The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy - Is a controversial curriculum, entrenched in New York City’s public schools for two decades, finally coming undone? - link
Mikhail Gorbachev, the Fundamentally Soviet Man - The last leader of the U.S.S.R. attempted to modernize and reform his country, even as he failed to imagine it as anything but an empire. - link
Biden’s Student-Debt Plan Could Chip Away at the Racial Wealth Gap - Loan forgiveness and other measures don’t solve the problem of rising tuition costs, but they could help some Black families start to catch up. - link
The Fantasy Behind Queen Elizabeth II’s Reign - The monarchy presents itself as a “mysterious and magical inheritor of an endless past.” Would Britain be better off without it? - link
How Trump Supporters Came to Hate the Police - At the Capitol riot and elsewhere, MAGA Republicans have leaped from “backing the blue” to attacking law-enforcement officials. - link
From Vox
The beginner’s guide to running -
Denis Novikov/Getty Images
Getting into running — even as a complete beginner — is easier than you think.
Just about 18 years ago, I embarked on what would become the longest relationship of my life — with running. The early days of our love affair were far from blissful, though. An angsty pre-teen who enrolled in my town’s youth track and field program, I was initially unaware of what a running routine might look like in practice. (Consistency would be the key word.) Despite many threats to quit, over time I noticed improvements to my endurance, speed, and overall mood. Nearly two decades later, I’m the stereotypical freak who runs a 5K on holidays and encourages friends to consider an easy jog a few times a week.
The beauty of the sport is its relatively low barrier to entry. From 12-year-old suburban kids trying a new activity to retirees looking for a change of pace, vast populations of people have the ability to lace up a pair of shoes and move their body — and reap the benefits. (Of course, those with specific health conditions and disabilities may not be able to partake.) Just a few minutes of running a day substantially reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, and improves mental health, mood, and sleep quality. “I think that’s a great thing about running: It doesn’t have a prerequisite,” says Jasmine Nesi, co-founder of RUNGRL, a community for Black women distance runners.
Before you hit the streets, the trails, the track, or the treadmill, there are a few things you should keep in mind to ensure you’re staying safe and prepared, mentally and physically.
Before you start
Prior to your first run, take stock of where you are health-wise. Jill Angie, a running coach, the founder of Not Your Average Runner, and the host of the podcast of the same name, suggests her coaching clients build a base of comfortably walking for two to three miles before any running is introduced. If you experience any pain in your knees, hips, shins, or feet while walking, running will likely exacerbate the issues, Angie says, so first get checked out by a physical therapist or sports medicine specialist.
Getting clearance from your primary care doctor to run is a good idea in theory, Angie says, but can sometimes backfire for fat people. “With the women that I work with — usually fat women over 40 — it’s very common that the doctor will say, ‘Well, you need to lose weight before you start running,’” she says. “That’s actually not a thing. You can run. I’ve been a fat runner for 25 years. I’m doing great.”
Start with a sports doctor first if you’re experiencing any pain while walking, but if not, you should be good to start adding some running into the mix.
What you’ll need
Running is relatively low maintenance in terms of gear. Sure, there are tons of pricey accessories runners can splurge on, but beginners can (and probably should) do without the bells and whistles. One piece of equipment deserving of time and attention, though, is your shoes. “It’s always appealing to go with the sexy Nike shoes,” Nesi says. “But sometimes it’s not the right shoe for you.”
While this seems like extra credit, experts are unanimous in their advice to visit a specialty running store to have your gait — how your legs move while running — evaluated and to try shoes recommended based on your body and support needs. For instance, if you overpronate — your ankle rolls down and inward when you take a step — specialists at the store will be able to identify that while watching you walk and recommend a shoe with more stability and support.
A good pair of shoes can be the difference between a successful start to the sport and suffering with shin splints. Most stores will allow you to run in each pair of shoes for a few minutes either on a treadmill in the store or on the street or in the parking lot before you purchase them, and many have a generous return policy if you decide they’re not for you. So take your time, choose the shoe based on how it feels and not how it looks or the size (sizing differs from brand to brand and some might run smaller than others). If you don’t live near a running store, Angie suggests scheduling a virtual fitting so professionals can walk through the process with you and make footwear recommendations.
