Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Special correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is based in Berlin. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and read at NPR.org. From 2012 until 2018 Nelson was NPR's bureau chief in Berlin. She won the ICFJ 2017 Excellence in International Reporting Award for her work in Central and Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Nelson was also based in Cairo for NPR and covered the Arab World from the Middle East to North Africa during the Arab Spring. In 2006, Nelson opened NPR's first bureau in Kabul, from where she provided listeners in an in-depth sense of life inside Afghanistan, from the increase in suicide among women in a country that treats them as second class citizens to the growing interference of Iran and Pakistan in Afghan affairs. For her coverage of Afghanistan, she won a Peabody Award, Overseas Press Club Award, and the Gracie in 2010. She received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award from Colby College in 2011 for her coverage in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Nelson spent 20 years as newspaper reporter, including as Knight Ridder's Middle East Bureau Chief. While at the Los Angeles Times, she was sent on extended assignment to Iran and Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She spent three years an editor and reporter for Newsday and was part of the team that won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for covering the crash of TWA Flight 800.
A graduate of the University of Maryland, Nelson speaks Farsi, Dari and German.
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In his defense, Richard Grenell said his tweet instructing German companies to "wind down operations immediately" in Iran was just following "White House talking points." -
Going against advice from European allies, President Trump has pulled out of the Iran deal and says he will reimpose economic sanctions. Now European leaders are reacting.
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Handshakes and cheek kisses from the U.S. president surprised onlookers, but they were the only unanticipated events to happen during Friday's two-hour talk between the world leaders. -
A 21-year-old Israeli Arab who says he isn't Jewish but only conducting an "experiment" by wearing a skullcap took video of the attack last week in Berlin. -
Following an attack on two Jewish men in Berlin, one Jewish leader in Germany is calling on men to not wear skullcaps in big cities there to avoid making them targets of violence.
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Gerhard Schroeder went from chancellor of Germany to chairman of key Russian energy corporations. But many Germans are in no mood for more sanctions against Kremlin interests.
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Hamburg soon will become the first city in Germany to ban most diesel vehicles from driving on several key streets in an effort to cut down on air pollution.
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Orbán, 54, handily secured his third consecutive term on an anti-migration platform in an election with a record-high turnout. His right-wing Fidesz party is poised to regain majority in parliament. -
Candidates dress up as a chicken, a gorilla and Santa Claus. The satirical party uses humor to defuse fears stirred up by Hungary's nationalistic government. They promise free beer and eternal life. -
Hungary's right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban could be heading to a third term after elections on Sunday, unless the fractured opposition can unite against him.
