Leila Fadel
Leila Fadel is a national correspondent for NPR based in Los Angeles, covering issues of culture, diversity, and race.
Most recently, she was NPR's international correspondent based in Cairo and covered the wave of revolts in the Middle East and their aftermaths in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and beyond. Her stories brought us to the heart of a state-ordered massacre of pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters in Cairo in 2013 when police shot into crowds of people to clear them and killed between 1,000 and 2,000 people. She told us the tales of a coup in Egypt and what it is like for a country to go through a military overthrow of an elected government. She covered the fall of Mosul to ISIS in 2014 and documented the harrowing tales of the Yazidi women who were kidnapped and enslaved by the group. Her coverage also included stories of human smugglers in Egypt and the Syrian families desperate and willing to pay to risk their lives and cross a turbulent ocean for Europe.
She was awarded the Lowell Thomas Award from the Overseas Press Club for her coverage of the 2013 coup in Egypt and the toll it took on the country and Egyptian families. In 2017 she earned a Gracie award for the story of a single mother in Tunisia whose two eldest daughters were brainwashed and joined ISIS. The mother was fighting to make sure it didn't happen to her younger girls.
Before joining NPR, she covered the Middle East for The Washington Post as the Cairo Bureau Chief. Prior to her position as Cairo Bureau Chief for the Post, she covered the Iraq war for nearly five years with Knight Ridder, McClatchy Newspapers, and later the Washington Post. Her foreign coverage of the devastating human toll of the Iraq war earned her the George. R. Polk award in 2007. In 2016 she was the Council on Foreign Relations Edward R. Murrow fellow.
Leila Fadel is a Lebanese-American journalist who speaks conversational Arabic and was raised in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
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Israel strikes Hamas targets as both sides blame the other for truce breaches, some shutdown impacts have been delayed, but pressure to end it grows, U.S. boat strikes stir tensions in the Caribbean.
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Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre's memoir, "Nobody's Girl," will be released Tuesday, months after she died by suicide. Her collaborator on the book and her brother talk about sharing her story.
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Israel says it struck dozens of Hamas targets across Gaza Sunday in response to attacks on its troops, threatening to unravel a fragile ceasefire that has been in place for less than a week.
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How does the power vacuum in Gaza complicate the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas? NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Stephen Farrell, co-author of "Hamas: The Quest For Power."
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U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean this year have sparked fear and concern in areas like Trinidad and Tobago, where locals are questioning who is being targeted.
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Former New York Republican Congressman George Santos is out of prison after President Trump commuted his sentence Friday. NPR's Leila Fadel asks New York Times reporter Michael Gold how it happened.
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John Bolton, President Trump's national security adviser turned vocal critic, has been indicted, Ukrainian president to meet with Trump in D.C. Friday, Gaza begins the long road to reconstruction.
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The U.N. Development Programme is helping clear debris and rebuild infrastructure in Gaza. NPR speaks with Jaco Cilliers who helps lead the project.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with President Trump in Washington, D.C., Friday. He wants U.S. weapons that can reach farther inside Russia to put pressure on Moscow to end the war.
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Carving jack-o'-lanterns started long before the legend of the Headless Horseman. NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to Cindy Ott, author of "Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon."