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 is the world's largest importer of oil, and COVID-19 has led to a sharp drop in its demand for crude. That means bad news for Saudi Arabia, which needs high oil prices.
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A seven-day "reduction in violence" period has begun in Afghanistan. It is the first tentative step toward a U.S.-Taliban peace agreement and ultimately drawing down American forces.
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"Right now, the U.S.-China relationship is suffering from a deep deficit of trust," says Evan Medeiros, a former National Security Council chief adviser for Asia. -
A budget airline helped open up Iceland to the masses and add to the nation's economic growth. The airline's collapse has had an equally profound impact on Iceland's economy.
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Fear of the respiratory virus, which has infected more than 28,000 people in over two dozen countries, has brought the normally lucrative business to a screeching halt. -
Coronavirus travel bans are likely to exacerbate bad blood between the United States and China at a time when sharing information and cooperation is critical to battling global health emergencies.
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Melting ice means ships are plowing along polar lanes, so Rune Rafaelsen wants Chinese investors to help turn the small town of Kirkenes into a major logistics hub. But doubters abound.
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Although the country has been hit hard, Iranians have managed to live under sanctions for four decades. -
The Trump administration has placed layers of tough sanctions on Iran for years, but it has yet to bring the economy to its knees. That's because Iran has a big economy that's used to hard times.
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Officials in Iran say the country's armed forces mistakenly shot down the civilian plane Wednesday, killing 176 people on board.
