Thomas Graham

Rupert Cornwell Award: £5,000 bursary for budding foreign correspondents The award honours the memory of Rupert Cornwell, one of The Independent’s most distinguished journalists

The Rupert Cornwell Prize for young foreign correspondents is open for applications.

A few years back it allowed me to spend a summer reporting from Ceuta and Melilla, the Spanish North African enclaves.

Feel free to get in touch with any questions.

www.the-independent.com/news/media/r...

Bolivia divided in election run-up as ruling party implodes Leftwing government’s infighting and deepening economic crisis boost opposition candidates

Bolivia divided in election run-up as ruling party implodes—Bolivia’s next president will have to take immediate measures to address the economic crisis. The government’s foreign exchange reserves all but ran out in March 2023 www.ft.com/content/90ea... @thomas-graham.bsky.social @financialtimes.com

MAS’ Implosion Has Blown Bolivia’s Presidential Election Wide Open The Arce-Morales feud has effectively split Bolivia’s long-dominant MAS party, opening the door for the opposition in August’s presidential election.

In all likelihood, Bolivia's long-ruling MAS party will cease to exist as a political force after Sunday's presidential election.

It's a pretty disorienting development, but not unexpected after the disarray of the past few years.

Great backgrounder here by @thomas-graham.bsky.social.

MAS’ Implosion Has Blown Bolivia’s Presidential Election Wide Open The Arce-Morales feud has effectively split Bolivia’s long-dominant MAS party, opening the door for the opposition in August’s presidential election.

The Arce-Morales feud has effectively split Bolivia’s long-dominant MAS party, opening the door for the opposition in August’s presidential election, @thomas-graham.bsky.social writes.

Coming soon: Missing in the Amazon – a new Guardian investigative series In one of the most remote corners of the Amazon jungle, a journalist and an indigenous defender disappear without a trace. Missing in the Amazon – our new six-part investigative podcast series uncover...

Out tomorrow: the first episodes of our six-part podcast series about Dom and Bruno and the Amazon. Listen wherever you get your podcasts www.theguardian.com/technology/a...

Ruth López, a senior figure at Cristosal, the most important human rights organisation in El Salvador, was arrested by the government last night.

Arce declina su candidatura a las elecciones generales El presidente Luis Arce anunció este martes que baja su candidatura presidencial de cara a las elecciones generales del 17 de agosto y aboga por la unidad. «Hoy doy a conocer al pueblo boliviano con a...

More big news from Bolivia. Luis Arce, the current president who's been polling awfully, has withdrawn his candidacy for August's election

That leaves the MAS candidacy open. Note that Andrónico Rodríguez is still a member of the MAS and is yet to say who he will run for

larazon.bo/nacional/202...

🚨 British + UK-based correspondents under 30 🚨

You've got until May 26th to apply for the Richard Beeston Bursary, which offers £6,000 to report a story for
@thetimes.com anywhere in the world.

richardbeestonbursary.com

Still lots of uncertainty. It's unclear which party/alliance Rodríguez and Morales will run for, or if Morales will even be allowed to run.

Meanwhile the opposition is much divided too.

Andrónico mueve el tablero electoral, acepta ser candidato "Desde acá, queridos hermanos y hermanas, quiero expresar en respuesta a este pedido: acepto", dijo el senador Andrónico Rodríguez en Oruro.

Big news in Bolivia, where Andrónico Rodríguez, president of the senate and VP of the six tropics coca growers federation, says he will be a candidate in August's election.

That means three will be going for the MAS vote: Arce, Morales and now Rodríguez.

larazon.bo/nacional/202...

🚨 British + UK-based correspondents under 30 🚨

You've got until May 26th to apply for the Richard Beeston Bursary, which offers £6,000 to report a story for
@thetimes.com anywhere in the world.

richardbeestonbursary.com

FPV anuncia que ‘ya no va’ el acuerdo con Evo Morales para las elecciones generales - La Razón FPV anuncia que ‘ya no va’ el acuerdo con Evo Morales para las elecciones generales

Evo Morales's deal with Frente Para la Victoria to run in Bolivia's forthcoming elections seems to have broken down.

Morales already left the MAS, having lost control of it. There are not many siglas left that he could make a deal to run for.

la-razon.com/nacional/202...

Alarms raised over legitimacy of Fyre festival 2: ‘An event that does not exist’ After the announcement of a follow-up festival in Mexico, tourism and local officials have denied any knowledge of its existence

This week the organisers of Fyre festival, the notorious disaster that became a Netflix doc, announced that Fyre 2 would take place on Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

This was news to the local government...

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Alarms raised over legitimacy of Fyre festival 2: ‘An event that does not exist’ After the announcement of a follow-up festival in Mexico, tourism and local officials have denied any knowledge of its existence

This week the organisers of Fyre festival, the notorious disaster that became a Netflix doc, announced that Fyre 2 would take place on Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

This was news to the local government...

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Stopping traffic, and the state Dear friends, Early this morning (Saturday 22 February), thousands from the Zapatista communities of the Lacandon jungle took to the highways that link the towns of Palenque, Comitán, San Cristóbal...

