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.
-
As the world rushes to vaccinate against the coronavirus pandemic, Iran is one of the worst hit countries in the Middle East. And because of U.S. sanctions, it may not have money to buy vaccines.
-
The U.S. has brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, ending a long feud that undermined the Trump administration's strategy in the Persian Gulf.
-
Iran seized a South Korean-flagged tanker in Persian Gulf waters on Monday and detained its crew. The move comes as Iran ramps up uranium enrichment, raising tensions with the United States.
-
As the Trump administration ends, Saudi Arabia is recalibrating its relationship with the U.S. and looking to win favor with the incoming Biden White House.
-
The Trump administration has placed layers of harsh economic sanctions on Iran. But some countries and companies continue to do business with Iran, as they expect change from the Biden administration.
-
When a coronavirus vaccine is ready, it'll take drugmakers a massive logistical effort of hundreds of planes and ships to get billions of doses around the world.
-
Leaders of the world's biggest economies will meet virtually — depriving Saudi leaders the chance to show off their country. It also might help them avoid attention on human rights violations.
-
China-Canada relations are getting increasingly tense, with both sides hurling insults and threats. The feud ignited after Canada agreed to a U.S. request to extradite a Huawei executive.
-
A lawsuit filed in a U.S. court charges that Saudi Arabia's crown prince directed the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and names two dozen others allegedly involved.
-
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman cultivated a close relationship with the Trump administration. How would that change under a Biden administration?