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☔ Rainy day, with a possibility of afternoon thunderstorms and highs in the 50s. Sunset is at 7:53 p.m.

Did you watch white smoke pour out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney yesterday afternoon? The Catholic Church has its first U.S.-born pope in Leo XIV, who grew up in Chicago and spent decades in Peru. A Vatican spokesperson yesterday confirmed to the Associated Press that the new pope chose his name as a reference to Pope Leo XIII, who wrote the first encyclical addressing social issues in the late 19th century. More on that below.

Four Things to Know

What’s in a pope’s name? Pope Leo XIV’s name may be an indication that he’s looking to follow in the footsteps of Pope Leo XIII before him, said Svea Fraser, cofounder of the Needham-based Catholic group Voice of the Faithful. The former Pope Leo, who was head of the Catholic church from 1878 to 1903, wrote about “the enormous fortunes of some few individuals and the utter poverty of the masses” in a 1891 encyclical about labor and capital.

“Social justice is very important to him,” Fraser said. “And that spans both political sides of open, traditional, whatever. So we’ve got that as a common ground.”

New contract for Mass. General Brigham union: The union representing 2,600 resident physicians, interns and fellows at Mass General Brigham has reached a tentative agreement with the state’s largest hospital system. Under the new contract, resident physicians (who currently make $79,000 to $110,000) will see pay bumps of up to 2.5%.

“What I’m excited about, perhaps most of all, is the fact that this is a democratic process now,” said William Ford, an internal medicine resident who has been part of contract negotiations for the last 20 months. “We have a say — me and the 2,500 other resident fellows that I work with every day — have a mechanism for having a more democratic participation in our workplace.”

Banning broker fees: This week, Cambridge’s city council approved a petition that would prohibit landlords from passing on the cost of real estate brokers they hire to their tenants. If tenants themselves hire a broker, they would be responsible for paying that fee. Boston and Somerville are considering similar legislation.

“Right now, when you add that security deposit and that first month’s rent, that’s more than $10,000 to move into an apartment,” Councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler said. “That’s really prohibitively expensive for some folks. It keeps people stuck in their apartments, stuck with bad roommate situations... Taking away that upfront barrier, I think, would be really helpful.”

Don’t call it cannabis: Legislators are talking about whether to regulate products that contain hemp-derived THC, psychoactive compounds that are also found in marijuana products. Like cannabis, those compounds can get people high. But unlike cannabis products, which are regulated, hemp-derived products like Delta-8 THC and Delta-9 THC are available in gas stations without any of the oversight cannabis products are under.

“In my opinion, if it smells like it, looks like it, I think it is it,” Cannabis Policy Committee co-chair Sen. Adam Gomez said.

Local groups report major spike in ICE detentions around Massachusetts

Community groups say they’ve seen more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions in Massachusetts this week, with federal officers capturing people in Worcester, Framingham, Waltham and Boston. A spokesperson for ICE declined to talk about any operations, saying that for “reasons of officer safety, ICE does not comment on ongoing operations.”

One person apparently detained: Daniel Orellana, a 25-year-old who was stopped by a gas station in Framingham. He’s from Guatemala, where he was studying law with the goal of working as a judge. He came to the U.S. fleeing gang violence and threats to his family, and has been applying for asylum and taking English classes, said his partner Zulema Alfaro.

Alfaro said she didn’t know where he was for 17 hours, until he called her from a Plymouth County ICE detention center. He told her agents showed him a photo of another man and asked if it was him. He said no and asked to go to work or call his boss.

“They didn’t give him an opportunity to talk — they just took him, and took his wallet and his phone. They left him in a car for five hours while they went and got more people,” his partner told GBH’s Sarah Betancourt. “He has no criminal history here, or in Guatemala — no interactions with the police either. He works in the community, he goes to church and he works for his family.”

The immigrant advocacy network LUCE reported about 150 calls to its hotline for ICE activity in Massachusetts this week, about twice as many as they usually get.

In Waltham, Jonathan Paz of Fuerza, a neighborhood watch group, said he saw seven cars pulling over one man who was driving with a 10-year-old child. Paz said the man was a friend of the child’s father, and that federal agents looked through the boy’s phone before letting both of them go. The child later asked Paz “isn’t this over the top?”

“They would not engage with us when we asked if they had a warrant to rip that individual out of their car,” he said. “If a 10-year-old kid can figure out this isn’t normal behavior, I’m curious to see what constitutional officers in Massachusetts are doing — like, what is Governor [Maura] Healey doing to protect communities?”

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Healey said she will “continue to monitor things.”

“I’ve said at the outset that we’re not a sanctuary state, therefore if people have been convicted of crimes, charged with crimes, and they’re not here lawfully, then they’re subject to action by ICE,” Healey said.

Read Sarah Betancourt’s full reporting here.

Corrected: May 09, 2025
This story was updated to correct residents’ pay increases to 2.5% per year, as written in a copy of the memorandum of understanding for the tentative contract agreement.