Dispatch from Chiapas and thoughts on not fetishizing the Mexican state. www.thetroubledregion.com/stopping-tra...

What Is Plan Sonora? How the border state became the center of Mexico’s ambitious renewable-energy plan.

For @theborderchronicle.bsky.social, I wrote the first installment in a series about the controversial energy development plan called Plan Sonora: www.theborderchronicle.com/p/what-is-pl...

El cadáver del periodista desaparecido Jesús Alberto Camacho llevaba tres años en una morgue sin identificar Las autoridades dicen que el reportero no tenía una denuncia por desaparición y se estima que hay más de 70.000 cadáveres sin identificar en las morgues del país

The remains of Mexican journalist Jesús Alberto Camacho Rodríguez were just identified after lying in a morgue for three years.

It's estimated that more than 70,000 other unidentified bodies currently sit in Mexico's morgues.

elpais.com/mexico/2025-...

British journalist missing in Brazil for 11 days Foreign correspondents’ association urges authorities to step up search for Charlotte Alice Peet, 32

"A British journalist has been missing in Brazil for 11 days, a foreign correspondents’ association in the country said on Tuesday, urging authorities to step up their search efforts," writes @tiagorogero.com www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

In search of the ancient Amazonians who left only eerie forest islands In Llanos de Moxos, an expanse of floodplains fringing the Bolivian rainforest, strange clumps of trees offer clues about a lost civilisation

In the middle of Bolivia’s worst fire season, I went with @umbamoxos.bsky.social to the scorched plains on edge of the Amazon, where archaeologists are drilling into the deep history of the mysterious forest islands.

For @thetimes.com

www.thetimes.com/world/latin-...

In search of the ancient Amazonians who left only eerie forest islands In Llanos de Moxos, an expanse of floodplains fringing the Bolivian rainforest, strange clumps of trees offer clues about a lost civilisation

🧪 Report of @thomas-graham.bsky.social about our 2024 field work just published in @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/world/latin-... @demodrivers.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu

In search of the ancient Amazonians who left only eerie forest islands In Llanos de Moxos, an expanse of floodplains fringing the Bolivian rainforest, strange clumps of trees offer clues about a lost civilisation

In the middle of Bolivia’s worst fire season, I went with @umbamoxos.bsky.social to the scorched plains on edge of the Amazon, where archaeologists are drilling into the deep history of the mysterious forest islands.

For @thetimes.com

www.thetimes.com/world/latin-...

Exonerated environmental defenders to face murder retrial in El Salvador Critics decry ‘politically motivated’ decision to revisit civil war-era charges against leaders of anti-mining campaign

By me: Exonerated environmental defenders to face murder retrial in El Salvador
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

‘Deep down, all Englishmen are policemen’: a Spanish correspondent’s view of life in Edwardian London The journalist and adventurer Julio Camba wrote exquisite sketches about the strange habits of the English

Reflections of a pre-first world war Spanish correspondent on the English character.

So many good lines @swajones.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Landscape evolution of the Bolivian Amazon controlled by uplift events dated 13,000, 10,000 and 6000 cal yr BP The Llanos de Moxos in the Bolivian Amazon, the second largest South American wetland, hosts many endemic species and a rich archaeological record tha…

What a week. Some hardcore geomorphology just published in QSR www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Following our archaeological paper in @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
In this QSR, we reconstructed the timing of 3 neotectonic events in the Bolivian Amazon. Enjoy and share 🧪

A sophisticated civilisation once flourished in the Amazon basin How the Casarabe died out remains a mystery

How many people lived in the Amazon before 1492?

It’s one of the great questions of pre-Columbian archaeology. And it turns out some pretty intensive maize farming was happening in the Amazon basin

I cover the latest from @umbamoxos.bsky.social for @economist.com

www.economist.com/science-and-...

Chief Patrol Agent - Tucson Sector @USBPChiefTCA on Twitter: 5 illegal aliens from Bangladesh, recently featured in the media, surrendered to Tucson Station agents, and have since been removed to Mexico. Whether you surrender or not, you will not be released into the United States.

This is the first time I've seen the US government return citizens of a country outside the Americas into #Mexico. That didn't even happen during Title 42. President Sheinbaum appears to have agreed to a lot.

Maize monoculture supported pre-Columbian urbanism in southwestern Amazonia - Nature Remote sensing, field survey and microbotanical analyses show that the pre-Columbian Casarabe culture in the Bolivian Amazon invested heavily in landscape engineering, constructing a complex system of...

Here's the paper itself, published a few hours ago, and open access

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A sophisticated civilisation once flourished in the Amazon basin How the Casarabe died out remains a mystery

How many people lived in the Amazon before 1492?

It’s one of the great questions of pre-Columbian archaeology. And it turns out some pretty intensive maize farming was happening in the Amazon basin

I cover the latest from @umbamoxos.bsky.social for @economist.com

www.economist.com/science-and-...