1A

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced he'd vote against the For The People Act, dealing a blow to Democrats in the fight over voting rights.

The bill promised to expand voting rights and combat the onslaught of restrictive voting laws being passed on the state level.

What does the failure to pass this legislation mean for voting rights?

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When the novel The Underground Railroad was published in 2016, it caught the world's attention for its stark portrayal of slavery in America.

The story reimagines the metaphorical underground railroad as an actual underground railroad, with train tracks and stations. Readers follow the journey of Cora, a young woman escaping slavery in Georgia.

Now, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has been adapted into a limited TV series of the same name, available to stream on Amazon Prime.

We speak with Barry Jenkins, the director of the show, and Colson Whitehead, the book's author.

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Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna say they expect their COVID-19 vaccines to be available to children as young as 6 months by the fall.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen in states with low vaccination rates.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are on the move.

Harris made her first trip abroad to Central America, meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Biden traveled to Europe for meetings with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Young Adult fiction is a genre can range from high fantasy to contemporary. The subject matter can be as heavy as books written for older readers. And while its characters are usually teenagers, those popular enough are often read and beloved by fans of all ages.

Those fans and their use of social media sites have made YA fiction more popular than ever.

For this installment of "The Writers' Room," we talk to three young adult fiction authors on the state of the genre and the communities that fuel it.

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The FDA has approved a new medication for treating Alzheimer's, called aducanumab.

It's the first new drug for the disease in almost 20 years, but the FDA's approval comes despite an intense debate over the drug's efficacy and associated side effects.

We discuss what we know about the medication and how it will shape the future of Alzheimer's research and treatment.

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The latest culture war is being fought in the classroom, with several states banning Critical Race Theory.

The theory is an academic pursuit examining how race intersects with history. While many may not know the fundamentals of the theory, Republican-led state legislatures now say the decades-old concept is said to be anti-American and sow division.

We discuss what Critical Race Theory is and how America's complicated racial history should be taught.

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Naomi Osaka, the No. 2 female tennis player in the world, withdrew from the French Open citing her struggles with depression and anxiety. Her withdrawal came after she announced she wouldn't be speaking to the press, a requirement for professional athletes.

Osaka's decision — and the mixed response that's followed it — has ignited a conversation about mental health in sports, specifically among Black female athletes. It's also brought attention to the strange relationship between athletes and the sports press.

How should athletes prioritize their mental health? And what responsibilities do those who administrate sports have to help them do so?

We get to all this and more.

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In America's fight against COVID-19, President Joe Biden has set his sights on getting partial vaccination rates in the U.S. up to 70 percent by July 4.

In Texas, Democrats and Republicans continue to go back and forth on voting laws, while the federal government continues to debate infrastructure.

Meanwhile, in worldwide news, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting to keep his position while a coalition from across the political spectrum works to form a government.

In the worldwide COVID-19 fight, cases in some countries are on the rise, including in Malaysia. The U.K. has reported zero new COVID deaths for the first time since early 2020.

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Rev. Paula Stone Williams led a conservative evangelical church for over two decades. Then, in 2013, she came out as a transgender woman. Now, she fights for gender equity and LGBTQ rights.

We talk to Williams about her new memoir "As A Woman: What I Learned About Power, Sex, and the Patriarchy After I Transitioned."

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Pop culture recommendations abound in the summer: beach reads, bingeable television shows, songs of the summer, and – of course – podcasts.

So we chatted with some podcast experts, and here are some of our recommendations for what to listen to during the summer months.

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