AP’s coverage showed how the political fight in Washington over abortion threatens global HIV treatment supplies for millions of people.Read more
Longtime cultivation of a source paid off with the AP getting exclusive access to an important new study that provided insight into how the federal justice system handles terrorism cases.Read more
The first word came at 6:25 a.m., Oct. 7 local time: Red alerts were issued via WhatsApp for several locations in Israel. Sirens could be heard in Tel Aviv. AP journalists saw rockets being shot from Rafah in Gaza towards Israel. Then word filtered in from the Israeli army that there were numerous security breaches in central and southern Israel. More rockets fell, with Israeli ambulances dispatched to areas where residents had reported strikes. Taken together, it told of an ominous new day in the region.
The first of what would be many AP news alerts moved 20 minutes later: Israel says Palestinian militants have infiltrated into Israeli territory from Gaza.
What unfolded over the days was massive in its scope: The militant armed group Hamas executed a well-planned surprise attack on what would normally be a joyful holiday, Simchat Torah.
The Israeli army, caught off guard, struggled for days to regain control of the invaded towns. Israel released counterstrikes into Gaza, killing hundreds. Over the next 10 days the toll would rise to thousands dead in Gaza and in Israel.
Throughout the conflict, the teams in Israel and Gaza worked with courage, determination and excellence under extremely challenging circumstances to report on the painful events affecting them and their families. They earn Best of the Week — First Winner.
AP displayed brilliant source reporting and outstanding teamwork to break the news that the U.S. Army private who had fled to North Korea had been detained and faced multiple charges, including desertion and possessing sexual images of a child.Read more
The AP “Nones” team, in a package encompassing a dozen countries on five continents, provided an unprecedented global look at the surge of religiously unaffiliated people, as well as the risks faced by nonbelievers in places where such an outlook remains taboo.Read more
AP wrote a deeply reported, nuanced and original profile of Leo Wise, the lead prosecutor in the Hunter Biden case. Read more
AP employed the traditional Afghan “box camera” to document how life has changed in Afghanistan in peacetime, for better and worse, two years after U.S. troops left and the Taliban returned to power.Read more
AP got rare access to see how the U.S. government and contractors maintain the highly classified U.S. nuclear arsenal.Read more
AP dove into the world of historically Black university bands and football classics to produce two compelling, all-formats features that highlight the significance of the bands and games for Black communities in the United States.Read more
AP obtained exclusive body-cam video showing an elite federal prosecutor offering his Justice Department card in a DUI crash arrest. Read more
exposed the truth: The number of e-cigarettes on the market has exploded in recent years, a surge driven almost entirely by disposable e-cigarettes imported from China.Read more.
AP analyzed data from recent decades to uncover that the temperature has risen at the tennis Grand Slam tournaments by an average of 5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1988, increasing the likelihood of heat-related illness and withdrawals.Read more
AP explored how bananas and cocaine end up inside the same shipping containers for transatlantic trips to European ports, why the ubiquitous fruit has become a favorite of drug traffickers, and what Ecuador’s main port city feels like as crime and violence transforms people’s lives.Read more
AP covered 64 Women’s World Cup matches over two countries and four time zones.Read more
On the eve of the first world track championships since Bowie’s passing, AP sportswriters Eddie Pells and Pat Graham teamed up to report exclusively on the mental health struggles of Tori Bowie that led up to the star athlete’s death April 23 from complications during childbirth at the age of 32.
The two had covered Bowie, who won three medals at the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Games, for many years and had heard whispers of her difficulties. A few weeks after her death, the autopsy listed the cause as “complications in childbirth.”
While other outlets pursued the angle that Black women suffer disproportionately from pregnancy complications, Pells opted to explore another dimension of her story, her struggles with mental health.
He sought out people at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and within track and field, to find out how a world-famous champion, who was eight months into what would be considered an at-risk pregnancy, came to die alone at home without medical care or anyone to look after her.
For sensitively telling the story of a great athlete who became isolated from her peers and died tragically alone in part because of neglect of her mental health difficulties, Pells and Graham are Best of the Week — First Winner.
When former President Donald Trump was indicted on felony charges Aug. 1 for working to overturn the 2020 election results in the run-up to the Jan. 6 violent riot at the U.S. Capitol, the AP team was ready.Read more
AP broke news about a major development in the escalating U.S.-Iran tensions: The Pentagon is considering putting armed Marines and sailors on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz to guard against Iranian harassment and seizures.Read more
AP broke the story of how the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s second-in-command quietly stepped down after they had reported that he had previously done extensive consulting work for pharmaceutical companies, including the drug maker that became the face of the opioid crisis, Purdue Pharma.Read more
blew away the competition on the prison stabbing of disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar.Read more.
told the story of a former U.S. military interpreter in Afghanistan, who fled the Taliban only to be shot to death while working as a ride-share driver in Washington, D.C.Read more.
