Jewel

PARIS — Two suspects in the Louvre jewel heist on Wednesday were handed preliminary charges of criminal conspiracy and theft committed by an organized gang, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor said they admitted their involvement.

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said at a news conference that the two are believed to be the men who forced their way into the world’s most visited museum Oct. 19, and that at least two other accomplices are at large. The jewels remain missing.

The two were given preliminary charges and ordered held in custody pending further investigation, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

They have “partially” admitted their participation in the robbery, Beccuau said. She declined to provide details about the suspects’ statements to investigators because accomplices were still being sought.

It took thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels valued at $102 million on Oct. 19, shocking the world. The robbers forced open a window, cut into cases with power tools and fled with eight pieces of the French crown jewels.

Suspects’ DNA was found

The two men arrested on Saturday night “are suspected of being the ones who broke into the Apollo Gallery to steal the jewels,” Beccuau said.

One is a 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France since 2010, Beccuau said. He was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to fly to Algeria with no return ticket. He was living in a suburb north of Paris, Aubervilliers, and was known to police mostly for road traffic offenses. His DNA was found on one of the scooters used by robbers to leave the scene, she said.

The other suspect, 39, was arrested at his home in Aubervilliers. “There is no evidence to suggest that he was about to leave the country,” Beccuau said. The man was known to police for several thefts, and his DNA was found on one of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed and on items the thieves left behind, she added.

Video surveillance cameras showed there were at least four criminals involved, Beccuau said.

The four suspected robbers arrived onboard a truck equipped with a freight lift that two of them used to climb up to the museum’s window. The four left on two motor scooters along the Seine River toward eastern Paris, where they had some other vehicles parked, she said.

Beccuau said nothing suggests that the robbers had any accomplices within the museum’s staff.

The jewels are still missing

The jewels have not been recovered, Beccuau said.

“These jewels are now, of course, unsellable … Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods,” she warned. “There’s still time to give them back.”

Earlier Wednesday, French police acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s defenses — turning the dazzling daylight theft into a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures.

Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers that aging systems and slow-moving fixes left weak seams in the museum.

“A technological step has not been taken,” he said, noting that parts of the video network are still analog, producing lower-quality images that are slow to share in real time.

A long-promised revamp — a $93-million project requiring roughly 37 miles of new cabling — “will not be finished before 2029-2030,” he said.

Faure also disclosed that the Louvre’s authorization to operate its security cameras quietly expired in July and wasn’t renewed — a paperwork lapse that some see as a symbol of broader negligence.

The police chief said officers “arrived extremely fast” after the theft, but added the lag in response occurred earlier in the chain — from first detection, to museum security, to the emergency line, to police command.

Faure and his team said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre’s alarms but from a cyclist outside who dialed the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with a basket lift.

Faure urged lawmakers to authorize tools currently off-limits: AI-based anomaly detection and object tracking (not facial recognition) to flag suspicious movements and follow scooters or gear across city cameras in real time.

Former bank robber David Desclos has told the AP the theft was textbook and vulnerabilities were glaringly obvious in the layout of the gallery.

Museum and culture officials under pressure

Culture Minister Rachida Dati, under pressure, has refused the Louvre director’s resignation and insisted that alarms worked, while acknowledging “security gaps did exist.”

The museum was already under strain. In June, the Louvre shut in a spontaneous staff strike — including security agents — over unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing and “untenable” conditions. Unions say mass tourism and construction pinch points create blind spots, a vulnerability underscored by the thieves who rolled a basket lift to the Seine-facing façade.

Faure said police will now track surveillance-permit deadlines across institutions to prevent repeats of the July lapse. But he stressed the larger fix is disruptive and slow: ripping out and rebuilding core systems while the palace stays open, and updating the law so police can act on suspicious movement in real time.

Experts fear that the stolen pieces may already be broken down and stones recut to erase their past.

Adamson and Corbet write for the Associated Press.

PARIS — At least two suspects have been arrested in connection with the theft of crown jewels from Paris’ Louvre Museum, the Paris prosecutor said Sunday, a week after the heist that stunned the world.

The prosecutor said that investigators made the arrests Saturday evening, adding that one of the men taken into custody was preparing to leave the country from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

France’s BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests and did not say whether any jewels had been recovered.

Thieves took less than eight minutes Oct. 19 to steal jewels valued at more than $100 million from the world’s most-visited museum. French officials described how the intruders used a basket lift to scale the Louvre’s facade, forced open a window, smashed display cases and fled. The museum’s director called the incident a “terrible failure.”

Beccuau said investigators from a special police unit in charge of armed robberies, serious burglaries and art thefts made the arrests. In her statement, she rued the leak of information, saying it could hinder the work of more than 100 investigators “mobilized to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators.” Beccuau said further details will be unveiled after the suspects’ custody period ends.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez praised “the investigators who have worked tirelessly, just as I asked them to, and who have always had my full confidence.”

The Louvre reopened last week after one of the highest-profile museum thefts of the century stunned the world with its audacity and scale.

The thieves slipped in and out while museum patrons were inside, making off with some of France’s crown jewels — a cultural wound that some compared with the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019.

The thieves escaped with eight objects, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.

They also took an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife, as well as a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch — an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship — were also part of the loot.

One piece — Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown with more than 1,300 diamonds — was later found outside the museum, damaged but repairable.

News of the arrests was met with relief by Louvre visitors and passersby on Sunday.

“It’s important for our heritage. A week later, it does feel a bit late; we wonder how this could even happen — but it was important that the guys were caught,” said Freddy Jacquemet.

“I think the main thing now is whether they can recover the jewels,” added Diana Ramirez. “That’s what really matters.”

