Pulitzer Center Update

This Week: Poverty in America

July 10, 2018 | Newsletter
Screenshot from PBS NewsHour. Image by Zach Fannin. United States, 2018.

Screenshot from PBS NewsHour. Image by Zach Fannin. United States, 2018. 

Debating Poverty in America
Simon Ostrovsky and Zach Fannin

In a controversial report, U.N. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston focused on widespread poverty in the United States, highlighting that nearly one in five American kids suffer from being poor. In response, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley declared that it was "patently ridiculous" for the United Nations to examine poverty in "the wealthiest and freest country in the world." PBS NewsHour special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky and producer Zach Fannin examine the debate, visiting a county in Alabama where a septic system serving white neighborhoods backs up into the yards of black residents who aren't connected to it.

Vaea Togatuki, 48, visits the grave of his son, Junior, who died by suicide on September 11, 2015 while incarcerated in Goulburn’s Correctional Center. Image by David Maurice Smith for The New York Times. Australia, 2018.

Vaea Togatuki, 48, visits the grave of his son, Junior, who died by suicide on September 11, 2015 while incarcerated in Goulburn’s Correctional Center. Image by David Maurice Smith for The New York Times. Australia, 2018.

No Longer Best Mates?
Sylvia Varnham O'Regan 

Since Australia amended its immigration law in 2014, the number of New Zealanders being detained and deported has soared. As Sylvia Varnham O'Regan reports for The New York Times, the roundups have strained relations between the two countries.

Iraqi students walk near a building of the central Library of the University of Mosul, May 14, 2018. Image by Khalid Al-Mousily for Reuters. Iraq, 2018.

Iraqi students walk near a building of the central Library of the University of Mosul, May 14, 2018. Image by Khalid Al-Mousily for Reuters. Iraq, 2018. 

How ISIS Undermined Faith
Alice Su

The horrors committed by ISIS traumatized a generation, turning some Iraqis off of religion altogether. Alice Su reports for The Atlantic on the implications.