For millions upon millions of Black and brown people, the queen was the symbol of historic oppression

For millions upon millions of Black and brown people, the queen was the symbol of historic oppression

Nayyera Haq writes: My mother, now a New Yorker, grew up speaking the Queen’s English. Her father was an Anglophile who excelled as a lawyer in a British legal system. He dressed in tweed jackets, drank tea with milk and smoked a pipe. He also supported the resistance movement, leaving everything behind in Jallander (now India) to migrate to Lyallpur (now Pakistan) when dissolution of the British Raj created new political boundaries and national identities. With the death of Queen…

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With the queen’s death, Britain must let go of its imperial delusions

With the queen’s death, Britain must let go of its imperial delusions

Hari Kunzru writes: The queen bridged the colonial and post-colonial eras. But for those of us who have a complicated relationship to Britain’s imperial past, the continuity represented by Elizabeth was not an unmitigated good. My father’s side of our family was made up of staunch Indian nationalists who worked for the end of imperial rule in 1947. Like many other people around the world whose families fought the British Empire, I reject its mythology of benevolence and enlightenment, and…

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On 9/11, blind luck decided who lived or died

On 9/11, blind luck decided who lived or died

Garrett M. Graff writes: Joseph Lott, a sales representative for Compaq computers, survived one of the deadliest days in modern American history because he had a penchant for “art ties,” neckties featuring famous masterpieces. “It began many years earlier, in the ’90s,” he said in an oral history with StoryCorps. “I love Impressionist paintings, and I use them as a way to make points with my kids. I’d put on an art tie, and then I would ask my kids—I…

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New York’s failing Hasidic Jewish religious schools have benefited from $1 billion in government funding

New York’s failing Hasidic Jewish religious schools have benefited from $1 billion in government funding

The New York Times reports: The Hasidic Jewish community has long operated one of New York’s largest private schools on its own terms, resisting any outside scrutiny of how its students are faring. But in 2019, the school, the Central United Talmudical Academy, agreed to give state standardized tests in reading and math to more than 1,000 students. Every one of them failed. Students at nearly a dozen other schools run by the Hasidic community recorded similarly dismal outcomes that…

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Ukraine’s southern offensive ‘was designed to trick Russia’

Ukraine’s southern offensive ‘was designed to trick Russia’

The Guardian reports: The much-publicised Ukrainian southern offensive was a disinformation campaign to distract Russia from the real one being prepared in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine’s special forces have said. Ukrainian forces are continuing to make unexpected, rapid advances in the north-east of the country, retaking more than a third of the occupied Kharkiv region in three days. Much of Ukraine’s territorial gains were confirmed by Russia’s defence ministry on Saturday. “[It] was a big special disinformation operation,” said Taras…

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In major advance, Ukraine drives Russians out of key eastern city

In major advance, Ukraine drives Russians out of key eastern city

The Wall Street Journal reports: Ukrainian forces seized most of a strategically vital city in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, cutting the main supply line to thousands of Russian troops near the eastern city of Izyum and marking the biggest strategic gain Ukraine has made since the start of an offensive this week. Photos from Russian and Ukrainian channels on Telegram showed Ukrainian soldiers holding the country’s flag in front of the city hall in Kupyansk, and Kremlin-loyal Russian military correspondents…

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Justice Department and Trump legal team clash over special master candidates

Justice Department and Trump legal team clash over special master candidates

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department and lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump failed to agree on Friday on who could serve as an independent arbiter to sift through documents the F.B.I. seized from Mr. Trump’s Florida club and residence last month. In an eight-page joint filing that listed far more points of disagreement than of consensus, the two sides exhibited sharply divergent visions for what the arbiter, known as a special master, would do, and put…

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Stephen Miller among latest Trump aides to be subpoenaed in January 6 case

Stephen Miller among latest Trump aides to be subpoenaed in January 6 case

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department has subpoenaed two former top White House political advisers under President Donald J. Trump as part of a widening investigation related to Mr. Trump’s post-election fund-raising and plans for so-called fake electors, according to people briefed on the matter. Brian Jack, the final White House political director under Mr. Trump, and Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s top speechwriter and a senior policy adviser, were among more than a dozen people connected to the…

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How many grand juries does it take to indict Trump?

How many grand juries does it take to indict Trump?

Susan B. Glasser writes: Outrage has steadily lost its power in American politics throughout the past few years. Among Donald Trump’s many political weapons, his ability to brazen his way through scandals that would derail other politicians has long been perhaps his strongest asset. His signature move is to displace talk of one mind-blowing violation by committing yet another mind-blowing violation—a habit that has now produced numerous investigations of him and once again led the former President to dominate our…

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Once a ‘quintessential pro-life Texan,’ she had to flee her home state to get an abortion

Once a ‘quintessential pro-life Texan,’ she had to flee her home state to get an abortion

CNN reports: Nine years ago, Cade DeSpain messaged a friend about a cute girl he saw on her Facebook feed. The friend introduced him to Kailee Lingo, her sorority sister at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas. Kailee remembers that when she and Cade met, it was “a connection at first sight.” A month after college graduation, Kailee and Cade married in Marble Falls, Texas. They’re both proud to be native Texans: Kailee’s family has lived there for generations, and…

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Uju Anya on her tweet about Queen Elizabeth II

Uju Anya on her tweet about Queen Elizabeth II

The Cut reports: The news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death has been met with public outpourings of grief commemorating her service as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. But not everyone is in mourning. For many impacted by the lasting legacy of the British Empire — one marked by genocide, racism, and exploitation — her death has been met with indifference, rage, and even celebration. “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying,” Uju…

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Why Democrats are winning the culture wars

Why Democrats are winning the culture wars

Politico reports: It’s already the consensus that abortion is going to be a good issue for Democrats in November. What’s only now becoming clear — as Republicans scrub their campaign websites of prior positions on abortion and labor to turn the focus of the midterms back to President Joe Biden and the economy — is just how much the issue is altering the GOP’s standard playbook. For the first time in years, Republican and Democratic political professionals are preparing for…

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Global warming could trigger four climate ‘tipping points,’ new research warns

Global warming could trigger four climate ‘tipping points,’ new research warns

CBS News reports: Even if the world somehow manages to limit future warming to the strictest international temperature goal, four Earth-changing climate “tipping points” are still likely to be triggered with a lot more looming as the planet heats more after that, a new study said. An international team of scientists looked at 16 climate tipping points — when a warming side effect is irreversible, self-perpetuating and major — and calculated rough temperature thresholds at which they are triggered. None…

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As king, will Charles continue speaking out on the environment and climate change?

As king, will Charles continue speaking out on the environment and climate change?

The Associated Press reports: The laws and traditions that govern Britain’s constitutional monarchy dictate that the sovereign must stay out of partisan politics, but Charles has spent much of his adult life speaking out on issues that are important to him, particularly the environment. His words have caused friction with politicians and business leaders who accused the then-Prince of Wales of meddling in issues on which he should have remained silent. The question is whether Charles will follow his mother’s…

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