Peaky Blinders fans were left baffled over Arthur Shelby’s glaring absence.
Paul Anderson has opened up the Peaky Blinders movie
Peaky Blinders’ Arthur Shelby actor has finally opened up about his absence from The Immortal Man.
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is on Netflix and the follow-up film explores Tommy Shelby’s (played by Cillian Murphy) redemption arc as he attempts to right his wrongs.
Tommy, reluctant to return to his family, is forced to face the demons of his past following an unprecedented tragedy and viewers discover some hidden secrets about Tommy’s life in the events between the series and the film.
The film begins with Tommy living away from his family in a derelict mansion, which features a graveyard he regularly visits.
Viewers were shocked to see Arthur Shelby’s name written on one of the gravestones, and here is all you need to know about actor Paul Anderson’s absence.
Why is Paul Anderson not in The Immortal Man?
Arthur Shelby was last seen in season six of the flagship series, while he was battling an opium addiction following a relapse.
Paul Anderson played Arthur in all six seasons of the show, and is one of only three stars to have appeared in every episode, besides Cillian Murphy and Sophie Rundle.
Anderson opened up on the film and his absence to LADbible, explaining: “Well, what can you do eh? It is how it is. I thought I’d just leave them to it. I think it’s great. I [wasn’t] very nice to people in it [the series]. But people loved me.”
Creator Steven Knight said there were no plans to bring Anderson back, telling The Hollywood Reporter his character had been written out of the film.
He explained: “What I’ll say is that the story determines the cast, and the story was set. I knew that Tommy needed to have done something that he couldn’t forgive himself for.
“Therefore, that’s why the plot went in that particular direction. But in terms of Paul, all I’ll say is that he’s a fantastic actor.”
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What happened to Arthur Shelby in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man?
In the sequel film, Tommy was seen living in isolation as he was haunted by the ghosts of his past, including his brother, Arthur.
He often visited his brother’s grave, though it was not mentioned for a long time how his brother really died.
At first it was suggested he had died by suicide, but by the end of the film Tommy revealed what really happened as a flashback played out on screen.
He explained how he had killed his own brother in a drunken fit of rage, while they were both in a car together.
Tommy was seen strangling Arthur during a struggle, which ended with Arthur laying lifeless and Tommy almost instantly regretting his actions.
Shrapnel from an Iranian drone interception kills a Bangladeshi national in the UAE’s Fujairah city.
Iran’s drones have hit fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport, causing a large blaze, and authorities in Bahrain have reported a fire at an undisclosed company facility, as the United States-Israel war on Iran continues for a fifth week.
Abdullah al-Rajhi, a spokesman for the General Directorate of Civil Aviation in Kuwait, on Wednesday said the airport had been subjected to “brazen attacks by drones from Iran and the armed factions it supports”.
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The raids targeted fuel tanks at the airport, “leading to a large fire breaking out at the site”, al-Rajhi was quoted as saying by the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
Emergency teams were on site, and “the damage is material with no human injuries,” he said.
Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior said civil defence crews were “extinguishing a fire in a facility of a company as a result of the Iranian aggression”.
“Relevant authorities are taking their measures at the site,” it added, without naming the company.
Vessel hit
A tanker was hit by an unknown projectile near the Qatari capital Doha, causing damage to the hull at the waterline, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said, adding the crew were safe.
The vessel was struck about 17 nautical miles (equivalent to about 32km) north of Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial hub, the country’s main gas production facility, which was hit by Iranian missiles last month, causing significant damage.
Confirming the incident, Qatar’s Ministry of Defence said the country was targeted by three cruise missiles launched from Iran, one of which struck an oil tanker.
In a post on X, the ministry said it intercepted two of the missiles, while the third hit a tanker leased to QatarEnergy. The tanker’s 21-person crew was evacuated, the ministry said. No injuries were reported.
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the official WAM news agency said shrapnel from a drone interception fell on a farm in the al-Rifaa area of Fujairah city and killed a Bangladeshi national. It said authorities were dealing with the incident.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense said several drones were “intercepted and destroyed”, without reporting any injuries.
The oil-rich Gulf has borne the brunt of Iran’s attacks in response to the US-Israeli air strikes on the country.
Iran has claimed to be attacking US assets in the region, but Gulf nations say Tehran has targeted civilian infrastructure.
On Tuesday, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report said gross domestic product (GDP) in the Arab world was estimated to decline by approximately 3.7 to 6 percent after a month of war, equivalent to a contraction of $120bn to $194bn.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump and his administration have sent contradictory statements about how and when the war might end.
“We’ll be leaving very soon,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, saying the exit could take place “within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three”.
Washington had previously threatened to intensify operations if Tehran did not accept a 15-point US ceasefire framework that had, among its core demands, commitments by Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons, halt all uranium enrichment and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran dismissed the proposal as “maximalist” and “unreasonable”, stressing it is not seeking war and wants a permanent end to the conflict. It also demanded compensation for the destruction caused by US-Israeli attacks against the country.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society released video showing rescuers in Tehran lowering a man strapped to a stretcher from the wreckage of a building severely damaged in an airstrike.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has launched an investigation into two California women’s prisons to determine if they unconstitutionally provided housing and preferential treatment to “biological male prisoners.”
