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.
-
When Ukraine was invaded, many expected a quick Russian victory. The war is three months old, with both sides digging in and no end in sight. Many analysts say the trends now favor Ukraine.
-
It's primary day in Georgia. In Tokyo, President Biden meets the leaders of Australia, India and Japan — a group known as the Quad. And, Russia's invasion of Ukraine began three months ago.
-
Biden was launching a trade pact in Tokyo with countries from the Indo-Pacific region. It was overshadowed by his response to a question about whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan if China invaded.
-
A company in Arthur, Ill., allows workers to decide what they need to improve their health. The approach improved productivity and netted a big pay out for all employees.
-
Biden was asked whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan militarily if China invades. Epidemiologists investigate suspected U.S. cases of monkeypox. Long lines form as refugees try to return to Ukraine.
-
More than a thousand soldiers were evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant, and Russia is consolidating control of Mariupol. It is making plans to annex the southwestern parts of the country. -
The pop star has spent a life on the go, so the pandemic offered him a rare chance for reflection, to separate the person from the pop star. Also, of course, to record a new album.
-
Concerns mount over Ukrainian soldiers from Mariupol in Russian hands. Joe Biden makes his first presidential trip to Asia. A disinformation expert leaves her post heading a new government board.
-
NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden administration's special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, about the racism and hatred that motivate violence in America and the world.
-
Golf's PGA Championship gets underway Thursday in Tula, Okla., but defending champ Phil Mickelson won't be there after he made inflammatory comments about a new Saudi-backed golf tour.
