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Almost two years into the pandemic, at-home rapid tests can still be difficult to find in the U.S. If you do find them, they’re often expensive. Other countries are faring better, like the U.K. and South Korea, which provide free tests each day to anyone who wants them.

Why is the U.S. different? NPR’s Yuki Noguchi reports.

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After seven days of testimony directly from Elizabeth Holmes, her defense announced it had rested its case this week in a federal fraud trail that began in September.

Holmes, a former Silicon Valley luminary, was CEO of the blood-testing startup Theranos. She told jurors she was not responsible, as prosecutors allege, for fleecing investors of millions of dollars and delivering flawed results to patients.

And as NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn explains, Holmes detailed a story of abuse that could sway the outcome of the trial.

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During oral arguments last week in a major Supreme Court case, Justice Amy Coney Barrett brought up the idea of adoption as an alternative to abortion. But many people who choose not to have a child do not consider adoption and abortion equal and opposite choices, sociologist Gretchen Sisson tells NPR.

Plus, one woman shares her experience of relinquishing her rights as a parent.

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At least six conservative broadcasters who spread misinformation about COVID-19 and questioned coronavirus vaccines have now died from just this year.

Their deaths may mirror a wider trend in the United States: Americans who live in pro-Trump parts of the country are less likely to be vaccinated and more likely to die from COVID-related complications.

NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel reports on new analysis from NPR showing that counties that voted for Donald Trump had almost three times the death rate of the counties that voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

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In October of 1941, a young soldier was on leave in southern California when he met the woman he was sure he would marry. Then, two months later while stationed in Hawaii, Art “Bud” Montagne witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor firsthand, and was swept up in the conflict that followed.

NPR special correspondent Renee Montagne tells the story of what her father witnessed on that day 80 years ago, and how a cinematic love story — put on pause by war — turned out for him.

Read more about Art Montagne’s experiences at Pearl Harbor.

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Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai made an assault allegation in November, then disappeared from the public eye. She has since re-emerged, but in protest of her treatment, the Women’s Tennis Association’s has now suspended all tournaments in China.

That decision by the WTA could cost the organization and its players hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe more, in revenue. And it’s the threat of losing that kind of money that usually keeps most professional sports organizations — like the NBA — treading lightly in response to China.

NPR correspondent Tom Goldman has been following the story and looks at how the WTA’s unflinching support for Peng may inspire a wider outcry over China’s actions.

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Banning books from classrooms and school libraries is nothing new, but it’s recently become a topic of considerable political debate. How should parents react to this news, and to the books their children are reading?

In this episode of NPR’s It’s Been A Minute senior editor Barrie Hardymon and Traci Thomas, host of The Stacks podcast, joined guest host Ayesha Rascoe to talk about banned book lists.The three talk about why it’s important for kids to discover books freely, even if that means starting a hard conversation with them. They also discuss their favorite — and least favorite — books that often show up on banned book lists.

It was only a matter of time before cases of the COVID-19 omicron variant started popping up in the U.S., and now, it’s here. Although it’s too early to tell how this virus strain will spread, the threat it poses has already lit a fire under public health messaging.

President Biden announced a new strategy to avoid a winter surge of cases that involves free at-home testing, a vaccine booster messaging campaign and heightened international travel safeguards.

Meanwhile, the race is on to detect how omicron is already spreading in this country. NPR reporter Will Stone gives us a look into what’s happening in labs right now across the country.

And Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, discusses what we know about how effective travel bans are scenarios like this.

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Buying stuff is a part of this country’s DNA. It’s a tradition that really took off near the end of World War II, when the American economy was thriving and the market exploded with products Americans didn’t even know they wanted. And even in an economy rocked by a pandemic, buying is on track to exceed 2020 levels this holiday season.

The result of all that spending means consumption drives 70% of our country’s GDP, but it’s also the leading driver of nearly every environmental issue our planet faces.

Journalist J.B. MacKinnon, who also wrote “The Day the World Stops Shopping, How Ending Consumerism Saves the Environment and Ourselves,” discusses how curbing consumption could positively affect a warming planet.

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Getting an abortion in Mississippi has never been easy, but it hasn’t been impossible. Now, a case before the Supreme Court that centers on a clinic in Mississippi could upend abortion rights for pregnant people across the country.

Today, the conservative-leaning court heard arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The clinic, which is the only abortion provider remaining in Mississippi, is challenging a 2018 state law that bans termination after 15 weeks of pregnancy. If the court upholds the law, it would reverse its own precedent by allowing states to interfere with the right to abortion at that stage of pregnancy.

NPR Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg, SCOTUS Blog’s Tom Goldstein, and Florida State University Law Professor Mary Ziegler parse the arguments and weigh in on the possibilities on how the justices could rule.

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