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 °µºÚ±¬ÁÏday 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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Under the deal, migrants registered in other European Union countries will be held in transit centers as Germany negotiates their return, ending a threat to Angela Merkel's ruling coalition.
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The government of Germany is in danger of collapsing because of a disagreement between the prime minister and the interior minister over the issue of migration.
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The new U.S. ambassador to Germany upset his hosts, and Democratic senators back home, with his announced support for right-wing populists in Europe. -
The murder of a a young investigative journalist in Slovakia led to street protests and the collapse of the government. Now protesters want fresh elections to sweep away corruption.
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Hungary's government has proposed a series of bills it says will curb illegal immigration. Critics say the motivation is to cripple NGOs linked to U.S. financier George Soros. -
The parties from the last coalition will start negotiations on forming a government. It's only a partial victory for Chancellor Angela Merkel, and concerns remain over the role of a far-right party. -
Austria adopted a face-veil ban in recent months and is seeing a rise of vandalism at Muslim businesses and mosques. The new Austrian government denies it is ostracizing Muslims. -
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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The unprecedented prospect of a repeat election looms as Merkel and her diverse would-be coalition partners try to surmount differences. "This could be the end of Angela Merkel," warns a commentator. -
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.
