silence

“Thank you so much for showing up this morning,” Sharon Nicholls said into a megaphone at 8 a.m. Wednesday outside a Home Depot in Pasadena.

As of Friday afternoon, no federal agents had raided the store on East Walnut Street. But the citizen brigade that stands watch outside and patrols the parking lot in search of ICE agents has not let down its guard—especially not after raids at three other Home Depots in recent days despite federal court rulings limiting sweeps.

Steve Lopez

Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a Los Angeles Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.

About two dozen people gathered near the tent that serves as headquarters of the East Pasadena Community Defense Center. Another dozen or so would be arriving over the next half hour, some carrying signs.

“Silence is Violence”

“Migrants Don’t Party With Epstein”

Cynthia Lunine, 70, carried a large sign that read “Break His Dark Spell” and included a sinister image of President Trump. She said she was new to political activism, but added: “You can’t not be an activist. If you’re an American, it’s the only option. The immigration issue is absolutely inhumane, it’s un-Christian, and it’s intolerable.”

Anit-ICE activists march through the Home Depot in Pasadena on Aug. 6.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

There are local supporters, for sure, of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Activists told me there aren’t many days in which they don’t field shouted profanities or pro-Trump cheers from Home Depot shoppers.

But the administration’s blather about a focus on violent offenders led to huge demonstrations in greater Los Angeles beginning in June, and the cause continues to draw people into the streets.

Dayena Campbell, 35, is a volunteer at Community Defense Corner operations in other parts of Pasadena, a movement that followed high-profile raids and was covered in the Colorado Boulevard newspaper and, later, in the New York Times. A fulltime student who works in sales, Campbell was also cruising the parking lot at the Home Depot on the east side of Pasadena in search of federal agents.

She thought this Home Depot needed its own Community Defense Corner, so she started one about a month ago. She and her cohort have more than once spotted agents in the area and alerted day laborers. About half have scattered, she said, and half have held firm despite the risk.

When I asked what motivated Campbell, she said:

“Inhumane, illegal kidnappings. Lack of due process. Actions taken without anyone being held accountable. Seeing people’s lives ripped apart. Seeing families being destroyed in the blink of an eye.”

Anywhere from a handful to a dozen volunteers show up daily to to hand out literature, patrol the parking lot and check in on day laborers, sometimes bringing them food. Once a week, Nicholls helps organize a rally that includes a march through the parking lot and into the store, where the protesters present a letter asking Home Depot management to “say no to ICE in their parking lot and in their store.”

Nicholls is an LAUSD teacher-librarian, and when she asks for support each week, working and retired teachers answer the call.

“I’m yelling my lungs out,” said retired teacher Mary Rose O’Leary, who joined in the chants of “ICE out of Home Depot” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”

Sharon Nicholls gets a hug of support from another protester outside the Home Depot in Pasadena.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

“Immigrants are what make this city what it is … and the path to legal immigration is closed to everybody who doesn’t have what, $5 million or something?” O’Leary said, adding that she was motivated by “the Christian ideal of welcoming the stranger.”

Retired teacher Dan Murphy speaks Spanish and regularly checks in with day laborers.

“One guy said to me, ‘We’re just here to work.’ Some of the guys were like, ‘We’re not criminals … we’re just here … to make money and get by,’” Murphy said. He called the raids a flexing of “the violent arm of what autocracy can bring,” and he resents Trump’s focus on Southern California.

“I take it personally. I’m white, but these are my people. California is my people. And it bothers me what might happen in this country if people don’t stand firm … I just said, ‘I gotta do something.’ I’m doing this now so I don’t hate myself later.”

Nicholls told me she was an activist many years ago, and then turned her focus to work and raising a family. But the combination of wildfires, the cleanup and rebuilding, and the raids, brought her out of activism retirement.

“The first people to come out after the firefighters—the second-responders—were day laborers cleaning the streets,” Nicholls said. “You’d see them in orange shirts all over the city, cleaning up.”

The East Pasadena Home Depot is “an important store,” because it’s a supply center for the rebuilding of Altadena, “and we’re going out there to show our love and solidarity for our neighbors,” Nicholls said. To strike the fear of deportation in the hearts of workers, she said, is “inhumane, and to me, it’s morally wrong.”

Nicholls had a quick response when I asked what she thinks of those who say illegal is illegal, so what’s left to discuss?

“That blocks the complexity of the conversation,” she said, and doesn’t take into account the hunger and violence that drive migration. Her husband, she said, left El Salvador 35 years ago during a war funded in part by the U.S.

Pablo Alvarado, right, co-director of National Day Laborer Organizing Network, speaks to Anti-ICE protesters on Aug. 6.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

They have family members with legal status and some who are undocumented and afraid to leave their homes, Nicholls said. I mentioned that I had written about Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, who was undocumented as a child, and has kept his passport handy since the raids began. In that column, I quoted Gordo’s friend, immigrant-rights leader Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

“Full disclosure,” Nicholls said, “[Alvarado] is my husband.”

It was news to me.

When the raids began, Nicholls said, she told her husband, “I have the summer off, sweetie, but I want to help, and I’m going to call my friends.”

On Wednesday, after Nicholls welcomed demonstrators, Alvarado showed up for a pep talk.

“I have lived in this country since 1990 … and I love it as much as I love the small village where I came from in El Salvador,” Alvarado said. “Some people may say that we are going into fascism, into authoritarianism, and I would say that we are already there.”

He offered details of a raid that morning at a Home Depot in Westlake and said the question is not whether the Pasadena store will be raided, but when. This country readily accepts the labor of immigrants but it does not respect their humanity, Alvarado said.

“When humble people are attacked,” he said, “we are here to bear witness.”

Nicholls led demonstrators through the parking lot and into the store, where she read aloud the letter asking Home Depot to take a stand against raids.

Outside, where it was hot and steamy by mid-morning, several sun-blasted day laborers said they appreciated the support. But they were still fearful, and desperate for work.

Jorge, just shy of 70, practically begged me to take his phone number.

Whatever work I might have, he said, please call.

[email protected]

DESPITE being the only pair in an official relationship, Love Island’s Dejon Noel-Williams and Meg Moore found themselves brutally dumped at the end of last night’s instalment.

The former islanders returned to cast their votes about which couple was the least compatible between Dejon and Meg and Ty Isherwood and Angel Swift.

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After receiving the most votes, the OG pair were forced to pack their bags and leave the villa – just a day before the all-important final.

Now that they’re out, the two have broken their silence and revealed their plan to “prove everyone wrong”.

When asked what was next for the pair, Meg, who recently sparked outrage, responded: “Proving to everyone we are actually going to stay together! Spending time together and introducing one another to family and friends.”

Dejon echoed these sentiments by adding: “I definitely want to have a conversation with her family, get to know them and have her meet my family so they can see the real us.

“A lot of the Islanders saw how genuine we were and I have no doubt it will be like that with our families.

“After that hopefully we can move in together as I can’t imagine not living with her.”

