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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NPR's Leila Fadel meets a mother preparing for the possibility of deportation by making sure someone will be able to look after her children. -
U.S. and Russian officials are scheduled to meet in Saudi Arabia for talks on negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.
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Foreign relations expert Richard Haass says the United States' advantage over China and Russia is that it has an enormous pool of allies willing to collaborate. President Trump's approach could change that. -
European leaders meeting about emerging transatlantic rift over security and war in Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits the Middle East, a look at Trump's first month back in office.
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NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, a U.S. and Israeli dual citizen who was released by Hamas after 16 months in captivity in Gaza. -
For Presidents Day, NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, about the extent and limits of American presidential power.
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A famous Palestinian-owned bookstore in East Jerusalem was raided by Israeli police, stoking fears of increased censorship. -
Resignations shake up the DOJ, the ACLU and other advocates sue for access to migrants moved to Guantánamo Bay, immigration poll shows growing support for restrictions but deep divisions remain.
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Three senior prosecutors resigned from the DOJ after refusing to drop a corruption case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams. It's raising alarms about whether politics influences decisions in Trump's DOJ.
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President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Modi to meet, Trump make separate calls to Putin and Zelenskyy to start peace talks, Linda McMahon faces confirmation hearing to lead Education Department.