Another non-negotiable for runners with breasts is a sports bra. It’s important to support breasts while exercising since the ligaments connecting the breast tissue to the chest stretch over time. Breasts have little support on their own and can move around during exercise, which can be extremely uncomfortable. “If you’re an A or a B cup you can probably get away with the ones that don’t have hooks,” Angie says. “If you’re a C or a D cup or higher, you need a high-impact, motion control-rated bra.”
As far as attire goes, try to avoid cotton when you can, Nesi says, since it’ll soak up sweat as you run and weigh you down. Otherwise, don’t break the bank on workout attire or high-end watches. You likely have everything you need already, including a phone where you can download free apps like Strava, MapMyRun, and Runkeeper to track your time and mileage.
Denis Novikov/Getty Images
Set some goals
Aiming for certain achievements or milestones can help you stay motivated by giving you something to work toward. Before you rush out and register for a 5K, Emily Bennewies, a running coach for Wellness in Motion, says goals can range from running a certain distance to jogging for a specific amount of time without taking a break.
Liz Coda, another Wellness in Motion running coach (full disclosure: Coda is a friend of my boyfriend), says it can be helpful to set both “process goals” and “outcome goals.” Outcome goals are big picture: “I’d like to complete a Kk” or “I want to run a mile in 10 minutes.” Process goals focus on the experience of running. What are you trying to get out of your runs? This can be as simple as “I’m really stressed out from work and I need something that I can blow off steam” or “I find on the days that I go for a run I sleep better at night.” “Focusing on really tiny short-term goals where you actually do feel the effects,” Coda says, “is what’s going to allow you to stay in it long enough that you will achieve the longer-term goal.”
Getting going
A common misconception among new runners is the notion that in order to successfully run, you must hoof it as fast as you can for as long as you can, Angie says. Not so fast — literally. Coaches are huge proponents of a run-walk plan to start where you jog comfortably (not a sprint!) for 30 seconds, then walk for a minute, then repeat for 20 minutes or so. You can play with the duration of the running and walking segments based on how you feel. Maybe you can run for three minutes and walk for one and then bump up to five minutes of running. “Running a mile if you’ve never run a mile before in your life is not an easy thing to do,” Coda says. “And it’s not something that we just expect you to all of a sudden be able to do.”
Instead of focusing on distance and speed, start by being intentional about how many days you’d like to run, Bennewies says, and homing in on how you feel. Running based on effort instead of time can help you determine what feels manageable for your body. Then, once you feel strong after a few weeks of, say, three run-walks a week, you can start to slightly increase the distance of those runs. After that, you can consider upping your pace if getting faster is one of your goals. “It’s more about focusing on one thing at a time so you don’t hurt yourself or overwhelm yourself,” Bennewies says.
When you want to quit
Even the most experienced athletes struggle with dips in motivation and progress. To help get through those mornings when you’d rather be sleeping than working out, Angie recommends paying attention to how you feel when you’re done running. Let the sense of accomplishment fuel you.
Acknowledging the physically demanding aspects of running is natural — running requires effort, after all! But when “This is hard” morphs into defeating self-talk, it’s time to reframe your inner monologue. Be your own hype person, Angie says, and focus on how far you’ve come and how amazing your body is for doing this. Coda and Bennewies like repeating a mantra during a workout or a race to stay mentally grounded: “I belong” or “I know this is going to be hard but I can do this. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.” (One of my mantras is “Make it count.”)
There will be days when you miss a run or don’t hit a goal, which can be a blow to your confidence. Life happens: Days are busy, the weather can be less than hospitable, or you might not be in the mood. That’s fine. Remember, rest days are essential, as is not getting down on yourself if progress comes more slowly than you hoped. Deviation from a plan or preconceived notion of what a runner “should” be is not admitting defeat. “The whole point is to try something new and get better,” Nesi says.
