McCain's moment

• McCain's moment. The Senate this morning rejected a new, scaled-down Republican plan to repeal parts of Obamacare. Arizona Sen. John McCain, who returned to the Senate this week after receiving a diagnosis of brain cancer, cast the vote to defeat the proposal. Unlike previous setbacks, the New York Times reports, "Friday morning's health care defeat had the ring of finality."

McCain joined two other Republicans in opposing the bill: Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Collins and Murkowski have repeatedly voted no on Republican attempts to make good on their promise to repeal Obamacare. The Guardian notes that while the duo is not exactly a pair, having contrasting political roots and goals, they have crafted an "important partnership, not only on health care legislation...but on important provisions of the broader law such as blocking funding for Planned Parenthood."

The new, eight-page "skinny repeal" would have ended the requirements that most people have health coverage and that large employers offer coverage to their workers. On women's health specifically, the bill would have cut off federal funds for Planned Parenthood for one year and made it much easier for states to waive federal requirements that health insurance plans provide consumers with a minimum set of benefits—like maternity care.

An interesting—and perhaps telling—detail from the Senate floor Friday: Before McCain cast his tie-breaking vote, he "ambled over to the Democratic side of the chamber," and "was embraced by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California," reports the Times. "A little later Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, put her arm around [him]." New York Times

• Mixed messages. In a bizarre reversal, Pentagon leaders said Thursday that transgender people can continue to serve in the military (for now), after President Trump's Wednesday Twitter announcement that the U.S. government "will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military." New York Times

• Covers for Clinton. Hillary Clinton announced yesterday that her book about last year's battle against Donald Trump for the Oval Office will be titled What Happened—and Twitter users are having a field day. The book will be released on Sept. 12. Fortune

• We'll miss you, Michiko! Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times chief book reviewer and Pulitzer Prize winner, is stepping down. During the course of her nearly 40 years at the Times, Kakutani helped make the careers of literary name brands like George Saunders, Mary Karr, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, and Zadie Smith. Her final review, on the debut novel by Nigerian author Ayobami Adebayo, was published on Tuesday. Vanity Fair

• Melania's riding solo. The First Lady announced her first solo trip yesterday: She will lead the U.S. delegation to this year's Invictus Games—a para-Olympic style competition for wounded service members—being held in Toronto, Canada at the end of September. Melania Trump will be following in the footsteps of former first lady Michelle Obama, who, along with the U.K.'s Prince Harry, kicked off the Invictus Games last year. CNN

• Meg takes to Twitter. Meg Whitman denied rumors that she is considering taking the post of Uber CEO. In a series of tweets yesterday, the HPE chief wrote: "Normally I do not comment on rumors, but the speculation about my future and Uber has become a distraction...We have a lot of work still to do at HPE and I am not going anywhere. Uber's CEO will not be Meg Whitman." Fortune

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Godiva has appointed Annie Young-Scrivner as its new CEO. Annie joins Godiva from Starbucks, where she served as Global CMO. Cummins Inc. has elected Karen Quintos, EVP and Chief Customer Officer of Dell Technologies, to its board. Kim Ford had been promoted to SVP and Head of Government Affairs at First Data.

• Thinx's new 'She-E-O'. Maria Molland Selby will become Thinx's CEO starting Monday. The period underwear company had been without a top leader since March, when co-founder Miki Agrawal left amid allegations that she sexually harassed her employees. (Agrawal said at the time that the allegations were "baseless" and the complaint was withdrawn.) Selby has previously held leadership roles at Fab.com, Thomson Reuters, Yahoo and Dow Jones. Bloomberg

• Period app approval. This feature on fertility tech highlights Sweden-based Natural Cycles, which earlier this month became the first fertility-tracking app to be approved for prescription by doctors as a contraceptive device in Britain and the E.U. The app draws on the fertility-awareness method, which identifies the crucial stages in a woman's menstrual cycle; clinical studies have shown the method to be as effective as the pill. Economist

• Reporting on reporters. I found this report on the state of women—and particularly mothers—in journalism depressing, if not altogether surprising. Seeing certain stats side by side paints a particularly grim picture of what it's like being a woman in media: While two-thirds of journalism school graduates are women, half of employees at digital native news outlets are women, and only a third of current female journalists want to stay in the field. Nieman

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