In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon — who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division — said investigators will look into “widely reported allegations of deprivation of female prisoners’ rights” at the Central California Women’s Facility in Madera County and the California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County.
The Justice Department said in a news release that there have been allegations “of sexual assaults, rape, voyeurism and a pervasive climate of sexual intimidation due to the presence of males in the women’s prison.”
Newsom’s office referred The Times to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. A spokesperson for the agency said it is “committed to providing a safe, humane, respectful and rehabilitative environment for all incarcerated people.”
The Department of Justice also notified Maine Gov. Janet Mills of an investigation into allegations that the state “has allowed a biological male inmate to remain housed with women despite complaints that the male inmate has assaulted or harassed several female inmates.”
Dhillon said in a video posted on X that the investigations are part of a new project called the “single-sex prisons initiative” to look for potential civil rights violations in which female inmates are forced “to be in the same rooms with men who are posing as women to get access to the female prisons.”
“In California there are reports of many dozen such men housed in women’s prisons which of course is exposing these women to sexual assault and other forms of violence and harassment that, if true, are extremely troubling and could violate the civil rights of these women,” Dhillon said.
In 2020, Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 132, which gives transgender, nonbinary and intersex inmates at state prisons the right to be housed at either men’s or women’s facilities. Opponents of the law sued the following year, alleging that it was unconstitutional and created an unsafe environment for women in female facilities, with some plaintiffs claiming they were assaulted.
At the time, LGBTQ+ advocates slammed the suit as baseless and damaging.
“The way they wrote [the complaint] is saying that trans women are men and they are putting men in women’s prisons, which is completely false,” Bamby Salcedo, president and chief executive of the TransLatin@ Coalition, which cosponsored SB 132, previously told The Times. “They’re making a claim that is not accurate and not respectful towards trans women specifically.”
In an interview with the Times Thursday, Salcedo said that while there may be instances in which people have abused the law, she stressed “it is the responsibility of the CDCR to protect people who are incarcerated.”
“They should be able to not just follow the law, but also to be able to screen people appropriately,” Salcedo said.
Salcedo said she was not surprised to hear about the new Justice Department investigation, calling it “an effort for this administration to continue to deny opportunities and access to trans people in our society.”
The Women’s Liberation Front, which brought the lawsuit, announced this week that a federal court had dismissed the case but that they planned to appeal. In an emailed statement, Elspeth Cypher, Women’s Liberation Front board president, called the Justice Department investigation “welcome and long overdue.”
“I hope that this investigation provides the women in prison with some hope that finally someone is listening,” Cypher said.
Under the bill enacted in 2021, 1,028 inmates housed at male prisons have requested to be moved to female facilities, according to data as of March 4. The department had granted 47 requests and denied 132. Another 140 applicants “changed their minds,” according to the department.
State officials said that 84 inmates sought to be transferred into men’s facilities from women’s prisons. Of those, seven were approved.
According to the corrections department, 2,405 inmates identify as nonbinary, intersex or transgender. Those populations are said to experience excessive violence in prison. A 2007 UC Irvine study that included interviews with 39 transgender inmates found that the rate of sexual assault is 13 times higher for transgender people, with 59% of those surveyed reporting experiencing such encounters.
The Justice Department said Thursday that its investigation was just getting underway and that it “has not reached any conclusions regarding allegations in these matters.”
“I’m very determined to ensure that no woman who’s incarcerated in the United States is subject to potential rape, sexual assault or other violations of her civil rights as a condition of incarceration to satisfy some woke ideology by the state,” Dhillon said. “If these states are violating these rights and they don’t stop, we will make them through litigation.”
The mysterious character is introduced early on in the Netflix series
Samantha King Content Editor
15:00, 26 Mar 2026
Nicky’s siblings inform Rachel about a family legend known as the Sorry Man(Image: Netflix)
*Warning: Contains major spoilers for Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen*
Netflix today released (March 26) all episodes of its highly-anticipated horror series Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen which explores the dark side of wedded bliss.
The eight-part show is created by Haley Z. Boston (Brand New Cherry Flavor) and executive produced by the Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things), and centres around a young couple, Rachel Harkin and Nicky Cunningham, in the week leading up to their wedding.
While the duo initially seem a match made in heaven, things start to unravel as Rachel (Camila Morrone) meets her soon-to-be-spouse’s family for the first time while they prepare for their big day at the sprawling, remote cabin owned by Nicky’s (Adam DiMarco) parents.
During her first encounter with Nicky’s siblings at the cabin, Rachel is told the story of the Sorry Man, a mysterious presence who allegedly roams the woods outside looking for women to murder.
Nicky’s sister Portia (Gus Birney) takes great pleasure in revealing that the Sorry Man believes his long-lost love is hiding inside another woman. She says that if he gets the scent of blood, he wastes no time in tracking down and ripping open the woman who is bleeding.
The tale originates from Nicky’s older brother Jules, who claimed to have seen the Sorry Man for himself when he was a child. The whole family are aware of the story, including Jules’ own son who lives in fear of the creature.
The Sorry Man and whether or not he will appear is one of the show’s enduring mysteries – especially after Rachel gets a nose bleed – until a major reveal explains what is really going on.
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Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.
This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Stranger Things and The Last of Us.
