Correspondent, Lebanon
Richard Hall has reported from across the Middle East since 2009, covering Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
Richard Hall is a correspondent for Public Radio International's The World and PRI.org, covering the Middle East from his home base in Lebanon. He has reported across the region since 2009, covering Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
Richard began his career at Lebanon’s Daily Star, an English-language daily newspaper in Beirut.
Since then he has contributed to numerous publications in the US and UK, including the Guardian, Al Jazeera, Esquire Magazine and USA Today, and has worked on staff for The Independent and Agence France-Presse. He began at GlobalPost in 2014 as a Middle East editor and correspondent in Beirut, before becoming a PRI correspondent in 2015.
Richard has written extensively on the Syrian civil war and the rise of the Islamic State. His reporting on the Kurdish issue has taken him across Turkey and up the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq.
Our reporter was invited on a migrant rescue trip organized by Save the Children. Unbeknownst to everyone on the boat, including us, he wasn’t the only person aboard working for someone else.
The King Abdulaziz Camel Festival is a monthlong extravaganza honoring the “ships of the desert” and their place in Saudi Arabia’s history. But this year, it's about more than just camels — it's about a closed-off kingdom showing signs it wants to open up.
Saudi Arabia announced $1.5 billion in new aid for Yemen this week, a move it says is aimed at alleviating the country’s humanitarian crisis nearly three years into a Saudi-led military campaign there. But critics, among them a number of Yemenis, have questioned the motives behind the donation, given the Saudis’ own role in prolonging the crisis.
Ibrahim, 17, and his mother spent two years as ISIS prisoners when the group controlled the area around Mosul. He says his Christian faith helped him survive. But after his release, the ordeal made him question religion altogether.
Nearly 8,000 refugees and migrants are currently stranded in Serbia. Iraqis and Syrians have the best chances of being granted asylum. People with money can pay a smuggler to take them across the border. It's only the most desperate that try to cross the border into Croatia — and the European Union — illegally.
In an abandoned warehouse on the Greek island of Lesbos, a group of young migrants are eking out an existence on their own, set apart from the overcrowded refugee camps on the island. Their claims for asylum have either been rejected or placed at the bottom of the pile and they live in fear of deportation. They are stuck.
Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos was designed to hold 2,000, but it is currently home to more than 6,000 refugees and migrants. Doctors working at the camp have seen a growing number of children suffer upper respiratory tract infections, colds, coughs, diarrhea and other illnesses associated with cramped and unsanitary conditions.
It has been 11 years since the last, devastating war between the Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israel, but talk of another round of fighting has grown louder in recent months. Near the border, however, UN peacekeepers say "it's pretty calm" and residents don't seem overly concerned.
Saad Hariri, who became Lebanon's prime minister less than a year ago, sparked a national crisis when he resigned on Nov. 4 in a televised address from Saudi Arabia. Then he was not heard from for days.
Saad Hariri, who became prime minister for the second time less than a year ago in a government of national unity, cited the dominance of Lebanon by Iran and its ally Hezbollah and threats to his life as being behind his decision to resign.
Uber who? Taxi drivers in Beirut offer an authentic ride-share service and some have still never heard of the popular ride-hailing app.