


How Boston became the safest big city in America
Murder is declining across the country, but Boston has led the way
In the basement of Charles Street AME, a church in Roxbury, a historically black neighbourhood in Boston, Haseeb Hosein, the captain of the local police district, delivers the good news. “We’ve had no homicides in B2, year to date,” he says. “Keep on praying,” he says, to a chorus of “amens.” “I can tell you, the district is going really well when we’re focusing on barbershop music, when we’re focusing on cars blasting music,” he says. “Music is my biggest community concern and I am a happy camper.”

Checks and Balance newsletter: The enduring game of political ads in America
Lessons from Pennsylvania

The Harris campaign hopes North Carolina will finally deliver
Democrats reliably win statewide in local races, but fail in presidential votes. Will this time be different?

America’s endless summers are good for mosquitoes, too
Outbreaks of EEE and West Nile virus have health officials on the alert
Where is Kamala Harris’s convention bounce?
And what its absence means for election forecasting
Why Kamala Harris has the advantage in debating Donald Trump
She’s better at it
The Trump campaign fires a barrage of negative advertisements
It could well work