ONE of Newcastle’s most legendary bars closed its doors to customers earlier this year, signalling the end of an era for a part of the city’s much celebrated nightlife.
Anyone who’s been for a night out in the Toon in the last 20 years or so will have likely ventured down the dark staircase of Mushroom, before sticking to its practically adhesive floor.
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Newcastle is one of the best cities for a night outCredit: GettyMuchroom Bar closed its doors in January after decades of service to the cityCredit: Mushroom Bar
Mushroom was a prime spot for people to enjoy a dance and some cheap drinks before moving on to one of the many clubs elsewhere in the city.
And a visit was never complete without drinking a pint of its famous sickly sweet Skittles.
The handful of recipes available online for this sugary concoction aren’t completely in agreement about its ingredients.
But it’s generally accepted that it contained at least two shots of vodka, some blue curaçao, then either a shot of peach schnapps or Taboo (a fruity 14.9 per cent vodka-based drink), all chucked in a pint glass with orange and lemonade filling it to the brim.
Whether or not Mushroom actually invented the drink remains up for debate, with other bars joining it on the Skittles bandwagon, but it was always known as “the home of Skittles” leaving no question about its spiritual residence, with the venue selling little else to its punters on a night out.
Earlier this year, it finally closed its doors after 23 years with a 14-hour long farewell party, reportedly attended by as many as 5,000 people, with local DJs performing throughout the night.
Nevertheless, Newcastle’s nightlife is much more than just one bar – here are 10 reasons why it’s still the best city in the country for an evening out.
One of the country’s cheapest pints
According to figures released at the end of last year, a pint in Newcastle is cheaper than most big cities in the UK.
Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Belfast, Bath, Bristol and of course London were all among those whose average pint prices exceeded Newcastle’s fairly reasonable £5.28, according to financial information provider Finder.
That price is below the national average of £5.50, making a night out in Newcastle more affordable than many others.
Home of the Diamond Strip
Collingwood Street was bestowed its ‘Diamond Strip’ nickname because of its high concentration of luxury bars and nightclubs, all close to one another.
Popular with stag and hen dos, and with celebrities, the likes of Tup Tup Palace, Tokyo, Soho Rooms, ChachaBuchi, Mimo, Manhatta, Vampire Rabbit and others are all within a stone’s throw of each other, making a high-end bar crawl very easy to accomplish.
Fans of reality series Geordie Shore will definitely recognise some of these establishments from the show, and may well end up in an episode if they time their visit right.
Ouseburn Valley
Newcastle isn’t just a place for crazy nights out, cheap trebles and drinking shots with celebs. It also has more than its fair share of relaxing pubs, perfect for whiling away an evening with a couple of pints.
Undoubtedly the best place to do that is the Ouseburn Valley, with historic boozers like the Cumberland Arms, the Tyne Bar and the Ship making for a fantastic pub crawl away from the craziness of the city centre.
The jewel in the crown of the Ouseburn is the Free Trade, which offers one of the best views of the Tyne you’ll find anywhere in the city, be it from its wonderful beer garden, or the stools next to its giant windows.
Collingwood Street is considered the ‘Diamond Strip’Credit: Alamy
For more in the UK – here are our favourite hotels in the country from Manchester to Cambridge…
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Margate House, Kent
This stylish boutique hotel is in a seaside townhouse, a short walk from Margate’s coolest bars and restaurants. Decked out with plush velvet sofas, candles flickering and striking independent art, inside feels like a warm welcome home. Rooms are stunning, especially the ones that give you a glimpse of the sea.
The Alan looks extremely grand, being built into a beautiful Grade II listed building. Spread across six floors, with 137 rooms, each one looks like a fancy design magazine. From the concrete coffee tables to the pink plastered walls, the industrial-inspired designs perfectly replicate the history of the city.
This historic hotel has welcomed the likes of Charles Dickens and Lillie Langtry through its doors. Rooms have richly-patterned carpets with super soft bed linen and premium toiletries in the bathroom. Go for a superior room for extra goodies including bathrobes and snack boxes.