As viewers know, Rachel is battling a curse that kills anyone in her family line who marries someone who is not their soulmate. That curse affected her own mother (portrayed by Victoria Pedretti) who shortly after wedding Rachel’s dad, collapsed while bleeding from her eyes.
As his new bride was pregnant, Rachel’s dad was forced to tear open his dead wife’s belly to save his unborn child all the while repeating “I’m sorry” as the tragic moment unfolds.
Viewers learn that Jules was actually present that day as the newlyweds had been staying at a cabin nearby to his family home. He had been hiding under the bed in their holiday cabin after leaving home and so witnessed Rachel’s mother die, and her father then tear her open, leaving him with the idea of the Sorry Man.
The moment of Rachel’s mother’s death was caught on a home video tape which is later shown to Rachel after the Sorry Man – a.k.a her actual dad – invades the Cunningham home and kidnaps Rachel in the dead of night to stop her from suffering the same fate as her mother after hearing about her impending wedding to Nicky.
Jules’ son sees Rachel being kidnapped and informs his dad, who tracks down where Rachel is being held. When he finds her, he recognises who he believes to be the Sorry Man, before Rachel informs him that is actually her dad.
Jules then realises what he witnessed that day as a child was the Harkin family curse unfolding, not a murder, and that he was actually present at Rachel’s birth.
Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen is now streaming on Netflix.
A YouTuber who visited Riga, Latvia, was stunned by the four-star hotel prices in the city voted one of Europe’s cheapest by Post Office Travel
13:41, 26 Mar 2026Updated 13:41, 26 Mar 2026
Ed Chapman travelled to Riga in Latvia(Image: YouTube/@EdChapman23)
A YouTuber who toured Europe‘s most affordable city was taken aback by the cost of one item he purchased during his journey.
Ed Chapman, who shares his adventures on his eponymous YouTube channel, visited Riga, the capital of Latvia, and filmed a video about his experiences in the city after it was named one of Europe’s cheapest in a survey by Post Office Travel.
His primary reason for visiting Riga was to compare it with one of the priciest cities in Europe, Oslo, Norway. According to Skyscanner, flights to Riga can be purchased for as little as £28 from Leeds Bradford Airport.
One of the most striking differences between the two, Ed pointed out, was the disparity in hotel prices.
In Oslo, he stayed at a three-star hotel for one night, while in Riga, he lodged at a four-star hotel, but the price difference was significant, reports the Express.
After exploring and commenting on his hotel room, he remarked: “We’re in the heart of the city centre, literally one street away from the main stuff. Four-star hotel. £62 a night. Now that’s tasty. For a capital city, for the middle of the city centre that’s a bit mad isn’t it?
“Bearing in mind in Oslo I stayed in a three-star hotel, also bang in the city centre and that was £140 for a night there. Less than half price that’s crazy.”
Ed isn’t alone in highlighting Riga’s charm. The city, home to approximately 600,000 residents, is located at the centre of the Gulf of Riga where the Daugava River flows into the Baltic Sea.
Additionally, the city’s historic centre has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its Jugendstil and Art Nouveau architecture standing out as two of its main attractions.
Among Riga’s most distinctive landmarks is the Riga Central Market. Built using repurposed German Zeppelin hangars, these structures rank amongst the city’s most recognisable buildings, spanning 778,000 square feet and housing approximately 3,000 trading stalls.
Furthermore, Riga offers convenient access to nearby coastal areas such as Jurmala. The Mirror previously reported that one visitor was impressed not just by the affordability, but by the amenities available.
They commented in a review: “Changing pods are available on the beach and the sand is soft and flat. We paid €5 each for a sun lounger for the day, although in the afternoon people could help themselves to ones that were left or that people had finished with.
“Well worth the journey from Riga which is about 25 mins by train from central Riga and very cheap. We booked the day before online and it cost us about €6 return for both of us – amazing value.”
Rescuers have pulled a man alive from the rubble after US-Israeli strikes hit a residential area on the outskirts of Tehran, the Iranian Red Crescent said. The US and Israel have continued to strike Iran, despite President Trump’s claims of diplomatic progress.
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is Netflix’s number one film and writer Steven Knight has revealed a fan-favourite character nearly made a surprise comeback
Peaky Blinders film almost brought back Tom Hardy for massive twist(Image: BBC)
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has revealed he scrapped a massive twist that would have brought back Tom Hardy’s iconic character Alfie Solomons.
The Venom star portrayed the Jewish cockney crime lord of Camden from the hit drama’s second season on and had a complex relationship with the Birmingham gangsters.
After being shot in the head by Tommy Shelby (played by Cillian Murphy) on Margate beach, Alfie makes brief appearances in the fifth and sixth seasons of the hit BBC series.
Some fans may have been disappointed that Hardy didn’t make an appearance in Netflix’s new film The Immortal Man, which sees Tommy returning to Small Heath to take on his estranged son, Erasmus ‘Duke’ Shelby (Barry Keoghan), who has taken over the gang.
However, Knight has since revealed he originally considered the possibility of Alfie making an appearance – and it would have been a massive twist on the fate of the character.
“I had an idea, which I haven’t really spoken about,” he shared with the Hollywood Reporter.
“Ever since he was shot on the beach at Margate [in season four], you’ve only ever seen Tommy and Alfie together alone.”
