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 to Republican Congressman Jeff Hurd of Colorado about his work on a bipartisan "statement of principles" to extend subsidies for Obamacare and end the government shutdown.
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Democrats' victories complicate Senate shutdown talks, SCOTUS seems skeptical of Trump's authority to impose tariffs, judges hear cases on Chicago ICE detention center and agents' use of force.
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NPR's Daniel Estrin visits Gaza for the first time since the war began, touring the destruction in northern Gaza.
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The Supreme Court's justices appeared skeptical Wednesday of the Trump administration's argument that the president has the right to impose tariffs without congressional approval.
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California's Proposition 50 redraws the state's congressional map to favor Democrats. NPR's Leila Fadel asks Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report what it might mean for mid-term elections.
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Two cases involving ICE are in court in Chicago this week. In one, a judge ordered conditions at a detention facility be improved while a ruling is still expected in a case over agents' use of force.
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NPR's Leila Fadel discusses the issues and influences that defined Tuesday's election wins and losses with University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato.
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Abigail Spanberger, Virginia's first woman governor, says she's ready to push back on President Trump's "bad policies" for the sake of Virginians. -
Democrats win gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, Zohran Mamdani will be the next mayor of New York City, California voters approve a new congressional map.
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Among the first statewide votes since President Trump returned for a second term, two Democrats have won the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia.
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Rep. Suzan DelBene, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, talks about California voters approving a new congressional map and what it means for Democratic redistricting efforts.
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NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to Tareq Baconi, a Palestinian scholar. His memoir, "Fire in Every Direction," explores queer identity, family history, and political awakening.