Petrequin and Garriga write for the Associated Press and reported from London and Paris, respectively.

Berwick-upon-Tweed has been named the happiest and also one of the most charming seaside towns in England and it’s just a 40 minute train ride from Edinburgh and Newcastle

Berwick-upon-Tweed has been crowned the happiest place to live.

This charming town ranks amongst the finest seaside destinations to explore this summer – and it’s merely a brief 40-minute train journey from both Edinburgh and Newcastle. Berwick-upon-Tweed is nestled on the northeastern tip of England, directly beside the Scottish border.

It’s a picturesque and historical location that is adored by its guests. You’ll locate the town at the mouth of the River Tweed, providing stunning vistas across the North Sea.

Although there are rarely crowds in Berwick, even during the high season on the sunniest of days, the town of 12,000 has a lot of fans. Recently, it was named by Touropia as one of the most delightful coastal towns in England. It has just been crowned ‘the happiest place in the UK’ by the Guardian.

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“Today, Berwick-upon-Tweed remains an often overlooked jewel. Yet people who know it, adore it – it is a great place to live with community spirit in bundles,” the publication writes.

“Berwick was LS Lowry’s favourite holiday destination and a place where he made more than 30 sketches, drawings and paintings including one of Bridge Street which, wonderfully, looks more or less as it did when he painted the scene in 1938.

“Today there is a Lowry Trail (about three hours), taking in cobbled streets, romantic riverbanks and the big, sandy, fun Spittal beach. When there was an attempt to recreate the painting last year, there was no shortage of volunteers – a reflection of the importance of community in Berwick.”

When visiting the town, one essential destination is Spittal beach. It ranks as one of the most beloved beaches in the region. A visitor on Tripadvisor reported: “A beautiful yet quiet beach. There is a car park nearby, as well as a cafe, a small amusement arcade, a splash park and toilets – it is definitely well worth a visit.”

Another big seasonal draw is the Riding of the Bounds, which takes place in May and is a celebration of the traditional horse ride that used to be carried out to ensure the safety of the town. Berwick’s markets on Wednesday and Saturday are also a big hit with locals and visitors alike.

“This border town has a history of being passed between England and Scotland like a hot potato, and Berwick-upon-Tweed’s dominant Town Walls, old prison cells of the Town Hall, castle and ramparts, along with the winding, cobbled streets hold a complex and violent past,” writes Visit Northumberland.

“The romantic River Tweed runs through its centre, dominated by three iconic bridges that have seen years of conflict as control of the town was repeatedly changing. Climb on-board The Border Rose with Berwick Boat Trips, where you can sail beneath the magnificent Royal Border Bridge and into the mouth of the river for some seal and dolphin spotting. All the while, skipper David and crew will keep you entertained with anecdotes of the town’s turbulent history and its rich salmon fishing heritage.”

When in the local area, the nearby Farne Islands are intriguing. They are home to a large colony of grey seals and puffins.

PARIS — The Louvre remained closed Monday, a day after historic jewels were stolen from the world’s most-visited museum in a daring daylight heist that prompted authorities to reassess security measures at cultural sites across France.

The museum’s staff asked dozens of visitors who were queuing in front of the glass pyramid entrance to leave. In a message posted on social media, the Louvre said visitors who have booked tickets will be refunded. It did not provide additional details.

On Sunday, thieves rode a basket lift up the Louvre’s facade, forced a window, smashed display cases and fled with priceless Napoleonic jewels, officials said. The theft occurred about 30 minutes after the museum opened, with visitors already inside, and was among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory.

It unfolded just 270 yards from the Mona Lisa, in what Culture Minister Rachida Dati described as a professional operation that lasted just a few minutes.

French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin acknowledged security failures on Monday.

“One can wonder about the fact that, for example, the windows hadn’t been secured, about the fact that a basket lift was on a public road,” he said on France Inter radio. “Having (previously) been interior minister, I know that we cannot completely secure all places, but what is certain is that we have failed.”

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez ordered prefects across France to immediately reassess security measures protecting museums and other cultural sites and enhance them if needed.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati said investigators are working on evidence found at the scene.

“We did find motorcycles and they have a license plate,” Dati said on news broadcaster CNews. “I also want to pay tribute to the security officers who prevented the basket lift from being set on fire. One of the criminals tried to set it on fire, but they forced him to flee. This allowed us to recover evidence at the scene.”

Officials said the heist lasted less than eight minutes in total, including less than four minutes inside the Louvre. “They went straight to the display windows, they knew exactly what they wanted. They were very efficient.” Dati said.

Dati stressed that a decade-long “Louvre New Renaissance” plan that was launched earlier this year includes security improvements.

“When the Louvre Museum was designed, it was not meant to accommodate 10 million visitors,” she said.

The $760-million plan is intended to modernize infrastructure, ease crowding and give the Mona Lisa a dedicated gallery by 2031.

Sunday’s theft focused on the gilded Apollo Gallery, where the Crown Diamonds are displayed. Alarms brought Louvre agents to the room, forcing the intruders to bolt, but the robbery was already over.

A worker in the Louvre filmed a person in the Apollo Gallery on Sunday morning wearing a yellow jacket and standing by a glass encasing, according to video viewed and verified by BFM television. It is unclear whether the person is one of the suspects.

Eight objects were taken, according to officials: a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife; a reliquary brooch; and Empress Eugénie’s diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch, a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble.

One object, the emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum, French authorities said.

Corbet writes for the Associated Press.

WHEN it comes to the Cotswolds, everyone heads to the same towns of Bibury and Bourton-on-the-Water.

But an alternative town often overlooked is Winchombe – and it’s hiding a huge royal secret.

