Friday, December 3, 2021 View web version
Today's Headlines
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Globe Local

Senate advances Rachael Rollins’s bid to become the next US attorney for Massachusetts

The 50-47 vote along party lines cleared a key hurdle in one of the more bitter partisan fights over a Biden administration nominee. Rollins still needs a final vote by the full Senate to be confirmed. Continue reading →

COVID-19 Vaccines

‘I don’t think we’re back to square one.’ Beth Israel races to find out how much vaccines protect against Omicron

The hospital’s researchers are part of a global effort to understand the fast-spreading variant. Continue reading →

Health

Hospitals stagger under strain as COVID-19 cases reach highest level since winter

New COVID-19 cases continue to mount at an alarming rate, with more patients streaming into already-strained hospitals just as the new Omicron strain of the virus appears to be taking a deeper hold in the United States. Continue reading →

THE GREAT DIVIDE

Educators less worried this year about the uptick of COVID-19 cases in schools

School COVID-19 cases have doubled since Halloween, but, unlike last year, school leaders aren’t worried right now about having to close schools this winter. Continue reading →

Religion

A German cellist’s obsession: Reuniting a family scattered by the Holocaust

Friederike Fechner and her husband purchased a home in Germany and discovered the tragic tale of its previous residents, the Jewish Blach family, at least 10 of whom were murdered in the Holocaust. She made it her mission to find and reunite descendants of the survivors who ran for their lives and scattered across the globe. Continue reading →

The Nation

Nation

Mexico to allow US ‘Remain in Mexico’ asylum policy to resume

The Biden administration has reached a deal with the Mexican government to restart the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program that requires asylum seekers to wait outside US territory while their claims are processed, US and Mexican officials said Thursday. Continue reading →

Nation

Second brother testifies Smollett paid for staged attack

A second man testified Thursday that Jussie Smollett plotted a racist and anti-gay attack on himself and paid the man and his brother to carry it out, giving them lines to shout and pointing out a surveillance camera the former “Empire” actor said would capture the hoax on video to use for publicity. Continue reading →

Nation

ICE holds growing numbers of immigrants at private facilities despite Biden campaign promise to end practice

Activists fought fiercely to kick Immigration and Customs Enforcement out of the jail in this industrial city, where the red-brick tenements and glass storefronts have welcomed immigrants for generations. Detainees waged hunger strikes. Protesters blocked the road to the airport. Somebody spray-painted “free them all” on the sheriff’s suburban home. Continue reading →

The World

World

US, EU, and allies hit Belarus with coordinated sanctions

The United States, European Union, Britain, and Canada slapped simultaneous sanctions Thursday on dozens of officials, organizations, and companies in Belarus, with the EU taking aim at those accused of participating in a “hybrid attack” on the bloc using migrants. Continue reading →

World

US defense chief slams China’s drive for hypersonic weapons

America’s defense chief rebuked China on Thursday, vowing to confront its potential military threats in Asia and warning that its pursuit of hypersonic weapons intended to evade US missile defenses “increases tensions in the region.” Continue reading →

World

Pope Francis heads to Cyprus, aiming to highlight plight of migrants

Pope Francis arrived in Cyprus on Thursday, beginning a five-day trip that would also bring him to Greece and its island of Lesbos, where in 2016 he made a defining visit to refugees living in horrid conditions and brought some back to Rome on his plane. Continue reading →

Editorial & Opinion

EDITORIAL

Putin’s threats to Ukraine demand diplomacy and deterrence

Kyiv’s sovereignty is at risk as Russian military build-up grows beyond political theater. Continue reading →

OPINION

Alarm bells are ringing: Congress must pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

Anything less returns the country to a shameful past — a nation of poll taxes and literacy tests that mocks the very idea of government “by the people.” Continue reading →

OPINION

The stench at the Supreme Court

The science on which Roe v. Wade was based has not changed. What has changed is the court’s membership and their originalist interpretation of the Constitution. Continue reading →

Metro

Politics

Revealed in dark of night and passed hours later in nearly empty chamber, Mass. House moves $4 billion bill toward governor

The sweeping spending legislation promises hundreds of millions of dollars for everything from housing to workforce training to Massachusetts’ health care system. Continue reading →

THE GREAT DIVIDE

Boston will create wait-lists for its exam schools amid enrollment decline

Some parents raised new questions about the lack of waiting lists for the exam schools earlier this year after school officials revealed they had offered admission to fewer students this year than previous years. Continue reading →

Metro

Charlie Baker and the demise of the Yankee Republican

Long a fixture in New England politics, Yankee Republicans like Baker are increasingly rare. Continue reading →

Sports

On baseball

The Red Sox trading for Jackie Bradley Jr. was really about the prospects they also acquired

In essence, the Sox paid about $10 million to get Alex Binelas and David Hamilton. Continue reading →

christopher l. gasper

The Celtics need to break up their core, and Marcus Smart is the one to go

The core of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Smart looks maxed out, and Smart is the most expendable piece. Continue reading →

bruins notebook

Jake DeBrusk isn’t the only Bruins forward who could use more grit in his game

The struggling winger continues to see duty after his trade request became public this week. Continue reading →

Business

Business

Senate passes stopgap funding bill, avoiding shutdown

The Senate has passed a stopgap spending bill that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates. The measure now goes to President Biden to be signed into law. Continue reading →

Retail

MIT-founded food waste startup Spoiler Alert finds its stride amid supply chain woes

The Boston-based software company helps food companies keep excess products out of landfills and has grown fast amid pandemic supply-chain woes. Continue reading →

INNOVATION BEAT

Hey Alexa, can you add even more jobs in Boston?

The team running Amazon’s digital assistant is local — and expanding. Continue reading →

Obituaries
Arts & Lifestyle

TELEVISION REVIEW

In HBO’s ‘Landscapers,’ two great performances emerge from a thicket of stylized storytelling

Olivia Colman and David Thewlis are brilliant in this miniseries based on a bizarre, real-life murder case, but a series of narrative tricks embedded in the show are unnecessary and distracting. Continue reading →

MUSIC REVIEW

Conrad Tao makes magnetic Celebrity Series solo debut

The former child prodigy improvised and inspired in a live Cambridge performance. Continue reading →

ART REVIEW

Artemisia Gentileschi takes justice into her own hands

At Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, "By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500-1800" puts female empowerment — and revenge — on display. Continue reading →