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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NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey about residents protesting the Trump administration's ICE deployment and the killing of Renee Good by an immigration officer.
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HHS sending more agents to Minnesota as protests over Renee Good's death continue, Iran warns U.S. against military actions after protest crackdown, DOJ subpoenas Fed in escalating pressure campaign.
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President Trump has threatened Iran amid a deadly crackdown on protesters. NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to Holly Dagres of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy about the protests.
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NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison about the deadly shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer and the presence of 2,000 ICE agents in the city.
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Investigation continues into fatal shooting of Minneapolis woman by ICE agent, U.S. seizes Venezuela-bound oil tanker after two-week chase, Trump administration unveils new food pyramid.
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Trump's plans for Venezuela's future remain unclear, the president tries to offer his party a "roadmap" for winning the midterms, European leaders express alarm at Trump's comments on Greenland.
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European leaders who gathered in Paris Tuesday to discuss a security plan for Ukraine expressed their concerns about President Trump's comments on seeking an American takeover of Greenland.
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Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat serving on the House Armed Services Committee, says Trump administration officials offered "vague talk" in briefing about the long-term strategy for Venezuela. -
Nicolas Maduro pleads not guilty in first court appearance, Trump to meet with House Republicans at Kennedy Center, U.S. health officials reduce the number of vaccines recommended for children.
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President Trump says the U.S. will "take back" Venezuela's oil. NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Jason Bordoff, founding director of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, about his remarks.
