Franco Ordoñez
Franco Ordoñez is a White House Correspondent for NPR's Washington Desk. Before he came to NPR in 2019, Ordoñez covered the White House for McClatchy. He has also written about diplomatic affairs, foreign policy and immigration, and has been a correspondent in Cuba, Colombia, Mexico and Haiti.
Ordoñez has received several state and national awards for his work, including the Casey Medal, the Gerald Loeb Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism. He is a two-time reporting fellow with the International Center for Journalists, and is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and the University of Georgia.
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Last year the State of Union came six days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Lawmakers waved Ukraine flags and cheered President Biden's stirring call for support. This year, the focus had changed. -
When first lady Jill Biden went for routine surgery for a small lesion above her right eye, doctors found two more lesions, and removed them, too, the White House said. -
President Biden's personal attorneys discovered a "small number" of classified documents among what appear to be Obama-era records when he was vice president. They were turned over immediately.
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The White House is expanding a pandemic-era program allowing the administration to quickly expel people from Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti who illegally cross into the country from Mexico. -
WNBA star Brittney Griner was freed in a prisoner swap Thursday. She was serving a prison sentence for drug charges in Russia.
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Griner was traded for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. The swap did not include former Marine Paul Whelan who remains imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges the U.S. says are false. -
The second gentlemen, Doug Emhoff, gathered a group of Jewish leaders at the White House to discuss the surge in anti-Jewish comments involving prominent people. -
The three-day visit to Washington, D.C., symbolizes the recovery of a key relationship that deteriorated over a submarine deal with Australia last year that infuriated Paris. -
Commanders say Ukrainian forces' motivation and spirit are the most important weapons in the fight to protect their nation. They are turning to official "morale officers" and psychologists to help. -
President Biden and other G-7 leaders gathered in Bali for an emergency meeting to discuss the explosions in Poland. "We're going to find out exactly what happened," he said.
