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 asks John Bolton, President Trump's former national security adviser and a long-time advocate of regime change in Iran, whether that goal is being met in the war.
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Iran opens Strait of Hormuz to some ships as Gulf countries face strikes, Trump's mixed messages on the war in Iran could hurt the GOP, TSA officers are receiving back pay as DHS remains unfunded.
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NPR's Leila Fadel asks Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, about the White House's messaging on the Iran war.
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In cities where ICE operations have surged, community members are walking kids to school. -
NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with former TSA employee Robert Echeverria. After nine years at the Salt Lake City Airport, he left for another job after going without pay during the partial shutdown.
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Russia is heavily developing occupied territory in Ukraine, suggesting it has no plans to return the land as part of any peace deal. NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Reuters reporter Mari Saito.
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As the Iran war enters its second month, Israel has invaded Lebanon to drive out Iran-backed Hezbollah and a humanitarian disaster is unfolding as over one million Lebanese people are displaced.
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Over one million Lebanese displaced by Israel's invasion, thousands of U.S. troops deployed to the Middle East, with more on the way, delays continue at U.S. airports with no funding deal in sight.
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Additional U.S. troops have reached the Middle East, with more on the way. While the U.S. military hasn't specified a mission, the critical Strait of Hormuz remains closed to almost all oil tankers.
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NPR's Leila Fadel asks Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina about their tour of East Asia.
