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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How Education Department cuts will impact lower-income and rural schools, hearing to be held on Venezuelan deportations, NTSB says Maryland officials did not assess Key Bridge risks before collapse.
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NPR's Leila Fadel and Steve Inskeep speak about his upcoming reporting trip to China and why it is important now.
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NPR's Leila Fadel asks veteran Israeli hostage negotiator and peace activist Gershon Baskin about how the country is reacting to the resumption of fighting in Gaza.
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The National Transportation Safety Board strongly criticized Maryland officials for not determining the Francis Scott Key Bridge's risk of collapse. The bridge collapsed after a cargo ship struck it.
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Fed holds rates steady due to uncertainty over impact of tariffs on the economy, federal judge declines to block DOGE takeover of U.S. Institute of Peace, Israel launches new ground offensive in Gaza.
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President Trump fired two Democratic appointees from the independent agency tasked with policing corporate America. One of them told NPR the move is a gift to the president's wealthiest supporters. -
What do warming relations between Russia and the U.S. mean for Iran? NPR asks Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about the complexities.
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A jury in North Dakota has found Greenpeace owes hundreds of millions of dollars to Energy Transfer, the company that built the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
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Federal judge says USAID shutdown likely violated the Constitution, Ukraine reacts to Trump and Putin phone call on ceasefire deal, Gaza ceasefire ends as Israel launches airstrikes on the territory.
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Stephen Capus, who leads Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, discusses why his organization is filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
