- Philippa Thomas
Philippa Thomas (born
22 November 1965 ) is a British television journalist. She grew up inWakefield ,West Yorkshire . She is currently a presenter on the 2200 ET edition ofWorld News Today , a one-hour news programme on theBBC World News channel.She is an experienced correspondent and has performed numerous reporting roles, both domestic and foreign, at the BBC. She has reported extensively from South America, Africa, and Northern Ireland. From 1997 to 2001 she was a
BBC North America correspondent.External links
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/bbc_world/philippathomas.shtml BBC Press Office Biography]
Philippa Thomas is a BBC World News presenter and Special Correspondent based in Washington DC - where she has been reporting for the BBC since 1997. She can be seen on PBS newscasts across the US from Washington and on the road around the United States.
Philippa has fronted BBC News from the studios in London, and the BBC bureau in Washington DC, covering major stories including the US-led military action in Iraq and Afghanistan and - from Ground Zero - the aftermath of 9/11.
In the United States, Philippa has spent the past year - Oct 2007 to Oct 2008 - appearing on PBS stations as the presenter of the BBC's "World News Today" . In that role, she's fronted rolling news coverage of the year's political primary season, and anchored several hours live coverage each night from the Democratic and Republican conventions. She has also provided indepth coverage of the global financial crisis, the Russia-Georgia conflict, and the power struggle in Pakistan, among many other international stories.
An experienced foreign correspondent, Philippa has covered numerous breaking news and set-piece international events. She's led numerous BBC News Special reports on major global events including the Al Qaeda railway bombs in Madrid; the terrorist attacks on the London underground; youth riots in Paris; the last days of Pope John Paul II, and the Israeli government targeting Hamas militants. She's reported from flooded disaster zones in Honduras and Venezuela, analysed politics in Cuba, witnessed soccer world-cup tensions in Argentina and reported on the celebration of ten years of multi-racial democracy in South Africa and the repression of dissent in Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
In London, Belfast and Dublin, Philippa also covered the Northern Ireland peace process from paramilitary bombs to power sharing deals and, as a political "lobby correspondent", covered British politics from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair, at Downing Street and on the road around Britain.
From 1997 to 2001 Philippa enjoyed her first tour as a BBC North America correspondent reporting from the White House on the former President, Bill Clinton's, impeachment; from New York on Hillary Clinton's election to the Senate; and then from the campaign trail. She's criss-crossed the US, looking at serious issues at the very heart of American culture.
She was in Texas for the election of President Bush in 2000, in the key swing state of Ohio on election night in 2004, and she'll be back in Ohio on the night of election 2008.
From October 2008, in her new role for America's PBS audience, Philippa will also be reporting global news stories as seen from the US perspective, and providing insight into the way the world sees America.
Philippa is married to BBC Foreign Correspondent Richard Lister. They have one son.
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