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Five Years Later: Dan Barry Revisits a New York Couple’s Pandemic Diary, published in The New York Times, originally by Dan Barry and Julie Albanese in March 2020.
In March 2020, as the world faced the unknown effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and its transmission leading to quarantine in affected regions, writer Dan Barry and photographer Julie Albanese launched a new column, chronicling the daily lives of everyday people under lockdown through their stories. This novel form of journalism known as a diary column, gained a significant following and was one of The New York Times’ most-read story formats. Among those whose story they shared, were the Servantes, a long-time Manhattan couple, giving us a glimpse into how their days, and sometimes nights, would have proceeded during the initial pandemic disturbance in March 2020.
Barry returns now with the Servantes, five years on, to see how their pandemic lives compare to what they are experiencing today. Margie, 52 at the time, a Pennsylvania native in the marketing world of NYC, and Bob, 68, with an extensive background in the hospitality sector, gave Barry and Albanese a different perspective of life in New York at the time.
For Week in Review, Barry, who works as The Times’ story design and illustration co-leader, catches up with the Servantes, discussing their family, their new roles at work, life post-Covid, and how this time around feels different from last time.
The Servantes, last we heard from them, were ignoring the news, reveling in more extended Facetime calls with their kids — he is a pension consultant, and she is a director of business development and strategic alliances in the industry of marketing, data and technology. Their combined perspective offers one of the quietest, steadiest, most refreshing voices we’ve heard through this column this past year.
Barry caught up with Margie and Bob recently, and they generously agreed to look back and forward: to see what happens to one couple in the City, five years after an early moment in the pandemic, and five years into a post-pandemic evolution that is by turns arresting, excruciating and exhilarating.
Margie: I chose to retire early, two years ago, and now I dabble in work — lots of little things, really. I edit freelance copy for clients, mostly through word of mouth. I do consulting work with smaller companies. And I’ve taken on a raft of outside professional organization and advisory roles. I use the phrase “useful citizen” — you can look it up.
Bob: My other lifelong passion is food. My particular contribution to our health has been to become a chef. We cook nightly consumption meals for our children and grandchildren, and we ship those meals to our Jersey Shore home for the kids to enjoy during the week. We cook because my son, Nick, is diabetic, and Matt, his brother, can’t or won’t or is unable to cook. And because we like to cook.
Margie: I’m a fortunate one. Hello, spring! I just came inside from the courtyard in the sunshine surrounded by flowering trees, early tulips, and elements of collage banners sculpted by a busy-bee architectural design company — because we do pay attention to the news sometimes. We live in the Financial District of Manhattan, not in Erewhon but comparably in bas relief.
Bob: With NYC schools and offices beginning to reopen intermittently, tons of new people are already pouring back into the City. Our tunnel vision has lifted, at least a little.
Margie: It’s definitely different this time — and I sometimes feel like we’ve been furloughed from time itself. Unlike early 2020, I do check the news. I read The Times a lot. I type our Grand Central neighborhood complexity into my Google Maps app, and it shows me what I want to see: seething clusters of umbrellas and carrier bags and emergency vehicles and people — and then I switch screens to deliveries of candy, coupons for postmodern “beverages” (our disdainful term), books, Face masks, priority mailings, name-your-poop-scoop-ready bedding. And I feel conspiratorial and amazed and grateful for the evolution of why (and how) we’re proceeding.
Bob: The pandemic gave Mom and me long hours to reflect on life and experience — how a life unfolds is painful harder to rewrite than how one sees the road ahead. Or side, or back. We are our own ideological and emotional helicopter pilots. I would like to find a tradition or set of rules that I could study to guide me through a fork in the road — but there aren’t many such guides.
Margie: Bob and I like to make stuff happen. We light small fires.
Bob: We also like to receive love and praise and recognition from good people who know us as role models.
What’s the difference for the Servantes between their pandemic experience in 2020 and now, according to the article by writer Dan Barry and photographer Julie Albanese, published in The New York Times in March 2025? How do their lives compare to what they experience today? Are there any significant changes in their roles at work or their familial circumstances that have impacted them?

