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      Our Daughter Expects Child Care Even When Her Toddler Is Sick. Help!

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      A reader who has already contracted colds and the flu from her 18-month-old grandchild is flustered by her daughter’s indifference to her health concerns.My husband and I, in our 70s, provide child care for our 18-month-old granddaughter. She spends two days a week with us and three days in day care. She is frequently sick, and we have contracted R.S.V., colds and the flu from her. When I suggested to my daughter that she keep our grandchild at home on the worst days, she replied that my germophobic anxiety was causing her anxiety and that she would use the day care full time. (She also said I needed professional help.) The issue: My husband is devastated! He wants to care for our granddaughter whether she is sick or not. But if he gets sick, I will, too. I mask, but I am still exposed. So I am reluctant to make plans with friends, and I cancel others, for fear of infecting people. Meanwhile, my daughter accuses me of rejecting her “gift” of spending time with our granddaughter. Help!GRANDMOTHERI’m sorry that your daughter spoke to you so unkindly — while you are doing her a favor, no less! I sympathize with her need for reliable child care, which is often difficult to find and expensive. But providing it is not your responsibility. You have already raised your children. If you and your husband want to pitch in, wonderful! But it is also reasonable for you to discuss your boundaries: Who will take care of the child when she is sick or infectious?Even if your daughter moves her child to day care full time, there is still the question of sending her when she is sick. Contagious children are not generally welcome. And framing your sensible concern for your health as hypochondriacal — while she casts her own need for child care as a gift — seems manipulative.So on to a possible solution: Your husband wants to care for your grandchild regardless of her health. Perhaps on days when she is ill, he can watch her at your daughter’s house. He should mask and wash his hands frequently. And if he is rigorous about this protocol, he may be able to pull it off without becoming ill or infecting you. If he can’t, child care experiment over!Miguel PorlanLeft Out in the Cold by a Seating PolicyFor my partner’s birthday, I took her to the hippest restaurant in our city. Its website says that reservations are not accepted and that first come first served is a fair experience for everyone. So, we waited in the cold for 30 minutes. When we were next in line, we watched the staff push together several tables and even move an already seated couple to accommodate a party of six that was behind us in line. The host then told us that there would be no room for us that evening. Did the restaurant do us dirty?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Steeling My Daughters Against a New Kind of Misogyny

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      Since President Trump started announcing his cabinet picks, I have been trying to write a Very Serious Essay about the Current State of Feminism.When Pete Hegseth was confirmed, even after so many horrifying details of allegations of sexual assault and harassment, that seemed like an obvious blow to the basic ideals of gender equality. In a marginally just world for women, credible allegations of sexual or domestic violence would prevent a person from being considered for such a vaunted position in the first place.I started trying to write this essay by gathering data about women’s progress and trying to quantify how it has stalled. Though the vibes seem truly awful, I didn’t want to go by just potentially illusory internet trends or the vile choices of our commander in chief.Yet it would be disingenuous to ignore how far we have come since the 1970s, when most women didn’t even have access to credit. Women now outnumber men at American colleges and in the college-educated labor force. A higher percentage of Gen Z women say they’re feminists than women of any other generation.But: Roe is dead. Who knows what might happen with access to contraceptives or abortion medication in the next four years?We’re in a period of backlash against women’s progress, beyond what is happening in and around the Oval Office. “Surveys from 2024 show that support for traditional gender roles is increasing” among both Republican men and Republican women, according to the political scientists Michael Tesler, John Sides and Colette Marcellin in a guest essay for Times Opinion. They conclude that “any growing gender traditionalism may be a reaction to societal trends and not a cause of these trends.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Histories of Native America and the Port of Los Angeles Win Bancroft Prize

