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Fourth of July
Battle for the GOP

They kept the wheels on democracy as Trump tried to steal an election. Now they’re paying the price

As President Trump and his allies looked for the pressure points in the country’s sprawling election system, hoping to overturn his loss, they met resistance from Democrats but also a cadre of Republicans who acted as the guardrails of American democracy by prioritizing truth and law over political allegiance.

Ethan Smith(right) and Katreena Stanley watched fireworks at Braintree High School on June 26. Braintree brought back its Fourth of July celebration with fireworks after last year’s cancellation due to COVID-19.
Fourth of July 2021: More parades and picnics, fewer splashy pyrotechnics, less boom
Despite lifted COVID-19 restrictions, rising vaccination rates, and an increasing sense of normalcy, one tradition is not quite back: fireworks.

Where to watch July Fourth fireworks in Massachusetts Independence Day celebrations prevail in Boston
NEWS ANALYSIS

Biden will host a July Fourth bash to celebrate his successes, but big challenges still loom

President Biden will be tested as he tries to preserve a bipartisan infrastructure deal and address difficult foreign policy issues.
Biden approval steady, vaccination defiance lingers, poll finds

Athletics 7, Red Sox 6 (12 inn.)
Tony Kemp celebrates after hitting a sacrifice fly that scored Seth Brown for the winning run during the 12th inning of the Oakland A's 7-6 win over the Red Sox on Saturday at RingCentral Coliseum.
Two two-run leads not enough as Red Sox’ eight-game run ends in ‘crazy’ one
Red Sox reliever Matt Andriese couldn't prevent the A's from mounting a three-run rally in the 12th inning to win the game.

Safety personnel at the scene of a high-rise residential building that partially collapsed in Surfside, Fla., Thursday, June 24, 2021.

Demolition crews move in at Florida condo tower amid storm fears

Rescue crews made way for demolition teams at the site of a collapsed South Florida condo building as officials shifted their focus to bringing down the unstable remainder of the structure ahead of a tropical storm.
Sha'Carri Richardson looks on after winning the Women's 100 Meter final on day 2 of the 2020 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials at Hayward Field on June 19, 2021 in Eugene, Oregon.

‘Mindless.’ ‘Tragic.’ ‘Draconian.’ ‘Unfair’ — Cannabis experts slam suspension of Sha’Carri Richardson

Physicians, former athletes, and advocates called the suspension of the track star an absurd and unjust outcome.
Burlington, Vermont, on the shores of Lake Champlain, hosts boaters from Canada most years but hasn't seen many this year because of a border closure due to COVID-19.

People along the US-Canadian border await word of reopening

The continued closure of the US-Canadian border because of COVID-19 is having an impact throughout its length. Burlington, Vermont, for example, isn't seeing many Canadian boaters on Lake Champlain.
Mass. coronavirus at a glance
Vaccinations
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Trend:
1+ dose received:
Fully vaccinated:
Cases and deaths
Total cases:
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Total deaths:
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Other resources:
Last updated: . NOTE: Mass DPH releases data Monday-Friday starting July 2021. Mass. population of 6,892,503 is used to calculate vaccination percentages. SOURCE: Mass. Dept. of Public Health

Pope Francis, photographed June 30 at the Vatican.
Pope Francis goes to Rome hospital for intestinal surgery
Pope Francis went Sunday to a Rome hospital for scheduled surgery for a stenosis, or restriction, of the large intestine, the Vatican said.

YVONNE ABRAHAM
Rescuers were on the shore near Castle Island during the search for a missing swimmer Thursday.
What’s behind the recent spate of drownings in Massachusetts?
Drownings are starting to look like an epidemic, the losses mounting as heatwaves, the lingering effects of COVID, inequality, and bad luck collide.

Police officer bit by dog during domestic call
At least one police officer was bit by a dog while responding to a domestic call in Dorchester late Saturday night, police said.

Peter Treiber Jr., a farmer in Greenport, N.Y., stood in front of his truck painted with an American flag.
A Fourth of July symbol of unity that may no longer unite
Thirteen stripes, a dusting of stars, the American flag has had infinite meanings over the 244 years since the country began flying one.

