Severe maternal complications among Massachusetts births are 16 percent higher than the national average and the rate nearly doubled between 2011 and 2020. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/03/m...

Sir Alex Younger spent 30 years at MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, with six of those as its boss. On this month’s Inside Defence, we get his take on the war in Iran

Revelations that the much-lionized United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez raped women and young girls has rightly horrified many. Former farm worker Frank Bardacke discusses the two souls of the UFW, between the union staff and the militant rank and file. kpfa.org/episode/agai...

For much of the past month, questions have swirled in Greater Boston business circles about whether Boston’s organizing committee would be able to pull off its grand vision for the world’s largest sporting event. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/01/m...

The death of a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar who was found on a Buffalo street in February — five days after Border Patrol agents left him at a doughnut shop — has been ruled a homicide, authorities said Wednesday. https://to.pbs.org/3NZGHsz

Major medical and mental health organizations have condemned conversion therapy, citing evidence that it increases the risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide among LGBTQ+ youth. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/31/m...

Leo XIV denounced 'unjust configurations of power, structures of sin that dig chasms between poor and rich, between the privileged and the rejected, between friends and enemy.' www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

Communities with more Asian residents, like Chinatown, are particularly susceptible to the casinos’ pitches because they are more likely than other places to be home to people who struggle financially, feel isolated, and have few alternative entertainment options. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/28/m...

Brazilians call soccer o jogo bonito — “the beautiful game,” and on a crowded train to a World Cup exhibition match at Gillette Stadium, the phrase rang true. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/26/m...

In Boston’s Chinatown, many longtime residents are fed up with the encroachment of betting into nearly every corner of the enclave and are pushing back — against the casinos, their elected officials, and their neighbors. trib.al/S5DAkwV

The Harvard Peabody Museum still holds 46% of the Native American ancestors in its collections, falling short of a 2022 pledge to repatriate all ancestors and their funerary belongings within 3 years. Shalini N. Ramchune reports. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

Most of the six inmates in Massachusetts prisons who died by suicide last year had been in or just left segregated units the Department of Correction had created to replace the discredited practice of solitary confinement. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/26/m...

Six years after investigators discovered a troubling pattern of thousands of dollars in fare money going missing, the private company that operates the state’s commuter rail system wired $35,000 to the MBTA to cover the discrepancy.

By @carlosrmunoz.bsky.social -- After rehab, car-obsessed turkey returns to intersection where he got hit. Residents and environmental management hope to relocate him. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/25/m...

A Globe investigation found that New England’s largest casinos are relentlessly targeting people of Asian descent across the region, often with devastating results — driving people toward addiction and sapping wealth from Asian communities. trib.al/q3feHuC

The Wu administration, which is embroiled in a legal fight with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy over White Stadium, did not issue the group a permit for its annual fundraiser. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/23/o...

⚫️SPJ has named the State of Massachusetts the 2026 Black Hole Award recipient, a national dishonor recognizing a troubling lack of transparency in government. ☀️During #SunshineWeek, it’s a reminder: open government matters. 🔗Read more: bit.ly/4sY57S6

The Strait of Hormuz is about more than just oil. It feeds 100 million people flip.it/P1EKv6

For those who’ve followed what subsequently happened to his union, and his responsibility for its decline, his heroic stature has long been the subject of doubt, qualification, and some dismay. Now, it’s simply gone. buff.ly/g5Uiowc

A Middlesex County grand jury indicted Dr. Derrick Todd on charges that he sexually assaulted 11 patients. This comes months after a Spotlight story detailing how hundreds of patients said they were abused by the renowned doctor. trib.al/JB4rcJO

“FIFA is just a big vacuum cleaner. They vacuum up all the green paper as fast as they can and as much as they can . . . and essentially don’t care if the local host cities make money or not. They already made theirs.” www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/19/m...

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation said it chose to honor Twin Cities residents “for risking their lives to protect their neighbors and immigrant community members from an unprecedented federal law enforcement operation."

The United Farmer Workers union said it will halt celebrations of its founder Cesar Chavez amid what the union described as “troubling allegations” against the iconic Chicano figure. www.latimes.com/california/s...

In Massachusetts, budget cuts and challenging working conditions are driving special education teachers out of schools at alarming rates.