You may feel compelled to compare yourself to other runners, curious how your times, distances, and body stack up to others (or even yourself from 10 years ago). The false narratives created when equating yourself to other athletes — I’m not fast enough, I don’t have a “runner’s body” — can lead you to think you’re not worthy of considering yourself a runner. Nip these unhelpful thoughts in the bud and remember you’re running for you and not for anyone else. “If you run, you are a runner,” Coda says. “And if you are a runner who has a body, that is a runner’s body.”
Similarly, runners of all levels, especially women, may experience external concerns in the form of harassment. When someone makes an inappropriate comment about your body or appearance, “it’s very easy to make it mean something about yourself,” Angie says. “I shouldn’t be out here, I look terrible in my running clothes, I’m so slow.” Easier in concept than in practice, remember that you can’t control others’ opinions or actions, only your own reaction. “I don’t let any of that kind of stuff interfere with my running,” Angie says.
If you choose to run outside, there are a few things to consider to stay physically safe. Experts advise remaining aware of your surroundings, avoiding running in the dark, texting a friend telling them you’re going for a run before you depart, having your phone on you, avoiding wearing headphones if running alone on trails, switching up your running routes so potential bad actors won’t know where you’ll be each day, and running with a group or in a highly visible and trafficked area. If you use a run tracker like Strava, make sure to update your privacy settings so you’re not broadcasting your route home.
Hacks to help make a habit
Having a support system can make a solitary sport more communal. Local running stores often host group runs; if they don’t, you can ask the associate who helped fit you for shoes if they know of any groups. Many running groups have a social media presence, so do a little sleuthing on Instagram or Facebook by searching for “running clubs” and your city or town.
Adding a social component to your runs helps you meet others in your community and provides validation and solidarity when your motivation is lagging: people to complain with, people to rejoice with, people to get a pizza with after a tough workout. “Maybe you’re not super excited about going out and running three or four miles,” Coda says, “but you’re excited about the people that you’ve been becoming friends with.”
When you’re first embarking on a running practice, it’s easy to feel like your goals are unreachable. Process goals give you periodic reminders to celebrate the progress you’ve made. Run a mile for the first time? Jogged for 15 minutes straight without walking? “Do something nice for yourself!” Nesi says. “Find those small wins because running is so temperamental. There could be a good day, then there’s a bad day right after it, then you’re back to a good day. So I think you’ve got to find the reasons to celebrate.”
Sometimes even the biggest wins, the most supportive crews, or the best-fitting shoes don’t make running fun. That’s fine. If you’re actively dreading your runs and genuinely feel like the sport isn’t for you, it’s okay to move on. But, if you’re frustrated you aren’t reaching your goals as quickly as you’d like, Nesi and Angie suggest reconsidering. “Running rewards consistency,” Nesi says. “So if you want to become a better runner, know that it’s available for you with some patience, with some grace, with consistency, and hard work.”
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The GOP is learning just how hard it is to legislate abortion -
A file photo from Aug. 30, 2022 shows protesters holding signs inside the South Carolina Statehouse as lawmakers debate an abortion ban. | Sean Rayford/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Ahead of the midterms, severe abortion restrictions are coming up against public opinion — and people’s real lives.
South Carolina’s state senateon Thursday refused to pass a bill that would outlaw abortion after fertilization, with some exceptions, despite a Republican majority in that body. In South Carolina, as in states like Michigan, Kansas, Idaho, and Indiana, the challenge of legislating such extreme bans is becoming increasingly apparent — and abortion is becoming a landmine issue for Republicans..
Five Republican senators joined Democrats in opposing the bill in South Carolina’s Senate, with GOP Sen. Tom Davis threatening a filibuster should the measure as written come to a vote. Davis joined all three Republican women in the senate, as well as one male GOP colleague, in filibustering the House’s severe restrictions; Davis and one woman Republican senator, Penry Gustafson, voted in favor of the compromise measure.
South Carolina has already passed an onerous law banning abortion after six weeks, with exceptions up to 20 weeks in the case of rape or incest. The compromise legislation the senate did pass reduces that time period to 12 weeks and requires police to collect DNA from an aborted fetus.
