Inequality
Trade Was A Lifeline For Women In Southern Africa. Then The Pandemic Took It Away.
With few options, some traders have turned to smuggling or sex work. “I work with what I have at the moment,” one woman said.
Marko Phiri
A Photographer Captures American Protests — And Iconic Images From Jan. 6
“I'm not the same photographer as I was before the pandemic.”
Pia Peterson
A Traveling Darkroom On The Syria–Turkey Border Is Encouraging Children To Make Photos
"People are always asking me, What are the effects of children affected by war, or refugee children? But it's always about happiness.”
Pia Peterson
This Virtual Classroom Company Made Millions During The Pandemic While Students Languished
Edgenuity offers to help schools pivot from “brick to click” during the pandemic, but to many parents, teachers, and students, the cost-saving program comes at the expense of a quality education.
Caroline O'Donovan
How A Mission To Turn A Haitian Town Into A Surfing Destination Failed To Live Up To Its Promise
Surfing was a profitable enterprise in Jacmel, as locals rented out boards and hosted lessons. But the project’s recent struggles reflect the difficulty of obtaining resources in a country battered by a series of catastrophes.
Karla Zabludovsky
Extreme Heat Has Killed Hundreds Of Workers. The US Government Is Finally Doing Something About It.
Extreme heat is now the leading weather-related killer in the US.
Zahra Hirji
Carlton Waterhouse Is Fighting For Environmental Justice At The EPA — And Getting Called A “Racist”
Ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, the environmental lawyer has become a target of the far right’s bogus narrative around race.
Zahra Hirji
“I Needed To Film Today And I Physically Can’t”: Online Sex Workers Are Burning Out
The platform’s brief prohibition of sexual content was unsurprising to many workers who often feel they’re treated as disposable and say their livelihoods have become increasingly precarious even as the site’s popularity has exploded.
Otillia Steadman
I Couldn’t Tell My Family About My Abortion. Texas's Ban Targets The Support System I Relied On.
The law seeks to prevent abortions by imposing one of the cruelest restrictions of all: isolating pregnant people from support systems at a time when they need them more than ever.
Alex W.
UN Peacekeepers Fathered Dozens Of Children In Haiti. The Women They Exploited Are Trying To Get Child Support.
A landmark ruling in a Haitian court offers some hope to the families seeking child support, but the peacekeeper fathers won’t have to pay unless their home countries step in.
Karla Zabludovsky
Working Women In Afghanistan Are Beginning To Navigate Life Under Taliban Rule
At a hospital in Kabul, terrified patients fled their beds, a new policy bars interactions between men and women, and nurses and doctors must check in with the Taliban daily.
Nishita Jha
The FBI Is Selling A Surveillance Plane It Used On Black Lives Matter Protests
The aircraft watched protests in Washington, DC, in June last year and also flew over Baltimore in 2015 after Freddie Gray’s death.
Peter Aldhous
A Police Officer Killed Jacob Harris, But His Unarmed Friends Were Charged With His Murder
A little-known legal theory allows prosecutors to file murder charges against people who are unarmed or not even at the scene when police officers kill somebody.
Emily Wilder
Formerly Incarcerated People Shared What It's Like To Readjust To Society After Prison
"When you’re released, everything has changed. You can be in long enough for people to die, people to be born, for the beeper to become the smartphone."
Pia Peterson
She Smuggled Women In Kabul To Safety. Now She’s Hiding From The Taliban.
Though the Taliban have blacklisted Nilofar Ayoubi, she has insisted on speaking out about women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Nishita Jha
Stitch Fix Took Away Flexible Scheduling For Employees. Hundreds Of Them Just Quit.
Employees are departing the personal styling company, while those who remain fear their jobs are gradually being replaced by an algorithm. “We know the ultimate goal of Stitch Fix was to get rid of us,” one employee said.
Caroline O'Donovan
Some California Cities Can’t Keep Up With Demand For Rental Assistance, Putting Tenants At Risk Of Losing Their Homes
Tenants who didn’t file their applications before the programs closed in the spring face growing rental debts and no clear legal recourse when the eviction bans end.
Venessa Wong
Pandemic Rental Debts Are Ballooning — Even For People With Jobs
Even as the economy recovers and the unemployment rate declines, millions of people with jobs are scrambling to pay off rental debts before the eviction bans end.
Venessa Wong
The Biden Administration Is Rejecting “The War On Drugs” And Turning To “Harm Reduction”
“To have the Office of National Drug Control Policy talking about ‘harm reduction’ is important,” said one public health expert. “I remember when you couldn’t say those words there.”
Dan Vergano
How Is Housing Debt Impacting You?
BuzzFeed News wants to know how the pandemic has impacted your ability to pay for housing and what options you might have now if you've fallen behind.
Venessa Wong
Photographs Of Asylum-Seekers On Their Journey To Another Life
“We are running away from one place, and we end up coming to an even worse one.”
Pia Peterson
Prisons Have Been Restricting Family Visits For Years. The Pandemic Showed Just How Fragile Those Policies Can Be.
Before the pandemic, Christina Mendoza visited her husband in prison almost every week. But as the coronavirus spread through California’s prisons, sending cell blocks into lockdown, not even phone calls were assured.
Victoria Valenzuela
“Protected Again And Again”: How A Fencer Made It To The Tokyo Olympics Despite Sexual Assault Allegations
The US Center for SafeSport was tasked with investigating sexual abuse claims at Olympic programs. But in the first Summer Games since the agency’s creation, Team USA fencers say the system failed them.
Brianna Sacks
Atlantic City Is Just The Latest Place To Shut Down Its Needle Exchange Amid A Deadly Rise In US Overdose Deaths
The move comes as overdose deaths have jumped nearly 30% nationwide and HIV outbreaks have been reported among people who use injection drugs.
Dan Vergano
US Life Expectancy In 2020 Dropped By More Than It Has Since World War II
“We have built a house of cards to live in, and the pandemic was a wind that just blew the house down,” said one expert.
Dan Vergano
A Former Sony Employee Says She Was A Diversity “Token.” She’s Suing For Discrimination
Monica Hill was among the employees Sony filmed to promote the company’s diversity. But she says she experienced racism in the workplace and was driven out for speaking up.
Venessa Wong
She Was Sent To Prison For Losing Her Baby. Now She Wants To Clear Her Name.
In 2012, Sara was sentenced to 30 years in prison under El Salvador’s strict anti-abortion laws. Last month, she was freed thanks to a growing movement to defend the women facing decades in prison on similar charges. Now she hopes to clear other women’s names.
Karla Zabludovsky
A CDC Investigation Says West Virginia Needs Needle Exchanges — Which The State Outlawed — To Stop Its HIV Outbreak
A CDC investigation obtained by BuzzFeed News shows “low-barrier” needle exchanges are needed to stop an HIV outbreak in West Virginia. “There's a lot of suffering documented in this,” one expert said.
Dan Vergano
These People Of Color Are Anxious About Racist Microaggressions When They Return To The Office
While experiences still vary, many people of color have found peace in the isolation of the pandemic, which has allowed them to avoid racism from superiors and colleagues in corporate environments.
Venessa Wong
These Photos Show How Los Angeles’s Koreatown Adapted To The Pandemic
"As I wandered around the streets of Koreatown, I realized there were so many stories that were untold."
Pia Peterson
