The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh

 

Fault Lines investigates the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli military forces.

On May 11, 2022, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was reporting from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank when an Israeli soldier shot and killed her.

The Israeli military would eventually admit it was “possible” she was killed by their fire.

51 Years Behind Bars

 Fault Lines investigates why Tennessee imposes the longest sentences in the United States on juveniles convicted of murder.

Almost every country in the world treats juveniles who commit murder differently to the United States.

This is particularly true in Tennessee, where the state sentences juvenile offenders to a quasi-life sentence of 51 years.

A Toxic Feed: Social media and teen mental health

 

In 2021, a whistleblower inside Facebook disclosed a trove of documents showing that the company had studied its own platforms’ toxic effects on teen girls.

The revelations struck a chord with Hillary Hamilton, a mother in Colorado who spent more than a year investigating whether social media may have contributed to her daughter’s death by suicide in 2020.

When the Water Stopped: An Oregon town at its breaking point

 

In the western United States, climate change deepens a conflict over water between farmers and Indigenous tribes.

In Oregon in the United States, climate change is pushing a small town to its breaking point.

The federal government has supplied water to farmers in the Klamath Basin region for more than a century, part of a project to encourage white settlement and agriculture in the western US.

The Great Divide: COVID-19 and race in Chicago

We examine how the pandemic’s effect on Black and Latino communities exposes deep racial inequities in a divided city.

In the United States, Chicago’s Black and Latino residents are far more likely to die from COVID-19 than their white counterparts. It is a pattern seen across the country.

 

The End of a Presidency: Trump’s Loss in a Divided America

 

We ask what a turbulent 2020 presidential election foreshadows for America’s political parties.

As the Democrats take back the White House, what does the 2020 presidential election say about the future of US politics?

Despite Joe Biden’s win, tens of millions of Americans chose Donald Trump for a second term. How the Republican party relates to this bloc of voters – along with the ideology Trump represents – is now central to its strategic direction.

When COVID Hit: America’s Nursing Home Nightmare

 

We report on how an elder care system already in crisis imploded under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, nursing homes became ground zero.

By November, more than 60,000 nursing home residents had died of COVID-19, accounting for roughly a quarter of all fatalities nationwide.

Pandemic in Prison: The San Quentin Outbreak

 

We investigate how a botched transfer between two California prisons led to one of the largest coronavirus clusters in the United States.

Earlier this year, California officials brought busloads of imprisoned men from a coronavirus hotspot to the overcrowded San Quentin prison.

Moment of Reckoning: Racism and Police in America

 

Reforms haven’t stopped police from killing Black people at alarmingly high rates. Now protesters want to defund police.

Do police reforms work?

Under the banner of Black Lives Matter, 2020 has seen what is likely the largest wave of protests in United States history: all centred on the crisis of police killing Black people.

America's Pandemic Workers

We examine the coronavirus pandemic's impact on essential workers in the US and the risks to their health and safety.

As COVID-19 surged in the United States and only those deemed "essential workers" were asked to go to work, the pandemic made clear that the workers most critical to American life are disproportionately people of colour, and the country's lowest-paid.

Through video diaries and interviews shared over the course of several months, four of these workers shared their experiences of the pandemic in a country that offers little in the way of a safety net for its most vulnerable workers.

Conspiracy to Massacre: Anti-Semitism in America

We examine violent attacks against Jewish Americans in the US and the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories behind them.

Fault Lines examines rising levels of violence and threats against Jewish Americans and the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that often animate these attacks.

Anti-Semitic hate crimes reached a five-year high in 2016. The next year, anti-Semitic incidents saw an unprecedented surge, and white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia chanting "Jews will not replace us".

Afghanistan: Civilian Loss in the US Air War

Civilian casualties investigated amid a surging air campaign as US prepares for possible withdrawal from Afghanistan.

As the United States increased its use of air attacks in the war in Afghanistan, it has come with a heavy cost, as civilian casualties have reached record numbers.

In Afghanistan: Civilian Loss in the US Air War, Fault Lines reports on how the US military conducts its investigations when there are allegations of civilian casualties, and what justice looks like for civilians who lost loved ones to air attacks.

The US dropped more munitions on Afghanistan in 2019 than any other year in the past decade.

The Impossible Choice: America's Paid Leave Crisis

The lack of a national paid family and medical leave policy has consequences for millions of workers in the US.