At Florida International University — the only school that recruited him — Jonnu Smith ran all over the competition.
His entire life, Jonnu Smith has proved people wrong. With the Patriots, he’ll look to do it again
The tight end has spent his football life underrecruited and lacking options, but then he's always worked his way to the top.

Among the top stories for the magazine so far in 2021 have been a piece about the origins of William Shakespeare's work (left), a story on Black joy (top right), and the annual Top Spots to Live story (bottom right).
Ten of the best Globe Magazine stories from 2021 (so far)
In case you missed them the first time, spend the long weekend relaxing with some of our favorite stories from the first half of the year.

Opinion

EDITORIAL

The Declaration of Independence inspires

Excerpts from select speeches, songs, and treaties inspired by the founding document.
Still No. 1.
JEFF JACOBY

Lincoln was the best. Buchanan was the worst. What about the others?
French President Emmanuel Macron at the inauguration of the French Cultural Center in Kigali, Rwanda, on May 27. He acknowledged that France bears some responsibility for the 1994 genocide in the central African country.
IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

Hey, America, how about an apology?
EDITORIAL

Should you know if your neighbor owns a gun?
NASA and some of the world’s leading engineers and space scientists are at work on a plan to avoid the destruction of Earth by an errant asteroid.
IDEAS | DAVID SHRIBMAN

The following asteroid collision is only a test

THE GREAT DIVIDE ⟶

See the latest from our education team focused on race, class, and opportunity in schools.

RHODE ISLAND ⟶

See the latest from Globe Rhode Island.

NEWTON ⟶

See the Globe’s expanded Newton coverage in partnership with Boston University.

Recommended reads

ICA Teens in Virgil Abloh (from left) Andre, Evan, Zaryah, Fei-Fei, Hibi, and Mintou.
Jeneé Osterheldt

Keeping it two Virgils: ‘Figures of Speech’ is Beauty and the Hypebeast

Virgil Abloh brings “Figures of Speech” to the ICA. When you peel back the hype, you see the celebration of Blackness and community.

Marjorie Salvodon, a tenured professor of world languages and cultural studies at Suffolk University.
Black women are largely shut out of coveted tenure-track positions at Mass. colleges and universities
Female Black instructors represent less than 3 percent of faculty at major universities in the state. Higher education experts cite white-dominated departments and lack of mentorship as barriers.

Ocean House, which was named one of the best beach resorts in the U.S. by Travel and Leisure, sits on the southwestern tip of Rhode Island.
This Rhode Island hotel has been named one of the 15 best beach resorts in the US
Ocean House, a 13-acre coastal property in Watch Hill, has just been named one of the best beach resorts in the country by Travel and Leisure.

Juliet Bernstein sits in a bedroom of her Chatham home.
At 108 years old, Cape Cod woman starts fund-raiser to allow her to keep living at home
Although Juliet Bernstein was born before World War I, at a time when the telephone was considered high technology, she has settled on a 21st-century path toward her goal: a GoFundMe account to help pay for home care.

video

Special Projects

EDITORIAL

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.
Jeneé Osterheldt

A Beautiful Resistance: Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt

Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt.

‘On the Street’: The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods

The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting

Blind Spot

An 11-month Globe investigation found that people nationwide are dying in crashes caused by drivers who should have had their licenses suspended. One in 10 US drivers has at least one offense — from speeding to vehicular homicide — that isn’t reflected on their driving record.

Opinion, ideas, and commentary

A Black Voters Matter’s “Freedom Ride for Voting Rights” bus, at the National Mall, in Washington, June 26. This year is the 60th anniversary of the launch of the original Freedom Rides from Washington, D.C. throughout the South to challenge segregation in busing and public facilities.
Kimberly Atkins Stohr

The Supreme Court took a hammer to voting rights, proving Douglass’s words still true
Bill Cosby outside his home in Elkins Park, Pa., on Wednesday, after he was released from prison. Pennsylvania's highest court overturned his sex assault conviction because it said an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented Cosby from being charged in the case.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Black America deserves justice. Bill Cosby’s release from prison isn’t it.
After a June 24 drowning at Turtle Pond in Hyde Park, new "No Swimming" signs have been posted. But people continue to go in the water.
MARCELA GARCÍA

