Best of the Week — First Winner

AP breaks stunning story of child caught in custody battle between Afghan couple, US Marine

The story was nothing short of shocking: An Afghan baby, the only surviving member of her immediate family following an American attack on their home, was brought to the United States for medical treatment only to be taken from the Afghan couple who raised her as their own and — against the couple’s wishes — placed in the custody of a U.S. Marine attorney and his wife.

AP reporters Juliet Linderman, Martha Mendoza and Claire Galofaro broke the competitive story after poring through hundreds of pages of legal filings and documents, talking to Afghan officials and pushing relentlessly for interviews with everyone involved. Then the trio wove their reporting into a beautifully written, compelling narrative that reads like an international thriller. The piece prompted strong reader reaction, with many asking how they could hold the government agencies involved responsible.

For intensive, lightning-fast work to put AP first on this deeply reported, deeply moving story, Linderman, Galofaro and Mendoza earn AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner honors.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

A first look at Mosul museum gutted by IS

for source work over several months that allowed the AP to get exclusive access to the museum in Mosul after it was recaptured by Iraqi troops. The Islamic State had largely destroyed the collections. http://apne.ws/2mNXOww

Best of the Week — First Winner

Raqqa drone video reveals shocking devastation

The scene is dreamlike – or, more precisely, nightmarish. The untethered camera swoops and swerves through a depopulated wasteland of rubble and bombed-out buildings and wrecked vehicles.

This is Raqqa, devastated capital of the Islamic State group’s self-proclaimed caliphate. And this extraordinary footage – the Beat of the Week – was brought to viewers around the world by freelance drone videographer Gabriel Chaim. He shares the prize with Mideast photo editor Maya Alleruzzo.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Afghan government holds frequent talks with Taliban

for obtaining previously undisclosed details about frequent talks between Afghan government officials and the Taliban about the country’s constitution and political future. http://bit.ly/2vDtb0x

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP exclusive video: Inside Borough Market during London Bridge attack

It began with a photograph showing one of the London Bridge attackers lying dead with a police officer standing over him. The Associated Press had bought it from a freelancer and now wanted to interview him. When it proved difficult to reach him by phone, AP producer Natalia Gohl friended him on Facebook and discovered something even more extraordinary: nine minutes of harrowing video of police hunting for the attackers that he streamed live during the assault.

Gohl’s discovery – the feed was private and had only a few hundred views – and the intense negotiations that followed to obtain the video led to a global exclusive. It is the Beat of the Week.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP analysis: At least 19,000 in Iraq detained for terrorism, thousands sentenced to death

Prisons in Iraq held thousands of Islamic State group militants, but few outside the government knew exactly how many. Baghdad-based reporter Qassim Abdul-Zahra set out to find out – and he wasn’t going to take a rough estimate for an answer.

With Baghdad correspondent Susannah George and Mideast enterprise editor Lee Keath, Abdul-Zahara analyzed documents he obtained from a Justice Ministry official, finding that the government was holding at least 19,000 people accused of ISIS connections or other terror-related offenses and that more than 3,000 of them had been sentenced to death.

For intrepid source work and analysis to establish the facts around the imprisonment of thousands of Islamic State group militants in Iraq, Abdul-Zahra, George and Keath win Beat of the Week.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Only on AP: Tournament challenges racism, French social model

inspired anti-racism advocates and young people in neglected quarters of France by shining a global spotlight on the National Neighborhoods Cup, an unusual soccer tournament aimed at celebrating the diversity of immigrants and casting a positive light on working-class areas with large immigrant populations that some politicians and commentators scapegoat as breeding grounds for crime, riots and Islamic extremism.AP was the only international media to cover the tournament, and the only media to put it into the perspective of France’s strained ideal of a colorblind republic that doesn’t identify people by race or ethnic background. The story was widely used in U.K. and U.S. media, prompted discussion online and earned praise from tournament participants.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Back-to-back interviews with Morocco's prime minister and his top political rival

for back-to-back interviews with Morocco's prime minister and his top political rival for their solutions addressing rising Islamic extremism. http://wapo.st/2dNLdpG

