Pulitzer Center Update

This Week: Behind the Curtain in North Korea

September 19, 2017 | Newsletter
By
Tom Hundley
Commuters on the Pyongyang Metro. The capital, marooned by politics, presents a panorama from another time. Image by Max Pinckers/The New Yorker. North Korea, 2017.

Commuters on the Pyongyang Metro. The capital, marooned by politics, presents a panorama from another time. Image by Max Pinckers/The New Yorker. North Korea, 2017.

Why DC and Pyongyang Don't Make Sense to Each Other

Evan Osnos and Max Pinckers

Grantee Evan Osnos takes us behind the scenes of his remarkable reporting trip to North Korea in this video for The New Yorker.  Among other things, Evan talks about the political significance of Kim Jung Un’s unusual haircut and how former NBA star Dennis Rodman became “one of the best-known conduits to the North Korean supreme leader.” Last week, as North Korea launched yet another provocative missile test, Evan gave extended interviews about the Hermit Kingdom’s nuclear ambitions to Charlie Rose (PBS) and Fresh Air’s Terry Gross (NPR).  

A shopper carries goods in cloth bags after leaving the medina in Meknes, Morocco. The most visible sign of the country’s green policy efforts are on the streets of the old medinas, in the vegetable shops, and in the large supermarkets of the big cities. In 2016, Morocco banned the sale, use, and production of plastic bags. Before the ban, Morocco used 3 billion plastic bags a year, making it the second largest consumer after the US, according to environmental groups. Image by Jackie Spinner. Morocco, 2017.

A shopper carries goods in cloth bags after leaving the medina in Meknes, Morocco. The most visible sign of the country’s green policy efforts are on the streets of the old medinas, in the vegetable shops, and in the large supermarkets of the big cities. In 2016, Morocco banned the sale, use, and production of plastic bags. Before the ban, Morocco used 3 billion plastic bags a year, making it the second largest consumer after the US, according to environmental groups. Image by Jackie Spinner. Morocco, 2017.

Green Resources

Jackie Spinner

Morocco has no oil, but it does have an abundance of sun and wind. Grantee Jackie Spinner explains how this North African country is trying to shape a green future.

Uranium ore in the abandoned Hummer Mine, Paradox Valley, Colorado (detail). Image by Balazs Gardi. United States, 2017.

Uranium ore in the abandoned Hummer Mine, Paradox Valley, Colorado (detail). Image by Balazs Gardi. United States, 2017.

Boom and Bust

Ben Mauk

At the dawn of the nuclear age, thousands of prospectors with department store Geiger counters descended on frontier towns like Tuba City, AZ. Grantee Ben Mauk, in this superb story for Harper’s, reports on how the U.S. uranium industry went boom, then bust.

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