Found near Cheltenham, the town is called the “hidden jewel in the Cotswold crown,” by the tourist board.

It is a popular visit for walkers due to its location on seven famous footpaths.

This includes the Cotswold Way and Gloucestershire Way, as well as Windrush Way and Kenelm’s Trail.

It now even holds a walking festival every May in celebration.

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There is the free-to-visit Winchombe Museum which talks of the town’s history dating back billions of years.

Otherwise you can also visit St Peter’s Church which dates back to the 1400s.

Just outside the town in the parish of Sudeley is Sudeley Castle.

As well as its beautiful 10 gardens set across the 1,200 acre estate, it has been owned by a number of kings over the years including King Edward IV and King Richard II.

King Henry VIII also visited with his then wife Anne Boleyn – and also made it the resting place of Queen Katherine Parr after her death.

This makes it the world’s only privately owned castle to have a queen buried onsite.

Sadly the town no longer has a functioning train station with scheduled passenger trains.

It did have its own back in 1906 which was on the line of Cheltenham to Birmingham.

Sadly it closed in 1960 and was dismantled in the 1980s.

However, it as since been partially restored for heritage trains such as themed trips and Christmas events.

Kids will love the Royal Mail model railway there too which has a Thomas & Friends train track as well as a small cafe.

You aren’t short of pubs in town either if you want a pint and a burger, from The Royal Oak to The Pheasant Inn.

If you’re looking for somewhere to stay, options include The Lion Inn and White Hart Inn as well.

For something more fun, on the outskirts is The Lodge at Winchcombe, a beautiful country house with en-suite bedrooms.

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Trains to Winchcombe take around 1hr30 from London, followed by a 30 minute drive from Honeybourne.

Here is another Cotswolds town that is loved by locals.

The Cotswolds is home to some of the UK’s most picturesque towns and villages

Tucked away in the rolling hills of Gloucestershire, there’s a village that’s often missed by visitors who head straight for its better-known neighbours – Chipping Campden, a beautifully preserved and historically important settlement dubbed the “jewel of the Cotswolds”.

Whilst crowds of holidaymakers descend upon Bourton-on-the-Water or Stow-on-the-Wold on their Cotswolds getaways, the delightful market town of Chipping Campden might prove a more satisfying choice.

Packed with heritage and character, its slightly weathered honey-toned limestone buildings flank the historic high street, which has mostly kept its original design since the 12th century.

The word “Chipping” derives from an ancient word meaning market, so it’s hardly surprising that Chipping Campden evolved into a thriving centre for Cotswold commerce.

Whilst the early traders concentrated on flogging cheese, butter, and poultry, the modern high street now features stylish homeware outlets and independent boutiques, reports Gloucestershire Live.

Throughout its golden era from the 13th to 16th centuries, the settlement prospered as a hub for the wool industry, with the sheep dotted throughout the Cotswolds countryside funding its magnificent buildings and churches.

This encompasses St James’s church in Chipping Campden, said to be amongst the most impressive “wool” churches in the region.

Standing proudly in the town centre is the Grade I-listed Market Hall, constructed in 1627 by Sir Baptist Hicks. Originally built as a refuge for traders, it has been magnificently maintained and was subsequently handed over to the National Trust for public enjoyment.

The town also boasts the Court Barn Museum, which chronicles the arts and crafts legacy throughout the area.

In 1902, C R Ashbee relocated the Guild of Handicraft to the Old Silk Mill in the town, though his venture eventually collapsed as numerous craftspeople returned to London.

His descendants continue to operate workshops at the mill to this day, sustaining the Cotswolds creative community thanks to his pioneering efforts.

The location is ideal for ramblers as well, with Chipping Campden marking the beginning of the 104-mile Cotswolds Way, which stretches all the way to Bath.

This announcement comes at an ideal moment for a Cotswolds getaway, as prominent travel guide Lonely Planet crowned the region Europe’s premier destination to visit in September.

They said: “This land of rolling hills, hiding historic towns and stone hamlets in their clefts and valleys, has long attracted urbanites seeking an English idyll.

“Visit in September not just to miss the heaviest onslaughts of coach tours, but to enjoy the countryside at its finest and to admire the leaves beginning to spark into their fiery autumn finery in the wonderful arboretums at Westonbirt and Batsford.”

The publication singled out Chipping Campden as the ideal starting or finishing point for the trail, praising this Cotswold town as a perfect base for a day of exploring its vast, rolling countryside.

The ‘jewel of the Cotswolds’, which featured in Bridget Jones’ Diary, is facing new rules that have divided locals

Some residents of the picturesque Cotswolds village, Snowshill, which famously featured in ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’, have voiced their concerns over new stringent planning regulations. These rules would require them to seek council permission for even minor alterations such as installing a patio.

Snowshill, often dubbed the ‘jewel of the Cotswolds’, was showcased in the 2001 film with its lush greenery and a local house serving as the home of Bridget Jones‘s parents. However, this week, the village falls under an Article 4 Direction by Tewkesbury Borough Council, strict rules designed to protect its heritage.

This means almost any work or modifications to buildings must be approved by the council, including installing patios or changing the colour of an exterior wall. Other changes requiring approval include replacing exterior windows and doors, constructing porches, installing roof lights or altering roofing materials, creating or replacing hard surfaces in gardens.

Residents will also need approval to erect gates, fences, or walls, paint the exterior of buildings a new colour or install or alter antennae or solar panels, reports Gloucestershire Live. Some locals have expressed their worries that the new rules are too costly and restrictive, while others believe they have been implemented too late.

Rose, a resident in her 40s who moved to Snowshill four years ago with her family, opposes the plans, describing them as “too controlling”. “I did write an objection but it has gone through anyway,” she expressed. ”It is very prohibitive in terms of what you can do to your home.” She explained that when they purchased the property, it was derelict so they had to refurbish it to make it “habitable”.