The fifth season reveals that Alfie had actually survived the gunshot wound to the face after Hardy lobbied Knight to bring him back.
But, as Tommy regularly glimpses the ghosts of his past, including the lingering image of his first wife Grace (Annabelle Wallis), Knight briefly considered revealing that Solomons was simply another apparition Tommy had been communing with.
“I thought, maybe [Alfie] appears, and we realise he’s been dead all that time,” Knight went on.
“Now, I nearly did that, and I didn’t do it, but that was a thought.”
Hardy’s demanding schedule may have also contributed to Knight’s decision not to bring him back, as the star has recently been filming the Paramount+ crime drama MobLand since the end of Peaky Blinders.
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‘Dearest gentle reader’, as the fourth season of Bridgerton follows second son Benedict love story, there’s a way to watch this fairytale-like season for less.
Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan. This lets customers watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes the new season of Bridgerton.
Thankfully, there is still a chance, albeit a slim one, that fans could see Alfie return alongside some other Peaky favourites as the series will be returning for at least two more series on Netflix and the BBC.
Knight confirmed that Duke will be appearing in the upcoming follow-up, which is set in post-WWII Birmingham, though it’s currently unknown if Keoghan will be reprising the role.
He also teased: “Some of the characters that are in [The Immortal Man] will appear in that. But I’m under strict instructions not to talk about it except to say that it’s happening.”
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is available to stream on Netflix.
Alan Ritchson, star of the series “Reacher,” appears to have engaged in a violent altercation with his neighbor over the weekend, though it’s not entirely clear who began the brawl.
The confrontation broke out Sunday in the suburban city of Brentwood, Tenn., and allegedly included the 43-year-old actor punching a man down to the ground multiple times, according to TMZ, which published video of the squabble. The video, seemingly recorded by a witness from their home window, also shows Ritchson attempting to pick up his motorcycle, which then veers onto the grassy patch by the sidewalk while his two sons, also on motorbikes, watch the confrontation play out. The other man, after getting to his feet, appears to continue scolding Ritchson before the actor and his family drive off.
A representative for Ritchson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
According to TMZ, the man on the receiving end of Ritchson’s punches was neighbor Ronnie Taylor, who accused the actor of speeding on his Kawasaki motorbike through the affluent suburb, revving his engine and “disturbing the peace.” Taylor told the outlet he flashed an obscene hand gesture at Ritchson, who allegedly returned it.
Tensions between the neighbors allegedly came to a head Sunday when the actor and his sons rode their motorbikes through the neighborhood, TMZ reported. Taylor reportedly approached Ritchson, pleading to “stop this please.” That reportedly led to the altercation, which allegedly left Taylor with bruises and swelling. Taylor said he reported the incident to police. The Brentwood Police Department did not immediately respond to a Times request for comment.
A source close to Ritchson denied Taylor’s claim that the actor began the altercation, telling TMZ that Taylor had pushed Ritchson off his bike twice and and ran into the street in an attempt to stop the actor’s bike in a “really aggressive manner.” The source also told the outlet Ritchson crashed, fell off his motorcycle and incurred cuts and bruises.
Ritchson, according to the source, attempted to defuse the situation after Taylor allegedly dared him to get physical. However, the source claims Taylor shoved Ritchson to the ground first, prompting the actor to throw punches.
TMZ reported that Ritchson “has been cooperative with the police” and that no arrests have been made in this case.
Ritchson, a former model and “American Idol” hopeful, is best known for portraying the powerful and highly intelligent leading man of Prime Video’s “Reacher.” The show, an adaptation of Lee Child’s “Jack Reacher” book series, premiered in 2022 and is set to return this year for its fourth season, according to Ritchson.
Though the actor has not publicly addressed the brawl, in the days before the incident, he posted several videos detailing his struggles with jet lag.
“The second best time to vlog … is after 48 hours of work and travel with no sleep,” he joked in one late-night video, “I think that’s how the saying goes.”
Hours after Kevin Durant knocked him out of the top five on the NBA’s all-time scoring list , Jordan was all smiles as he walked to Victory Lane to greet Tyler Reddick after the driver’s win Sunday at Darlington Raceway.
Reddick — who drives for 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by Jordan and veteran driver Denny Hamlin — joined NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliott as the only Cup Series drivers to win four of the first six races in a season.
To do so, Reddick had to overcome a malfunctioning battery and a large deficit in the final 50 laps. Afterward, Jordan jumped the track’s safety barrier to greet Reddick and his team with some hard high fives and enthusiastic cheers.
“I think the key to him winning was just keeping his head,” Jordan said after the race. “We just had to get the car right, and I think he did an unbelievable job. I just wanted everything to be good, because once he gets back out there, then I feel like his competitive juices are going to carry him all the way to the end. He earned it all week, and I’m real proud of the team.”
Earlier this year, Reddick became the first NASCAR driver to start the season with three consecutive wins. He stands atop Cup Series standings, leading second-place Ryan Blaney of Team Penske by 95 points. Reddick’s 23XI teammate Bubba Wallace is currently in third place.
One night earlier, Durant scored 27 points in the Houston Rockets’ 123-122 victory over the Miami Heat to overtake Jordan for fifth place on the NBA’s all-time leading scorer list. In his 18th season, Durant has 32,294 points — two more than Jordan, who played 13 seasons for the Chicago Bulls and two for the Washington Wizards. Durant and the Rockets play the Bulls in Chicago on Monday.
