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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Sanctions that the West has imposed on Russia since 2014 seem to have had only a limited effect. So why does NATO believe it can prevent an invasion of Ukraine by threatening similar actions?
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President Biden has threatened Russia with massive sanctions if it follows through on threats to take more Ukrainian territory.
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Famed Kenyan conservationist and fossil hunter Richard Leakey has died at age 77. His discoveries helped prove Africa was the cradle of civilization.
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Afghanistan faces a humanitarian crisis. It had been relying on foreign aid, much of which has been cut since the Taliban took over in August. There are now shortages of money, food and health care.
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The global shipping industry is coming under increasing pressure to cut the pollution created by the world's merchant fleet. The effort to reduce ship emissions isn't going well.
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The Biden administration has promised to help end the war in Yemen, but it continues to approve weapons sales to the Saudi government that is blamed for prolonging the war.
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The show reopened to spectators this year in Philadelphia. Claire, a 4-year old Scottish deerhound, won best in show in 2020 too. It's the first time in 20 years that a dog has won twice in a row. -
Delayed containers are a symptom of and contributor to global supply chain problems. But imagine a world without them.
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Shipping containers aren't much more than steel boxes. But they have become increasingly valuable during the worldwide supply chain crisis.
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The Commerce Department wants semiconductor makers to provide details on their products and customers in a bid to understand what's causing bottlenecks. Many companies say it may reveal trade secrets.
