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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Warming temperatures in the Arctic mean transportation routes for cargo ships are slowly opening up. But there very few ports and railway links in the region. A local mayor wants to change that.
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Warmer weather up north is opening up shipping lanes and new access to natural resources. It's also fueling a military buildup.
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When Suriya Paprajong arrived in Greenland in 2001, he didn't even have a coat. These days, his eatery in Qaqortoq, population 3,000, is a local favorite, melding Thai flavors with an Arctic twist.
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The Arctic island has a wealth of rare earth resources that the U.S. has labeled as essential to national defense.
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Kunuk Nielsen and his brother Pilu grew up on a sheep farm in southern Greenland. Kunuk has decided to remain on the farm. Pilu gives helicopter tours to visitors, who are arriving in greater numbers.
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More than two dozen protesters in Iraq have been killed since Wednesday, and the worst violence has been in the country's south. It's a growing display of anger over Iran's role in Iraqi politics.
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"I know the time has come to say I am sorry," New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said at a memorial. An initial investigation had blamed pilot error in the crash that killed 257 people.
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The oil-rich kingdom has poured millions of dollars into a global damage control campaign. While some governments have shunned the country, the Trump administration remains a strong supporter.
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Jamal Khashoggi's killing a year ago damaged the reputation of the Saudi Crown prince and cost the country some business, but Saudi Arabia's wealth still draws foreign investors.
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Saudi Arabia had been planning to sell off a slice of its state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, in a massive IPO. But last weekend's aerial attacks on Saudi oil facilities may scare off investors.