Ruth Sherlock
Ruth Sherlock is an International Correspondent with National Public Radio. She's based in Beirut and reports on Syria and other countries around the Middle East. She was previously the United States Editor for the Daily Telegraph, covering the 2016 US election. Before moving to the US in the spring of 2015, she was the Telegraph's Middle East correspondent.
Sherlock reported from almost every revolution and war of the Arab Spring. She lived in Libya for the duration of the conflict, reporting from opposition front lines. In late 2011 she travelled to Syria, going undercover in regime held areas to document the arrest and torture of antigovernment demonstrators. As the war began in earnest, she hired smugglers to cross into rebel held parts of Syria from Turkey and Lebanon. She also developed contacts on the regime side of the conflict, and was given rare access in government held areas.
Her Libya coverage won her the Young Journalist of the Year prize at British Press Awards. In 2014, she was shortlisted at the British Journalism Awards for her investigation into the Syrian regime's continued use of chemical weapons. She has twice been a finalist for the Gaby Rado Award with Amnesty International for reporting with a focus on human rights. With NPR, in 2020, her reporting for the Embedded podcast was shortlisted for the prestigious Livingston Award.
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Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen have intensified and this week took a heavy toll. Aid groups say 70 people being held in detention by Houthi rebels were killed in an attack.
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Explosions in Abu Dhabi killed three people near fuel trucks. Houthi rebels claim they've struck the United Arab Emirates for its fight against them in Yemen and the UAE promises to respond.
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The UAE is overhauling laws on an array of business, cultural and social norms. On paper, it makes the emirate one of the region's most progressive countries, but critics say the reality is complex. -
The United Arab Emirates has been criticized for human rights violations but is now overhauling its laws to ease up on some social and economic restrictions.
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For some women in Iraq, learning to ride bikes is a way of finding freedom from confining social restrictions.
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After luring asylum-seekers to the EU as a political stunt, Belarus has now sent people back to the dangerous place they were escaping, rights groups and migrants tell NPR.
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Libya's plans to hold national elections are in doubt as the country breaks down into regions controlled by local faction leaders — including the son of the former dictator.
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After years of war, Ramadi has come back to be one of the safer parts of the country and a magnet for investment. Two new hospitals have been built and two new universities are being developed.
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Drought and extreme heat that scientists link to climate change are altering the UNESCO-protected marshlands. Iraq's average annual temperatures are increasing at nearly double the rate of Earth's.
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Drought in Iraq means the country is only able to grow less than half its usual produce and is forcing mass migration from rural communities.
