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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Humanitarian groups warn of a potential catastrophe in Rafah. Stormy Daniels begins testifying in Donald Trump's N.Y. criminal trial. TikTok challenges U.S. ban in court, calling it unconstitutional.
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Chef Joseph Yoon plans to transform dual emerging cicada broods into edible delicacies.
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Prosecutors say former President Donald Trump conspired to alter the outcome of the 2016 election by paying hush money to bury negative stories, and then covered it up by falsifying business records.
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Protesters at Columbia University have begun occupying a campus building. Four law enforcement officers were killed while serving a warrant in North Carolina. Ukraine desperately needs more soldiers.
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International and Israeli media report that the International Criminal Court is considering arrest warrants against leaders of Israel and Hamas, while cease-fire and hostage release talks continue.
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International arrest warrants could be issued for Israel's top officials. Pro-Palestinian protests at U.S. colleges show no sign of letting up. Spain's prime minister may announce he's stepping down.
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Hundreds of arrests were made on college campuses over the weekend as protests continued over U.S. involvement with Israel's war in Gaza.
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Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez published a letter last week saying he was considering stepping down. Sanchez said he would take the next five days to make a decision — and that decision was due Monday.
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Student protests against Israel's war in Gaza intensify. The Supreme Court debated former President Trump's immunity claim. New York's highest court overturned Harvey Weinstein's criminal conviction.
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In response to Israel's vow to expand its ground offensive to the southern Gaza city of Rafah, residents and refugees consider whether they will attempt to flee.