This Cambridge hotel is in the ideal spot, within walking distance to bars, shops and hotspots like the university colleges and Parker’s Piece. The inside couldn’t be prettier, with huge stained glass windows, grand chandeliers, and rooms with enormous clawfoot bath tubs.
Khai Khai is a popular restaurant with celebs like Harrison Ford and Gordon RamsayCredit: Alamy
Breweries, breweries, breweries
Beer enthusiasts can spread themselves beyond the Ouseburn Valley into the many breweries and tap rooms that have opened across Newcastle, with the city offering a wide selection of options for those into the craft beer scene.
Donzoko Brewery and Tap Room is a unique little brewery near the Ouseburn, serving a range of lagers and ales as well as bar snacks.
Other well-regarded breweries include the Anarchy Brew Co and the Wylam Brewery, which is housed in the impressive Palace of Arts building in Exhibition Park and regularly hosts gigs, live comedy and food-related events, like battle of the burger and slice wars.
Gordon Ramsay’s Favourite Curry
Kicking off the night with something good to eat is simple in Newcastle, with a fantastic array of restaurants spread throughout the city, catering to all tastes.
However, one of its best-loved eateries is Khai Khai, which has served everyone from local royalty like Alan Shearer to Hollywood A-listers like Harrison Ford.
Meanwhile, globally renowned chef Gordon Ramsay once described his meal there as “one of the best curries in my entire life, that took me back to being in Mumbai and Rajasthan.”
Even the city’s Primark has a GreggsCredit: Unknown
24 Hour Greggs
When it comes to food at the end of the evening, Newcastle has got revellers well covered as well, with one of the city’s most famous exports open all hours.
The first ever branch of Greggs was opened in nearby Gosforth in 1951 and now two of the city’s 21 branches have 24-hour licences, meaning party-goers can treat themselves to a steak bake or sausage roll instead of the classic kebab after their night out.
The city also has some unique versions of the beloved bakery, including one in its branch of Primark.
Music Venues and Strong Local Music Scene
For live music enthusiasts there’s a fantastic local music scene to explore, with venues big and small hosting everyone from local up-and-comers to global superstars.
Smaller venues like the Head of Steam opposite the train station showcase the next generation of musical talent, while the Cluny in the Ouseburn Valley regularly hosts established names.
Elsewhere, the City Hall and Utilita Arena are your go-to spots for bigger names, while Newcastle United’s football stadium St James’ Park has been known to host blockbuster gigs as well.
With a scene that has produced the likes of Sam Fender in recent years, going to the smaller venues might be worth your while if you want to catch the next wave of talent before it hits the big time.
Global superstars like Kylian Mbappe, Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembele have all turned up for big games at St James’ in the last two years, providing wonderful nights of entertainment for sports fans.
Head to Toon fans’ favourite pub The Strawberry before kick-off to get a taste of authentic Geordie atmosphere before taking in the game among 50 thousand supporters – an experience truly like no other.
Ouseburn Valley has historic boozers like the Cumberland ArmsCredit: Alamy
Friendly locals
A night out is rarely good because of where you are – it’s much more about who you’re with. Luckily, in Newcastle, both location and company are well covered.
Geordies are regularly named among the most welcoming people in online polls and surveys, while travel publications like Big 7 Travel have also praised the Toon’s locals in recent years, naming it the country’s friendliest city in 2024.
In fact, train company Lumo once revealed that the Geordie accent is the most likely to put a smile on someone’s face, beating other popular regional accents like Yorkshire, Scouse, Cockney and Glaswegian to top spot.
Set off from Newcastle, wake up in Amsterdam
One of the best nights out in Newcastle doesn’t actually take place in the city at all. However, it does start there.
Overnight ferries run from the toon to Amsterdam, and there’s little else to do on board other than make the most of its bar and nightclub.
Make friends with your shipmates, bond over a bottle or two, then head to your cabin before waking up in another of Europe’s greatest party destinations to continue the celebrations.
A workers’ union at the World Cup venue has asked FIFA to keep ICE agents away from the venue to alleviate their fears.
