for chronicalling efforts to save one of Earthâs most iconic species, the African lion, in a package that include intimate portraits of the Maasai people trying to live among lions, and stunning photos and video of the landscape they inhabit.https://bit.ly/2BrBgtvhttps://bit.ly/35KM6ZR
for his analysis of tens of thousands of health and safety inspections in a package that exposed for the first time a decade-long decline in living conditions for millions of poor tenants in federally subsidized housing. https://bit.ly/2V7Huu5https://bit.ly/2WUq15N
for using the arrest and deportation of a prominent Irishman in Boston as a hook for a larger story on how the Trump administration is cracking down with increasing frequency on Europeans living illegally in the U.S. http://abcn.ws/2vDdSnW
teamed up two months ago on coverage of an expected Social Security cost-of-living increase. In the current economic climate, they anticipated â correctly â the story would have strong audience appeal and would require a range of user-friendly explanatory journalism that would also capture the circumstances and voices of people across the U.S.The result was a week of in-depth all-formats coverage on the jump in benefits. From an overview of how Social Security works to the potential impact on inflation and the midterm elections to on-camera interviews with recipients, the AP team explored and explained the benefits boost from all angles.Read more
for a detailed examination of one of Thailand's most notorious criminal cases, revealing that the Red Bull heir accused in a fatal hit-and-run has been living the high life around the world since shortly after the crash four years ago. The story served as fresh evidence for critics of Thailand's court system who say the rich and powerful get their own form of justice. http://apne.ws/2p9EMAM
An exclusive analysis conducted for AP showed that in the shadow of the pandemic, a quiet surge in non-COVID âexcess deathsâ in U.S. nursing homes could top 40,000 above and beyond what is normal.
To find out why, the AP team of reporters Matt Sedensky and Bernard Condon, with video journalist Allen Breed and colleagues, interviewed nursing home authorities and family members, documenting severe cases of neglect and prolonged isolation for residents not infected with the virus, much of it due to chronic understaffing. The text story and video piece received prominent play and were among the most widely viewed on the AP News app on the day of publication.
For exposing a grim consequence of the pandemic affecting an already vulnerable population, the team of Sedensky, Condon and Breed earns this weekâs Best of the States award.
Rarely does a Best of the Week award to go to a single AP journalist for work on a variety of stories. But the consistent excellence in the images of Barcelona-based Emilio Morenatti â on stories large and small â moved the judges to make an exception.
He started the week with a powerful story on migrants crossing a treacherous stretch of the Atlantic to the Canary Islands. And he finished with a remarkable set of photos on a COVID-19 patient, wheeled in his hospital bed to a promenade on the Barcelona waterfront. In between those stories he covered soccer star Lionel Messiâs spat with Barcelona, daily life and more.
Each of his assignments reflected the highest standards of visual journalism and a level of emotional investment that few can match, earning Morenatti APâs Best of the Week accolade.
Since the pandemic took hold in America, myriad stories have covered the broad economic impact of millions laid off or underemployed. But few have captured how the chilling trickle-down effect is changing lives.
Enter Kelli Kennedy. The Florida reporter produced a compelling, poignant story on one man's struggle with the devastating effects of the coronavirus shutdowns. Orlando resident Jeff Lello lost his waiter job, ended up homeless and briefly lived in a tent in the woods.
The story was among APâs most-read of the week, drawing feedback from readers, colleagues and even politicians.
For a stark narrative of unemployment wrought by the pandemic, Kennedyâs story wins 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.
added nuance and depth to APâs coverage of national protests over the killing of Breonna Taylor by defying stereotypes about Blacks living in Appalachia, and offering reasons for hope that racial progress is possible in the region.In a story that captured the complexity of multiple fault lines of ethnicity and class â including preconceived notions about white Appalachians â the Report for America journalist examined the perspective of young Black people living in the mountains who have found hope in the national reckoning on race. https://bit.ly/2SDk5xM
exclusively obtained an audio clip from the body-camera footage of a Louisiana state trooper implicated in the death of a Black motorist last year, capturing the trooper saying, âI beat the ever-living f--- out of him.â It is the most direct evidence yet to emerge in the death last year of Ronald Greene, which troopers initially blamed on injuries from a car crash at the end of a chase. The long-simmering case has now become the subject of a federal civil rights investigation and growing calls for authorities to release the full body-cam video.
