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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Allies of Canada have so far had a muted response to allegations that a Canadian Sikh leader was killed by agents of the Indian government. Indian officials deny involvement.
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Canada and India are engaging in an escalating war of words and tit for tat diplomatic expulsions, as the fallout over the murder of a Sikh activist on Canadian soil continues.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the government of India of carrying out the killing of a Sikh leader in British Columbia in June. India dismissed the allegation as absurd.
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President Biden visits Vietnam as part of an effort to improve relations with the Asian nation. Trade between the two former enemies has soared in recent years.
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This summer has seen a sharp increase in the number of Russian oil tankers shuttling crude to ports in China via Polar waters. Climate change means there's less ice for the vessels to navigate.
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Ford's plans to produce electric vehicle batteries based on technology and licensing from China has become a flashpoint in the debate over relations between the two countries.
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The Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act includes tax breaks for electric vehicle battery manufacturers. But some European countries are concerned about increased competition from the U.S.
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China is dominant in every aspect of electric vehicle battery technology. Now the rest of the world is trying to catch up.
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Sweden says it found the largest deposit in Europe of rare earths — ingredients in a host of technologies from e-vehicles to wind turbines. Mining and processing them is another story. -
It takes a half-hour in a pick-up truck to get to the bottom of a vast underground mine in Sweden — where the country is betting on extracting minerals for electric energy independence.
