
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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President Trump leaving for four-day trip to the Middle East, Hamas expected to release American Israeli hostage Monday, Republicans hope to advance Trump's domestic agenda this week.
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House Republicans hope to finish work this week on President Trump's "big beautiful bill," but several big policy differences are getting in their way.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the leaders of China and Brazil to commemorate the anniversary.
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The moment a new pope is elected, what we know about Pope Leo XIV, the U.S. and China hold trade talks over the weekend.
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President Trump said he is appointing Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to be acting U.S. attorney in Washington DC. This is after the president pulled his controversial first pick for the job, Ed Martin.
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NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with former U.S. poet laureate, Joy Harjo, about her book "Washing My Mother's Body" where she explores the complexity of a daughter's grief as she reflects on her mother's life.
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In a historic and unpredictable moment, white smoke billowed out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, as the first pope from the United States of America was unveiled.
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Robert Prevost was born and raised in the Chicago Area. How will that shape his papacy? NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Loyola University Theologian Susan Ross.
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Pakistan shot down Indian drones on Thursday that were flying over major cities, Pakistan's military spokesman said. This comes after India launched multiple strikes across Pakistan on Tuesday.
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Hear the latest on the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan, Trump administration wants to send migrants to Libya, Federal Reserve policymakers hold interest rates steady for now.