While Kraft, a Democrat, has repeatedly said he’s never supported Trump, Wu has cornered the son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft to take stronger action to defend himself.
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US, Chinese officials to meet in London next week for new round of trade talks
By SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior U.S. administration officials will meet with a Chinese delegation on Monday in London for the next round of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, President Donald Trump said Friday.
The meeting comes after a phone call between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, which the U.S. president described as a “very positive” conversation as the two countries attempt to break an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will represent the U.S. side in the trade talks.
“The meeting should go very well,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Friday afternoon.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One Friday, Trump said Xi had agreed to restart exports of rare earth minerals and magnets to the U.S. which China had slowed, threatening a range of U.S. manufacturers that relied on the critical materials. The was no immediate confirmation from China.
The Thursday conversation between Trump and Xi, who lead the world’s two biggest economies, lasted about an hour and a half, according to the U.S. president. The Chinese foreign ministry has said Trump initiated the call.
The ministry said Xi asked Trump to “remove the negative measures” that the U.S. has taken against China. It also said that Trump said “the U.S. loves to have Chinese students coming to study in America,” although his administration has vowed to revoke some of their visas.
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Lucas: Judge Shelley Joseph has her overdue day in court
Although a strong past supporter, Gov. Maura Healey will not be among those testifying on behalf of District Court Judge Shelley Joseph on Monday.
That is the day Joseph will be before a hearing of the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct. She is on her own.
The hearing is over Joseph’s “willful judicial misconduct” in allowing a wanted illegal immigrant to escape out the back of the Newton District Court in 2018 while ICE agents waited out front to scoop him up.
Joseph was indicted in 2019 on federal charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice by then U.S Attorney Andrew Lelling, a Donald Trump appointee.
The charges were later dropped after Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020 and took over the U.S. Justice Department.
Joseph, who had been suspended, was returned to the bench by the state Supreme Judicial Court.
The case was a forerunner of the case against Milwaukee Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, a Democrat like Joseph, who also allowed a fugitive illegal immigrant to sneak out of the back door of the courthouse to evade waiting ICE agents.
Unlike Joseph, who walked under Joe Biden, Dugan, under the Trump administration, is being prosecuted and if convicted faces six years in prison
While free of criminal charges, the Joseph case was turned over to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates complaints of judicial misconduct.
Joseph was appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican.
However, upon the outbreak of news about Joseph’s backdoor justice, Baker said he found the situation “extremely troubling.”
“Judges are not supposed to be in the business of obstructing Justice,” he said, adding that Joseph should not have been allowed to hear criminal cases until the situation was resolved.
It is probably politically wise for Healey to stay away from the hearing during ICE’s roundups of hundreds of violent illegal immigrants in Massachusetts under her nose.
But her absence is in sharp contrast to the outspoken support she and other leading Democrats, like Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, showed toward Joseph when the federal charges were first filed.
Back then, when Healey was attorney general — and the state’s “chief law enforcement officer” — she called the Joseph indictment “a radical and politically motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts.”
That was strong stuff but apparently not strong enough to convey in person to the judicial commission, which is made up by three of her appointees, three by the Supreme Judicial Court and three by the Superior Court.
Back when Healey was attorney general, illegal immigration in Massachusetts, a magnet state with generous social welfare benefits, was still a trickle and easy to support compared to the deluge it became under Biden’s open borders policy.
Joseph could still walk, of course, as she did when the federal indictments were tossed under Biden.
While the nine-member judicial commission may make recommendations to the Supreme Judicial Court about reprimanding or disciplining Joseph, it cannot remove her from the bench.
While the SJC can prohibit Joseph from sitting on the bench or even disbar her, it cannot remove her, though she could resign.
That power rests with the governor and the eight-member Governor’s Council, all Democrats. The council, which has approval power over gubernatorial judicial nominations, can remove a judge from the bench.
But it hardly ever happens, although it could.
The last (and only) time it did happen in the modern era was in 1973 — fifty-two years ago. That was when the council, after a series of dramatic hearings, voted to remove controversial Dorchester District Court Judge Jerome Troy from the bench.
The once politically connected judge had been accused of, among other things, questionable political and business dealings while on the bench, so the council threw him out on his ear.
And there was not an illegal immigrant in sight.
