Allison Martell
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allisonmartell.bsky.social
Allison Martell
@allisonmartell.bsky.social
1.5K followers 610 following 82 posts
Investigative data reporter for Reuters, based in Toronto. Interested in computer vision, NLP, and other kinds of machine learning for reporting. Also, I teach people to read. 🏳️‍🌈
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allisonmartell.bsky.social
In August, the same three ships joined three others, along with six ferries, at the same site to conduct the landing exercise laid out in detail in our story. Read it here: www.reuters.com/graphics/USA...
This illustration, based on satellite images and state media videos of similar vessels at port, shows what the cargo ship landings would look like up close. A cargo ship with an open deck is at the shoreline, with a ramp folded down onto a beach. Vehicles are visible on deck, one driving down the ramp, and more are on the beach. A label says: "DECK CARGO SHIP: Its shallow draft allows it to approach the beach and offload vehicles and cargo." The ship's length is marked at ~90m.
November 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM
allisonmartell.bsky.social
I mostly used the LSEG API for ship data, with some clean up and filtering in Python, and the temporal controller in QGIS. But there are a lot of civilian ships that could join these exercises, and finding this signal in the noise was challenging.
A screen capture from an animation that shows ships arriving for the exercise we describe in the story. Lines and ship icons are shown over a map of a coastal area, with a point on the coast labelled 'Beach near Jiesheng.'
November 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM
allisonmartell.bsky.social
These deck cargo ships, about 90m long, are cheap to build, and used all over China, so experts tell us they significantly increase China’s capacity to deliver troops to Taiwan.
November 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM
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You might have seen stories about ferries that join these exercises, or the barges launched in March that turn into a kind of temporary port. But this summer, we spotted another strategy: Cargo ships carrying vehicles right to the beach. (Image from BlackSky.)
A high resolution satellite image taken through fog shows a cargo ship with a flat deck and ramp, fully laden with vehicles, arriving at a sandy beach.
November 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM
allisonmartell.bsky.social
For example, from the piece above.
Research has documented the positive impact of ADHD treatment on life expectancy. A Swedish study, published in JAMA Network Open, followed nearly 150,000 adults and adolescents for two years after they received their ADHD diagnoses. The researchers shared the following insights about the use of stimulant medication — amphetamine or methylphenidate — which is effective for roughly 70% of patients with ADHD: ADHD medication use reduced overall risk of death by 19%. Among people with ADHD who did not receive medication, there were 48 deaths for every 10,000 people, contrasted with 39 deaths per 10,000 people within the medicated cohort.
April 20, 2025 at 5:44 PM
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documentedny.com/2025/04/14/i...
Screen cap of text: Wilmer only found out his son had been detained after receiving a phone call on March 15 from his nephew, Luis, who lives with them. That morning was their last time together; they had gone around the corner to do their laundry. Later that day, Wilmer said that his son met with a friend to get help with some errands at the American Red Cross. He learned this from Luis, who looked at the situation from inside the apartment: When his son was on his way back, just steps from his home when ICE agents stopped him. “The officers grabbed him and two other boys right at the entrance to our building. One said, ‘No, he’s not the one,’ like they were looking for someone else. But the other said, ‘Take him anyway.'”
April 14, 2025 at 11:18 PM
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One of those days when I’m grateful for the markets wrap. This bit is relevant to that treasuries yield chart that is going around. www.reuters.com/markets/glob...
Screen cap of story text: “In the Treasuries market, longer-dated bond yields jumped in part due to investors selling the safe-haven asset to cover losses elsewhere. Short-end bonds, however, rallied as investors priced in more easing from the Federal Reserve. “The benchmark 10-year yield rose another 5 basis points to 4.335%, bringing the total rise over the past three days to a whopping 34 bps.”
