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The Inside Story of How Trump ‘Kept the Oil’ in Syria and Lost
This article, by APF fellow Kenneth R. Rosen, first appeared in The Daily Beast on May 21, 2021. It was supported by his research for his APF fellowship. Delil Souleiman/Getty The mind-blowingly ambitious plan would have seen Delta Crescent, a tiny Delaware company,
The American Wildcatters Who Sought Syrian Oil
This piece, written by APF fellow Kenneth R. Rosen, ran in Esquire Magazine, on November, 15, 2022. It was supported by his research for his APF fellowship. Amidst a global energy shortage, the three men behind Delta Crescent Energy figured that even oil
How Government and Private Firms Shaped California’s Devastating Floods
In a land gripped by its history of drought, the Central Valley has planned poorly for its floods, threatening the lives and livelihoods of thousands. A few days after the flooding in California’s Central Valley began in March, George Wurzel, the president and
Historic Wet Year Highlights California’s Water Management Crossroads
Barriers to capturing and storing flood water may threaten the Golden State’s ability to adapt to a hotter, drier climate. Not so long ago, the dry western expanse of Madera County in California’s San Joaquin Valley was a prime example of shortsighted western
Discrimination Has Trapped People of Color in Unhealthy Urban ‘Heat Islands’
People of color, more than other groups, live in neighborhoods prone to excess heat and the illnesses that go with it Credit: Chiara Vercesi On a July day in 2021 that would become blazing hot, dozens of community volunteers gathered before sunrise at
California’s Dual Water Crisis
Record-breaking storms are wreaking havoc – compounding, not erasing, the difficulties of multi-year drought. The renter’s home in Sanger, just outside Fresno, went dry in the spring. The well at one house in Madera has been on and off since January 2021. The
Bad Witness: What I Didn’t Say About Reporting on Chinese Christians in Kenya
I was born into Christianity as I was born into America. In my childhood, there was the church and the diaspora, and I could not imagine one without the other. I grew up in Chinese immigrant churches, where the vast majority of members
They were 2 Chicago pizza delivery guys. Then, they ran a Mexican drug cartel, feds say
By Oscar Lopez and Frank Main The Guerreros Unidos cartel that authorities say brothers Adan and Mario Casarrubias Salgado led fueled Chicago’s appetite for heroin. It’s also blamed for the massacre of 43 students in Mexico. Adan Casarrubias Salgado (left), known as El Tomate, and
Agriculture Evades Accountability, Responsibility for America’s Worst Water Pollution
Law, Policy, and Power Insulate Crop and Livestock Producers In 1990, following intensive field trials, a respected agronomist at Iowa State University named Fred Blackmer formally introduced an inexpensive tool to accurately measure how much nitrogen farmers actually require to produce abundant harvests
How an Indigenous community in Panama is escaping rising seas
The Indigenous Guna people of Gardi Sugdub have plans to move to Panama’s mainland this year Many of the homes on the island of Gardi Sugdub, in Panama’s Guna Yala province, sit right at the edge of the sea. MICHAEL ADAMS In pictures
Land of no return: the Mexican city torn apart by cartel kidnappings
What woke María Zapata Escamilla was the sound of shattering glass. Armed men in military fatigues had burst into her home: they dragged her disabled husband outside, along with her 14-year-old son, still in his pajamas. Then they drove away into the night.
