On Thursday, Donald Trump will walk into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, shake Xi Jinping's hand, and declare it a great meeting. There will be announcements. There will be numbers — billions of dollars in Chinese purchase commitments, a new bilateral mechanism with an important-sounding name, possibly a joint statement on Iran. Trump will post on Truth Social. Markets will rally briefly. Pundits will argue about who won. None of that will tell you what actually happened. What is actually happening in Beijing this week is something more consequential and more uncomfortable than the summit theatre will reveal: two leaders of two deeply mutually dependent superpowers, both of whom need this meeting to succeed for entirely different reasons, sitting across a table in a world that has already moved past the assumptions that defined their last nine months of negotiations. The Iran war changed the equations. The rare earth gambit changed the power balance. Taiwan is sitting in...
As if childbirth itself isn’t stressful enough, having a baby during the current pandemic adds more weight to a new mom’s shoulders. Both prenatal and postpartum, a new mom should be filled with excitement for their little one, not worrying about a worldwide health scare. Luckily, good preparation can alleviate many of the worst fears and make the situation less daunting for ev eryone. This checklist will help navigate the uncertainty and most importantly, help you prioritize what’s most important: the health of a new mom and her precious bundle of joy. Image source Stay Home Most of us are socially distancing in stores, restaurants, etc., but it’s especially important for new moms to stay out of the public as much as possible and avoid crowds. The less exposure to others, the lower the chance is of getting the virus. This could mean swapping some in-person OB/GYN appointments to virtual ones, ordering groceries online, and scheduling some postpartum virtual check-ups...