Will my pets be okay when our house is suddenly empty during the day?

“The good news,” Todd said, “is that probably they will be okay for things to go back.” But if you’ve been with your pet 24/7 and are suddenly going to be gone for a large chunk of each weekday, she added, “that’s a huge change” that should be introduced gradually. Dogs and cats relish routine, Todd said. “They would prefer to get their meals at the same time every day. And your dog would rather go for walks at the same time every day.”

NEW YORK — Former presidential hopeful Andrew Yang, who advocated for a “universal basic income” during the Democratic primary, is now the subject of a poll that tests New York City voters' appetites for a third-party candidate in the upcoming mayoral race.

Yang was also among 11 people listed in a question assessing responders’ top picks in the Democratic primary to succeed Mayor Bill de Blasio next June, according to an online survey targeting Manhattan residents through a Facebook ad and shared with POLITICO by someone who took it.

The poll did not indicate it was being conducted on Yang’s behalf, the person said, but several questions focused on his potential candidacy — something his team said he was weighing as recently as last month. Others asked respondents to gauge a nameless candidate, whose description closely matched Yang’s profile.

The poll specifically tested one's viability as an independent candidate, which would allow Yang to skip the crowded primary and spend more time raising funds for a general election next November. Registered Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans and unaffiliated voters in the city, and New Yorkers rarely select mayors off the Democratic line. Mike Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani both won as Republicans during times of significant crisis, and in Bloomberg’s case only after significantly outspending his opponents.

By the end of the third week of England’s second national lockdown, which began early this month in a bid to stem a second wave of coronavirus infections, the number of new cases has fallen 30 percent, according to new data.

Some parts of northern England, which had been hit particularly hard by the new outbreak, experienced an even greater drop, the latest interim findings from Imperial College London’s React study showed.

But Matt Hancock, the British health secretary, warned that the data, while promising, showed the country could not “take our foot off the pedal just yet,” according to the BBC. In a post on Twitter late Sunday, Mr. Hancock cautioned that “we mustn’t waste our progress now we can see light at the end of the tunnel” with mass testing and promising coronavirus vaccine candidates on the horizon.

England’s current lockdown is set to end just after midnight Wednesday. But the lifting of restrictions will be different across the country, as regions move into one of three tiers based on their current rate of infection. Britain is still grappling with the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in Europe and its deepest recession on record, with experts warning that the knock-on effects of the pandemic could last for years.

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) has ended its “mask noncompliance” car on its South Shore Line (SSL) as of Nov. 15 following implementation of a gubernatorial executive order requiring all people wear face coverings in the state.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed an executive order that went into effect Nov. 15 putting into place protocols and protections to aid the state in its continued fight against the pandemic, including a statewide mask mandate. Local governments may impose more restrictive guidelines.

Indiana has had an active standing executive order requiring face coverings while on public transit and South Shore Line riders have been required to wear a face covering as of early May, but NICTD explains the order did not provide the railroad with a clear means of enforcement.

In July, the NICTD began offering South Shore Line riders a “mask noncompliance” car on its trains to respect the choices of those riders wearing face coverings and those who did not. NICTD noted mask-related complaints decreased dramatically following the “mask noncompliance” car’s entrance into service.

Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.)

Rhode Island’s two House districts are likely to merge ahead of the next midterm, putting the state’s two Democratic congressmen in an awkward spot. The senior member, Jim Langevin, is the first quadriplegic to serve in Congress, while Rep. David Cicilline has been more ambitious, making a failed bid for assistant speaker this month.

Reps. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.)

One of the three members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation will find themselves without a perch in Congress in 2022, when the three vertically stacked districts condense into two. The most likely new map bifurcates the state into North and South, slicing GOP Rep. Alex Mooney’s central district in half and placing his home base in the Eastern Panhandle with Rep. David McKinley’s northern seat.

Reps.-elect Barry Moore (R-Ala.) and Jerry Carl (R-Ala.)

The GOP has total control over redistricting because it has control of both state legislative chambers and the governorship in Alabama, but the state’s lone Democrat, Rep. Terri Sewell, holds a district protected by the Voting Rights Act. So one of the state's six Republicans is on the chopping block when it sheds a seat in 2022.

Reps. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) and Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.)

Democrats will again have total control over the crafting of Illinois’s congressional map — and, if possible, they’ll want to take out GOP Rep. Rodney Davis. In 2011, mapmakers had to protect then-Democratic Rep. Jerry Costello, who held a seat to the south of Davis that has since moved away from the party. If Democrats give some of East St. Louis to Davis, he could be in much more competitive territory.

The president’s post-election campaign demonstrates his singular talent for taking care of himself even when he loses. It is a momentous historic attack on the democratic process, on the order of Reconstruction. But for Trump, as Michael Corleone put it, “it’s just business.” Ultimately, Trump’s goals are to remain a star, make money, and solidify his clout. The corrosive effects on democracy are collateral damage.

Donald Trump has always craved fame, a drive common to national politicians. But he alone honed his approach to politics through his stint as a reality TV star. That’s where he learned how he could weave a narrative around his personality that tapped into the fantasies of a national audience. His quixotic claim to have won an election that he knows he lost rests entirely on his curated public persona. And as long as he pursues his claims, he is the center of attention instead of an ignored, sad, lame duck.

Trump’s intrigues embody his drive to come out ahead whether he succeeds or fails. His campaign hardly touched on the pandemic, the economy, or even his signature complaints about immigrants. Instead, he offered a narrative about systemic voter fraud and a stolen election. The strategy was smarter than Trump’s consultants and most media understood. It strengthened his connection to Americans who feel vulnerable to powerful shadowy forces beyond their reach, sufficient to drive nearly enough of them to reelect him.