It is more restrictive than the so-called Fetal Heartbeat Bill the General Assembly passed last year, before the Supreme Court decided the Dobbs vs. Jackson case which overturned Roe v. Wade, but avoids the total ban, with no exceptions, that House Republicans initially attempted to pass. That ban is stayed while South Carolina’s Supreme Court hears a challenge to the law under the right to privacy, and the state’s pre-Dobbs 20-week ban is presently in effect, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Thursday’s defeat of the South Carolina bill, as well as a number of legal challenges to similarly restrictive measures in states like Idaho, North Dakota, and Indiana and ballot measures to protect abortion rights in Michigan and Kansas, speaks to the practical difficulties in passing and enforcing abortion bans.
“We have a tendency to think of banning abortion as an on-off switch,” Rachel Rebouché, the dean of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law told Vox on Saturday. But in a post-Dobbs landscape, “the amount of legal complexity is going to amplify.” That is playing out, she said, as restrictions in states like Idaho and North Dakota have faced court challenges, and in legislatures as the dangers of severely restricting abortion access become clear.
South Carolina got a reality check on abortion restrictions
South Carolina’s House of Representatives wrote the thwarted bill banning abortion after fertilization; although it passed there, and the 30-member Republican majority in the Senate had enough votes to pass it, they didn’t have a filibuster-proof majority. Senate Democrats exploited that vulnerability, and made a coalition with Davis, as well as Sens. Katrina Shealy, Sandy Senn, and Penry Gustafson — all women — and one other Republican.
“Yes, I’m pro-life,” Shealy, who had previously voted for abortion restrictions, said during Thursday’s special session. “I’m also pro-life for the mother, the life she has with her children who are already born. I care about the children who are forced into adulthood that was made up by a legislature full of men so they can take a victory lap and feel good about it.”
Ultimately, Republicans had to go back to the negotiating table and came out with a six-week ban and more onerous restrictions on abortions after rape and incest. The original bill, which passed the House, had exceptions for rape and incest, as well as the life and health of the mother, Rep. Neal Collins (R) told Vox. “The Senate […] passed a bill that bans abortion after six weeks, with the same exceptions as well as [exceptions for] fetal anomalies, which is pretty much the same exact bill that we passed last year, we called it the Fetal Heartbeat Bill.”
Now, the bill will have to go back to the House, which can either concur with the Senate version of the bill, or not — in which case the General Assembly would have to form a committee of three Democrats and three Republicans from each chamber to try and come to a compromise that suits both chambers. That could happen as soon as next week.
The new bill restricts the exceptions for rape and incest to twelve weeks, a significant departure from the Fetal Heartbeat Bill which allows exceptions up to 20 weeks. The new bill also requires two doctors to affirm that fetal anomalies are fatal, and mandates that DNA from an abortion due to rape and incest go to law enforcement. “I presume that’s for evidence-gathering in case they’re going after whoever is raping or committing incest,” Collins said.
The special session brought into stark relief what happens when the rhetoric of anti-choice politicians clashes with real life — real people’s problems, needs, and beliefs — after the Supreme Court demolished the legal guardrails of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto (D) told Vox.
“[Anti-choice legislators] could make whatever political points they wanted to, because they had a backstop,” he said. “They knew nothing they passed was ever going to go into effect. They could pass all they wanted to, and it didn’t matter — and it allowed them to let their rhetoric to just soar to the red meat of their party, because they could gin up the party knowing that nothing they said was ever going to be enacted into law. Then, all of a sudden […] it’s like the dog that caught the bus.”
South Carolina legislators are now understanding, as well, that a full abortion restriction is not popular with voters, Hutto said. National polling on the topic indicates as much; a Pew Research study released just prior to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade shows that 61 percent of Americans support abortion in all or some cases. Those numbers can be abstract when extrapolated to a legislative district. But legislators are now having to confront what those numbers mean in context; in a Facebook post dated August 30, Collins wrote that he polled his most conservative constituents regarding abortion access. Of the 43 surveys which were returned, “The results clearly show the vast majority of even very conservative people want exceptions to abortion,” he wrote.