The original article

Russia and Ukraine on Friday moved closer to resolving their six-month conflict, with American officials offering hope that the talks between the two sides at the Belarus border would bring both sides together to end the killing in eastern Ukraine.
The United States welcomed the announcement from both Moscow and Kiev, as well as Germany and France, that peace talks to put an end to a military conflict that has already claimed more than 6,000 lives would resume around 10 a.m. Belarus time on Friday.
The meeting was understood to have a broad scope, with each side to voice both their own views as well as offering conditions for any solution.
But at the very heart of the dispute is a demand by Kiev that Russia withdraw its military forces, estimated to number around 10,000 fighters, from the territory under insurgent control.
Another major hurdle facing the peace negotiators is the fate of streaky municipality of Donetsk, which falls under the authority of a pro-Russian separatist declared an independent entity last August.
The success of the peace discussions was undercut by Russian officials, who sought to put pressure on Kiev, claimed to have lost track of at least 50 servicemen involved in the evacuation of civilians from the epicenter of the conflict in the Donetsk municipality, in addition to around 30 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers that were found inside a makeshift hospital.
The claims from Russia were vigorously denied by Ukrainian security officials.
The outcome of the peace negotiations was viewed with a measure of skepticism by both Russia and Ukraine, as the conflict has been viewed from a traditional geopolitical perspective, with each side guided by a belief that any end to violence must be viewed through the lens of their own national interest.
In the meantime, while both sides agreed to a cease-fire over the New Year celebrations, it had proven more a fiction in the environment created by the one-dimensional war caused by the invasion by the Russian military into Ukrainian territory in April last year.
The American aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and an escort flotilla were heading to the Atlantic Ocean’s Mediterranean Sea, but it was not immediately clear when they would enter.
The transports represented the crystallization of one of the largest airlifts in history, observers said, aimed at reinforcing around 2,000 American forces already in Cuba in what was viewed as a major show of support for Cuba’s fledging democracy.

The original article

In War, Ukrainian Women Fear Sexual Violence from Putin’s Forces
This article discusses the growing concern among Ukrainian women about the threat of sexual violence in the ongoing conflict with Russia. According to human rights groups and survivors’ accounts, Russian troops have committed horrific sexual atrocities against civilians, often including women and children, since the conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014. This article highlights the stories of several survivors, who faced trauma and abuse that has manifested in a slew of physical and mental health issues. The authors provide some background on the issue, which has been present in international war zones for centuries, and how it is being addressed on the national and international level. The piece concludes by highlighting the need for greater efforts from international organizations and the Ukrainian government to protect women from sexual violence and provide them with the resources and support necessary to heal from past atrocities.

Tag Format:
1. sexual-violence
2. war-crimes
3. ukraine
4. russia
5. conflict
6. human-rights
7. women-safety
8. domestic-abuse
9. survivors
10. trauma-and-abuse
11. mental-health
12. sessioni_bowel_regimen
13. anti_rump_idea
14. raui_blog_content_lengthcontent

The original article

new-york-mayor-eric-adams-responds-to-trump-s-jabs-triggered-by-stop-and-frisk-row-over-crime-in-NYC

new york, politics, eric adams, mayor, trump, jabs, stop and frisk, row, crime, NYC

With a return to the stop-and-frisk tactic that was used under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, creating a black mark on his legacy, and with former President Trump’s criticism of current Mayor Eric Adams during his feud with President Biden, Adams has been quick to fire back. In response to Biden’s rift with Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who has stood behind Trump’s baseless election fraud claims, criticizing his fellow Democrat’s performance, Trump mocked Adams for carrying this on, likening his feud with Bloomberg to that of Biden and DeSantis. However, despite this, Adams has maintained his commitment to his role as the nation’s largest police department’s leader, placing safety and public perception first.

The original article

“Progressives or Die. The Radicalism of Our Political Moment,” by Emily Atkin published in The New York Times on March 15, 2025, examines the current political atmosphere in America, highlighting the emergence of a progressive left and its potential to influence and reshape political discourse. Atkin argues that the recent shift towards a more progressive political landscape, emphasizing issues such as gun control reform and healthcare access, presents an opportunity for future progressive reform but also warns of the consequences of remaining complacent during this transformative era. As a result, Atkin argues that despite the challenges and risks associated with embracing progressive policies, these beliefs should be nurtured and prioritized in order to ensure that progressive values remain at the forefront of political debates. The article’s overall narrative is delivered in a persuasive and opinionated tone, intended to provoke critical thinking and a reconsideration of traditional political theories.
#progressive #politics #USA #opinion #negociation #solution #dilemma #fairness #justice #compassion #equality #leftwing #education #healthcare #environment #reform #guncontrol #NYTimes #publicservice #elections #voting #USA #nativeSpeaker #englishAsATringualLanguage #lessons

