THE WEEKLY REVEAL

Hello! In this issue:

• The question that will determine Afghanistan’s future: Do you recognize the Taliban?

• Our context around a police accountability victory in St. Louis and Facebook handing over data to law enforcement in Nebraska.

• A quote to remember on what kind of laws are “enhancing, reinforcing, encouraging the use of deadly force.”

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST

Afghanistan’s Recognition Problem

One year ago this month, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and the United States pulled out of the country.

This week on Reveal, we check back in with Aysha, a teacher from Kabul who we first heard from last August as we followed her through the final months of the U.S.’ withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power. 

She was one of the 120,000 people airlifted out of the country and currently lives in the U.K. Like many other Afghan refugees, she’s frustrated that the Taliban’s leadership has resulted in having to leave her home country behind, but she hasn’t lost hope that there are still good days to come. 

“No brutal government has ever been able to continue. Maybe it would take a couple of years, maybe a century, but it will finish one day,” Aysha told us. “And if I was not able to step back to a peaceful Afghanistan, I'll make sure my daughter does.”

You’ll also hear how not one single country in the world recognizes the Taliban as legitimate – and neither do many Afghans. The country’s recognition problem has affected everything from how Afghans can apply for temporary entry into the U.S. to the assets to which the Afghan central bank has access.  

• The Biden administration has claimed to welcome refugees from both Afghanistan and Ukraine via the humanitarian parole program, but the process for those fleeing has been unequal. Government records reveal that only 123 Afghan applicants have been approved, compared with 68,000 Ukrainian applicants. 

• Currently, at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York sits $7 billion in assets belonging to Afghanistan, frozen by the U.S. since the Taliban took control. The Biden administration is in a complicated position as it considers whether to release the money – and how to do it without aiding the Taliban.

And we’ll get insight from Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan, who is trying to bring the Taliban and its critics together to chart a future for the country.

RELATED

🎧 For 20 Years, I Saw No Peace

FEATURED STORIES

Police Often Miss Red Flags in Domestic Abuse Cases, and the Consequences Are Deadly

Reveal looked at scores of domestic violence gun homicides and found that law enforcement repeatedly ignored even the most glaring signs that a victim was at high risk of being killed. Read the full story.

A Voter Fraud Nonprofit With Questionable Finances Has Deep Ties to Ken Paxton

In the News

🔹 A victory for police accountability in St. Louis. In the eight years since police killed Black teenager Michael Brown, St. Louis has not seen a single substantive victory for police reform, thanks in large part to an influential police union and a larger police apparatus that has stymied accountability. That appears ready to change.  

Last week, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones signed legislation that will create a civilian-led agency to investigate police misconduct. With a team of 10 investigators, the agency will take over internal police investigations that relate to misconduct and use of force.

“The new law promises to be the first substantive victory for police accountability since Michael Brown’s death made St. Louis the epicenter of the most promising civil rights movement since the 1960s,” The Missouri Independent writes. 

Last year, with The Independent and The St. Louis American, we investigated police reform in St. Louis. Our reporting showed the previous Civilian Oversight Board was ineffective. From 2015 to 2020, St. Louis police officers shot 53 people, killing 27 of them, according to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The board hadn’t reviewed any of those cases. And the Police Department had withheld nearly all the complaints it received against officers, leaving the board unable to fulfill its basic function. 

Additionally, under the new legislation, the city’s circuit attorney, Kimberly M. Gardner, will lead use-of-force investigations, which are currently done by the police themselves, and that could now end in criminal charges. Gardner told us previously that she can rarely close cases against police officers because some of the cases she receives from the Police Department are so incomplete. 

“Where is it in our criminal justice system that a defendant commits a crime and all his friends, whether they’re well meaning or not, get to investigate whether they’re going to hold them accountable?” Gardner said. 

Three St. Louis police organizations have already sued to try to block the new legislation from going into effect Sept. 2. We’ll stay on the story as new developments occur. 

🎧 For the full backstory, listen to Why Police Reform Fails on Reveal.

📱 Read our Twitter thread for more context. 

🔹 Facebook gave data to police to prosecute a Nebraska teenager and her mother for abortion. “The state’s case relies on evidence from the teenager’s private Facebook messages, obtained directly from Facebook by court order, which show the mother and daughter allegedly bought medication to induce abortion online, and then disposed of the body of the fetus,” Vice’s Motherboard writes.  

A Quote to Remember

— Michelle Degli Esposti, co-author of a University of Oxford study that estimates roughly 700 more people die in the United States every year because of stand your ground self-defense laws. That’s more than the total annual homicides in most European countries.

Ending on a Good Note

🏆 Reveal’s ‘Mississippi Goddam’ Wins a 2022 National Edward R. Murrow Award. The investigative serial podcast received the Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award in the network radio category.

⚖️ 9th Circuit Rules in Reveal’s Favor in Planet Aid Case. You may remember that in June, we told you our legal team would be defending us in front of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against the frivolous libel lawsuit filed by Planet Aid in response to our truthful reporting about its corrupt practices. On Thursday, in a unanimous decision, the 9th Circuit ruled in our favor.

This case mattered for more than just our newsroom. If the court had ruled in favor of Planet Aid, it would have disturbed the long-standing First Amendment principle set out by the Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan that requires parties show more to prove libel when discussing matters of public importance.

If we had lost, the 9th Circuit could have disturbed the sacrosanct “breathing space” created by the court necessary for individuals to criticize public figures and officials. Without it, truth and investigative reporting may easily be hindered.