Brown

A.J. Brown had nothing to say — to reporters after the Philadelphia Eagles’ playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers, that is.

Philadelphia’s star receiver did have plenty to say to Coach Nick Sirianni — and vice-versa — during a sideline spat late in the second quarter of the game that eventually marked an end to the Eagles’ attempt at defending their Super Bowl title from last season.

Massive winds blew through Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field throughout the game, possibly contributing to a rough outing for Brown, who caught three of the seven passes for 25 yards and tied a career high with two dropped passes.

One of those drops came on 3rd-and-9 with a little more than two minutes remaining in the first half. Brown had created some separation from 49ers cornerback Renardo Green deep along the right sideline, but the pass from quarterback Jalen Hurts bounced off the receiver’s fingers.

Brown was slow to get off the field following the play, prompting Sirianni to run yelling down the sideline and eventually confront the three-time Pro Bowl selection face-to-face. The men appeared to exchange words for a few seconds before being separated by Eagles chief security officer Dom DiSandro. Brown went on to remove his helmet and yell more in Sirianni’s direction.

While Brown did not speak to reporters after the 23-19 loss, Sirianni downplayed the incident during his postgame news conference.

“I was trying to get him off the field because we were about to punt, and that was really it,” Siranni said. “I love A.J. I think he knows how I feel about him. I have a special relationship with him. We probably went through every emotion you can possibly have together.

“We’ve laughed together, we’ve cried together, we’ve yelled at each other. We’re both emotional. I was trying to get him off the field — you know, that happens in this game.”

Brown’s other drop came on a third-and-5 from the Philadelphia 40 with a little more than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and the Eagles trailing by four. Brown was open over the middle for what could have been an easy first down, but the pass again bounced off his hands. Philadelphia converted the fourth down on a pass to tight end Dallas Goedert, but the last-gasp drive eventually stalled at the San Francisco 21.

Sirianni said of Brown: “He’s got the best hands I’ve ever seen, you know, the way he catches the ball, the amount of different types of catches that he’s made. When you get as many targets as he does, you’re going to have some drops. Not ever using it as an excuse, but the ball moves differently in the wind.

“I thought Jalen did a good job of cutting the wind a lot of times. But, yeah, we had some uncharacteristic drops. I think the one that [Brown] had, we overcame it the very next play with Dallas, but I know [Brown will] beat himself up on that. And I know A.J. — he’ll catch 9,000 balls with the one drop that he had.”

Brown got off to a slow start this season and wasn’t shy about voicing his frustrations. His production increased as the year went on, and Brown finished the season with 78 catches for 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns.

Overall, the Eagles’ offense declined under first-year coordinator Kevin Patullo, dropping from seventh in scoring and eighth in yards last year to 19th in scoring and 24th in yards this season. Asked Sunday about Patullo’s overall performance, Sirianni said there “will be time to evaluate everybody’s performance.”

“Right now, I feel for all our guys in the locker room, all the players, all the coaches, the front office, everybody that works so hard, the fans that come out and support us, Mr. [team owner Jeffrey] Lurie. I feel for all of us, all of them, and there’ll be time to evaluate everything coming up.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jaylen Brown matched his career high with 50 points and the Boston Celtics completed a successful West Coast swing with a 146-115 victory over the Clippers on Saturday night.

Brown had 19 points in the third quarter. Derrick White added 29 points and Anfernee Simons had 15 as the Celtics went 4-1 on the trip and 3-1 against Western Conference teams. Boston is 7-1 since Dec. 19.

Brown was 18 of 26 from the floor, while White went 10 of 20. Boston (22-12) shot 55.2% overall and 47.1% from three-point range. Brown and White combined to go 11 of 22 from long range.

Kawhi Leonard and John Collins each scored 22 points as the Clippers (12-22) saw their season-best, six-game winning streak end. Collins made his first eight shots and went nine of 10 from the floor.

