Worth the read:

https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1527180740592553985

Don't get too concerned about supposed Russian advances in Donbas.

Your Dog Is Not Ready for You to Return to the Office
Pets (and their owners) prepare for the inevitable.

The New York Times
By John Leland
May 19, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET
Look at that face, those pleading eyes, that nose that kept you company all through the pandemic. Now explain to Cooper why it is so, so important that you return to the office — leaving her alone all day, after two years of 24/7 togetherness.

Because … what? Company d’esprit?

Todd McCormick, a derivatives trader on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, decided that he is not going to do it. “I don’t believe I will ever go back to an office,” he said. As he spoke, his 13-year-old rescue mix, Higgins, demanded a cracker.

Many New Yorkers, of course, have long since returned to their workplaces, or never stopped going to them. But for those contemplating the transition now, and for their dogs, a day of reckoning has arrived.

More than 23 million American households added a cat or dog during the pandemic, according to the A.S.P.C.A., and many of those animals have never known what it is like to be left alone all day. They photo-bombed Zoom meetings, typed cryptic messages on their humans’ laptops and found other ways to contribute to the interspecies work environment. For many people, the dogs were the only warm body around — therapist, companion and entertainment system rolled into one.

https://nyti.ms/3Pxtljt

Three today.

https://twitter.com/PatronDsns/status/1527193623141433344

https://twitter.com/PatronDsns/status/1526997026973655040

https://twitter.com/PatronDsns/status/1526878659004489728

This is from tonight's daily briefing by the Institute for the Study of War:


Supporting Effort #1—Mariupol (Russian objective: Capture Mariupol and reduce the Ukrainian defenders)

Russian forces continued to conduct air and artillery strikes against the remaining Ukrainian defenders in the Azovstal Steel Plant on May 18.[19] The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that 694 Ukrainian servicemen surrendered to Russian forces between May 17 to 18 and claimed that nearly 1,000 had surrendered in all since evacuations began.[20] Leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) Denis Pushilin claimed that all the high-ranking Ukrainian commanders have not yet left the plant. ISW cannot independently confirm that Ukrainian servicemen remain in Azovstal, but continued Russian air and artillery strikes make it highly likely that there are still some Ukrainian troops in the plant.[21]


So presumably there are still Ukraine soldiers in there and the Russians are still afraid to go in and get them.
The Battle goes on.

Don't know what happened to the Times guy.

https://twitter.com/SarahNLynch/status/1526913569324933121


https://twitter.com/JFHaughey58/status/1526991547052466176

https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1526901864318619649

https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1526801691538083840

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1526845578491187200

From today's NY Times



The White House virus briefings return.
Image


By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
The White House will hold a coronavirus briefing on Wednesday after a six-week hiatus, as caseloads and hospitalizations climb around the country and the Biden administration signaled that it would extend its declaration of Covid-19 as a public health emergency.

The briefing — scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Eastern — will be the first formal on-camera session led by President Biden’s new coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Ashish K. Jha.
Dr. Jha has spent much of his first month in office trying to persuade Congress to authorize billions of dollars in new emergency aid for the pandemic response, but the administration’s request is stalled on Capitol Hill. A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to preview Wednesday’s coronavirus briefing, said Dr. Jha would again call on Congress to release the funding, and would warn that the nation was seeing a “significant increase” in infections — a sign that Covid is not over.


It will be nice to hear Dr. Jha's always sensible thoughts