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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Saudi Arabia had been planning to sell off a slice of its state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, in a massive IPO. But last weekend's aerial attacks on Saudi oil facilities may scare off investors.
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Drone attacks against Saudi oil facilities have caused uncertainty in world oil markets. Houthi rebels in Yemen have claimed responsibility, but the U.S. is blaming Iran.
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In a break from tradition, the king appointed a prince to run the energy ministry and the head of the Public Investment Fund to chair oil giant Saudi Aramco. -
Oil giant Saudi Aramco's chairman has been removed and replaced with a close ally of the crown prince. The company fuels the Saudi economy and the change in leadership could be risky.
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Exports of U.S. dairy products to China have dropped more than 50% because of the trade war. The U.S. is losing out at a time when Chinese consumers are eating more cheese and drinking more milk.
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There are thousands of Chinese-made surveillance cameras in government buildings across the United States. Congress is banning them Aug. 13, but it's unclear how that will be carried out.
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After four years of fighting a conflict that has killed thousands of people and created a humanitarian disaster, the United Arab Emirates is withdrawing troops in Yemen
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Chinese tech giant, Huawei, says its revenue soared 23% in the first half of this year, despite the Trump administration placing the company on an export blacklist.
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Sales in the six months through June were just over $58.3 billion. But Huawei Chairman Liang Hua says the company will "face difficulties" in the second half because of U.S. restrictions. -
President Trump met with Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan to discuss trade, repairing relations between the two nations and ending the 18-year war in Afghanistan.
