Pulitzer Center Update

This Week: Trump Decertifies Iran Deal

Trump's refusal to certify the nuclear deal has drawn criticism from both Americans and Iranians. Still image courtesy Reza Sayah / PBS NewsHour. Iran, 2017.

Trump's refusal to certify the nuclear deal has drawn criticism from both Americans and Iranians. Still image courtesy Reza Sayah / PBS NewsHour. Iran, 2017.

Scuttling the Iran Deal

Reza Sayah

Last Friday, President Trump declared—against the advice of most allies and experts—that he would not certify Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement. This leaves it up to Congress to decide whether to reimpose sanctions and effectively scuttle the deal. Grantee Reza Sayah, reporting from Tehran for the PBS NewsHour, says that Iranians across the political spectrum are dismayed by Trump’s maneuvre, and that killing the agreement plays into the hands of regime hard-liners. “President Trump’s handling of the nuclear deal proves what Iran’s hard-liners have said all along, that Washington can never be trusted,” says Reza.

Displaced people wait for rations in Bria, Central African Republic, on Sept. 26. Image by Cassandra Vinograd. Central African Republic, 2017.

Displaced people wait for rations in Bria, Central African Republic, on Sept. 26. Image by Cassandra Vinograd. Central African Republic, 2017.

Central African Republic on the Brink

Cassandra Vinograd

Armed groups now control some 80 percent of the Central African Republic and the country is teetering on the brink of civil war, writes grantee Cassandra Vinograd. “U.N. officials have raised alarms about ‘early warning signs of genocide.’”

Image by Jonathan Rashad. Ethiopia.

Nile waterfall. Image by Jonathan Rashad. Ethiopia, 2015.

The Dying Nile

Peter Schwartzstein, Leylend Cecco, and Jonathan Rashad

Grantees Peter Schwartzstein, Leylend Cecco, and Jonathan Rashad report that the Nile is sick—and getting sicker. Booming populations have dirtied and drained the world’s longest river, while climate change reduces its flow.

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