Sunday, August 15, 2021 View web version
Today's Headlines
Page one

Spotlight

The taking of Cell 15

A look at secrecy, assaults, and accountability inside Massachusetts’ maximum-security prison. Continue reading →

Boston Mayoral Race

Boston mayoral candidates target key neighborhoods, ‘super voters’ as race heats up

In a campaign season that has largely occurred online, the race is moving back onto the streets in an urgent press in the final weeks before the Sept. 14 preliminary election. Continue reading →

Politics

Chief Justice Roberts: A moderating force on the court but not on voting rights

John Roberts’s colorblind approach to the law has powered the court decisions that have gutted the Voting Rights Act and enabled the current move across the South to roll back laws liberalizing access to the polls, especially for people of color. Continue reading →

Retail

In a hairier, scarier world, Gillette embraces the beard

As men emerge, scruffier, from pandemic life, Gillette is selling a lot more than just razors. Continue reading →

World

Taliban sweep follows years of US miscalculations

If there is a consistent theme over two decades of war in Afghanistan, it is the overestimation of the results of the $83 billion the United States has spent since 2001 training and equipping the Afghan security forces and an underestimation of the brutal, wily strategy of the Taliban. Continue reading →

The Nation

Coronavirus notebook

Biden administration plans for vaccine boosters, perhaps by fall

With a stockpile of at least 100 million doses at the ready, Biden administration officials are developing a plan to start offering coronavirus booster shots to some Americans as early as this fall, even as researchers continue to debate whether extra shots are needed, according to people familiar with the effort. Continue reading →

Nation

Census data puts target on rural, Rust Belt House districts

The new census numbers make several US representatives potential targets for map makers — and possibly vulnerable to job loss — as their districts are redrawn in the coming months. Continue reading →

Nation

Small towns grow desperate for water in California

Water is so scarce in Mendocino, an Instagram-ready collection of pastel Victorian homes on the edge of the Pacific, that restaurants have closed their restrooms to guests, pointing them instead to portable toilets on the sidewalk. Continue reading →

The World

World

Taliban enter Kabul, say they don’t plan to take it by force

Taliban fighters entered the outskirts of Kabul on Sunday as panicked workers fled government offices and helicopters began landing at the US Embassy in the Afghan capital, further tightening the militants’ grip on the country. Continue reading →

World

Poverty, disease: Why so many Indonesian children die of COVID-19

The pandemic has killed at least 1,245 Indonesian children and the biggest recent jump has been among those younger than 1, a pediatric expert said. Continue reading →

World

A pricey drive down Montenegro’s highway ‘from nowhere to nowhere’

The projects has plunged China into the convoluted geopolitical struggles of the Balkans. Continue reading →

Editorial & Opinion

EDITORIAL

Massachusetts should follow New York City’s lead on vaccine requirements

It's the right idea to require vaccination proof for entry into restaurants, bars, gyms, and other establishments. So why isn’t Boston or Massachusetts doing it? Continue reading →

OPINION

‘I didn’t know’ is not a defense for sexual harassment or racism

Powerful men have long claimed ignorance as an excuse for misdeeds. That privilege is finally fading. Continue reading →

OPINION

The virtue-signaling stock exchange

Nasdaq gets permission to mandate racial and gender quotas. Continue reading →

Metro

Politics

At community hearing, calls for a Black-majority state Senate district

With new data from the 2020 US Census now in hand, advocates are looking to this year’s redistricting cycle and pushing for new state Senate maps that will empower Boston’s Black communities to elect candidates of color. Continue reading →

Metro

Selling shots, one block at a time

Getting the rest of Massachusetts vaccinated is a game of inches now. Continue reading →

Massachusetts

Massachusetts sales tax-free weekend gets under way

The 6.25 percent sales tax is off the table Saturday and Sunday for most retail items under $2,500 each. Items not eligible for the tax break include meals, cars, boats, utilities, tobacco and marijuana products, and alcoholic beverages. Continue reading →

Sports

Peter Abraham | On Baseball

Chris Sale returns to the mound at Fenway in fine form

He allowed four hits, struck out eight, and walked none as the Sox routed the Orioles. Continue reading →

dan shaughnessy

Patriots are taking the spotlight away from Red Sox, and other thoughts

Thursday felt like a passing of the torch, with the Patriots playing their first preseason game and the Sox managing two hits in a lopsided loss. Continue reading →

RED SOX 16, ORIOLES 2

Support all around for Chris Sale as Red Sox rout Orioles again

Boston pounded five home runs, including a pair by Bobby Dalbec, and had 17 hits total while Sale pitched five solid innings in his first start since 2019. Continue reading →

Business
Ideas

IDEAS

The Disunited States of fear and uncertainty

Sixty years ago, the specter of nuclear annihilation unified Americans against a common threat. In the face of lagging vaccination rates and surging COVID-19 infections, why can’t we rally again? Continue reading →

IDEAS

A prison reckoning with remorse

For years, I “othered” everyone I ever hurt as bullies and thugs who had it coming. And then I met a mother who lost her son to a violent crime. Continue reading →

Obituaries

Obituaries

Ilona Royce Smithkin, improbably muse in fashion and art, dies at 101

A part-time resident of Provincetown, Ilona Royce Smithkin starred in the documentary “Advanced Style” and joined fashion campaigns for brands like Coach, while also flinging embers into many other fields as a muse for photographers, filmmakers, and entertainers — a joyous persona that took a lifetime to build after a grim childhood. Continue reading →

Arts & Lifestyle

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

At the movies, night time is the right time

It certainly is as far as titles are concerned. Continue reading →

ART REVIEW

The exhibit of a lifetime — several, in fact

It is, I’m fine saying, the Renaissance painting event of the year, and maybe a few more besides. Continue reading →

MATTHEW GILBERT

Plenty of pain, but no gain

TV story lines are filled with characters avoiding their feelings about the death of a loved one. Continue reading →

Travel

CITY BY THE SEA

A sweeping walk from Logan to the Inner Harbor — plus a creek, a beach, and a marsh

We launched the final leg of our Harborwalk journey in style. Continue reading →

TRENDSPOTTING

For better or for worse, some pandemic-prompted travel changes are forever

Technology designed to keep people at a distance is speeding everything from check-in to room service. And, "people have started realizing how many of these things are actually nice." Continue reading →

Real Estate