Hi Adam,
In theory, it should be possible to read those using a GetActivitiesTx() but there is some inconsistency between what appears there and what is returned by the API so in certain circumstances things will look very different (for example, the case you described, where you only see profile headline updates on the API but you see other things in the web UI).
We are working to improve that and make it more consistent.
Thanks,
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Bruno Oliveira (Google)