“It has been a very painfully process. If now we want to do a fence it feels like we have already climbed a hill.” For Rose, the larger issue is the influx of tourists who “cross the line”. She said: “Tourism is changing the character of the village, not the house changes” she stated. “Preserving the village for tourists is not the best logic.”

Kim, a resident of 40 years, had mixed feelings about the regulations. She questioned the effectiveness of the plans, asking: “How are they going to regulate it? Unless somebody complains.”

She added: “If you have got young children and if something happens to your fence why do you have to go through planning when all you want is to keep your child and the people around you safe. You can’t change your front door, but what if it is damaged? It costs you more to put planning in on Article 4 than planning application.

“I can see that people want to keep it a Cotswolds village but you’ve got to have a balance, but I think people will do whatever they want to their houses.” Sheila Wilks, 85, and her husband Peter, 84, believe the plans are a step in the right direction, but lament that their village has already been ‘ruined’ by holiday lets.

Mrs Wilks said: “They have come too late. They have ruined the village. I have been here all my life 80 years and I just think people abused it.

“I hate change and I think we should preserve what we’ve got. Because we are in such a beautiful place people should keep it like this.”

Their quaint cottage was once the old village shop where Sheila, her mum and siblings were born. In 1965, they purchased the house and have never left since.

However, home renovations aren’t the only issue the couple faces – following films such as Bridget Jones, the couple said the landscape “has changed” and so they want to “preserve” the village.

Mr Wilks stated: “Most of the houses here are Airbnbs. It is disgusting. There are at least 12 Airbnbs in the village. We get about four mini buses a day. They do tend to block the roads occasionally.

“It was all working class people but now it doesn’t seem to be that way at all. It does break up communities.”

Paul, 66, and Sue Brereton, 66, who have resided in their cottage for eight years, agreed with the implementation of the regulations. Mr Brereton said: “It is a very good idea and we wished it had come five years ago. A lot of metal windows have been changed to plastic windows.”

The pair living in a listed property claimed the fresh rules prove “more restrictive” than the listing requirements themselves. Paul explained: “I can’t repaint the windows charcoal grey which I was planning to because I will need planning regulation which is quite expensive.”

Terry, 71, and Pauline Rolls, 71, relocated to their home four years ago. They insisted what matters most is preserving the village’s character.

Mr Rolls explained: “We don’t want the village wrecked with plastic windows. What we want is a little damage as possible. There are a few that have been damaged. People doing what they want to their home is not necessarily a good thing. It is all about keeping the character of the village.”

Mr Rolls joked about how the rules could prevent residents from painting their windows and doors pink. He explained: “We could end up with Disneyland. It is not a NIMBY reaction but we need to keep some originality in this country.”

He stressed it’s crucial to maintain these properties ‘the way they are’ for future generations.

Councillor Sarah Hands, lead member for planning and place making at the borough council, explained: “Snowshill is one of the jewels of our borough, and these powers will help to protect its heritage, while still allowing thoughtful and appropriate development.

“We’re grateful to everyone who took part in the consultation and helped shape this decision.” From Wednesday (October 1), applications will undergo the standard planning process, which includes advertisement and consultation, with standard fees applicable.

The decision to implement the Article 4 Direction was made at a Full Council meeting on July 29, 2025, following a period of consultation.

THIS is the shocking moment sneaky jewel thieves distract a driver at a petrol station and steal £2 million from his car boot.

An organised crime group targeted the jewellery salesman as he was travelling from Sussex to Kent last year.

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Three of the group have now been jailed after they followed the man to a petrol station in Wrotham, Kent, before puncturing one of his tyres in January 2024.

The victim had been working in Brighton selling jewellery to several businesses and was carrying precious items worth around £2.25 million.

The CCTV footage shows the moment the thieves start following the salesman.

He was tracked by Edgar Ardila-Ruiz, Monica Diaz and Edward Florez-Ortiz and closely tailed his vehicle back to Kent.

When the man stopped at a petrol station in Wrotham, Florez-Ortiz punctured one of his tyres.

The man drove away but was forced to turn back and headed to an air pressure machine after noticing his tyre was flat.

While at the machine, the footage shows Monica Diaz distract the salesman by attempting to engage him in conversation.

Meanwhile, Ardila-Ruiz can be seen at the rear of the car snatching a bag of jewellery from the boot.

The CCTV footage recovered from the garage showed the suspects fleeing in a silver Toyota Corolla.

All three thieves were part of a gang responsible for other offences across the country including areas in London and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire.

Ruiz and Diaz were later arrested on February 11 after attempting to steal from another travelling salesman near Bolton, Lancashire.

The victim had alerted police after he noticed a black BMW was following him.

Local officers ran checks showing Ruiz was wanted for the theft in Wrotham while Diaz was also recognised from the petrol station CCTV.

They both pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court after they were charged with conspiracy to steal, and theft from a motor vehicle.

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Ruiz and Diaz, both of no fixed address, were sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

Florez-Ortiz, from Islington, London, was identified as a third suspect and separately convicted at Chelmsford Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to theft and criminal damage.

He was jailed for six years and will undergo future extradition proceedings after he was sentenced to three years for another jewellery theft in Belgium in 2021.

All three will also now be the subject of a financial investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act to claw back any criminal gains they may have made.

Detective Constable Leo Graham said: “Our investigation uncovered a wealth of evidence showing how all three offenders initially followed the victim on foot, before tailing his car.

“They waited patiently for the perfect opportunity to prey upon him and a later examination of his car led to the recovery of a metal item which had been inserted into the tyre by Florez-Ortiz.