Mexico army ignored cartel warnings before mass student kidnapping, emails show
Relatives and classmates of the missing 43 Ayotzinapa college students march in Mexico City, on 26 September 2022. Photograph: Marco Ugarte/AP Months before 43 Ayotzinapa students vanished, army was repeatedly warned of criminal gang presence The Mexican military received nearly a dozen complaints
A Mexican town celebrates even as it mourns the victims of forced disappearance: ‘There’s still this emptiness’
Cristina Bautista, center, walks with her mother, daughter and granddaughter in front of the procession heading to the church to celebrate Holy Saviour. Photograph: Luis Antonio Rojas/The Guardian Life goes on for Benjamín Ascencio Bautista’s family, although the unsolved case overshadows their festivities
New U.S. Climate Law Could Make Midwest Water Contamination Worse
Billions in clean energy incentives rely on raw materials from polluting corn and livestock. This report was made possible by an investigative reporting fellowship awarded by the Alicia Patterson Foundation. A version of this article was co-published by Circle of Blue, The New
The Secret to Getting What You Need in Ghana
Special “protocol” treatment has become a way of life for the privileged few. NANA-OPOKU (AFROSCOPE) ILLUSTRATION FOR FOREIGN POLICY JUNE 11, 2022, 6:00 AM A friend recently told me a story about his attempt to get his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in
Police Personnel Records Routinely Kept Secret, Erased. How That Hurts Accountability
After four decades of hiding records of police misconduct, California has become one of the most transparent states. Prompted by a 2018 bill authored by State Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Berkeley Democrat, and two follow-up bills signed into law this year, the change
States look to help people with criminal records find jobs, housing. What they’re doing
The clean slate movement to expunge public records of arrests and convictions has been gathering momentum as concerns about mass incarceration in the United States and the effort to decriminalize drug use have gained traction. But the potential erasure of these records has
Can ‘clean slate’ laws really erase criminal records from public view? It’s complicated
Anyone who has used a dating app knows the value of an Internet search before showing up for coffee. So do employers and landlords, who will scroll on their own for insights and information they may have missed in an interview, or that
‘Clean slate’ laws would erase criminal records. Do they make America more equitable?
‘Clean slate’ laws in America How effective are new laws that erase criminal records? Take a look at the racial justice movement taking hold across California and the U.S. that aims to allow former felons to find a better life. Timothy Poole has
The Deep American Roots of the Atlanta Shooting
Among the first things I did upon learning about the shootings at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area was to check in with a former massage parlor worker I met in 2019. At the time, I was reporting an article about a prostitution raid at a Florida massage parlor.
Losing Sparta
Will All African Rhinos be Dead in Twenty Years?
Immigration: The Pain and Reward
The Scientist Who Explored the Skies
Saving the American Buffalo by Killing It
The Death of a Black Nursing Home
An Epic Experiment: Can America’s Great Plains Bison Recover?
Corporate Fishing
Treating Humans Inhumanely in America’s Justice System
The Hidden History of Same-Sex Marriage in Asia
Which Species Will Live?
South Africa’s Gay Imam and His Disciples
Centuries after the Black Death, Plague Still Kills
The WHO vs. the Tea Doctor
Latin America’s Gay Marriage Revolution
Climate adaptation: Survival of the flexible
Should we Dilute Genes to Save a Species?
As China Grows Rich, Rainforests Fall
China’s Rise Creates Clouds of U.S. Pollution
“Don’t Forget Your Court Date”
Pharming Bad Bacteria
The Man Who Turned Antibiotics Into Animal Feed
Gay Ugandans Take the Law Into Their Hands
A Rise in Fungal Diseases is Taking A Growing Toll on Wildlife
Frozen Sperm Offer a Lifeline for Coral
Chinese Demand Stokes U.S. Coal Battle
Fleeing the Fight: Displaced in Afghanistan
The Hill That Women Built
Shadow Lives USA
Is Wyoming Ruining Water Supplies to Produce Natural Gas?
The Environmental Toll of Gas Development
Energy Pollution, Past and Future, in Utah’s Indian Country
The Treasure of the Rocky Mountain Front
A Whole World Gone: The Loss of the American Chestnut Tree
Lady of Limbo Land
Importing Nuns to Save American Monasteries
The Politics of the Habit
Risking the Pope’s Wrath
The Masada Complex
End or Begin?
Israel: Revisionism Resurgent
Islam As Raison D’Etat
Impossible Dreams
Defining Islamic Terms
Adapting on the Atoll