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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Hoda Muthana, a 25-year-old who was a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham when she traveled to Syria, is currently imprisoned at a detention camp in northern Syria with her young son. -
Police are also accusing protesters of tossing Molotov cocktails off bridges. Authorities said on Thursday that they've arrested 224 people since the previous day. -
It's a first step in what Rohingya victims see as their best — and perhaps only — opportunity to hold the perpetrators of these acts accountable. -
The latest remains were found in a burned forest in New South Wales on Wednesday night. As of Thursday morning, there were nearly 70 fires in that state, and more than 70 in neighboring Queensland. -
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes said that calling these witnesses would help ensure the impeachment probe "treats the President with fairness." Democrats are unlikely to approve the entire request. -
In every lung fluid sample tested from patients afflicted with lung injury, the scientists found traces of a chemical called vitamin E acetate. The discovery is seen as a breakthrough. -
But the Court of Appeals of Iowa doesn't buy that logic. A panel of judges said the inmate is "either alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is dead, in which case this appeal is moot."
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The money will go to a group of charities. The New York judge said money raised at a 2016 veterans fundraiser "was used for Mr. Trump's political campaign and disbursed by Mr. Trump's campaign staff." -
U.S. officials say that before coming to the U.S., the Iranian citizen and U.S. permanent resident served in Iran's military. His brother is said to have ties to Iran's military and nuclear program. -
The region is predominately Muslim, and Thailand is a Buddhist-majority country. More than 7,000 people have been killed Southern Thailand since a separatist rebellion started in 2004.
