About Nick @nickschifrin
Nick Schifrin is the foreign affairs and defense correspondent for PBS NewsHour, based in Washington, D.C. He leads NewsHour's foreign reporting and has created week-long, in-depth series for NewsHour from China, Russia, Ukraine, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Cuba, Mexico, and the Baltics. The PBS NewsHour series "Inside Putin's Russia" won a 2018 Peabody Award and the National Press Club's Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence. In November 2020, Schifrin received the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Media Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis of Foreign Affairs.
Prior to PBS NewsHour, Schifrin was Al Jazeera America's Middle East correspondent. He led the channel’s coverage of the 2014 war in Gaza; reported on the Syrian war from Syria's Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian borders; and covered the annexation of Crimea. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his Gaza coverage and a National Headliners Award for his Ukraine coverage.
From 2008-2012, Schifrin served as the ABC News correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 he was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after Osama bin Laden’s death and delivered one of the year’s biggest exclusives: the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. His reporting helped ABC News win an Edward R. Murrow award for its bin Laden coverage.
Schifrin is a Council on Foreign Relations term member and an Overseas Press Club Foundation board member. He has a Master of International Public Policy degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), with a concentration in Strategic Studies.
Nick’s Recent Stories
Nation Jan 15
After failed insurrection, an unprecedented show of force in the nation’s capitalThe nation entered the weekend on edge about the coming presidential inauguration. Investigators are still delving unto the trauma that shook Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, as authorities brace for what's yet to come. Nick Schifrin reports.
Nation Jan 15
Threat of violence in state capitals leaves the nation on edgeThe unprecedented show of military force to defend the peaceful transfer of power is not just taking place in Washington, D.C. The FBI says there are threats to all 50 states, where there could be armed protests. In Pennsylvania, some…
World Jan 15
Biden team says recent Trump foreign policy moves ‘feel like sabotage’Up until now, Biden transition officials had shied away from publicly criticizing recent policy changes, but in an exclusive conversation with the PBS NewsHour, a transition official detailed a number of issues with the outgoing administration’s approach, singling out Secretary…
World Jan 14
Trump’s last-minute policy moves could have deep, long-lasting impactsAs the days dwindle in the Trump administration, they are still issuing rules and regulations, sanctions and designations that could have impacts both abroad and at home, beyond the end of the administration. William Brangham and Nick Schifrin discuss Trump's…
Nation Jan 13
National Guard bolsters security in nation’s capital ahead of inaugurationThousands of members of the National Guard will be in Washington, D.C. for President-elect Biden's inauguration after the violent attack at the U.S. Capitol last week raised concerns over security. Many of those worries also extend to 50 state capitols,…
World Jan 07
Insurrection at Capitol draws condemnation across the globeFor years American adversaries argued democracy is too messy to be trusted, and Wednesday’s events gave them new ammunition. But while many U.S. allies lauded that democracy has prevailed after Joe Biden was certified as the next president, some were…
World Jan 05
Pro-Iran militias in Iraq grow increasingly hostile toward the U.S.It has been one year since Iranian Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani was assassinated at Baghdad airport by an American drone, and tensions between the U.S. and Iran have been heating up over the past few weeks. Iraqi militias, with ties…
World Dec 30
What Argentina’s vote to legalize abortion means for the regionArgentina on Wednesday voted to legalize abortion, making it the first major Latin American country to take the step. María Victoria Murillo, director of the Institute for Latin American Studies at Columbia University, joins Nick Schifrin to discuss what the…
World Dec 11
How radio frequency waves ended a CIA officer’s careerThe mysterious ailments that afflicted U.S. employees in Cuba and China in 2016 and 2017 were likely due to “pulsed radio frequency energy,” a new report found. Intelligence officials say Russia is the most likely culprit. Nick Schifrin spoke with…
World Dec 10
With Biden in office, an opportunity to restore U.S.-European relationsAs President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office next month, many see an opportunity to restore U.S.-European relations after a Trump administration that backed away from the two side's traditional multilateral framework. Nick Schifrin spoke with Philippe Étienne, France's Ambassador…