
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 political battles over just how the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. Langfitt also frequently appears on the BBC, where he tries to explain American politics, which is not easy.
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 has expanded his reporting into a book, The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China (Public Affairs, Hachette), which is out in June 2019.
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 reform movement in Bahrain.
Prior to Africa, Langfitt was NPR's labor correspondent based in Washington, DC. He covered the 2008 financial crisis, the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler, and coal mine disasters in West Virginia.
In 2008, Langfitt also 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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No New COVID-19 Deaths Reported In Most Of U.K., As Restrictions Set To EaseEngland, Scotland and Northern Ireland on Monday recorded no new COVID-19 deaths, and Wales reported four. Health experts said the milestone represents an encouraging sign.
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Sheikh Nuru Mohammed began to fight disinformation during Friday sermons — and turned his mosque into a vaccination center. It was the first of its kind in Britain and paved the way for dozens more.
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The European Commission president says she expects all 27 EU member states will accept visitors who've received COVID-19 vaccines, but the CDC is still warning against travel to much of Europe.
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A tighter lockdown in the U.K., strictly limiting the movement of millions during the holidays amid worries of a possible new variant of the coronavirus. Infections are climbing dramatically.
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The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was developed fast. But a leading vaccine expert says it's important for consumers to know the companies "haven't cut corners" in the clinical science.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that England would go into lockdown for four weeks to stem surging coronavirus cases.
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"We know that if we do not act now, it will continue to accelerate," the leader of Wales said. Gatherings are banned between people from different households, both indoors and outside.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces that pubs, bars and restaurants in England must close at 10 p.m. He also encourages people who are able to work from home to do so.
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The package, announced Sunday, includes grants and loans that theaters, museums, live music venues and others can use to pay salaries and maintenance costs as they try to survive during the pandemic.
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Oxford research has found conspiracy theories about the virus gaining ground.