Post Reports

Could Macron lose? That’s the question we put to Paris correspondent Rick Noack, who has been on the campaign trail with the incumbent and the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen. Today on Post Reports, what to know about the French presidential election.

Read more: 

French President Emmanuel Macron finished ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round of the French presidential election. But far-right leader Le Pen’s close second-place finish set up a competitive runoff election on April 24.

If you love “Post Reports,” help us win a 2022 Webby award by casting your votes here and here! We are nominated for best news and politics individual episode and best business individual episode.

On today’s episode of “Post Reports,” what life without federal student loan payments has meant for Black women. Plus, the double life of a WNBA star.

Read more:

Lamesha Brown bought a house. Alphi Coleman feels like she can finally rest. Lisa Jackson says it “almost feels like a raise.” 

For millions of Americans who took out loans to pay for college, the past two years have offered a chance to live without the burden of education debt. But Black women like Brown, Coleman and Jackson shoulder a disproportionate share of the $1.7 trillion student debt burden. 

Reporter Danielle Douglas-Gabriel talked with women about what they have been able to do while federal student loan repayment has been on pause during the pandemic. 

Plus, one more thing. It’s not unusual for retired professional athletes to have a second career in sports broadcasting, but Chiney Ogwumike is doing both at the same time. The WNBA star/NBA analyst spoke to sports reporter Ben Golliver. 

If you love “Post Reports,” help us win a 2022 Webby award by casting your votes here and here! We are nominated for best news and politics individual episode and best business individual episode.

An unusual warrant. A pattern of questionable no-knock raids. A reporting thread that just kept going. 

Read more:

No-knock warrants allow police to force their way into people’s homes without warning. What happens when this aggressive police tactic becomes the rule, rather than the exception? 

“Broken Doors” is a new investigative podcast series about how no-knock warrants are deployed in the American justice system — and the consequences for communities when accountability is flawed at every level. Hosted by Jenn Abelson and Nicole Dungca.

In the first episode of this series, sheriff’s deputies burst through the front door of a man’s home as he slept. He said they pointed a gun at his head and ransacked his home in search of drugs and cash. The no-knock search warrant they used was threadbare. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

The next two episodes are out now wherever you get your podcasts. You can email the “Broken Doors” team with any tips or feedback at [email protected]

Why prosecutors decided not to charge Minneapolis police officer Mark Hanneman in the killing of Amir Locke. Plus, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson gets confirmed to the Supreme Court. 

Read more:

On Wednesday, prosecutors announced they would not be filing charges against a Minneapolis police officer in the killing of Amir Locke during a predawn no-knock raid in February. 

In a statement on Wednesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Mark Hanneman, who fatally shot 22-year-old Locke, had violated the state’s use-of-deadly-force statute. 

Reporter Holly Bailey unpacks the decision not to charge Hanneman, and explains how it has deepened the distrust between the Minneapolis police and the community it is intended to serve. 

Plus, on Thursday, the Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court. She is expected to be sworn in this summer when Justice Stephen G. Breyer retires.

Enjoy our podcast? Help us win a 2022 Webby award by casting your votes here and here. We are nominated for best news and politics individual episode, and best business individual episode. 

On Tuesday, Oklahoma lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ban most abortions in the state, passing a Republican bill that would make performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. If the law is signed — and not struck down by the courts — it will take effect this summer. 

The state is also weighing two other bills modeled on the restrictive Texas law that has banned most abortions by employing a novel legal strategy that empowers private citizens to enforce the law through civil litigation. Both bills would take effect immediately if signed by the governor. And that could happen within the next few days.

National politics reporter Caroline Kitchener has been reporting on these laws. She and audio producer Rennie Svirnovskiy went to a pair of clinics in Tulsa to see how providers and patients were bracing themselves for what could be the last days of legal abortion in the state.

Read more:

Caroline Kitchener breaks down the bill that passed the Oklahoma state legislature in detail.

How Facebook’s parent company Meta paid one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide PR campaign against TikTok. And, where we stand with booster shots and covid antivirals.

Read more:

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is paying the Republican consulting group Targeted Victory to try to turn the American public against TikTok. They’ve done everything from placing op-eds in major regional news outlets to promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that are harming kids. Drew Harwell reports on why Facebook is targeting TikTok.

And, an update from science reporter Carolyn Johnson on efforts to get another booster to older adults and expand access to covid antiviral medicines.

On today’s episode of Post Reports, grim scenes from the Ukrainian suburb of Bucha renew calls for investigations into alleged Russian war crimes. 

Read more:

On Saturday, Ukrainian forces and journalists found mass graves in Bucha, a suburb northwest of Kyiv, after Russian forces withdrew from the region. Bucha Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk told The Post that about 270 residents had been buried in two graves. He estimated that 40 bodies were left on the street. 

On today’s episode of Post Reports, foreign correspondent Isabelle Khurshudyan reports on the discovery of these civilians’ bodies, and what it has sparked: international condemnation, calls for an investigation into possible Russian war crimes and vows that sanctions are coming.

As we enter Year 3 of the pandemic, we check back in with intensive care unit nurse Jessica Montanaro, whom we first met in 2021. Now sick with covid and facing a ticking clock on her return to work, she reflects on the past year and the present struggles of her profession. 

Read More:

Last year we brought you the story of Jessica Montanaro, an intensive care unit nurse from New York City who found herself battling exhaustion and grief as New York became the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, and she cared for wave after wave of patients. 

Today, we’re going back to Montanaro. Producer Bishop Sand reached out to her earlier this year to see how she was faring as we approached Year 3 of the pandemic. He discovered that Montanaro was sick with covid. 

Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and New York state had shortened their recovery recommendations for health-care workers sick with the coronavirus, Montanaro was expected back at work after just five days — something she was not happy about. 

During her recovery, she talked to Sand daily. She shared stories of her struggles as a nurse over the past year and described her efforts to address the critical staffing shortages that have affected her team and profession as a whole.

Russia announced earlier this week it would scale back its offensive around Kyiv. We take you in and around the capital city to see whether that’s true. Plus, how videos of impromptu concerts around Ukraine have become the soundtrack of hope in the face of war. 

Read more:

On Tuesday, Moscow announced that it would “drastically reduce” its military assault around Kyiv. But U.S. officials are leery of Russia’s promise to shift away from the capital city. 

Post foreign correspondent Siobhan O’Grady has been in Kyiv since the start of the war. She tells us that Russia doesn’t seem to be telling the truth based on accounts from the city and its surrounding areas, and explains how life in Kyiv has changed since the start of the war. 

Plus, how videos shared online of musicbeing made in the face of war have become a soundtrack of hope in the midst of despair.

How Peloton became a victim of its own success, and what the parasocial relationship with its instructors tells us about our relationships to ourselves. Plus, what happens when two cosmonauts and an astronaut return to earth.

Read more:

Peloton saw a meteoric rise at the start of the pandemic. But as normal life has resumed, sales of the stationary bike have plummeted and the company has been plunged into crisis. Business reporter Aaron Gregg explains. 

And writer Anne Helen Petersen, author of the newsletter Culture Study, talks about the general obsession with Peloton and its instructors — and what those relationships might reveal about ourselves and our connection with others. 

Plus, a dispatch from the International Space Station: An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts safely returned back to earth Wednesday after a historic mission. But there’s a conflict brewing over U.S.-Russia relations in space, and the future of the ISS is at stake.