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Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:21 GMT

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas was the guest speaker at Thursday’s U.S. naturalization ceremony where 350-plus new citizens — including members of the military — joined in inside Faneuil Hall.Dept. of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, also a naturalized citizen, walks thru the crowd.(Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)

Fox News reaches 12.8 million viewers for GOP primary debate, despite Donald Trump’s absence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:21 GMT

By DAVID BAUDER (AP Media Writer)NEW YORK (AP) — Even without lead contender Donald Trump, an estimated 12.8 million people watched the first Republican presidential primary debate on two Fox News television channels and its streaming service.There seemed little evidence that Trump’s attempt to counterprogram the debate, by appearing in an online interview with Tucker Carlson at about the same time on Wednesday, appreciably affected the number of people who were interested in checking out the eight alternatives.The viewership was a little more than half the 24 million people who watched Trump appear in his first presidential debate in August 2015, the Nielsen company said. But it outpaced a January 2016 GOP candidates debate on Fox that Trump also skipped and was seen by 12.5 million peopleTelevision is a vastly different world than it was eight years ago, with streaming more established and thousands of cable customers cutting the cord. The most-watched program seen liv...

Fair weather

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:21 GMT

The summer just wouldn’t be the same without a trip to the Marshfield Fair.The end of August has featured the fair since 1867. That’s a lot of cotton candy and fried dough. The fair has changed over the years, but it’s still one of a kind.Hope Healy, 17, of Plymouth walks her champion sheep, Nova, at the Marshfield Fair on Friday. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald) 

Healey meets with Secretary Mayorkas weeks after emergency declaration

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:21 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey planned to meet with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Thursday, only weeks after the governor declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts and petitioned the secretary for help with an influx of migrants.Mayorkas was in Boston for two publicly scheduled events, an awards ceremony at a U.S. Coast Guard Base near the North End and a naturalization ceremony at Faneuil Hall. After an event in Wellesley earlier in the day, Healey said she planned to meet with the secretary at the State House.The meeting comes more than two weeks after Healey penned a letter to Mayorkas calling on him and the Biden administration to remove “burdensome barriers” to work authorizations for migrants and provide more federal funding to address an influx of new arrivals.Healey said employers around the state are ready to employ migrants as nurses, laborers, and “so much more.”“And my meeting with Secretary Mayorkas, with whom I’ve already had conversations, as well ...

Biden policy allowing migrants from 4 countries into the US is praised, criticized at Texas trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:21 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — During a trial Thursday on the fate of an immigration program focused on people from Central America and the Caribbean, lawyers for Texas and 20 other Republican-leaning states suing to stop it accused the federal initiative of being outside the law. But an American sponsoring one of the migrants — a 34-year-old friend from Nicaragua named Oldrys and who’s now in the U.S. thanks to the program — praised its economic benefits and credited it for letting him reciprocate kindness to someone in need.“We really see this as an opportunity to welcome Oldrys into our family …. in a time of need for him,” said Eric Sype. Under the humanitarian parole program, up to 30,000 people are being allowed each month to enter the U.S. from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The federal government and immigrant rights groups are defending the program, saying it’s been successful at reducing migration and a humanitarian crisis on the southern border and has provided a safe ...

Trump arrives at Atlanta jail to surrender on charges he tried to overturn 2020 election loss

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:21 GMT

Former President Donald Trump arrived Thursday at a jail in Atlanta to surrender on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.The booking is expected to yield a historic first: a mug shot of a former American president.Trump and 18 others were indicted last week, accused of participating in a sprawling conspiracy to overturn his presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.The Fulton County prosecution is the fourth criminal case against Trump since March when he became the first former president in U.S. history to be indicted.Trump’s surrender, coming amid an abrupt shake-up of his legal team, follows the presidential debate in Milwaukee the night before featuring his leading rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination — a contest in which he remains the leading candidate despite accelerating legal troubles.His Atlanta appearance will be different from others, though, requiring him to surrender at a problem-plagued jail — but wit...

New York governor urges Biden to help state with migrant surge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:21 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday implored President Joe Biden to take urgent action to help her state absorb a surge of international migrants who have strained resources and filled homeless shelters — putting some Democrats in a vulnerable position in a state usually seen as immigrant-friendly.In a rare public address, Hochul said she had sent the president a letter asking him to expedite work permits for migrants and provide financial resources to help care for the estimated 100,000 asylum seekers who have come to the state in the last year, mostly to New York City.“The reality is that we’ve managed thus far without substantive support from Washington, and despite the fact that this is a national, and indeed an inherently federal issue,” Hochul said in speech delivered in Albany. “But New York has shouldered this burden for far too long.”The public plea comes after months of private requests to the White House. The central request of the governor’s let...

US sanctions 11 Russians and 2 re-education facilities involved in forced transfer of Ukrainian kids

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:21 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States on Thursday announced sanctions against 11 Russians and two re-education facilities reportedly involved in the forced transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children, accusing Moscow of war crimes and crimes against humanity.U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the announcement at a U.N. Security Council meeting that the U.S. organized on Ukraine’s national day to put a spotlight on the transfer or deportation of its children as young as four months old, not only to Russia but to its ally Belarus and Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine’s east.“Children are literally being ripped from their homes in the year 2023,” she said. “Russia and its proxies have detained children fleeing violence. They have forced children out of schools and orphanages. And local proxies have tricked or coerced parents into sending their children to so-called `summer camps’ only to be cut off from communication and refused to have their children returned to them...

Ontario city voted as the rudest in Canada. Here’s the full list

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:21 GMT

A Greater Toronto Area (GTA) city scored the rudest in Canada in a new public opinion poll from Preply, a U.S.-based language learning app and platform.“Canadians have garnered the stereotype of being exceedingly polite. Known for their welcoming attitude and over-apologizing, politeness is seen as a cultural norm,” wrote Preply contributor Adam Volz. “But is this representation just a myth?”Preply surveyed more than 1,500 Canadians across 44 cities. The respondents were asked how often they witness rude behaviours where they live, and unfortunately for Vaughan, it may not have the best reputation.Cities were ranked out of 10 from rudest (10) to most polite (1). The unofficial survey found that the top three rudest cities in Canada are Vaughan (Ont.), Coquitlam (B.C.) and Brampton (Ont.).CityNews asked locals how they feel about Vaughan being considered the rudest city in Canada.“Well, we’re not from Vaughan. We’re from up north in cottage c...

Ohtani to keep playing, his future and impending free agency murky after elbow ligament injury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:21 GMT

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Shohei Ohtani already knew he had a career-altering tear in his elbow ligament when he roped a double to right in the fifth inning of the Angels’ doubleheader nightcap on Wednesday.After he hustled to second base, he was greeted by Elly De La Cruz. Cincinnati’s 21-year-old rookie shortstop jokingly poked at the smiling Ohtani, essentially asking the two-way superstar, “Are you real?”That’s the question all of baseball has been asking about Ohtani for the past three seasons, ever since he returned from Tommy John surgery and redefined what’s possible in this sport.But the new injury to his ulnar collateral ligament is a merciless reminder that the 29-year-old Ohtani is, in fact, real — a baseball unicorn, but also an athlete challenging the limit of human potential and physiology.Ohtani hit that limit earlier Wednesday when he abruptly left the mound after just 26 pitches in the doubleheader opener. Tests revealed a ligament tear t...