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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Polls move in Donald Trump’s direction, but race remains tight. White House tells Israel to increase aid to northern Gaza. Ukraine says North Korea may be sending soldiers to help Russia in the war.
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NPR's Leila Fadel follows up with a couple of students from Michigan's Wayne State University to see how their views of the candidates have evolved since she last interviewed them in February.
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Milton plows across Florida with high winds, torrential rain and tornadoes. Israeli military's ground incursion continues in southern Lebanon. Polls suggest Republicans make gains among Black voters.
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Polls show that former President Donald Trump has made inroads with Black voters. NPR's Leila Fadel visits one neighborhood in Detroit to see how he's gained appeal among this voting bloc.
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Election workers faced an unprecedented wave of threats in the last presidential election. What are poll workers and election clerks in the swing state of Michigan doing to keep voting secure? -
Emergency managers ordered residents in low-lying and flood-prone areas to evacuate before Milton's arrival on the Gulf Coast late Wednesday. Milton is expected to be a major hurricane at landfall.
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The EPA issued a final rule requiring water systems to replace all lead pipes within 10 years. Water advocates lauded the rule as a public health victory, but say there's much work to be done.
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Hurricane Milton is expected to be historic when it makes landfall. Attorneys general sue TikTok -- saying it places profit over children's mental health. The EPA mandates replacement of lead pipes.
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In 2017, President Trump rolled out tax incentives to encourage investment in low-income and distressed communities. There were concerns investors would benefit more than residents.
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Michigan contains the largest Lebanese American community and the city of Dearborn has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country. This battleground state could decide the election.
