This past weekend I flew to the Greek island of Lesbos to work with AP colleagues covering the visit of the Pope to the island. Pope Francis has made migration a priority of his papacy. During a visit to Lesbos in 2016 he stunned the world by taking 12 migrants from the camp back with …
Dear Blog Readers – It has been a rocking and rolling week in Italy as the new populist government decided to take a tough stand on migration or “raise our voice” according to Italy’s new Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The new policy is to block any ships that are not Italian from disembarking migrants in …
Dear Blog Readers, I have been working for months on a long story for AP on the tens of thousands of Nigerian girls who are victims of sex trafficking to Italy. AP finally came out with the story for International Women’s Day on March 8th. Here are the links: TV VERSION: https://vids.press/ap-archive/only-on-ap-italy-failing-to-help-migrants-trafficked-as-sex-slaves/ WIRE VERSION: https://www.apnews.com/df4b0f007cd7475e90754e99189f5572 …
Nineteen-year-old Precious is a smiling, laughing, living testament to human resilience. She sits at the end of a table in a safe house near Rome for Nigerian sex slaves who have managed to escape their exploiters and tells me her story. The first impression of Precious, with her beautiful, gentle face, smooth skin, lively brown …
Dear Blog Readers, Just a quick note to share with all of you a story I have been working on for AP that came out earlier this week. It is about the terrible problem that Italy is facing in its efforts to catch human traffickers. The story focuses on a young man named Marc Samie …
Dear Blog Readers – I have disappeared from the blogosphere recently because I have been unable to keep up. I feel trapped in a whirlwind of news – stories to shoot, write, edit, tweets to send, and photos to post on instagam. I know, I know, I’m over the top. In addition I have been …
A Spoonful of Dirt, a Lost Dream and the Remains of a Migrant Read More »
It is time for Europe to get a grip. This week fundamentalist Islamic terrorists blasted the heart of Europe with suicide bomb attacks in Brussels that left over 30 people dead and hundreds wounded. In a deeply symbolic gesture they hit the center of European power, even targeting the Maelbeck subway stop outside the European …
Dear Blog Readers – One of the joys of working for a television news agency is that we are constantly on the move covering everything and anything that falls within our area. In the AP Television Rome bureau we don’t have a beat. So we cover the Vatican, Politics, Migrants, Entertainment, Crime, Natural Disasters, etc …
A Cool Leader, a Healthy Queen, and a Spunky Migrant Girl Read More »