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BOSTON (AP) — Inside the wide mouth of a stoneware jar, Daisy Whitner’s fingertips found a slight rise in the clay — a mark she hoped was a trace left behind by her ancestor, an enslaved potter who shaped the vessel nearly 175 years ago in South Carolina.Standing in the gallery of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston last week, Whitner said she felt a quiet connection to her ancestor, David Drake, in that moment.“I was telling the kids, ’Inside this jar, I’m sure I’m feeling his tears, sweat drops off his face, his arms,’” said 86-year-old Whitner, a…

DALLAS (AP) — When it became clear to high school theater teacher Gigi Cervantes that she couldn’t ignore a new state law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in her Texas classroom, she felt she had no choice. She resigned from the job she loved.“I just was not going to be a part of forcing or imposing religious doctrine onto my students,” she said.Texas is undertaking the nation’s largest attempt to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools, and in the rush to navigate the Republican-led mandate that took effect in September, the rollout has forced some districts to…

BERLIN (AP) — The Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg opened Thursday, nearly a year after it was the scene of a horrific car-ramming attack that left six people dead. Five women and a boy died, and many more people were injured in the Dec. 20 attack that lasted just over a minute. On Thursday morning, more than 140 merchants opened their stalls, selling candles, wool hats, candied almonds, mulled wine and other Christmas treats, German news agency dpa reported. A Ferris wheel and an ice rink promised joy and activity for children and grown-ups alike.“Expectations are hopeful,…

When Indonesia established Badan Pengelola Investasi (BPI) Danantara, it was not merely launching a sovereign wealth fund but constructing a political-economic architecture, one that fuses financial ambition with the logic of power. Danantara sits at the intersection of markets and statecraft, embodying a distinctly Indonesian experiment in state capitalism. Unlike the resource-rich funds of the Middle East or the export-driven reserves of East Asia, Danantara is born from a different material. Its financial DNA comes not from oil, gas or trade surpluses but from the divestment and securitization of domestic state assets. Its initial capital is drawn from dividends of…

Jeff KassoufNov 19, 2025, 09:17 PM ETCloseJeff Kassouf covers women’s soccer for ESPN, focusing on the USWNT and NWSL. In 2009, he founded The Equalizer, a women’s soccer news outlet, and he previously won a Sports Emmy at NBC Sports and Olympics.SAN JOSE, Calif. — Kansas City Current forward Temwa Chawinga won the National Women’s Soccer League’s Most Valuable Player award for the second straight season on Wednesday, becoming the first player in league history to win back-to-back MVP awards.Editor’s PicksChawinga received the award at the San Jose Civic Center as part of the NWSL’s first formal awards show in…

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani security forces raided two Pakistani Taliban hideouts in the country’s northwest near the Afghan border, triggering intense shootouts that left 23 militants dead, the military said Thursday.There were no details on any casualties among the military. The raids took place on Wednesday in Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to a military statement. The operation followed raids earlier this week across northwestern Pakistan that the army said killed 38 militants. The military identified the killed militants as “Khawarij,” a term authorities use for militants they allege are backed by Afghanistan and India, including those…

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Thursday restored a nonpartisan caretaker government system for national elections but said it won’t apply to the polls being held early next year.The caretaker system was introduced in 1996 and widely accepted by Bangladesh’s people and by international observers as a step toward election fairness in the a parliamentary democracy of 170 million people. In two subsequent elections, two retired chief justices formed nonpartisan governments that held the elections within 90 days and transferred power to the winners. The election in 2008 was held under a former central bank governor. But political…

Centuries of church schisms show that if there’s a doctrine to be fought over, there’s a goodchanceChristianswillfightaboutit.That repeated splintering is what makes the Council of Nicaea — a meeting of bishops 1,700 years ago in present-day Turkey — so significant today. And why Pope Leo XIV is traveling on Nov. 28 to the site of this foundational moment in Christian unity as part of his first major foreign trip as pope.In 325, the council hashed out the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite each Sunday.“The occasion is very, very important…

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Technology giant Meta on Thursday began sending thousands of young Australians a two-week warning to downland their digital histories and delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram and Threads before a world-first social media ban on accounts of children younger than 16 takes effect.The Australian government announced two weeks ago that the three Meta platforms plus Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube must take reasonable steps to exclude Australian account holders younger than 16, beginning Dec. 10.California-based Meta on Thursday became the first of the targeted tech companies to outline how it will comply with the law. Meta…

Sometimes, the immune system runs amok and attacks the organ that makes us “us” — the brain. It’s called autoimmune encephalitis but one California man dubbed it his “year of unraveling.”Christy Morrill went for a bike ride with friends, stopping for lunch — and no one noticed anything wrong until Morrill’s wife asked how the outing went. He’d forgotten. And he would get worse before he got better. Christy Morrill, left, who lost decades of memories to autoimmune encephalitis, looks over family photo albums with his wife, Karen, from left, daughter, Caitlin, and grandson, Colter, 1, at his home, Tuesday,…