The original article

#frickcollection #reopening #artdesign #nytimes

Since its closure nearly three years ago for a major renovation, the Frick Collection, a beloved museum of art treasures housed in a mansion on Fifth Avenue, has undergone profound changes — physically and conceptually. On Wednesday, some of them will go on view for the first time, ahead of the museum’s scheduled reopening on March 22.
The most obvious addition is the partial excavation of a garden that runs vertically through the spacious museum and the passage that connects the two are of its main buildings. The garden was buried when William Henry Vanderbilt II built the mansion in 1914 on the site of his parents’ smaller mansion. The new garden, showing off the museum’s robust horticultural resources, has been unearthed in pavilions planted with boxwoods, yews, hornbeams and roses, all arranged in symmetry with the original garden and framed by the building’s French Renaissance architectural details. Roger B. Angell, Ernest Tesman Brown and David Diem. $#$assistant$#$

#artconservation #frickcollection #reopening #nytimes

Thanks to a major renovation over the past three years, the Frick Collection will unveil significant art conservation work when it reopens on March 22. This includes the restoration of Rembrandt’s “Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer,” which has not been on display since 1996, and Johannes Vermeer’s “Young Woman with a Water Pitcher,” which has not been on view since 2012. Other works that have undergone conservation during the renovation include the “Third Stage of Love,” a sculpture by Diego Velazquez, and works by El Greco, Bellini, and Caravaggio. The renovation also added a new garden, which will be showcased before the official reopening.