Published On 7 Apr 20267 Apr 2026
A union representing about 2,000 food service workers at the Los Angeles Stadium has asked FIFA to keep United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) away from World Cup operations in the city and warned workers could strike if their concerns are not addressed.
Unite Here Local 11, which represents cooks, servers and bartenders at the Inglewood venue, said on Monday that the workers remain without a labour contract as the World Cup approaches.
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The union laid out three main demands to FIFA and stadium owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment: A public commitment that ICE and Border Patrol will play no role in the tournament, protections for union jobs and working conditions, and support for affordable housing for hospitality workers.
Acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, has said ICE would play a “key part” in the World Cup, a prospect the union said threatened worker and guest safety in Los Angeles.
Local 11 said it also wanted assurances that artificial intelligence and automation would not be used during the tournament to eliminate union jobs.
The union linked its labour demands to broader concerns over housing costs in the Los Angeles area, particularly in Inglewood, and called for support for a workforce housing fund, restrictions on short-term rentals and tax measures aimed at funding affordable housing and immigrant family protections.
“FIFA and its corporate sponsors will pocket billions from Los Angeles while refusing to even acknowledge the cooks, servers, and stand attendants who make this event possible,” Kurt Petersen, co-president of Local 11, said in a statement.
The union said it had repeatedly sought meetings with FIFA since Los Angeles was chosen as a host city, but had been ignored.
The venue is known as the SoFi Stadium, but has been rebranded to the Los Angeles Stadium for the World Cup due to sponsor clashes.
Los Angeles is set to host eight World Cup matches at the stadium, the first being the US against Paraguay on June 12.
The GB News presenter continued working in a pub even after landing his first TV role at 21
Carly Duffy and Karen Price Assistant Editor of Screen Time
18:34, 06 Apr 2026
Eamonn Holmes is now a presenter on GB News(Image: GBNews)
GB News host Eamonn Holmes has enjoyed a career in broadcasting for decades but the Irish TV host admits that he almost never gave up his first-ever job.
The TV veteran had such a fondness for his evening job that he continued it well into the early stages of his blossoming career, until his boss eventually urged him to concentrate solely on his television aspirations.
His first television appearance came in 1979 as a reporter and presenter for Ulster Television (UTV) in Northern Ireland, and his career has gone from strength to strength ever since.
Yet Eamonn was so anxious that his TV career might suddenly dry up that he was determined to keep pulling pints while he still could, and he was in absolutely no rush to abandon his bar job before he finally did relinquish the evening role to dedicate himself fully to his television career.
Speaking to the Express. at the Young Chef, Young Waiter, Young Mixologist awards where he was a judge, Eamonn looked back on his career and said: “Nobody in the UK had been given tea time programmes at 21, so when I did, it went in my favour.
“But I was working in a pub, and the head barman said to me, ‘what is this? You serve them up the news until seven o’clock and then you’re in here at 7.30pm’.”
He revealed that his response to his manager at the time was: “But does this TV business ever last?”
The barman boldly assured Eamonn it would, invited him for a drink, and encouraged him to chase his dreams, with Eamonn saying: “That was my last night in the bar.”
Eamonn credits his bar work with helping him break into television, claiming it drew out his personality and showed him how to connect with people.
He said: “It taught me to be more relaxed with a TV audience and how to talk to people in television, so that was amazing. It was a bitb strange, I didn’t know anybody who was in television or presenting, but that’s what happened.”
His breakthrough in Ireland was merely the beginning of his broadcasting journey, transitioning to the BBC in 1986 and subsequently GMTV in 1993, where he remained until 2005, taking on a host of other television roles along the way, including stints at Sky News, BBC show Jet Set, and periodic appearances on GMB.
Eamonn’s latest venture has seen him comfortably settled at GB News, where he fronts the breakfast show.
Spring has sprung in Los Angeles. In just a couple weeks, thousands of music lovers will make the trek to Indio’s Empire Polo Club for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, with dozens of L.A. chefs joining them. While in the desert, many festival goers take a detour through neighboring Palm Springs to explore museums, restaurants and bars before the dry climate climbs into the triple digits.