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Only on AP: The path to extremism in Pakistan — and the US

demonstrated the power of AP’s global footprint and expertise, digging into two case studies of radicalized individuals — one in the United States, seen prominently in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and one in Pakistan. The trio’s reporting revealed some striking commonalities between the Islamic extremism so feared by many Americans and the homegrown U.S. movements that led to the insurrection.Reporting on their subjects through family members, Kansas City, Missouri-based Hollingsworth interviewed the brother of Jan. 6 suspect Doug Jensen three times over the course of months, while Gannon, who has covered the process of radicalization for years as news director for Afghanistan and Pakistan, plumbed sources she developed with the late Anja Niedringhaus more than a decade ago. She delved into the life of Wahab, a young Pakistani man, from the vantage point of his uncle.National security reporter Tucker, meanwhile, reviewed documents, did source reporting and consulted experts to weave it all together, fragment by fragment.The result was “Paths to Radicalization,” an Only on AP story exploring each man’s pivot into extremism. Despite obvious differences between the two men, the piece reveals common elements, not only in how people absorb extremist ideology but also in how they feed off grievances and mobilize to action. Extremist thinking is not necessarily an “other” thing; it can happen anywhere through similar means.The story remained at the top of AP News for nearly an entire day with high reader engagement while receiving play from major news outlets, online and in print, as well as on social media. Tucker also discussed the piece in an interview with San Francisco’s KCBS.https://aplink.news/l41https://omny.fm/shows/kcbsam-o...

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP all-formats team gets rare, exclusive access to Taliban crackdown on drug users

From a fetid bridge underpass frequented by addicts, to a police station, to a grim drug detoxification ward, this all-formats package driven by powerful visuals takes a stunning look at Afghanistan’s drug underworld and the severe treatment of heavy drug users by the Taliban. The work also bears witness to AP’s robust reporting from Afghanistan, which has continued unabated since the Taliban takeover.

Video journalist Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Felipe Dana and correspondent Samya Kullab, all currently on assignment in Kabul, gained rare access to this especially bleak segment of Afghan life, earning the trust of street addicts and, through a combination of persistence and luck, documenting Taliban detention of users, all amid a difficult and dangerous environment for journalists.For a rare exclusive that sets a high standard for coverage while shedding light on a harsh reality in Afghanistan, the team of Chernov, Dana and Kullab is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

Best of the Week — First Winner

Washington team breaks multiple stories; keeps AP ahead during Afghanistan withdrawal

As AP’s staff in Afghanistan grappled with the turmoil of the U.S. evacuation, an AP trio half a world away — Pentagon reporters Bob Burns and Lita Baldor and State Department reporter Matt Lee, with contributions by colleagues — set the standard, breaking news on the month’s most competitive story.

Whether posing tough questions at government briefings or getting the deeper story through one-on-one reporting, the reporters turned out crisp stories that were fair, accurate and authoritative. From the eyebrow-raising visit of two U.S. lawmakers, to the suicide bombing outside Kabul’s airport, to analysis of the ultimate beneficiary of America’s $83 billion expenditure, their coverage kept AP consistently out front.

For repeatedly scooping the competition and setting the news agenda on the closely watched, fast-developing events in Afghanistan, the team of Bob Burns, Lita Baldor and Matthew Lee is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP provides dramatic all-formats coverage of Iraq’s deadly protests

The calls on social media were informal and scattered, urging demonstrations Oct. 1 in Baghdad to protest deteriorating living conditions in the battered Iraqi capital. There was nothing to indicate that the protests would be more significant than previous actions. But Khalid Mohammed, AP’s chief photographer in Baghdad, had a hunch. He put the demonstrations on the bureau’s planner and urged all formats to be ready, despite the prevailing mood of skepticism.

Mohammed’s assessment proved prescient. The demonstrations erupted into five days of furious violence, the worst in the country since the quieting of its internal war against the Islamic State group. AP’s staff witnessed the first violence and stayed on the grueling story for days.

For their anticipation and courageous eyewitness journalism that set AP apart, Mohammed, photographer Hadi Mizban, video journalist Ali Jabar and reporter Qassim Abdul-Zahra share AP’s Best of the Week award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Gaza man tells AP he was tortured by Hamas, forced to divorce

reported exclusively on the imprisonment, torture and lost love of Palestinian activist Rami Aman, who spent months enduring brutal interrogations in a Hamas prison but was offered an unconventional proposition: Divorce your wife and you are free to go. Aman had recently signed a marriage contract with the daughter of a Hamas official, but the ruling Islamic militant group apparently wanted to dispel any hint that it supported Aman’s outreach to Israeli peace activists. He eventually caved to the pressure and now the love of his life has been whisked out of Gaza against her will. Akram, AP Gaza City correspondent, started reporting the all-formats exclusive a year ago when he met Aman after his release from the Hamas prison. They stayed in touch and Akram slowly learned the chilling details of the torture and forced divorce. Akram spent months persuading Aman to share his story on the record, and he spent an additional two months fact-checking the story, including a conversation with Aman’s ex-wife who confirmed the account. Aman also agreed to go on camera and share his story for AP’s video clients. https://bit.ly/3mti4SV

