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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After 15 weeks of wrangling, Angela Merkel has brought her conservatives together with center-left allies to end a political crisis, and allow formation of a coalition government.
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The German chancellor is in the political fight of her life. As Germans wait for a fully formed government, Merkel and the leaders of two other parties hold a final attempt to form a government.
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When the Freedom Party was in government before, there was an outcry and Austria was subject to sanctions. Critics say the party's anti-migrant, anti-Islam agenda is now considered mainstream.
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Refugees are no longer allowed to settle in one western German city. Such bans are expected to be introduced in other cities as more Germans complain that there are too many refugees.
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German automakers are under fire again, this time from European owners of vehicles linked to the diesel emissions scandal who, unlike American owners, have gotten no compensation.
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Social media companies could be penalized by as much as $58.3 million if they don't remove a malicious post from their platforms soon after it is reported — in some cases within 24 hours. -
No party won a majority in Austria's national election but Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, 31, is poised to head the government following upcoming coalition government negotiations. -
A manhunt continues for the driver of a van who killed 13 people people in Barcelona. Police say the driver is a 22-year-old Moroccan-born man. Spain's Moroccan community fears a backlash.
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This year, 59 civilians have been killed and 280 injured as fighting continues in a 3-year-old war between Russian-backed separatists and government forces. Residents despair of ever seeing peace. -
Lawmakers have showed interest of working across party linesies on improving health insurance markets. Also, Brazil's Congress votes on corruption charges against the president.