Derrick Jones scored 19 points for the Clippers before leaving in the fourth quarter with an apparent right knee injury. James Harden had 18 points and 12 assists, and Ivica Zubac had four points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes after missing the previous five games with a sprained left ankle.

Brown put the game away with nine consecutive Celtics points for a 128-107 lead with 6:15 remaining. He scored inside in traffic with 3:56 remaining to reach 50 points.

ANAHEIM — State Treasurer Kathleen Brown and state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi brought their gubernatorial campaigns to a convention of Orange County Democrats on Saturday, virtually ignoring each other and instead aiming their fire at Gov. Pete Wilson.

In a straw poll taken throughout the day, Brown beat Garamendi by 140 votes to 114. The third Democrat in the race, state Sen. Tom Hayden of Santa Monica, did not attend the meeting but received 27 votes.

The convention of about 500 Orange County Democrats served as a pep rally for the political party seeking to build momentum in a county controlled by the Republican Party, which holds an 18-point voter registration margin over Democrats.

Leading off a forum for statewide candidates, Brown said that until Wilson faced the pressure of an election year he did not fight the migration of California jobs to other states, that he cut education funding without trying to improve schools, and that he “talks tough on crime at the front door while he lets dangerous parolees out the back door.”

Californians, she said, do not feel safer and do not feel more economic security than they did before Wilson took office.

“And that’s why we need a change from the Rip Van Wilson who’s been sleeping and slumbering for the last three years in the governor’s office,” Brown told the delegates.

Garamendi, who has attracted attention in local communities throughout the state by “working” side-by-side with everyday workers such as jailers, teachers and factory workers, said Wilson “does not have a clue; does not have the foggiest understanding of what’s taking place” on issues such as worker safety and California’s choked transportation system.

Garamendi grew more passionate as he spoke about health care. His own plan for California, never approved, served as a starting point for development of President Clinton’s health care plan that has run into a firestorm of criticism.

“When I hear after 25 years of my crusade to establish a national health plan, when I hear the Republicans say to me that there’s no health crisis, oh boy, I’m telling you, we are in for a fight,” Garamendi said. “We will have a national health plan that provides health care to every single American, and it will be done.”

Earlier in the day, state Democratic Party Chairman Bill Press urged Orange County Democrats to help “get rid of that cruel and that cold and that callous, incompetent and poor excuse for a governor named Pete Wilson.”

Convention organizers said the convention should serve as a reminder to Democratic statewide candidates that Orange County should not be ignored–that Democrats here can cut into the huge margins that statewide Republican candidates often rely on to carry them over the top.

Two former USC football players and another man pleaded guilty to lesser charges Tuesday and were sentenced to 15 years in prison for a series of robberies and beatings last April.

Superior Court Judge David Perez accepted the plea-bargain offered by Danette Meyers, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.

The players, Howard McCowan, 19, of Carson and Marcel Brown, 20, of San Diego, were redshirt freshmen last year and expected to play pivotal roles in USC’s football program. Brown’s childhood friend, Garylan Coleman, 19, of San Diego, also was sentenced.

The plea-bargains were accepted shortly before the jury trial was to begin in Santa Monica Municipal Court. The compromise involved reducing a kidnapping charge, which carries a life sentence, to simple kidnapping, a felony with a 15-year maximum.

The defendants also were charged with assault and robbery for incidents April 23 in which Donald Christal, James Van Adler, Norm St. Landau and Lester Lawless were attacked and robbed in Westwood and Redondo Beach. In most of the attacks, the victims’ automatic teller machine cards were taken.

Brown and Coleman, who were charged with the kidnapping, are also being tried in San Diego on assault and robbery charges. McCowan had no other arrests.

If convicted by the jury, they might have received 20 years in state prison, said Michael Brush, McCowan’s lawyer.

In accepting the reduced sentence, Brown broke down in court, telling Perez, “We’re not murders or nothing. (We get) just a couple of minutes to decide on 15 years.”

