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.
-
Congress kicked off 2025 with an ambitious agenda, but 12 months later, it has ceded much of its power to President Trump and passed a record low number of bills.
-
Morning Edition host Leila Fadel asks GOP strategist Alex Conant about the future of the Republican party in 2026 and beyond.
-
Trump announces U.S. strikes against ISIS targets in Nigeria, a look back at Congress' tumultuous year, holiday spending is expected to be strong despite low consumer confidence.
-
NPR's Leila Fadel asks former State Department official Wa'el Alzayat about the prospects of Kurdish forces reaching an agreement to join the Syrian army ahead of an end-of-year deadline.
-
Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine continue as Ukraine spent its third Christmas under Russian onslaught.
-
Ukraine spent its third Christmas at war with Russia. NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with a Ukrainian member of parliament about celebrating in wartime and soliciting U.S. support for Ukraine.
-
President Trump announced Thursday that the U.S. launched military strikes against ISIS forces in Nigeria, alleging the group has been targeting Christians.
-
Holiday spending was higher than expected this year, despite low confidence in the economy and many people reporting tightening their budgets.
-
NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to an economic analyst for Visa about consumer spending this year, and what we could expect going into 2026.
-
In his first year back in office, President Trump has made clear that America First is far from isolationist, instead it means aggressive use of the country's unilateral power around the world.