Jordan has yet to comment publicly on the matter, but Durant had plenty of praise for the man considered by many to be basketball’s GOAT on Saturday during his postgame news conference.
“I’ve been inspired by all of these players that I’m either coming close to or passing up, and MJ is in a world of his own,” Durant added. “He’s in a galaxy of his own as somebody that I look up to, respect and who basically shaped the game for me.”
Durant also pointed out that Jordan would have scored many more points had he not taken multiple seasons off during the span of his playing career.
“He left a few, I want to say, thousand or so points on the table, too, with the amount of games he missed,” Durant said. “… He scored points quickly, man. So he set the bar high, and it’s pretty cool to reach that bar.”
The first 45 minutes was the epitome of two teams cancelling each other out – but once the second half began the landscape was set for City’s win.
They were the more progressive, aggressive side. Their attacking intent started to overwhelm Arsenal, the pressure became impossible to resist. Smoother on the ball and more cohesive than an Arsenal side based on organisation, the traffic only flowed one way.
Arrizabalaga already had Arsenal’s nerves on edge with an injudicious dash from goal which resulted in a yellow card for a panicked foul on Jeremy Doku.
Much, much worse was to come for Arsenal and their goalkeeper.
It remains six years since Arteta won his one and only trophy as Arsenal manager, and the way in which his team went into their shell here will be a concern that he must hope is not repeated as the pressure mounts in the closing weeks of the season.
Former Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart told BBC Sport: “Manchester City played to win. I think that’s what they’re bred to do over ten, 15 years. I think now they’re very much bred to win. I think they’ve been really disappointed with the FA Cup final at the end of last season [when they lost to Crystal Palace].
“A lot will be read into it putting a marker down or whatever, but I don’t think so. I think it was just about Manchester City winning trophies, which is what they’ve done so regularly recently – and this is another big one.
“It is also a huge day for Pep Guardiola, who’s won everything, but now stands alone in terms of managers winning the League Cup. He’s won it five times, going one clear of Sir Alex Ferguson. How much of a testament is that to his ability, his special touch and what he’s done over the years with Manchester City?”
Arteta is braced for the battle to recover from this setback and focus on three trophies, saying: “We had eight amazing months with this team. Today is a disappointment. We need to use that fire in the belly for the next two months to have an incredible season.”
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “It’s painful, especially for our players and supporters, because we really wanted to lift that trophy. It was two very different halves, especially the first half when I think we were better than them and had the best two chances of the game.
“We didn’t capitalise on that. Credit to them for what they have done. A really sad day.”
He must hope it is the last sad day of what has been an outstanding season so far – for Guardiola, he will hope City’s win, and the manner in which it was achieved, will play on Arsenal’s nerves.
As word evidently reached activists in the last few weeks that disturbing allegations of sexual abuse against Chicano civil rights icon Cesar Chavez were forthcoming, things started to happen without much explanation.
Groups began to cancel long-planned parades, dinners, lectures and fundraisers scheduled for Chavez’s birthday on March 31. People who I’ve known for years suddenly weren’t returning calls or texts about what was going on. Longtime defenders of Chavez — who stood by their hero even as revelations in this paper and in biographies over the past generation showed there was a dark side to the man — suddenly became hard to reach.
When the United Farm Workers and the Cesar Chavez Foundation put out statements Tuesday morning that “troubling allegations” against their patriarch were considered credible enough for them to offer help to his victims, the silence transformed into dread. There was a discomfort similar to waiting for a tsunami — that whatever was coming would change lives, shake institutions and make people question values and principles that they had long held dear.
And like a natural disaster, what emerged about Chavez was far worse than anyone could’ve expected.
Wednesday morning, the New York Times published a story where two women whose families marched alongside Chavez in the fields of California during the 1960s and 1970s disclosed that he sexually abused them for years when they were girls. Just as shocking was the revelation by Dolores Huerta, Chavez’s longtime compatriot and a civil rights legend, that he had once raped her at a time when their leadership in the fight to bring dignity to grape pickers earned national acclaim and amounted to a modern-day Via Dolorosa.
The silence has transformed into screams. Politicians and organizations that long commemorated Chavez and urged others to follow his ways are releasing statements by the minute. My social media feed is now a torrent of friends and strangers expressing empathy for Chavez’s victims and outrage, disgust and — above all — disappointment that someone considered a secular saint by many for decades turned out to be a human more terrible than anyone could’ve imagined.
There will be questions and soul-searching about these horrifying disclosures in the weeks, months and years to come. We will see a push for the renaming of the dozens of schools, parks and streets that bear Chavez’s name across the country and even the rebranding of Cesar Chavez Day, a California state holiday since 2000 devoted to urging people to give back to their communities and the least among us.
The reckoning is only right. Much of the Latino civil rights, political and educational ecosystem will have to grapple with why they held up Chavez as a paragon of virtue for too long above others just as deserving and, as it turns out, nowhere near as compromised.
In any event, the myth has been punctured.
A portrait of Cesar Chavez on a mural on Farmacia Ramirez, 2403 Cesar E Chavez Ave. in East Los Angeles.
