TED ANTHONY

Writing about American culture and international affairs.

Meredith Ellis looks at cattle in the setting sun with her 6-year-old son, GC, on their ranch in Rosston, Texas, on April 20, 2023. Ellis has seen how global warming is altering her land. She calls it an "existential crisis," the backdrop to the endless to-do list that comes with regenerative ranching. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The year in photos: AP’s most memorable photos of 2023

In 2023, AP photographers captured images of conflict, ambition, the quest for excellence and the struggle to survive. These are the top photos of the year.

Saint Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Micheal Drew addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023 at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Who’s being listened to on the global stage? Increasingly not who you might think

Togo’s foreign minister wasn’t having any of it. He talked of a resolve to “fight our own battles” and a refusal to be relegated to the children’s table.

North Korea's UN Ambassador Song Kim addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

At UN, North Korea says the US made 2023 more dangerous and accuses it of fomenting an Asian NATO

North Korea is accusing the United States of making 2023 an “extremely dangerous year.” The country’s ambassador to the United Nations says U.S. actions are trying to provoke a nuclear war.

Chairs for contemplation look out upon the East River inside the U.N. compound in New York on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. The parklet in the U.N. compound is a place where people go to find a few minutes of peace just yards from the buildings where leaders and diplomats deal with the world’s chaos. (AP Photo/Ted Anthony)

As the world’s diplomacy roils a few feet away, a little UN oasis offers a riverside pocket of peace

In the walled-off compound of the UN at the easternmost end of Manhattan sits a quiet patch of wooded land.

Vice President of China Han Zheng addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

China, at UN, presents itself as a member of the Global South as alternative to a Western model

China is telling assembled world leaders at the United Nations that it considers itself part of the Global South.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the United Nations Sustainable Development Forum, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Behind all the speechmaking at the UN lies a basic, unspoken question: Is the world governable?

At the United Nations, “multilateralism” is always the goal, however fragmented and complex. Yet so is the quest for a coherent storyline that unites all 193 member states and their ideas.

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

South Korean leader warns Russia against weapons collaboration with the North

South Korea’s president sounded a warning to fellow world leaders about the recent communication and possible cooperation between North Korea and Russia.

FILE - In this photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, distributed by Korea News Service, leader Kim Il Sung, right, and Kim Jong Il have a conversation in a special train before an unofficial visit to China, in November 1989. North Korea’s Kim Jong Un's train journey to Russia has a storified history. The tradition of train travel extends across the generations. That’s in evidence at the massive Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where reconstructions of Kim Jong Un’s father’s and grandfather’s train cars, and the leaders’ preserved and displayed remains, are enshrined. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images, File)

Kim Jong Un’s train travel has a storied history. His father and grandfather did the same thing

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un’s train journey to Russia has a storied history. The tradition of train travel extends across the generations.

FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, right, along with members of his Coral Reefer Band including Mac McAnally, center, perform during a concert in Key West, Fla. Buffett, who popularized beach bum soft rock with the escapist Caribbean-flavored song “Margaritaville” and turned that celebration of loafing into an empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen concoctions, has died, Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. (Howard Livingston/Florida Keys News Bureau via AP)

Americans have long wanted the perfect endless summer. Jimmy Buffett offered them one

It seemed wistfully appropriate that news of Jimmy Buffett’s death emerged at the beginning of the Labor Day weekend, the point of every American summer’s symbolic end.

FILE - Visitors walk through a garden installation designed like the bottom-side of a leaf, on the opening day of the National Garden Festival "BUGA 05" in Munich, southern Germany, on April 28, 2005. The world is a stressful, sometimes lonely place. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way” is a phrase you hear a lot these days. But what if things could turn out another way? What if, somewhere, they had? Enter the realm of the multiverse and alternate realities, popular culture’s wildly glorified canvas — and a repository for the ache and longing of living in an uncertain era. (AP Photo/Uwe Lein, File)

How the multiverse got into our heads and didn’t let go

Alternate universes are everywhere these days, from “The Flash” to “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”

This image released by Apple TV shows Brendan Hunt, from left, Jason Sudeikis and Brett Goldstein in the season three finale episode of "Ted Lasso." (Colin Hutton/Apple TV via AP)

‘Ted Lasso’ finale proved its whole point — that those who are stuck can overcome (SPOILERS)

“Ted Lasso” was criticized by some for losing its way in its third season. But with its season and probably series finale, it ended up exactly on brand.

FILE - People walk past an American flag inside the Oculus, part of the World Trade Center transportation hub, at the start of a work day in New York, Sept. 11, 2019. American lore is full of tales of a nation built on the foundations of individualism. In reality, loneliness in America can be deadly. In May 2023, the U.S. surgeon general declared it an epidemic, saying that it takes as deadly a toll as smoking. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

How the American Dream convinces people loneliness is normal

This month, the U.S. surgeon general declared loneliness an epidemic, saying that it takes as deadly a toll as smoking.

FILE - A keep out sign is posted on a home, Wednesday, April 19, 2023, near the house where 84-year-old Andrew Lester shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl a week earlier in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

The front door, threshold of welcome — and perilous border

The front door in America is one of the landscape’s most intimate and personal of borders. It’s the place where the public sphere encounters private space.

Former President Donald Trump appears in court for his arraignment, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in New York. Trump surrendered to authorities ahead of his arraignment on criminal charges stemming from a hush money payment to a porn actor during his 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

Love him? Hate him? For Donald Trump, attention is attention

Whatever people think of Donald Trump, it’s undeniable that he can still command attention. That was obvious as the divisive former president came to New York for his arraignment on felony charges.

