1A

Last week, whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before Congress about Facebook's problems.

A leaked trove of documents revealed that the company purposely hid research about its platform's negative effects on mental health in teenagers. Haugen also claimed that the company stoked division by allowing disinformation on the platform to go unchecked.

All of this and a worldwide outage that made Facebook and its family of apps inaccessible for hours.

But the platform's reputation has been crumbling for years and calls for internet regulations have been renewed.

Is this the final straw? Or just the latest installment in the Facebook saga?

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A whistleblower has come forward to detail how Facebook's products "harm children, stoke division, and weaken democracy." Then, a worldwide outage of Facebook's products, including Instagram and WhatsApp, disrupted communication and business in multiple countries.

A federal judge has placed a pause on Texas' draconian abortion restrictions. However, the Texas attorney general has filed an appeal.

Meanwhile, an investigation of more than 12 million documents, dubbed the "Pandora Papers," have revealed how the rich and powerful worldwide hide their wealth while dodging regulation and taxes.

France's first major study of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church revealed a shockingly large estimate of the number of victims of sexual assault at the hands of the clergy.

We cover all this and more during the News Roundup.

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The Indian Child Welfare Act was signed into law following decades of U.S. policies aimed at forcibly assimilating Native children — including sending them to boarding schools.

Now, it's facing its most significant challenge yet: Brackeen v. Haaland. The case could be taken up by the Supreme Court this term.

The second season of the podcast "This Land" follows Brackeen v. Haaland — and the impact of ICWA — as it moves through the courts.

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The four-month-long stalemate over the fate of two big bills in Congress continues. Progressives refuse to budge on infrastructure until there's movement on a social policy package. Party leaders say Oct. 31 is the new deadline to act on these bills.

But another huge deadline is on the horizon.The debt limit looms over both bills. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says we'll face an "economic catastrophe" if we don't raise it within the next two weeks.

With the party's agenda on the line, can Democrats get it all done?

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The "Pandora Papers" investigation involves a massive leak of 12 million documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and examined by news organizations worldwide. These documents include private emails, spreadsheets, and other financial records.

An analysis of the papers shows evidence of tax evasion and money laundering — as well as proof that millions of dollars from outside of the U.S. are being sheltered in South Dakota.

So how do the world's rich get away with it? And what implications could the Pandora Papers have for the U.S. tax code?

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More than 20 animals and one plant were declared extinct by the Fish and Wildlife Service last week — one of the longer extinction announcements in the history of the agency.

Declaring extinction is not as straightforward as you might think. Many of the species on this list likely disappeared decades ago but knowing for certain can be difficult.

And climate change is only exacerbating the problem. A report released by the United Nations last year estimates that one million plant and animal species are at risk of being gone for good.

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When you think of Mt. Everest, you might picture towering, snow-covered peaks. But what do you hear? What does a snowstorm atop the world's highest peak actually sound like?

Photographer and filmmaker Pete McBride has been photographing these wild places for years. But for his new book, he wants you to hear them, too.

We ask him about the places he's documented in his book "Seeing Silence: The Beauty of the World's Most Quiet Places."

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The Senate is expected to vote on a revamped spending bill that would forestall a government shutdown at the end of the week. In the face of Republican resistance, Democrats have left action on the debt limit out of the bill.

Vaccine production and use continue to develop. The first booster shots for the elderly and high-risk individuals were administered this week. Pfizer and BioNTech released data backing their vaccines for children under the age of 11.

Meanwhile, top U.S. defense officials testified on the subject of Afghanistan before both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Gen. Mark Milley told lawmakers that the war was a "strategic failure."

The Taliban is continuing to implement its ideology after taking over Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal of troops.

We cover all this and more during the News Roundup.

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On Monday, Facebook announced it was pausing the development of Instagram Kids — a service designed for children 13 and under.

The move comes after a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed Facebook's own internal research about how its platforms are negatively impacting the mental health of young users.

On Thursday, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing about the toxic effects of social media on young people.

So who's responsible for ensuring their wellbeing? We put that question to a panel of experts.

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Everyone is talking about the Great Resignation—employees leaving their jobs en masse due to burnout amplified by the pandemic. When it comes to childcare, those employee exits are causing a domino effect for all American workers.

According to the Department of Labor, daycare and other childcare jobs are down 10 percent – that's a decline of nearly 127,000 since the pandemic started. And in a nation where childcare and paid family leave aren't guaranteed, it's having devastating effects.

How do we fix the childcare shortage?

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