“Even churchgoing, Southern Baptist, conservative ladies” by and large aren’t willing to impose their own beliefs about abortion onto others, Hutto said, challenging the monolithic concept of southern voters and indicating that abortion could be a major issue in the November midterms — even in a conservative state like South Carolina. “The governor’s race in South Carolina is now competitive,” Hutto said. Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican who ascended to the office when Nikki Haley left to join the Trump administration, indicated he would sign a total abortion ban if it came across his desk; with that statement on the record, and abortion becoming an increasingly contentious issue for voters, Democrats have at least a chance at taking the governor’s mansion in November. “Choice is on the ballot,” Hutto said.
There are many levers of pressure against abortion restrictions
Among the several states with abortion bans on the books, only some have actually been able to go into full effect in the wake of the Dobbs decision. Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Missouri, Idaho and Tennessee all have in place bans on nearly all abortions, with only some states offering exceptions in the case of serious health risks to the parent. Six-week bans have taken effect in Ohio, Kentucky, and Georgia have taken effect but are being challenged in court, as is Florida’s 15-week ban, the Idaho, Louisiana, and Kentucky laws, and a Wisconsin ban dating from 1849, according to CNN.
Lawsuits are a meaningful method of fighting these laws, or at least delaying them, even after Dobbs, Rebouché told Vox. “Overturning Roe has not kept abortion out of courts,” she said, adding that “it’s a matter of time” before the bans enacted face a challenge of some sort. That could look like state-level legislation protecting abortion, referenda to codify abortion rights in state constitutions, and pressure from international human rights bodies and corporations, though neither of those bodies have any legislative or enforcement power.
“Some of our states are really outliers in the international order on abortion,” Rebouché said. “International rights bodies have taken countries to task over these kinds of things,” and “stigma and shame” can be very powerful motivators.
But securing the right to abortion right now depends on the interplay between voter participation and the courts, a dynamic that played out recently in Michigan. Voters will have a referendum on their midterm ballots in November, after the state’s Supreme Court knocked down a state election board’s decision to omit the measure from the ballot over typographical errors on petitions calling for the referendum, as the New York Times reported Thursday.
In August, Kansas voters soundly defeated the legislature’s attempt to inject language into the state’s constitution which would have explicitly stated that it does not grant the right to an abortion, as the Associated Press reported at the time. The Kansas Supreme Court in 2019 had affirmed the right to an abortion under the state’s Bill of Rights; the August referendum upheld that judgement.
“Kansas was a shock to everyone’s systems,” David Cohen, a professor at Drexel University’s Thomas Kline School of Law and Rebouché’s co-author on a paper about the post-Dobbs legal landscape called “The New Abortion Battleground,” told Vox. “I don’t think anyone saw what happened coming.” Michigan, though, “is going to give us a big look at the future,” in terms of how states might navigate around abortion bans and legally enshrine the right to abortion. California and Vermont have such referenda on their ballots this coming November, but the outcome in those situations is likely more predictable than in Kansas, Michigan, or Kentucky, which has a ballot initiative to eliminate Kentuckians’ right to abortion under the state constitution.
In the long term, the Supreme Court’s makeup will have to change before there’s any real challenge to Dobbs, Cohen said. “As soon as that happens, [progressives] will be the ones asking the court to overturn precedent,” which could take the form of arguments on the grounds of religious freedom, the vagueness of anti-abortion legislation, equal protection claims, and right to travel claims, Cohen said.
In the meantime, should support for abortion rights rally voters in November, as Democrats are hoping it will, the calculus of what’s possible at the federal level could change, too, Cohen said. While a number of Republican senators have tried to propose nationwide restrictions on the right to abortion, others, like Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) have discerned that the momentum and appetite for such measures isn’t there. “I just don’t see the momentum at the federal level,” he told the Washington Post July 25 — before the anti-abortion measure in his own state failed.
