Frank Langfitt
Frank Langfitt is NPR's London correspondent. He covers the UK and Ireland, as well as stories elsewhere in Europe.
Langfitt arrived in London in June 2016. A week later, the UK voted for Brexit. He's been busy ever since, covering the most tumultuous period in British politics in decades. Langfitt has reported on everything from Brexit's economic impact, Chinese influence campaigns and terror attacks to the renewed push for Scottish independence, political tensions in Northern Ireland and Megxit. Langfitt has contributed to NPR podcasts, including Consider This, The Indicator from Planet Money, Code Switch and Pop Culture Happy Hour. He also appears on the BBC and PBS Newshour.
Previously, Langfitt spent five years as an NPR correspondent covering China. Based in Shanghai, he drove a free taxi around the city for a series on a changing China as seen through the eyes of ordinary people. As part of the series, Langfitt drove passengers back to the countryside for Chinese New Year and served as a wedding chauffeur. He expanded his reporting into a book, The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China (Public Affairs, Hachette).
While in China, Langfitt also reported on the government's infamous "black jails" — secret detention centers — as well as his own travails taking China's driver's test, which he failed three times.
Before moving to Shanghai, Langfitt was NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi. He reported from Sudan, covered the civil war in Somalia, and interviewed imprisoned Somali pirates, who insisted they were just misunderstood fishermen. During the Arab Spring, Langfitt covered the uprising and crushing of the democracy movement in Bahrain.
Prior to Africa, Langfitt was NPR's labor correspondent based in Washington, DC. He covered coal mine disasters in West Virginia, the 2008 financial crisis and the bankruptcy of General Motors. His story with producer Brian Reed of how GM failed to learn from a joint-venture factory with Toyota was featured on This American Life and has been taught in business schools at Yale, Penn and NYU.
In 2008, Langfitt covered the Beijing Olympics as a member of NPR's team, which won an Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting. Langfitt's print and visual journalism have also been honored by the Overseas Press Association and the White House News Photographers Association.
Before coming to NPR, Langfitt spent five years as a correspondent in Beijing for The Baltimore Sun, covering a swath of Asia from East Timor to the Khyber Pass.
Langfitt spent his early years in journalism stringing for the Philadelphia Inquirer and living in Hazard, Kentucky, where he covered the state's Appalachian coalfields for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Prior to becoming a reporter, Langfitt dug latrines in Mexico and drove a taxi in his hometown of Philadelphia. Langfitt is a graduate of Princeton and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.
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As China holds a memorial service for its late leader Jiang Zemin, an NPR correspondent who met Jiang reflects on the figure and his transforming country.
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Many soldiers from the southern port city of Kherson spent months trying to liberate their homes. The Russian retreat last week was a major blow to Moscow's war effort.
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As the war has changed over the months, Ukrainian soldiers have had to adapt quickly and learn new skills — even if it means figuring out how to fire anti-tank missiles by watching YouTube videos.
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Rishi Sunak will become Britain's new prime minister — its third in two months. He won the race to be leader of the Conservative Party today.
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With yet another prime minister's resignation, the British government's 10 Downing Street looks like a revolving door. Analysts blame polarization, populism, a flawed system and poor leadership.
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British Prime Minister Liz Truss has fired her finance minister and taken a U-turn on part of her economic policy. Now the question is, how long will Truss last?
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Queen Elizabeth II's funeral was watched by millions around the world. She was Britain's longest serving monarch.
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A massive line has formed in London as tens of thousands wait to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II. The waiting time is over 20 hours.
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Some people who oppose the British monarchy have staged protests in recent days. They've been questioned, detained or even arrested by police.
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The coffin travels more than 100 miles to the royal Palace of Holyroodhouse in the Scottish capital. Eventually, the queen's body will be taken to London for the Sept. 19 funeral.