Michele Kelemen
Michele Kelemen has been with NPR for two decades, starting as NPR's Moscow bureau chief and now covering the State Department and Washington's diplomatic corps. Her reports can be heard on all NPR News programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
As Diplomatic Correspondent, Kelemen has traveled with Secretaries of State from Colin Powell to Mike Pompeo and everyone in between. She reports on the Trump administration's "America First" foreign policy and before that the Obama and Bush administration's diplomatic agendas. She was part of the NPR team that won the 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the war in Iraq.
As NPR's Moscow bureau chief, Kelemen chronicled the end of the Yeltsin era and Vladimir Putin's consolidation of power. She recounted the terrible toll of the latest war in Chechnya, while also reporting on a lighter side of Russia, with stories about modern day Russian literature and sports.
Kelemen came to NPR in September 1998, after eight years working for the Voice of America. There, she learned the ropes as a news writer, newscaster and show host.
Michele earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Russian and East European Affairs and International Economics.
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announces plans to reform the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The move, she says, will bring the foreign assistance programs into line with the Bush administration's push to spread democracy, or "transformational diplomacy."
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Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is working to clarify what the U.S. does, and does not do, with its prisoners. In Europe Wednesday, she said U.N. rules against torture apply to Americans even if they are outside the United States. Rice spoke amid allegations about secret U.S. prisons -- and the grabbing of suspects abroad.
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A U.S. civil liberties group files a lawsuit against the CIA in the case of a man who says he was kidnapped and sent to Afghanistan to be interrogated as a terrorism suspect. The ACLU suit is the first legal challenge of a practice known as "extraordinary rendition."
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice begins a weeklong trip to Europe, where she is expected to defend U.S. tactics regarding terrorism suspects. Before she left, Rice responded to allegations that the CIA has flown terror suspects through European airports and is holding detainees in secret.
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Human Rights Watch has released a list of "ghost detainees" -- terror suspects believed to be held incommunicado by the CIA. The list comes to light as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepares for a visit to Europe to answer allegations about secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Islamabad, Pakistan, to assess the country's earthquake-relief needs. Already, the United States has sent planes and helicopters to help in rescue-and-relief operations. She also visited Kabul, meeting with Afghan leaders.
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice begins a weeklong visit to Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan. She is seeking assurances that the United States will have access to military bases in the region. Neighboring Uzbekistan has ordered U.S. troops out of a base used for operations in Afghanistan.
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The Senate continues to debate the contentious nomination of John Bolton as U.S. envoy to the United Nations. Democrats allege Bolton may have mishandled classified information and are trying to delay a vote.
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As the United Nations continues its regular five-year review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran's foreign minister tells conference participants that his country is determined to develop nuclear technology, including a process to enrich uranium that some observers worry could lead to an arms program.
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Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had questions and criticism Monday for John Bolton, President Bush's nominee as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Democrats fault Bolton for his past vocal criticism of the international body.