Brown and Coleman, who was planning to play baseball at Southwestern College in Chula Vista before his arrest, were ready to accept the deal Monday. McCowan balked because the prosecution’s case against him was not as strong as those against the others.

But McCowan changed his mind after Perez ruled Monday that written confessions by Brown and Coleman could be used as evidence by the prosecution.

McCowan is a former standout at Carson High, walked over to his mother, Thelma, who was sitting nearby. He gave her his dark blue blazer, tie, dress shirt and dress shoes. He hugged her, his sister and a friend before returning to enter a guilty plea.

He and the others could be paroled within six or seven years, Brush said.

Thelma McCowan blamed USC officials for her son’s fate, saying that Howard had asked to move away from Brown, but was told he had to stay in the dormitory.

“I know the boys are 19 years old and are considered grown, but they’re not grown,” she said.

“They don’t need baby-sitters following them around, but they do need a little attention and advice once in a while.

“When they come and ask to move, someone should come and ask them why, what’s wrong. But they don’t do that.”

William E. Davis III, Brown’s lawyer, said USC offered no support for the players once they were arrested. Davis, the brother of Anthony Davis, a former USC star running back, said he represented athletes in the past. He said he took the case because Brown had no family support and the school was not willing to do anything.

The administration of President Donald Trump has announced it will halt the visa lottery programme that allowed the suspect in the Brown University shooting to enter the United States.

The lottery awards approximately 50,000 immigrant visas each year, according to the US government.

But Trump has long opposed the Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme, sometimes known as the DV Programme. On Friday, his Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem revealed that he had directed her to end the lottery immediately.

She also identified the suspect as Portuguese national Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, who received his green card — a certificate for permanent residency — through the lottery in 2017.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem wrote in her social media statement.

“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS [US Citizenship and Immigration Services] to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.”

Campaign to end visa lottery

Friday’s announcement is not the first time Trump has sought to wind down the diversity visa lottery.

Trump has long sought to narrow the country’s pathways to legal immigration, and he has used crime as a pretext for doing so.

Noem herself pointed out that, in 2017, Trump “fought” to shut down the diversity visa lottery in the wake of an attack in New York City that saw a truck ram into a crowd of people, killing eight.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in December 2017, Trump — then in his first term as president — called on Congress to “end the visa lottery system”.

“They have a lottery. You pick people. Do you think the country is giving us their best people? No,” Trump said.

“What kind of a system is that? They come in by lottery. They give us their worst people.”

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme was established in 1990 to ensure applicants from underrepresented countries had access to the US immigration system.

Immigration rights advocates have long argued that pathways to permanent residency are narrow for those who do not already have a spouse, relatives or some other kind of sponsor in the country.

The visa lottery helps to answer that need, by creating an alternative route to residency.

The lottery system selects visa recipients randomly, but critics argue it remains a long-shot avenue to gain US residency, and even successful applicants must still pass a rigorous screening process after the lottery.

While the Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme used to accept 55,000 applicants each year, in 2000 that number was lowered to its current level, according to the American Immigration Council.

A suspect identified

Friday’s decision to immediately suspend the lottery comes as new details emerge about Neves Valente, a physics scholar found dead in a storage unit in New Hampshire after a nationwide manhunt.

The search began on December 13, when gunfire erupted on the campus of Brown University, a prestigious Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island.

The school’s fall semester was at its conclusion, and the exam period had begun. Students in the Barus and Holley physics laboratory were taking their end-of-course exams when a suspect, clad in black, entered the building and opened fire, killing two students and injuring nine others.

The physics lab was close to the edge of campus, and the suspect was able to escape on foot undetected.

The manhunt included several false starts, as authorities said they quickly detained a person of interest, only to release the individual without charges.

Then, on November 15, law enforcement officials announced that a plasma physics scholar named Nuno Loureiro had been found dead at his home, after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.

