key component in our cases.”

DPS declined comment on its use of the costly technology. In response to a records request, the agency told the Observer it has no incident reports and only seven confidential internal investigative reports from 2023 and 2024 that mention “Cobwebs” (a shorthand sometimes used to refer to the the software named after the company that created it) or “Tangles,” but it withheld them claiming that releasing the documents could “provide wrong-doers, drug traffickers, terrorists, and other criminals with information concerning how Department operations are planned, implemented and staffed.” 

In the last three years, many DPS investigators, police departments including those of major cities such as Dallas and Houston, and nearly twenty Texas sheriff’s offices have obtained a Tangles log-in. The larger agencies have been evasive about how and when they use the tool, declining to provide examples to the Observer.

No agencies contacted for this story provided examples of Tangles’ use in any specific criminal cases. Dallas Police Department spokesperson Corbin Rubinson said only that “Tangles has been in use by the Department for several years and is used consistently in criminal investigations. The WebLoc add-on is used less frequently and produces fewer investigative leads.” A Houston police spokesman said Tangles is used for “crime analysis, for supporting criminal Investigations, and for supporting situational awareness/threat assessments” and that the department does not use the WebLoc add-on that enables warrantless device tracking. Other agencies that purchased it, including the Killeen Police Department and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, did not respond.

Texas agencies’ failure to produce reports on arrests or other results linked to the controversial technology has two possible interpretations, experts say. “Either this is just a massive waste of taxpayer money, right? They’re spending all this money on the tool that they’re not actually using,” said Wessler, the ACLU attorney, “or they’re using it and hiding it from judges, criminal defense attorneys, criminal defendants and the press, which is a big story in itself.”

In April, state Senator Sarah Eckhardt, an Austin Democrat, raised questions during a border security committee hearing about DPS’ investment of $20 million in multi-year contracts for various AI-powered social media monitoring tools like Tangles, following an earlier Observer report on the state police agency’s spending on surveillance tech.

In response, DPS Director Freeman Martin told Eckhardt and other committee members that such software has been critical in preventing mass shootings and said DPS had identified a potential school shooter using the technology.

But when the Observer approached Martin a few days later at a border sheriffs’ conference, he added only a few general observations, saying that the software has helped police save lives and make arrests. 

“If I talk about technology now, and we’re asking for funding, some people like it, some people hate it,” he said, clarifying that Tangles in particular was controversial after the Observer asked about the software. “We don’t want to lose those tools,” he said. “We want all the tools. When somebody’s threatening to shoot up the school, we got to find them. We can’t wait till school starts.”

Martin initially promised to speak more about the agency’s successes with Tangles after the legislative session, which ended in June. But he never responded to requests for a follow-up interview made through his secretary and the agency’s communications office, nor did he answer a list of questions sent by the Observer. 

Wessler, the ACLU attorney, is skeptical that Tangles has been used to prevent mass casualty events. He said in emergencies police can obtain warrants and send rapid requests to cell phone service providers, who generally can supply more up-to-date and accurate location data than third-party tools. “The claim that this has helped prevent mass shootings is really interesting, and sounds pretty far-fetched to me.” 

Breshears, the Goliad County task force leader, explained that the software’s underlying location data are typically days old. That means it does not allow for real-time tracking and is only useful when multiple factors align. “When you say ‘track’, technically it’s correct, but … I’m not tracking you live. I can only see where you have been,” Breshears said. “It’s all historical information.”

Texas law does not explicitly require police to document use of AI-powered surveillance tech, so police reports may not be a reliable indicator of whether Tangles has been used even in investigations that led to arrests. In the 2025 legislative session, Southlake Republican Giovanni Capriglione introduced a bill that would have mandated government agencies using AI to disclose use of these systems to “consumers.” It is unclear how that might have applied to police reports, which under the public information act already can be heavily redacted under certain circumstances, especially if an investigation is ongoing. Legislators ultimately passed an overhauled version of the bill that does not explicitly require police to document or disclose use of AI.

Capriglione on the House floor in May 2025 (Jordan Vonderhaar for the Texas Observer)

Under due process rules and Texas’ Michael Morton Act, prosecutors must share relevant investigative reports, videos, and other related information to anyone charged with a crime. But the Observer reached out to all 80 federal public defender offices, emailed Texas defense attorneys and Dallas’ district attorney, and interviewed a longtime Houston public defender and a former Goliad-area prosecutor, yet no one provided information about Tangles being mentioned in records disclosed to them while representing a client or charging a defendant in criminal court. 

Amrutha Jindal, executive director of Lone Star Defenders, which provides public defenders for migrants prosecuted under Operation Lone Star, said she had never come across any evidence the software had been used in any of the nonprofit’s cases. “Alarms are ringing in my head,” Jindal said in a phone interview. “There’s also a question of—are we even being told?”