Closer to home, Los Angeles’ food scene is mourning the loss of two legendary haunts forced to permanently close their doors. After months of extensions, Cole’s French Dip closed at the end of March, though owner Cedd Moses said he was still hopeful that the city’s longest-running public house and rumored creator of the French dip sandwich would sell to a new owner. In Echo Park, Taix restaurant closed after 99 years of operation to make way for a six-story housing complex.
But it’s not all bad news for local restaurants. In Melrose Hill, a Bangladeshi chef has returned to the kitchen after a two-decade-long break from the industry. Across town, a viral smashburger spot from a celebrated chef is drawing lines for its juicy Wagyu patties. And for those heading to the desert, restaurant critic Bill Addison insists a modern Mexican pop-up is worth the weekday trip. Here are 13 places to put on your dining agenda this month:
Christians in Jerusalem and Gaza marked Holy Week under wartime restrictions, with Israeli police blocking the Latin Patriarch from the Holy Sepulchre for the first time in centuries. In Gaza, a small Christian community continued Palm Sunday rites despite ongoing attacks and severe shortages of basic essentials.
On March 29, Taix as we know it closes forever. The iconic French restaurant originally opened downtown in 1927 and relocated to its current chalet on Sunset Boulevard in 1962. It’s a grim reminder of L.A.’s insatiable appetite to destroy its own heritage and especially devastating to a certain milieu of writers and artists, myself very much included. Since it announced its closure, I’ve been visiting as often as I can to say farewell, not only to the charmingly shabby faux-1920s interiors, but to the many lives I’ve lived at its tables. First as a young guitarist when a bandmate worked the bar’s soundboard, next with the Chinatown artist scene, then with Semiotext(e)’s avant-garde lit circle, later through firecracker romances and heartbreaks during the art party Social Club, recently floating through the louche carnival of Gay Guy Night and now with the circus of beatniks from my reading series Casual Encountersz.
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It’s difficult to explain why this cavernous and windowless restaurant means so much, so I’ve tried to list everything I love about Taix.
I love that they don’t play music. I love the 1960s bathrooms. I love the bottomless tureens of soup. I love the complimentary crudité from the pre-pandemic era. I love the cold pats of butter. I love that you can always get a table, no matter how many people roll in. I love the free refills on Diet Cokes. I love the 80-year-old couples on dates. I love how the dim lighting makes everyone seem chic. I love the frayed carpeting. I love the fake votive candles. I love the icy martinis. I love the corner booth beside the fireplace. I love the smoked mirrors and tin-plate ceilings in the elegant back dining rooms. I love the small fortune I’ve spent there picking up the check for many strippers, poets and bohemians. I love its rundown glamour, which miraculously evokes Old Hollywood, Belle Époque and trashy Americana all at once. I unironically love the food, which isn’t spectacular, but is very comforting. I love how a waitress once ran off with a friend of mine and slept on my couch for a week. I love how my wife generally hates eating at restaurants but loves eating at Taix. I love how every L.A. artist I know has their own singular version of this list.
The only thing I don’t love about Taix is that its owners are tearing it down to erect soulless condos. I know the city needs housing, but not like this. I hope we’ll all find a new place to call home again soon.
Taix shaped me as a writer and artist, along with so many others, which is why before the new owners demolish this cultural institution, I asked other creatives what the Echo Park landmark means to them.
Chris Kraus.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Chris Kraus, writer, artist and co-editor of the independent press Semiotext(e): When I moved to L.A. in 1995, Taix was the go-to place, with its deep banquettes, cuisine bonne-femme and its nightly prix-fixe specials. Mostly it was police officers and their wives who went there. Sylvère Lotringer and I went often, for him it was a little reprieve from the non-Frenchness of L.A. He could order in French and exchange pleasantries with an elderly French waiter who seemed to live there. Years later, when Sylvère moved to Ensenada and was less active with Semiotext(e), Taix was the site of our “Annual General Meetings” — Hedi El Kholti, Sylvère and I would have dinner together and Hedi would catch Sylvère up on all the forthcoming publications and projects. Taix was a place to run into people unexpectedly. About a decade ago, when the bar was refreshed, it changed again and I kind of lost track of it.
