Rob Schmitz
Rob Schmitz is NPR's international correspondent based in Berlin, where he covers the human stories of a vast region reckoning with its past while it tries to guide the world toward a brighter future. From his base in the heart of Europe, Schmitz has covered Germany's levelheaded management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Poland and creeping Chinese government influence inside the Czech Republic.
Prior to covering Europe, Schmitz provided award-winning coverage of China for a decade, reporting on the country's economic rise and increasing global influence. His reporting on China's impact beyond its borders took him to countries such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. Inside China, he's interviewed elderly revolutionaries, young rappers, and live-streaming celebrity farmers who make up the diverse tapestry of one of the most fascinating countries on the planet. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road (Crown/Random House 2016), a profile of individuals who live, work, and dream along a single street that runs through the heart of China's largest city. The book won several awards and has been translated into half a dozen languages. In 2018, China's government banned the Chinese version of the book after its fifth printing. The following year it was selected as a finalist for the Ryszard Kapuściński Award, Poland's most prestigious literary prize.
Schmitz has won numerous awards for his reporting on China, including two national Edward R. Murrow Awards and an Education Writers Association Award. His work was also a finalist for the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. His reporting in Japan — from the hardest-hit areas near the failing Fukushima nuclear power plant following the earthquake and tsunami — was included in the publication 100 Great Stories, celebrating the centennial of Columbia University's Journalism School. In 2012, Schmitz exposed the fabrications in Mike Daisey's account of Apple's supply chain on This American Life. His report was featured in the show's "Retraction" episode. In 2011, New York's Rubin Museum of Art screened a documentary Schmitz shot in Tibetan regions of China about one of the last living Tibetans who had memorized "Gesar of Ling," an epic poem that tells of Tibet's ancient past.
From 2010 to 2016, Schmitz was the China correspondent for American Public Media's Marketplace. He's also worked as a reporter for NPR Member stations KQED, KPCC and MPR. Prior to his radio career, Schmitz lived and worked in China — first as a teacher for the Peace Corps in the 1990s, and later as a freelance print and video journalist. He also lived in Spain for two years. He speaks Mandarin and Spanish. He has a bachelor's degree in Spanish literature from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
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Before the war in Ukraine, Poland relied on Russia for its energy needs. As winter approaches, Poland is facing a shortage of coal.
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Initial investigations suggest the missile strike in Poland was not a deliberate attack but potentially a stray Ukrainian missile.
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The European Union refuses to give Poland COVID stimulus payments worth billions and is threatening to withhold more unless Poland reverses changes limiting the judiciary's independence.
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After a meeting with Xi in Beijing, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the two leaders agreed that with the use of nuclear weapons, Russia would cross a line drawn by the international community. -
The Netflix adaptation of "All Quiet on the Western Front," the classic novel about the horrors of World War I, was directed by a German man and is in the German language.
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Russia's war in Ukraine has led to rising energy prices across Europe, which in turn is leading to protests and rising tensions in many parts of the continent.
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Inflation and fears of a recession are dominating headlines in the U.S., and a series of global crises means that the economic outlook is even more precarious in some other parts of the world.
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For the first time since its founding over 1,000 years ago, the Regensburg Cathedral choir and school has begun admitting girls. (Story aired on All Things Considered on Sept. 12, 2022.)
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Officials say a key train communications system was compromised, stranding passenger and cargo trains across the northwest of the country on Saturday.
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The winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize are recognized, the Nobel Committee said, for years of protecting the fundamental rights of citizens in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
