Hello, and happy Friday!
First off, a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to my fundraiser for the Rory Peck Trust. Since our last correspondence, we’ve hit the halfway mark, which is huge! Now I just need to kickstart my training … T-minus 79 days until race day.
I’ve had a real mix of news coverage this week: Spanish snap elections, English soccer/football (delete as appropriate), U.S.-Israel relations - oh my! More on all that below (minus the Spanish election coverage, which will be out later today/this weekend).
In podcast news: I joined the Oh God, What Now? gang to talk about the latest in British politics. You can tune in wherever you get your podcasts—find yours here.
What I’ve written
In the run up to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which kicked off this week, I wrote about how the home of soccer hasn’t always been so keen on the women’s game, and how that’s slowly starting to change.
“Nic!” Viv Jeffers laughingly bellows at one of her players, whose impressive juggling skills become an unintended soundtrack to our conversation, the thump, thump, thump of the soccer ball bouncing off her cleats. It’s nearing 6 p.m. in the London district of Wapping, where the East London Ladies Football Club’s weekly practice is about to begin. Jeffers, who has been the lead coach and manager of the all-women’s team since 2014, is telling TIME about the club’s history and the role it plays in Britain at a time when women’s soccer—or football, as it’s called outside the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—is blowing up. Keep reading here
I also wrote about the handful of progressive U.S. lawmakers who boycotted Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to Congress this week and why their positions on Israel may be more mainstream than the D.C. establishment would suggest.
A new poll published on the eve of Herzog’s address found that, in the absence of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, three-quarters of Americans would choose a democratic Israel that is no longer Jewish over a Jewish Israel that denies full citizenship and equality to non-Jews. The U.S. and the wider international community are still officially committed to a two-state solution, but many experts believe it’s no longer viable as a result of Israeli settlement expansion.
Americans are also increasingly less likely to describe Israel as a democracy. When asked to describe the way Israel looks in a poll conducted between March and April, only 9% of respondents chose “a vibrant democracy,” a common descriptor for Israel among U.S. officialdom. The rest chose “a flawed democracy” (13%), “a state with restricted minority rights” (7%), and “a state with segregation similar to apartheid” (13%). (Some 56% responded with “I don’t know.”) Keep reading here
Plus:
What I’ve read
This profile of Team USA star Megan Rapinoe, who could yet help the U.S. secure a historic third-consecutive World Cup title (TIME)
No matter how Rapinoe fares at the tournament, she’s secured her place as one of the world’s most influential athletes. Her creative and joyful play helped elevate women’s soccer to the status of appointment viewing. Female players around the world have followed the example of Rapinoe and her teammates and waged pay fights against their federations. She created a blueprint for female athletes: Tap into your truest self and demand what’s yours. Lay waste to the notion of being agreeable.
This piece on the fracturing of Hong Kong’s prodemocracy movement (The Atlantic)
Hong Kong offers an example of how authoritarian regimes globally, from Belarus to Beijing and beyond, work to crush popular movements from the inside, turning onetime supporters into collaborators to sow discord, fracture unity, and stoke uncertainty. The effects are demoralizing and discombobulating for those who watch their former compatriots move against them and the broader movements they once supported.
This feature on how Waco, Texas became Surf Town, USA (Texas Monthly)
Professional surfers swear that Waco has the best, or at least the most dependably good, waves in the world. The facility can pump out dozens of types of swells, mostly modeled after famous ones in the oceans. In a one-hour session surfers are guaranteed to catch at least twelve of them, whereas they might go days or weeks waiting for waves of this quality on the Atlantic or Pacific. Owing to the waves’ consistency and oceanlike feel, the U.S. Olympic surfing team has trained in Waco, as have the Chinese and Australian teams. Kelly Slater, both the youngest and oldest World Surf League Champion, who spent decades and tens of millions creating his own artificial wave using a different technology, pops over to Texas for visits. Bethany Hamilton, a former child prodigy turned pro who famously lost an arm to a shark off the shores of Hawaii, swears by the pool. Cruz Dinofa, a thirteen-year-old shortboard phenom from New Jersey who speaks with the vocal fry of a learned surfer, told me, “I didn’t think I was ever going to go to Texas.” But now he visits Waco every year, in between trips to Hawaii and Southern California.
What I’m thinking about
On my second attempt, I finally saw Dear England, James Graham’s latest play at the National Theatre about England men’s national football team manager Gareth Southgate and his efforts to get the team and the country telling a different story about itself. (My first attempt was scuppered by stage malfunctions, which brought the show to a halt a few minutes after it began).
My verdict: It was well worth the wait. Roll on Euro 2024!
Until next time,
Yasmeen