Dejon and Meg, who hit the rocks this week, have been the subject of plenty of criticism from their fellow islanders and viewers alike, with many questioning if Dejon was playing a game.

The two paired up from day one but found themselves at loggerheads due to Dejon’s flirty antics with numerous bombshells.

In last night’s episode, Maya Jama returned to the villa and revealed one couple would be dumped from the island and the decision was in the hand of some familiar faces.

One by one the ex-Islanders had their say, leaving the couples at risk less than impressed by their comments.

After much back and forth, Meg and Dejon received 10 votes, while Angel and Ty received 8 votes.

Fans were left elated at home as they flocked to X to share their excitement about Dejon and Meg leaving the ITV2 show.

One viewer wrote: “The timing for Megan and Dejon being dumped is so perfect.”

Another person gushed: “Finally Meg and Dejon are gone, I prayed for times like this! And that was such an epic way to dump them too, love a good revenge vote.”

Somebody else expressed: “Meg and Dejon finally off my screen and out of the villa! I love to see it.”

A fourth commented: “It’s been a long time coming, thank you ex-islanders for getting rid of Meg and Dejon.”

While a fifth added: “Meg and Dejon being dumped makes me feel like I’m going to have a great week.”

The savage dumping means there are four couples that are vying to win the series – Jamie and Yasmin, Cach and Toni, Harry and Shakira and Ty and Angel.

Maya will return to the villa in Majorca one last time to reveal the outcome of the public’s vote, with one pair being crowned champions of series 12 and walking away with £50,000.

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A SHOWJUMPER and horse rider had a threesome with a teen girl in a stable before hatching a “pact of silence”, a court heard.

Guy Simmonds, 37, and Lauren Jarvis, 26, are accused of targeting the girl despite knowing she was under 16.

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Equestrian boss Simmonds called himself “daddy” in messages to the youngster and would abuse with her while his girlfriend was away, jurors heard.

Prosecutor James Hartson said there was a “clear element of grooming behaviour” from Simmonds, who had “no doubt at all” about the girl’s age.

He added: “At all times he knew how old she was and so did Jarvis. The victim told him herself in one of the very first messages she sent him.

“The defendants didn’t care about her age when they were planning and engaging in a so-called threesome with the victim.

“They also knew what they did was wrong and they agreed a pact of silence when they got wind she had started to talk about it.”

Cardiff Crown Court heard Simmonds ran a riding school that offered “showjumping horse production and sales, coaching and schooling” in the village of Undy in Wales.

The experienced showjumper would allegedly regularly take the girl into a horsebox to sexually abuse her while they were alone at the stables.

Jurors heard that at one point, this was happening every couple of days when Simmonds’ girlfriend was away.

In January 2024, he messaged fellow rider Jarvis to organise a threesome at her home – asking when he should “pop over”, it was said.

Simmonds later messaged again asking whether the girl had arrived as he did not want to “turn up at the same time that her mum drops her off”.

Jurors heard the youngster had also text Simmonds about the threesome, asking what she would be made to do.

He replied: “You will both do what daddy says.”

Afterwards, Simmonds text Jarvis, saying: “Hey, I have a feeling that [name of alleged victim] has said about us. If anyone asks for sake of both of us nothing ever happened that night xx.”

Jarvis replied: “Hey, who’s she told? Oh god has she really, what’s she trying to do, make our lives hell? Of course I will xx.” 

The court heard the alarm was raised when the girl told her dad what had allegedly happened and he alerted police.

Simmonds told police he did not have any from of sexual contact with the victim.

He also claimed any messages about a threesome were “banter and a wind up.”

Simmonds denies six counts of sexual activity with a child, while Jarvis has pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual activity with a child.

The trial continues.

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No one recalls the road to Wawa. New detainees are blindfolded several kilometres ahead. Inmates are also blindfolded and driven out before release. 

It was July 27, 2021. Eleven people returning to South East Nigeria after the trial of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), at the Federal High Court, Abuja, were intercepted by the Department of State Services (DSS) along Lokoja. (IPOB has been fighting to secede the southeastern region to the independent nation of Biafra.) Labelled members of IPOB’s armed wing, known as Eastern Security Network, the travellers were taken into a dark, underground DSS cell in Abuja. A few weeks later, they were paired out before daybreak and chained ahead of a “military investigation.” 

Nonso and Pius Awoke landed in the Wawa prison, a military detention facility in North Central Nigeria.

Nonso, in his final year, was studying computer science at the Ebonyi State University, and Pius practised law in Akwa Ibom State. On the night they arrived in prison, they said they were first stripped by soldiers and beaten with cables. Nonso got the registration number 3220, and Pius, 3218.

Located in Niger State, the Wawa prison complex is shrouded in mystery. Except for an October 22 attack by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), almost nothing is public about it. Even the specific location of its housing facility, the Wawa Cantonment, is a subject of disagreement. Some reports trace it to Wawa town, others say it’s in Kainji or New Bussa, which, though geographically related, are different communities in the state. 

HumAngle combined Open-Source Intelligence and satellite imagery to locate it. It is situated along the Kainji-Wawa highway, roughly 3 – 4 km east of Wawa town and another 3 –4 km west of the Nigerian Air Force Base in New Bussa. It is accessible from both towns within 4 to 6 minutes by vehicle, depending on road conditions. 

Far left into the sizable military installation on Wawa-Wakwa Road, between Wawa town and Tamanai village in the Borgu Local Government Area (LGA), is a collection of buildings that closely match the description of two sources. The nine two-storey blocks separated by double walls are the prison complex, designated ‘A’ to ‘I’.

“Each floor contains 10 cells,” Pius said. “In every cell, there are 15 inmates, making approximately 450 per block.”

The military prison primarily holds suspected members of Boko Haram, which has terrorised Northern Nigeria for 16 years and killed at least 20,000 people. In 2017, a court set up in the cantonment tried 1669 suspects behind closed doors, convicted some and awarded prison terms ranging from three to 60 years. ISWAP’s attack on the facility later was to liberate their incarcerated members, but they lost eight more men instead, including a commander, to a joint force of local vigilantes and soldiers. 

United by fate

The largest groups in Wawa are tied to terrorism in the north, militancy in the middle belt, and secession threats in the South East. Most of the Igbo inmates were picked up after the nationwide #EndSARS protests of October 2020, sources said. During the protest, which started as a peaceful demonstration against police brutality, there were reports of IPOB-sponsored attacks on security personnel in Obigbo, Rivers State, which led to the declaration of a curfew and the invitation of the military by the then-governor Nyesom Wike. The soldiers, however, embarked on door-to-door raids, torture, rape, executions, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances of locals, especially men. 

“Thirty-four of them were taken to Wawa,” said Nonso. “Some of them were conductors and drivers going about their businesses. One of them was arrested for having a tattoo. They said he was an unknown gunman. One was even arrested for having a beard. One of my brothers from Rivers State, his offence was that he greeted a soldier.”

