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.
-
President Trump says he will meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Tuesday setting up a big day of foreign policy.
-
President Trump to meet with the leaders of Ukraine and Israel, Work permits for thousands of TPS holders set to expire, survey finds many Americans believe corruption is a problem in politics.
-
NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Washington Post national security reporter Alex Horton about DEA and Pentagon conclusions that U.S. boat strikes have not reduced drug smuggling into the U.S. by sea.
-
Work permits for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians are set to expire, after the Trump administration stripped them of temporary protected status.
-
Voters indicate they're increasingly concerned about corruption in public office. A new survey indicates that concern spans the political spectrum.
-
Savannah Guthrie has made another video appeal to the unknown kidnappers of her mother, as the investigation continues amid visible tensions between local and federal authorities.
-
NPR's Leila Fadel asks longtime Democratic strategist Paul Begala how he believes voters are sizing up the midterms.
-
Three people were killed in a shooting at a Seattle food festival Sunday, U.S and Iran pause airstrikes, with less than 100 days left until Election Day, a look at how the midterms are shaping up.
-
Nearly every day, there are new attacks on the Russian online retailer. Why is Ukraine trying to destroy it?
-
Why did President Trump stand down U.S. forces after hinting at a massive attack on Iran? NPR's Leila Fadel asks Iran policy expert Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution.