Frank Langfitt
Frank Langfitt is NPR's London correspondent. He covers the UK and Ireland, as well as stories elsewhere in Europe.
Langfitt arrived in London in June 2016. A week later, the UK voted for Brexit. He's been busy ever since, covering the most tumultuous period in British politics in decades. Langfitt has reported on everything from Brexit's economic impact, Chinese influence campaigns and terror attacks to the renewed push for Scottish independence, political tensions in Northern Ireland and Megxit. Langfitt has contributed to NPR podcasts, including Consider This, The Indicator from Planet Money, Code Switch and Pop Culture Happy Hour. He also appears on the BBC and PBS Newshour.
Previously, Langfitt spent five years as an NPR correspondent covering China. Based in Shanghai, he drove a free taxi around the city for a series on a changing China as seen through the eyes of ordinary people. As part of the series, Langfitt drove passengers back to the countryside for Chinese New Year and served as a wedding chauffeur. He expanded his reporting into a book, The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China (Public Affairs, Hachette).
While in China, Langfitt also reported on the government's infamous "black jails" — secret detention centers — as well as his own travails taking China's driver's test, which he failed three times.
Before moving to Shanghai, Langfitt was NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi. He reported from Sudan, covered the civil war in Somalia, and interviewed imprisoned Somali pirates, who insisted they were just misunderstood fishermen. During the Arab Spring, Langfitt covered the uprising and crushing of the democracy movement in Bahrain.
Prior to Africa, Langfitt was NPR's labor correspondent based in Washington, DC. He covered coal mine disasters in West Virginia, the 2008 financial crisis and the bankruptcy of General Motors. His story with producer Brian Reed of how GM failed to learn from a joint-venture factory with Toyota was featured on This American Life and has been taught in business schools at Yale, Penn and NYU.
In 2008, Langfitt covered the Beijing Olympics as a member of NPR's team, which won an Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting. Langfitt's print and visual journalism have also been honored by the Overseas Press Association and the White House News Photographers Association.
Before coming to NPR, Langfitt spent five years as a correspondent in Beijing for The Baltimore Sun, covering a swath of Asia from East Timor to the Khyber Pass.
Langfitt spent his early years in journalism stringing for the Philadelphia Inquirer and living in Hazard, Kentucky, where he covered the state's Appalachian coalfields for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Prior to becoming a reporter, Langfitt dug latrines in Mexico and drove a taxi in his hometown of Philadelphia. Langfitt is a graduate of Princeton and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.
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As the New Year's Eve deadline approaches, the two sides are still trying to negotiate a deal to avert major economic and trade disruptions. Here are some of the top issues at play.
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Recent polls show consistent support among Scots for leaving Great Britain. Many in Scotland think Prime Minister Boris Johnson is poorly suited to handle the pandemic and trust Scottish leaders more.
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The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was developed fast. But a leading vaccine expert says it's important for consumers to know the companies "haven't cut corners" in the clinical science.
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Even as European Union leaders welcome more cordial U.S. relations, the trans-Atlantic partnership faces the tough test of handling China's expansion.
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Politicians in Great Britain are already studying the results of the U.S. presidential race, hoping for clues that could help them in their next parliamentary elections, due to take place in 2024.
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If President Trump is defeated in Tuesday's election, one loser could be British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Here's why.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that England would go into lockdown for four weeks to stem surging coronavirus cases.
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"We know that if we do not act now, it will continue to accelerate," the leader of Wales said. Gatherings are banned between people from different households, both indoors and outside.
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Most notably, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had previously tested positive.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces that pubs, bars and restaurants in England must close at 10 p.m. He also encourages people who are able to work from home to do so.