Sarah Cahlan

Honored to be part of this team!

Trump’s global funding cuts leave a void in Africa for rivals to exploit America’s vanishing presence in Africa has upended critical programs, severed relationships and left a vacuum that Russia and China will look to capitalize on.

Trump’s global funding cuts leave a void in Africa for China and Russia to exploit // @khoureld.bsky.social and @robyndixon.bsky.social report with @sarahcahlan.bsky.social Cate Cadell and @ilyushina.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Amid ‘DEI’ purge, Pentagon removes webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser Pages celebrating Navajo code talkers and other minority service members were also erased.

A page on the Defense Department’s website celebrated Pfc. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who was one of the six Marines photographed hoisting a U.S. flag at Iwo Jima in 1945.

The page, along with many others about minority service members, has now been erased.

In today’s @washingtonpost.com my random encounter w/a man running from a Mexican cartel leads us to ask deep questions about asylum just as our nation is rethinking its decades-long commitment to offering refuge to the world: wapo.st/4ieCQBP

Russia’s Wagner mercenaries are leading a campaign of terror in Mali Fighting alongside Malian soldiers, Wagner mercenaries have massacred civilians and burned their villages in northern Mali, fueling a fast-growing refugee crisis.

“Mali was really a black box,” said Lou Osborn, the founder of All Eyes on Wagner. “The images we saw of Wagner in the country were not from Russians. Now Russians are communicating.”

Latest from @rchason.bsky.social & I www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

3D analysis shows how helicopter pilots could have mixed up jets in DCA crash From the perspective of the helicopter cockpit, the lights of the incoming American Airlines jet could have also been obscured by the glow of the city skyline, pilots said.

New from WashPost Visual Forensics: 3D investigation of the DCA crash

@imogenpiper.bsky.social @evanhill.bsky.social @alexhorton.bsky.social @megkelly.bsky.social Frank Hulley-Jones, Irfan Uraizee, @abtran.bsky.social @samueloakford.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Another relevant GTMO observation:

Since Trump's inauguration, the notorious Camp Delta has had it's Camp 2 completely deconstructed

Built in 2002 for detainees from the War on Terror, it's unclear when/why the decision was made to demolish

For the Sun After Long Nights by Fatemeh Jamalpour, Nilo Tabrizy: 9780593701447 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A moving exploration of the 2022 women-led protests in Iran, as told through the interwoven stories of two Iranian journalists In 2022, in response to the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini, a 22-year-old K...

Very emotional and excited to share a little preview of FOR THE SUN AFTER LONG NIGHTS -- A book I've been cowriting for the past year. It's a look at the 2022 #WomenLifeFreedom movement in #Iran 🧿💛 www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741909...

What you need to know about the very predictable Belarus elections The E.U. has called the election a sham, and President Alexander Lukashenko has said he’s “too busy” to even campaign.

“These elections are like a military operation… Lukashenko wants them to be as sterile and as silent as possible.”

Explainer from Minsk today, where Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko is set to get a 7th term after 31 years in power

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Twenty teams of immigration officers & federal agents are in NYC today as part of a “targeted enforcement” campaign. The city, where 1 in 3 residents are foreign born, has sanctuary policies that limit cooperation w/ICE,
@nickmiroff.bsky.social reports. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Here’s the story we published about what unfolded today: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Today US Govt has released imagery and mapping showing destroyed structures in West Darfur in 2023. They say the RSF almost certainly destroyed or damaged approximately 10% of non-Arab settlements in West Darfur between April 2023 & November 2023.

Satellite imagery below 👇

Deportation at ‘light speed’: How Trump’s crackdown could unfold Trump has said he would like to deport everyone living illegally in the United States, though he has not set a specific numerical target. Who is most at risk?

Trump's team has promised to start deporting folks as soon as he puts his hand on the bible so we wanted to know who was most at risk. Here's what we found.

More than 3,100 students died at schools built to crush Native American cultures The Post’s year-long investigation found that three times as many Native American students had died at boarding schools between 1828 and 1970 as the U.S. government had previously reported.

Our year-long investigation found that more than 3,100 children died at boarding schools between 1828 and 1970 and that more than 800 of those students are buried in cemeteries at or near the schools they attended. wapo.st/3DnIr9q

Here’s how we found our evidence.

Revealing reporting from my Visual Forensic colleagues @joyceshlee.bsky.social and @imogenpiper.bsky.social and Brianna Sacks and @byaaroncdavis.bsky.social.

What caused the Palisades blaze? Visual evidence points to a recent fire nearby. The Post’s analysis offers evidence that the Palisades Fire started in the area where firefighters had spent hours using helicopters to knock down a blaze six days earlier.

