11+ min ago (846+ words) DALLAS'When it became clear to Texas high school theater teacher Gigi Cervantes that she couldn't ignore a new state law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in her Fort Worth classroom, she felt she had no choice. She resigned from the job she loved. In the small city of Whitesboro, eighth-grade U.S. history teacher Dustin Parsons welcomed the new poster on his classroom wall, saying the display helps him demonstrate the influence of Christianity on the country's founding principles. Across Texas, there are no shortage of strong opinions among teachers, parents and students as the state undertakes the nation's largest attempt to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools. In the rush to navigate the Republican-led mandate that took effect in September, the rollout has forced some administrators, teachers and school boards to confront hard choices. "I just was not…...

12+ min ago (508+ words) Small Russian infiltration teams are exploiting bad weather to sneak past Ukrainian lines and cause major problems for Kyiv's forces, a senior defense official told Business Insider. Lt. Col. Yurii Myronenko, Ukraine's deputy minister of defense for innovation, said that drones are responsible for strikes on roughly 90% of all targets struck on the battlefield and have made large-scale armor assaults extremely challenging. But drones alone are not enough to hold the line and stop the enemy from breaking through, he said. Dense fog and other inclement weather provide ideal cover for Russian infiltration tactics. "Infiltration by small groups, sometimes just one person with a rifle and grenades, whose task is to hide in a basement or dugout, is difficult to counter," the former drone unit commander said. While drones have provided front-line units with constant battlefield surveillance in Ukraine, they…...

13+ min ago (338+ words) The White House reneged on its expected announcement for a policy framework to guide Republican lawmakers on a possible replacement for the Affordable Care Act " and that failure has roiled the conservative caucus. President Donald Trump was expected to announce as soon as Monday " at the White House alongside Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services " a broadly sketched plan to prevent premium spikes when ACA subsidies set to expire at year's end. But the announcement never came, reported NOTUS. "There was never a health care announcement on the guidance today," a White House official told the outlet. That White House official did not deny that whatever shadow plan might have been devised was now placed on hold, and the vagueness irritated conservatives who complained they were never consulted on the policy framework. "You can throw…...

14+ min ago (137+ words) This story first appeared in TIME's new AI newsletter, In the Loop. You can subscribe here, for free, to get regular scoops like this directly into your email inbox. By how much, if at all, will AI boost the U.S. economy? New research by Anthropic, seen exclusively by TIME in advance of its release today, offers at least a partial answer to that question. By studying aggregated data about how people use Claude in the course of their work, Anthropic researchers came up with an estimate for how much AI could contribute to annual labor productivity growth'an important contributor to the total level of growth in the overall economy'as the technology becomes more widely used. The post Exclusive: AI Could Double U.S. Labor Productivity Growth, Anthropic Study Finds appeared first on TIME....

16+ min ago (259+ words) Dmitri Alperovitch is chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator and the author, with Garrett M. Graff, of "World on the Brink." Matt Cronin is the senior national security adviser at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. We are fast approaching a moment when China's expansionist ambitions may test America's resolve. Recognizing this threat, Congress and the Pentagon are grappling with how to fix a failed defense acquisition system that rewards box-checking over breakthroughs. The result has been staggering. China now boasts the world's largest navy and is engaging in the greatest peacetime military buildup since the eve of World War II. Meanwhile, the United States decommissions ships and defense experts estimate that its forces have just a few weeks' worth of munitions available for a Pacific conflict " munitions that would take nearly two years to reconstitute. To correct course, the U.S. military needs…...

17+ min ago (949+ words) Last month, Kentucky attorney general Russell Coleman announced the details of yet another lawsuit against Roblox over suspected pedophiles lurking on the hugely popular gaming platform. While doing so, Coleman singled out the work of one self-described "predator hunter" who claims to have helped identify alleged abusers mixing with young gamers. "Roblox is even trying to silence those who raised these security risks," Coleman said. "The famous case of one of their developers, Schlep, immediately comes to mind." Schlep is in fact Michael, a 22-year-old Texan who has spent the last two years working with a group of other Roblox players to track down and identify people purportedly seeking to groom young children on the platform'predators like the one Schlep says allegedly groomed him a decade ago, which he says led him to try to take his own life. But…...

18+ min ago (411+ words) Pharrell Payne scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half, leading the Maryland men's basketball team to a 74-67 victory over UNLV on Monday night at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. In a game that started around midnight Eastern time, Payne also had eight rebounds and a block in his return from a hip injury. The senior forward missed only one game after suffering what had appeared to be a much more serious ailment when he fell awkwardly during a win at Marquette on Nov. 15. Payne made 7 of 8 shots from the field and 6 of 10 free throws for Maryland (5-1). Darius Adams added 15 points, and David Coit had 11. Myles Rice, who also returned after missing four of the Terrapins' first five games with an ankle injury, had eight points and six assists off the bench. Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn led UNLV (3-3) with 17 points....

19+ min ago (1330+ words) WASHINGTON'The Texas redistricting case now before the Supreme Court turns on a question that often divides judges: Were the voting districts drawn based on politics, or race? The answer, likely to come in a few days, could shift five congressional seats and tip political control of the House of Representatives after next year's midterm elections. Justice Samuel A. Alito, who oversees appeals from Texas, put a temporary hold on a judicial ruling that branded the newly drawn Texas voting map a "racial gerrymander." The state's lawyers asked for a decision by Monday, noting that candidates have a Dec. 8 deadline to file for election. They said the judges violated the so-called Purcell principle by making major changes in the election map "midway through the candidate filing period," and that alone calls for blocking it. Texas Republicans have reason to be confident the…...

19+ min ago (1330+ words) WASHINGTON'The Texas redistricting case now before the Supreme Court turns on a question that often divides judges: Were the voting districts drawn based on politics, or race? The answer, likely to come in a few days, could shift five congressional seats and tip political control of the House of Representatives after next year's midterm elections. Justice Samuel A. Alito, who oversees appeals from Texas, put a temporary hold on a judicial ruling that branded the newly drawn Texas voting map a "racial gerrymander." The state's lawyers asked for a decision by Monday, noting that candidates have a Dec. 8 deadline to file for election. They said the judges violated the so-called Purcell principle by making major changes in the election map "midway through the candidate filing period," and that alone calls for blocking it. Texas Republicans have reason to be confident the…...

20+ min ago (121+ words) You will regret wearing anything with a waistband." The playlist is as important as the mashed potatoes." Marshmallows should not be on vegetables." Hot sauce should be on everything." Pie is usually not that good." Go ahead, talk politics." These are some of the hot takes recipe developers, food writers, chefs and other tastemakers shared with The Times about Thanksgiving. Which do you agree with? Which do you disagree with? What are your most surprising, provocative or challenging opinions about this holiday, whether about the guest list, the vibes, the food or anything else? Share them, and your defense of them, in the comments. Find more Picture Prompts here. The post Thanksgiving Hot Takes appeared first on New York Times....