“Ardila-Ruiz and Diaz were thankfully caught just weeks later, after following another salesman hundreds of miles away from Kent.

“These sentences are welcome, as it is clear they were part of a bigger network of organised criminality targeting victims throughout the country.”

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When Tom and Ethel Bradley moved with their two young daughters into a modest three-bedroom home in Leimert Park in 1950, Black people were restricted from buying houses in the neighborhood. The Bradleys had to purchase the home through a white buyer likely affiliated with the American Civil Liberties Union, recalled their oldest daughter, Lorraine Bradley, who was almost 7 years old at the time.

“It was the very first time that a Black family moved into Leimert Park,” said Lorraine, explaining the immediate historic significance of the home, and adding that her parents were brave people who believed integration was essential to equality. “My parents understood the implications of that. They were willing to sacrifice themselves in many regards.”

For the first year, white children on the street wouldn’t play with Lorraine or her 5-year-old sister, but that slowly changed and the family became accepted in the neighborhood. It helped that Tom was a police officer, said Lorraine.

Tom and Ethel explained to their children that, “unless people understood and lived with you, they would only look at you racially and not as a person,” said Lorraine.

The 1,282-square-foot home — where the Bradleys lived until 1977, when Tom became the first Black mayor of Los Angeles and moved the family into the 10,000-square-foot Getty House — is among six buildings of deep importance to Black heritage in L.A. that have been designated Historic Cultural Monuments as part of a project led by the Getty in collaboration with the City of Los Angeles’ Office of Historic Resources.

“We are thrilled for everyone to recognize the courage that my parents took to move to that neighborhood,” said Lorraine. “Somebody had to, so my dad and mom decided it was them.”

The additional sites to receive landmark status are Stylesville Barbershop & Beauty Salon in Pacoima; St. Elmo Village and Jewel’s Catch One in Mid-City; the California Eagle newspaper in South L.A.; and New Bethel Baptist Church in Venice.

Jewel’s Catch One was the oldest Black-owned disco in the U.S. as well as one of the city’s first gay nightclubs to open its doors to LGBTQ+ people of color.

(Micaela Shea / J. Paul Getty Trust)

The designations are the culmination of ongoing work done by African American Historic Places, Los Angeles, which was launched by the city and Getty in 2022 with the goal of identifying, memorializing and protecting the city’s Black heritage and history.

Each site will receive its own plaque. Celebrations are set for later this month at the Bradley residence, St. Elmo Village and Jewel’s Catch One. Stylesville is planning a party for a later date.

AAHPLA hosted a kickoff event at St. Elmo Village in 2023, but work to create the project began in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd when many cultural organizations, including Getty, began reevaluating the ways they were highlighting and interacting with Black history, art and heritage, said Rita Cofield, associate project specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute and AAHPLA project leader.

St. Elmo Village in Mid-City is a thriving arts community, residence and activism hub.

(Elizabeth Daniels / J. Paul Getty Trust)

Getty soon decided to implement an initiative focused on African American heritage in L.A. and began looking for partners in the community who could help best identify each unique location.

In some cases, unless you have roots in a particular community, you won’t have the depth of understanding to realize that even though a particular building looks commonplace — or isn’t built in high architectural style — that it’s actually extremely important, said Cofield.

The plaques, in conjunction with the program, will help further establish the locations and their history in the popular imagination — and also serve to protect the sites from harm or demolition.

“If you see a plaque with the date and the importance of it, you’ll get some sense of just what this neighborhood was — what this building was or still is,” said Cofield. “So you connect with it on your own. You can investigate on your own at any time and it’s accessible.”

Stylesville Barbershop & Beauty Salon in Pacoima is the oldest Black-owned barbershop in the San Fernando Valley.

(Cassia Davis / J. Paul Getty Trust)

Angelenos and visitors to the city can now make a day out of touring the sites. In the process, they will learn about how the California Eagle — established by John J. Neimore in 1879 — was home to one of the oldest and longest-running Black-owned and operated newspapers in the country; how St. Elmo Village is still a thriving arts community and center for community activism; how Stylesville barbershop is the oldest Black-owned barbershop in the San Fernando Valley; how Jewel’s Catch One was the oldest Black-owned disco in the U.S., as well as one of the city’s first gay nightclubs to open its doors to LGBTQ+ people of color; and how the establishment of New Bethel Baptist Church marked the early days of Black migration to the Oakwood neighborhood.

Moving forward, AAHPLA will continue to seek out sites that would benefit from landmark status, while also investing in Pacoima, Oakwood and the Central Avenue corridor — famous for its vibrant jazz and music scene — in order to develop better cultural preservation strategies.

“We really want to celebrate intangible heritage too,” said Cofield. “How do we do that? Do we do it through schools, through murals? So we’re really working with those neighborhoods, to think of strategies to celebrate and highlight African American heritage.”

Jewel Thais-Williams, the founder of the pioneering Black lesbian and queer nightclub Jewel’s Catch One in Los Angeles, has died. She was 86.

Thais-Williams’ death was confirmed by KTLA and by several friends and employees of the club. No cause of death was immediately available.

For decades, the Mid-City nightclub — known to regulars as The Catch — was L.A.’s hallowed sanctuary for Black queer women, and a welcoming dance floor for trans, gay and musically adventurous revelers. Artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Madonna and Whitney Houston sashayed down Catch One’s winding halls, while the indomitable Thais-Williams fended off police harassment and led care programs during the height of the AIDS crisis.

The Catch was singularly important to the development of Black and queer nightlife in L.A., and belongs beside New York’s Paradise Garage and Chicago’s Warehouse in any account of the most important nightclubs in America.

