Best of the Week — First Winner

AP reporters jump to cover Hamas rampage and sudden new Israel-Hamas war 

The first word came at 6:25 a.m., Oct. 7 local time: Red alerts were issued via WhatsApp for several locations in Israel. Sirens could be heard in Tel Aviv. AP journalists saw rockets being shot from Rafah in Gaza towards Israel. Then word filtered in from the Israeli army that there were numerous security breaches in central and southern Israel. More rockets fell, with Israeli ambulances dispatched to areas where residents had reported strikes. Taken together, it told of an ominous new day in the region. 

The first of what would be many AP news alerts moved 20 minutes later: Israel says Palestinian militants have infiltrated into Israeli territory from Gaza. 

What unfolded over the days was massive in its scope: The militant armed group Hamas executed a well-planned surprise attack on what would normally be a joyful holiday, Simchat Torah.

The Israeli army, caught off guard, struggled for days to regain control of the invaded towns. Israel released counterstrikes into Gaza, killing hundreds. Over the next 10 days the toll would rise to thousands dead in Gaza and in Israel.

Throughout the conflict, the teams in Israel and Gaza worked with courage, determination and excellence under extremely challenging circumstances to report on the painful events affecting them and their families. They earn Best of the Week — First Winner.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Months of prep work leads to newsbreak in indictment of Alec Baldwin

After hearing special prosecutors say they’d seek to bring a case against Alec Baldwin before a grand jury around mid-November 2023, AP dived into understanding the process to position itself to break the news.Read more

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP dominates coverage of exceptional genocide hearings targeting Israel

AP’s team in The Hague dominated coverage of the International Court of Justice hearings into South Africa’s accusation that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, thanks to expertise in international law and solid planning across continents.

Across two intense days and under close global scrutiny, AP’s team explored and explained the hearings into accusations that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Expertise in international law, knowledge of sensitive geopolitics and solid planning and coordination across continents contributed to AP’s showing.

AP’s coverage was front and center on customer websites and broadcasts around the world for two days straight. AP ran more than a dozen videos of the hearings and protests and reactions around the world. Video edits from The Hague alone scored more than 5,000 hits, and the live coverage over two days earned a staggering 3,300 hits. The top five videos on APNews on Jan. 11 were all from The Hague. The text stories with photos were among the top stories viewed both by customers and online. The New York Times was among customers featuring all formats of AP coverage on its website as the hearings unfolded.

For teaming up to tell the story of a case at The Hague that struck at the heart of Israel’s national identity, Corder, Furtula, Carlson and Casert share Best of the Week — First Winner.

Best of the Week — First Winner

Former career US diplomat charged with secretly spying for Cuban intelligence for decades

Relying on relentless source work and their joint years of experience, Joshua Goodman and Eric Tucker landed twin scoops on the arrest and indictment of a former career American diplomat charged with being a secret agent for communist Cuba for decades.

Manuel Rocha, who was formerly ambassador to Bolivia, was accused of engaging in “clandestine activity” on Cuba’s behalf since at least 1981, the year he joined the U.S. foreign service. While the case was short on specifics of how Rocha may have assisted the island nation, it provided a vivid case study of how Cuba and its sophisticated intelligence services seek to target, and flip, U.S. officials.

First word came to Latin America correspondent Goodman from a trusted source who called on a Friday evening to say the FBI had arrested Rocha earlier that day at his home in Miami but details were under seal. He enlisted Washington-based Tucker to see if his national security sources could help shake anything loose about the case.

Their break came Sunday — with the case still sealed — when sources gave them enough information to report that Rocha was arrested on federal charges of being an agent of the Cuban government. Their urgent story, which included extensive background on Rocha’s diplomatic stops in Bolivia, Argentina, Havana and elsewhere, staked out AP’s ownership of the case.

More details followed the next morning with another AP break, when Goodman and Tucker obtained the sealed case affidavit from highly placed sources nearly an hour before it was filed, allowing them to trounce the competition with a fast news alert and urgent series.