The rest came from Anambra and other southeastern states. Emeka Umeagbasi, whose organisation, Intersociety, sent an undercover agent to Wawa while compiling a report in 2024, confirmed this. 

“In our recent report, there’s a declassified document showing a request by the Nigerian Army for the transfer of so-called Boko Haram and IPOB terrorist suspects from the police headquarters to Wawa Military Cantonment,” he told HumAngle. “What else is more evidential?”

The events that culminated in the incarceration of a large number of Tivs in Wawa began with a peace meeting in the Katsina-Ala LGA  of Benue State on July 29, 2020. Politicians, chiefs, and religious leaders gathered in Tor-Donga, the Tiv people’s capital, to settle years of “armed robbery, kidnapping, murder, rape, and other criminal acts” connected to Terwase Akwaza, also known as Gana, a notorious militia leader who had been in hiding. The team requested amnesty for Gana and his gang members and offered an apology to Samuel Ortom, the governor at the time.

Though a known criminal, Gana was also a messiah in Sankera, the senatorial district covering Katsina-Ala, Logo, and Ukum LGAs. When the federal government appeared to be ignoring deadly armed herder incursions, it was Gana and his men who protected the people and their vibrant agricultural economy. Sankera, the location of Zaki Biam, the world’s biggest yam market, accounts for 70 per cent of Nigeria’s annual yam production. 

“Gana was employed by community leaders to defend the people against herders,” Jeremiah John*, a Sankera native, told HumAngle.

The militia leader bowed to pressure from traditional authority after the Tor-Donga summit. On September 8, 2020, he and his gang members publicly gave up their weapons and joined a convoy heading to Makurdi, the state capital, to conclude a peace deal with the governor. The military, however, intercepted the convoy, which included clergymen and community leaders, and took Gana and his gang members. News of his death would spread a few hours later. 

In a picture of his dead body later circulated on social media and seen by HumAngle, his body was bullet-ridden, and his right arm had been severed from his body.

On Facebook, HumAngle saw a petition addressed to the National Human Rights Commission in November 2020, seeking the release of 76 surrendered militants arrested with Gana. Tor Gowon Yaro, the Benue State native who signed the petition, told HumAngle that the men were still in military detention. 

“None of them has been released,” he said. “None that I’m aware of.”

Suspected terrorists are the largest single group in Wawa. About a decade ago, Boko Haram took over communities in the Banki axis of Borno State and held residents hostage. Upon a counter-operation by the military, the terrorists fled. However, soldiers claimed that the villagers were complicit and drove hundreds of them to the Bama IDP Camp, where they separated the men and took them to military detention. This happened in several other villages, and residents who also tried to escape their terrorised villages to Maiduguri, the capital city, were often intercepted and detained. 

“Half of Borno youths, especially the Kanuris, are in detention,” Pius cried. 

Other demographics in the facility are Fulani men detained over kidnapping, underage boys, and even some mentally-challenged people arrested in Maiduguri and accused of being Boko Haram members, sources said. 

HumAngle has extensively documented this arbitrary detention problem in Borno, involving thousands of men who have been detained for about a decade now, prompting their female relatives to form the Knifar Movement to advocate for their release. Though they are periodically released in batches, many are still in detention. HumAngle has confirmed the release of at least 1009 men from the Wawa prison and the infamous Giwa barracks in Maiduguri.

Behind the prison walls

“Once you’re inside, you’re inside,” said Onyibe Nonso, an undergraduate who spent nearly three years in the facility. The cell door quickly shuts after letting in food, and the special day when inmates step out for sunning may not come in a whole year. To survive, you must first accept every cellmate, no matter their tendency or ideology, including terrorists and mentally ill people.

Every day is a routine, Pius said – wake up, pray, sit down. Sometimes, you gist with fellow inmates. Other times, cellmates play the Ludo board game among themselves. Some cells have Hausa literature supplied by the Red Cross, where one could read. Since no single meal in the facility can satisfy an adult, many have formed the habit of fasting every day until evening, when they combine the meals and drink the little water available. 

“If they gave us beans, you would not see a single seed, only water,” said Pius. He also recalled having no water to bathe for a whole month. 

The toilet and bathroom carved out of each cell, the same cell that is smaller than the average bedroom and still accommodates belongings like jerricans, has no door. 

“We shared the rest of the space,” said Nonso. “To sleep, each person would place their blanket on top of their mat and leave a small space in-between.”

You stand and sit in your small portion. On the evenings when inmates squabble over space, they quickly resolve before soldiers return in the morning. It must not escalate lest they all suffer the following day. 

Conditions generally improve when the Red Cross visits, but soldiers assure inmates of a return to the old ways. 

“And truly, things would return,” said Pius. “For over a year before I was released, the Red Cross did not come. We heard that it was because the military authorities mismanaged the things they brought.”

An information blackout tops Wawa’s many woes, according to Pius.

“I didn’t know they changed money,” he said, referring to the time when Nigeria redesigned the naira note.  “I didn’t know whether a relative was dead or not. We didn’t know Tinubu was running. We didn’t know who was going to be sworn in – just like I was completely excommunicated.”

Back home, families were struggling to move on. When Nonso’s mother heard his voice for the first time in three years, she called back to make sure it wasn’t just another fantasy. It was on June 21, 2024, the day he was released. After two months in the hospital, 20 bags of drips and a lot of prayer, she was already making peace with her only son’s death.

And death is truly cheap in the military prison. From beatings, starvation, and complications arising from inadequate healthcare, inmates die randomly. When the undercover agent from Intersociety arrived at the facility in September 2024, at least 10 inmates had just died within the week. 

“A Muslim lieutenant colonel from the north, who provided us with 10 names of people who had just died in the detention that week, told our undercover, ‘Look at how your people are dying here,’” Umeagbasi told HumAngle. 

Nonso saw at least two dead bodies himself. Despite being rarely allowed to speak with inmates from other cells, Pius knew of at least 10 deaths. Earnest, one of those brought in from Port Harcourt shortly after the #EndSARS protests, died of complications related to diabetes. 

“I know him in person,” Pius told me. “We met one day.”

The more inmates die, the more new ones arrive. The total number, which Pius said matched his registration number on arrival, had climbed to over 5000 by his release in June 2024. As the number grows, so does the intensity of abuse.

“Some of those who got there before us said there was no such thing as beatings when they were brought in. We met it during our own time, and those who came after us had even tougher experiences. They sustained serious injuries and weren’t given adequate treatment,” Nonso said. An inmate who was released from the prison last year after 11 years in detention had an account similar to this. She told HumAngle that though the physical abuse was intense at the beginning of her stay there, it stopped at some point. Shortly before she was released, however, it resumed.

Many of the Tiv inmates arrested alongside Gana couldn’t survive the abuse they were subjected to, Pius revealed. “They beat them in a way that when they got to that detention [Wawa], most of them died.” 

Until their release over media pressure and advocacy efforts by the Nigerian Bar Association, neither Nonso nor Pius set foot in court, raising questions about why they were arrested in the first place.

