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Lady Gaga concert bomb threat thwarted by police in Rio de Janeiro
Brazilian police said they thwarted a bomb attack planned for Lady Gaga’s concert in Rio de Janeiro on May 3.
Lady Gaga broke the record for the highest-attended concert by a female artist when over 2 million people attended her concert in Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Saturday.
Could such a concert even be held in Massachusetts? Here’s a look at the biggest concerts and concert venues in the Bay State.
The biggest concert in Massachusetts history was singer Ed Sheeran at Gillette Stadium on July 1, 2023.
For that event, 71,723 attended Sheeran’s concert, which broke the single-show attendance record at Gillette.
However, if you count orchestral concerts, the Boston Pops free concert on the Esplanade on the Fourth of July has attracted over 500,000 attendees.
Gillette transforms from a football stadium to a huge concert venue in the warmer months, hosting artists from Beyonce to Kendrick Lamar.
It was the first NFL stadium Taylor Swift ever headlined, and she gave three performances in The Eras Tour there in May of 2023. While she’s played 13 shows at Gillette, it’s country star Kenney Chesney that has played the venue more than any other: at least 24 times.
While 65,878 is the football capacity, depending on the stage size it’s possible for the event space to fit more people.
Since 2003, at least one concert has been held at Fenway Park thanks to the Fenway Concert Series. Last year, artists like Noah Kahan and the Foo Fighters performed at the iconic baseball stadium. This year, the season kicks off May 29 with Shakira.
The Xfinity Center in Mansfield is an outdoor amphitheater that features open air seating and a lawn. It has 7,000 reserved seats, 7,000 lawn seats and 5,900 general admission seats.
This year, performing artists include Halsey, Wiz Khalifa, and the Doobie Brothers.
It’s currently Celtics season, but the TD Garden hosts concerts of all types year round. This summer, artists like Tyler the Creator, Gracie Abrams and Stevie Nicks will take to the stage.
This indoor arena located in downtown Worcester holds a range of shows. Since the building was opened by Frank Sinatra in 1982, it has hosted the likes of Aerosmith, Elton John, and Madonna.
Local News
New Hampshire is leading an effort from 25 states to challenge a Massachusetts gun law, and this month, they’re taking it to the Supreme Court.
The centerpiece of the argument is the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, N.H., which reaches across state lines into Tyngsborough. If shoppers park on the south side of the mall’s parking lot, they might end up crossing state lines during a visit.
The attorneys general of New Hampshire and 24 other Republican-led states say this poses a potential problem for firearm holders. A New Hampshire resident who is legally carrying a firearm on their home state’s side of the parking lot may inadvertently be breaking the law when they cross the lot into Massachusetts, where it is illegal to carry without a permit.
Joining New Hampshire are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming, who are calling the arrangement unconstitutional. The states have rallied behind Phillip Marquis of Rochester, N.H., to ask the Supreme Court to protect out-of-state residents from Massachusetts’ firearms regulations.
“The geography of the mall is such that a New Hampshire resident might find themselves in Massachusetts if she parks on the south side of the parking lot or visits Buffalo Wild Wings,” reads a brief from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to the Supreme Court. “If that person is carrying a firearm without a Massachusetts license — which would be constitutionally protected activity in most of the mall—that person risks being charged as a felon and facing mandatory incarceration in Massachusetts.”
The trouble began for Marquis in 2022 when he was in a car accident in Massachusetts, according to the brief. When police arrived, he informed them that he had a pistol on him and was subsequently charged with carrying a firearm without a license.
Marquis previously sued the Commonwealth for the burdens that Massachusetts’ firearms permit law creates on out-of-state visitors, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied his claims. They ruled in March that the state’s nonresident firearms licensing laws were constitutional, according to court documents.
Claiming that the Massachusetts court denied him his Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights, Marquis has petitioned the Supreme Court to federally overrule that court’s decision. In his petition, Marquis invoked New York State Rifle & Police Association, Inc. v. Bruen, where the court established that state firearms restrictions must be covered by the Second Amendment or adhere to historical firearms regulations.
Using Bruen, Marquis and the Republican attorneys general supporting him are aiming to prove that there is no justification for applying Massachusetts’ firearms restrictions to out-of-state residents and that to do so would be unconstitutional. However, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court found the law constitutional even under Bruen because it intends to prevent dangerous people from obtaining firearms, just as historical regulations have done.
“To the extent that the Commonwealth restricts the ability of law-abiding citizens to carry firearms within its borders, the justification for so doing is credible, individualized evidence that the person in question would pose a danger if armed,” the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision read. “Both case law and the historical record unequivocally indicate that this justification is consistent with ‘the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.’”
It’s not immediately clear if the Supreme Court will respond to Marquis’ appeal or when it will make any kind of decision, but lower courts are at something of a crossroads with how and when to apply Bruen to gun possession cases. As such, they are looking to the Supreme Court for a more definitive answer.
Since the proof of historical context that Bruen requires has led to some uncertainty, any ruling that these lower courts make is likely to amount to a partisan decision. However, if the Supreme Court provides more substantive clarity in a response to Marquis, these lower courts just might find the answer they are seeking.
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Massachusetts State Lottery players won two $100,000 prizes Friday from the day’s “Mass Cash” drawings.
The winning tickets were sold at the Roslindale Food Mart on Washington Street and McSheffrey’s of the South End convenience store (with Mobil gas) on Main Street in Woburn.
Mass Cash drawings happen twice daily, at 2 p.m. and at 9 p.m. It costs just $1 to play.
Overall, at least 625 prizes worth $600 or more were won or claimed in Massachusetts on Monday, including 6 in Springfield, 22 in Worcester and 14 in Boston.
The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of winning tickets every day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.
The two largest lottery prizes won so far in 2025 were each worth $15 million. One of the prizes was from a winning “Diamond Deluxe” scratch ticket sold in Holyoke, and the other was from a “300X” scratch ticket sold on Cape Cod.
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