Right now it seems like people all around us are testing positive for COVID. But for the most part, they are not getting seriously ill.

The Food and Drug Administration just approved a new booster.

And on Tuesday advisers to the CDC recommended it for everyone six months and older.

With a new variant and a new booster, how should we think about the pandemic in this moment?

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When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019, both countries were in a different position. Russia had yet to invade Ukraine.

Four years later, Russia is trying to secure weapons from North Korea. The two leaders are expected to meet this month to discuss a deal.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Jean Lee, the former Pyongyang bureau chief for the Associated Press, and Georgetown University's Angela Stent, about the upcoming meeting between Kim Jong Un and Putin — and what North Korea might get out of it.

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The National Football League's regular season is finally underway. And for loyal fans who have been devouring all the news of their favorite teams, it couldn't have come soon enough.

But even if you're just a casual viewer of football, or really any network television program, you've probably seen the star-studded ads for a related business: sports betting.

The league's partnership with major sports betting sites continues to draw criticism. Ten NFL players have been suspended for gambling violations since April, leaving critics and fans wondering if the relationship between football and gambling will harm the integrity of the game.

Host Nathan Rott speaks with David Purdum who covers the gambling industry for ESPN.

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The Endangered Species Act turns 50 this year.

The landmark law has been successful for decades at stopping extinctions of several plants and animals.

Recovering endangered or threatened species to the point where they no longer need federal protection has been more difficult because of climate change.

NPR's Nathan Rott speaks with Martha Williams, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the agency's plans to mitigate threats of extinction caused by climate change.

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The writers and actors strikes have been grinding on for months with no end in sight. Many on the picket lines are struggling to pay for basics.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks to Fran Drescher about what it's going to take to end the strikes. Drescher's the president of SAG-AFTRA, which represents the actors on strike.

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Giant machines sucking carbon dioxide out of the air to fight climate change sounds like science fiction, but it's close to becoming a reality, with billions of dollars of support from the U.S. government.

And a key player in this growing industry is a U.S. oil company, Occidental Petroleum.

With a major petroleum company deploying this technology, it begs the question, is it meant to save the planet or the oil industry?

NPR's Camila Domonoske reports.

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Google was founded 25 years ago by two Stanford PhD students, Larry Page and Sergei Brin.

The company went on to shape the internet and now, after a quarter century, finds itself at a turning point. With the rise of AI and social media platforms like TikTok, its continued dominance is not assured.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, about Google's legacy and what the future holds for the company.

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It's been over three years since the pandemic started and changed the way millions of Americans work.

The possibilities of remote work gave a new kind of freedom to many workers. But as more and more companies demand employees return to the office, is the work from home era coming to an end?

Host Scott Detrow speaks with Anne Helen Petersen, culture writer and the author of Out of Office, about the future of remote work.

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After three and a half years, the pause on federal student loan payments is coming to an end. Getting more than 40 million borrowers back into repayment will be an enormous challenge, especially because many students who graduated when the pause was already in place have never made a payment.

We put borrowers' questions to two experts: NPR Education correspondent Cory Turner, and Carolina Rodriguez, director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program, a non-profit funded by New York State to help residents navigate repayment of their student loans.

Read Cory's list of 12 things every student loan borrower should know.

And if you're having an issue with your student loan servicer, Cory wants to know. Email him at [email protected].

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Hundreds of towns, cities and counties across the country impose curfews on young people.

On September 1st a curfew went into effect in seven neighborhoods across the District of Columbia that will affect those aged 17 and under.

Like many other cities, the nation's capital has seen an increase in violent crime. And some of the most shocking crimes have been committed by young people.

Teens as young as thirteen as well as pre-teens have been suspected of, or charged with carjacking. In the past couple of months a 14 year-old and a 16 year-old have been charged with murder. And young people are also the victims of violent.

Keeping kids inside at night may seem like a good strategy for cities facing a surge in youth violence. But experts say that research doesn't back up the effectiveness of curfews.

Host Scott Detrow speaks with Kristin Henning, director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic at Georgetown University about what does and doesn't work.

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