
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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Voters in an important swing district in Florida are grappling with soaring costs for housing and food. What could these frustrations mean for November midterm elections?
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An ex-Trump Organization executive is set to plead guilty to tax fraud. A poll examines how Americans see things at the southern border. The FDA's controversial strategy for evaluating COVID boosters.
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As students return to classrooms for the new school year, we visit one district, in Jackson, Miss., to hear how school leaders, teachers and families are feeling.
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New federal forecasts show the nation's two largest reservoirs on the river are expected to continue their rapid decline — putting the water supply for 40 million people in the southwest in jeopardy.
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Liz Cheney lost her House seat, but her fight against ex-President Donald Trump continues. A water crisis on the Colorado River is worsening. Millions of children are beginning a new school year.
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An update in the Georgia probe against former President Trump and his allies. Sarah Palin faces Alaska voters again in a special election for Congress. William Ruto wins Kenya's presidential election.
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Threats against the FBI from supporters of former President Donald Trump have jumped, even as court documents related to the search of his Florida home are made public.
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The Taliban are marking their first year in power. How do Afghans in the capital city of Kabul feel about this anniversary?
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It's been a year since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. Threats against the FBI from Trump supporters are up. Fighting near a Ukrainian nuclear power plant raises fears of a nuclear accident.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland has moved to unseal the warrant used to search former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.