This image released by Paramount+ shows Patrick Stewart as Picard, left, and Ed Speleers as Jack Crusher in the "No Win Scenario" episode of "Star Trek: Picard." (Trae Patton/Paramount+ via AP)

‘Star Trek’, swear words and TV characters’ changing mores

For nearly four decades, Jean-Luc Picard of “Star Trek” has largely been presented as genteel, erudite and at times buttoned up.

From left, Laura Kuster, Miranda Crotsley, and Hollen Barmer eat fish sandwiches, homemade perogies, and macaroni and cheese at the St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church fish fry in the West Homestead neighborhood of Pittsburgh, on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. To innovate the age-old tradition of fish fries, Barmer and volunteers from Code for Pittsburgh created the "Pittsburgh Lenten Fish Fry Map," an online interactive map that locates and documents active fish fries from year to year across Western Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Need a Lenten fish fry? There’s an interactive map for that

The Lenten fish fry is a popular tradition in many Catholic communities. In Pittsburgh and the towns around it, people looking for fish fries between Ash Wednesday and Easter have a very modern tool to find their fish fix — an interactive map.

An order of "boneless chicken wings" is shown at a restaurant in Willow Grove, Pa., Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. With the Super Bowl at hand, behold the cheerful untruth that has been perpetrated upon (and generally with the blessing of) the chicken-consuming citizens of the United States on menus across the land: a “boneless wing” that isn’t a wing at all. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

How the ‘boneless wing’ became a tasty culinary lie

NEW YORK (AP) — One day in 2020, at the pandemic’s height, an earnest-looking man with long hair the color of Buffalo sauce stepped up to a podium in Lincoln, Nebraska, to address his city council during its public comment period.

FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, chats with former President Jiang Zemin during the closing ceremony for the 19th Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on Oct. 24, 2017. With his death, Jiang leaves behind a very different China than the one he tried to shape. Now it’s Xi Jinping’s nation. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

Analysis: Under Jiang, China projected a more open image

With his death, former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin leaves behind a very different China than the one he tried to shape. Now it’s Xi Jinping’s nation.

Umpire crew chief Todd Tichenor announces the outcome of a play review during a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Miami Marlins in Pittsburgh, Saturday, July 23, 2022. The notion of hearing a mic'd-up ump's voice explaining something feels oddly revolutionary, even after nearly an entire season of hearing it off and on. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Beyond the grunt: Umpires mic up, and baseball changes a bit

After a century and a half of Major League Baseball, something quietly extraordinary happened this year. The umpires began talking to the world.

Prime Minister of Iraq Mustafa Al-Kadhimi addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

At UN, a fleeting opportunity to tell their nations’ stories

Pakistan’s new prime minister stepped onto the U.N. podium to spin a tale of floods and climate change.

Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi acknowledges the audience applause after addressing the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

China on Taiwan: ‘External interference’ won’t be tolerated

China has underscored its commitment to its claim on Taiwan. Its foreign minister told world leaders that anyone who gets in the way of its determination to reunify with the self-governing island would be “crushed by the wheels of history.”

Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

GLIMPSES: One prime minister, many quotable quotes

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — So you’re paying attention to the tectonic geopolitical issues at the U.N. General Assembly, and many of them are addressed in carefully calibrated and crafted diplospeak.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

The AP Interview: Marcos wants to ‘reintroduce’ Philippines

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants to “reintroduce the Philippines” to the world. He has ambitious plans for his nation on the international stage and at home.

An attendee sits in the gallery during the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

At UN, despite global morass, hope peeks through the gloom

Hope can be hard to find anywhere these days. That goes double for the people who walk the floors of the United Nations, where shouldering the weight of the world is a core part of the job description.

This image released by Paramount+ shows, from left, Rebecca Romijn as Una, Ethan Peck as Spock, background, Melissa Navia as Ortegas and Anson Mount as Pike in a scene from the series "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds." (Marni Grossman/Paramount+ via AP)

Star Trek’s ‘Strange New Worlds’: In defense of episodic TV

Two generations after its 1966 debut, the universe of “Star Trek” has become a vast and sprawling mural in these heady days of streaming TV.

An image of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is shown as committee members from left to right, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., look on, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing to reveal the findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A harrowing American moment, repackaged for prime time

The Jan. 6 congressional hearings are being held with the help of a big-time television producer, and dramatic revelations have been promised.

A Chinese rug purchased in Beijing in 1979 rests next to a Thai coffee table made from wood and a metal truck wheel bought in Bangkok in 2015. When you live in a multigenerational house, opportunities to blend past and present abound. (AP Photo/Ted Anthony)

In a multigenerational home, design choices can be emotional

When you live in a home passed down from previous generations, deep-time design opportunities lurk around every corner. Opportunities to blend past and present abound.

presenter Chris Rock, left, reacts after being hit on stage by Will Smith while presenting the award for best documentary feature at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

From Hollywood’s illusion factory, some unexpected reality

In the minutes and hours after Will Smith accosted and slapped Chris Rock before a live Oscars audience of millions, many people hurried to social media platforms.

FILE - A man crosses the street in a nearly empty Times Square, which is usually very crowded on a weekday morning in New York on March 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

In America, a few days in March 2020 echo two years later

The conversations went like this: It will be just a few days. It can be kept at bay. There will be some inconvenience, sure, but the world will merely be paused.

Demonstrators supporting Ukraine gather outside the United Nations during an emergency meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, in New York. The U.N.'s two major bodies, the 193-nation General Assembly and the more powerful 15-member Security Council, are holding separate meetings Monday on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

From banking to sports to vodka, Russia’s isolation grows

Russia has been abruptly cut off from the larger world on multiple fronts. Its ability to bank internationally has been curtailed.