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.
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The singer of such hits as "Walking on the Sun" and "All Star" died of acute liver failure in his home in Boise, Idaho. -
Under a new target announced by the British government on Sunday, adults would be vaccinated one month earlier than initially planned. -
Once the pandemic began, many countries prevented crew members from leaving ships. Some ended up trapped at sea for more than a year. Maritime organizations are pushing for more seafarer protections. -
President Trump's battle with the coronavirus could create an opportunity for Iran, China, Russia or North Korea to take advantage of America's seeming leadership vacuum. -
China is investing in both coal and renewable energy, the European Union promises to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and the U.S. is leaving the Paris Agreement altogether. What will 2021 hold? -
Former diplomat Tianna Spears says she was pulled aside 20-plus times crossing from Mexico into the U.S. "One time, I was told not to look at the officer in the eyes when I spoke to him," she says. -
There was a rush of commerce after China reopened. But then demand in the West for many goods dropped, with businesses closing and consumers staying home as the pandemic spread. -
At least 18 very large crude carriers, each carrying 2 million barrels of oil, are headed to the U.S. American shale producers and some lawmakers are worried. -
About three dozen tankers are anchored from Los Angeles and Long Beach up to San Francisco Bay, turning into floating storage for crude oil that is in short demand because of the coronavirus. -
A growing number of advocacy groups, politicians and officials are calling to ban wet markets worldwide, given concerns about the spread of disease. But enforcing such a ban would be a challenge.
