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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Friday, September 9th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news, and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
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Queen Elizabeth II has died at 96. She reigned over the United Kingdom for 70 years, longer than anyone, and was the world's oldest monarch. She became queen at age 25 in 1952. Harry Truman was the president.
Many Britons saw Queen Elizabeth as a steady presence during difficult times. She ruled over the country as it transitioned from an empire to a commonwealth and the super-power that it is today. In 1957, she delivered her first televised Christmas broadcast.
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Queen Elizabeth II: It's inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you. A successor to the Kings and Queens of history. Someone whose face may be familiar in newspapers and films but who never really touches your personal lives. But now at least for a few minutes I welcome you to the peace of my own home.
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Earlier Christmas speeches had been delivered on the radio. But this televised "BBC" broadcast was one of the first signs she wanted to modernize the monarchy, including using mass media to connect. She spoke about rapid changes taking place in society.
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Queen Elizabeth II: Today we need a special kind of courage. Not the kind needed in battle but a kind which makes us stand up for everything that we know is right, everything that is true and honest. We need the kind of courage that can withstand the subtle corruption of the cynics so that we can show the world that we are not afraid of the future.
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Tina Brown has written about the royal family for years. I spoke to her a few months ago, just as the Queen was preparing to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee.
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Tina Brown: I think Elizabeth's legacy will be that the monarchy survives and remains an institution that embodies service and duty and stoicism and British commitment to fairness and justice. I think that that's really what she wants to see happen, that the monarchy itself continues with the purpose that she's brought to it and that her family can continue to do that.
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Brown says, the Queen was all about decorum and discipline.
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Tina Brown: The Queen has understood for the whole of her life, the power of the Royal silence. The need for her to be inscrutable. The need for her to be genuinely impartial. To not have any evidence about her of a political, a partisan, a personal point of view that could give any kind of suasion to anyone else's views. And she's managed to uphold that all of this time, which is really extraordinary.
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Still, the Queen faced many scandals. Several royal marriages fell apart during her reign, most famously that of Charles and Diana. The Queen was initially criticized for a slow official response after Diana's death. More recently, her son Prince Andrew settled a lawsuit over sexual abuse allegations he denied. And of course, there was Harry and Meghan's public exit from their royal roles.
For some Britons, the monarchy itself was the problem. Some see the institution as an outdated relic of colonialism, tainted by the violence and greed of empire. Some see it simply as a waste of public money. The Queen was personally criticized for not paying income taxes, a policy that was changed in the 90s. During her time, the monarchy made moves to cut costs.
15 British prime ministers served during Queen Elizabeth's reign, starting with Winston Churchill. One of her last official duties, on Tuesday, was appointing Liz Truss Britain's new Prime Minister. Yesterday, Truss spoke about the Queen's legacy, and the transition to supporting the new King, Charles III, who at the age of 73 is the oldest person ever to assume the British throne.
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Liz Truss: We offer him our loyalty and devotion just as his mother devoted so much to so many for so long. And with the passing of the second Elizabethan age, we usher in a new era, in the magnificent history of our great country, exactly as her majesty would have wished, by saying the words "God save the King.'
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Charles became King the moment his mother died. That transition is instant. But in the days ahead, there's a long series of events planned remembering the Queen and marking the shift to this new reign. Today King Charles will meet the prime minister in London and make his first televised address as head of state.
The royal family and the government have been planning these events for decades, mostly in secret. But some details have leaked out, in particular in reporting last year from "POLITICO," and a few years back from the "Guardian." The plans are pretty fascinating to read about, there's codenames, orders-of-operation, rehearsals. Some details are planned down to the minute.
Code names allow royal staff and civil servants to avoid saying things like "the Queen has died" out loud. The plan for her death was codenamed London Bridge. The "Guardian" reported it laid out how the prime minister would be informed of her death with the message "London Bridge is down." Then others in the government and around the world would be informed.
"POLITICO" said the day of the Queen's death was referred to by planners as D-Day. So today is D+1. Saturday D+2 and so on. Each day has its own set plans, including backup plans if anything goes wrong.
