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NEWSLETTER

Priestly celibacy gets a rethink

The pope had always insisted that marriage for Roman Catholic priests was not open for debate. Bit by bit, however, the door seems to be opening.
JEFF JACOBY

Should replacing Kamala Harris really be unthinkable?

For President Biden, there is a potential political downside in choosing a new running mate. But the potential upside is arguably greater.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Normalize indicting Donald Trump

Compared to other accusations, a hush money scandal is minor. But it could be the motivation other prosecutors need to make their own cases against Trump’s malfeasance.

op-eds

John Yoo

Prosecuting Trump for hush money undermines more serious investigations

The prosecution’s case faces severe legal problems that impede what should be the main focus — whether Trump was responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection or other efforts to block the electoral vote count.
Hussain S. Lalani, Sarosh Nagar, Jerry Avorn, and Aaron S. Kesselheim

Not so fast on COVID vaccine price hike

Policy makers have several options to maximize benefits from public investments and improve returns for the entire global community.
Teresa Fazio

Twenty years after Iraq War, what happened to the children?

Could they — improbably, from my perspective of the carnage — be raising children of their own in the same mud-walled compounds I recall driving by?
EDITORIAL

Campbell puts towns on notice: MBTA housing law isn’t optional

Truculent municipalities told they can’t opt out of rule requiring them to allow multifamily development around transit.
EDITORIAL

Putin now a pariah on the world stage

International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for making children pawns of war has value beyond a courtroom.

letters

About that giant flagpole in Maine, consider this

Good spiritual council could avert a crime, but confession is sacred

Buy with the fate of the Amazon in mind

Climate news is important news

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Editor's picks

IDEAS | JOAN VENNOCHI

Threading the needle to keep clothing manufacturing alive in Massachusetts

“Left with scraps” after Brooks Brothers shut down its Haverhill factory in 2020, some workers have found new opportunity in a Lawrence startup.
Carlo Ratti and Robert Muggah

The pushback against the 15-minute city

It is worth pointing out that the vast majority of these critiques are fundamentally wrong and even dangerous.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Understanding the intersectionality of hate

The right doesn’t “pick and choose where they’re going to fight; they wage campaigns that pressure all those points at the same time.”
EDITORIAL

Casinos violated a new state law on sports betting. Now what?

Massachusetts legalized gambling on sports, with the exception of local college teams. All three of the state’s casinos have accepted bets on local games anyway.
IDEAS | JUDY KUGEL

My husband’s needlessly excruciating final eight days

Peter’s quality of life was gone, but, still sharp, he chose to end his own suffering. Legalized physician-assisted suicide in Massachusetts would have given him a far more merciful death.
SCOT LEHIGH

The puzzles and pieces of Social Security

Nobel laureate Peter Diamond helps sort it all out.

Cartoons

CHRISTOPHER WEYANT

The final legacy of the Iraq War

CHRISTOPHER WEYANT

Siliconned

BETH WOLFENSBERGER SINGER

Local heroes in loco sweaters

WARD SUTTON

Time-traveling Ron DeSantis

SAGE STOSSEL

Mass. exodus

CHRISTOPHER WEYANT

America’s next generation of liars

More from Globe Opinion

Tanzina Vega

The financial fragility of single parents who need child care

If women fall out of the workforce because they can’t afford child care, few of them have enough of a financial cushion to get back on track.

EDITORIAL

Health care costs need to be contained

Insurance premiums rose on average 6.6 percent between 2020 and 2021, raising costs for families and businesses and highlighting the stubborn challenge of rising health costs.

Timothy Scalona

I am a survivor of the child welfare system. Family surveillance is not the solution to poverty.

One visit from the Department of Children and Families gave rise to countless unannounced visits over the years as school staff reported our family to social services for the same reason: homelessness. DCF came to investigate, not to help.

Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz

US is still living with consequences of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars

The lessons from our wartime folly are stark, but we should learn them.

EDITORIAL

Raise a glass to another year of to-go drinks

A pandemic-era perk should get more time to prove its worth to struggling restaurants.

JEFF JACOBY

Ending Saddam Hussein’s reign of terror was the right call

Based on what was known at the time, the decision to invade Iraq was both justifiable and honorable.

EDITORIAL

Saving the Amazon, before it’s too late

The United States should join Europe in halting the import of beef and other goods linked to the deforestation of the critical rainforest region.

MARCELA GARCÍA

The government wants me to delete TikTok. Here’s why it’s wrong.

There are crucial holes in the public narrative about a potential US ban of the video app.

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SPECIAL PROJECTS

IDEAS

Where did all the workers go?