The Red Cross and the Nigerian Army have not responded to inquiries sent to them.

*Jeremiah John is a pseudonym we have used to protect the source’s identity. 

Coleen Rooney is stepping into the spotlight with a Disney+ docuseries alongside husband Wayne, aiming to silence critics who have been questioning her success

After years in the background of Wayne Rooney’s football career, Coleen Rooney is stepping into her own spotlight and she has her mind set on proving her doubters wrong.

Fresh off her success as runner-up on I’m A Celebrity, the 39-year-old mum-of-four is said to be more determined than ever to be recognised as more than just a footballer’s wife. According to an insider, she’s had enough of assumptions about staying with Wayne for financial reasons after his infidelities and addiction issues.

“She’s sick of hearing that she would be nothing without Wayne or she only stays for the money. She’s now a multimillionaire in her own right and she’s not stopping there. This is just the start for Coleen and she can be very determined when she wants to be.”

Having turned down career opportunities while raising their four sons, Kai, Klay, Kit, and Cass, proud mum Coleen is reportedly now focused on building her own brand, and insiders say she was the driving force behind the couple’s lucrative new deal with Disney+.

“She’s the reason they got this big Disney deal,” the insider told The Sun. “I’m A Celeb proved that she’s just as big a star as Wayne. It’s the ultimate revenge on her doubters.”

The couple’s upcoming docuseries, created by the producers behind Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, will offer rare insight into their home life with their four young sons. Cameras will follow Wayne, 39, as he trades football training for school runs, while Coleen continues her business ventures.

Speaking to The Mirror, a source revealed earlier this month: “They could be bigger than not just the Beckhams, but the Kardashians.”

With Wayne recently dismissed from his managerial role at Plymouth Argyle and reportedly rejecting a lower-league job, the couple are reportedly seeing the series as a new chapter in both their personal lives and careers.

PR expert Dermot McNamara believes the show could reshape their public image, but not without challenges. “This will be their biggest test yet,” he said.

“Even though they’ve been famous since they were teenagers, we haven’t ever seen what their lives are really about. There’s so much we don’t know about them, like how they talk, how they parent. We’re going to get a fresh perspective.”

Coleen’s time on I’m A Celebrity showed glimpses of her resilience, but even still, questions about Wayne’s scandals resurfaced as she was quizzed on her heartache by her fellow campmates.

“She let people in, but was still guarded,” Dermot said. “Now we might finally see how she lives with all that public heartache.”

Despite the controversies, Coleen has built her own fortune with books, fashion, and fitness deals, and now, the Rooneys are ready to take control of their story with their brand-new show which has already been predicted as one of their biggest successes yet.

The Mirror has approached Coleen’s representatives for comment on this story.

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Gregg Wallace has today been axed from TV following an investigation into misconduct claims as the former MasterChef star hit out at the allegations in a lengthy statement

The BBC has issued a statement after former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace hit out over his axing. The presenter, 60, was accused of making inappropriate sexual comments and jokes over a 13-year period last year.

He stepped away from his role on the hit BBC cooking contest while an investigation took place. Today, he has been axed following a nearly year-long probe into misconduct claims. Wallace has said he has been exonerated of the most serious allegations levelled against him, after reportedly being informed of his dismissal from the BBC by production company, Banijay.

In a statement on Instagram, he wrote: “I have taken the decision to speak out ahead of the publication of the Silkins report – a decision I do not take lightly. But after 21 years of loyal service to the BBC, I cannot sit in silence while my reputation is further damaged to protect others.

“I have now been cleared by the Silkins report of the most serious and sensational accusations made against me. The most damaging claims (including allegations from public figures, which have not been upheld) were found to be baseless after a full and forensic six-month investigation.”

Wallace went on to accuse the BBC of “peddling sensationalised gossip masquerading as properly corroborated stories”. He added: “To be clear, the Silkin’s Report exonerates me of all the serious allegations which made headlines last year and finds me primarily guilty of inappropriate language between 2005 and 2018.

“I recognise that some of my humour and language, at times, was inappropriate. For that, I apologise without reservation. But I was never the caricature now being sold for clicks.”

He said: “I was hired by the BBC and MasterChef as the cheeky greengrocer. A real person with warmth, character, rough edges and all. For over two decades, that authenticity was part of the brand. Now, in a sanitised world, that same personality is seen as a problem.

“My neurodiversity, now formally diagnosed as autism, was suspected and discussed by colleagues across countless seasons of Master Chef.

“Yet nothing was done to investigate my disability or protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment for over twenty years. That failure is now being quietly buried.”

Following Wallace’s statement, the BBC issued their own. A BBC spokesperson said: “Banijay UK instructed the law firm Lewis Silkin to run an investigation into allegations against Gregg Wallace. We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete and the findings are published.”

A series of complaints were made about Wallace last year, including ‘inappropriate behaviour’ and allegations of touching an assistant’s bottom on the BBC show.

Wallace stepped down from MasterChef after denying the allegations, with his lawyers strongly denying he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature. He insisted via his legal team: “It is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.”

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Gloria Jiménez and Bruce Martin, leaders of a Galaxy supporter group called the Angel City Brigade, are certain this is no time to be quiet.

Since its founding in 2007, the Angel City Brigade, one of the Galaxy’s largest fan groups, has made its voice heard in sections 121 and 122 of Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.

On Friday, during the typically festive Fourth of July fireworks game, Galaxy supporter groups decided to express their frustration and anger over seeing Southern California’s Latino community targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in recent weeks.

The fans say they are upset by the Galaxy management’s silence amid ICE’s presence in the Latino community. The majority of Galaxy fans are Latino, but the team has not issued any statements in support of fans, remaining as quiet as the Dodgers until the MLB team felt pressure and made a $1 million donation to benefit families impacted by the raids.

The Galaxy and representatives of the teams’ supporter groups have held closed-door talks, but it didn’t lead to a public statements by the club. Before the match against the Whitecaps on Thursday outside Dignity Health Sports Park, Angel City Brigade displayed signs that read “Stop the Raids,” “Free Soil” and “No One is Illegal.

At the end of the national anthem, “Victoria Block,” the section where most of the Galaxy’s fan groups stand, unfurled a tifo with three images: a farm worker; Roy Benavidez, a U.S. Army Medal of Honor recipient; and Elena Rios, president of the National Hispanic Health Foundation. At the bottom, the banner read: “Fight Ignorance, Not Immigrants.”

Members of the Angel City Brigade, including Gloria Jiménez, center, protest ICE raids in Southern California during the Galaxy’s game against Vancouver on Friday at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.

(Jill Connelly/Especial para LA Times en Español)

During the 12th minute of the match, the Angel City Brigade left the stands in protest. Supporter groups the Galaxians and Galaxy Outlawz protested silently, carrying no drums or trumpets. They also did not sing or chant during the game.

