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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An update on the deadly floods in central Texas, Trump threatens new tariffs on more than a dozen countries, medical groups sue Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his recent actions on vaccine policy.
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NPR's Leil Fadel asks Mahmoud Meslat, co-chair of the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces, whether Kurds in the semi-autonomous northwest region have a voice in the new government.
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NPR speaks with esports journalist Rod Breslau about the second annual Esports World Cup starting Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, where 2,000 players are expected to compete from more than 100 countries.
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Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, says affected Texans are owed an investigation into what went wrong with evacuating flooded areas and how it can be prevented from happening again. -
An update on the floods in Texas that have killed dozens, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to meet President Trump at White House Monday, Trump shifts deadline on sweeping tariffs to August 1.
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NPR's Michel Martin asks Philip Luck, former deputy chief economist at the State Department in the Biden administration, about how trade negotiations affect the U.S. economy.
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NPR's Leila Fadel asks Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, about Gaza ceasefire talks and the appointment of a new Hamas leader in Gaza.
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NPR speaks with Zachary Price, law professor at the University of California College of Law San Francisco, about the Trump administration's rationale for exempting tech companies from the TikTok ban.
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Latest on the GOP megabill now before the House, forecasters say tax cut and spending bill would add trillions to U.S. debt, Sean Combs found guilty on 2 counts but acquitted on most serious charges.
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In her debut memoir, acclaimed Palestinian American novelist and poet Hala Alyan describes her journey of exile, surrogacy and finding home.
