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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Concern about a spread of the Israel-Hamas war ripples across the Middle East - as does growing anger at the U.S. for supporting Israel.
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The Israeli military said it has largely regained control of areas in the south that had been attacked by militants from Hamas. The announcement came on the fourth day of war with Hamas. -
Israel's military said it is still fighting Hamas militants in southern Israel after they broke through the Gaza border to launch an unprecedented wave of attacks. Israel responded with air strikes. -
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to exact an "immense price from the enemy" after Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip used paragliders and other means to infiltrate Israel. -
It's the latest in what has been decades of prisoner swaps between the two countries. The Americans include Siamak Namazi, held since 2015, and Morad Tahbaz and Emad Shargi, both detained in 2018. -
The move comes amid the outlines of a deal after diplomacy between U.S. and Iran via mediators — but nothing is final. -
A struggling economy and slow earthquake response add up to a tough election for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for the past 20 years. -
When the U.S. invasion of Iraq began, NPR's Mideast editor Larry Kaplow was a reporter in Baghdad. Looking back now, he writes that the signs and warnings of the chaos to come were all too clear then. -
Two decades ago, then-President George W. Bush announced the start of combat operations in Iraq. The bloody occupation that followed lasted longer and cost more in lives and money than anyone guessed. -
Elan Ganeles of Connecticut was visiting Israel for a friend's wedding. The 27-year-old was shot on a road frequented by international tourists that passes through the West Bank toward the Dead Sea.