More investment in swimming supervision would save lives
A thermometer reading 116 degrees during a heat wave in Portland, Ore., on Monday. The rare and powerful heat wave that shattered records across the Northwest took a bruising toll on the region's infrastructure — buckling highways, hobbling public transit, and triggering rolling power outages.
SCOT LEHIGH

Use record temps to turn up the heat on GOP to act on climate
An epidemic of loneliness is taking a toll on the mental and physical well-being of millions of Americans.
IDEAS | ELIZABETH PRESTON

Feeling lonely? You’re not alone.
Taylor Swift performing at Gillette Stadium on Saturday, June 25, 2011, before the rain.
IDEAS | RYAN DAVIS

Taylor Swift’s miracle in the rain and the mystery of shared experience

Metro

Wake to be held for Ramona Cooper, killed in Winthrop attack

Visiting hours will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday at Ruggiero Family Memorial Home in East Boston. Burial will be private.

Group of men involved in hours-long highway standoff expected to face ‘a variety of charges’

Police arrested 11 men and seized numerous firearms Saturday morning following an armed standoff with officers on Interstate 95 in Wakefield that began after a State Police trooper tried to help two vehicles parked in the highway’s breakdown lane.

State police identify men arrested in standoff

Two of the men are from Rhode Island — 29-year-old Jamhal Tavon Sanders Latimer also known as Jamhal Talib Abdullah Bey of Providence and 40-year-old Quinn Cumberlander, 40, of Pawtucket, State Police said.

The secret he carried

For more than 30 years, Phillip Tavares, now Marshfield’s police chief, has never stopped working to secure justice for his father.

Sports

Tony Kemp celebrates after hitting a sacrifice fly that scored Seth Brown for the winning run during the 12th inning of the Oakland A's 7-6 win over the Red Sox on Saturday at RingCentral Coliseum.
Athletics 7, Red Sox 6 (12 inn.)

Two two-run leads not enough as Red Sox’ eight-game run ends in ‘crazy’ one

Red Sox reliever Matt Andriese couldn't prevent the A's from mounting a three-run rally in the 12th inning to win the game.
Red Sox outfielders, from left, Alex Verdugo, Kike Hernandez, and Hunter Renfroe (10) don't always make it look easy but they are getting the job.
Peter Abraham | On Baseball

Alex Verdugo, Kiké Hernández, and Hunter Renfroe not always perfect but the trio is earning respect

Verdugo, Hernández, and Renfroe were welded together via trade and free agency and the pieces don’t always dovetail.
Eduardo Rodriguez, who pitched 203⅓ innings in 2019 after sitting out last season because of COVID-19, is already at 84⅔ innings pitched this season.
Red Sox notebook

Rest will be a factor when Red Sox reshuffle rotation after All-Star break

Manager Alex Cora, with an eye on the latter stages of the season, will carefully manage the workload of his starters before a tough 17-game stretch against divisional opponents.

First-place Revolution hold on for a tie at Columbus
Golf roundup

Troy Merritt, Joaquin Niemann share lead at Rocket Mortgage Classic
MLB Notebook

Nationals’ hot-hitting Kyle Schwarber placed on 10-day IL after suffering hamstring injury

Business

Vatican indicts 10, including a cardinal, in London deal

The 487-page indictment request was issued following a sprawling, two-year investigation into how the Secretariat of State managed its vast asset portfolio, much of which is funded by donations from the faithful.

Mexico’s Pemex suffers huge gas pipeline fire in Gulf

Mexico’s state-owned oil company said Friday it suffered a rupture in an undersea gas pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico, sending flames boiling to the surface in the Gulf waters.