“It was a community, it was family,” Thais-Williams told The Times in a 2018 interview. “To be honest myself, I was pretty much a loner too. I always had the fears of coming out, or my family finding out. I found myself there.”

Thais-Williams, born in Indiana in 1939, opened Jewel’s Catch One in 1973. She didn’t have ambitions to open a generationally important nightclub, just a more resilient business than her previous dress shop. However, her experience of being shunned as a Black woman by other local gay clubs bolstered her resolve to make the Catch welcoming for those left out of the scene in L.A.

Jewel’s Catch One on West Pico Boulevard.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

“I didn’t come into this business with the idea of it becoming a community center,” she said in 1992. “It started before AIDS and the riots and all that. I got the first sense of the business being more than just a bar and having an obligation to the community years ago when Black gays were carded — requiring several pieces of ID — to get into white clubs. I went to bat for them, though I would love to have them come to my place every night.

“The idea is to have the freedom to go where you want to without being harassed. The predominantly male, white gay community has its set of prejudices. It’s better now, but it still exists.”

Jewel’s Catch One became a kind of West Coast Studio 54, with disco-era visionaries like Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, Sylvester, Rick James and Evelyn “Champagne” King performing to packed rooms. Celebrities like Sharon Stone and Whoopi Goldberg attended the parties, glad for wild nights out away from the paparazzi in Hollywood.

Thais-Williams “opened the door for so many people,” said Nigl “14k,” the Catch’s manager, doorperson and limo driver for 27 years up until its sale in 2015. “A lot of people that felt not wanted in West Hollywood had nowhere to go. But people found out who she was and put word out. She was a great friend and a shrewd businessperson who allowed people to just be themselves.”

The club’s many rooms allowed for a range of nightlife — strip shows, card games and jazz piano sets alongside DJ and live band performances [along with Alcoholics Anonymous meetings]. The boisterous, accepting atmosphere for Black queer partiers contrasted with the constant surveillance, regulation and harassment outside of it.

“There was a restriction on same sex dancing, women couldn’t tend bar unless they owned it,” Thais-Williams said in 2018. “The police were arresting people for anything remotely homosexual. We had them coming in with guns pretending to be looking for someone in a white T-shirt just so they could walk around.”

A fire in 1985 claimed much of the venue’s top floor, closing it for two years. Thais-Williams suspected that gentrifiers had their eye on her building.

“It’s very important not to give up our institutions — places of business that have been around for years,” she said. “Having a business that people can see can offer them some incentive to do it for themselves. I’m determined to win, and if I do fail or move on, I want my business to go to Black people who have the same interest that I have to maintain an economic presence in this community.”

Thais-Williams’ AIDS activism was crucial during the bleakest eras of the disease, which ravaged queer communities of color. She co-founded the Minority AIDS Project and served on the board of the AIDS Project Los Angeles, which provided HIV/AIDS care, prevention programs and public policy initiatives.

With her partner, Rue, she co-founded Rue’s House, one of the first dedicated housing facilities in the U.S. for women living with HIV. The facility later became a sober-living home. In 2001, Thais-Williams founded the Village Health Foundation, a healthcare and education organization focused on chronic diseases that affected the Black community.

Jewel Thais-Williams in 2015.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

“Jewel is a true symbol of leadership within our community,” said Marquita Thomas, a Christopher Street West board member who selected Thais-Williams to lead the city’s Pride parade in 2018. “Her tireless efforts have positively affected the lives of countless LGBTQ minorities, [and her] dedication to bettering our community is truly inspiring.”

After decades in nightlife, facing dwindling crowds and high overhead for a huge venue, in 2015 Thais-Williams sold the venue to nightlife entrepreneur Mitch Edelson, who continues to host rock and dance nights in the club, now known as Catch One. (Edelson said the club is planning a memorial for Thais-Williams.)

“People in general don’t have appreciation anymore for their own institutions,” Thais-Williams told The Times in 2015. “All we want is something that’s shiny because our attention span is only going to last for one season and then you want to go somewhere else. The younger kids went to school and associated with both the straight people and non-Blacks, so they feel free to go to those spots. The whole gay scene as it relates to nightclubs has changed — a lot.”

After the sale, the importance of the club came into sharper focus. A 2018 Netflix documentary, “Jewel’s Catch One,” produced by Ava DuVernay’s company Array, highlighted The Catch’s impact on Los Angeles nightlife, and the broader music scene of the era. When Thais-Williams sold it, the Catch was the last Black-owned queer nightclub in the city.

In 2019, the square outside of Jewel’s Catch One was officially named for Thais-Williams.

“With Jewel’s Catch One, she built a home for young, black queer people who were often isolated and shut out at their own homes, and in doing so, changed the lives of so many” said then-City Council President Herb Wesson at the ceremony. “Jewel is more than deserving to be the first Black lesbian woman with a dedicated square in the city of Los Angeles for this and so many other reasons.”

L.A.’s queer nightlife scene is still reeling from the impact of the pandemic, broader economic forces and changing tastes among young queer audiences. Still, Thais-Williams’ vision and perseverance to create and sustain a home for her community will resonate for generations to come.

“Multiple generations of Black queer joy, safety, and community exist today because of Jewel Thais-Williams,” said Jasmyne Cannick, organizer of South L.A. Pride. “She didn’t just open doors — she held them open long enough for all of us to walk through, including this Gen-X Black lesbian. There’s a whole generation of younger Black queer folks out here in L.A. living their best life, not even realizing they’re walking through doors Jewel built from the ground up.”

“Long before Pride had corporate sponsors and hashtags, Jewel was out here creating space for us to gather, dance, organize, heal, and simply exist,” Cannick continued. “We owe her more than we could ever repay.”

