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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have to "face the reality" that if they attend the coronation of King Charles in May that they will only do so as "fringe players" with no official ceremonial roles, a prominent royal biographer has told a new episode of Newsweek 's The Royal Report podcast. Sally Bedell Smith, a royal expert and author of the soon-to-be-released George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Shaped the Monarchy , gave her thoughts on the hotly debated topic of Harry and Meghan's potential appearance at the king's coronation in a discussion with chief royal correspondent, Jack Royston. Speculation over whether the couple would attend, or be invited, after the release of their bombshell media projects in recent months was increased in January when Harry swerved the question when asked about it in an interview with ITV's Tom Bradby. Asked whether he would attend the May 6 ceremony or not, the prince said: "There's a lot that can happen between now and … [Read more...] about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be “fringe players” at the coronation

RESTLESS GIANT The United States From Watergate to Bush v. Gore. By James T. Patterson. Illustrated. 448 pp. Oxford University Press. $35. THIS is first-rate history by a first-rate historian. Unlike many of his brethren, James T. Patterson can write, and he understands the value of vivid detail, using "Annie Hall," "Norma Rae" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" to help explain the women's movement. What's more, he can think, and he offers analysis and interpretation that is consistently sensible, if sometimes a trifle Panglossian. The events he describes make up the history -- social, economic and political -- of the United States during the final quarter of the 20th century, from Richard Nixon's departure from the White House and America's departure from Vietnam to the bitter partisanship of Bill Clinton's impeachment and Bush v. Gore. In between, he recalls the Ford and Carter administrations and the Iranian hostage crisis, the rise of Ronald Reagan and the resurgence of … [Read more...] about ‘Restless Giant’: The Rich and the Rest

Before there was mounting drama surrounding whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would attend the coronation of King Charles III in May, another high-profile royal couple's coronation speculation dominated headlines in the aftermath of one of the biggest controversies the British monarchy has ever faced. Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor, inherited the throne in January 1936 but by November he was living in exile from Britain, before he could have his own coronation. Here, Newsweek answers a reader's question as to whether the duke and his polarizing American-born wife, Wallis Simpson, attended coronations after the abdication. Did Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor Attend The Coronation of King George VI or Queen Elizabeth II? The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson did not attend any coronation in Britain after the abdication crisis of 1936. When Edward VIII inherited the throne from his father, King George V, in January 1936 he was involved in a … [Read more...] about Did Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor attend the coronation?

The Atlantic for the second straight year was awarded the top honor of General Excellence for a News, Sports, and Entertainment publication at the 2023 National Magazine Awards, the most prestigious category in the annual honors from the American Society of Magazine Editors. The Atlantic regularly produces the most ambitious, challenging, and beautifully written stories in the country.” The Atlantic helped its readers make sense of the world’s most complicated issues and shined a light on injustices the world over. It was a finalist in a number of the most competitive categories for reporting and features by staff writers Caitlin Dickerson, George Packer, Jennifer Senior, Clint Smith, and Graeme Wood––several of which appeared as Atlantic cover stories in 2022: Staff writer Caitlin Dickerson was a finalist in the Public Interest category for the September cover story, “ We Need to Take Away Children ,” an exhaustive, 18-month-long investigation exposing the secret … [Read more...] about The Atlantic Wins Top Honor of General Excellence for Second Straight Year at 2023 National Magazine Awards

Season 3, Episode 3: ‘4-5-1’ Welcome to the Zava era. For those who skipped the first two episodes of this third season of “Ted Lasso” — and honestly, shame on you; go back , do the homework and rejoin us — Ted’s team has signed one of the greatest players of the age, a mercurial striker named Zava. (He is based closely on the real-life star Zlatan Ibrahimovic .) This was accomplished by Rebecca rudely accosting him while he was using a urinal last episode . Whatever works, right? Zava is immediately weird — showing up hours late with his cellphone on another continent, ostentatiously meditating while the rest of the team prepares for games, and so on. But so far he seems reasonably friendly, even if his preferred alignment is everyone in the midfield or on defense except him. This is the meaning of the episode’s title, “4-5-1”: He’s the “1.” As the coaches explain, all free kicks will be taken by Zava. All penalty kicks will be taken by Zava. And all corner kicks must be … [Read more...] about ‘Ted Lasso,’ Season 3, Episode 3 Recap: Zava Superstar

