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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 most tumultuous period in British politics in decades. Langfitt has reported on everything from Brexit's economic impact, and terror attacks to the renewed push for , political tensions in and Megxit. Langfitt has contributed to NPR podcasts, including , , and . He also appears on the BBC and PBS Newshour.

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 . He expanded his reporting into a book, (Public Affairs, Hachette).

While in China, Langfitt also reported on the government's infamous � secret detention centers � as well as his own travails taking , which he failed three times.

Before moving to Shanghai, Langfitt was NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi. He reported from , covered the in Somalia, and interviewed imprisoned , who insisted they were just misunderstood fishermen. During the Arab Spring, Langfitt covered the uprising and crushing of the democracy movement in Bahrain.

Prior to Africa, Langfitt was NPR's labor correspondent based in Washington, DC. He covered coal mine disasters in West Virginia, the 2008 financial crisis and the bankruptcy of General Motors. His story with producer Brian Reed of how GM failed to learn from a joint-venture factory with Toyota was featured on and has been taught in business schools at Yale, Penn and NYU.

In 2008, Langfitt 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.

  • Over the past decade, local governments have demolished millions of homes as China rushes toward urbanization. Protests against such land seizures have taken a disturbing turn recently: A 42-year-old rice farmer set himself on fire last month when authorities came to his home. There have been more than 50 such cases since 2009.
  • New York University's new Shanghai campus is the first Sino-U.S. joint-venture university. Chinese students get a Western education without leaving home. American students get to live and study in China, with many enjoying big breaks on tuition and other costs.
  • Chinese developers have been building communities that mimic European cities, believing they'll be a big draw for the country's newly wealthy. But so far, the appetite for the homes has been modest.
  • If you demand democracy in China, you can quickly find yourself at odds with the government. So these days, reformers are trying to use the constitution to make the party accountable to the people. But that didn't keep a Shanghai professor from getting suspended.
  • Foreign news coverage of China is often deadly serious: corruption, pollution and the like. Then there's the funny and bizarre that often goes viral â€� like the zoo that swapped a dog for a lion. A number of websites are making these offbeat and satirical tales increasingly available in English.
  • It's common to see cowed defendants admit to crimes during Communist Party show trials. But disgraced former politburo member Bo Xilai began his trial with vehement denials of guilt, calling one accuser a "crazy dog snapping at things for reward."
  • Young Chinese are graduating in record numbers, but the country's once-red-hot economy has cooled. And critics say because many young Chinese have known only booming growth and have higher expectations than earlier generations, they don't show much commitment to looking for work â€� echoing a complaint about millennials in the U.S.
  • Usually bustling streets are nearly empty at noon, and thousands have gone to hospitals for relief. China's National Meteorological Center says the long-running heat wave is driven by a variety of factors, including climate change, as well as Shanghai's construction density, growing population and shrinking green space.
  • The recent movie remake of The Great Gatsby hasn't opened in China yet. But the Chinese are no strangers to its themes of wealth, ambition and corruption. In fact, many Chinese argue that the excesses of America in the Roaring '20s mirror those in China today.
  • China's economic growth has been fueled by bank loans that flow freely. But during the latest bout of turmoil, China's central bank indicated that it may no longer lend so quickly and cheaply. The so-called shadow banking sector is of particular concern.