Ransomware hits hundreds of US companies, security firm says

CSX tries to get acquisition of New England freight network back on track

Comfort Zone

What can we learn from wedding announcements? Cate Doty answers with "Mergers and Acquisitions: Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages"

What we can learn from wedding announcements
Conductor Keith Lockhart was photographed Friday at Symphony Hall. The 2021 Boston Pops July Fourth Spectacular will mark the conductor's reunion with live audiences.
MUSIC

Keith Lockhart on July 4: ‘The theme of this concert, in my mind, is about rebirth’
Carolina Aragón's "FutureSHORELINE" represents climate threats as well as solutions proposed by scientists.
ART

In Fort Point, public art helps visualize rising sea levels
From left: Steve Carell, John Krasinski, and Rainn Wilson in "The Office."
ASK MATTHEW

Why we’re still in a relationship with some classic sitcoms

STAT

Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Transmission electron micrograph of a SARS-CoV-2 virus particle (UK B.1.1.7 variant), isolated from a patient sample and cultivated in cell culture. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID
We know a lot about Covid-19. Experts have many more questions
More than two dozen virologists, epidemiologists, and others responded to STAT's question about what they still most wanted to know.

Boston, MA -- 03/16/21 -- The cover of the summary report of the review hearing for Jospeh Messere, is seen on March 16, 2021, provided by his attorney David Apfel.(Kayana Szymczak for STAT)
Cement Head’s last fight: He was denied parole six times — until he was about to become a Covid-19 statistic
In lawyers' view, the Department of Correction was trying to make it seem like it had fewer Covid-19 deaths on its hands than it really did.

JAMA illo
Troubling podcast puts JAMA, the ‘voice of medicine,’ under fire for its mishandling of race
Critics say editors have asked authors to scrub the term racism from their articles even as they publish others that include racist notions.

SCT illo
Despite resistance, researchers investigate the possibility of a new mental health disorder
Many researchers say the study of sluggish cognitive tempo, which is still in its early stages, can’t yet support a formal diagnosis.

magazine
Among the top stories for the magazine so far in 2021 have been a piece about the origins of William Shakespeare's work (left), a story on Black joy (top right), and the annual Top Spots to Live story (bottom right).
Recommended reading

Ten of the best Globe Magazine stories from 2021 (so far)
Titi, a 6-year-old rescue dog, gazes adoringly at the writer’s husband, actor Chris Cooper, in their Massachusetts home.
Connections

A father’s soothing ways
The owners of this Ogunquit summer house asked the designer to create a loft in their young daughters' bedroom.
Style Watch

Home design ideas: A bedroom with a loft provides an escape for young sisters
Squam Lake attracts naturalists, canoers, and kayakers right through autumn. “It’s the quiet coffee shop to Lake Winnipesaukee’s loud nightclub,” says homeowner Sam Kachmar.
Summer Living

A 1970s fixer-upper on a New Hampshire lake draws new owners with its ‘family vibe’

metro

Marshfield Police chief Phillip A. Tavares at his desk in March.

The secret he carried

Boston hit a record-breaking low temperature for July 3

Despite stormy weather, Independence Day celebrations prevail

sports

Tajon Buchanan (left) and Gustavo Bou celebrate Bou's goal in the first half as the Revolution and Columbus Crew came up with a 2-2 tie.

First-place Revolution hold on for a tie at Columbus

Troy Merritt, Joaquin Niemann share lead at Rocket Mortgage Classic

Nationals’ hot-hitting Kyle Schwarber placed on 10-day IL after suffering hamstring injury

business

FILE - In this Feb. 12, 2018, file photo a CSX freight train passes through Homestead, Pa. CSX has filed an expanded application to acquire Pan Am, a New England freight railroad operator, with the Surface Transportation Board. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

CSX tries to get acquisition of New England freight network back on track

U.S. hiring accelerated last month as workers see pay gains

Mass. racial equity fund awards $2 million in first round of grants

politics

President Joe Biden holds an ice cream cone as he visits Moomers Homemade Ice Cream, Saturday in Traverse City, Mich.

Biden goes in for cherries on campaign-style Michigan trip

They kept the wheels on democracy as Trump tried to steal an election. Now they’re paying the price

Biden will host a July Fourth bash to celebrate his successes, but big challenges still loom

Nation

Burlington, Vermont, on the shores of Lake Champlain, hosts boaters from Canada most years but hasn't seen many this year because of a border closure due to COVID-19.