Loureiro was also a Portuguese immigrant, and he served as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a highly regarded science institution.

It was not immediately clear that the two shooting incidents were related, and authorities faced pressure to bring the Brown University shooter to justice, as the manhunt dragged on.

But on Thursday night, officials announced they had discovered Neves Valente dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and that they believed him to be responsible for both attacks.

Neves Valente had previously studied in a PhD programme at Brown, though he did not complete his degree, and he had been Loureiro’s classmate in Portugal.

Visa revocations

The administration of President Trump has a track record of revoking visas and terminating immigration programmes after high-profile attacks.

On November 26, for example, two National Guard members from West Virginia were shot while on patrol in Washington, DC, as part of Trump’s crime crackdown in the capital.

The suspect in that case was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who had previously worked with allied forces during the US-led war in Afghanistan.

One of the National Guard soldiers, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, ultimately died from her wounds.

Trump responded to the incident by announcing he was halting all visa applications and asylum requests from Afghan nationals, despite outcry from human rights and veterans groups.

The Republican leader also said he would pursue a “permanent pause” on entry for immigrants from “all third-world countries”.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the Trump White House tightened entry for 19 countries it had identified in June as “high risk” and expanded the list of restrictions to include 20 more countries.

Trump has also taken targeted actions to strip individuals of their immigration status following shootings.

After the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in September, the Trump administration announced it was yanking visas from six foreign nationals who posted disrespectful comments or memes online about the attack. They hailed from countries ranging from Argentina to Brazil, Germany to Paraguay.

Free-speech advocates said the decision was a clear violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects the freedom of expression.

But the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to boot foreign nationals that do not align with its policy priorities.

“Aliens who take advantage of America’s hospitality while celebrating the assassination of our citizens will be removed,” the US State Department wrote in response.

The suspect in the Kirk shooting is a 22-year-old US citizen named Tyler James Robinson from Utah.

Studies have repeatedly shown that US-born citizens are more likely to commit violent crimes than immigrants.

PHOENIX — Erika Kirk, widow of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and the organization’s new leader, endorsed a potential presidential bid by Vice President JD Vance on the opening night of the conservative youth group’s annual conference.

After telling the cheering crowd that Turning Point would help keep Congress in Republican hands next year, she said, “We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible.”

Vance would be the 48th president if he takes office after President Trump.

Kirk’s statement on Thursday is the most explicit backing of Vance’s possible candidacy by a woman who has been positioned as a steward to her late husband’s legacy. Charlie Kirk had become a powerbroker and bridge builder within the conservative movement before he was assassinated in September.

Vance was close with Charlie Kirk, whose backing helped enable his rapid political rise. After the assassination, Vance and his wife joined Erika Kirk in Utah to fly her husband’s remains home to Arizona aboard Air Force Two.

Vance is set to speak to Turning Point on Sunday, the conference’s last day. The convention has featured the usual spectacle and energy that have characterized the organization’s events, but the proceedings have also been marred by intense infighting among conservative commentators and estranged allies who have turned on each other in the wake of Kirk’s death.

As Trump’s vice president, Vance is well-positioned to inherit the movement that remade the Republican Party and twice sent Trump to the White House. But it would be no small task for him to hold together the Trump coalition, which is built around personal loyalty to him more than shared political goals.

Various wings of the conservative movement already are positioning to steer the party after Trump’s presidency, a skirmish that’s becoming increasingly public and pointed.

Turning Point, with its thousands of young volunteers, would provide a major boost for Vance in a fractious primary. Now 41, Vance would be the first Millennial president if elected, a natural fit for the organization built around mobilizing youth.

Trump has repeatedly mused about running for a third term despite a constitutional prohibition. However, he’s also speculated about a 2028 ticket featuring Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Although Rubio previously ran for president in 2016, he has said he would support Vance as Trump’s successor.

