All of the headlines from today's paper.
Friday, May 16, 2025
Today's Headlines

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Higher Education

Harvard investigated over admissions after end of affirmative action

The Justice Department’s inquiry was opened under the False Claims Act, The New York Times reported, which is a law designed to punish those who defraud the government. Continue reading →

Higher Education

Graduates are feeling trepidation this commencement season, but ‘fear is what needs to drive change,’ says MIT class president

The class of 2025 knows disappointment. It knows defiance. And now, four months into President Trump’s second term, it knows trepidation and dread. Continue reading →

K-12

As Trump dismantles the Education Department, families with civil rights complaints fear justice isn’t coming

There were 600 open investigations in New England when Trump took office, roughly half of which are in Massachusetts. Continue reading →

Politics

Supreme Court wrestles with limiting judges’ power in birthright citizenship case

The Supreme Court wrestled on Thursday with the Trump administration's complaints that federal judges have exceeded their authority in temporarily blocking some of his policy moves for the whole country. Continue reading →

Healthcare

Baystate Health CEO accused of plagiarism amid company’s financial struggles

Peter Banko's weekly blog delivers inspirational messages to the Western Massachusetts health system's 13,000 employees. But a Globe review found more than 20 posts containing passages that matched articles that appeared elsewhere. Continue reading →

The Nation

Nation

Judge dismisses ‘trespassing’ charges promoted by Trump in border ‘defense area’

The judge's order added to the confusion and legal turmoil that have gripped New Mexico in the month since President Trump declared a ribbon of land along the 180-mile length of the state’s southern border to be an Army base. Continue reading →

Nation

Baby is healed with world’s first personalized gene-editing treatment

The infant's treatment offers a new path for companies to develop personalized treatments without going through years of expensive development and testing. Continue reading →

Nation

Cassie forced to read aloud explicit messages with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs at his sex trafficking trial

Some of the messages showed her expressing enthusiasm for the alleged Combs-directed encounters with other men that she previously testified had disgusted her. Continue reading →

The World

World

Trump’s pledge — no more ‘lectures on how to live’ — resonates in the Middle East

He was effectively denouncing decades of American policy in the Middle East, playing to grievances long aired in cafes and sitting rooms from Morocco to Oman. Continue reading →

World

A new pope confronts his church’s abuse scandal amid praise and scrutiny

Survivors say the new pontiff must urgently improve on Pope Francis’s complicated legacy by committing to transparency and accountability in investigations of harm. Continue reading →

World

Is there political life after populism? Poland may be the test.

Much is riding on Poland’s presidential election, the first round of which will be held Sunday. Continue reading →

Editorial & Opinion

Editorials

Healey’s hiring freeze a wake-up for fiscal sobriety

State lawmakers can point fingers at Washington, but that won’t close the budget gap. Continue reading →

OpEds

For Greater Boston, a different kind of freedom trail

The book “A People’s Guide to Greater Boston” is being refigured into a series of maps so everyday explorers might tread a history that’s often devalued by the established culture. Continue reading →

Letters

Another Project 2025 casualty: key civil rights enforcement tool

Simply put, this tool recognizes that the imposition of arbitrary barriers to the employment of minorities and women is the functional equivalent of "minorities or women need not apply." Continue reading →

Metro

K-12

Trump administration ends federal oversight of BPS English learner programs

Parents and advocates worry about program oversight without the 2012 agreement that required Boston Public Schools to provide annual reports to the DOJ. Continue reading →

Higher Education

Former Harvard president Claudine Gay earned $1.4 million in 2023

During her short and stormy tenure, Gay received a base salary of $1.02 million and a bonus of $35,000, as well as benefits, according to the university’s annual tax filing for 2023. Continue reading →

Massachusetts

Astronaut Sunita Williams receives honorary degree from Merrimack College, recalls dramatic nine-month journey in space

“Yes, we could have worried about getting home those nine months, but instead, we had time to look at the foliage,” Williams said. Continue reading →

Sports

Patriots

Is Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore finally done with the blood clots that ruined his 2024 season?

It was particularly difficult as he sat and watched his team struggle to a 4-13 record. Continue reading →

Red Sox

How difficult would it be for Rafael Devers to learn to play first base? Former players have mixed opinions.

“It’s very hard. I can tell you by experience,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who played 21 innings at first during his MLB career. Continue reading →

Celtics

Luke Kornet is a Celtics folk hero. In Game 5, he was the hero who saved the season.

Kornet channeled his inner Hakeem Olajuwon, turning back seven New York shots as the Celtics preserved their season. Continue reading →

Business

Economy

79,000 lost jobs. $13 billion in GDP gone. Study tallies potential hit to Mass. from Trump’s ‘economic attack.’

A new report from Boston University urges Beacon Hill to "prepare for an economic downturn at best, and a recession at worst." Continue reading →

Retail

Lego cuts the ribbon on new Back Bay headquarters: ‘Boston attracts great tenants’

The Danish toymaker joined with Governor Maura Healey and Mayor Michelle Wu to officially open its new Americas headquarters. Continue reading →

Real Estate

Empty lab space keeps piling up around Greater Boston

Nearly one-third of lab space in the region is empty, and more is still under construction. Continue reading →

Obituaries

Obituaries

Joe Louis Walker, free-ranging blues explorer, is dead at 75

A member of the Blues Hall of Fame, Mr. Walker considered himself more of a blues explorer than a purist. “When I picked up a guitar, I did not say I was gonna be a blues artist, or a rock artist,” he said in a 2021 interview with NPR. “The idiom,” he added, “finds us.” Continue reading →

Obituaries

Elizabeth Pochoda, journalist who traversed the media world, dies at 83

The roster of publications she wrote for and edited is vast and varied: fashion magazines (Mirabella and Vogue), shelter magazines (House & Garden), general-interest publications (Vanity Fair, The New York Post), niche publications (The Magazine Antiques), and a political magazine (the Nation). Continue reading →

Obituaries

Joe Don Baker, actor who found fame with ‘Walking Tall,’ dies at 89

Looking back in 2000, Vanity Fair saw the film’s star as its secret weapon, writing that “Walking Tall” had “a major asset in Joe Don Baker, whose sideburns and greasy, likable rockabilly grin suggest a larger doughnut version of Elvis Presley.” Continue reading →

Arts & Lifestyle

Lifestyle

Here’s something new: Saturday is the first international Vintage Store Day.

More than two dozen resale shops around Greater Boston are participating. Continue reading →

Parenting

There’s a nap for that: How to manage the distracting devices of digital-era parenthood

"They’re turning your baby into an entertainment console." Continue reading →

Theater

Singers soar above the flaws of ‘The Light in the Piazza’

The Huntington's latest features stellar performances. Continue reading →