Jackie Northam
Jackie Northam is NPR's International Affairs Correspondent. She is a veteran journalist who has spent three decades reporting on conflict, geopolitics, 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 fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, reported from Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and the rise of Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. She was in Islamabad to cover the Taliban recapturing Afghanistan
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 revealed the human experience behind the headlines, from the courage of Afghan villagers defying militant death threats to cast their vote in a national election, or exhausted rescue workers desperately searching for survivors following a massive earthquake in Haiti.
Northam joined NPR in 2000 as National Security Correspondent, covering defense and intelligence policies at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She led the network's coverage of the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Her present beat focuses on the complex relationship between geopolitics and the global economy, including efforts to counter China's rising power.
Northam has received multiple journalism awards, including Associated Press and Edward R. Murrow awards, and was part of the NPR team that won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for "The DNA Files," a series about the science of genetics.
Originally from 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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China invested heavily in a plan to rebuild Pakistan's infrastructure. It is part of the Belt and Road Initiative. But many projects have stalled because of corruption and COVID-19.
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Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou, held in Canada since Dec. 2018 on U.S. extradition charges, was freed Friday.
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This week, as the U.S. prepared to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban named a new interim government in Afghanistan.
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Pakistan has long been seen as backing the Taliban in defiance of the rest of the world. But now that they have seized control of Afghanistan, that relationship could change.
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About 200 people, including some Americans, departed the Afghan capital on Thursday. Officials said this was not an evacuation flight, but rather that people were leaving of their own free will. -
When Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, the president of Afghanistan fled. It was so fast, the group didn't seem to have a plan to run the country. Tuesday, they announced an interim government.
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The Taliban released a list of interim ministers of a new acting government at a press conference in Kabul. The list included many who are under U.N. and/or U.S. sanctions.
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Travelers have spent seven days waiting to depart from the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. At least 19 U.S. citizens and two green card holders are said to be among the group of about 600.
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In 2011, the CIA involved a local doctor to help verify Osama bin Laden was hiding in a compound in Pakistan. That decision has had a long lasting impact on aid groups trying to work in the country.
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With the U.S. military gone, the big question now is: What happens next in the new chapter between the two countries, and what happens to Americans and others left behind.