Strikes on Iran are unleashing toxic pollutants that likely will linger for decades, poisoning the environment and posing health risks

Under oath, officers said they were told to make eight arrests a day and given special tech to help choose ‘targets’

A military investigation has determined the U.S. carried out the deadly Tomahawk strike on an Iranian elementary school, according to U.S. officials & others familiar with the preliminary findings. Latest w/ Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt, Tyler Pager, Helene Cooper www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/u...

Foxborough and Kraft Sports & Entertainment have agreed to a deal that satisfies the town’s request to receive the $7.8 million it needs to cover its share of security costs for the seven World Cup games being played at Gillette Stadium.

Some of the frivolous September purchases made under Secretary Pete Hegseth’s stewardship include a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s home, $5.3 million for Apple devices such as the new iPad, and an astronomical amount of … newrepublic.com/post/207555/...

We’re barely three months out from World Cup 2026, a huge international soccer tournament in Foxborough, and it’s an understatement to say nothing is going as planned. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/10/m...

Almost 700,000 displaced, 84 children killed after Israeli strikes on Lebanon, UN agencies say reut.rs/4sHFmpf

It’s unclear if organizers of the World Cup in Boston will be able to pull off their grand vision, or if plans will have to be scaled back, perhaps dramatically, in the face of funding shortfalls and logistical snafus. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/10/m...

Expert birdwatchers have changes in their brain structure compared with novices, which probably help them better identify birds and may even protect against age-related cognitive decline

America must not learn to live with 72,000 overdose deaths a year www.statnews.com/2026/03/09/d... via @statnews.com

NYT: The video “shows a Tomahawk cruise missile striking a naval base beside the school in the town of Minab on Feb. 28. The U.S. military is the only force involved in the conflict that uses Tomahawk missiles.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/w...

The March 15, 2025, killing of Ruben Ray Martinez drew almost no public attention. But Martinez is now the first known American citizen shot to death by federal immigration agents during President Trump’s second term. https://wapo.st/4lbpGYC

UNICEF is deeply concerned about the deadly impact the ongoing military escalation in Iran is having on children. Approximately 180 children have reportedly been killed and many more injured. Full statement by UNICEF in the Middle East and North Africa:

A wonderful David vs. Goliath dustup is unfolding in Foxborough, where the town’s Select Board is telling FIFA and the Krafts to “show us the money” if they want a license to play World Cup games at Gillette Stadium, writes Dan Shaughnessy.

Thousands of Minnesotans are still too scared to leave home, even for desperately needed medical care. So doctors and nurses have quietly operated informal, underground medical networks to bring that care to them.

Bernard LaFayette, the advance man who did the risky groundwork for the voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama, that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has died.

In Massachusetts, the state law’s deadlines for fulfilling records requests can be ignored, workers can conspire to overestimate costs, elected officials can spend years fighting requests in court, or not bother releasing records at all. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/04/m...

Minab school bombing: how the worst mass casualty event of the Iran war unfolded – a visual guide

How many people in the capital have been killed is unclear, but across the county, at least 555 are dead, Iran’s Red Crescent Society said. Among them were at least 175 people, many of them children, reported killed when their school in southern Iran was hit. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/w...

The new report found that while overall life expectancy in Boston has increased, it has declined for Black residents. Black men had the lowest life expectancy of any major demographic group at 72 years, more than nine years lower than men of other racial groups. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/28/m...

The number of people killed in a blast that hit a girls’ school in the southern Iranian city of Minab during joint US-Israeli strikes has risen to 148, with 95 wounded, according to the local prosecutor. www.cnn.com/world/live-n...

US-Israeli strike on Iranian school kills more than 50 students, state media says

Following the winter storm, which unleashed powerful winds and dumped several feet of snow, wildlife rehabilitation centers in the region have seen a significant increase in the number of injured and ailing birds they need to nurse back to health. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/27/m...

Residents are mobilizing against any plan to bring supportive housing to the Shattuck Hospital site, fearing it would cause illicit drug use to spill into a park that has long been the lifeblood of the predominantly Black and brown communities that surround it. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/27/m...

As ICE seeks to build out mass detention centers around the country, they're meeting a wall of local resistance -- even in solid Trump country. My story: www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/26/n...