Advancing the Power of Facts

Surviving Rwanda: God, remembrance and reconciliation on the genocide’s 30th anniversary

JULY 31, 2024

Thirty years ago, while he was hiding from the machetes that killed his father, two of his brothers and an estimated 800,000 other people during the genocide against Rwanda’s Tutsi minority, Pascal Kanyemera made a deal with God. “Please, if I survive one more week, I will give you 100 Rwandan francs.” God listened, so the […]

Lice, scabies, rashes plague Palestinian children as skin disease runs rampant in Gaza’s tent camps

JULY 30, 2024

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — A steady stream of miserable children and worried parents flowed into the dermatology office at Nasser Hospital in central Gaza. A toddler with a blue hair bow sobbed as her mother showed how the red and white spots covering her face have spread to her neck and chest. Another […]

‘White Dudes for Harris’ is the latest in a series of Zoom gatherings backing the vice president

JULY 30, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — On a “White Dudes for Harris” virtual call, it was probably fitting that “The Dude” dropped in. Actor Jeff Bridges addressed a fundraising event geared toward white men supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and sang her praises on Monday night, before channeling his iconic role as “The Dude” in 1998’s “The Big Lebowski,” declaring, […]

Donald Trump says he ‘probably’ will debate Kamala Harris but ‘can also make a case for not’

JULY 30, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump on Monday seemed to back away from his earlier commitment to debate Vice President Kamala Harris, questioning the value of a meetup and saying he “probably” will debate but he “can also make a case for not doing it.” Trump, in an interview with Fox News Channel that aired Monday […]

Museums closed Native American exhibits 6 months ago. Tribes are still waiting to get items back

JULY 29, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Tucked within the expansive Native American halls of the American Museum of Natural History is a diminutive wooden doll that holds a sacred place among the tribes whose territories once included Manhattan. For more than six months now, the ceremonial Ohtas, or Doll Being, has been hidden from view after the […]

Unintended consequences: How NIL in college sports has raised questions about nonprofits

JULY 29, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Three years into the new age of college sports, where athletes are allowed to profit from their successes through name, image and likeness deals, everyone is still trying to find out what the new normal will be. Greg Sankey, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, called it “uncharted waters of change” in July at SEC […]

Refugee athletes want more of them to compete at the Olympics as migration takes global focus

JULY 29, 2024

PARIS (AP) — The first time Perina Lokure Nakang began to run for sport, she ran 9 miles (14 kilometers) along the road near her refugee camp in northwestern Kenya. Now, the 21-year-old South Sudanese runner is competing in the Paris Olympics, among many of the 37 athletes on the Olympic refugee team who are pushing to see […]

Ten years on, many Yazidis uprooted by Islamic State onslaught struggle to find stable homes

JULY 29, 2024

SINJAR, Iraq (AP) — When Rihan Ismail returned to her family’s home in the heartland of her Yazidi community, she was sure she was coming back for good. She had yearned for that moment throughout long years of captivity. Islamic State militants had abducted then-adolescent Ismail as they rampaged through Iraq’s Sinjar district, killing and enslaving […]

Trump and Harris enter 99-day sprint to decide an election that has suddenly transformed

JULY 29, 2024

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — Barely a week ago, a sense of inevitability hung over the U.S. presidential election. Donald Trump’s allies gleefully predicted a landslide victory during a Republican National Convention that felt more like a coronation for a nominee who had just survived an assassination attempt and was promising to unite the country. Democrats, […]

Novel approach engages audience on Venezuela election 

JULY 26, 2024

Ten years into Venezuela’s economic and social crisis, it’s difficult to find new ways to engage audiences: The story is complex and nuanced, and the sheer length of crisis means many people have tuned out. That’s what makes Regina Garcia Cano’s story about couples breaking up because one member is leaving the country so good. […]

The biggest of stories came to the small city of Butler. AP showed how its newspaper met the moment

JULY 26, 2024

Media reporter David Bauder of the Trends+Culture unit thought a unique angle for the weekend after the Trump shooting would be to explore how Butler’s local newspaper — like so many, struggling in a jumbled journalism economy — responded when the world’s biggest story unfolded in its backyard. Photographer Matt Slocum and video journalist Joe […]

Persistence, source building and originality leads to critical, in-depth coverage of working conditions in greenhouses

JULY 26, 2024

When climate and agriculture reporter Melina Walling was covering the rise of vertical farming in greenhouses last year, she approached workers from the vertical farm AppHarvest to find out more about the trend. It quickly became apparent that the workers had negative feelings toward the company, and Walling visited them in Kentucky several times to find […]