Mustian, a former investigative reporter for The New Orleans Advocate, is deeply sourced on the Louisiana State Police and has been consistently out front on this story. He broke the news that federal investigators were stepping in, and his scoop on the trooperâs 27-second audio received strong play through several busy news cycles. https://bit.ly/3d4CwoH
Ever since Hurricane Laura hit southwest Louisiana in August, correspondent Rebecca Santana and photographer Gerald Herbert wanted to follow up with the regionâs residents. But in a busy hurricane season, it wasnât until December that plans finally came together.
Santana researched for weeks, finding subjects and learning about recovery efforts. The pair then spent two days in the Lake Charles area where they saw the devastation firsthand and met storm victims, including a couple whose postponed wedding was finally happening. Herbert, who also shot the video for the stories, went back to Lake Charles eight times, even sleeping in a gutted house on Christmas Eve.
The result was two print stories, three video packages and a photo essay, all of which received prominent play. For uncovering the compelling stories of hurricane victims months after the storms faded from the headlines, Santana and Herbert earn APâs Best of the States award for the week of Dec. 21.
has stayed in regular contact with students and parents from the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting, a connection that helped her produce a poignant account of this yearâs graduating class which endured the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting as freshmen and who are now living through the pandemic as seniors. Theirs is a story of a high school career disrupted and bookended by two separate traumas. In one of the most moving tales, Miami reporter Kennedy highlighted the life of one senior who lost her best friend in the shooting and moved to another state and school only to face difficulty connecting with new friends because of the pandemic. https://bit.ly/37q89Hx
gave voice to the intense emotion within communities of Catholic nuns that have experienced devastating losses from outbreaks of the coronavirus. The Felician Sisters alone lost 21 of their own from four U.S. convents, a remarkable blow for a community of about 450 women. This intimate look within the cloister showed the lasting effects of what the pandemic wrought â in this case, the most reverent found themselves questioning faith and how one might continue living when so many nuns didnât.After initial difficulty connecting with receptive sources, national writer Sedensky found Sister Mary Jeanine Morozowich in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, who had a level of introspection and eloquence that would help drive this story. That opened the doors to St. Anne Home in Greensburg. Sedensky and video journalist Wardarski, both compassionate listeners, encouraged the openness of the sisters, helping introduce the pair to others at the ministry. âBy the time Jessie and I paid a visit there, we were able to share moments and conversations with all of them,â Sedensky said. Along the way, a couple of sisters told him that they felt better after their conversations.The package, including Wardarskiâs poignant visuals, found a receptive audience. The AP pair received innumerable emails expressing how much the story moved readers. One was headlined: âMy tears flowed as I read your article.â Another said: âYour article about the loss of these beautiful women will stay with me always. ... You wrote it so beautifully and with such respect.âhttps://bit.ly/3g8vYsGhttps://bit.ly/3gdjJeh
When Ronald Greene died in 2019, Louisiana State Police troopers initially blamed the Black manâs death on injuries from a crash at the end of a high-speed chase, then later said Greene became unresponsive in a struggle with troopers and died on his way to the hospital.
For the most part, that was all the public would know about the case, until APâs Jim Mustian took up the story. Since he began reporting nine months ago, heâs broken a string of stories revealing there was more to the story. But Mustian always knew he needed to get his hands on one crucial piece of evidence: video.
This past week, Mustian did just that. In the most explosive break yet in the case, Mustian obtained body camera footage that showed Greene repeatedly apologizing and pleading for mercy as troopers jolted him with stun guns, put him in a choke hold, punched him and dragged him by his ankle shackles. The story led national newscasts and websites, and fronted newspapers across the country, with credit to APâs reporting and the video, again and again.
This scoop was the work of one dogged investigative reporter who never stopped believing that the world should know what really happened to Ronald Greene. For that we honor Jim Mustian with APâs Best of the Week award.
