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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Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's second supreme leader, has been killed. He had held power since 1989, guiding Iran through difficult times — and overseeing the violent suppression of dissent. -
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent admitted that Washington helped spark recent protests in Iran by creating a U.S. dollar shortage, leading to runaway inflation.
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Amid Iran's deadly crackdown, three women share their stories of resistance, fear and an unyielding hope for freedom. -
President Trump's tariffs and rhetoric have spurred some longtime U.S. allies to diversify their trade ties away from the U.S. Some are going cap-in-hand to Asian superpowers China and India.
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As Trump points to Russia and China near Greenland, experts say the biggest Russian and Chinese activity is elsewhere in the Arctic.
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President Trump has been racing to rack up peace deals — but keeping them intact is proving far more difficult. -
From 400-year-old globes to cosmic funeral shrouds, how the Osher Map Library in Maine shows people that maps aren't just for navigation — but windows into history, culture, and how we see the world. -
The National Dog Show, televised annually on Thanksgiving Day, is a beloved tradition for many families. This year, Soleil, a Belgian sheepdog, was crowned Best in Show. -
Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world. -
Trade tensions have flared again between the U.S. and China as the leaders of the two economic superpowers prepare to meet later this month.
