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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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. -
A stopgap bill to temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security expires Friday night. DHS could be without funding for days, as the House and Senate are expected to be in recess next week.
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NPR's Leila Fadel talks to House Oversight Committee member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., about the deposition Jeffrey Epstein accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
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The clock is ticking for the Department of Homeland Security. The agency is days away from running out of funding, but Democrats and Republicans remain far apart on changes to immigration enforcement.
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The Justice Department's latest release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein files has led to new scrutiny of powerful people in convicted sex offender's orbit. -
The Oscar-nominated Iranian screenwriter Mehdi Mahmoudian was arrested after condemning the regime's crackdown on protesters, which director Jafar Panahi says represents the actions of a "failed state." -
New Jersey voters head to the polls for one of the year's first congressional primaries. WNYC's Mike Hayes discusses the special election for the House seat left open by now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
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NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., ahead of a possible partial government shutdown Friday.
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Democrats are demanding changes to a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The fight over spending could cause a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.
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Two members of Congress were attacked in recent days, and U.S. Capitol Police say threats against lawmakers have increased. NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to former Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger.