Brown and Cooper write for the Associated Press. Brown reported from Washington.

WASHINGTON — President Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.

Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.

Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.

The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.

Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.

Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.

Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.

While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.

Spagat and Golden write for the Associated Press.

HARRY Potter star Jessie Cave has opened up on an “awful” two years with boyfriend Alfie Brown after the pair’s secret split.

The actress, 38, told of the “terrible” time, which also “massively affected” her own career and self-confidence in a lengthy Instagram message.

It came after actress, comedian, author, and cartoonist Jessie, best-known for her role as Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter franchise, launched a podcast with stand-up Alfie, also 38.

He began performing stand-up in 2006 and is known for his work at the Edinburgh Festival and Next Up Comedy series.

He is the son of composer Steve Brown and impressionist Jan Ravens who was “cancelled” in 2023 after old footage showing him using a racist slur in 2015 emerged.

The performer has since apologised.

Marital Mayhem

Jessie Cave reveals secret split from Alfie Brown and admits break-up fears

‘WHY DO WE GO?’

Disgusted Harry Potter star Jessie Cave spots ‘balls of mould’ at soft play

Now Jessie – who revealed their previous secret split earlier this year – has let slip the detail of their rough time period on social media.

She uploaded an image of their son watching Alfie’s stage show on the TV followed by various snaps showing her man doing his day job.

Yet her emotional caption revealed the reality and she put: “My boyfriend was what is/was called ‘cancelled’ in 2023 on the day our youngest son Becker turned one.

“It was the beginning of a terrible year, two years, actually longer…. I won’t make this about me and tell you how AWFUL it has been to watch the person you love most in the world go through so much pain, public shaming and humiliation – or even how it has massively affected my career and self-confidence too – because he has just put his comedy special about it the whole thing out on YouTube, and it’s getting a brilliant and entirely well deserved response… though it’s not been easy at all to get it out there.

“I’ve watched him hide away and overthink, lose himself. I watched him do Edinburgh shows in tears at midnight, as he first worked the show out, a few months after everything disintegrated.

“I’ve watched his whole life change in the last three years, losing not only his career but with the shocking deaths of his great friend and director Adam Brace and his wonderful dad Steve Brown… two of the most vital and supportive people to him.

“I’ve watched as people we thought we could trust betray him. I’ve watched as the theatre we used to love and who we both worked with for over a decade cover up posters of him and act like cowards.

“I’ve stood by him for it all as I will stand by him forever.

“But I think the saddest thing of all is that I’ve watched him shy away from gigs when it used to be that being onstage was the most natural thing in the world to him.

“I tried to pick photos from during that time for this post but they were all too bleak. But I like the ones I’ve chosen as he looks so uncertain and scared, yet determined to find a way forwards onstage, telling jokes.”

In a brighter note, with Alfie’s The Last Cancelled Comedian show now available for free on YouTube, she added: “Everything is much better now.

“He’s back onstage again, we are close to happy (if you listen to our podcast you might know what I mean).

“I find the show very hard to watch, though I’ve seen it over 10 times. I think it’s incredible and I would love people to watch it.

“Thank you if you already have. I love you Alfie.”

LOVE STORY

In 2012, Alfie and Jessie first crossed paths at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where they were both performing stand-up.

Two years later, the two were set up on a date through a mutual friend.

They went home together but didn’t see each other again – until four months later when Jessie discovered she was pregnant with his child.

They welcomed their son, Donnie, in October 2014, followed by their daughter 2 years later.

SPLIT SHOCK

In 2018 the couple went through a complicated breakup – as recently revealed on their brand new podcast Before We Break Up Again (BWBUA)

In February, on the show’s release, the hosts jokingly declared that it will run “from now until we break up again.”

Speaking with The Sunday Times, Jessie revealed that she’s not sure if the pair “will remain a couple for ever”.

In October 2020, they had a second son, and by December 2021, they announced they were expecting their fourth child.