(James Carbone / Los Angeles Times)
Chavez’s biography always reads like an entry in the “Lives of the Saints” genre of books that Catholics used to read about the holy men of their faith. The son of farmworkers who became a Mexican American Moses trying to lead his people to the promised land of equity and political power. An internationally famous leader who lived a mendicant’s life. Who devoted decades to some of the most exploited people in the American economy. Honored with awards, plays, posters. Murals, movies and monuments. President Biden even kept a bust of Chavez at his Oval Office desk.
It was a beatific reputation that largely persisted even as the union he helped to create lost its influence in the fields of California and a new generation of activists looked down on Chavez for his long-standing opposition to immigrants who came to this country to work without legal status. Admirers kept him on a pedestal even as former UFW members alleged over the last two decades that the boss they once idolized purged too many good people in the name of absolute control. The hagiography continued even as a new generation of Latinos came of age not knowing anything about him other than an occasional school lesson or television segment.
I was one of those neophytes. I first heard his name at Anaheim High School in the mid-1990s and thought my teacher was talking about Julio Cesar Chavez, the famous Mexican boxer. I was thrilled to discover that someone had bravely fought for the rights of campesinos like my mom and her sisters, who toiled in the garlic fields of Gilroy and strawberry patches of Orange County as teenage girls in the 1960s, the same time that Chavez and the UFW were enjoying their historic wins.
“Who’s Cesar Chavez?” my Mami responded when I asked if his efforts ever made her work easier.
My admiration for Chavez continued even as I learned about some of his faults. I was able to separate Chavez the man from the movement for which he was a figurehead. Long-maligned communities seek heroes to emulate, to draw hope from, to hang on their walls and share their quotes on social media. We create them even as we ignore that they’re flesh and blood just like us.
Chavez seemed like the right man at the right moment as Mexican Americans rose up like never before to battle discrimination and segregation. Now, Latinos and others who admired Chavez have to grapple with his moral failings of the worst possible magnitude at the worst possible time: when there’s an administration doing everything possible to crush Latinos and we’re looking for people to look up to like never before.
He remains one of the few Latino civil rights leaders known nationwide — and Chavez is nowhere near as known as acolytes make him out to be. Some people will argue that it’s unfair he will likely get wiped away from the public sphere while other predatory men from the past and present largely maintain their riches and reputations.
But that’s looking at the abuse revelations the wrong way. For now, I will follow what those most directly affected by Chavez’s actions are telling us to do.
The UFW and Cesar Chavez Foundation were wise to not try to defend the indefensible in their statements and instead consider any victims first before deciding how to decide what’s next for them.
The Chavez family put out a news release that states “we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual abuse.”
Huerta wrote in an online essay: “Cesar’s actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement. The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual.”
Another of his victims told the New York Times of Chavez’s legacy: “It makes you rethink in history all those heroes. The movement — that’s the hero.”
The fountain in the Memorial Garden surrounds the gravesite of Cesar Chavez and his wife Helen Chavez at Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in Keene, Calif.
(Francine Orr)
The face of that movimiento brought inspiration to millions and improved the lives of hundreds of thousands. That’s why we shouldn’t cancel the good that Chavez fought for alongside so many; we should direct the adulation he once attracted and the anger he’ll now rightfully receive toward the work that still needs to be done.
To quote an old UFW slogan that Chavez transformed into a mantra, la lucha sigue — the fight continues. It’s a statement that’s more pertinent than ever, damn its imperfect messenger.
WASHINGTON — At a Senate hearing Wednesday to consider the confirmation of Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) as Homeland Security secretary, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) opened by asking whether “a man with anger issues” can set the right example for federal immigration agents.
Mullin, President Trump’s pick to replace Secretary Kristi Noem, faced tough questions before the Senate Homeland Security Committee about how he would carry out the administration’s mass deportation effort and how he would steer the agency in the wake of controversies that led to Noem’s firing earlier this month.
For his part, Mullin said he will work to ensure a secure homeland as well as to “bring peace of mind and confidence to the agency.”
“My goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day,” he said.
Throughout the hearing, Democrats made digs at Noem while examining Mullin’s character and ability to lead the nation’s largest law enforcement agency. Most Republicans painted Mullin as a good man and a hard worker while chastising Democrats for punishing federal workers with the continued Homeland Security funding shutdown.
The leadership shake-up comes amid intense scrutiny over increasingly violent immigration enforcement tactics since last year that intensified after the shooting deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis by immigration agents, which Noem — without evidence — called domestic terrorism.
She was fired days after testifying before congressional oversight committees, during which she faced criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike.
“It’s not the role of the secretary to be a cable news commentator in the wake of a crisis” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.). “This is a role where temperament matters, where judgment matters and where experience matters.
“We have seen under Secretary Noem’s leadership how shortcomings in these traits can compound the challenges that already come with leading a large and complex department, and now more than ever, we need a DHS secretary who is a steady hand, who will provide thoughtful leadership, follow the facts, tell the truth, and hold agency officials accountable when they need to be.”
Paul brought up incidents to illustrate why Mullin is not fit for the job, including a time in 2023 when he nearly got into a fight in a Senate hearing room and more recently when Mullin called Paul “a freaking snake.”
