AP shows damage caused to young girls’ skin and mental health by beauty products promoted on social media

SEPT. 6, 2024

Anybody who visits their local Sephora likely knows growing numbers of young girls have a fixation with beauty products.  Less widely known is the source of the obsession, and the damage it’s causing to preteen girls’ skin and mental health.  San Francisco-based education writer Jocelyn Gecker won the trust of two girls and their families […]

Boy’s ice cream stand dispute with town reveals unsavory side

SEPT. 6, 2024

When reporter Michael Casey saw a local news report about a Massachusetts boy whose charity ice cream stand was shut down by the city because of code violations, he knew the story would do well with a global audience. The boy had become a minor celebrity, and several businesses took up his campaign to raise […]

AP explores how, for some Americans, the Afghanistan war is not over

SEPT. 6, 2024

Santana, Amiri and Knickmeyer were working on similar topics separately and found each other. Former Baghdad bureau chief Santana had just finished a story on Iraq refugee issues and had talked to a man supporting an Iraqi translator he had worked with, so the idea of Americans helping former translators and staffers was on her […]

AP explains how climate change can make even running deadly

SEPT. 6, 2024

Runners are used to less-than-ideal conditions, but a warming climate can make the sport deadly. As part of the Climate & Environment team’s push to show how a warming world is affecting every facet of our lives, Phillis — himself a runner — delved into how it was reshaping runners and racing. He learned that […]

Education team caps back-to-school month package that drove conversation

SEPT. 6, 2024

The back-to-school period is the Education team’s Super Bowl. Every year, the AP team plans more than a month of spot enterprise, lasting from the earliest schools’ reopening in early August to the post-Labor Day stragglers. The biggest challenge: centering kids in reporting during the summer, when they’re not readily found in schools. Nevertheless, the […]

AP provides fast, comprehensive coverage of X’s shutdown in Brazil

SEPT. 6, 2024

The story of the shutdown of Elon Musk’s X in the world’s fourth-largest democracy resounded around the world. Opinions about the suspension were divided along familiar political fault lines in the polarized nation. As is often the case, that makes coverage especially thorny, and accuracy and nuance are imperative. Collaborating with AP’s technology team, the […]

School choice and a history of segregation collide as one Florida county shutters its rural schools

AUG. 30, 2024

Less than two months into her two-year Report for America assignment, Tallahassee-based reporter Kate Payne delivered a compelling all-formats package on how school districts in the United States are grappling with the racial and economic realities exposed by an explosive expansion in school choice.    As a new wave of school choice has swept the U.S., […]

AP uses global reach, vivid on-the-ground reporting to illustrate challenges of ‘overtourism’ on the world

AUG. 30, 2024

London-based Trends + Culture international reporter Laurie Kellman, who has covered the ins and outs of international travel in the past, had been watching anti-tourism developments around the world all summer. She understood that the protests were splashy but realized that most were not really about the tourists; they were about being unprepared for a […]

AP was ahead of the coverage of a railroads labor dispute that stopped trains in Canada

AUG. 30, 2024

After Canada’s two largest railroads ground to a halt following a labor dispute that couldn’t be resolved before the overnight deadline last Thursday, Canada bureau chief Rob Gillies and U.S. Midwest newsperson and rail writer Josh Funk worked around to clock to tell the impact and any details of negotiations to solve the crisis. The […]

Source work and coordination puts AP out fast on closely watched immigration story

AUG. 30, 2024

Homeland Security reporter Rebecca Santana was on her way to the San Diego airport at 6 a.m. on Friday when she got a tip from a source that Republican-led states were suing to end a Biden immigration parole program. The program was aimed at helping nearly 500,000 immigrants who don’t have legal status and are […]

AP gets exclusive all-formats interview with first transgender Paralympian

AUG. 30, 2024

Daniella Matar led a cross-format team that got an exclusive interview with Valentina Petrillo, the first transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics. Stories about Petrillo emerged several weeks ago as the Paralympics were approaching, but none had any on-camera interviews with her as she prepared for the games. Milan-based sportswriter Daniella Matar arranged a […]

Moving quickly, AP snags series of interviews with newly freed Russian prisoners

AUG. 23, 2024

Tallinn-based Russia reporter Dasha Litvinova has dedicated herself to telling the stories of Russian political prisoners swept up in President Vladimir Putin’s relentless crackdown against dissent. Two weeks ago, when some of those dissidents were freed in the biggest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War, Litvinova knew she had to work all her contacts […]