Adoption

Wednesday

Krish Kandiah

There’s more to The Queen’s Gambit than chess

If this Christmas you hear the distant rumble of dusty games’ compendia being brought down out of attics, it’s safe to say you can blame Netflix’s latest smash hit series The Queen’s Gambit, which seems to be convincing everyone that chess can be cool. App stores are reporting a surge of searches for a game first brought to England 10 centuries ago by Vikings. Set in the 1950s, The Queen’s Gambit tells the story of Beth Harmon (played brilliantly by Isla Johnstone and Anya Taylor-Joy). Aged eight, she survives a fatal car crash only to end up in an orphanage.

The Queen’s Gambit

Sunday

Andrea Picciotti Bayer

The crucial Supreme Court case defending Catholic foster care services

On the day after the presidential election, Amy Coney Barrett, now beginning her career as a Supreme Court justice, will hear oral arguments in one of the most significant civil rights cases to come before the Court in decades. The case is Fulton v. Philadelphia. The point of contention in the case could hardly be more sensitive, since it pits the protection of religious freedom against the interests of same-sex couples — and the context is the foster care of children. Its journey to the nation’s highest court has been long and bitter. In 2018, city officials in Philadelphia insisted that the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s foster care agency certify same-sex married couples as foster parents.

foster