recognized news when they heard it. The White House reporters jumped on President Joe Biden's off-the-cuff warnings about nuclear âArmageddon,â made during a sleepy fundraiser, and set the news agenda, immediately moving a news alert followed by a 200-word story that rocketed around the globe ahead of all competitors.Read more
harnessed APâs national reach to report on the fast-declining civility over mask requirements and pandemic precautions.An Alabama man drove to Missouri to serve citizen arrest papers on a hospital administrator over his insistence that people get vaccinated. Protesters beamed strobe lights into the condo building of Hawaiiâs lieutenant governor and blanketed his neighborhood with anti-semitic posters to protest new restrictions amid a record surge in hospitalizations. A California parent punched a teacher in the face over mask requirements and county commissioners in Kansas were compared to the Taliban and Nazis at a mask meeting that went off the rails.With these examples rising to the surface, the reporting team assembled a smart, authoritative piece on how public discourse in America has plunged to new depths. The story led member sites, made newspaper front pages in 10 different states and was among the most-read stories on AP News over the weekend. AP Deputy Managing Editor Noreen Gillespie called it a shining example of illustrating âhow a theme is rippling across the country.â https://aplink.news/bbp
for her exclusive interview with Aretha Franklin, in which the Queen of Soul vented her frustrations with former friend Dionne Warwick. http://apne.ws/2q2D0G4
used a distinctive, nuanced approach to explore one of the biggest unknowns in Ethiopiaâs yearlong Tigray conflict: the death toll.The story, funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, went beyond the numbers, humanizing the horrific toll of the war through a Tigrayan man, Desta Haileselassie, who collects the names of the dead â a groom, a lawyer, an ambulance driver â more than 3,000 Ethnic Tigrayans confirmed so far. He reluctantly revealed to Anna that 19 members of his own family had died. Video journalist Keyton and stroytelling producer Castañeda conducted a delicate interview with Desta in Stockholm, while Anna, APâs East Africa correspondent, attended online. The listkeeper was deeply affected by his experience but the journalists earned his trust, gently eliciting information from him while careful not to re-traumatize him.The resulting package is powerful and engaging â and balanced, noting atrocities and victims on both sides of the conflict. It introduces victims by name and goes on to tell their stories. At its most personal it focuses on Destaâs mother, whom he hasnât been able to reach since June. Instead he listens to recordings he made of her voice.The photos and presentation by Castañeda are no less compelling as AP continues to lead coverage of the Tigray conflict despite severe restrictions on access. Readers, competitors and experts complimented this latest work, with one describing it as a âmasterpiece of precision, thoughtfulness and humanity.âhttps://aplink.news/iduhttps://aplink.news/c90https://aplink.video/p3whttps://aplink.photos/fbs
for scoring the first national interview with Montanaâs incoming congressman, Republican Greg Gianforte, who had pleaded guilty to assaulting a reporter during the campaign. He called for civility in politics. http://bit.ly/2s1i3rB
The team of data journalist Nicky Forster, science writer Drew Costley and storytelling producer Peter Hamlin, joined by AP colleagues, worked for months on an immersive interactive that takes readers across the globe, visualizing how and where exposure to extreme heat is escalating and its impact on population centers.
After securing early access to historical data tracking both population growth and a specific metric that gauges the impact of extreme temperatures on human health, APâs analysis found that between 1983 and 2016, exposure to dangerous heat tripled, and now affects about a quarter of the worldâs population.
The team spent weeks building an engaging presentation with 3D graphics and illustrations that brought the piece to life, drawing in readers. The interactive marked the latest example of APâs new storytelling formats and stood out from the deluge of coverage during the United Nations climate summit in Scotland.
For their resourcefulness, creativity and dedication in helping APâs audience understand the far-ranging impact of global warming in a new way, the team of Forster, Costley and Hamlin is this weekâs Best of the Week â First Winner.
âAnd I do not say this lightly: Holy shit.â That, from producer and Black List founder Franklin Leonard, sums up the collective reaction to the scoop by APâs Jay Reeves and Emily Wagster Pettus: Searchers in Mississippi had discovered the nearly 70-year-old unserved warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose unproven accusation against Emmett Till led to the Black teenagerâs lynching, a horror that galvanized the civil rights movement.
Reeves had reported previously that relatives and activists were still seeking the long-lost warrant, and years of source work paid off with a tip: The document had been found in the basement of a Mississippi courthouse. He confirmed it and teamed up with Wagster Pettus, contacting law enforcement officials and legal experts on what the discovery means to the case, which had been considered closed.
The resulting story made waves, scoring heavy play with customers and on AP platforms.For breaking news on one of the countryâs most notorious civil rights cases, Reeves and Wagster Pettus share this weekâs Best of the Week â First Winner honors.