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      The award, one of the most prestigious among scholars of American history, honors “scope, significance, depth of research and richness of interpretation.”A sweeping history of Native Americans and a study of the creation of the port of Los Angeles in the 19th century have won this year’s Bancroft Prize, one of the most distinguished honors for scholars of American history.Kathleen DuVal’s “Native Nations: A Millennium in North America,” published by Random House, was described by the prize jurors as “a seamless panorama of 1,000 years of American history,” which draws on both written records and Native oral histories to tie together the stories of the more than 500 Indigenous nations who inhabit what is now the United States. “By crafting a historical narrative that introduces readers to a new national story,” the jurors write, “DuVal helps explain the Indigenous cultural and political renaissance of our own age.”DuVal, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is part of a new wave of scholars of Native America, who challenge the idea that the defeat of Indigenous people was inevitable, and who emphasize their resilience and continued cultural vitality. Hamilton Cain, reviewing the 752-page volume in The Minneapolis Star Tribune, called it “intimate yet comprehensive,” adding, “No single volume can adequately depict the gamut of Indigenous cultures, but DuVal‘s comes close.”The second winner, James Tejani’s “A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles and America,” published by W.W. Norton, reconstructs the complex interactions between 19th-century engineers, merchants, military, Native tribes and others that turned the tiny San Pedro estuary into what is today the busiest seaport in the Western Hemisphere.“By returning the attention of historians to infrastructure, material objects, and logistics,” the Bancroft jurors wrote, “Tejani opens our eyes to a new way of thinking about the trans-Mississippi West.”Tejani, an associate professor at California State University, grew up near San Pedro Bay, and occasionally weaves personal observations into the history. Julia Flynn Siler, reviewing the book in The Wall Street Journal, described it as packed with “detailed, careful scholarship” that turns the story into “a lens through which to view American expansionism.”The prize, which awards $10,000 to each winner, was created in 1948 by the trustees of Columbia University, with a bequest from the historian Frederic Bancroft. Entries — 249 this year — are evaluated for “scope, significance, depth of research and richness of interpretation,” according to the prize announcement. More

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      China’s Economic Plan Is Light on Detail as Trade War Intensifies

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      The country’s top leaders set an optimistic growth target but gave few hints of how to achieve it as their export-led strategy is challenged by rising tariffs on Chinese goods.For months, China has promised to help its people spend more to turn the economy around, while taking few concrete measures.On Wednesday, the country’s top leaders pledged to “vigorously” boost spending but once again offered limited details and little money to back it up.The government’s budget and annual work report, released on the most important day in China’s political calendar, during the meeting in Beijing called the National People’s Congress, set an optimistic target of 5 percent growth but gave scant indication of how the economy would get there without another surge in exports this year. China’s reliance on trade for growth faces fresh challenges as the United States and many other countries have raised tariffs on Chinese goods.“The headwinds remain very strong on growth: The property market hasn’t stabilized and consumer confidence remains low,” said Tao Wang, chief China economist at UBS. “Now we have a fresh wave of tariffs and who knows what else will come. Policy needs to do the heavy lifting.”Here are some key takeaways from China’s budget — and what it means for one of the world’s biggest economies.Beijing to consumers: Spend, spend, spend!China is one of the few places in the world with deflation, an economic condition in which many prices are falling. That might sound appealing to Americans struggling with hefty bills for groceries and other expenses, but it can be a crippling problem: Many companies and households have seen their earnings shrink in recent years. Deflation also raises the cost of debt payments and encourages consumers to put off purchases on the expectation of prices being lower in the future.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Gaming Out Trump’s Next Tariff Moves

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      In his address to Congress, the president made clear that his new trade levies were here to stay, acknowledging it might create “a little disturbance.” Analysts forecast what that might look like.President Trump’s tariffs have jolted global markets and the business world, but he has given no indication he’ll retreat on the levies.Doug Mills/The New York Times“A little disturbance” For months, the debate gripping board rooms, Wall Street and world capitals was whether to take President Trump at his word on tariffs. For a while, the markets rallied as if he were just bluffing.He wasn’t. In an address before Congress last night, Trump said that tariffs would protect American jobs and enrich the nation. He also acknowledged that “there will be a little disturbance. But we’re OK with that.”What might a “a little disturbance” look like? DealBook has taken on the task of gaming out what could happen next. (A warning to free-trade advocates: this could be tough reading.)More tariffs are coming, trade experts say. Few countries, or companies, will be spared. For example, if the tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China stick, then Europe will be next. Such a scenario is “unavoidable,” George Saravelos, the global head of FX Research at Deutsche Bank, said in a research note on Tuesday. European companies are already bracing for the next wave.“Trump has appeared to be less amenable to carve-outs in this second term,” David Seif, chief economist for developed markets at Nomura, told DealBook. That could bode poorly, he added, for Britain, whose prime minister, Keir Starmer, met with Trump at the White House last week where a trade deal was discussed. “I don’t think Keir Starmer should just feel safe right now,” Seif said.Expect more market turmoil. “These tariffs would represent a major negative global growth shock, sufficient to push many economies into recession,” Saravelos wrote, adding that it’s time to stop thinking of them as a negotiating tactic. (The recessionary risk for the United States may be remote, but concerns are growing about the tariffs’ potential stagflationary effects.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Suggests Black Lives Matter Plaza Will Be Painted Over