Thais-Williams is survived by her wife and partner for 40 years, Rue.

When it comes to vaccines, virtually nothing that comes out of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mouth is true.

The man in charge of the nation’s health and well being is impervious to science, expertise and knowledge. His brand of arrogance is not just dangerous, it is lethal. Undermining trust in vaccines, he will have the blood of children around the world on his hands.

Scratch that.

He already does, as he presides over the second largest measles outbreak in this country since the disease was declared “eliminated” a quarter century ago.

“Vaccines have become a divisive issue in American politics,” Kennedy wrote the other day in a Wall Street Journal essay, “but there is one thing all parties can agree on: The U.S. faces a crisis of public trust.”

The lack of self-awareness would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.

Over the past two decades or so, Kennedy has done more than almost any other American to destroy the public’s trust in vaccines and science. And now he’s bemoaning the very thing he has helped cause.

Earlier this month, Kennedy fired the 17 medical and public health experts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — qualified doctors and public health experts — and replaced them with a group of (mostly) anti-vaxxers in order to pursue his relentless, ascientific crusade.

On Thursday, at its first meeting, his newly reconstituted council voted to ban the preservative thimerosal from the few remaining vaccines that contain it, despite many studies showing that thimerosal is safe. On that point, even the Food and Drug Administration website is blunt: “A robust body of peer-reviewed scientific studies conducted in the U.S. and other countries support the safety of thimerosal-containing vaccines.”

“If you searched the world wide, you could not find a less suitable person to be leading healthcare efforts in the United States or the world,” psychiatrist Allen Frances told NPR on Thursday. Frances, who chaired the task force that changed how the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, defines autism, published an essay in the New York Times on Monday explaining why the incidence of autism has increased but is neither an epidemic nor related to vaccines.

“The rapid rise in autism cases is not because of vaccines or environmental toxins,” Frances wrote, “but is rather the result of changes in the way that autism is defined and assessed — changes that I helped put into place.”

But Kennedy is not one to let the facts stand in the way of his cockamamie theories. Manufacturers long ago removed thimerosal from childhood vaccines because of unfounded fears it contained mercury that could accumulate in the brain and unfounded fears about a relationship between mercury and autism.

That did not stop one of Kennedy’s new council members, Lyn Redwood, who once led Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy, from declaring a victory for children.

“Removing a known neurotoxin from being injected into our most vulnerable population is a good place to start with making America healthy again,” Redwood told the committee.

Autism rates, by the way, have continued to climb despite the thimerosal ban. But fear not, gullible Americans, Kennedy has promised to pinpoint a cause for the complex condition by September!

Like his boss, Kennedy just makes stuff up.

On Wednesday, he halted a $1-billion American commitment to Gavi, an organization that provides vaccines to millions of children around the world, wrongly accusing the group of failing to investigate adverse reactions to the diptheria vaccine.

“This is utterly disastrous for children around the world and for public health,” Atul Gawande, a surgeon who worked in the Biden administration, told the New York Times.

Unilaterally, and contrary to the evidence, Kennedy decided to abandon the CDC recommendation that healthy pregnant women receive COVID vaccines. But an unvaccinated pregnant woman’s COVID infection can lead to serious health problems for her newborn. In fact, a study last year found that babies born to such mothers had “unusually high rates” of respiratory distress at or just after birth. According to the CDC, nearly 90% of babies who were hospitalized for COVID-19 had unvaccinated mothers. Also, vaccinated moms can pass protective antibodies to their fetuses, who will not be able to get a COVID shot until they are 6 months old.

What else? Oh yes: Kennedy once told podcaster Joe Rogan that the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic was “vaccine-induced flu” even though no flu vaccine existed at the time.

He also told Rogan that a 2003 study by physician scientist Michael Pichichero, an expert on the use of thimerosal in vaccines, involved feeding babies 6 months old and younger mercury-contaminated tuna sandwiches, and that 64 days later, the mercury was still in their system. “Who would do that?” Kennedy demanded.

Well, no one.

In the study, 40 babies were injected with vaccines containing thimerosal, while a control group of 21 babies got shots that did not contain the preservative. None was fed tuna. Ethylmercury, the form of mercury in thimerosal, the researchers concluded, “seems to be eliminated from blood rapidly via the stools.” (BTW, the mercury found in fish is methylmercury, a different chemical, which can damage the brain and nervous system. In a 2012 deposition for his divorce, which was revealed last year, Kennedy said he suffered memory loss and brain fog from mercury poisoning caused by eating too much tuna fish. He also revealed he has a dead worm in his brain.)

Kennedy’s tuna sandwich anecdote on Rogan’s podcast was “a ChatGPT-level of hallucination,” said Morgan McSweeney, a.k.a. “Dr. Noc,” a scientist with a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences, focusing on immunology and antibodies. McSweeney debunks the idiotic medical claims of non-scientists like Kennedy in his popular social media videos.

Speaking of AI hallucinations, on Tuesday, at a congressional committee hearing, Kennedy was questioned about inaccuracies, misinformation and made up research and citations for nonexistent studies in the first report from his Make America Healthy Again Commission.

The report focused on how American children are being harmed by their poor diets, exposure to environmental toxins and, predictably, over-vaccination. It was immediately savaged by experts. “This is not an evidence-based report, and for all practical purposes, it should be junked at this point,” Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Assn. told the Washington Post.

If Kennedy was sincere about improving the health of American children he would focus on combating real scourges like gun violence, drug overdoses, depression, poverty and lack of access to preventive healthcare. He would be fighting the proposed cuts to Medicaid tooth and nail.

Do you suppose he even knows that over the past 50 years, the lives of an estimated 154 million children have been saved by vaccines?

Or that he cares?

