Kelly Kimball

In spite of everything 2025 threw our way, I’m very grateful to say this year was the best of my career — with many bigger plans yet to come in 2026 and beyond. This year, I broke news amid a protracted, forgotten war for @moretoherstoryofficial ; spoke on a panel at @cunyedu about leading feminist newsrooms; travelled across the world to speak at the @gijnorg conference in Malaysia about audience growth for newsrooms, then later to hear from women in Japan about their first female PM; wrote my first longfrom feature since college about WWII nurses and the families upholding their memory for MTHS, @19thnews and @thexylom ; heard from leading AI experts on the challenges ahead (and a slew of other experts for @longlead ’s flagship newsletter); documented press freedom threats against journalists across the country for @poynter_institute ; shared remarks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly; taught my first semester of j-school; and helped lead a global newsroom through an era of record-breaking growth and engagement. While I’m proud of what I’ve built this year, I join many journalists who are very happy to close the book on 2025. As trust in news and press freedom are in freefall globally, my ask for friends and family is to check in on your journalist friends throughout 2026. We do this work to serve you, and to do right by our beats. And as newsrooms shrink evermore, countless of us go our careers alone without the support of colleagues or mentors. Press freedom is directly linked to the health of a democracy. Together, let’s continue to build communities around those who protect and defend our rights, and who work to hold power to account. May we all see brighter days and hopeful horizons next year. ❤️

The best kept secret is that every news story about politics is also a public health story. The better we get at seeing it this way, the better we can all be - both journalists and subject matter experts - at translating public health imperatives into stories with true impact. So when I kicked off a panel discussion at @hrl_yalesph / @yale with a mini lecture on how I’ve edited, reported and disseminated impactful public health news throughout my career, I put it as clearly as I could: public health is a crucial indicator of the state of a system, process or institution. Take maternal mortality: when it’s high, it says a lot about the state of women’s rights and gender equality. Another example: medical care (or lack thereof) in IC*E detention facilities says a lot about justice, accountability, and the ballooning U.S. immigration apparatus here in the United States. In the journalism biz, the cliche we’d likely throw around is “canary in the coal mine,” and I’d say its usage here is pretty apt. My lecture alone would not have been enough. So, I’m incredibly grateful to have been in the brilliant company of fellow panelists Dr. Maria Motlagh, Clinical Instructor at the @Yale School of Medicine; Dr. Camille Brown, Associate Clinical Professor at the Yale School of Medicine; and Ashley Makar of @havenlynhv . Together we swapped insights from our own fields of expertise regarding the health challenges of refugees and forced migrants in the U.S. and beyond- and I got to talk about my podcast co-hosted with @matthew.kendrick , THIS WEEK ON ICE irl for the very first time. Immense thanks to Dr. Kaveh Kashnood for bringing me in, for Yale Humanitarian Research Lab [@hrl_yalesph ] for the research that started it all, and the support of the @poynter_institute fellowship. Onward 🌱

What I’ve been up to lately: 📸 | with great thanks to @jwfglobal for the invitation, I shared remarks on behalf of More to Her Story on the sidelines of the 80th @unitednations General Assembly to discuss the global backlash of women’s rights, its interconnectedness to the rise of authoritarianism, and the crucial need for journalism that prioritizes the stories of women and girls with nuance, rigor and dignity. These remarks were broadcast live and shared with the UN system, Permanent Missions and JWF’s civil society network across 30 countries. 📸 | The Sudanese Emergency Response Rooms, a nationwide network of volunteer medics and humanitarians, began as an emergency triage network among neighbors. For MTHS, I reported on how they’re now a robust, final defense against starvation, bombardmemt and isolation for millions. They did not win the Nobel, but “we won the people’s hearts. We won the meaning of humanity,” Hanin Ahmed, an ERR founder, told me. 📸 | in a gathering of 10 women peace builders from Afghanistan, Yemen, Myanmar, Syria, and Ukraine, it was made clear that peace without a gender justice lens, without reconciliation or accountability, and without women at the table deciding ceasefire conditions, there is simply mo lasting peace at all. 📸 | with new friends from Mongabay and the Committee to Protect Journalists, I helped discuss how to have impact in our work as journalists in the world we live in today, especially in the context of climate reporting. It was a hopeful, productive conversation in what can be a tough beat riven with nihilism. Onward 🌱

My current fixation: golden hour, and street food cultures that involve sitting on tiny plastic stools 🌎

Less than two hours before the third-annual Sundance Film Festival red carpet event in Mexico City, (to my shock) I received an email confirming my press pass had actually come through. 😱 So, one rapid-fire dive into the program’s directors and actors, and a slightly unnecessary but very fun shopping stint a lá The Devil Wears Prada later, I found myself at the very front of a modest cluster of reporters and photographers covering the event, praying my Spanish was solid enough to ask nuanced questions. We survived. And so here is what I impart to y’all: The major throughline shared among attendees was that Mexican film is indeed global film, and while many feel the world is late to catch up to this, Mexican directors, actors and craftsmen have stayed ready and are proud to share their lived experience, identity and history with world-wide audiences. I am too — cautiously. Despite CDMX hosting this satellite Sundance event on its own turf, only one Mexican director made the program, and only among its collection of short films. Another short film, to be sure, used Mexico City as its main setting but was made by a Dominican filmmaker. Meanwhile, we are one year into Netflix’s $1 billion investment in Mexico, and the Mexican government recently proposed a suite of tax incentives to entice mega-million Hollywood productions to come to the country, if not to hire more local below-the-line craftsmen, then certainly to make the country a more dynamic backdrop in an industry currently being choked by economic instability, historic production unemployment, and the ever-growing threat of AI. There’s more to say here, but I’ll leave it at that — and for editors following me, my DMs are open and I’m actively pitching ❤️