“What’s going on in Los Angeles has nothing to do with the players. They know that. What’s going on in Los Angeles we don’t like,” Manuel Martínez, leader of the Galaxy Outlawz, said before the match. “I belong to a family of immigrants who became citizens. So we know the struggle that people go through. We know that there are hard working, innocent workers out there.”

The Riot Squad, on the other side of the stadium, also remained silent during and displayed a message that read: “We like our Whiskey Neat, and our Land and People Free.”

Members of the Angel City Brigade hold up a sign that reads “Smash Ice” during the Galaxy’s match against Vancouver on Friday at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.

(Jill Connelly/Especial para LA Times en Español)

This is not the first time Galaxy fan groups have taken action when they were unhappy team management.

Angel City Brigade, along with other groups such as LA Riot Squad, Galaxy Outlawz and the Galaxians, led boycott while demanding the removal of then-team president Chris Klein following mismanagement and decisions they felt didn’t make the team competitive enough to win. Their effort paid off: Klein stepped down and new management eventually led the club to its sixth MLS championship secured at the end of last season.

On Friday, in addition to issuing a statement reaffirming their “non-discriminatory principles, which oppose exclusion and prejudice based on race, origin, gender identity, sexuality or gender expression,” the fans decided to organize a fundraiser to support pro-immigrant organizations affected by the Trump administration’s budget cuts: Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Border Kindness and Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

To raise funds, they sold T-shirts with an image of a protester in Chinatown confronting an ICE agent.

“This is our way of showing that we want to help, and to fight what’s going on,” said Martin, a Los Angeles native.

The T-shirt sales raised $4,000 for the three organizations.

Previously, Angel City Brigade, like other Galaxy supporter groups, decided not to travel to the June 28 road match against the Earthquakes in San José as a precaution against the raids. About 600 Galaxy fans typically attend the road match.

“We have members who have not been able to work. We have members who have not been able to, go out to games or attend events. San José would have been one of them,” Jiménez said. “We decided that as a group, we couldn’t travel without leaving our brothers and sisters here. So in solidarity with the people who can’t attend because of fear of what’s going on, we decided to cancel the event.”

While the other two professional soccer teams in Los Angeles — LAFC and Angel City FC — have issued public statements in support of the Latino immigrant community, the Galaxy’s ownership has not addressed the issue. Angel City took its support further, wearing “Immigrant City Football Club” warm-up shirts, giving some shirts away to fans and selling more on its website as a fundraiser to support an organization that provides legal support for immigrants.

So far, the only member of the Galaxy who has addressed the issue publicly is head coach Greg Vanney.

“I think we all know someone who is probably affected by what’s going on, so it’s hard from a human standpoint not to have compassion for the families and those who are affected by what’s going on,” Vanney said prior to a game against St. Louis City SC in June.

“We have to really help each other, versus expecting others to do it,” Jiménez said. “That the support didn’t come from our team, as we expected, broke our hearts into a thousand pieces.”

In the past, the Galaxy and supporter groups have collaborated while celebrating various Latin American countries, incorporating their cultural symbols into team merchandise. But amid the Galaxy’s silence, fans are starting to doubt the sincerity of the cultural celebrations.

“It’s sad and disappointing to me. This team that has been in Los Angeles since the mid-1990s, and they’ve leveraged the culture for publicity. When they signed [Mexican soccer star] Chicharito for example, they were strong on Mexican culture and things like that. So when this all started, you would think that they would be for their culture, that they would be there for the fans,” Jiménez said. “And by not saying anything, it doesn’t say that they really care about it. Families are being torn apart and they just stay silent.”

Jiménez said there isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t cry or feel anger about the ICE raids.

“We already know what we are to them, we are not friends or family,” she said of the Galaxy. “We are fans and franchise.”

Martin said he has received messages on social media, including from Galaxy fans and supporters of other teams, criticizing his stance. However, Angel City Brigade said its members made a unanimous decision to protest.

“We have always had moments where we have a very clear vision about how we feel,” Jiménez said. “And I think this is one of the times when everyone has made the same decision.”

Galaxy fans plan to stage more protests during the team’s next home match.

This article first appeared in Spanish via L.A. Times en Español.

Love Island’s Alima Gagigo has broken her silence after she was brutally dumped from the villa in a shock twist that no one saw coming – leaving fans fuming

Alima Gagigo has broken her silence after her shock dumping during tonight’s Love Island. Fans were left furious when the 23-year-old was dumped from the villa along with new bombshell Ryan.

The shock exit came as Alima’s partner Conor chose to recouple with Billykiss, leaving Alima single. New bombshell Ryan, who had only entered the villa yesterday, was also dumped from the villa, after none of the girls chose to recouple with him.

During her time in the villa, Alima formed a connection with Remell, however it came crashing down when she learnt he had shared a number of kisses with Poppy in the sleepover. Upon her exit, Alima has spoken out about where she stands with Remell on the outside, and all things villa life.

“Remell and I were getting stronger and stronger by the day,” she said of their relationship. When he got the text about the sleepover, I was with him, and as soon as he started smiling.

“I knew this guy, he wasn’t going to be up to any good. When I saw the clip, from that moment on, I knew it would take a lot for us to go back to how we were before. I wasn’t surprised by his behaviour at all.”

When asked whether she’d be open to have a conversation with Remell after leaving the villa, Alima said: “I don’t hate him and I’m more than happy to be civil, he was part of my experience after all! But in terms of anything romantic, I’ll keep myself away from that.”

After Remell’s departure, Alima found a connection with Ben, but her time was cut short before they could really give it a go. However, Alima’s departure doesn’t mean the end of the road for the couple.

“I want to see how he acts now that I’m not there and if he finds a connection. If he comes back single, I would be interested in seeing if there’s something we could continue…” she teased.

Now she’s been dumped, Alima says she’s rooting for Dejon and Meg to take it home. The pair have been through a number of challenges since coupling up on Day 1, and it looks like Billykiss could cause yet another hurdle in their relationship.

However, Alima doesn’t think she’ll stand in the way. “I think at the start he was acting up a bit, but as the weeks go by, you can really tell he cares when he says ‘my Meg’,” she said when asked who she was rooting for.

“Also Emily and Tommy, because Tommy is the nicest man I’ve ever met in my life. Every time I walk by him in the garden or kitchen I say Tommy they don’t make men like you any more! He’s been crafted out of the sixties. You can tell he’s been raised very well, so praise to his parents!”

Love Island 2025 airs every night at 9PM on ITV2 and ITVX.

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Israel is no longer concealing its intention to forcibly displace Palestinians from their homeland, as it now announces this plan more openly than ever before through official rhetoric at the highest levels, said Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor in a report issued today.

Through actions on the ground and institutional measures designed to reframe the crime as “voluntary migration”, explained Euro-Med Monitor, Israel has attempted to implement its displacement campaign by exploiting the international community’s near-total silence, which has enabled the continuation of the crime and Israeli impunity despite the unprecedented nature of humanity’s first livestreamed genocide.