The original article

Posted: March 15, 2025
Tags: Middle East, Syrian Civil War, Israel, Druze

Three leaders from the embattled Druze community in Syria traveled to Israel this week, during an extraordinary visit meant to bolster Israel’s ties with Syria’s minority groups and demonstrate Jerusalem’s concern for their fate. The visit follows Israel’s recent unofficial contact with representatives of Syria’s Kurds, which Israel views as another critical regional ally. On Thursday, the Druze leaders spoke at the Knesset, condemning Syria’s brutal civil war and calling on global powers to intervene to stop it. At an event organized by the Zionist organization’s Legislative and Diplomacy Lobby to the Knesset, three Syrian Druze leaders expressed sadness over the fate of their country, describing the “grief of Jews from Poland.” The three, in a rare visit by Syrians to Israel, held meetings with key officials and legislators in Jerusalem, visited the Western Wall and the grave of Jewish military leader Moshe Dayan, whose tomb overlooks the Golan Heights, and planned to meet with Egypt’s intelligence chief on Friday. The visit was arranged in coordination with Jordan, which remains the de facto guarantor of Israel’s traditional quiet on its northern border. For Israel, hosting the Druze leaders is the first step in a long-term effort to bolster the Druze community’s sympathy for Israel. “We came to say we have to bring our suffering to the world’s attention,” said Makhluf al-Makhluf, one of the Druze visitors. Wholly separate from such overtures, Israeli security forces and rebel groups in northern Syria have established unofficial ties, carrying out joint operations around the Syrian-Israeli border to prevent the resurgence of Iranian forces and their Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. Zionist Organization leaders Eli Ofer and Maya Yobiuk said they briefed members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who also heard testimony from two Syrian Kurds who attended a summit in recent weeks in Jordan, convened in secret by UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura. One of the Kurds described de Mistura’s plan for a transition in Syria, focused on ensuring a unity government comprised of representatives from Damascus, the opposition and Kurds, who are Syria’s largest non-Arab ethnic group. Jordan has supported Syria’s Kurds in the past, with Amman known to have struck bargains with Kurds in the north as part of its pact with Assad. But Jordan has traditionally feared and opposed the emergence of an independent Kurdish state in Syria, which it views as a security threat to its Hashemite monarchy. By working with Syria’s Kurds, Israel appears to have struck a major blow against the Assad regime, giving the Kurds a boost in their bid for international legitimacy and undermining the Syrian regime’s efforts to brand them as foreign agents bent on destroying the country. The Kurds, totally abandoned by Western powers that used to arm and train them against Assad, the Islamic State or even the Syrian government, have sought solace from their Muslim brethren in goods ole Russia. The de Mistura summit reportedly discussed the possibility of a decentralized Syria described in a plan first unveiled by Kurdish leaders in 2013, which has since been taken up as a kind of de facto policy by Moscow. All three members of the Syrian Druze visiting delegation criticized the survival of the Assad regime, which brutally murdered more than 200 of their own community members in Syria. “We don’t support the regime or ISIS,” said Wissam Wassouf, one of the Druze visitors. “Our civilians are targeted and massacred” by ISIS, he said. He criticized Moscow for its too cozy relationship with Damascus, insisting: “Assad cannot be the West’s solution for Syria. The West has to think of the Syrian people’s suffering” he said, adding: “Sad stories need to be heard directly from their mouths,” rather than ‘filtered through parties’. However, Wassouf stressed that Syria’s Druze residents would not seek refuge in Israel. “We reject the idea that we are being forced to leave our land – Syria – for Israel or anywhere else. We will always be Syrian,” he said. Makhluf al-Makhluf, another of the Druze visitors who described himself as a childhood friend of Dallal, said: “We don’t want to leave Syria or become refugees in anybody’s land – not for Mahmoud Abbas, not for Assad.” Israel has provided surreptitious aid to Syrian Kurds – some 500 wounded Kurds have received Israeli medical treatment – but it refuses to permanently settle Syrian refugees within its borders. Israel assisted the escape of some 8,000 Syrian Druze from the southern Syrian village of Hader last July, but there has been no publicized effort to bring the Druze to Israel. Israel is concerned about the fate of its large Druze population. Most of Israel’s Druze live in deep loneliness and silence in ten Druze villages in northern Israel, separated from the much larger community in Syria and Lebanon by Israel’s border and Syria’s conflict. “We have hundreds of thousands of Arab citizens who define themselves primarily as part of a larger Arab world, and this number does not include the Jews from Poland,” the Druze leaders said, suggesting they believe Jews also identify more with a global Jewish world. Israel’s Druze are effectively blocked from legal emigration to Canada, Australia or Europe due to the country’s extreme difficulty in obtaining visas from Western countries. Their tight-knit community is religiously exclusive to Druze, which originated as an esoteric splinter-sect of the Islamic world nearly 1000 years ago.

The original article

In the Word Press format, tags are individual, descriptive words or phrases that help relate your post to others. Use tags that would assist someone finding the same topics as yours on WordPress.com or in a search on the web.
For this article, some possible tags would include: politics, gaza, middleeast, blockade, humanitarian, crisis, justice, cement, 9-story tower. However, it’s not recommended to use all those tags. Opt for the most relevant and important. The resulting tag format should look like this:

The original article

Tornado, Severe Weather Alerts for the South: National Weather Service
Severe weather alerts have been issued, with tornado warnings and possible hail the size of golf balls in some areas. The National Weather Service warned that much of the southern plains were under a “severe weather threat” for Tuesday, including Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and northern Mexico.
Tornadoes were reported in central Oklahoma and Texas on Monday, prompting responses from local authorities that closed schools and ordered some people to evacuate. The warnings could extend into the Midwest on Tuesday, including parts of Illinois and Indiana and spreading as far east as Kentucky and the Upper Ohio Valley.
Outside of Guthrie, Okla., where several buildings and vehicles were reportedly damaged, there were no reports of serious injuries or deaths in the severe weather Monday, according to the NWS. According to the Guthrie police department at least one person was injured by debris.
The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management canceled the agency’s “tornado warning protocol” allowing each area to issue warnings on their own, Kim Pearson, a spokeswoman for the department, said via email.
On Monday afternoon, county alert systems in Logan County, Okla., warned residents of possible severe weather.
Gov. Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency in Logan County Monday, according to his office. Seventy-four homes in the county had been reported damaged Monday evening by the Logan County Emergency Management office.
The company Ekologik reported several transformers in the Guthrie area were damaged on Monday. Tom Lawall, executive director for the Logan County Emergency Management Association, said a union hall in Guthrie was also damaged, but he did not have details immediately available.
The likelihood of more intense weather was a concern, said Matt Stanford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman, Okla.
“Potentially some of that instability will increase as we go through the night and Tuesday morning,” Stanford said. “Depending on who gets hit again tonight, some of the same areas that got hit today could get hit again and actually get a worse situation due to the probability of severe weather.”
Agency officials said Tuesday, severe weather could touch areas that were not impacted by the tornadoes on Monday.
Just before 7 p.m. local time in Oklahoma City, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning until 7:30 p.m. for parts of Oklahoma City, including the city and Oklahoma State University.
According to a report from the Weather Channel, tornadoes were spotted west of Lubbock, Texas, at 10:53 p.m. EST Monday. The Lubbock County Sheriff’s Department in Texas confirmed on Twitter that a probable tornado damaged homes and overturned vehicles west of Lubbock. At least one person was injured, according to the sheriff’s department.
More than half an inch of ice was reported in parts Texas, according to the Weather Channel. By Tuesday morning, ice was causing hazardous road conditions and a chain reaction crash on Texas 130 in San Antonio.
A day earlier in Dallas, two people were injured, one seriously, by the side-walls of a garage collapsing during a storm, according to Garmon Sutterfield, a spokesman for the Dallas fire department. A 95-year old Vietnamese immigrant was found covered in debris under the collapsed sidewalls, said Chief Sidney P. Coleman.
“We found a lady trapped and pinned beneath the wall and the wall was on top of her,” Coleman said. “We initially deduced a door was on top of her so if it weren’t for our firefighters doing what they do, we probably wouldn’t have been able to save her life.”
During heavy thunderstorms in Fort Worth, the roof of a warehouse and a tractor trailer roof blew off and settled into a truck on a busy highway causing traffic to be rerouted by police.
Much of the Southern Plains, central and southern Appalachians, the mid-Mississippi River Valley and the Ohio Valley will experience severe weather Monday and into Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center.
Temperatures are expected to hit 70 degrees in parts of the south and Midwest on Tuesday, warmer than normal at that time of year. Storms will primarily move eastward, though they may stay isolated in some areas, said Greg Koch, a warning coordination meteorologist at the center.
The combination of a low pressure system moving across the central Plains and warm moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will lead to the possibility of severe weather in the southern and central states, Koch said in a statement.
“We urge everyone to be prepared for severe weather tonight into Tuesday morning and to stay tuned to their local forecast and warnings,” said Greg Koch, a warning coordination meteorologist at the center.
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security, the National Weather Service and state emergency management officials planned to host a tornado drill for state groups on Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. local time. When the sirens sound, the’ll have people shelter in place at the Indiana Emergency Operations Center in Indianapolis and simulate responding to an emergency shelter situation.
The severe storms falling closer together can make it difficult to perceive a warning as separate incidents, said Diana Lancellotti, director of operations for the American Red Cross in Chicago.
“I think just the frequency itself is incredibly overwhelming for those directly in the path of these storms,” she said.
Could you paraphrase the safety warning canceled by the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management?

The original article

The NY Times has published a recent article examining President Trump’s propositions for revoking the US’ commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and potentially developing new nuclear missiles. The article reports that last year, in a phone call with Tomoaki Ishikawa, Japan’s vice minister for foreign affairs, Trump hinted at the US’ renewed interest in loosening nuclear deterrence arrangements with its East Asian allies. Further, this move would not only signal a shift in Washington’s foreign policy priorities but could also have far-reaching consequences for arms control negotiations worldwide. This potential strategy change echoes past Republican campaign promises to create a new nuclear missile program, although it would require extensive and rapidly undertaken research before it could become a reality. The recent Trump administration’s national security strategy acknowledged both Russia and China’s nuclear arsenal’s threat to deterrence, raising the possibility of introducing new nuclear warfare capabilities that might negate these countermeasures. However, this idea has yet to receive any concrete action. The piece also criticizes Trump’s approach to arms control diplomacy, particularly with regards to Russia, stating that his decision to renounce the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was a shortsighted maneuver to please his supporters without any genuine effort to implement an alternate strategy. Overall, the article implicitly suggests that abandoning the NPT would disrupt the global nuclear arms constitutional system, which currently encompasses 191 states, and remove the US as one of its principle players, thereby raising the stakes for escalating nuclear conflicts beyond the hands of the expanding nuclear club of nations.

The original article