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
Nancy Lane/Boston Herald
Gov. Maura Healey (Herald file)
Migrants and ICE officers contend with heat, smog and illness after detoured South Sudan flight
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Migrants placed on a deportation flight originally bound for South Sudan are now being held in a converted shipping container on a U.S. naval base in Djibouti, where the men and their guards are contending with baking hot temperatures, smoke from nearby burn pits and the looming threat of rocket attacks, the Trump administration said.
Officials outlined grim conditions in court documents filed Thursday before a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts to swiftly remove migrants to countries they didn’t come from.
Authorities landed the flight at the base in Djibouti, about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from South Sudan, more than two weeks ago after U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston found the Trump administration had violated his order by swiftly sending eight migrants from countries including Cuba and Vietnam to the east African nation.
The judge said that men from other countries must have a real chance to raise fears about dangers they could face in South Sudan.
The men’s lawyers, though, have still not been able to talk to them, said Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First, whose stated mission is to ensure the United States is a global leader on human rights. Barnard spoke Friday at a hearing of Democratic members of Congress and said some family members of the men had been able to talk to them Thursday.
The migrants have been previously convicted of serious crimes in the U.S., and President Donald Trump’s administration has said that it was unable to return them quickly to their home countries. The Justice Department has also appealed to the Supreme Court to immediately intervene and allow swift deportations to third countries to resume.
The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Republican administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally. The legal fight became another flashpoint as the administration rails against judges whose rulings have slowed the president’s policies.
The Trump administration said the converted conference room in the shipping container is the only viable place to house the men on the base in Djibouti, where outdoor daily temperatures rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), according to the declaration from an ICE official.
Nearby burn pits are used to dispose of trash and human waste, and the smog cloud makes it hard to breathe, sickening both ICE officers guarding the men and the detainees, the documents state. They don’t have access to all the medication they need to protect against infection, and the ICE officers were unable to complete anti-malarial treatment before landing, an ICE official said.
“It is unknown how long the medical supply will last,” Mellissa B. Harper, acting executive deputy associate director of enforcement and removal operations, said in the declaration.
The group also lacks protective gear in case of a rocket attack from terrorist groups in Yemen, a risk outlined by the Department of Defense, the documents state.
Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this story.
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Police consider whether ‘King of the Hill’ actor’s sexual orientation played a role in his killing
By JUAN A. LOZANO
HOUSTON (AP) — Investigators are looking into whether the sexual orientation of “King of the Hill” voice actor Jonathan Joss played a role in his shooting death in Texas, authorities said Thursday, walking back a previous statement about the potential motive.
Joss’ husband has claimed the person who killed the actor yelled “violent homophobic slurs” before opening fire outside his home in San Antonio on Sunday night. A day after the shooting, San Antonio police issued a statement saying they had found “no evidence whatsoever to indicate that Mr. Joss’ murder was related to his sexual orientation.”
But during a news conference on Thursday, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the statement was “premature” and that whether Joss’ sexual orientation played a role in the shooting “is part of the investigation.”
“I will own that and simply say again that we simply shouldn’t have done that. It was way too early in the process for any statement of that nature to be issued,” McManus said.
The police chief said many in the LGBTQ+ community “are feeling anxious and concerned” after Joss’ shooting and that “a lot of it has to do with that premature statement.”
“The loss of Jonathan Joss was tragic, most heavily felt by the LGBTQ+ community,” McManus said.
Texas does not have separate hate crimes charges. But if homophobia is found to have been a motive in the shooting, that could result in a harsher sentence at trial under the state’s hate crimes law.
“We gather the facts, and we give those facts to the district attorney’s office. And then that hate crime designation is determined at sentencing,” McManus said.
The actor’s home burned down in January. Joss’ husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, has said that they were checking mail there Sunday when a man approached them, pulled out a gun and opened fire.
In a statement, de Gonzales said he and Joss had previously faced harassment, much of it “openly homophobic.”
Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, who is a neighbor of Joss, is charged with murder in the shooting. Ceja Alvarez has been released on a $200,000 bond.
Ceja Alvarez’s attorney, Alfonso Otero, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Thursday.
McManus said police had been called to Joss’ home and his neighborhood about 70 times over the past two years related to “neighborhood type disturbances.”
“Sometimes (Joss) was the caller. Other times, the neighbors were calling on him,” McManus said.