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      The announcement came just a day after a Republican congressman introduced legislation threatening to withhold millions in federal funds from the city unless the street mural was removed.The mayor of Washington, D.C., suggested on Tuesday night that the giant Black Lives Matter mural that was painted in the summer of 2020 on a street within view of the White House would be painted over.The announcement from the mayor, Muriel E. Bowser, about “the evolution of Black Lives Matter Plaza” came just a day after Andrew Clyde, a Republican congressman from Georgia, introduced legislation threatening to withhold millions in federal funds from the city unless the giant yellow words were removed from the street and the plaza renamed.In a post on X, the mayor said that the plaza would instead be part of a citywide project in which students and artists would create new murals to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday.The Black Lives Matter mural “inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference,” wrote Ms. Bowser, a Democrat. “The devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our number one concern.”The mural was painted on the morning of June 5, 2020, just days after federal authorities used chemical spray and smoke grenades to clear protesters so that President Trump could walk to a historic church near the White House and pose for photographs holding a Bible.At the time, cities across the country were convulsing with demonstrations over the murder of George Floyd. Ms. Bowser and Mr. Trump quarreled throughout that week, with the Washington mayor meeting with protesters and urging the president to pull federal law enforcement officers and National Guard troops out of the city.Since Mr. Trump’s return to office, the city’s vulnerability has become glaringly clear. Republican lawmakers have introduced numerous bills aimed at the city, including one that would eliminate home rule entirely — a power to elect local government that city residents have had for more than 50 years.Washington’s self-government is limited as it is, with all local legislation subject to congressional oversight and much of the criminal justice system, including judges and prosecutors, in the hands of the federal government. But Mr. Trump has championed a complete federal takeover of the city.He has already gotten involved in city matters, including in one case that sparked protests and outrage in the fall of 2020. Within days of taking office, Mr. Trump pardoned two police officers who had been convicted of conspiracy and obstructing justice in the death of a young Black man who died after a police chase. More

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      Trump Officials Mark Hundreds of Federal Properties for Potential Sale

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      The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it could sell hundreds of federal properties around the country, including offices for the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.Officials at the General Services Administration, an agency that manages the federal government’s real estate portfolio, originally said they had identified more than 440 properties that they could “dispose of” in an effort to ensure that “taxpayers no longer pay for empty and underutilized federal office space.”By Tuesday evening, however, the list of buildings deemed “not core to government operations” had been trimmed to 320 properties, removing a number of high-profile buildings, many of them in Washington, D.C.Federal Properties That Could Be Sold More

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      NYT Crossword Answers for March 5, 2025

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      Rebecca Goldstein gives us a witty jump scare.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — “Is this a crossword which I see before me, the pen toward my hand?” OK, so that’s not exactly what Macbeth said, but it’s the reference that sprang to mind as I started in on today’s crossword, constructed by Rebecca Goldstein, which is chock-full of spectral sightings in a certain estate.Let’s solve this grid bravely together, shall we?Today’s ThemeIt’s time for a tour through the rooms of Ms. Goldstein’s HAUNTED MANSION (62A/66A), where everyday expressions reveal various scary locations.First, we have the [Blowout victory, metaphorically]: a BLOOD BATH (20A). Speaking of water features, how about this [Marvel superhero portrayed by Ryan Reynolds]: a DEADPOOL (7D). Tackle your terrifying work tasks inside the [Commercial property left mostly vacant by hybrid work arrangements], also known as a ZOMBIE OFFICE (25D). And finally, we’ll stop for a bite of frights in the GHOST KITCHEN (28D) — a [Restaurant offering delivery and pickup only].Tricky Clues14A. The [Source of a pulse] in a person would be the heart, but this clue is after a pulse used for navigational purposes: SONAR.34A. Remember: A question mark in a clue is essentially a wink. The [Device for taking notes] refers not to the kind of notes you’d take in a classroom, but to bank notes. The answer is ATM.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More