Rachel Kushner, novelist: I dined at Taix probably once per week for 23 years. It hurts so much that it is closing. I simply stopped going, so that I could begin to grieve, and also to avoid every last random tourist standing by the host station, on their phone, and the glum possibility of being seated in the second dining room, a.k.a “the Morgue” as my friend Benjamin Weissman put it. I want to protect my memories of the special occasions I enjoyed in this perennial special occasion establishment … I want to remember Bernard, a cheerful Basque from Biarritz who worked there 60 years, got progressively trashed over the course of his shift, went to Bakersfield on Sundays to party with his sheep-herding countrymen, came back Wednesdays sunburned and happy. The old valets who were let go during the pandemic. I used to give them a Christmas bonus every year, as a thanks for letting me park my classic out front. Look, I was born in Taix. I mean, in a way. I nursed my newborn in Taix. He grew up there. People who criticize the food are losers, and will never understand. The steak frites are great. The panna cotta, discontinued after the pandemic, was my favorite. The Louis Martini Cabernet was reliable. (Bernard told me the wine cellar downstairs took up the entire footprint of the main restaurant. Don’t know if that’s true.) Meanwhile, I can’t put my arm around a memory. All the smart girls know why. It doesn’t mean I didn’t try.
Cord Jefferson, writer and director: When I started going to Taix, in 2004, you could still gamble at the bar. They sold keno slips and lottery tickets, and whenever Powerball got over $100 million, I’d buy a ticket with my pint. Where else can you do all that while simultaneously watching a game and eating a tourte de volaille? Taix was where I watched the heroic Zinedine Zidane headbutt the gutless Marco Materazzi in the saddest World Cup final ever. When France lost that afternoon, my favorite server, Phillipe, cried. Phillipe’s teeth were often as wine-stained as his customers’. He’d bum me cigarettes in the parking lot and speak abusively about the ways the neighborhood was changing. I’m happy Phillipe is not around to see the digital renderings of what they plan to erect once they demolish the Taix chateau: another condo building with all the charm of a college dorm. It’s a damn shame what’s happening to Taix. I wish I had more money so I could buy it and keep it around, but I never won the Powerball.
John Tottenham, novelist and poet: It’s a shame that Taix is closing, not only because other plans will now have to be made for my funeral reception, but because it was the last civilized watering hole in the neighborhood. There isn’t anywhere else that one can walk into and immediately satisfy the social instinct among a convivial and refreshingly diverse clientele in what is becoming an increasingly homogenized locality. It has been the nexus of my social life for over 20 years, and is simply irreplaceable.
Jade Chang.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Jade Chang, novelist: I’d only known Taix as a raucous bardo of a French restaurant, then there was a memorial service for Alex Maslansky, my beloved friend Max’s brother, owner of Echo Park’s best bookstore, Stories. Alex was a beautiful and beleaguered soul, born worried, born romantic, difficult and hopeful and apparently a shockingly good poker player. The room was packed with music people and book people, sober friends and poker friends, packed with the gorgeous girls who’d always loved him, our collective sorrow potent and sweet enough to pull the walls in around us tight as we said goodbye and goodbye.
Alexis Okeowo, New Yorker staff writer: I was a late discoverer of Taix, stumbling upon it when I moved to a bungalow just above Sunset during the pandemic from New York. I seemed to only see writer friends there. I met up with a journalist for drinks and then ran into a new writer friend at the bar. I later had a big, spontaneous dinner with TV writer friends and then a birthday celebration in the dining rooms that ended in two friends escorting me home, sick and happy off a mostly-martini meal and the selfies I took in the bathroom with the iconic pink and gold wallpaper. Every time, there was talk about ideas and gossip and so, so much laughter.
Alberto Cuadros, writer/curator and co-founder of the Social Club: About 10 years ago, Max Martin and I started Social Club as a weekly social salon at Taix. We thought of it as a kind of Beuysian social sculpture, it was a weekly ritual, and over time it became something of an institution in the L.A. art world. Everyone knew where to go in L.A. on a Wednesday if they wanted to meet interesting people or find friends. I even met my wife there who was visiting from Montreal.
