The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best stories of 2020 from our premium syndicators, including The New York Times, Financial Times and The Times of London.

Today we look at Trump's taxes, the hit Netflix show The Crown, soul mates destroyed by Alzheimer's, our distorted sense of time in 2020 and a maternity ward caught in the middle of a pandemic.

Trump's taxes show chronic losses and years of tax avoidance

Donald Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.

The tax returns that Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public.

The New York Times obtained Trump's tax information extending over more than two decades, revealing struggling properties, vast write-offs, an audit battle and hundreds of millions in debt coming due.

The Apprentice, along with endorsements and other income that sprang from his growing fame, brought Donald Trump US$427.4 million. Photo / Richard Perry, The New York Times

The Crown's Erin Doherty: How I became a Princess Anne superfan

People buy in to what Olivia Colman has done with Her Majesty, admire Tobias Menzies' quiet take on Prince Philip and will, perhaps, have varied views of Gillian Anderson's Mrs T. The young actress Erin Doherty's performance as Anne in The Crown is different, however, for it does not seem to be a performance. Doherty simply is Anne.

But when the 28-year-old won the part she wasn't even sure who Princess Anne was.

Andrew Billen of The Times talks to Doherty about her part in the hugely successful series.

Princess Anne in 1973 and, right, Erin Doherty, 28. Photo / Getty Images

Sweethearts forever. Then came Alzheimer's, murder and suicide

It began almost playfully, like tiny hiccups in her mind. She would forget she had already changed the sheets and change them again, or repeat a thought in the same breath.

Then the illness amplified.

For a while, her husband managed. Until he couldn't.

The New York Times looks at the tragic story of soul mates who had their lives destroyed by Alzheimer's.

Alma and Richard Shaver celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary in 1983. Photo / Kristy Truland via The New York Times

The year of blur: How 2020 destroyed our sense of time

Do you feel as if time has no boundaries anymore, that the days just bleed into weeks, that January may as well have been 2017?

You're not alone if you feel that 2020, perhaps the most dramatic and memorable year of our lifetimes seems shuffled and disordered, like a giant blur. A dream state, or perhaps a nightmare.

That's the paradox of 2020, or one of them: A year so momentous also feels, in a way, as if nothing happened at all.

It's not entirely an illusion.

The New York Times looks at how isolation, monotony and chronic stress are destroying our sense of time.

You're not alone f you feel that 2020 seems shuffled and disordered. Photo / Getty Images

Hope, and new life, in a New York maternity ward fighting Covid-19

The obstetrics unit at Brooklyn Hospital Center, which delivers about 2,600 babies a year, is typically a place of celebration and fulfilled hopes. But amid the pandemic, it was transformed.

Nearly 200 babies arrived between March and April. Twenty-nine pregnant or delivering women were suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19. They were kept separate from other patients, and medical workers wore protective clothing when attending to them. Hallways where women walked as they endured labour were empty, with the mothers-to-be confined to their rooms. Multiple doctors and nurses in the department fell ill.

A New York Times journalist and photographer spent time inside the maternity ward fighting Covid-19.

Precious Anderson's son at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York, April 9, 2020. Photo / Victor J. Blue, The New York Time