Hadeel Al-Shalchi
Hadeel Al-Shalchi is NPR's International Correspondent based in Istanbul.
Al-Shalchi joined NPR in 2020 as an editor on Weekend Edition and was a reporter with the International Desk covering the Israel-Hamas war. She was one of the first journalists to report from Syria after the fall of the Assad regime where she produced on-the-ground coverage that combined rigorous journalism with human-centered narratives that included an exclusive. More recently, she was in Beirut covering Israel's renewed war against Hezbollah.
Before joining NPR, Al-Shalchi covered the Middle East for 12 years for The Associated Press and Reuters, living in Cairo, Beirut, and Tripoli, Libya. She traveled the region extensively during the Arab Spring, reporting on the wars in Libya and Syria. She began her career as a newsreader and reporter at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Ottawa.
An Iraqi Canadian, Al-Shalchi was born in Kuwait, raised in Abu Dhabi, and went to high school and university in Canada. She has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the University of Ottawa and a master's degree in digital journalism from New York University. She is fluent in three Arabic dialects and speaks conversational French. She is an avid powerlifter and working towards a certificate to become a personal trainer.
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The U.S. and Israel are preparing plans for a possible attack on Iran in early November, after the U.S. midterm elections, a person briefed on war planning told NPR. Iran said it is prepared. -
Masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians as they were harvesting olives in the occupied West Bank on Friday, injuring several people including a photojournalist working for The Washington Post. -
Turkey's bid for regional influence comes as the Middle East has been hit by profound shocks that started with the Hamas-led 2023 attack on Israel and continue with the seven-month-old war on Iran. -
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed the U.N. General Assembly a day after President Trump threatened from the same podium to "annihilate" Iran. -
For years, Turks have stashed their gold at home against a raining day, mistrustful of banks. Now the government says that tradition hurts the economy. -
We visit the Turkish breakfast capital, Van, where one street is dedicated to the most important meal of the day. -
Many Iranians lost their jobs because of the war and the U.S. blockade. Now some are even losing their backup jobs as sanctions tighten. -
U.S. threats erupt into attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran retaliates against U.S. targets in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan in the first exchange of fire since July 29. -
Instead of collapsing, the Iranian regime has dug in its heels and taken an even harder line. -
The Trump administration calls this an "economic D-Day" on Iran. Iran vows to respond to fresh sanctions in a "seismic manner."
