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On a Sunday in mid-July, Pastor Chris Morgan welcomed worshipers to Christ United Methodist Church in suburban Pittsburgh with a simple message.

That Sunday was particularly difficult.

A day earlier, a man had nearly assassinated then-candidate Donald Trump forty miles north in Butler. Morgan asked people to pray for Trump and those killed and injured in the shooting, and asked the congregation to pray for the family of the shooter.

Morgan had already planned a sermon series, called Do Unto Others, to deal with the nation’s — and his congregation’s — political divisions ahead of Election Day.

NPR’s Frank Langfitt went to Christ Church the weekend before Election Day – and the weekend after – to see if the efforts there made a difference.

As Americans prepare to come together at Thanksgiving, how do we bridge this country’s political divide? And can we?

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In her new memoir, Angela Merkel writes about the many dilemmas she had to navigate as Chancellor of Germany. Dilemmas her male colleagues never had to sweat. Like, can you wear a pantsuit instead of a skirt in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament? She decided the answer was, yes.

Merkel is the only woman ever to rise to the most powerful political post in Germany. She served as chancellor from 2005 to 2021.

Angela Merkel has gone toe-to-toe with world leaders like Vladimir Putin, led Germany through times of turmoil and become a role model for other women aspiring to positions of leadership. But her legacy is complex.

She gets into all of this in her new memoir, “Freedom.”

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President-elect Trump’s promises more ICE workplace raids like the ones in 2019. This time, advocates and undocumented people want to be prepared.

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The movie version of the Broadway smash Wicked hits screens Friday, just in time for the holidays. Stage and screen star Cynthia Erivo plays the Wicked Witch of the West. She speaks to NPR about the role.

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The Apple TV series “Bad Sisters” debuted two years ago. There were laughs. There was murder. And that could’ve been it for the Garvey sisters, because the show wasn’t originally intended to have a second season.

But, as creator and star Sharon Horgan puts it — “You don’t just kill a man and move on.”

The Garvey sisters are back for Season 2 – with more banter… wickedness… and secrets. We catch up with creator and star Sharon Horgan to find out what’s in store.

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If you’re tracking Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, you may have noticed common threads among them: top jobs are going to people fiercely loyal to Trump, people with experience appearing on TV, but no experience directly relevant to the jobs they would be doing.

There’s another thing several share: being accused of sexual misconduct. Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth, HHS Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, Elon Musk, who Trump has picked to co-run the Department of Government Efficiency — all these men have faced some variation of accusations of sexual misconduct. All have denied it, or claimed no memory.

Donald Trump’s first presidential win helped lay the groundwork for the #MeToo movement. What do his cabinet picks say about the movement today?

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Last week British surgeon Nizam Mamode testified in front of a committee in the U.K. Parliament. Dr. Mamode had recently returned from working at a hospital in Central Gaza.

He told parliamentary members what he witnessed, including drones that would come down and “pick off civilians, children. And we had description after description. This is not, you know, an occasional thing. This was day after day after day.”

For months, NPR has been collecting eyewitness accounts from Gaza that corroborate Dr. Mamode’s testimony, saying the Israeli military has been using sniper drone technology and that they’re not just shooting enemies, but also civilians.|

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What does it take to run the Department of Defense? That’s a question that will be at the heart of Pete Hegseth’s confirmation process early next year.

Hegseth, a longtime Fox News host, is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense. The department he’s nominated to run is one of the biggest, most complex entities in the US government. It’s an institution that former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel notes – has its “own judicial code, legal system and health care system.”

Pete Hegseth is about to oversee a Defense Department with an 800 billion dollar budget, and millions of service members. Is he qualified for the job?

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President-elect Trump has vowed to elimanate the Department of Education. The DOE oversees everything from college student loans to aid for public school special education. What would shutting it down mean for America’s schools?

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When compared to some of president-elect Trump’s other cabinet picks, Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State is a pretty conventional choice.

He’s a veteran politician who served on the foreign relations and intelligence committees for over a decade, and he’s been a loyal Trump backer throughout this year’s campaign.

But when you look back at Marco Rubio during his 2016 presidential campaign, there’s a striking contrast.

When he ran against Trump in 2016, Rubio called him a con artist, and described his style of leadership as dangerous. Now, he’s going to work for him.

Marco Rubio’s political evolution is indicative of how the Republican Party has remade itself around Donald Trump, and it gives some clues about how he may operate as the nation’s top diplomat.

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