Rarely is the difference so stark between news organizations that subscribe to the AP and those that donât. Thatâs down to the tireless efforts of AP staffers around the world who have reported, edited, planned, provisioned and advised to make our coverage of Ukraine truly stellar. And itâs especially true in the coverage of a single city that has seen some of the warâs worst horrors.APâs Germany-based video journalist Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and freelance producer Vasilisa Stepanenko have been the only international journalists to chronicle the tragedies of Mariupol. The team was recognized with last weekâs Best of the Week award, and their unflinching coverage continued, the world riveted not only by their presence, but by their stunning journalism. Amid the chaos, they have found stories so moving â and told them so compellingly â that itâs impossible to tell the broader story of Ukraine without them.Usage for the work has been extraordinary. âTheir images,â wrote Nick Schifrin of PBS NewsHour, âare defining this war.âFor courageous, must-have coverage from the heart of the worldâs biggest story, the team of Chernov, Maloletka and Stepanenko is APâs Best of the Week â First Winner.
for uncovering how both sides in Yemenâs civil war have sought to profit from the U.N. campaign against the worldâs biggest cholera outbreak, skimming money from treatment programs and, in the case of the Houthi rebels, blocking badly needed vaccines in an attempt to wrest concessions. https://bit.ly/2IBCfMK
As the U.S. Supreme Court considers overturning the constitutional right to abortion, reporter Luis Henao and video journalist Jessie Wardarski provided a compelling account of what can happen under a total abortion ban, through the testimonials of women who were raped or suffered miscarriages in El Salvador â where the countryâs harsh anti-abortion law committed them to long prison terms.
Henao and Wardarski traveled to rural El Salvador to meet women willing to share on camera their harrowing stories of being imprisoned under the law. To these Salvadoran women, their plight should serve as a cautionary tale for Americans.
The AP pair also sought the views of a Catholic cardinal and a lawmaker who defended the ban on abortion. The resulting all-formats package was used by hundreds of news outlets, was widely praised by experts on the issue and generated impassioned commentary on social media.
For engaging, insightful coverage that gives voice to women who have suffered the consequences of an abortion ban, and shedding light on an issue that sharply divides opinions in the U.S. and beyond, Henao and Wardarski earn APâs Best of the Week â First Winner honors.
How are you guaranteed to get an exclusive if and when researchers locate Japanese ships sunken during the World War II Battle of Midway?
One sure way is to be the only journalist accompanying researchers aboard a vessel in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific. Thatâs exactly what Hawaii correspondent Caleb Jones did, delivering two exclusive packages on the discovery of warships in northwestern Hawaii, first by convincing the search company to invite only the AP, and then singlehandedly producing the all-formats content from the research ship.
For successfully pitching APâs reach, then following up with strong storytelling that led to worldwide exclusives, Caleb Jones wins this weekâs Best of the States.
used interviews with dozens of witnesses, social media, satellite imagery and data on deaths to expose a campaign of massacres conducted by Myanmarâs military.Since it took over the government last February, the Myanmar military has been escalating its violence against both the opposition and civilians, and has reverted to scorched-earth tactics as a weapon of war.Reporting out of Myanmar is difficult at the best of times, with the constant danger to sources and the lack of access. This story was particularly challenging as the reporters pulled it off in three weeks, start to finish, working through vacations and holidays. Special credit goes to APâs stringers, who found and interviewed 40 witnesses.The team â video journalists McNeil and Jain, and Asia reporter Rising â also brought important context and understanding to the subject that comes from the APâs previous coverage of Myanmar. They noted that the massacres and burnings signal a return to practices the military has long used against ethnic minorities such as the Muslim Rohingya â this time applied also to the Buddhist Bamar majority. In recent months, most of the massacres have happened in the countryâs northwest, including in a region that is largely Bamar.The story was also timely, coming just days after a massacre of at least 35 civilians by the military on Christmas Eve.https://aplink.news/615https://aplink.video/33k
secured exclusive international agency access to a hospital battling coronavirus and casualties in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.Chernov and Lovetsky had been on the front line of the disputed region within Azerbaijan for more than a week when they began to see increasing numbers of people becoming sick with the coronavirus. Repeated requests to document the hospitals and clinics were rebuffed until Chernov tracked down the regionâs health minister to personally request access. The minister granted permission.Wearing full protective gear carried with them from previous reporting in the Ukraine, the pair visited the main hospital in Stepanakert and found terrible scenes of suffering as coronavirus patients mixed with the war-wounded â while doctors and nurses continued to treat people despite suffering from the virus themselves. Their on-the-ground reporting was crafted into a powerful text story by Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and the story moved as cross-format agency exclusive the next day.https://bit.ly/3oCN57Ohttps://bit.ly/34BY9Kp
for a dozen vibrantly illustrated dispatches and a two-part series documenting the impact that a dramatic decline in sea ice has had on the environment, wildlife and people in the Arctic Circleâs Northwest Passage. https://www.apnews.com/tag/NewArctic
The Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, has emerged as the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. At least 35 coronavirus deaths have been linked to the facility, and more than half of those inside have tested positive, leaving the remaining residents in a sort of purgatory that has anguished their relatives.