captured in a poignant story what thousands of people around the world are living with â the guilt and remorse of believing they inadvertently infected a loved one who died of COVID-19.One of those feeling responsibility is Michelle Pepe, traveled from Boston to Florida for her motherâs 80th birthday In March 2020, just as the pandemic bloomed in the U.S. Pepe believes she gave the coronavirus to her father, Bernie Rubin, who died weeks later.The intimate story, eloquently told in all formats by New Yorkâs Henao and Wardarski, members of APâs Religion team, resonated with AP customers and readers at home and abroad, with many sharing their own stories and fears on social media. Pepe, featured in the story, thanked the pair in an email and said she was inundated with requests from broadcasters to tell her story, which might help people in similar circumstances. But she hadn't watched the whole AP video yet, saying: âI need to prep myself.âhttps://bit.ly/3uRcpcbhttps://bit.ly/3gb16WK
landed key interviews in quick succession to drive the South Asia news agenda.Persistence by Kathmanduâs Gurubacharya paid off when Nepalâs newly appointed health minister, Sher Bahadur Tamang, revealed on camera that Nepal was in desperate need of vaccines and would allow any vaccine producer to run trials and produce vaccines with all fees waived.Meanwhile, across the border in India, Bhatia conducted a timely Zoom interview with the new president of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Penpa Tsering, in the northern city of Dharmsala, where the Dalai Lama has been living since fleeing Chinese forces in 1959. Tsering said a visit by the Dalai Lama to Tibet could be the best way to resume talks with China. Tseringâs extensive comments contrasted with a recent Chinese-led media tour of Tibet.And a day later, Delhiâs Pathi arranged an on-camera interview with Dr. Vinod K. Paul, head of Indiaâs COVID-19 response team. He defended the Indiaâs move to restrict vaccine exports, saying India wants to resume exports but canât do so until its domestic needs are met. Paul also denied that the government was deliberately undercounting deaths or cases.The exclusive interviews elevated APâs news report across formats, making headlines with regional and international customers.https://aplink.news/9u8https://aplink.news/5c9https://aplink.news/cddhttps://aplink.video/dfchttps://aplink.video/2vz
teamed up to deliver a vivid and memorable account of a new migration trend: Venezuelan migrants appearing at the U.S. border with Mexico, particularly in Del Rio, Texas. Goodman, APâs Miami-based Latin America correspondent, noticed the development and chased down the data showing that asylum-seekers are increasingly from Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil. Among the thousands of Venezuelans who have crossed the border illegally since January are many professionals, and many who had been living for years in other South American countries, part of an exodus of nearly six million Venezuelans since President NicolĂĄs Maduro took power in 2013.With deep reporting on both sides of the border and compelling visuals from both San Antonio photographer Eric Gay and New York video journalist David Martin, the all-formats package adds new insight into the long-running political and economic crisis in Venezuela, the coronavirusâs impact on migration and the large increase in asylum-seekers encountered at the U.S. border under President Joe Biden. âIt is better to wash toilets here than be an engineer over there,â one migrant told AP on camera.https://aplink.news/xdjhttps://aplink.video/pxe
teamed up on an all-formats package that used two Oregon carrot seed farmers, living just miles apart, to illustrate the deep inequities of water distribution amid crippling drought. The contrast between the two farm fields â one a virtual desert, while a short distance away sprinklers douse crops and cattle graze on green grass â illustrates the arcane water allocation rules determining who will wither and who will thrive amid the ongoing drought in the American West.Using this striking example, the journalists explored how farmers, out of necessity, are considering proposals to set up water banks that use the supply and demand principles of the free market to funnel scarce water where itâs needed most while encouraging conservation. But the concept also brings risk and resistance.Flaccus reported on the ground in and around Madras, Oregon, and shot video, while Peterson reported from Denver and produced the video, which featured Howardâs striking photos and drone footage of the droughtâs impact. Top Stories Desk photo editor Alyssa Goodman in New York drew all the elements together in an engaging presentation that saw remarkable play in the West and beyond.https://aplink.news/a4uhttps://aplink.video/k19
collaborated on an âOnly on APâ package documenting Belarusian authoritiesâ involvement in a recent surge of immigration from Belarus into Lithuania. In the past two months more than 1,700 have crossed the border â 20 times the total for all of 2020.Lithuanian and European Union officials have accused Belarus of assisting the migration in retaliation over EU sanctions against the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko, but no evidence had been provided and no media outlets had been able to speak to the migrants themselves, who are held in heavily guarded, makeshift camps in Lithuania.The determined all-formats trio of Chernov, Dapkus and Kulbis, seeking to hear from the migrants themselves, drove from camp to camp, more than 600 kilometers (375 miles), eventually finding two smaller, remote camps where police allowed the journalists to speak with migrants. People confirmed they were paying to be taken to Europe via Belarus, and that Belarus had helped them get to Lithuania. AP was allowed inside one of the camps to briefly make photos and video of the migrantsâ living conditions.With Karmanau reporting from Belarus and Isachakov in Moscow pulling all the reporting into a cohesive piece, the resulting all-formats exclusive revealed how migrants have once again been caught up in a game of political brinksmanship.https://aplink.news/fwdhttps://aplink.video/flk