The Observer found many examples in police records of how Texas state troopers have surveilled the homes of immigrants or made pre-textual traffic stops to help ICE target and detain people who were not charged with a crime. However, it is unclear whether state police used Tangles or other surveillance tools. The Observer reached out to a network of more than 60 immigration attorneys in Texas and beyond, and none offered examples of how this software may have been used against their clients.

In Washington D.C., the district’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) has purchased Tangles for several years, though it has not said how it deploys the tool; in August, the ACLU of DC filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records.

One of the executives at PenLink, the parent company that sells Tangles, is Derek Maltz, a former DEA agent who participated in Border 911, a political nonprofit, with others who are now homeland security leaders in the Trump administration. He served as PenLink’s executive director of government relations from 2014 to 2025. Throughout that time, the DEA doled out more than $100 million in contracts with PenLink for its various products, according to public federal spending data. Maltz left the company to serve as the DEA’s acting director for five months after Trump’s second inauguration. Last summer, Maltz pivoted back to PenLink, where he became senior vice president of global business growth and strategy. Since Maltz re-joined PenLink last July, the company has garnered about $3.4 million more in federal contracts.

In a written statement, a PenLink spokesperson said: “Derek Maltz is a veteran national security and law enforcement leader who brings 28 years of federal law enforcement experience to his role at Penlink. His appointment as Acting Administrator speaks to his expertise in this field, and we are pleased to welcome him back to Penlink. We are compliant with Federal Post-Employment Restrictions.” Maltz did not respond to a request for comment.

Paromita Shah, an attorney and co-founder of Just Futures Law, a legal advocacy group focused on the intersection of immigration and surveillance issues, said Maltz’s case illustrates  a well-established revolving door between tech companies and the federal government. “As much as these guys complain about the swamp, they certainly benefit from it,” Shah said.

Local agencies from New York to California have also bought Tangles. In Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office—a populous county about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson—paid more than $90,000 in 2022 and 2023 to use the platform. In an email, Pinal County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sam Salzwedel noted that deputies have deployed Tangles for a “variety of investigations, large and small,” but declined to share any success stories, citing law enforcement sensitivity. Salzwedel said that WebLoc, the warrantless phone tracking feature, appeared to be used sparingly. 

“I have not surveyed our handful of users, but one of our analysts just told me he has only used it a few times,” Salzwedel wrote in an email. “No warrant was obtained.”

A reimbursement request released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the privacy-focused nonprofit, and first reported by the Arizona Mirror, offers a few anecdotes about how Tucson police have used Tangles: To surveil protesters during one of former Vice President Kamala Harris’s visits to the state and to track and identify a suspect accused in a string of Circle K cigarette robberies. Tucson police also apparently used Tangles in an attempt to find the culprit behind an attempted abduction of a young woman, but without success.

Even police who possess Tangles, like Boyd, warn of its potential for abuse. He says his department seldom deploys it for fear of violating constitutional privacy rights—and that despite leading a police task force, the sheriff is skeptical of cops collecting too much sensitive information.

“Do you really want all your stuff in a database where any law enforcement official can go in and just find out what you’ve got going on, or where you’ve been going on any given day?” he said. “I just don’t think that the government needs a catch-all where they can obtain whatever information they want on you at a moment’s notice.”

The post Texas Police Invested Millions in a Shadowy Phone-Tracking Software. They Won’t Say How They’ve Used It. appeared first on The Texas Observer.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s foreign minister said Tuesday that U.S. Vice President JD Vance will host a meeting with him and his Greenlandic counterpart in Washington this week as tensions spiral over the Trump administration’s desire for control of Greenland.

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The vast Arctic island is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally of the U.S. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his counterpart from Greenland, Vivian Motzfeldt, had been widely expected to meet on Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, though the meeting hadn’t officially been confirmed.

Løkke Rasmussen told reporters after a meeting of the Danish parliament’s foreign policy committee on Tuesday that Vance had expressed a wish to take part and that he will host the meeting at the White House, with Rubio in attendance. Neither the White House nor Vance’s office responded immediately to emails and text messages seeking comment.

Løkke Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister, has been foreign minister since 2022 in the government of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Tensions have grown between Washington, Denmark and Greenland this month as President Donald Trump and his administration push the issue and the White House considers a range of options, including military force, to acquire the vast Arctic island. Trump reiterated his argument that the U.S. needs to “take Greenland,” otherwise Russia or China would, in comments aboard Air Force One on Sunday.

He said he’d rather “make a deal” for the territory, “but one way or the other, we’re going to have Greenland.”

A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation is headed to Copenhagen for meetings on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to show unity between the United States and Denmark.

Before that, Frederiksen plans to meet Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, along with the leader of the Faroe Islands, Denmark’s other semi-autonomous territory, in Copenhagen as part of a periodic gathering of parliamentarians from the Danish realm.