The San Antonio Police Department’s mental health unit as well as a unit known as SAFFE that works with residents to help prevent crime “had extensive engagements with Mr. Joss, making repeated efforts to mediate conflicts and connect him with services that he may have needed,” McManus said.
The January fire at Joss’ home is still being reviewed by arson investigators, McManus said.
Joss lost all his belongings in the blaze and his three dogs were killed.
Actors who worked with Joss, along with friends and fans have honored Joss’ memory with tributes.
“His voice will be missed at King of the Hill, and we extend our deepest condolences to Jonathan’s friends and family,” the show’s creators and producers — Mike Judge, Greg Daniels and Saladin Patterson — said in a statement on the animated series’ Instagram page.
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Trump says he’s ‘disappointed’ with Musk after former backer turned on the Republican tax bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he’s “disappointed” with Elon Musk after his former backer and advisor lambasted the president’s signature bill.
Trump suggested the world’s richest man misses being in the White House and has “Trump derangement syndrome.”
The Republican president reflected on his breakup with Musk in front of reporters in the Oval Office as Musk continued a storm of social media posts attacking Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and warning it will increase the federal deficit.
“I’m very disappointed in Elon,” Trump said. “I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
Musk has called Trump’s big tax break bill a “disgusting abomination.”
This is a developing story, check back for more details.
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Bruins name Marco Sturm coach
After an exhaustive search for a new coach, the Bruins landed on the guy many thought would be their choice from nearly the outset.
Marco Sturm was named the head coach of the Boston Bruins on Thursday, adding another chapter to the story of the German and his intriguing relationship with the team. The 46-year-old Sturm is the first coach of the Bruins to be born and bred in Europe.
Among those Sturm beat out for the job were Washington assistant and two-time AHL coach of the year Mitch Love, B’s assistant Jay Leach and interim coach Joe Sacco. Former Edmonton head coach Jay Woodcroft had also been reportedly under consideration at one point. The B’s were the last of eight teams looking to hire a coach to fill their vacancy after Pittsburgh hired Canton native and now former Rangers assistant Dan Muse on Wednesday.
“We’re proud to name Marco as the 30th Head Coach of the Boston Bruins and welcome him, Astrid, Mason, and Kaydie to Boston,” said GM Don Sweeney in a statement. “Throughout this process, our goal was to identify a coach who could uphold our strong defensive foundation while helping us evolve offensively. We were also looking for a communicator and leader – someone who connects with players, develops young talent, and earns the respect of the room. Marco impressed us at every step with his preparation, clarity, and passion. His path – playing for multiple NHL teams, coaching internationally, and leading at both the AHL and NHL levels – has shaped a well-rounded coach who’s earned this opportunity. As a former Bruin, he understands what this team means to the city and our fans. We’re embracing a new direction with Marco behind the bench and are confident his energy, standards, and commitment to a competitive, hard-nosed brand of hockey reflect exactly what Bruins hockey should be.”
Two decades ago, Sturm and B’s fans didn’t exactly get off on the right foot with each other, through no fault of the player. In November of 2005, he was part of a three-player package that included defenseman Brad Stuart and bottom-six forward Wayne Primeau that came to Boston for burgeoning superstar Joe Thornton, who would win the Hart Trophy that year for the San Jose Sharks.
The deal is among the most widely vilified in B’s history, yet it opened the door for the next era of successful Bruins’ hockey. The departure of Thornton elevated young centerman Patrice Bergeron and it would also open the door for B’s to allocate the funds to sign Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard the following summer.
Sturm also played his own part in the B’s return to relevance in the local landscape. In Game 6 of their first round playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens in 2008, Sturm scored the late game-winning goal to push the series to a seventh game. Though the heavily favored Habs prevailed in the series, that Game 6 for the ages reignited the region’s passion for the team, dormant for years.
While Sturm eventually forced his way into the hearts of Bruins’ fans, the 46-year-old bench boss will not be flying down the wing upon his return. Rather, he’ll be trying to mold a team, the roster of which will be determined throughout the summer.
“I’m incredibly honored to be named head coach of the Boston Bruins,” said Sturm in the statement. “I want to thank Charlie Jacobs and the Jacobs family, Cam Neely, and Don Sweeney for trusting me with this opportunity. Boston has always held a special place in my heart, and I know how much this team means to the city and to our fans. I’ve felt that passion as a player, and I can’t wait to be behind the bench and feel it again. I’m excited to get to work and do everything I can to help this team succeed.”