Here’s what I discovered one morning at sunrise among the canals of Xochimilco, a borough in the southern part of Mexico City. 👇 Here, life is loud with the sound of birds, the scratchy call of of roosters and the splashy scatter of tilapia beneath the water. The formerly independent city (and a pre-Aztec civilization) prides itself in a thousands-year-old tradition of man-made floating gardens called Chinampas, which to this day grow quelites, quintoniles and common greens like lettuce, cilantro, spinach, parsley, radishes, and celery. But Xochimilco’s ancient tradition is currently fighting to be preserved. Jime, a local to the area, tells me that there were as many as 15,000 active chinampas in the 70s run by families for generations. Today, only 3k are still in operation, in great part due to younger generations moving to the busier parts of the city for better career opportunities. Perhaps poetically, chinampas are held in place by the roots of ahuejotes, which is an indigenous species of willow tree. Without these roots, the chinampa dies. And just as endangered as the chinampas is the borough’s most beloved animal, the axolotl (aka “water monster” in the Nahuatl language) which is under severe threat due to deteriorating water quality, poor city management, and the recent introduction of tilapia, which has become an invasive species to the local ecosystem. Despite these challenges, Xochimilo’s beauty is impossible to ignore, and locals are constantly advocating for its resurrection with increasing innovation. Very grateful for having visited. :) Final photo cred @juliantothes 🙈, who is also in photo 2.

Recent noticings ✨ #ifyouleave #nikonphotographer

🔴 @kellyruthk | #street_me_up ♦️Curator: @beatrizboblitz #kellyruthk ———————— 🟡 Brotherhood: @street_macadam ———————— Visit our friends galleries: @street_avengers @street_badass @streetmoment @bnw_demand ———————— #streetphotography #streetphotographers #lensculturestreets

Happy (Belated) Earth Day 😌🌎 ✨

All sources referenced also happen to be places I’d love to write for. @guardian @politico @grist @earthjustice @bloomberg @NYTimes , you know where to find me. xoxo . . Sixteen years ago, the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster became the largest U.S. marine oil spill in American history. It contaminated over 1300 miles of coastline along the Gulf of Mexico, leaked 134 million gallons of oil, and killed hundreds of thousands of marine animals from sea birds to sea turtles - plus 8 billion oysters. A historic settlement in 2016 resulted in BP promising to pay up to $8.8 billion in natural resources damages (among other settlements) to a collective body comprising of the five Gulf states (namely AL, MI, LA, FL, and TX) and four federal agencies (NOAA, DOI, EPA and USDA) by 2031. The settlement money would be put toward local restoration projects, many of which are actively in motion today. The settlement itself would also make history in becoming the biggest-ever approved for damages to natural resources. But, so far, a 2024 report by Courthouse News Service found that only 60% - or about $5.3 billion - has been paid out from this BP settlement. And on top of the question mark surrounding when the rest of the money will be paid out by BP is another compounding issue: Last month, the U.S. government exempted oil and gas drilling from measures to protect endangered species and, days later, greenlit BP to drill even deeper than before in an ambitious oil drilling initiative called the Kaskida Project. This project, researchers and experts warn, may pose as much as a six-fold increase in the potential for a Deepwater Horizon redux in the very area still in active recovery. This comes at a time when, due to the global energy crisis brought on by the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, there is heightened pressure for American oil companies to boost oil production projects. (At an energy conference last month, Energy Sec. Chris Wright literally told oil execs to “please, produce more,” although American oil companies haven’t yet publicly announced major plans to do so.) Like, save, follow for more. :)

Submissions for Womanhood our open call with Francesca Allen have been arriving from across the world, each one offering a deeply personal reflection on what it means to live, move, and exist within womanhood today. From intimate portraits to layered visual diaries, we’ve seen tenderness, defiance, vulnerability, strength, and everything in between. Some works sit in stillness, others push against expectation but all of them speak with honesty and care. This is just a glimpse of what’s been shared so far, and we’re incredibly grateful to everyone who has trusted us with their stories 🤍 Kelly Kimball is a Webby- and Shorty Impact Award-winning global affairs journalist, professor, and photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. Her lens finds its home at the intersection of humanity and history, capturing the women and underreported communities who rarely see their stories told with the depth and dignity they deserve. Driven by a lifelong mission, Kelly documents the full spectrum of human experience: the quiet triumphs, the defining challenges, and every layered moment in between. _ #OpenCall #Womanhood #FrancescaAllen

What did you think of the SCOTUS birthright citizenship hearing? 👇 After more than two hours of deliberation, the justices expressed significant skepticism over some of the Trump administration’s claims, but also brought up key weaknesses in the ACLU’s case to defend the current interpretation of the law. 🎙️ This Week on ICE is a weekly podcast hosted by global affairs journalists Kelly Kimball and Matthew Kendrick. New episodes every Friday. Streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Substack. Comment for a link to our full list of sources and citations. ✨ Supreme Court, birthright citizenship, Trump administration, 14th Amendment, podcast, news