For putting AP far ahead in revealing what the Justice Department called one of the highest-reaching infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent, Goodman and Tucker are Best of the Week — First Winner.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Ukraine’s new way to get its grain to the world despite Russia’s threat in the Black Sea

Rare reporting and visuals illustrated a fledgling shipping corridor launched after Russia pulled out of a UN-brokered agreement that allowed food to flow safely from Ukraine during the war.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

A survivor’s tale of sexual abuse draws attention to the plight of male victims

With an all-formats interview with a survivor, AP told a broader story about the unique difficulties stemming from sexual abuse in gay communities.Read more

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP lives from Gaza, Israel, West Bank, Egypt, Lebanon border provide footage for media around the world

Since the beginning of the war, maintaining live coverage from Gaza, Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and the Israel-Lebanon border has been challenging. But our journalists in the region have risen to the challenge, using creative solutions to provide customers with round-the-clock coverage.

Once the ground operation started and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians evacuated northern Gaza, including our own crew, having a live of the north of the Gaza Strip where much of the fighting was taking place was key from a journalistic and competitive point of view.

With no options inside of northern Gaza, the team secured a position in southern Israel, from which it was possible to see the airstrikes, the destruction of buildings and the devastating effects of the war in Gaza. The live has remained up 24/7 for more than a month.

In recent days, when the ceasefire and exchange of hostages for prisoners began, the crews in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel were deployed to cover all possible points to be able to see the live release of hostages/prisoners and reunions with families.

The video team in Cairo also convinced a local television network to allow the AP to broadcast their images from Rafah Crossing on direct and show the world the moment the hostages left the Gaza Strip and entered Egypt. Those efforts in Gaza, Egypt, the West Bank and Israel allowed AP to provide more than seven live shots almost simultaneously using Live U and Bambuser.

While attention has been heavily focused on the Israel-Hamas war, tension also ratcheted up in northern Israel as near-daily shelling between Israeli military and Hezbollah killed several civilians. The crew in Lebanon moved to the south of the country from where they provided live coverage of the strikes on both sides of the border.

For dedication and creativity in providing invaluable eyes on the Israel-Hamas war, the teams in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, Egypt and Lebanon win this week’s Best of the Week — First Winner

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP photo-led project gives glimpse of oasis for the world’s corals

AP collaborated on a rare hopeful story about the world’s corals in the age of global warming.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Race and Ethnicity team delivers insightful look at Black autoworkers amid the UAW strike

Race and Ethnicity team contributors pitched a story about what union membership has meant to generations of Black families within days of United Auto Workers’ announcement that members would walk off the job at a Ford plant in Michigan.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP finds evidence revealing families received fake ashes from Colorado funeral home

After authorities discovered more than 100 decaying bodies at a Colorado funeral home in early October, speculation spread that families may have received fake ashes. Thanks to dogged reporting, the AP broke the news that confirmed the rumors with an all-formats story.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Teens with severe obesity turn to surgery and weight-loss drugs

AP explored the effect of new guidelines for treatment of kids with severe obesity that came out in January. Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Using a nearly disappeared homegrown art form to document life in Afghanistan

AP employed the traditional Afghan “box camera” to document how life has changed in Afghanistan in peacetime, for better and worse, two years after U.S. troops left and the Taliban returned to power.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Coverage highlights significance of bands and football for Black communities

AP dove into the world of historically Black university bands and football classics to produce two compelling, all-formats features that highlight the significance of the bands and games for Black communities in the United States.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP gets first video and photos of the ailing US researcher before he was rescued from one of Turkey’s deepest caves

When an American researcher fell ill as he was leading an expedition into the depths of one of Turkey's longest caves, AP was first to secure video and photos.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP breaks news of a spike in the number of Mauritanians migrating to US

AP showed how and why a major influx of Mauritanians is arriving in the United States.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

All-formats reporting showcases successes and failures of Endangered Species Act

Enormously popular when it cleared Congress 50 years ago, the Endangered Species Act has become one of the most controversial U.S. environmental protection laws.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

DEA’s No. 2 quits amid reports of previous consulting work for Big Pharma

AP broke the story of how the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s second-in-command quietly stepped down after they had reported that he had previously done extensive consulting work for pharmaceutical companies, including the drug maker that became the face of the opioid crisis, Purdue Pharma.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Tennessee voting scoop shows importance of AP’s accountability role

AP took advantage of deep-source work to help score a scoop on an interpretation of a state supreme court decision that made it more difficult for convicted felons to restore their voting rights.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Yearlong photo project shines spotlight on coal-country drag 

help show that this is more than just entertaining, but a way of life.Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP team tells the uneasy saga of a town where the world's tallest flagpole could rise

were dispatched to the rural Maine town to cover conflict over a plan to build a flagpole taller than the Empire State Building.Read more.