The Post’s analysis of photos, videos, satellite imagery and radio communications, as well as interviews with witnesses, offers new evidence that the Palisades Fire started in the area where firefighters had spent hours using helicopters to knock down a blaze six days earlier.

YouTube video by Bendobrown OSINT At Home #14 – How to find fires from space

I've noticed quite a few people resharing my tutorial on how to find and see fires from space, especially in relation to the devastating fires in Los Angeles. For those that want to learn how to do this, the YouTube link is below youtu.be/rxxgRZptt-c?...

Maduro lost election, tallies collected by Venezuela’s opposition show Edmundo González likely beat President Nicolás Maduro in the July 28 election by millions of votes, a review of data from election receipts shows.

Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro was sworn in Friday for a third term as president without having produced evidence he won the July 28 election. A Post analysis of precinct-level tally sheets showed that opposition challenger Edmundo González received more than twice as many votes
wapo.st/42393a9

I just had to call and tell my dad his house is gone. He barely grabbed anything when he evacuated. “My whole life is gone,” he said, stunned. I do this all the time with other people but to do it with my own father I can’t even describe how hard this is. This is his house.

My @washingtonpost.com colleague Brianna Sacks, who's been reporting from the L.A. fires, says, "I just had to call and tell my dad his house is gone." www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025...

I've reported on the fact that there's no scientific evidence to support claims that you should block blue light w/ glasses.

But a source did pose a theory to me once: That glasses create a greenhouse effect around your eyeballs, keeping the surface warm and moist, potentially reducing irritation.

Video: How ‘Trophy’ Videos Link Paramilitary Commanders to War Crimes in Sudan Visual evidence collected and analyzed over months by The New York Times identifies the commanders leading an opaque paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, as fighters under their watch commit ...

For nearly two years, a shadowy paramilitary group – the Rapid Support Forces – has been terrorising Sudan. We spent months collecting evidence that identified commanders and revealed potential war crimes happening under their watch.
www.nytimes.com/video/world/...

“Documents are often the last line of defense against denial and revisionism. In the hands of families searching for closure, these records provide answers. In the hands of future prosecutors, they deliver justice.” foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/17/s... by the inimitable @rawanssa18.bsky.social.

Throughout regime controlled areas, massive deforestation took place in the last 13 years in #Syria . We did a full report in 2023 on general tree-cover loss. Will occasionally post an example in this thread of smaller areas.🧵1/x.
First up, Al Harra maps.app.goo.gl/7u7PMyEg5voC...

Ukrainian troops say inexperienced North Koreans are making easy targets At least 30 North Koreans were “killed or wounded” over the weekend while fighting for Russia in the Kursk region, Ukrainian military intelligence said.

UKRAINIAN TROOPS SAY INEXPERIENCED NORTH KOREANS ARE MAKING EASY TARGETS moving in groups in the open, shooting at drones, not running for cover: “It was the first time it felt like playing a computer simulator on easy mode” @siobhanogrady.bsky.social Serhiy Morgunov David L. Stern
bit.ly/4iDomfo

🔎 This October, CIR launched the Digital Investigation Academy, a 12-week programme for students at universities across the UK to develop open-source skills and engage in research for CIR witness projects investigating human rights abuses.

Find out more: www.info-res.org/project/digi...

I've been doing the #30daymapchallenge the last weeks and will start post here as well!

Catching up on the backlog we have: Day 1 - Points

Using point data from @eff.org's Border Surveillance Tower mapping project, I conducted a viewshed analysis of towers in the Jacumba Hot Springs border area.

Assad lived in quiet luxury while Syrians went hungry Syria’s ousted leader cultivated a modest image. Footage revealing hidden opulence tells a different story.

Inside Assad's hidden life of wealth and opulence, lead while the Syrian people went hungry.

By Sammy Westfall and me:
wapo.st/4gtVch1

Dogs may be able to communicate by pressing buttons, research suggests A study indicates that dogs are able to express themselves by pressing buttons in two or more-word combinations that are neither random nor accidental.

Ongoing research, including a new study, suggests that dogs are able to express themselves by pressing buttons in two or more word combinations that are neither random nor accidental, the authors said.

'Revenge' videos, burning buildings and willful destruction: A year of Israeli soldiers’ social media postings from Gaza provide an unvarnished view of likely war crimes there. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio... by our @washingtonpost.com team.

It took a year to scour every local office for every record of a migrant death on the Texas border w/Mexico. The results are devastating amid a Texas border crackdown. >1K drowned btwn 2017-23, many children. We tell the story of a 4yo lone survivor of a family drowned in the Rio Grande last year.