for reporting the news that former presidential candidate Gary Johnson is running for the U.S. Senate even before his campaign announcement. https://bit.ly/2MtXgMs
joined forces across two continents to expose a document that provided undeniable proof that the father of Chile’s presidential frontrunner was a card-carrying Nazi, contradicting the candidate’s vehement denials that his German-born father ever belonged to Adolf Hitler’s movement.A Chilean journalist had previously posted a copy of the elder Kast's Nazi ID card on social media, but the reporting by AP Latin America correspondent Goodman and Berlin correspondent Jordans amplified the story, confirming details, adding context and settling the issue once and for all.The 1941 Nazi party membership card revealed by AP shattered Kast’s insistence that his father, Michael Kast, was not a Nazi but was forcibly recruited by the German army. Their finding was complemented by German historians who explained that Nazi party membership was always a choice, one reserved for the vanguard in society. Additional research revealed that Michael Kast, once in Chile, actively collaborated with the Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the country’s longtime dictator.The story dominated social media in Chile, and Kast’s political opponents, who have tried to frame the election as a fight between freedom and fascism, seized on the news. A photo of the Nazi ID card that Jordans obtained was used widely and major global news outlets did their own stories, crediting AP extensively. https://aplink.news/goc
set a new standard for The AP Interview, thanks to a 3-year source-building effort that persuaded Grace Meng, wife of the ex-Interpol boss jailed in China, to go on camera and go public with her story for the first time.When Meng revealed in 2018 that her husband, Meng Hongwei, was missing in China, Leicester was the only Chinese speaker among reporters in the room. Leicester saw a unique and untold story: that of a former insider among China’s secretive governing elite whose powerful husband had fallen afoul of the Communist Party, with its long and brutal history of political purges. “The monster” is how Meng now speaks of the government her husband worked for. “Because they eat their children.”Tiptoeing around the interview room in Lyon, France, Cipriani captured the range of emotions expressed by Meng, while Turnbull, collaborating with Cerrone, raised the bar for the interview series with his masterclass camerawork. Luke Sheridan in New York turned around the edited, branded video so quickly that the package was available in all formats almost immediately.The video was by far the most impactful segment of The AP Interview on AP’s YouTube channel to date, and the story was No.1 for the week in reader engagement.https://aplink.news/7zshttps://aplink.video/40rhttps://aplink.news/v6z
interviewed Spanish league president Javier Tebas following a surprise announcement by outgoing Barcelona team president Josep Bartomeu promoting the idea of a European Super League to be played only by elite clubs. The league would compete against the Champions League and could hurt domestic leagues and smaller clubs. Tebas is the most outspoken critic of the Super League idea in Europe.The day after the embattled Barcelona president dropped the surprising announcement, Madrid sports writer Azzoni landed the first exclusive interview with the Spanish league president. Tebas added fuel to the discussion by saying that Bartomeu was being directed by Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, whom he called the architect of the idea. The interview was picked up by nearly all Spanish dailies, including Marca, AS, Mundo Deportivo and El País, and was also cited in sports shows. https://bit.ly/3eruEhz
obtained, through personal contacts and sources, 1500 pages of secret court documents that detail the evidence and justification behind a decision by Colombia’s Supreme Court subjecting former president Alvaro Uribe to house arrest while he awaits formal charges for alleged witness tampering. The documents include accounts of urgent WhatsApp messages, secretly recorded meetings and intercepted phone calls that reveal a rushed search by Uribe’s team for witnesses – loyalists willing to do anything necessary to stop the case from proceeding. https://bit.ly/2XTiPtu
for an exclusive interview, after months of negotiations with the club, with Josep Bartomeu, president of FC Barcelona. The story, in which Bartomeu talks about life after Lionel Messi, was prominently picked up internationally and by Spanish media. https://bit.ly/2pp6wqY
for pursuing an interview with Ugandan pop star Bobi Wine, one of Africa’s leading opposition figures. Wine had long been coy about whether he would become a presidential candidate, but after Muhumuza posed the question repeatedly, the singer finally confirmed he would run against long-serving President Yoweri Museveni – while expressing fear for his own safety. https://bit.ly/2Gr49ZK
for delivering a world first: exclusive live coverage of a speech by the president of the Seychelles from a depth of 124 meters (about 400 feet) in the Indian Ocean. Coverage of the historic address was matched by text and photos as President Danny Faure made a global plea for stronger protection of the “beating blue heart of our planet.” The underwater broadcast was the culmination of six weeks of work by the team, achieving multiple firsts under technical and editorial pressure – literally and figuratively.
The world watched enthralled on Jan. 23 as little-known Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president of the struggling South American nation and called on socialist President Nicolas Maduro to resign. More surprising still, the United States, Canada and a host of Latin American countries recognized Guaido almost immediately as the country’s rightful leader.
The timing was clearly no coincidence, but what exactly had happened?
Andean News Director Josh Goodman, Canada Bureau Chief Rob Gillies and Washington newsman Luis Alonso shared first-rate source work to scoop everyone, revealing a coordinated behind-the-scenes push to back Guaido that read like a spy novel. For weeks, a coalition of Latin American governments had launched secret diplomatic efforts, including encrypted messages and a furtive trip by Guaido to Washington, Bogota and Brasilia to build a strategy around the baby-faced Assembly president.
So far, the AP is the only media outlet to have told this story, and it has been widely used inside and outside Venezuela. Even embattled President Maduro praised the AP scoop to supporters at a rally over the weekend.
For their resourceful and consequential news break on one of the top stories in the world, Goodman, Gillies and Alonso win AP’s Best of the Week.
for an AP exclusive and the first one-on-one interview with two he wife of Interpol's ex-president, who disappeared in China.https://bit.ly/2EvQGlbhttps://bit.ly/2OurGz3
for getting an interview with Marine Le Pen, the French presidential candidate, hours before candidates had to stop making public statements. http://abcn.ws/2pAvdLQ
for revealing that first lady Melania Trump’s parents became U.S. citizens using a path that their son-in-law has suggested eliminating. https://bit.ly/2AZkSDv
for breaking the news that Michigan State University’s response to the Nassar scandal prompted 150 Nassar victims to call for the interim president’s ouster. https://bit.ly/2KgxQRr
for learning exclusively that lawyers for the Trump Organization had sent a letter appealing to Panama's president to intervene in a bitter dispute over control of a luxury hotel in the Central American nation's capital, an example of the kind of ethical questions surrounding Trump's business dealings that have troubled observers since his election. https://bit.ly/2EZTmlP
for scoring several exclusives amid intense completion during the arrest of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. https://bit.ly/2qoMeev
for their exclusive interview with IOC President Thomas Bach, who revealed he had met Kim Jong Un and that Kim had endorsed North Korean participation in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. https://bit.ly/2HcU0iA
for landing an exclusive interview with Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras, which foreshadowed Catalan’s formal declaration of independence and earned AP rare front-page mentions in Spanish media. https://apnews.com/822b25c1db1f44258b58d6b29c927bf...
for being first with the news of a new president for the NAACP. The incoming president, Derrick Johnson, said the organization would be more politically active and would alter its non-profit status to more effectively engage in lobbying. http://bit.ly/2zIutsC
for her photos that captured presidential chief of staff John F. Kelly putting his head in his hands and staring at the ground as he listened to his boss, Donald Trump, delivering a speech to the UN General Assembly in which he threatened to “totally destroy North Korea.” The photo received massive play worldwide. https://yhoo.it/2xQgy5Z
for using their contacts with candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign to ensure that AP was chosen for the first time to be the main provider of facilities for international broadcasters at a major news event in Europe.