“Israel is now attempting to carry out the final phase of its crime, and its original goal: the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine, specifically from the Gaza Strip. For a year and a half, Israel has carried out acts of genocide, killing and injuring hundreds of thousands of people, erasing entire cities, dismantling the Strip’s infrastructure, and systematically displacing its population within the enclave. These actions aim to eliminate the Palestinian people as a community and as a collective presence.”

The current plans for forced displacement, said the Geneva-based rights group, are a direct extension of Israel’s long-standing, settler-colonial project, aimed at erasing Palestinian existence and seizing land. What distinguishes this stage, it added, is its unprecedented scale and brutality.

“Israel is targeting over two million people who have endured a full-scale genocide and have been stripped of even the most basic human rights, under coercive, inhumane conditions that make living any sort of a normal life impossible. Israel’s deliberate objective is to pressure Palestinians into leaving by making it their only means of survival.”

Having succeeded in revealing the weak principles of international law, such as protections for civilians based on their perceived racial superiority or lack thereof, Israel is now reshaping the narrative once again.

READ: Gaza reaches WHO’s most critical malnutrition level amid Israeli blockade

“Armed with overwhelming force and emboldened by the international community’s abandonment of legal and moral responsibilities, Israel seeks to portray the mass expulsion of Palestinians as ‘voluntary migration’,” said the group. “This is a blatant attempt to rebrand ethnic cleansing and forced displacement using dishonest language — like ‘humanitarian considerations’ and ‘individual choice’ — and is a direct contradiction of legal facts and the reality on the ground.”

Euro-Med Monitor emphasised that forced displacement is a standalone crime under international law, because it involves the removal of individuals from areas where they legally reside, using force, threats, or other forms of coercion, without valid legal justification.

“Coercion, in the context of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, goes beyond military force. It includes the creation of unbearable conditions that render remaining in one’s home practically impossible or life-threatening.” A coercive environment includes fear of violence, persecution, arrest, intimidation, starvation or other forms of hardship that strip individuals of free will and force them to flee.

“Israel has already committed the crime of forced displacement against Gaza’s population, having driven them into internal displacement without legal grounds and in conditions that violate international legal exceptions, which only permit evacuation temporarily and under imperative military necessity, while ensuring safe areas with minimum standards of human dignity,” said Lima Bustami, Director of Euro-Med Monitor’s Legal Department.

“None of these standards have been met. In fact, Israel has used this widespread and repeated pattern of displacement as a tool of genocide, aimed at destroying and subjecting the population to deadly living conditions.”

Bustami added that although the legal elements of the crime are already fulfilled, Israel is further escalating it to a more lethal level against the Palestinian people, manifesting its settler-colonial vision of expulsion and replacement. “Now it is attempting to market the second phase of forced displacement — beyond Gaza’s borders — as ‘voluntary migration’: a transparent deception that only a complicit international community — one that chooses silence over accountability — would accept.”

Today, the people of the Gaza Strip endure catastrophic conditions that are unprecedented in recent history, said Euro-Med Monitor. “Israel has obliterated all forms of normal life; there is no electricity or infrastructure, and there are no homes, no essential services, no functioning healthcare or education systems, and no clean water services.”

Indeed, the group’s report notes that around 2.3 million Palestinians are confined to less than 34 per cent of the Strip’s 365 square kilometres. Approximately 66 per cent of the territory has been turned into so-called “buffer zones”, or areas that are completely off-limits to Palestinians and/or that have been forcibly depopulated through Israeli bombings and displacement orders. “Most of the population is now living in tattered tents amid the spread of famine, disease and epidemics and an accumulation of waste, conditions symptomatic of the near-complete collapse of the humanitarian system.”

Moreover, Israel continues to systematically block the entry of food, medicine and fuel; destroy all remaining means of survival; and obstruct any efforts aimed at reconstruction or restoring even the minimum conditions for a healthy life.

“These conditions in place are not the result of a natural disaster,” the Euro-Med report says pointedly. “They have been deliberately engineered by Israel as a coercive tool to pressure the population into leaving the Gaza Strip. The absence of any genuine, voluntary alternative for Palestinians in the enclave renders this situation a textbook case of forcible transfer, as defined under international law and affirmed by relevant jurisprudence.”

READ: Israel advocate says, ‘I’m OK with as many dead kids as it takes’

According to Bustami, “While population transfers may be permitted in certain humanitarian contexts under international law, any such justification collapses if the humanitarian crisis is the direct consequence of unlawful acts committed by the same party enforcing the transfer. It is impermissible to use forced displacement as a response to a disaster one has created, a principle clearly upheld by international tribunals, particularly the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.”

Framing this imposed reality as a “voluntary” migration and an option not only constitutes a gross distortion of truth, said Euro-Med Monitor, but also undermines the legal foundations of the international system, erodes the principle of accountability, and transforms impunity from a failure of justice into a deliberate mechanism for perpetuating grave crimes and entrenching the outcomes of such crimes.

“Repeated public statements from the highest levels of Israel’s political and security leadership have escalated in intensity over the past year and a half, and expose a clear, coordinated intent to displace the population of the Gaza Strip. In a blatant bid to enforce a demographic transformation serving Israel’s colonial-settler agenda, senior Israeli officials — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — have publicly called for the expulsion of Palestinians from the Strip and for the settlement of Jewish Israelis in their place.”

Netanyahu expressed full support in February 2025 for US President Donald Trump’s plan to resettle Palestinians outside of the Gaza Strip, describing it as “the only viable solution for enabling a different future” for the region. Likewise, Smotrich announced in March that the Israeli government would back the establishment of a new “migration authority” to coordinate what he termed a “massive logistical operation” to remove Palestinians from the Strip.

Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, has openly advocated for the encouragement of “voluntary migration” coupled with calls to resettle Jewish Israelis in the territory.

The human rights organisation referred to the 23 March decision of the Israeli Security Cabinet to establish a dedicated directorate within the Ministry of Defence, to manage what it calls the “voluntary relocation” of the Gaza Strip’s residents to third countries. “This is evidence that this displacement is not a by-product of destruction or political rhetoric, but an official policy,” it noted. “This policy is being implemented through institutional mechanisms, directed from within Israel’s own security apparatus, with full operational powers, executive structures, and strategic goals.”

READ: Israel bombing kills 4-year-old twin girls as they slept in Gaza

Furthermore, current Defence Minister Israel Katz’s statement on the new directorate confirmed that it would “prepare for and enable safe and controlled passage of Gaza residents for their voluntary departure to third countries, including securing movement, establishing movement routes, checking pedestrians at designated crossings in the Gaza Strip, as well as coordinating the provision of infrastructure that will enable passage by land, sea and air to the destination countries.”

The true danger of establishing such a directorate, said Euro-Med Monitor, lies not only in its institutionalisation of forced transfer, but in the new legal and political reality it seeks to impose. “It rebrands displacement as an ‘optional’ administrative service while stripping civilians of their ability to make free, informed decisions, therefore cloaking a war crime in a veneer of bureaucratic legitimacy.”

