February 19, 2026 Newspapers
Reporters based in the Middle East are among the casualties of swingeing job cuts at The Washington Post.
Claire Parker, Cairo Bureau Chief since August 2023, said she and the entire Middle East team had been let go.
“Laid off from the Washington Post, along with the entire roster of Middle East correspondents and our editors,” she posted to X. “Hard to understand the logic. But I am grateful for my incredible colleagues, whose grit and dedication to the reporting and each other I will miss dearly.”
Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Gerry Shih, also confirmed his departure.
“It was a privilege to be a Post correspondent, roaming the world the last 7+ years for a paper I very much believed in,” he said. “I'm gone along with the rest of the ME team and majority of teammates from Delhi to Beijing to Kyiv & Latam. Sad day, but it was a lot of fun and we raised hell.”
Jerusalem-based colleague Miriam Berger also confirmed her departure, along with Tel Aviv-based Shira Rubin, who covered Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
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