Hala Basha-Gorani (; born March 1, 1970) is an American journalist, most recently working as an anchor and correspondent for CNN International, based in London. She is also a war correspondent. She previously anchored CNN's Hala Gorani Tonight weeknights at 8 p.m. CET. Gorani co-hosted Your World Today with Jim Clancy until February 2009 and then International Desk until April 2014 from CNN's Atlanta headquarters. Since February 2022, Gorani has been a special war anchor based in Lviv, in western Ukraine during the Russian invasion. Although broadcast in the late evening to her American audience, the time difference means that she is coming live in the early morning from Ukraine. On 28 April 2022, Gorani announced she would be leaving CNN, and would present her final episode of Hala Gorani Tonight that evening. Early life Gorani was born in 1970 in Seattle, Washington. According to her, she comes from "quite an international background. ... I'm a U.S. citizen with Syrian and French parents." Gorani was mainly raised in Paris, France. She has also lived in Algeria. Her name originates from (), a common Arabic name meaning "halo (around the moon)." She earned a Bachelor of Science in economics from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. and wrote for the Fourth Estate students newspaper then known as the Broadside. She also graduated from the Institut d'études politiques (better known as Sciences Po) in Paris in 1995. Due to her multi-national experiences during her formative years, the sound of her name, and her accent, Gorani says that she is a foreigner wherever she goes. Gorani is fluent in English, French and Arabic. Career Gorani began her career as a reporter for La Voix du Nord and Agence France-Presse before joining France 3 in 1994. After a stint at Bloomberg Television in London, she joined CNN in 1998 as an anchor for CNN International's European breakfast show CNN Today. She has since reported from every country in the Middle East. In November 2005, Gorani was one of the first television reporters on the ground in Amman, Jordan after Al Qaeda suicide bombers attacked two hotels. Earlier in 2005, she covered Israel's unilateral disengagement plan from Gaza. In the summer of 2006, she covered the 2006 Lebanon War from Lebanon, which earned CNN an Edward R. Murrow Award. In 2002 and in 2007, she led CNN's coverage of the respective French