
Larry Kaplow
Larry Kaplow edits the work of NPR's correspondents in the Middle East and helps direct coverage about the region. That has included NPR's work on the Syrian civil war, the Trump administration's reduction in refugee admissions, the Iran nuclear deal, the US-backed fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.
He has been at NPR since 2013, starting as an overnight news editor. He moved to the International Desk in 2014. He won NPR's Newcomer Award and was part of teams that won an Overseas Press Club Award and an NPR Content Excellence Award.
Prior to joining NPR, Kaplow reported from the Middle East for 12 years. He was the Cox Newspapers' Mideast correspondent from 1997 to 2003, reporting from Jerusalem during the Second Intifada as well as from Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. He did reporting stints on the NATO campaign in Kosovo and the toppling of Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
He moved to Baghdad just before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He covered the invasion, the fall of the regime and continued reporting from Iraq for Cox Newspapers and eventually Newsweek until late 2009. In 2010, he returned to Iraq to help report an episode of This American Life.
He was part of a team that won the top prize from the Military Reporters and Editors Association for stories about failures in the US system for compensating Iraqi war victims.
He was a freelance reporter in Mexico City from 2011 to 2013. He also reported from Guatemala on the efforts to prosecute soldiers responsible for a massacre in the 1980s.
Before reporting abroad, Kaplow worked at The Palm Beach Post and The Bradenton Herald in Florida, covering courts, schools, and state government. He graduated from Duke University and was in the Peace Corps in Guatemala.
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West Bank settlements have expanded under every Israeli government over the past half-century. Nearly 10 percent of Israel's Jewish population now lives on land captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.
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It used to be the most populous city and the business capital of Syria. Now it's a symbol of urban devastation that's the focus of the country's five-year-old war.
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Turkey is currently battling Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Islamic State and Kurdish separatists in southeast Turkey. All the battles are draining the country, and none is going well.
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The Islamic State has claimed three major attacks recently. This has led to a reassessment of the group that had been focused on building its caliphate in the Middle East.
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The steady stream of migrants in past years has turned into a torrent this year. Here's a primer on the main forces at work.
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Haider al-Abadi, a prominent politician for the past decade, has been nominated as prime minister. But a potential confrontation looms with Nouri al-Maliki, the man who's had the job for eight years.
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Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani usually stays out of the limelight, but emerged recently to address the crisis facing Iraq with the Sunni extremist surge threatening the country.
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The extremist Sunni group ISIS has taken several cities and is threatening to take more. But the triumphs have come in Sunni areas and the fighting will get much harder if ISIS attacks Shiite turf.
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Three years ago, the president was toppled and the country seemed headed for major changes. Today, the military is in control and is waging a sustained crackdown on opposition groups.
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Western Iraq was one of the most chaotic parts of the country during the U.S. war there. Al-Qaida extremists were defeated once, but with U.S. forces gone, they've managed to return as Iraq continues to slide into chaos.