Any departure from the Gaza Strip under current circumstances cannot be considered “voluntary”, it added, but rather constitutes, in legal terms, forcible transfer, which is strictly prohibited under international law. “All individuals compelled to leave the Strip retain their inalienable right to return to their land and property immediately and unconditionally. They also have the full right to seek compensation for all damages and losses incurred as a result of Israeli crimes and rights violations, including the destruction of homes and property, physical and psychological harm, the assault on human dignity, and the denial of livelihood and basic rights.”

Under its obligations as an occupying power responsible for the protection of the civilian population, Israel is prohibited from forcibly transferring Palestinians and bears full legal responsibility to ensure their protection from this crime.

The rules of international law, particularly customary international law and the Geneva Conventions, require all states not to recognise any situation arising from the crime of forcible transfer and to treat it as null and void. States are also obligated to withhold all material, political and diplomatic support that would contribute to the entrenchment of such a situation.

“International responsibility goes beyond mere non-recognition,” said the rights group. “It includes a legal duty for states to take urgent effective steps to halt the crime, hold perpetrators accountable, and provide redress to victims. This includes ensuring the safe, voluntary return of all displaced persons from the Gaza Strip, and providing full reparations for the harm and violations they have suffered. Any failure to act in this regard constitutes a direct breach of international law and complicity that could subject states to legal accountability.”

READ: Israeli air strike hits Gaza children’s hospital

Euro-Med Monitor said that the international community must move beyond deafening silence and abandon paltry rhetorical condemnations, which have come to represent the maximum response it dares to make in the face of the livestreamed genocide unfolding before its eyes. “It must act swiftly and effectively to halt Israel’s ongoing project of mass displacement in the Gaza Strip and prevent it from becoming an entrenched reality. This action must be based on international legal norms, a commitment to justice and accountability, and an honest reckoning with the root structural cause of the crimes: Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1967.”

Endorsing or remaining silent about Israeli plans to forcibly transfer Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip not only exonerates Israel but rewards it for its illegal conduct by granting it gains secured through mass killing, destruction, blockade, and starvation, said the organisation. “This is not just a series of war crimes or crimes against humanity, it embodies the legal definition of genocide, as established by the 1948 Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

All states, individually and collectively, must uphold their legal obligations and take all necessary measures to halt Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip.

This includes taking immediate, effective steps to protect Palestinian civilians and to prevent the implementation of the US-Israeli crime of forcible transfer that is openly threatening the Strip’s population.

“The international community must impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel for its systematic and grave violations of international law. This includes halting arms imports and exports; ending all forms of political, financial and military support; freezing the financial assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians; imposing travel bans; and suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that offer Israel economic advantages that sustain its capacity to commit further crimes.”

The rights group insisted that states must also hold complicit governments accountable — chief among them the United States — for their role in enabling Israeli crimes through various forms of support, including military and intelligence cooperation, financial aid and political or legal backing.

“The ethnic cleansing and genocide taking place right now in the Gaza Strip would not be possible without Israel’s decades-long unlawful colonial presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This is the root structural cause of the violence, oppression, and destruction in the besieged enclave,” concluded Euro-Med Monitor. “Any meaningful response to the escalating crisis in the Strip must begin with dismantling this colonial reality, recognising the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, and securing their freedom and sovereignty over their national territory.

“As Israel and its allies must be compelled to abide by the law, international intervention is the only path to ending the genocide, halting all forms of individual and collective forcible transfer, dismantling the apartheid regime, and establishing a credible framework for justice, accountability, and the preservation of human dignity.”

OPINION: Palestinian voices are throttled by the promotion of foreign agendas

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

For years, Los Angeles City Councilmember John Lee declined to publicly discuss a fateful Las Vegas trip he took in 2017 with his then-boss Mitch Englander and a trio of businessmen.

That trip led to an FBI investigation of Englander, then a City Council member, who accepted an envelope of cash in a casino bathroom from one of the businessmen and later pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators.

Last week, in court to address allegations from the L.A. Ethics Commission, Lee finally broke his silence, divulging details of the high-rolling trip and insisting that he paid for his share.

There was his comped Aria hotel room — a standard room, not a suite, he said. There was the Hakkasan Nightclub, where he sipped whiskey and danced as hostesses paraded out $8,000 bottles of booze. And there was the casino, where he played blackjack — after losing $1,000 at the baccarat table — because he preferred the lower-stakes game.

Over and over, Lee, who was then Englander’s chief of staff, denied accepting gifts in violation of city ethics laws. Under grilling by a city enforcement officer, Lee described stuffing $300 into the pocket of one of the businessmen, Andy Wang, to cover his share at the nightclub. At dinner earlier that night, he said, he paid for his own drinks.

“I believe I made a good-faith effort to repay what I consumed that night,” Lee testified.

In 2023, the Ethics Commission accused Lee, who occupies Englander’s former seat representing the northwest San Fernando Valley, of accepting “multiple gifts” in violation of ethics laws, including free hotel rooms, poker chips and food, from a businessman and a developer during the Vegas trip.

The businessman and the developer were not named in the complaint, but details indicate that one was Wang and the other was Christopher Pak, both of whom testified as witnesses.

The commission has also accused Lee of helping Englander backdate checks to repay the businessman who comped the hotel rooms.

Federal prosecutors never criminally charged Lee, and he has said he was unaware of any wrongdoing by Englander.

At the time, city officials, including high-ranking council aides, could accept gifts with a value between $50 and $470 from a single source but had to disclose them, according to city and state laws. They were not allowed to accept gifts over $470 from a single source.

The Ethics Commission alleges that Lee violated both provisions.

Attorneys for Lee, who denies the allegations, have repeatedly tried to block the commission’s case, arguing that the statute of limitations had expired.

Witness testimony concluded last week, and Administrative Law Judge Ji-Lan Zang is expected to make a recommendation about what, if any, ethics violations Lee committed.

Then, a panel of ethics commissioners will vote on whether violations occurred and what the financial penalties, if any, should be.

In 2023, Englander agreed to pay $79,830 to settle a similar Ethics Commission case.

At last week’s hearing, city enforcement officer and attorney Marian Thompson sought to cast doubt on Lee’s version of events. She zeroed in on his insistence that he joined the group at an expensive Chinese restaurant, Blossom, but didn’t eat because he arrived late.

She read aloud the bill for the nearly $2,500 dinner — Kobe beef, Maine lobster, Peking duck, sea bass and more. Surely Lee, who had previously described himself as a “meat and potatoes” guy, liked Kobe beef? Thompson asked.

Lee said he tried only the bird’s nest soup. He described taking a spoonful of someone else’s bowl and saying, “Absolutely not” — it was “gelatinous,” he told Thompson.

Lee acknowledged drinking at the restaurant, giving someone — he couldn’t remember whom — $100 to cover the tab.

According to Englander’s 2020 federal indictment, a “City Staffer B” received some of the same perks as Englander during the Vegas trip. That staffer was widely presumed to be Lee, prompting calls for the newly elected council member to resign. Since then, questions about the Vegas trip have dogged Lee, though he easily won reelection in 2024.

