John Vause

John Vause is a multi-award winning journalist for CNN International. Based at the network’s headquarters in Atlanta, he currently co-anchors ‘CNN Newsroom’ from 12-2am ET on CNNI. For the past 25 years Vause has traveled the world, reporting from more than 30 countries, and has been based in Atlanta, Beijing, Jerusalem, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Canberra and Los Angeles. He has seen firsthand the devastation caused by some of the world’s biggest natural disasters: Earthquakes in Haiti and China, bush fires, floods and typhoons. He was one of the last reporters to interview former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto, returning to Karachi after she was assassinated. Previously based in Los Angeles, Vause has anchored some of the biggest stories in recent years on both networks including the Arab Spring, the Japan earthquake and tsunami, the death of Kim Jung Il and the U.S. government shutdown. He also continues to report from the field, most notably covering the Israel-Hezbollah war from both Gaza and Jerusalem in 2014. He previously served as CNN’s correspondent in Jerusalem followed by an assignment as senior international correspondent based in Beijing, where he was responsible for covering China and the region. He was there for all the controversy surrounding the Beijing Olympics, winning an Asia TV award for his reporting. He was the first reporter to debunk false claims then presidential candidate Barack Obama attended a madrasah in Jakarta. In the Middle East, Vause reported from the front lines of the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, winning an Edward R. Murrow award. He was the last reporter in Gaza after the Israeli pullout in 2005. He was there in Ramallah when Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat fell ill and later died, and he was there in Jerusalem when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was left incapacitated after suffering a stroke. When Palestinian suicide bombers launched a concentrated campaign against Israel in 2002, Vause was there. He was also in the middle of the Israeli military campaign which followed, and was in Bethlehem for the 39-day long siege of the Church of the Nativity, His reporting of these events earned him the “Journalist of the Year” award from the Atlanta Press club in 2003. When the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed by a U.S. airstrike in 2006, Vause was the only international reporter who visited the scene. He spent months traveling through Iraq at the start of the U.S.-led invasion, but unlike many reporters he was not embedded with coalition forces and was one of three anchors for CNN International based in Kuwait in the months leading up to the invasion. He was one of the few journalists who reported from New York on the 9/11 attacks, then traveled to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan for the fall of the Taliban. Vause has been there for Presidential inaugurations, Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Bill Clinton’s impeachment, the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr., mass shootings in U.S. schools and gala awards from the Oscars to Grammys. He’s interviewed Presidents and Prime Ministers, movie, music and sporting stars – but mostly ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Vause holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in American history from the University of Queensland.