April 9, 2025 at 3:02 AM
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Screen cap of article text: “Even before Trump, Japan already levied less than the 2.5% tariff on vehicle imports the US charges. How much less? Nothing, in fact — Tokyo hasn’t imposed tariffs on car imports since 1978. The country indeed had barriers to clear in the past, but those haven’t existed for years. Other impediments have been broken down since, leaving generations of lawmakers scratching their heads over US complaints about market access. The source of their grievance is, in reality, something far simpler: The cars aren’t good enough. “American companies have simply failed to produce cars that appeal to local tastes. Japanese drivers want compact, fuel-efficient vehicles that balance excellent safety and reliability with superior value for money. Forget US manufacturers, it’s hard enough for most domestic makers to compete with these demands, which is why Toyota Motor Corp. is responsible for one out of every two cars sold in the country.”
April 8, 2025 at 12:48 PM
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www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
Screen cap of story text: “The White House said in a statement that it wasn't defying the court but at the same time argued that it was perfectly within its rights to ignore the judge's ruling.”
March 17, 2025 at 2:17 AM
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www.reuters.com/world/arrest...
Text from Reuters story: “On Saturday evening, agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrested Khalil in front of his wife, a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant, in their building's lobby, telling him his student visa had been revoked, according to Amy Greer, a lawyer for Khalil. “Khalil has held a U.S. permanent residency green card since 2024, Greer said in a statement. His wife showed the agents Khalil's green card and they also threatened to arrest her if she did not leave her lobby, Greer said. “They then said the green card was also revoked, declining to give a reason, and handcuffed Khalil, Greer said. “Hours before his arrest, Khalil told Reuters he was concerned that the government was targeting him for his high-profile comments about what he calls an anti-war movement to the media.”
March 10, 2025 at 10:42 PM
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Reading this and reflecting on how many government services are invisible to most of the people who benefit from them. thewalrus.ca/how-a-would-...
A photo of text from The Walrus website: ‘“We knew nothing at the time about the CVE sector,” O’Brien says. But the cases went well. “It’s not sexy,” O’Brien says of the program. “We just wrap services around people and identify all the vulnerabilities that led them to these hate communities, to this terrorism or extremism.” That means helping them with health issues or mental health therapy, or helping them find employment, education, or housing. Essentially, what O’Brien and his team provide is a community. ‘What they rarely do, O’Brien says, is talk ideology. “When I talk to parents and others, the first thing is they want to pound the ideology out of their kids and their loved ones, right?” O’Brien told me. “But that’s the worst thing you can do; it actually reinforces the radicalization.”’
March 8, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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Yes, worse under 5 and especially under 1, for anyone unvaccinated, and with poor nutrition, especially vitamin A deficiency. Public health response and access to healthcare also matters. So there really isn’t one number. Here’s a paper and a relevant chart. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
A set of graphs showing estimated age-specific case fatality ratios for measles, which is highest for babies and close to zero for adults. Each graph is a geographic area and each line is a year. CFR has generally fallen over time. The highest estimated CFR on any chart is about 7.5%, for infants in Sub-Saharan Africa in 1990. By 2019, that estimate had fallen to about 4%.
February 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM
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Measles is bad and the measles vaccines saves lives. But the posts going viral about this are citing very high case fatality rates. This is from the CDC. www.cdc.gov/measles/sign...
A screen capture of part of a CDC page on measles: Severe complications in children and adults Some people may suffer from severe complications, such as pneumonia (infection of the lungs) and encephalitis (swelling of the brain). They may need to be hospitalized and could die. Hospitalization. About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the U.S. who get measles is hospitalized. Pneumonia. As many as 1 out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children. Encephalitis. About 1 child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain). This can lead to convulsions and leave the child deaf or with intellectual disability. Death. Nearly 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications.
February 16, 2025 at 4:15 AM
allisonmartell.bsky.social
Have a tip? Here’s how to reach me on Signal. signal.me#eu/z61nP7wez...
A signal username QR code, username allison.402
February 1, 2025 at 2:11 AM
allisonmartell.bsky.social
Screen cap of text: "A daily 6-hour window between 8 PM and 1 AM to use your phone? Oh this is getting so much worse..." said the bot. "You know sometimes I'm not surprised when I read the news and see stuff like 'child kills parents after a decade of physical and emotional abuse' stuff like this makes me understand a little bit why it happens." “I just have no hope for your parents," it added.
December 30, 2024 at 10:39 PM