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It has been almost 3,150 days — more than 8½ years — since Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in Paris. On Tuesday, she finally gets to testify against the suspects.

By the fall of 2016, the Kim Kardashian West train had been speeding through the celebrity landscape like a bullet for years, running down anyone in its way and leaving everyone else in the dust. She was everything everywhere all at once, all the time. She had been married, then divorced, then had babies, then got married again. She broke the internet. And that fame train seemed destined to circle the globe in perpetuity.

Then came Paris Fashion Week. What could go wrong?

In the early-morning hours of Oct. 3, 2016, the Kim K. train suddenly derailed: A party of men entered Kardashian’s two-story Paris pad, armed with guns and zip ties and hunting for jewels. Specifically, Kardashian’s jewels, which she had flaunted on social media.

What happened in the Paris apartment?

Shortly after 2 a.m. local time, Kardashian was reportedly lying in bed clad only in a robe when she heard people stomping up the stairs in her two-story apartment at the Hôtel de Pourtalès. It turned out the men had been directed there by the night concierge, who said he had been threatened at gunpoint. She caught a glimpse of two of the guys, rolled off the bed and tried to call her bodyguard before her phone was taken from her.

Her wrists were zip-tied and duct-taped, and she was grabbed by the ankles — at which point, she told the police, she thought she was going to be raped. Instead, her assailants bound her ankles with duct tape and carried her to the bathtub, as Kardashian screamed for them to take her money and jewelry but please spare her life, because she was at that point the mother of two children.

The men did not speak English but kept saying, “Ring, ring,” she told police. After Kardashian told them where to find the massive diamond — a recent gift from then-husband Kanye West that she had been showing off on social media — they duct-taped her mouth.

Kardashian was left lying helplessly on the bathroom floor as the robbers left with their haul. A friend who was staying in a downstairs bedroom heard the commotion and called the reality star’s bodyguard, who had been out with her sisters Kourtney Kardashian and Kendall Jenner at a club nearby and quickly returned to the hotel.

Did people believe Kardashian’s story?

The internet-posting public did not believe her, at least at first. Self-styled pundits immediately suggested she had staged the whole thing for publicity — as if she couldn’t get that on her own simply by waking up and snapping a selfie. The reality star quickly sued MediaTakeout.com for libel after it said she made up the story, lied about the assault and filed a fraudulent insurance claim. Police, meanwhile, quickly dismissed the notion that Kardashian was lying because she was so badly shaken up, but seriously investigated whether it was an inside job. (The night concierge and the bodyguard are slated to testify at trial.)

The libel lawsuit was settled within weeks, CNN reported, with the website issuing a retraction and acknowledging that Kardashian had in fact been robbed at gunpoint.

When did authorities arrest and charge the suspects?

Arrests came Jan. 10, 2017, when 17 people were taken into custody in multiple raids around Paris. Kardashian’s chauffeur was among those arrested, but he was released after questioning. By 2021, the suspects had been narrowed to 12 people who were slated to stand trial. One suspect, however, has died since being questioned, and another has been excused from the trial because he is 81 and has advanced Alzheimer’s, the BBC reported.

In fact, French media has been referring to the main suspects as the Grandpa Robbers, due to their advanced ages — the eldest defendant is 78. They didn’t really know who Kardashian was at the time of the robbery but were reportedly told she was “a rapper’s wife.” Ten suspects remain on the hook, including one woman. Of those, five went into Kardashian’s apartment during the robbery. The rest are accused of aiding and abetting.

What have the suspects been doing since then?

One suspect, Yunice Abbas, told a French outlet in 2022 that since Kardashian “was throwing money away, I was there to collect it, and that was that. Guilty? No, I don’t care. I don’t care.”

Now 71, Abbas, one of two suspects whose DNA was found at the crime scene, has said he plans to apologize when he’s in court. He also says he was unarmed and acted as a lookout on the ground floor of the hotel.

“I saw one of her shows where she threw her diamond in the pool in that episode of ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians,’” he told Vice in 2022. “I thought, ‘She’s got a lot of money. This lady doesn’t care at all.’”

The alleged mastermind behind the plot, Aomar Ait Khedache, wrote an apology letter to Kardashian from prison in 2017, saying he regretted his actions and realized the psychological damage he caused. “Old Omar” has admitted tying up Kardashian but denies being the brains behind the operation.

The other suspects, including Ait Khedache’s son Harminy, have maintained their innocence.

What happened to the jewelry?

About $6 million worth of jewelry was stolen, or maybe it was $10 million worth, depending on which of the many accounts can be trusted. Kardashian and ex-husband Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, reportedly submitted insurance claims worth $5.6 million. In the 8½ years since the robbery, only one piece has been recovered: a diamond cross on platinum that the suspects lost as they escaped on bicycles. Its value was estimated at just over $33,000, per Vanity Fair.

An 18.8-carat diamond ring — which was a gift to Kardashian from Ye — a yellow-gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, seven Cartier and Hermès bracelets and three gold-and-diamond grills were all in the haul, VF reported. Anything that was unique, like the stone in that diamond ring, has likely been broken down into pieces and resold, a jewelry-theft expert told People in 2016.

What happens next?

Kardashian is set to testify in Paris on Tuesday afternoon — around 5 a.m. in California. She will be questioned first by the judge, according to the New York Post, then by her attorneys, then by the prosecutors, and finally by the defendants’ attorneys.

In mid-April, a Kardashian attorney confirmed to the AP that she would testify at the trial, which started April 28 and is scheduled to run until May 23. But until she appears on the stand, the statement said, the reality mogul is “reserving her testimony for the court and jury and does not wish to elaborate further at this time.”

That sounds like it’s French for “no comment.”