For two years, employers have been desperate for workers — and there’s no indication the labor shortage will soon change. What are we losing — and possibly gaining — as a result?
Explore the project ➞

Globe Opinion’s 2022 Top 10

The readers have spoken: Take a tour through The Boston Globe opinion section’s top 10 most read columns, editorials, cartoons, letters, and Ideas stories of 2022.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Remembering trans lives taken in 2022

Even before a gunman killed five people and injured nearly 20 last month at Club Q, a popular LGBTQ nightspot in Colorado Springs, Colo., 2022 was already a deadly year for trans and gender nonconforming people. At least 35 have been killed nationwide, most of them Black trans women.
TIMELINE

Assault on American democracy

Jan. 6, 2021, was one of the most alarming days in American history. Boston Globe Opinion columns, editorials, letters, and cartoons untangle the continuing aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol.
IDEAS | JOAN VENNOCHI

How the MBTA went off the rails

Nearly everything about Boston has changed in the past few decades, yet the T has the same big problem — a failure to prioritize the rider experience above all.
IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Boston was once a wildly ambitious city. It’s time to go big again.

Soaring housing costs, a broken T, and other existential problems require sweeping fixes that meet the moment.

Young people and the power of social media

Social media holds enormous power over young people. Can they find a way to navigate safely through its ever-changing landscape?

How do we memorialize the pandemic?

As the United States neared its one millionth COVID-19 related death, artists, architects, and community leaders are calling for a permanent memorial to honor all those touched by COVID. Globe Opinion asked several artists for their vision of what a COVID memorial could look like.
Explore the rest of the project →
IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD

Editing the Constitution

The Constitution is undergoing massive changes in the Supreme Court. It’s time to put the founding document in the hands of the people.
ideas

The Future of Work

The past year has shattered expectations of what workdays look like. Parenting while Zooming. An uncrowded T. Wary interactions with customers. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.

The Longevity Hub

The Boston Globe Opinion section and MIT's AgeLab present The Longevity Hub, an ongoing series seeking to spark Greater Boston's transformation into the Silicon Valley of aging.
EDITORIAL

Future-proofing the presidency

Donald Trump brought our democracy to the brink and exposed its weak spots. Here’s how to thwart the next American tyrant.
EDITORIAL

A battle for affordable housing in Massachusetts

The Globe editorial board's 2020 series on the need for inclusive housing reform in Newton and across the Commonwealth.

Brave New Planet

Brave New Planet is a podcast that delves deep into the most exciting and challenging scientific frontiers, helping us understand them and grapple with their implications. Dr. Eric Lander, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is host.

The future of food

What we eat, where it comes from, and how we get it are being reimagined like never before. In this special issue, we celebrate the role of food in our communities and explore how it can be tastier, more accessible, and healthier for us and the planet.
Letters

Postcards from the pandemic

Invited to take a walk, in fact, lots of walks; dining room table repurposed — a snapshot of how readers were coping.
An archive of conversations with the experts writing thought-provoking Globe Opinion op-eds and Ideas features.

The Other swing voter

Political coverage often focuses on voters who oscillate between political parties in a few key swing states. Here we feature perspectives and opinions from and about demographics of Americans — young voters and Black and brown voters —who swing between voting and not voting.
From voter suppression to gerrymandering to foreign interference, the integrity of US elections is under attack. In a three-part weekly series, Globe Opinion examines how the nation arrived at this moment and what needs to be done to protect voting rights.
Thomas E. Patterson

Trapped: Why the GOP's death is imminent

The Republican Party is destroying itself. Thomas Patterson of the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center explains the five traps the party has set for itself and warns that the party's future is in peril without reform.

Black voices now

Globe Opinion seeks to amplify the perspectives and the voices of Black community members, scholars, activists, doctors, teachers, business leaders, students, and parents as op-ed and letter writers, and as innovators and provocateurs featured in Globe Ideas. Here we feature Black voices from the community amid the historic protests following the killing of George Floyd. We aim to amplify yet more Black voices going forward.
IDEAS

Massachusetts Works

We turn the typical model of journalism on its head — instead of focusing on what’s broken, we’re taking a look at what Massachusetts gets right.

Legal Lens documentaries

Law and documentary film may seem far apart, but they actually share many connections. With the guidance of filmmaker and producer Joseph Tovares and support from the Hewlett Foundation, 12 Harvard Law School students from eight countries have worked since January on the Legal Lens project. You can view the films here on BostonGlobe.com.

Choosing, using, and losing your health care: A policy first-aid kit

In a four-part weekly series, Globe Opinion offers a baseline assessment of health care as well as prescriptions for fixing the industry.

Journalists are not the enemy

A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “the enemy of the people.”
National Student Essay Competition winners announced