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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The Trump administration defends its strikes on three nuclear targets in Iran, where the conflict between Israel and Iran stands now, Iran's diplomatic and military options moving forward.
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After 104 days in a Louisiana immigration detention center, Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil has been released on bail. -
NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Vali Nasr, professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University, about his reaction to U.S. strikes in Iran and the effects this could have on the region.
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With ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Matthias Goldmann, professor of International Law at EBS University of Business and Law in Germany, about the relevance of international law in conflict.
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NPR's Leila Fadel talks with journalist Kim Ghattas in Beirut about how far the Israel-Iran war could spread and whether other Middle East powers are bracing for a wider conflict.
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Gaza has receded from headlines as the conflict between Iran and Israel escalates. But in past week, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, many trying to get food, officials said.
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Appeals court backs Trump's control of the California National Guard for now, divisions grow among Trump supporters over Iran, EU ministers undertake diplomatic effort to end Iran-Israel conflict.
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Republican strategist Sarah Longwell says getting involved in the Israel-Iran conflict would be an "unforgivable sin" to many Trump supporters. -
President Trump on Wednesday declined to say whether the United States is moving closer to a decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.
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President Trump says he hasn't decided whether to strike Iranian nuclear facility, the latest on the Iran-Israel conflict, Social Security benefits face big cuts in 2033 if Congress doesn't act.