Paul also confronted Mullin for saying he “completely understood” why Paul was assaulted by a neighbor in 2017, which left him with six broken ribs and a damaged lung.
Mullin did not apologize for his remarks and instead accused Paul of smearing his character.
“I’ve worked with many people in this room,” Mullin told Paul. “It seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us.”
But Mullin added that their personal differences wouldn’t keep him from doing his job — “it’s bigger than partisan bickering” — and asked Paul to let him earn his respect.
Paul appeared unmoved. Referencing the 2023 near fight with Sean O’Brien, the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Paul asked Mullin to “explain to the American public how a man who has no regrets about brawling in a Senate committee can set a proper example.”
Mullin was prepared for the moment: O’Brien was sitting behind him. The union president, he said, has become a close friend.
“Both of us agreed we could have done things different,” Mullin said.
This particular run of seven games will define City’s season on all four fronts – losing twice against Real means their trophy prospects have been reduced to three.
That could be down to two on Sunday with a huge clash against the Gunners, who are hungry to rid their tags of ‘nearly men’ by ending a trophy drought which stretches back to 2020.
“On Monday [after Carabao Cup final] hopefully we will wake up and it is a sunny day,” said Guardiola. “It is not crucial, it is a football game, we are going to try to win with a good performance.
“We will challenge against the best team in England so far, the best team in Europe because look at their results in the group phase, they were first and have lost three or four games all season. We will challenge them and we have to see how we are competing against them.”
City were held to a surprise 1-1 draw at relegation strugglers West Ham, which has left them nine points off the pace in the Premier League with eight games to go – and a monumental effort is required to overturn that particular deficit.
And the FA Cup is no formality either, with City hosting rivals Liverpool in the quarter-final on Saturday 4 April after the international break, with league games immediately after against Chelsea and Arsenal.
Guardiola said: “After one or two weeks, we play against them in the Premier League and it is a good mirror to see what we have to do to achieve [like] them. I am old enough to see that one football game is not the big happiness or a loss is the end of the world, it’s just a game.
“In the end, the results have not been good except Newcastle but I have the feeling we are an extraordinary team with many, many, many good things that I love.
“We are still not complete, we are not aware in certain moments and departments, we have to be more clinical but my feeling is it is a question of time.”
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s sweeping act of clemency for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol also should apply to a man charged with planting pipe bombs near the national headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, the suspect’s attorneys argue in a bid to get his case dismissed.
In a court filing Monday, defense attorneys assert that Trump’s blanket pardons extend to the charges against Brian J. Cole Jr. because his alleged conduct on Jan. 5, 2021, is “inextricably tethered” to what happened at the Capitol the next day. They’re asking U.S. District Judge Amir Ali to throw out the case before trial.
Justice Department prosecutors didn’t immediately respond in writing to the defense’s request. In a previous court filing, prosecutors said Cole, under questioning by FBI agents, denied that his actions were related to the Jan. 6 proceedings at the Capitol.
On his first day back in the White House last year, Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of all 1,500-plus people charged in the attack by a mob of his supporters.
Nearly a year later, Cole was arrested on charges that he placed two pipe bombs outside both the Republican and the Democratic national committees’ headquarters in Washington the night before the riot. The devices didn’t detonate before law enforcement officers discovered them Jan. 6.
Cole’s attorneys said the Justice Department’s framing of the case has explicitly linked Cole’s alleged conduct on Jan. 5 to the events of Jan. 6, when rioters disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump.
“That is not happenstance sequencing in time. It is the government’s theory of Mr. Cole’s alleged motive and context,” defense lawyers wrote. “According to the government, the timing was chosen because of what was scheduled to occur at the Capitol on January 6.”
They also argued that prosecutors’ theory of a possible motive places Cole’s alleged conduct “in the same political controversy that animated the January 6 crowd.”
In court filings, prosecutors have said that Cole confessed to investigators after his Dec. 4 arrest. He told FBI agents that he felt “bewildered” by conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election and “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just everything getting worse,” prosecutors said.
Cole has remained jailed since his arrest. His attorneys have appealed Ali’s refusal to order Cole’s pretrial release from custody. The judge hasn’t set a trial date yet.
Cole, 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, has been diagnosed with autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. His attorneys say he has no criminal record.
Authorities said they used phone records and other evidence to identify him as a suspect in a crime that confounded the FBI for more than four years.
A man was rescued from under the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli strike in the Iranian city of Hamedan, as the US and Israel continue to bombard the country.
LA28 revealed the schedule Monday for an extended Olympic soccer tournament that will begin four days before the opening ceremony.
The soccer competition begins July 10 with four men’s group stage games across New York, Columbus, Nashville and St. Louis. The women’s tournament begins July 11 with games in all six of the preliminary round sites, including San José and San Diego.
The soccer competition, which will feature 12 women’s teams and eight men’s teams for the first time, has the longest competition window of any sport in Olympic history because the International Olympic Committee Executive Board wanted to give each team two extra rest days throughout the tournament.
Each team will have two days of rest between group stage games and three days between the final group game and the quaterfinal rounds. The men will begin their knockout round games on July 20 while the women start quarterfinal play on July 21, including one women’s quarterfinal match at the Rose Bowl.