Siena Foster-Soltis, playwright: Taix felt like one of the few remnants of the L.A. I grew up in and love so dearly.
Ruby Zuckerman.
(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
Ruby Zuckerman, writer and co-founder of the reading series This Friday: Taix is the only restaurant in L.A. that doesn’t lose its mind if new friends drop in halfway through dinner or if you stay at your table for hours after you stopped ordering. That kind of flexibility leads to spontaneous nights where what started off as an intimate hang expands into an all-out party. As a writer, that flexibility has allowed me to meet editors, collaborators and readers, drawn together by pure fun rather than networking. One of my favorite nights involved getting in a physical altercation with novelist John Tottenham after he stole my phone to send prank texts to my boyfriend. I’ll miss taking selfies in the bathroom.
Blaine O’Neill, DJ and events organizer: I always say Taix is the “People’s Country Club.” It is exceptional because of the staff who understand the importance of hospitality, and the scale of the space is humane. You’re able to evade feeling pinched by the noose of transactional cosmopolitanism.
Tif Sigfrids, gallerist and publisher Umm…: Taix was a cultural nexus. A space with broad range. It went from being the dark bar I read books and day-drank at in my 20s to the place where I rented a private room to host my son’s first birthday party. It’s where I watched Barack Obama get elected twice, the Lakers win back-to-back championships, and where I indulged in countless night caps and an unreasonable amount of all-you-can-eat split pea soup. You never knew what kind of hot jock, wasted poet or other type of intrigue you might run into there. You can’t make a place like Taix up. It’s a place that just miraculously happens.
Kate Wolf, writer and editor: Though I have been going to Taix for nearly 20 years, embarrassingly, it was only in the last year that I realized the building wasn’t from the 1920s. Those smoke-stained mirrors, that tin ceiling, the drapery and light fixtures are in fact set-dressed — ersatz! Which of course only makes me love the place more. Taix’s history, and its spot in the city’s cultural firmament, cannot be denied. But what really makes it so special are the people who work there and the clientele, not its past. This point is perhaps my only hope in losing what is my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles. That by some divine grace, we will all find each other again in another spot, designed to a different decade than the horror-filled present, and fill it with the same warmth, the same bottomless soup bowl, the same cheer.
1/4
Hedi El Kholti, the co-editor of Semiotext(e). (Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
2/4
Writers Lily Lady and Siena Soltis-Foster. (Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
3/4
Poet Meat Stevens (Steven Lesser). (Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
4/4
Sammy Loren, writer and curator of Casual Encountersz. (Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
Hedi El Kholti, artist and co-editor Semiotext(e): Taix is where we would end up after every reading since 2004 when I started working at Semiotext(e). I have memories of being there with Kevin Killian, Dodie Bellamy, Gary Indiana, Michael Silverblatt, Colm Tóibín, Rachel Kushner and Constance Debré among others … Taix has that particular anachronistic vibe that made L.A. so charming when I moved here in 1992, one of these places that time forgot. It was odd when it became really hip in the last 10 years. It made me think of what Warhol wrote about Schrafft’s restaurant when it had been redesigned to keep up with the fashion of the moment and had consequently lost its appeal. “If they could have kept their same look and style, and held on through the lean years when they weren’t in style, today they’d be the best thing around.”
Loren is the founding editor of the art and literary conceptual “tabloid” On the Rag and curator of the reading series Casual Encountersz.
A United States judge has said that he will not dismiss the drug-trafficking and weapons possession charges brought against former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
But in a Thursday court hearing, Judge Alvin Hellerstein questioned whether the US government has the right to bar Venezuela from funding Maduro’s legal expenses.
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The hearing was the first for Maduro and his wife since a brief January arraignment, where they pleaded not guilty.
Maduro and Flores have sought to have the charges against them thrown out. Hellerstein declined to do so, but he pressed the prosecution on some of the issues Maduro’s legal team raised in its petition to dismiss the case.
