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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VP Harris and her running mate continue their introductory tour. Ukraine launches one of its most brazen operations in the war with Russia. An extreme wildfire tore through Lahaina a year ago.
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The National Hurricane Center says Debby is expected to bring hurricane force winds and a major flood threat to the southeastern United States.
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NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Bangladeshi politics expert Ali Riaz, a professor at Illinois State, about the resignation of Bangladesh's longest-serving female head of government, Sheikh Hasina.
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VP Harris is expected to announce her running mate within the next day. Fears grow of a widening war in the Middle East. The second week of the Olympic Games in Paris is off to a fast start.
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Big names in fashion are outfitting Olympic teams at the Paris Games. NPR's Leila Fadel talks to "New York Times" critic Vanessa Friedman about how sports and fashion are more interrelated.
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NPR's Leila Fadel talks with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan about Washington's role in securing one of the largest prisoner swaps between the U.S., its allies and Russia since the Cold War ended.
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NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to Alina Polyakova, of the Center for European Policy Analysis, and a friend of Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was recently freed in a Russia-U.S. prisoner swap.
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What options does the U.S. have to tamp down tensions in the Middle East? NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Edward Djerejian.
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For the second time in her career, gymnast Simone Biles won the Olympic individual all-around final title, only two days after leading the U.S. women's team back to the gold in the team event.
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Germany played a key role in the prisoner swap that brought "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich home from a Russian jail.