MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan — The unassuming white leather high-top sneakers with green-and-yellow trim are a best seller for a roughly half-dozen shoe vendors in a sprawling bazaar in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. But they are not in demand because they’re the latest fashion trend. For many Afghans, the sneakers evoke only one emotion: fear. That’s…
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In December, the last Obamacare enrollment period under the Trump administration closed. Now that the Biden administration has arrived, it’s trying a do-over. The renewed effort reflects the Biden team’s view that the Trump administration did too little to help people find coverage, despite a public health crisis and waves of job losses. Although insurance…
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Make It Room Temperature If a baking recipe specifies room-temperature ingredients, there is a reason: Chemistry! The temperature of your ingredients plays a very big role in the final outcome. I, for one, rarely have the forethought to take my ingredients out of the fridge ahead of time. An easy way to bring your eggs…
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“No one knew that his real name was Eugene,” Hardy added. Eugene Jackson was born on Aug. 30, 1941. His father, Sidney Jackson, worked for the Long Island Railroad as a track driver, and his mother, Ethel Rena-Jackson, was a housekeeper. The household was traditional and strict, though Eugene was more outspoken than his three…
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Mr. Bart first became aware of Ms. Emhoff’s style at a fund-raiser for Ms. Harris during the presidential primaries. “I noticed her as soon as she walked in the door,” he said. During the summer of 2020, he and Ms. Emhoff began talking about the possibility of her joining IMG. They had a Zoom call,…
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Despite the decades-long decline in the labor movement and the small numbers of unionized nurses, labor officials have seized on the pandemic fallout to organize new chapters and pursue contract talks for better conditions and benefits. National Nurses organized seven new bargaining units last year, compared to four in 2019. The S.E.I.U. also says it…
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Good wine has the power to transport. As we now approach a full year locked in pandemic freeze-frame, with many people largely confined within their national borders, wine still provides an opportunity to taste the world. In January, shopping digitally at Manhattan wine shops, I selected 20 bottles priced at less than $20, wines that…
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I live with my wife and our 11-year-old son in a peaceful suburban community. Given the civil unrest that shook our nation’s capital recently, and the continuing threat of violence elsewhere, my wife is fearful and would like to buy a gun for protection. She believes that unrest threatens us personally. I disagree. I think…
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When it comes to clothes, familiarity doesn’t necessarily breed contempt. While winter has always been high season for warmth, comfort, and outfit repetition, the pandemic’s homebody mandate has rendered our attachment to our comfort clothes even fiercer. And though you couldn’t pry me out of my house shoes and softest seal-gray half-zip right now, I…
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BANGKOK — Thailand’s Parliament has voted to make abortion legal in the first trimester, while keeping penalties in place for women who undergo it later in their pregnancies. Lawmakers in the Senate voted 166 to 7 on Monday to amend a law that had imposed prison terms of up to three years for anyone having…
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