Among them was a decision by the administration of US President Donald Trump to prevent the Venezuelan government from financing Maduro’s defence.
Federal prosecutors argued that national security reasons prevented the US from allowing such payments. They also pointed to ongoing sanctions against the Venezuelan government.
But Hellerstein pushed back against that argument, noting that Trump had eased sanctions against Venezuela since Maduro’s abduction on January 3. He also questioned how Maduro might pose a security threat while imprisoned in New York.
“The defendant is here. Flores is here. They present no further national security threat,” said Hellerstein. “I see no abiding interest of national security on the right to defend themselves.”
Hellerstein emphasised that, in the US, all criminal defendants have the right to a vigorous defence, as part of the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment.
“The right that’s implicated, paramount over other rights, is the right to constitutional counsel,” he said.
Maduro, who led Venezuela from 2013 to 2026, has been charged with four criminal counts, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, the possession of machine guns and the conspiracy to possess machine guns and other destructive devices.
He and his wife were taken into US custody on January 3, after Trump launched an attack on Venezuela.
The Trump administration has framed the military operation as a “law enforcement function”, but experts say it was widely considered illegal under international law, which protects local sovereignty.
Maduro has cited his status as the leader of a foreign country as part of his push to see the case dismissed.
When he last appeared in court, on January 5, he told the judge, “I’m still the president of my country.”
In a February hearing, his defence team sought to dismiss the charges on the basis that preventing Venezuela from paying his legal fees was “interfering with Mr Maduro’s ability to retain counsel and, therefore, his right under the Sixth Amendment to counsel of his choice”.
In an interview with the news agency AFP on Thursday, Maduro’s son, Venezuelan lawmaker Nicolas Maduro Guerra, said that he trusts the US legal system but believes that his father’s trial has been mishandled.
“This trial has vestiges of illegitimacy from the start, because of the capture, the kidnapping, of an elected president in a military operation,” Maduro Guerra said in Caracas.
Protests and counter-protests took place in front of the New York City courthouse on Thursday, with some condemning the US’s actions and others holding signs in support of the trial with slogans like, “Maduro rot in prison.”
Trump himself weighed in on the proceedings during a Thursday cabinet meeting, hinting that further charges could be brought against Maduro.
“He emptied his prisons in Venezuela, emptied his prisons into our country,” Trump said of Maduro, reiterating an unsubstantiated claim.
“And I hope that charge will be brought at some point. Because that was a big charge that hasn’t been brought yet. It should be brought.”
Trump has had an adversarial relationship with Maduro since his first term in office, when he issued a bounty for the Venezuelan leader’s arrest. He has frequently repeated baseless claims that Maduro intentionally sent immigrants and drugs to the US in a bid to destabilise the country.
Those claims have served as a pretext for Trump claiming emergency powers in realms such as immigration and national security. On Thursday, Trump emphasised that, while he expected a “fair trial”, he expected more legal action to be taken against Maduro.
“I would imagine there are other trials coming because they’ve really sued him just at a fraction of the kind of things that he’s done,” Trump said. “Other cases are going to be brought, as you probably know.”
In 1936, Irish Bostonian entertainment lawyer Tom Bergin founded L.A.’s first Irish pub, the Old Horseshoe Tavern, on Wilshire Boulevard. The bar was later renamed in his honor and relocated to its current Tudor Revival-style building off Fairfax Avenue in 1949.
The tavern claims to have introduced Irish coffee to the U.S. — though some argue that San Francisco’s Buena Vista Cafe holds that title. Either way, Tom Bergin’s is one of the oldest bars in continuous operation in L.A. and boasts the second-oldest liquor license in the city. And its Irish coffee is still one of the best you’ll find.
Today, L.A.’s Irish pub tradition extends to Santa Monica, Long Beach and Woodland Hills, with many founded by Irish immigrants seeking to bring a bit of their homeland to the West Coast in the form of Guinness pints, corned beef and cabbage and traditional Irish folk music.
Whether you’re celebrating St. Patrick’s Day or just looking for somewhere to split the G, here are 13 Irish pubs to check out in L.A. — Danielle Dorsey