No one yet knows what kind of NHL head coach he’ll be, but Sturm did pay his coaching dues. After
his playing career, he was named coach and general manager of the German national team in 2015. The highlight of his tenure was taking Germany to the silver medal in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
He spent the next four seasons as an assistant with the Los Angeles Kings’ staff and he just finished up his third season as the head coach of the Kings’ AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, with whom he had a 119-80-17 record.
While Sturm will have some pieces at his disposal that most rebuilding teams don’t – superstar David Pastrnak, two top pair defensemen in Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm (presuming good health) and No. 1 goalie Jeremy Swayman (presuming he returns to form) – he will be expected to incorporate some young players into the lineup (Matt Poitras? Fabian Lysell? Fraser Minten?) as well as one or two impact free agent acquisitions.
The B’s also have the No. 7 pick in the upcoming draft. If all goes well, Sturm will be charged with shepherding what the team hopes will be a foundational player into the NHL in the next year or two.
So, much like his first arrival in Boston nearly two decades ago, Sturm makes his return in similarly uncertain waters. We’ll see if he can help get the team back on the right path again.
Vietnam scraps 2-child policy as aging threatens economic growth
By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam abolished its long-standing two-child limit on Tuesday to try and reverse declining birth rates and ease the pressures of an aging population.
The National Assembly passed amendments scrapping rules that limit families to having one or two children, state media Vietnam News Agency reported on Wednesday.
The rules were usually stricter for Communist Party members, who could miss out on promotions or bonuses if they had a third child.
Vietnamese families are having fewer children than ever before. The birth rate in 2021 was 2.11 children per woman, just over the replacement rate required for a population to avoid shrinking over the long term. Since then, the birth rate has steadily declined: to 2.01 in 2022, 1.96 in 2023 and 1.91 in 2024.
Vietnam isn’t the only Asian country with low fertility. But, unlike Japan, South Korea or Singapore, it is still a developing economy.
Nguyen Thu Linh, 37, a marketing manager in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, said that she and her husband decided to have only one child because they wanted to give their 6-year-old son the best education and upbringing that they could afford.
“Sometimes, I think about having another child so my son can have a sibling, but there’s so much financial and time pressure if you have another child,” she said.
Vietnam introduced rules blocking families from having more than two children in 1988 to reduce pressure on limited resources after years of war, first with France and then the United States, as the country transitioned into a more market-oriented economy
Vietnam’s “golden population” period — when working age people outnumber those who depend on them — began in 2007 and is expected to last until 2039. The number of people who can work is likely to peak in 2042 and, by 2054, the population may start shrinking. All of this could make it harder to grow the economy, since there will be fewer workers while the cost of supporting the needs of the elderly increases.
Birth rates in Vietnam aren’t falling evenly. In Ho Chi Minh City — the country’s biggest city and economic hub — the fertility rate in 2024 was just 1.39 children per woman, much lower than the national average. At the same time, nearly 12% of the city’s population was over 60, putting pressure on welfare services. To help, local officials started offering about $120 to women who have two children before turning 35 last December.
It also offers some of the most generous family benefits in the region, including six months of fully paid maternity leave and free healthcare for children under six. Tuition in government schools is free until the age of 15 years and, starting in September it’ll be free till the end of high school.
Vietnam is also dealing with a unbalanced gender ratio, partly due to long-standing preferences for sons. According to state media, the distortion is more concentrated in Vietnam’s northern Red River delta, which includes Hanoi.
Doctors aren’t allowed to tell parents the baby’s sex before birth, and sex-selective abortions are banned. But despite this, some still hint at the baby’s gender using coded language, said state media VN Express, citing a government report.
On Tuesday, the health ministry proposed tripling the fine for choosing a baby’s sex before birth to $3,800, state media reported.
China imposed a one-child policy in 1979 amid worries about overpopulation. But as the country faces growing concerns about the long-term economic and societal challenges of an aging population, it has been slowly easing the policy to allow a second child and then a third child in 2021, but with little success in boosting birthrates.
Associated Press journalist Hau Dinh contributed to this report.
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Measles vaccination rates drop after COVID-19 pandemic in counties across the US
By DEVI SHASTRI and NICKY FORSTER
Childhood vaccination rates against measles fell in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic in nearly 80% of the more than 2,000 U.S. counties with available data — including in states that are battling outbreaks this year.