The iconic stadium in Pasadena will host only five matches for the Olympics, including a men’s and women’s semifinal July 24 and the men’s gold medal match on July 28 and the women’s on July 29.
San Diego’s SnapDragon Stadium will have the most matches of any site with 11. In addition to three days of women’s group stage games, the home of San Diego State football, San Diego FC and San Diego Wave FC will host a women’s quarterfinal July 21, men’s and women’s semifinals July 24 and both bronze medal matches.
With the coast-to-coast soccer tournament shaping up, LA28 announced additional ticket opportunities for the competition, allowing fans interested in attending soccer matches to buy up to 12 soccer tickets in addition to the current 12-ticket maximum for all other Olympic events. The 12-ticket maximum for Olympic events includes the opening and closing ceremonies on July 14 and 30, respectively, which each have a four-ticket limit.
Ticket registration for the first ticket drop ends Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. PDT with the first tickets going on sale to locals in Southern California and Oklahoma beginning April 2. The first general ticket drop begins April 9. Fans who are randomly selected to participate in the first ticket drop will be notified via email between March 31 and April 7 with information and their assigned timeslot to purchase tickets.
More than 5 million fans have already registered for Olympic tickets, LA28 said, with Paralympic tickets going on sale in 2027. The organizing committee expects 14 million tickets to be available for the Games, which could eclipse the total ticket sales record set by Paris in 2024.
Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham have returned to Real Madrid’s squad for their Champions League last-16 second leg at Manchester City on Tuesday.
France striker Mbappe, 27, was diagnosed with a left knee sprain at the beginning of March and has been missing from Real’s line-up since their La Liga game against Osasuna on 21 February.
Bellingham sustained a hamstring injury less than 10 minutes into a league game against Rayo Vallecano on 1 February and left the field in tears.
The 22-year-old midfielder had initially been expected to miss about four weeks, but the injury was found to be more significant than first thought.
The stand-off between Ten Hag and Sancho lasted four months, before Sancho joined Dortmund on loan for the remainder of the season and helped them reach the Champions League final.
But they could not afford to keep him and, although United sporting director Dan Ashworth was credited with brokering the truce that allowed Sancho to join up with United in the pre-season of 2024, it was a temporary situation, which Chelsea seemed to solve by agreeing a loan that committed them to a permanent transfer at the end of the season.
Yet, after five goals in 41 appearances, Chelsea preferred to pay a £5m penalty to send Sancho back to Old Trafford.
This time, there was no olive branch. Sancho was placed in Ruben Amorim’s ‘bomb squad’ and had to train away from the first team until he joined Villa on 1 September.
United have an option to trigger an additional year on Sancho’s contract, which otherwise expires in the summer. In public, they are reserving their position on that. No-one expects it to happen.
At 25, Sancho still has a lot to offer. There have been glimpses of quality during his time at Villa, but it is by no means certain he will stay there beyond the end of the season.
“Seeing Jadon close up, technically, he’s got an awful lot of ability,” said current United interim head coach Michael Carrick, who worked with Sancho as part of Solskjaer’s backroom team and managed him for three games during his short stint in charge after the Norwegian’s dismissal.
“In and around the box; his ball carrying; his little plays; the connections; his creativity; the way he handles the ball – he’s got natural ability.
“He’s always had it all the way coming through. That’s one part of football.
“But – and I’m not talking about Jadon individually on this – it is just how it is and how it should be.
“You can’t just assume it’s all going to be smooth. It’s proven that it’s not always like that.
“You’ve got to find a way through it. If you are playing in a good team with good players and a good squad and depth, that’s part of the challenge to stay at the top.”
March 13 (UPI) — An Australian businessman was found guilty Friday of selling information to two people believed to be Chinese spies.
Alexander Csergo, 59, was convicted of reckless foreign interference in a Sydney court after compiling reports for two people he knew as Ken and Evelyn in Shanghai between 2021 and 2023. He faces up to 15 years in prison.
The prosecution alleged that Csergo believed they worked for Chinese intelligence agency the Ministry of State Security and acted recklessly about knowing if it would support Chinese intelligence.
His defense team argued he had only given them information that was publicly available and he included made-up quotes from people he pretended to have interviewed, including former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Csergo ran a business in Shanghai and was first approached by a woman on LinkedIn who said she was working for a think tank. She introduced him to Ken and Evelyn and said they had businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Their meetings, in which he exchanged reports for cash, happened in empty cafes and restaurants, prosecutors said.
Ken and Evelyn gave Csergo a “shopping list” of subjects they wanted reports on. After he returned to Australia in 2023, officials searched his Bondi home and found the list, but Csergo said he never used that list.
Ken and Evelyn asked for reports about lithium mining, the German government, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership between Australia, Britain and the United States. The Quad alliance is a non-military partnership between the United States, India, Japan and Australia.
Csergo’s defense attorney, Iain Todd, argued that there is no evidence he provided anyone with any national secrets.
The prosecution said the biggest value to Ken and Evelyn were Csergo’s contacts, but Todd said Csergo had no real contacts.
“He never spoke to interviewees. He lied about that,” Todd said. “He never gave access to anyone because there was no one to give access to.”
Some of the information in the report on lithium mining was labeled “gibberish” by experts.
Prosecutors said he exchanged about 2,800 WeChat messages with Ken and developed a collegial relationship with him.
