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Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter, sent every weekday morning. The social media company Meta has agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion in a settlement in a federal lawsuit alleging the company's social media platforms have harmed children and teens. The company denies the allegations, but has agreed to make a suite of changes to its social platforms — Facebook and Instagram — to make them less compelling and potentially dangerous to minors.

Netia McCray recalls how excited she was to join the federal advisory committee on long COVID in 2025. She had been diagnosed in the early days of the pandemic — and symptoms such as fatigue, heart palpitations and shortness of breath had become a frustrating but inescapable part of life.

When Nadia Rawlinson came to be a co-owner of the Chicago Sky, Chicago's WNBA franchise, in 2023, she said her corporate career made her empathetic to the experiences of many players on the team. "I'm an African-American woman who has been an executive in the private sector for my entire career [and] recently came into sports ownership about four or five years ago," said Rawlinson, who is also chairman of the team.

A federally qualified health center is opening up another location in Coatesville next year. WHYY's Kenny Cooper reports the center will be inside of Coatesville Area Senior High School.

Updated August 29, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT The great Dolly Parton died earlier this week and tributes have poured in from across the country. There are murals dedicated in her honor and the Empire State Building lit up in pink in remembrance of Parton. Fans are mourning the loss of a country music icon who not only changed the musical landscape but gave back to communities with her Imagination Library program and donations to develop the Moderna COVID vaccine.

The Philadelphia Housing Authority is slated to build 85 affordable homes in the Strawberry Mansion section of North Philadelphia.

Dolly Parton was brilliant, melodic, and trailblazing. Her lifetime art was to be both spangly and utterly genuine. When Dolly died this week, I thought I could see her bright, wide smile shining down from the sky, with the clouds billowing into her signature blond curls. Dolly Parton was lauded and loved. Tributes poured in as they would for a head of state—more, I daresay, than many heads of state.

MUKUNGA RIVER VALLEY, Rwanda — For Naomi Nibishaka, there's life before the bridge, and life after the bridge. On a sunny summer day, the 76-year-old crosses the rushing waters of the Mukungwa river on a pedestrian suspension bridge. Made of concrete and cable, it's only 230 feet long — roughly the length of a city block. But it's a game changer. The bridge connects two settlements in a valley in northwest Rwanda that are separated by the river. People cross for all sorts of reasons.

Two deaths associated with the measles outbreak in Pennsylvania prompted messaging from the health secretary that both encouraged and undermined vaccinations.

Maine's lobster fishing industry is closely integrated with processors across the border in Canada. People who depend on it are feeling whiplash from on-again, off-again tariff threats.