A Johns Hopkins University study, published in JAMA this week, illustrates where more vulnerable communities are located. The results mirror trends established at state and national levels: Routine childhood vaccination rates are dropping.
“When you look at the state level or national level … you really don’t see those drastic drops. Those are there. They’re real and they’re really problematic,” said Lauren Gardner, an expert in infectious disease modeling at Johns Hopkins University who is the paper’s senior author. Gardner also built the university’s COVID-19 database.
Most of the measles cases in the U.S. this year — 1,088 nationally as of Friday — are in unvaccinated people. It has been spreading among communities due to international and domestic travel. Three people have died from measles during this year’s outbreaks, and 2025 is inching closer to becoming the worst for measles in more than three decades.
Measles was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, and the vaccine is safe and highly effective. Public schools nationwide require two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine before kindergarten, but the number of children with non-medical exemptions from those requirements hit an all-time high in the 2023-2024 school year. Health experts say community-level vaccination needs to be at 95% or higher to prevent outbreaks.
The Johns Hopkins study looked at 2,066 counties across 33 states, comparing kindergarten vaccination rates averaged over school years from 2017-2020 to averages from 2022-2024. Where kindergarten data wasn’t available, the researchers used a comparable rate.
Here’s what it looks like in counties where there have been outbreaks this year, including in Texas counties that are the epicenter of measles.
Texas
Texas has logged 742 measles cases since late January, most in West Texas.
Gaines County has 411 cases, the most in the state. Almost 2% of its population got measles. While the county saw a two percentage-point increase in vaccination rates after the pandemic, its 82.4% rate remains below herd immunity.
Terry County (60 cases) and Yoakum County (20 cases) dropped below the 95% threshold for herd immunity after the pandemic, to 93.7% and 91.8% respectively.
Lubbock County — which has seen 53 cases and is the closest metro area to Gaines County — was just below 95% before the pandemic, but dropped three percentage points after to 91.8%.
El Paso County on the border of Mexico has had the third-most measles cases in Texas this year with 57. Its vaccination rate is higher than 95% but saw a 2.1 percentage-point decline to 96.5%.
Kansas
Counties with outbreaks in Kansas include Gray with 25 cases, Haskell with 11 and and Stevens with seven.
Vaccination rates in Gray County dropped 23 percentage points after the pandemic, from 94% to 71%.
Haskell County dropped 18 percentage points to 65%. And Stevens County dropped 0.5 percentage points to 90.5%.
Colorado
Colorado’s outbreak, which is linked to an international flight that landed at the Denver airport in mid-May, involves six cases: five in state residents and one out-of-state traveler.
Two people who got measles live in Arapahoe County in the Denver metro, where the vaccination rate dropped 3.5 percentage points to 88.4%. Three others live in El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs, where the vaccination rate dropped 3.8 percentage points to 80% post-pandemic.
North Dakota
Pre-pandemic data in North Dakota wasn’t available to Johns Hopkins researchers, but they looked at rates from school years ending in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
North Dakota’s first outbreak started in Williams County, which now has 16 measles cases. In the timeframe researchers looked at, vaccination rates in Williams rose from 84.6% in 2022 to 87.7% in 2023, only to drop back to 83.5% in 2024.
Cass County has seven cases, and its rate has stayed steady at about 92.7%, while Grand Forks County, which has 10 measles cases, dropped from 95.4% to 93.4%.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Several feared dead in a stampede outside a cricket stadium in India
By AIJAZ RAHI, Associated Press
BENGALURU, India (AP) — Several people were feared dead and many more injured in a stampede on Wednesday outside a cricket stadium in southern India’s Karnataka state.
The incident happened as thousands of cricket fans gathered outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru city to celebrate the winners of the Indian Premier League, which is the world’s most popular T20 cricket tournament.
The Times of India newspaper reported at least seven people had died in the crush. Local TV news channels showed visuals of police shifting the injured persons and those who fell unconscious to ambulances.
D.K. Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister of Karnataka state, told reporters that “the crowd was very uncontrollable.”
The event was being held to celebrate Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first Indian Premier League title win on Tuesday.
Stampedes are relatively common in India when large crowds gather at a place. In January, at least 30 people were killed as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to bathe in a sacred river during the Maha Kumbh festival, the world’s largest religious gathering.
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