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This Week
Bloodshed on the Nile
At the Pulitzer Center, our focus has always been to put journalists on the ground so that they can dig deep and get the story behind the headlines. Winning the 24-hour news cycle is not what we are about. But sometimes when you invest in putting talented journalists in the right place, you end up with the big breaking story.
Such was the case this week when Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who has been in Cairo on a Pulitzer grant since May, was eyewitness to the Egyptian military’s brutal overreaction to a peaceful demonstration by Christian Copts. His compelling account of the massacre, which left at least 25 dead, stands on its own as a piece of first-rate journalism, but the real measure of what Sharif has brought to this story can be found in his earlier work which documents the military’s increasingly heavy-handed attempts to thwart the country’s nascent democracy movement. For those who have been following Sharif’s work in The Nation and for Democracy Now! this week’s carnage along the Nile was shocking, but hardly surprising.
End Game in Iraq, New Game in Belize
Also this week, Yochi Dreazen profiles Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in a cover story for National Journal and David Enders chronicles the difficulties of gathering news in a country that remains an armed camp in a state of siege, all part of our continuing coverage of America’s endgame in Iraq. Meanwhile, Nick Miroff, reporting for the Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch and The Washington Post, tells how tiny, sleepy Belize, a place known to Americans mainly for its sandy beaches, is in danger of being carved up by Mexico’s voracious drug cartels.
Global Gateway in St. Louis
Mark Schulte, our national education coordinator, is back from a busy round of engagements in middle schools, high schools and universities in the St. Louis area, part of our ever-expanding Global Gateway program. Featured speakers were Anna Badkhen, who discussed her year-long project in remote Afghan villages, and photojournalist Andre Lambertson, who offered students insights into his work in Haiti and Liberia.
Until next week,
Tom Hundley
Senior Editor
[email protected]