Fault Lines has travelled across the US to report on the country's paid leave crisis.

We heard from families directly affected by a lack of paid leave: Ali and Derek Dodd, a couple in Oklahoma who tragically lost their infant son in a daycare accident, who advocate for paid family leave for parents; Leah Clay, a single mother in the state of Georgia who ended up on public assistance after taking unpaid leave from her job as a breastfeeding counsellor to care for her baby; and Jacqui Silvani, a mother in New Hampshire who lost her teaching job while taking unpaid leave to care for her toddler undergoing cancer treatment.

America's Divided Democrats

A look at Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail as they battle for the future of the US Democratic party.

The United States Democratic Party appeared deeply divided during the 2020 presidential primary election. Two candidates emerged as the front-runners and put forward very different visions for the country's future.

Bernie Sanders energised large crowds, pushing for a Green New Deal to address the climate crisis, Medicare for All and tuition-free public college.

Joe Biden led the centrist lane with support from the Democratic establishment. Moderates believed Biden had the best chance to put together a coalition of supporters who could defeat President Donald Trump in the general election.

The Impossible Choice: America's Paid Leave Crisis

The lack of a national paid family and medical leave policy has consequences for millions of workers in the US.

Fault Lines has travelled across the US to report on the country's paid leave crisis.

We heard from families directly affected by a lack of paid leave: Ali and Derek Dodd, a couple in Oklahoma who tragically lost their infant son in a daycare accident, who advocate for paid family leave for parents; Leah Clay, a single mother in the state of Georgia who ended up on public assistance after taking unpaid leave from her job as a breastfeeding counsellor to care for her baby; and Jacqui Silvani, a mother in New Hampshire who lost her teaching job while taking unpaid leave to care for her toddler undergoing cancer treatment.

Amazon Burning: Death and Destruction in Brazil's Rainforest

We investigate what is at the heart of the Amazon burning and meet the people risking their lives to defend the land.

Brazil has seen a dramatic increase in the number of fires in the Amazon with more than 80,000 fires so far this year alone.

This past summer, the world watched in horror as images of flames engulfing swaths of land in the world's largest rainforest came out, leading to global calls for boycotts over President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the crisis.

The fires have come as deforestation has risen over the past years and is increasing even more as the Brazilian government weakens environmental regulations.

Licence to Hate: White Supremacy in the US

How did the racist ideology behind recent US white supremacist attacks seep into the country's mainstream discourse?

In less than a year, the United States has seen two of the deadliest white supremacist attacks in its recent history.

In October 2018, a white supremacist gunman stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The perpetrator murdered 11 worshippers in what became the deadliest attack on Jews in US history.

Just nine months later, a white supremacist opened fire at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people and injuring dozens. Among the victims were new parents, grandparents, people from three different countries, a US Army veteran, and a 15-year-old high school student.

The Viral Threat: Measles and Misinformation

We examine how misinformation about vaccines has led to the return of measles as the US battles to contain outbreaks.

The United States is in the midst of containing the largest number of measles cases in 25 years. Measles, a vaccine-preventable disease, was eliminated from the US in 2000, but the spread of online misinformation about vaccines has led to a public health crisis that has resulted in more than 800 cases in at least 20 states. 

Vaccine sceptics represent only a tiny minority of the population, but their digital advocacy has evolved into the "anti-vaccine" movement - a well-organised online network with significant offline implications for public health and politics. These groups promote medically inaccurate information about vaccines and their viral content has dominated US's most powerful online platforms, including Facebook, Google, Amazon and YouTube.

Church of Trump

An insight into the Trump administration's relationship with the religious right and implications for US politics.

The United States has just gone through its most contentious Supreme Court nomination in decades.

The US watched as Brett Kavanaugh ascended to the highest court in the country, despite a serious allegation of sexual assault from his high school days.

As the Senate reviewed his nomination, protesters took to the streets, and the events once again broke open the country's political and cultural divides.

Donald Trump: All the President's Profits

Is Donald Trump profiting from the presidency? And if so what are the consequences for democracy in the US?

As a candidate, Donald Trump railed against corruption on the campaign trail. And he used the perception of many Americans that their political system is rigged against them to win the White House.

But as president, Trump has mixed private business and public duties in unprecedented ways.

Previous US presidents put their financial assets into a blind trust and sold their businesses before inauguration, to avoid the possibility of conflicts of interest.