BBC Reporter's Notebook

BBC Reporter's Notebook shares reports and exclusive features from our correspondents in North America.

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After a long career in television, Bill Proctor could have spent his retirement out of the spotlight. Instead, he has been trying to track a killer. 

 TV reporter spends retirement investigating brutal murder

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North America reporter Rajini Vaidyanathan keeps it cool when an errant backpack shows up in her live shot while covering the first trial over the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore 

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Nancy has received the Komla Dumor Award. Congrats Nancy.

[neth-dugan]

BBC in Canada looking for stories

So watching BBC World News whilst getting ready for dinner and apparently their pop up team is in Canada.

For those who don’t know this is a team of BBC journalists who travel around looking for stories in an area or country that don’t often break the headlines.

So they’re looking for stories via Twitter. Think the hashtag is #bbcpopup but I’d check.

So any Canadians on here let them know. Be it about Mounties Vs Indigenous People or elections or anything

Thought I’d let you know.

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Yes we are - watch more here and follow along with our Pop Up blog 

[curating-africa]

Why do South African newspapers always discuss the alleged “genocide” against white farmers, while ignoring the far more bloody and systematic campaign of violence against impoverished Somali shopkeepers in Soweto or around Cape Town? Why do the television crews still gravitate towards foreign humanitarian workers during emergencies, with their convenient planes and well-stocked compounds? And - in the same spirit - how much unquestioning focus should one give to the “Africa Rising” narrative, so well articulated by the social-media-wired, urban, aspirational middle classes of Nairobi or Lagos? Because the truth, hard-learned on dirt roads and neglected corners, is that the majority - the often-voiceless majority - on this continent are still facing daunting challenges: from soaring prices, to unemployment, wretched schools and hospitals, an absence of justice, and most pressingly of all - insecurity. That applies in the beleaguered townships of South Africa, in the forests of the Central African Republic, the besieged towns of north-eastern Nigeria, the slums of Monrovia, and on the endless battlefields of South Sudan. Of course there is plenty going impressively, fantastically right here - the arc of history bending towards optimism and all that. But it seems to me that a bias towards the powerless and voiceless is a reasonable and necessary one - especially when they still seem to be in the majority.

Andrew Harding | My time in Africa: Lessons, experiences and concessions

BBC’s Africa correspondent  Andrew Harding  last column announcing his departure from BBC to pen a book “about some of the garrulous, irascible, wonderful people I’ve come to know in Mogadishu and beyond”. I’ll miss Harding’s take on Africa, and whoever replaces certainly has their work work cut out for them . Anyone here, remember, Harding’s annual African predictions, stuff of legends …        

(via b-sama)

[princessboy]

This must be one of the most romantic and beautiful reportage stories I’ve read.

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In a packed Cairo courtroom, a nervous quiet reigned on Saturday as Judge Hassan Farid read his long delayed verdict in the retrial of three al-Jazeera journalists.

Then, there was a stunned silence shattered by the sobbing of Marwa Omara, as she learned that the defendants, including her husband Mohamed Fahmy, were about to return to jail convicted on charges ranging from broadcasting "false news" to operating from a local hotel without a licence.

As a media forest of cameras and microphones turned towards Marwa who slumped down, head in hands, they also caught in their glare the British-Lebanese barrister Amal Clooney placing a comforting arm around her.

In a rare interview with BBC’s Lyse Doucet, Amal Clooney describes the dilemma what steps to take next.

"We have two avenues but the one we are pushing for the most is for President Sisi to issue a pardon,"

"To issue a pardon would mean the conviction is reversed and it would apply to all journalists not just those who are foreign.”

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#Katrina10: New Orleans then and now

Some of BBC’s coverage from 2005

The radio station that Katrina couldn’t silence

Former President George W Bush visits New Orleans

Obama: Hurricane ‘became man-made disaster’

[johnsonsplace]

Are these England's most beautiful pubs? - BBC News

Bar beauty from the inter-war years - a look at some of the latest pubs across England to be granted listed status.

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The Hurricane Station - How the only radio station still left on the air after Katrina became a lifeline to its listeners

(photos courtesy of the Louisiana State Museum and the Superdome)

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Lighthouse of Sound

As Hurricane Katrina slammed the city of New Orleans in 2005, reporters and producers at WWL Radio kept their station on air and helped keep their listeners alive

[theheulwen]

How 'MacGyver' became a verb - BBC News

It's made it to the Oxford Dictionaries.

I am incredibly happy at this news  :)

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[thedigitalhuman]

Ashley Madison: Two women explain how hack changed their lives - BBC News

The BBC speaks to two women who say their lives have been dramatically affected by the hacking of infidelity dating website Ashley Madison.

When infidelity dating site Ashley Madison was hacked, the details of 33 million user accounts were published on the web.

The BBC has spoken to two women, one whose fiance used the site and one who used it herself.

Neither wanted to be identified, but their stories give some hint of just how dramatic and wide-reaching the impact of the hack has been.

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Black pitmasters left out of US barbecue boom - BBC News

The US is in the midst of a barbecue boom. But as television programmes and restaurants celebrate mostly white pitmasters, are the cuisine's African-American roots being forgotten?

[lessonsinhiphop]

on the 1-year anniversary of Mike Brown’s death, RUN THE JEWELS talk with BBC to say “Riots work”

“i’m an American because of a riot. the Boston Tea Party is sold to us from the time we’re kindergarteners to the time we graduate from high school, we’re told that Americans and Patriots got so fed up with paying taxes to the crown that they decided to burn some shit to the ground. that’s what the sell to us”

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Young Africans to Obama: 'Clean your own house first'

Aleem Maqbool spoke to young Kenyans and Ethiopian as the US president visited their countries.

[natasianart]

Palmyra: Ruins that inspired the architecture of power - BBC News

A new exhibit aims to connect US audiences with antiquities under fire in Syria's civil war.

“It’s important that when something is in the news, people get a sense of its history,” says museum director Julian Raby. “You’ve heard of Palmyra, but you may know nothing about it, so come and have a look at an object that allows you to reflect on current affairs.”