Merrit Kennedy
Merrit Kennedy is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She covers a broad range of issues, from the latest developments out of the Middle East to science research news.
Kennedy joined NPR in Washington, D.C., in December 2015, after seven years living and working in Egypt. She started her journalism career at the beginning of the Egyptian uprising in 2011 and chronicled the ousting of two presidents, eight rounds of elections, and numerous major outbreaks of violence for NPR and other news outlets. She has also worked as a reporter and television producer in Cairo for The Associated Press, covering Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and Sudan.
She grew up in Los Angeles, the Middle East, and places in between, and holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from Stanford University and a master's degree in international human rights law from The American University in Cairo.
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It reversed earlier injunctions that forbade the state from suspending payments to the medical provider over a controversial leaked video of Planned Parenthood staff. -
Nearly 400 bodies have been recovered. The toll is likely to rise — the Red Cross says hundreds of people are still missing. A local morgue is struggling to cope with the sheer number of dead. -
The dense dessert, found in one of Antarctica's first buildings, is believed to have been brought over in 1910 during the Terra Nova expedition of Robert Falcon Scott. It "looked and smelled edible." -
Tainted eggs have been found in at least 16 countries in Europe. Millions of eggs have been pulled from European shelves over fears they are contaminated with fipronil, which is used to kill insects. -
Consumers should avoid Maradol papayas from Mexico, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreak has spread to 16 states, and one death has been reported. -
That's according to a new analysis from Save the Children. Yemen's outbreak is the world's worst in a single year since records have been kept, according to Oxfam. -
Under the law, a minor who didn't have parental consent for an abortion could have faced a legal proceeding involving her parents, the district attorney and a person representing the fetus. -
The couple's lawyer told the London High Court that new medical tests have shown that an experimental treatment would not help at this point, ending their legal fight to transport him to the U.S. -
Chipotle temporarily closed a Sterling, Va., restaurant to sanitize it. A company representative told NPR that the reported symptoms were consistent with norovirus. -
The finding is consistent with experts' suspicions. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons stopped short of saying who was responsible. The U.S. blames the Syrian regime.
