I am a freelance journalist and fact-checker based in Marseille, France. I report on France and Singapore on issues adjacent to policing, immigration, and social movements. Most recently this has included reporting on the riots in France after the police killing of Nahel Merzouk, France’s mass deportation operation in overseas Mayotte and the international dimensions of Singapore’s anti-death penalty movement.
I’ve also written about tech, climate change, and queer history.
I was trained as a fact-checker in 2020 at The Nation. I went on to oversee fact-checking as coordinator at The Intercept, and then worked at Rest of World. I’ve also checked articles and podcasts for Mother Jones, Business Insider, Coda Story, the Global Investigative Journalism Network, and TED. My projects have also included books by Jay Caspian Kang, Cole Stangler, and Jennifer Hope Choi.
A noter : Je suis bilingue en français, et j’ai un niveau avancé d’espagnol.
Contact me: kadaljesuthasan(at)gmail(dot)com
Selected Features and Reporting
France
- Young Arab and Black men jailed and fined in France’s riot trials - openDemocracy / July 2023 / Fast-track trials deliver hefty sentences for petty crimes committed during riots sparked by police killing teenager.
- After the Riots, the Police Terrorize Marseille - The Nation / July 2023 / Two days after police killed Nahel Merzouk, the poorest big city in France exploded with anger. By Sunday, a crackdown had smothered the protests—and made residents even more fearful.
- ‘Insulted, humiliated, hunted’: plight of migrants as slums razed in French territory of Mayotte - The Guardian / May 2023 / As the first shantytown falls to the bulldozer under France’s operation Wuambushu, people on the Indian Ocean island tell of living in constant fear.
- Security for Whom? - The Ballot / March 2021 / In 2018, at the height of the yellow vest movement, a police officer shot a tear gas grenade into Zineb Redouane’s appartment. She died from her injuries soon after. Two years later, as France’s police apparatus intensifies its strength and reach, Zineb’s case continues to mark the city of Marseille.
- The Limits of Solidarity in France’s Security Law Protests - Study Hall / March 2021 / The coalition protesting a proposed French security law is broad, but some worry that the movement emphasizes press freedom over rising Islamophobia and police brutality.
- The Fight Against France’s Global Security Law Is Far From Over - The Nation / February 2021 / In France, protests against a proposed security law have continued despite politicians’ promise to rewrite a controversial section.
- Gritty in Paris - Study Hall / As French media turned to the end of the 2020 US election results cycle, I wrote about how Philadelphia’s own “fuzzy eldritch horror” has surprising relevance to the French media landscape.
Singapore
- Just Transitions - Mekong Review / November 2023 / Climate activists are still stumped by the question of how to ensure that public power results in real, meaningful change. At the same time, the climate movement is setting its sights further than ever.
- The Movement to Close Singapore’s Death Row - The Nation / February 2023 / Singapore tries to keep foreigners out of its politics but not out of the noose.
- Singapore’s free AI therapy-bot is as problematic as you’d think - Rest of World / November 2022 / The app tried to relieve pandemic stress for teachers — but instead, triggered cries of “gaslighting” and frustration.
- Singapore’s Migrant Labour-Climate Crisis Conundrum - New Naratif / 2020 / Some migrants in Singapore are employed in industries that exploit both the environment and the workers themselves, contributing to the climate crisis that sent many fleeing hostile weather conditions at home in the first place.
- Explainer: Red Hot Red Dot: The Climate Crisis and Singapore: Comic (with Anngee Neo) / Full Text - New Naratif / 2020 / How will the climate crisis impact Singapore?
- Where the Carbon Flows: Singapore’s Emissions in a Global Context - New Naratif / 2019 / As concerns over climate change grow in Singapore, many question what one island nation’s actions can possibly change. But as a trading port and financier, its carbon emissions spill far beyond its borders.
Selected Culture Writing and Essays
- What We Can Learn About Activism Today in the Archives of Queer History - The Nation / 2021 / A review of Cait McKinney’s book Information Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media Technologies
- The Internet Is Not Forever - ATM / 2020 / A eulogy of the Francophone animation website La Cartoonerie, and the all-consuming worlds of Adobe Flash Player (RIP)
- Peter Whinnery Is Packing Up Shop - The Penn Gazette / A profile of Peter Whinnery, who ran the UPenn’s performing arts wood shop for 36 years and is behind hundreds of student productions, before his retirement in May 2019
Selected Fact-checking
- Hazing, Fighting, Sexual Assaults: How Valley Forge Military Academy Devolved Into “Lord of the Flies” - Mother Jones / 2022 / By Jasper Craven
- How Michael Flynn Profited From the QAnon Conspiracy Theory - The Intercept / 2021 / By Candace Rondeaux
- Evicting Lote Ocho: How a Canadian Mining Company Infiltrated the Guatemalan State - The Intercept / 2020 / By Max Binks-Collier / This fact-check involved reading and speaking Spanish.
- The Death of Working Class Paris - The Nation / 2020 / By Cole Stangler / This fact-check involved reading and speaking French.