Dealing with Andrew Cuomo, I wrote after interviewing him in early 2019, is like playing a manic chess game. He tries to guide every move, constantly recalculating and recalibrating. He uses his hands for emphasis and dominance—at one point he reached over, grabbed my ankle (I was sitting with my legs crossed), and held it tight. He stares people down; he berates; he talks and talks, counting on his ability to break whomever he’s talking to.

Updated at 5:10 p.m. ET on August 11, 2021.The timing of the latest COVID-19 surge isn’t great for children. Millions have already started the school year, the rest will do so in the coming weeks, and COVID-19 vaccines aren’t yet available for the 50 million Americans who haven’t reached their 12th birthday.Vaccine availability will not bring this pediatric outbreak to a halt.

Several years ago, the journalist and author Oliver Burkeman asked some of his friends to guess, off the top of their head, how many weeks make up a typical human lifetime. One threw out an estimate in the six figures, but as Burkeman notes in his new book, “a fairly modest six-figure number of weeks—310,000—is the approximate duration of all human civilization since the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia.

Far removed from the bustle of New York City and its surrounding suburbs, the upstate city of Albany has always been a place where the state’s political class goes to quietly indulge. Before the pandemic, booze-fueled dinners and fundraisers were a norm, as were raucous parties that drew lawmakers and staffers together.