The roads surrounding the Jerusalén-San Luis Alto Picudito Indigenous reservation in Putumayo, Colombia, are treacherous on a good day. Made mostly of gravel and mud, they narrow to barely the width of a small truck in some places, and in others, especially after a storm, they yield almost completely to the many rivers with which they intersect. They also twist and turn and bump without stop. So, in the most difficult months of her pregnancy, when everything tasted like cardboard and it hurt even to sit or stand, Marleny Mesa avoided traveling altogether. This meant skipping checkups at the clinic in Villagarzón, which could take two hours or more to get to. But Marleny wasn’t overly worried. A nurse had assured her early in her pregnancy that her blood work was good and that everything looked fine. As a midwife herself, Marleny knew that making the trip would be riskier than missing a few doctor’s visits. But now, in the final days of her pregnancy, she could not shake the feeling … [Read more...] about The Incredible Challenge of Counting Every Global Birth and Death

On the morning of Oct. 5, President Bush and his education secretary, Margaret Spellings, paid a visit, along with camera crews from CNN and Fox News, to Friendship-Woodridge Elementary and Middle Campus, a charter public school in Washington. The president dropped in on two classrooms, where he asked the students, almost all of whom were African-American and poor, if they were planning to go to college. Every hand went up. “See, that’s a good sign,” the president told the students when they assembled later in the gym. “Going to college is an important goal for the future of the United States of America.” He singled out one student, a black eighth grader named Asia Goode, who came to Woodridge four years earlier reading “well below grade level.” But things had changed for Asia, according to the president. “Her teachers stayed after school to tutor her, and she caught up,” he said. “Asia is now an honors student. She loves reading, and she sings in the school choir.” Bush’s Woodridge … [Read more...] about What It Takes to Make a Student

“I feel like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Who are these guys that just keep coming?” — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. It was the weekend of Sept. 13, and the moment Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had feared for months was finally upon him: Lehman Brothers was hurtling toward bankruptcy — fast. Knowing that Lehman had billions of dollars in bad investments on its books, Mr. Paulson had long urged Lehman’s chief executive, Richard S. Fuld Jr., to find a solution for his firm’s problems. “He was asked to aggressively look for a buyer,” Mr. Paulson recalled in an interview. But Lehman could not — despite what Mr. Paulson described as personal pleas to other firms to buy some of Lehman’s toxic assets and efforts to persuade another bank to acquire Lehman. With all options closed, he said, the government’s hands were tied. Although the Federal Reserve had helped bail out Bear Stearns — and was within days of bailing out the giant insurer American … [Read more...] about Struggling to Keep Up as the Crisis Raced On

I. A Broken Economy As Barack Obama prepares to accept the Democratic nomination this week, it is clear that the economic policies of the next president are going to be hugely important. Ever since Wall Street bankers were called back from their vacations last summer to deal with the convulsions in the mortgage market, the economy has been lurching from one crisis to the next. The International Monetary Fund has described the situation as “the largest financial shock since the Great Depression.” The details are too technical for most of us to understand. (They’re too technical for many bankers to understand, which is part of the problem.) But the root cause is simple enough. In some fundamental ways, the American economy has stopped working. The fact that the economy grows — that it produces more goods and services one year than it did in the previous one — no longer ensures that most families will benefit from its growth. For the first time on record, an economic expansion seems … [Read more...] about Obamanomics

One of the Republican Party’s most astute pols, Representative Tom Davis of Virginia, recently reflected on his party’s status among voters. In a 20-page memo for his colleagues, Davis wrote, “If we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf.” Bad as things are, they may get worse. The signs of Republican trouble are everywhere. Eighty-one percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, the worst number since The New York Times and CBS started asking the question in 1991. Consumer sentiment in May, as measured by the University of Michigan, was at its lowest level in 28 years. Republicans have lost three consecutive special elections for House seats in rock-ribbed Republican districts, a particularly ominous harbinger of electoral catastrophe. Yet Democratic successes right now are driven more by Republican failures than by an enthusiastic public embrace of what Democrats stand for. The Democratic-controlled Congress, after all, has a lower approval rating … [Read more...] about Back to the Center