As legislators are forced to confront how unpopular abortion bans actually are and how difficult they are to enforce, there’s potentially more room for pushback in the form of legal protections. The Women’s Health Protection Act, which failed in the Senate in May and which President Joe Biden has promised to sign should it pass, could have a chance if Democrats hold on to the House and pick up enough Senate seats. “Would I ever put money on that? No,” Cohen said. “But there’s a chance.”
Queen Elizabeth II and the long 20th century -
Queen Elizabeth II at the welcome ceremony for the president of the Italian Republic in London, on March 15, 2005. | Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
Why the queen was history’s greatest spectator.
On Thursday afternoon, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, Queen Elizabeth II died at 96. She occupied the British throne for 70 years, making her the UK’s longest-reigning monarch.
“Occupied” is perhaps the key word here. While the queen’s official powers were greater than many might think in a constitutional monarchy — according to the letter of the English law, the monarch can choose to appoint or dismiss the prime minister, for instance — in practice they were never exercised to their fullest extent, nor would they have ever been.
The queen’s position, if not the continued existence of the British monarchy, was dependent on remaining outside the actual political sphere. The British government of the day ruled in her name from Westminster, but it is considered unconstitutional for the monarch to even vote.
As a result, Elizabeth spent seven decades in one of the world’s most high-profile positions… without taking direct political action. She met everyone worth meeting, traveled over a million miles and visited over 115 countries, welcomed 15 British prime ministers to office — all without doing anything other than being her often silent royal self. That made her, in a sense, history’s greatest spectator.
And the history she witnessed was more than just the cumulative weight of 70 years. During those decades the world changed as it never has before — sometimes for the worse, often for the better — and Queen Elizabeth II observed it all from a singular perch.
The end of empire
When her father King George VI died on February 6, 1952, the future queen was at a remote game-viewing camp in Kenya — so remote, in fact, that she didn’t receive word of his death and her ascension until four hours after the fact.
Today, of course, news of the queen’s death spread across the internet instantaneously — despite efforts to control the news, it soon leaked out over Twitter. And Kenya is no longer a British colonial territory, as it was in 1952, but a country of its own that will soon celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence.
Over the course of her reign, Britain went from more than 70 overseas territories — like Hong Kong and Singapore in East Asia, Yemen in the Middle East, and Guyana in South America — to what is mostly a handful of sparsely populated islands. Even the United Kingdom itself may be destined for dissolution, with a whole Ireland a real possibility and Scotland once again threatening an independence vote.
As it was when she was crowned in 1953, Britain is still a nuclear power, and still holds one of the five permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council. But six years after the Brexit vote, Britain’s international influence is at a nadir; or at least it would be, if it didn’t seem likely to fall even further as the economically troubled nation girds for what is shaping up to be a cost-of-living crisis this winter.
To be clear, the evaporation of empire that Elizabeth witnessed is nothing to lament. If self-determination — the right of people to decide their own destiny in the international order — is sacrosanct, then the fact that more than 700 million people at the time of Elizabeth’s coronation effectively lived under the rule of a foreign government was a historical wrong that had to be righted.
70 years is a long time
Anyone who sits on a throne for 70 years will witness a changing world. But Elizabeth’s reign was so unique because the seven decades she spent as queen were so unique.
Compare Elizabeth to another historical monarch who reigned for almost as long: King Louis XIV of France, the fabled “Sun King.” (Louis was technically king for longer than Elizabeth was queen, but he spent the first eight years of his reign under a regency. I’ll let the scholars of royalty sort it out.) Between Louis’s ascension to the throne in 1643 and his death in 1715, per-capita GDP barely budged in France. Progress, as we know it, was essentially stagnant, as it was just about everywhere in the world.
During Elizabeth’s time, however, per-capita GDP in the United Kingdom more than tripled, part of a wave of economic growth that began in the 1800s with the Industrial Revolution, and truly took off globally in the postwar era. Life expectancy in the UK was just under 70 years in 1953 — today it is north of 80.
And the changes were even greater over these decades in many of the developing countries that once made up the British Empire. Shortly before the queen’s death, India — which spent nearly a century under direct British rule — overtook the UK as the world’s fifth-largest economy.
