Alone at Paris's City Hall this month. Photo / Andrea Mantovani, The New York Times
Alone at Paris's City Hall this month. Photo / Andrea Mantovani, The New York Times
Welcome to another long weekend in lockdown. The good news is next weekend you can indulge in some takeaways again as we lift to level 3 next week.
This Anzac weekend we commemorate all those New Zealanders who have served and died for our country. Hopefully you'll be joining othersaround the country to stand at your letterbox, at the front door, on your balcony, or in your driveway at 6am Saturday to take a moment to remember.
For the rest of the weekend kick back and relax. Enjoy the time in your bubble and check out some of the best pieces from our premium international syndicators this week.
Happy reading.
What will our new normal feel like? Hints begin to emerge
For all the attention to the science and politics of the coronavirus, another factor may be just as important in shaping life under the pandemic: the ways that people will change in response to it.
Changes in how we think, behave and relate to one another — some deliberate but many made unconsciously, some temporary but others potentially permanent — are already coming to define our new normal.
Fear of others may linger long after the pandemic is over. But so may a new sense of community.
Milan, Italy, this month. Photo / Alessandro Grassani, The New York Times
From sugarcoating to brutal honesty: World leaders navigate coronavirus crisis
World leaders have spent the past several weeks grappling with the unexpected as country after country has seen the coronavirus arrive at its borders and an outbreak has exploded into a pandemic.
With the virus endangering citizens' health and lockdowns ravaging the global economy, heads of government have taken different approaches in televised addresses and news briefings as they have explained their plans for combating the threat.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference. Photo / Getty Images
The highs and lows of a New York skyscraper king
When Michael Stern and his partners broke ground on their tower in 2014, the market for "luxury apartments" in New York City had become so overheated that the term had ceased to have much meaning for units that ranged in price from a few million dollars to tens of millions. Demand was such that Stern would sell out a building based on a plan and a showroom.
That is no longer the case — even before the coronavirus pandemic. For the past few years, buyers have taken their time.
Stern changed the city's skyline but can he weather the impact of coronavirus on luxury property?
Central Park Tower and 111 West 57th Street rise on Billionaires Row in New York City. Photo / Getty Images
Tokyo, in a state of emergency, yet still having drinks at the bar
It was a scene of normalcy, something friends in New York or London or San Francisco can only conjure in memory: a man and a woman, out for a drink.
Tokyo had already been in a coronavirus state of emergency for more than a week. But through the windows of a narrow restaurant in Roppongi, a popular nightlife district in central Tokyo, I could see them sipping from large beer steins, chatting in nonsocial distancing proximity.
Dining near the Shinjuku station in Tokyo on Friday. The Tokyo governor has asked people to refrain from going out at night. Photo / Noriko Hayashi, The New York Times
Is the virus on my clothes? My shoes? My hair? My newspaper?
Many people are fearful about tracking the virus into their homes on their clothes, their shoes, the mail and even the newspaper.
The New York Times reached out to infectious disease experts, aerosol scientists and microbiologists to answer questions about the risks of coming into contact with the virus during essential trips outside and from deliveries.
Do you need to remove and wipe down shoes? Photo / 123RF
A 190kg tiger living in a New York apartment? Yes, it happened
Antoine Yates became known as New York City's Tiger Man long before the wild popularity of the Netflix documentary miniseries Tiger King.
Yates also got momentarily famous for keeping a full-grown tiger, this one named Ming. But rather than the more rural settings favoured by Joe Exotic and the show's other big-cat enthusiasts, he kept Ming in his Harlem apartment, for more than two years.
Ming, the 2-year-old tiger was found being kept as a pet in a Bronx apartment. Photo / Getty Imagesa=
Closed border doesn't stop elderly couple: 'Love is the best thing'
She drives from the Danish side, in her Toyota Yaris.
He cycles from the German side, on his electric bike.
She brings the coffee and the table, he the chairs and the schnapps.
Then they sit down on either side of the border, a yard or two apart.
The coronavirus crisis has separated families and severed supply chains. But a pair of lovers, 89 and 85, have found a romantic way to keep (almost) in touch.
Karsten Tüchsen Hansen and Inga Rasmussen are keeping their love alive, despite the closed border between their countries. Photo / Emile Ducke, The New York Times
Ten questions to guide boards through the pandemic
Management teams and their boards are juggling an array of concerns right now, from the health of their workforces to volatile equity markets to shuttered debt markets. Furthermore, many economists and policymakers now portend a deep global recession.
What should boards do in such a time of crisis? Photo / 123RF
Singapore seemed to have coronavirus under control, until cases doubled
Singapore did almost everything right.
After recording its first coronavirus case January 23, the prosperous city-state meticulously traced the close contacts of every infected patient, while keeping a sense of normalcy on its streets. Borders were shut to populations likely to carry the contagion, although businesses stayed open. Ample testing and treatment were free for residents.
But then Singapore's coronavirus caseload more than doubled.
Migrant workers at a dormitory in Singapore this month. Photo / Ore Huiying, The New York Times
Inside the fringe Japanese religion that claims it can cure Covid-19
Happy Science is an enormous and powerful enterprise claiming millions of adherents and tens of thousands of missionary outposts across the world. Secretive, hostile to the media, and structured around a tiered, pay-to-progress system of membership, they're sometimes called Tokyo's answer to Scientology.
Led by a man who channels Buddha (and Jesus and Freddie Mercury), he says he can defeat the coronavirus. For a fee.
Happy Science is led by a man who channels Buddha, Jesus and Freddie Mercury says he can defeat the coronavirus, for a fee. Photo / Adrienne Grunwald, The New York Times
'I don't think the New York that we left will be back for some years'
It took just a matter of days to shut down New York City, once the coronavirus took hold. Restarting it will take much, much longer.
The economic effect in the city from the global pandemic has been striking: Hundreds of thousands are already out of work; at least $12.4 billion in tax revenue is projected to be lost by the middle of next year.
And the changes will be felt long after New York begins to reopen its economy.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said that once the state allows people to gather in places like the subway or retail stores, "you're going to see more infections." Photo / Victor J. Blue, The New York Times