People along the US-Canadian border await word of reopening

Biden approval steady, vaccination defiance lingers, poll finds

Demolition crews move in at Florida condo tower amid storm fears

World

Pope Francis, photographed June 30 at the Vatican.

Pope Francis goes to Rome hospital for intestinal surgery

Philippine military plane crashes, 31 dead, 50 rescued

Chinese millennials are ‘chilling,’ and Beijing isn’t happy about it

opinion

After a June 24 drowning at Turtle Pond in Hyde Park, new "No Swimming" signs have been posted. But people continue to go in the water.

More investment in swimming supervision would save lives

Wouldn’t best option be to ensure enough exam school seats for all children who qualify?

The trouble with independence

lifestyle

Ocean House, which was named one of the best beach resorts in the U.S. by Travel and Leisure, sits on the southwestern tip of Rhode Island.

This Rhode Island hotel has been named one of the 15 best beach resorts in the US

At Cloud & Spirits, one chef’s vision of Korean cuisine

I think it’s time to break up ... again

food & dining

Butter rice ssam is served at Cloud & Spirits restaurant near Central Square.

At Cloud & Spirits, one chef’s vision of Korean cuisine

The Red Hat may reopen in early fall under new ownership

A Dunkin’ iced coffee has become a fixture at the Ashmont T station — and Boston Reddit is invested

travel

Ocean House, which was named one of the best beach resorts in the U.S. by Travel and Leisure, sits on the southwestern tip of Rhode Island.

This Rhode Island hotel has been named one of the 15 best beach resorts in the US

What’s new (and not to miss) in Newport

A renovation that’s on the money: This Boston luxury hotel just got a little more luxurious

Arts

Virgil Abloh's “You’re Obviously in the Wrong Place,” from 2015.

Moving fast, thinking deeply at the ICA’s Virgil Abloh show

Art that crystallizes the past

With sculpture, Edith Wharton’s estate becomes open field for the imagination

Books

Battling the patriarchy’s censor in ‘The Man Who Hated Women’

Reading Chinese authors, and trying to learn Mandarin

Lessons in how to fool yourself in ‘Nobody, Somebody, Anybody’

Movies

Chris Pratt in "The Tomorrow War."

In ‘The Tomorrow War,’ on Amazon, the future is now

Two cheers for the red, white, and blue

The Civil War monumentalized; seeing the death penalty in action

Television

Actress Julia Roberts, in Vietnam in 2019, will star in Starz's upcoming Watergate series “Gaslit.”

Julia Roberts to lead star-filled cast in Starz’s ‘Gaslit’

Brevity is the soul of witty TV

Rob Reiner creating a Trump-Putin limited series

music

Conductor Keith Lockhart was photographed Friday at Symphony Hall. The 2021 Boston Pops July Fourth Spectacular will mark the conductor's reunion with live audiences.

Keith Lockhart on July 4: ‘The theme of this concert, in my mind, is about rebirth’

For ’80s heartthrob Richard Marx, it’s all about the music

For this Boston orchestra, something clicked on the streaming platform Twitch

Theater/Dance

Grammy-winning artist esperanza spalding will perform in ArtsEmerson's "Iphigenia" this upcoming season.

For ArtsEmerson, a less busy but ambitious season

Christopher Lloyd’s journey, from kooks to King Lear

Barrington Stage’s ‘Chester Bailey’ glows in the dark

globe local

Haverhill Sign Company's city limits sign in 1910.

Big shoes to fill: Film tells how a Haverhill union activist became America’s first socialist mayor

Should the state phase out Mass Save rebates for new oil-fired systems for heat and hot water?

Somerville moves to honor military heroes still among us

Obituaries

Tom Reich, left, and Kevin McClatchy posed for photos in Pittsburgh for a 50th anniversary event of the 1960 World Series in 2010.

Tom Reich, pioneering baseball and hockey agent, dies at 82

Mimi Stern-Wolfe, presenter of socially conscious concerts, dies at 84

Elizabeth Martínez, writer and activist for Chicano and feminist causes, dies at 95