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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Congress could vote on a measure requiring the release of files related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. One of its sponsors says the bill has strong bipartisan and public support. -
Congress returns to Capitol Hill after August recess, Brazil's ex-president faces coup trial, the latest on the devastating earthquake in eastern Afghanistan.
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Lawmakers return to Capitol Hill on Tuesday after a monthlong recess. From funding the government to calls to release the Epstein files, they face a packed agenda.
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Rescuers are still trying to reach victims after an earthquake on Sunday devastated parts of eastern Afghanistan. The country's disaster management authority says more than 950 people were killed.
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The International Association of Genocide Scholars has declared that Israel's actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide. NPR's Leila Fadel talks with the association's Emily Sample.
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Pop star Sabrina Carpenter tells NPR's Leila Fadel why she describes her new album as a "party for heartbreak," and "a celebration of disappointment." -
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski talks with NPR's Leila Fadel about the implications of Russia's escalating attacks on Ukraine amid stalled peace talks.
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European leaders work to find ways to secure Ukraine if peace deal struck, China's Xi hosts Putin and Modi at high-profile summit, how workers are doing in the second Trump administration.
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NPR asks economist Devashish Mitra of Syracuse University where he thinks India's economic and geopolitical relationships will go after the Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs on Indian goods.
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A Thai court has toppled Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, dealing a major blow to her powerful family and plunging Thailand into fresh political chaos.