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP reveals how major terrorism prosecution almost fell apart

delivered an exclusive, deeply reported account of how the Department of Justice’s biggest terrorism prosecution in years almost didn't happen. The case involves two alleged Islamic State militants dubbed “The Beatles,” British citizens blamed for the jailing, torture and murder of Western hostages in Syria.Tucker spoke to roughly a dozen current and former U.S. and British officials — many of whom rarely, if ever, grant interviews — as well as relatives of slain hostages. The story broke news in several areas, revealing for the first time how grieving families reached a gradual consensus to take the death penalty off the table, a major sticking point. Tucker also reported the behind-the-scenes involvement of current and former FBI officials who encouraged the families to prod the administration into action, and never-before-seen email correspondence from a senior Justice Department official to one of the victims’ relatives.https://bit.ly/3m1IcCOhttps://bit.ly/37Std99

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP first to identify Iran’s damaged centrifuge site

used deep sourcing, analysis of satellite photos and knowledge of Iran’s nuclear program to put AP out front in reporting that a fire had damaged Iran’s advanced centrifuge assembly plant at Natanz, one of the most-tightly guarded sites in all of the Islamic Republic after earlier acts of sabotage there.https://bit.ly/3f8RHgLhttps://bit.ly/31ROZII

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP reveals efforts to bring IS to justice for slave trade

spotlighted efforts by international investigators to bring the Islamic State to justice for the slavery and sex trafficking of Iraq’s Yazidi religious minority. The story, which took nearly a year, built on investigators’ documents and El Deeb’s reporting in Iraq and Syria to track down former slaves, owners and those who witnessed the enslavement, all complemented by powerful photos and video of women who had been trafficked.https://bit.ly/2TN6bu9https://bit.ly/2X9imUg

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

US Muslim community adapts to Ramadan amid the pandemic

produced a rich, character-driven look at obstacles and opportunities for American Muslims observing Ramadan during the pandemic. Harnessing the power of the AP across the U.S., the team and their colleagues brought a complex subject to vivid fruition with a nuanced, intimate look at the Muslim community adjusting and improvising during a more virtual and sometimes solitary holy month.https://bit.ly/2xFRrVXhttps://bit.ly/3ft7Xtm

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Thorough checking of a claim pays off in coverage of Denver killing

for accepting an inmate’s call and reporting his remarkable claim with essential context: The prisoner, charged with killing a transit guard, claimed to be a supporter of the Islamic State group, but AP’s story, with reporting also by Jim Anderson, noted investigators had found no evidence the terror group had anything to do with the killing. http://apne.ws/2m56r4e

Best of the Week — First Winner

How tramadol, touted as the safer opioid, became a 3rd world peril

It was supposed to be the safer opioid, a way to fight pain with little risk of addiction. That promise has meant much less regulation of tramadol than other opioids. And its relatively low cost has made tramadol the drug of choice in many developing countries, becoming what the United Nations calls “the other opioid crisis.”

National writer Claire Galofaro spent months researching the issue – but how to illustrate the story from a fresh perspective?

Galofaro turned to New Delhi-based correspondent Emily Schmall, who traveled to India’s Punjab state, where she talked to people struggling with addiction, visited a treatment center and gained unprecedented access to officials trying to stem the crisis. 

The deeply reported story, one of the top-read pieces on AP News, also delved into tramadol’s heavy toll in Africa, and its trafficking among terrorist groups. 

For their work exposing an aspect of the international opioid crisis that has received far less attention, Galofaro and Schmall win AP’s Best of the Week award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Access to Syrian camp reveals forgotten children left to IS influence

gained rare access to Syria's sprawling al-Hol camp, their work shedding light on tens of thousands of forgotten kids languishing without any real opportunities or education beyond the ideology of the Islamic State group communicated to them by their mothers.In video, photos and text, the story revealed the lives of children at the camp — which houses families of IS and IS sympathizers —and their exposure to the influence of IS, including children waving black IS flags, metal-like swords and gesturing in the form of beheadings. The story received wide play and was cited by Syria experts and academics as evidence of the perils of leaving al-Hol’s kids to their fate, and why foreign countries need to take responsibility for their nationals and repatriate them.https://aplink.news/ar0https://aplink.video/4ze