{
  "id": 17849659,
  "title": "As Most of England Relaxed Its Stance on Witchcraft, One Hardline City Bucked the Trend. It Even Went After 'Service Magicians,' Who Used Magic to Investigate Petty Crimes",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/02/as-most-of-england-relaxed-its-stance-on-witchcraft-one-hardline-city",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-11-02T19:47:10.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Smithsonian",
    "slug": "smithsonian",
    "url": "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/as-most-of-england-relaxed-its-stance-on-witchcraft-one-hardline-city-bucked-the-trend-it-even-went-after-service-magicians-who-used-magic-to-investigate-petty-crimes-180989794/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "New historical research shows how the city of Exeter hunted down accused witches while the rest of the country relented. Its prosecution of benign local sleuths shows how far the authorities were willing to go",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}