The U.S. has been turning to its great rival, China, as the best bet to ensure peace in the war-torn nation.

When Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, touched down in Beijing in June, he and 12 of his colleagues were greeted by Chinese officials and treated like state guests. China is rounding up millions of its own Uighur Muslims and locking them up in internment camps. For the Taliban, though, Beijing rolled out the red carpet.

China only announced the visit by the Taliban after the team headed by Baradar had left the country, and still hasn’t revealed who represented Beijing in those talks. But days later, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad announced that his latest negotiations with the Taliban had been his most successful yet. Khalilzad then flew to China for a meeting later that month.

For the moment, talks with the Taliban are off after President Donald Trump stopped negotiations on Saturday following attacks by the group last week. But the sequence of events in June is part of increasing evidence pointing to China’s growing role as the country that is best placed to play guarantor of any future stability in Afghanistan.

North Carolina high school sophomore Kayla Davis has a pro career and 2020 in her sights.

Katina Davis knew, maybe even as early as the moment she gave birth to her daughter, that Kayla would be fast.

And, in a sense, it was no surprise to anyone: Katina had earned a track scholarship to the University of Iowa, and her husband, Jeremy, earned a basketball scholarship to UNC Greensboro.

But how fast? That answer would reveal itself when Kayla was 7 years old, one Sunday afternoon in Katina’s hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. Katina recalls the family had just left church with her father and made a stop at a friend’s house that had a dog — a medium lab and bull terrier mix that wasn’t shy about chasing people.

Both sweet and savory, this beloved Middle Eastern dish inspires a food fight over its origins.

In Nablus, a Palestinian city in the modern-day West Bank, each family has their own favorite way of preparing the dessert their home is famous for: knafeh. Both sweet and savory, the dish is a vermicelli-like dough soaked in sweet, sugary syrup, layered with mozzarella-like cheese and topped with nuts. The recipes are subject to fierce debate, and are now becoming ever more varied, with low-sugar, gluten-free and even pistachio-ice-cream-topped versions.

The dessert has a long history, dating back centuries — perhaps as far back as the 10th century — but there is no dispute over where it was first created: in Nablus. Since then, it’s become a beloved treat across the Middle East — so much so that multiple nations try to claim it as their own, a culinary kerfuffle almost as heated as the centuries-long conflicts that have ravaged the region.