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 Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-NY, about the ongoing budget negotiations and the impact of the government shutdown.
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As Democrats and Republicans trade barbs, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought works to carry out what the Trump administration calls the "good that can come" from a shutdown.
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As the shutdown continues, the OMB director works to overhaul the federal workforce, Americans are starting to feel the effects of the shutdown, Israel orders all residents to leave Gaza City.
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With hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed or working without pay, some government offices are closed and facilities at National Parks aren't available.
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NPR speaks with retired Gen. Randy Manner, who was once a top official in the National Guard, about the president's use of the military in American cities.
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Israel has ordered all residents of Gaza City to leave to make way for an expanded ground operation. Anyone who does not leave will be treated as a Hamas member or sympathizer.
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Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara says he was arrested in Georgia while covering an anti-Trump protest. Detained for over 100 days, he now faces "imminent deportation," his lawyer says.
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NPR speaks with Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., about the government shutdown.
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Government shutdown begins after Congress fails to reach a deal, federal workers brace for effects of shutdown, Trump tells gathering of commanders the military should be used against "enemy within."
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Dr. Omar Awadallah, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, talks about President Trump's 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza.