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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In her new book of essays, "Sucker Punch," Slate writer Scaachi Koul examines what happens when life radically changes course and you need to chart a new path forward.
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Iowa eliminated anti-discrimination protections for transgender people from its civil rights law. NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Matt McIver, an Iowan with a transgender child.
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NPR's Leila Fadel talks with Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi about what Trump administration tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods mean for businesses, consumers and consumer sentiment.
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President Trump pauses Ukraine military aid, President Trump to address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, Trump administration imposes tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico.
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President Trump heads to Capitol Hill Tuesday night to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress. He has an ambitious to-do list, but just a slim Republican majority in Congress to work with.
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What steps, if any, does the public need to take to protect against the rising number of measles cases? NPR speaks with Dr. Preeti Malani, infectious disease physician at the University of Michigan.
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Advocates warn that deep cuts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development will make the housing crisis worse. Congressional Democrats want more details on what DOGE has done and what it plans.
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European leaders pledge to work together to end Russia's war in Ukraine, an update on Israel-Hamas ceasefire, NPR investigation finds problems with system for policing bad behavior by federal judges.
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An NPR investigation finds gaps in the systems to report misbehavior by federal judges and a widespread culture of fear about reporting abuse.
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NPR asks international affairs expert Nina Khrushcheva of the New School about how Russian President Vladimir Putin views the tension between President Trump and Ukraine's Zelenskyy.