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🥶Sunny and freezing, with highs in the 20s. Sunset is at 5:35 p.m.
This weekend the U.S. and Israeli militaries launched attacks which killed more than 200 people, according to Iranian officials — among them the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran launched its own attacks, killing people in Israel, on U.S. military bases, and the United Arab Emirates.
GBH’s Esteban Bustillos and Magdiela Matta spoke with Iranians living in the Boston area about their fears, uncertainties, and hopes. Amin Feizpour is from Iran and now lives in Massachusetts. Even before this weekend, he’s been thinking and writing about what a peaceful future could look like in Iran.
“You don’t have to be on [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s side, and you don’t have to be on the Islamist regime’s side,” said Feizpour, the founder of the nonprofit Iran Circle, which facilitates conversations around politics, culture and history with Iranians abroad. “You can have a third way, you can have a discussion about what are the alternative solutions for the situation in Iran.”
Four Things to Know
1. Two Massachusetts residents have been diagnosed with measles: an adult who lives in the Boston area and recently traveled abroad, and a school-aged child who lives in Massachusetts but was diagnosed in another state. “Fortunately, thanks to high vaccination rates, the risk to most Massachusetts residents remains low,” Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein said. These are the first recorded measles cases in Massachusetts residents since 2024.
Measles is highly contagious, and about 30% of people who get infected will develop complications. Symptoms usually start appearing 10 to 14 days after exposure: a cough, runny nose, red eyes and a fever, followed by a rash that starts on the head and spreads downward. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has counted 1,136 measles cases in the first two months of this year, about 92% of them in people who were either unvaccinated or did not know if they had been vaccinated against the virus.
2. The health insurer that covers 460,000 state and municipal workers in Massachusetts will no longer pay for GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. About 22,000 people with insurance through the Group Insurance Commission take drugs like Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro for weight loss. Dana Sullivan, a member of the GIC’s board, called it a strategic decision to try to negotiate lower costs in the future. “As the largest purchaser of health insurance in Massachusetts, we’re a crucial part of the effort, and so if we continue to cover, there’s no incentive for them to come work with us,” Sullivan said.
Commissioner Melissa Murphy-Rodrigues voted against the move and said she questions whether the insurer will be able to negotiate for lower costs. “For me, it’s like, what’s next?” Murphy-Rodrigues said. “Is it EpiPens? Is it epidurals? What are we going to decide is not worthy of being insured?”
3. Refugees and advocacy groups in Massachusetts are suing the Trump administration over a new policy that allows federal immigration agents to detain people admitted into the U.S. as refugees if they’ve been in the country for more than a year and don’t have a green card. The administration has already frozen U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ green card application reviews for people from many countries, closing off a legal pathway to green cards.
One refugee, a woman from Afghanistan who now lives near Springfield, said her green card application has been pending for 15 months. “I heard my friends in Minnesota who are refugees were detained by ICE,” she said. She also fears being deported back to Afghanistan, where she worked as a research assistant and was stopped by the Taliban for being outside without a male chaperone. “I would fear my life, going to work, being questioned every day for what I was doing,” she said.
4. The Boston Fleet are back stateside, with three team members sporting Olympic gold medals from the U.S. women’s hockey victory. Fleet captain Megan Keller scored the gold medal-winning goal against Canada. Goalie Aerin Frankel gave up just two goals in the whole tournament. And Haley Winn got to compete in her first-ever Olympics, and her three brothers went viral for cheering her on in matching American flag outfits and bucket hats.
“Obviously, a lot of people were saying it was the best U.S. group they’ve ever seen,” Winn said. “And to even hear that and be a part of that, again like I said, I’m so grateful for that.” Their teammate Alina Müller, a member of the Swiss national team, won a bronze medal in the games. Their next home game, against the Toronto Sceptres, is scheduled for March 17 at the Agganis Arena in Boston.
Protesters flock to Boston Common to condemn US-Israeli attacks on Iran
Here are scenes from a protest on the Boston Common this weekend, captured by GBH’s Liz Neisloss and Arthur Mansavage.
Protestors carried the lion and sun flag, used by Iran before the 1979 revolution.
“It’s the Iranian people who deserve to decide who their government is,” Iranian-American Bahar Shirafi told GBH’s Liz Neisloss. “They cannot do that if they are under bombs, if they are suffocated by sanctions.”
Susan Mirsky of Newton carried a sign her mother had made in her 90s. “I think about my children, my grandchildren, the children in Iran and children everywhere that deserve to have a future,” Mirsky said.
Find more photos and voices from Boston’s protest here.
Dig deeper:
-Photos: U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran and reactions from around the world
-3 American troops killed, and Trump says more 'likely,' in war against Iran
-What to know about the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran
-'Illegal and unconstitutional’: Mass. congresspeople decry attack on Iran
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