Much of that progress was the result of technological changes that Elizabeth witnessed firsthand. She was the first British monarch to have her coronation televised live, sent her first email in 1976, and her first tweet in 2014. Her first Christmas message to her subjects was broadcast over the radio — her final one could be streamed on YouTube.
Homosexuality was only legalized in Britain in 1967, more than a decade into her reign. In 2018, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, a cousin of Elizabeth’s, became the first British royal to marry their same-sex partner.
If part of the queen’s appeal was her sheer longevity, that longevity mattered all the more because it unfolded over a period of unprecedented change. The 18th-century France that existed at the end of Louis XIV’s reign would have seemed hardly different to the young king more than 70 years before, in terms of technology, economy, and social mores.
The United Kingdom of 2022 — and indeed the world as a whole — would be unrecognizable to the 25-year-old woman who was anointed at Westminster Abbey in 1953. And the pace of change to come, for King Charles III and his successors, seems only likely to accelerate. One of those changes, in the UK at least, will assuredly be the monarchy itself. As Dylan Matthews wrote in 2015, constitutional monarchies can have real value, ensuring one figure is of politics without being in them. But that role may have died with the queen. The trappings of monarchy may be transferrable to Charles, a figure all too familiar to the British public, but likely not the spirit embodied by Elizabeth.
Queen Elizabeth II did not cause any of these changes of her reign, but she did witness them from a uniquely privileged vantage. And her passing is a reminder of just how long 70 years really is — especially these 70 years.
A version of this story was initially published in the Future Perfect newsletter. Sign up here to subscribe!
From The Hindu: Sports
Ganton, Jawai, Glorious Sunshine catch the eye -
Attained, Enlightened and Gazino please -
Eng vs SA third Test | Marco Jansen gets career-best figures as South Africa move ahead - The series is poised at 1-1 after both sides won by an innings inside three days in the first two games.
We forcefully played in wet conditions, says Harmanpreet - The Indian skipper backed her teammates and added that despite the wet conditions, everyone in the team continued to give their best
Iga Swiatek beats Ons Jabeur for 1st U.S. Open title, 3rd Slam - Iga Swiatek has defeated Ons Jabeur 6-2, 7-6 (5) to win her first U.S. Open championship and third Grand Slam title overall
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Orissa HC orders health survey of workers engaged in thermal power plants - A case was registered pursuant to the January 31, 2014 judgment of SC that heard a petition regarding the health hazards faced by CFTPP workers
PM Modi to visit Uzbekistan on September 15-16 to attend SCO Summit - The Prime Minister is also likely to hold a few bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.
Refitting Pakistan F-16s | India raised ‘strong objections’ with top U.S. official - During meetings with country’s Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu in Delhi last week, India raised strong objections over U.S. sale of F-16 spares package to Pakistan
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Ukraine counter-offensive: Russian forces retreat as Ukraine takes key towns - The Ukrainian advances - if held - would be the most significant since Russia withdrew from near Kyiv in April.
Ukraine has retaken 1,000 square kilometres in a week - Zelensky - Kyiv says a lightning counter-offensive has recaptured vast swathes of territory in its south and east.
Sweden election: Gang shootings cast shadow over vote - Violent crime is a top issue for voters going to the polls on Sunday.
From Ars Technica
Mando and Grogu are a clan of two in The Mandalorian S3 teaser - Plus final Andor trailer, Bad Batch S2 delay, and animated Tales of the Jedi trailer - link
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From Jokes Subreddit
Why was my post removed? -
Can anyone tell me why my post was removed?
I’m a bit annoyed by this because my fence has fallen over.
Yesterday at the zoo I was allowed into the lion enclosure -
I said to the lion handler “What do I do if the lion tries to attack me?”
He replied “Don’t be afraid it’s very simple, if the lion charges you, reach behind your back, grab a pile of shit off the ground and throw it in the lions face”
I said to him “But what if I reach behind me and there is no pile of shit on the ground?”
And the lion handler said “Don’t worry, it’ll be there”
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Denis Novikov/Getty Images