For example, Operation UNICORN, as it's called, lays out how to carry the Queen's body from Scotland, where she died, to London via royal train. Another train would follow hers to clear piles of flowers thrown on the tracks. If rail travel isn't possible for any reason, Operation OVERSTUDY goes into effect. That means her coffin will be transferred by plane.
The Queen's coffin will be moved from Buckingham Palace along a ceremonial route. The public will be able to visit her once she is lying in state at the Palace of Westminster. And finally, her funeral will be at Westminster Abbey.
We have a collection of stories about the life of Queen Elizabeth and the transition to King Charles, including a collection of rare photos from the Queen's life that have never been published before. You can find all of that on the Apple News app.
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Let's turn now to domestic news and the midterm elections, now less than two months away. Currently, Democrats narrowly control the House and Senate. Many forecasters expected them to lose both in the midterms. But things seem to be changing. The Cook Political Report recently lowered its forecast for how many seats Republicans will pick in the House. And it sees Senate control as a toss up.
Republicans have so far been banking on a few things: President Biden's poor approval ratings, high inflation, and structural advantages through gerrymandering. But in the last few months, the political ground seems to have shifted toward Democrats.
Kyle Kondik is the managing editor of "Sabato's Crystal Ball" at the UVA Center for Politics. He says political predictions are hard to make right now.
Kyle Kondik: I was just thinking, and I wrote this the other day about that, famous clip of Vince Lombardi saying what the hell's going on out here. when he's a Green Bay Packers coach. And that's sort of how I feel about it as an analyst, I feel a little torn.
He says the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade is what's changing things. He sees a shift in polling and in recent electoral results.
Kondik: The political environment has just seemed to be trending toward Republicans, and that momentum I think has stopped and even maybe reversed itself a little bit.
Over the next few months, he's going to be watching where parties are spending money and where they have to play defense. But even if there is a momentum swing toward Democrats, Kondik reminds us, we're talking about super slim margins.
Kondik: Let's say the results in November are that the Republicans net, you know, one Senate seat and 10 House seats. On one hand you could say, historically speaking for midterm, is pretty disappointing. On the other hand, that would give Republicans control of both chambers of Congress. So, that's the important thing going on here. So, again, they're still very much in the game to flip both chambers.
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Before I let you go, let me tell you what's coming up on this weekend's episode of "In Conversation." I talk with the artist Jenny Odell, author of the book, "How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy."
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Jenny Odell: It's doing nothing with like air quotes.
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Yeah, when Jenny says "doing nothing" she's not talking about being bored or watching paint dry. The point is to pull away from the things that we call "productive" in a capitalistic or work-oriented way, and instead engage in things that aren't measured in dollars or clicks.
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Jenny Odell: You can actually perceive more sometimes by doing less and I think I quote the acoustic ecologist Gordon Hampton, who basically is saying that, like, if you're silent, then you can actually hear what is around you.
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<v My conversation with Odell is the last episode of our "Think Again" series, which has been all about challenging the way you look at your life, your work, and your relationships. Each episode was designed to sort of shock the system a bit; shake you out of your default and encourage you to explore a new perspective. If you haven't yet, I really hope you'll go back and listen through all the "Think Again" episodes we put out. There's Malcolm Gladwell on how to be better at changing your mind>
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Malcolm Gladwell: I wonder whether if people on the kind of dug in extremes held their ideas a little more lightly, there would be greater room for some compromise or common ground.
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Gender expert Kate Mangino on how to have more equal and more fair partnerships.
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Kate Mangino: It's little things. It's thoughtful, small actions that show each other that I get you. And I love you enough to do this for you.
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And the hosts of the "Maintenance Phase" podcast gave us some advice on how to spot junk health science and navigate wellness culture.
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Michael Hobbes: First of all, don't trust anybody who's telling you to do something unsustainable for a short period of time because it's a self-esteem nightmare. It's a lifestyle nightmare just don't do it.
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You can find all of these episodes by following "Apple News In Conversation" in the News or in the Podcasts app. I'll be back with the news on Monday.
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