Jackie Northam
Jackie Northam is NPR's International Affairs Correspondent. She is a veteran journalist who has spent three decades reporting on conflict, politics, and life across the globe - from the mountains of Afghanistan and the desert sands of Saudi Arabia, to the gritty prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and the pristine beauty of the Arctic.
Northam spent more than a dozen years as an international correspondent living in London, Budapest, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Nairobi. She charted the collapse of communism, covered the first Gulf War from Saudi Arabia, counter-terrorism efforts in Pakistan, and reported from Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Her work has taken her to conflict zones around the world. Northam covered the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, arriving in the country just four days after Hutu extremists began slaughtering ethnic Tutsis. In Afghanistan, she accompanied Green Berets on a precarious mission to take a Taliban base. In Cambodia, she reported from Khmer Rouge strongholds.
Throughout her career, Northam has put a human face on her reporting, whether it be the courage of villagers walking miles to cast their vote in an Afghan election despite death threats from militants, or the face of a rescue worker as he desperately listens for any sound of life beneath the rubble of a collapsed elementary school in Haiti.
Northam joined NPR in 2000 as National Security Correspondent, covering US defense and intelligence policies. She led the network's coverage of the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal and the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Her present beat focuses on the complex relationship between international business and geopolitics, including how the lifting of nuclear sanctions has opened Iran for business, the impact of China's efforts to buy up businesses and real estate around the world, and whether President Trump's overseas business interests are affecting US policy.
Northam has received multiple journalism awards during her career, including Associated Press awards and regional Edward R. Murrow awards, and was part of an NPR team of journalists who won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for "The DNA Files," a series about the science of genetics.
A native of Canada, Northam spends her time off crewing in the summer, on the ski hills in the winter, and on long walks year-round with her beloved beagle, Tara.
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The U.S is withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan to focus on more urgent foreign policy priorities.
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Officials in the Biden administration are preparing to issue wide-ranging sanctions against Russia in retaliation for the massive cyber breach discovered late last year.
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Giant ships are loaded down with cargo, mostly consumer goods during the pandemic, which is causing concern about more mishaps like the one in the Suez Canal, and containers going overboard.
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The Biden administration is weighing whether to continue former President Trump's hard line against Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. It's part of the broader review of China-related policies.
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A massive container ship that has blocked the Suez Canal for six days has been partially freed. Traffic has not yet resumed in the canal, which is among the world's most important waterways.
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In Egypt, a ship the length of four football fields has run aground in the Suez Canal — backing up cargo and oil tanker traffic on one of the world's busiest routes.
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An enormous cargo ship is stuck in the Suez Canal in Egypt, blocking one of the world's key shipping routes.
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Trials in China for two Canadians charged with espionage are seen as retaliation after Canada arrested a Chinese executive at request of the U.S. Washington wants that exec extradited to the U.S.
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President Biden wants to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal that his predecessor pulled out of. It's at a standstill, but analysts say the Biden administration can make gestures to bring Iran to the table. -
The tough sanctions that former president Trump slapped on Iran are still in place and President Biden has a few options to use them to bring Iran back to the nuclear deal.
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The White House might be about to release a damning report on the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but it seems intent on maintaining an alliance with Saudi Arabia.
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He was Saudi Arabia's oil minister for nearly 25 years, rising to fame for engineering the 1973 oil embargo and negotiating Saudi control of Aramco from U.S. fuel giants.