Photographer Ted Warren has spent much of his time recently outside the long-term care center, documenting in heartrending photos how people have tried to communicate with mothers, fathers and loved ones through windows because visitors are no longer allowed inside.
Warren found an ideal subject for conveying this desperation in the story of 86-year-old Chuck Sedlacek. With reporting by Gene Johnson, the pair delivered a package that detailed the isolation and anguish faced by the nursing home residents and their families â a feeling of helplessness many more are likely to experience as the disease spreads across the country.
For compelling work that conveys the frustration and despair of families coping with the coronavirus at a facility in the glare of the media spotlight, Warren and Johnson earn this weekâs Best of the States award.
A tweet was the seed for this illuminating story. âMost people in my rural, Appalachian hometown are being radicalized at church by their pastor, which is the person they trust the most,â it read. APâs Global Religion team ran with it.
Reporter Luis Andres Henao and visual journalist Jessie Wardarski visited the parishioners of three churches in Bluefield, West Virginia, including one pastor who had attended the Jan. 6 Washington rally that degenerated into a riot. The AP pair spent weeks convincing him to sit down for an interview. The result was an all-formats package of diverse congregations seeking common ground, even as they are divided on the role of evangelical Christianity in American politics.
For applying gentle persuasion and balanced reporting to produce a nuanced look at religion and politics in one West Virginia town, Henao and Wardarski win this weekâs Best of the States award.
As stories with impact go, this one stands out: The lead subject of the piece, struggling to feed her family during the pandemic, was tracked down on social media and hired by a reader for a job.
The all-formats package by reporter Luis Andres Henao and visual journalist Jessie Wardarski chronicled the struggle of Sharawn Vinson and her Brooklyn family as they coped with a shortage of food and other crises, taking readers into the lives of a family that was forced to separate to keep everyone fed. The details shared by the family give readers a better understanding of the issues confronting many of the nationâs most vulnerable during the pandemic.
For a rare, intimate look at a family on the front lines of food insecurity brought on by the coronavirus, documented with riveting photos and video, Henao and Wardarski share this weekâs Best of the States award.
More than 600 Inupiat Natives live in the village of Shishmaref, just a few miles from the Arctic Circle, watching climate change slowly shrink their small Alaskan island home. In early October, reporter Luis Andres Henao, video journalist Jessie Wardarski and photographer Jae Hong visited the village to document how the warming world inexorably threatens their way of life.
With advance outreach, and tactful overtures after their arrival, the journalists earned the trust of residents and civic leaders who have sometimes been wary of visitors. The ultimate result: a moving tribute to the villagersâ resilience and community spirit, rendered in striking visuals and poignant, insightful text.
The package â the first major look at how Shishmaref is determined to stay put as long as possible â earned prominent online display by major news outlets in the U.S. and abroad, including Spanish and French translations.
For an all-formats project vividly evoking the tenacity of a Native village threatened by climate change, the team of Henao, Wardarski and Hong is APâs Best of the Week â First Winner.
With a dedication to continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine, the AP teams in and around Kyiv landed an interview with the Ukrainian president and offered a definitive all-formats chronicle of the mass killings in Bucha.
In the capital, AP journalists relentlessly pursued an interview with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Asia-Pacific news director Adam Schreck, video journalist Mstyslav Chernov and photographer Evgeniy Maloletka eventually sat down with the president in a bunker-like government building, the dramatic setting adding to the power of the all-formats interview.
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Kyiv, reporter Cara Anna and a team of visual journalists brought the horror of life and death in Bucha to readers around the world, walking the streets and talking with witnesses to the murders and other abuses under Russian occupation of the town. The team saw at least a dozen uncollected bodies and talked with two dozen survivors and witnesses, each telling horrific stories.
The teamsâ coverage received strong play and reader engagement, a sign that APâs customers and audience are still keenly interested in accurate, definitive accounts of the war.
For shedding light on an increasingly dark era for Ukraine, we honor Adam Schreck, Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Cara Anna, Oleksandr Stashevskyi, Rodrigo Abd, Vadim Ghirda and Felipe Dana as APâs Best of the Week â First Winners.
The civil war gripping Yemen for the last three years has created one of the worldâs worst humanitarian disasters as millions of people face starvation. In an effort to understand the scope of the crisis, The Associated Press launched a one-year project with the Pulitzer Center, a non-profit news organization that helps cover underreported stories internationally.
AP Cairo-based reporter Maggie Michael, one of the few journalists who has followed the unfolding tragedy in Yemen from the beginning, often at great risk, used the Pulitzer grant for an extended reporting trip across Yemen with Cairo photographer Nariman el-Mofty and Yemen-based videographer Maad al-Zekri.
They drove more than 400 miles through five governorates, including one harrowing drive near an active front line outside of Khoukha, from their base in Aden. They interviewed mothers and families affected, plus food experts, doctors and volunteers, and they found that more than 8.4 million of the nationâs 29 million people rely almost completely on food aid.
The teamâs courageous efforts to tell this story win the Beat of the Week.