Englander was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison. In his plea agreement, he admitted lying repeatedly to federal investigators and receiving a combined $15,000 in cash — $10,000 in a casino bathroom in Las Vegas, plus $5,000 at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa from an unnamed businessman.

That man, Wang, ran companies that sold cabinets and home technology systems, was seeking relationships with real estate developers and others to increase his business opportunities in the city.

During his testimony last week, Lee said he followed city ethics laws during the Vegas trip. At the Aria hotel-casino, Englander showed Lee poker chips that Wang had given him, Lee testified.

“I told him immediately that he needed to give those chips back to Andy,” Lee said.

Lee also said he gave Englander a blank check with the understanding that Englander would reimburse Wang, who had comped Lee’s room.

But in a declaration in the ethics case, Englander wrote that neither he nor Lee reimbursed Wang “for any of the gifts we received at the Aria,” including the room, meals and drinks.

“While in Las Vegas, NV, Lee did not give me a check to reimburse Wang,” Englander added.

Thompson asked Lee about Englander’s statements.

“He’s lied before,” Lee replied.

In addition to Wang, two others — Michael Bai, a lobbyist who formerly worked at City Hall, and Koreatown developer Pak — came on the Vegas trip. Bai also testified as a witness last week.

Lee and Englander gave Wang separate checks for $442 on Sept. 14 that year. The ethics commission has accused Lee and Englander of backdating the checks to Aug. 4 — before they were interviewed by the FBI.

Lee disputed that during the hearing, saying he gave Englander his check on Aug. 4, after he said Englander had lost the earlier one.

At the Hakkasan club, Wang spent $24,000 on bottle service, with Pak spending an additional $10,000.

According to an estimate by the commission, the share Lee drank was worth $5,666.67.

But Lee’s attorney, Brian Hildreth, challenged that assertion. Dozens of revelers streamed through the group’s VIP booth that night, Lee and Pak both testified.

Lee said he had only two to four drinks and suggested that many people drank from the bottles.

Addressing questions about the casino, Lee acknowledged accepting $1,000 in poker chips from Wang, saying he thought he was playing on Wang’s behalf. Lee said he would have given any winnings to Wang.

But Lee testified that he didn’t know how to play baccarat and warned Wang that he wasn’t doing well, ultimately losing all the chips.

During questioning by Hildreth, Lee described withdrawing a total of $1,500 from ATMs in Vegas, with a bank statement listing the three withdrawals over two days.

Lee testified that he wanted “to make sure that I had my own money and paid for everything that I was a part of.”

Thompson pursued a counternarrative, describing the spectacle of nightclub hostesses bringing out bottles.

“You got VIP treatment?” Thompson asked.

“Treatment I’d never received before,” Lee answered.

OXNARD, Calif. — At 6 a.m. Wednesday, Juvenal Solano drove slowly along the cracked roads that border the fields of strawberry and celery that cloak this fertile expanse of Ventura County, his eyes peeled for signs of trouble.

An eerie silence hung over the morning. The workers who would typically be shuffling up and down the strawberry rows were largely absent. The entry gates to many area farms were shut and locked.

Still, Solano, a director with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project, felt relieved. Silence was better than the chaos that had broken out Tuesday when immigration agents raided fields in Oxnard and fanned out across communities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties that grow a considerable portion of the state’s strawberries, avocados and celery.

The organization, part of a broader rapid-response network that offers support and counsel for workers targeted by immigration raids, was caught off guard when calls started pouring in from residents reporting federal agents gathering near fields. Group leaders say they have confirmed at least 35 people were detained in the raids, and are still trying to pin down exact numbers.

In the past week, Solano said, the organization had gotten scattered reports of immigration authorities arresting undocumented residents. But Tuesday, he said, marked a new level in approach and scope as federal agents tried to access fields and packinghouses. Solano, like other organizers, are wondering what their next move will be.

“If they didn’t show up in the morning, it’s possible they’ll show up in the afternoon,” Solano said. “We’re going to stay alert to everything that’s happening.”

While agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol showed up at food production sites from the Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley, much of the activity centered on the Oxnard Plain. Maureen McGuire, chief executive of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, said federal agents visited five packing facilities and at least five farms in the region. Agents also stopped people on their way to work, she said.

In many cases, according to McGuire and community leaders, farm owners refused to grant access to the agents, who had no judicial warrants.

California, which grows more than one-third of the nation’s vegetables and more than three-quarters of its fruits and nuts, has long been dependent on undocumented labor to tend its crops. Though a growing number of farm laborers are migrants imported on a seasonal basis through the controversial H-2A visa program, at least half the state’s 255,700 farmworkers are undocumented immigrants, according to UC Merced research. Many have lived in California for years, and have put down roots and started families.

Juvenal Solano, with Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project, said Tuesday’s raids in Ventura County farm fields marked a dramatic escalation in tactics.

(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)

Until this week, California’s agricultural sector had largely escaped the large-scale raids that the Department of Homeland Security has deployed in urban areas, most recently in Los Angeles and Orange counties. California farmers — many of them ardent supporters of Donald Trump — have seemed remarkably calm as the president vowed mass deportations of undocumented workers.

Many expected that Trump would find ways to protect their workforce, noting that without sufficient workers, food would rot in the fields, sending grocery prices skyrocketing.

But this week brought a different message. Asked about enforcement actions in food production regions, Tom Homan, Trump’s chief adviser on border policy, said growers should hire a legal workforce.

“There are programs — you can get people to come in and do that job,” he said. “So work with ICE, work with [U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services], and hire a legal workforce. It’s illegal to knowingly hire an illegal alien.”

Ventura County strawberry fields had far fewer workers Wednesday, a day after federal agents targeted the region for immigration raids.

(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)

California’s two U.S. senators, both Democrats, issued a joint statement Wednesday decrying the farm raids, saying that targeting farmworkers for deportation would undermine businesses and families.

“Targeting hardworking farmworkers and their families who have been doing the backbreaking work in the fields for decades is unjustified and unconscionable,” Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff said in their statement.

The California Farm Bureau also issued a statement, warning that continued enforcement would disrupt production.

“We want to be very clear: California agriculture depends on and values its workforce,” said Bryan Little, senior director of policy advocacy at the California Farm Bureau. “We’re still early in the season, with limited harvest activity, but that will soon ramp up. If federal immigration enforcement activities continue in this direction, it will become increasingly difficult to produce food, process it and get it onto grocery store shelves.”

Arcenio Lopez, executive director of MICOP, said he is especially concerned about the prospect of Indigenous workers being detained, because many cannot read or write in English or Spanish, and speak only their Indigenous languages. The organization’s leaders suspect that many of those detained Tuesday are Indigenous, and are rushing to find them before they sign documents for voluntary deportation that they don’t understand. They’re urging that anyone who gets arrested call their hotline, where they offer legal assistance.

Rob Roy, president of the Ventura County Agricultural Association, said he has been warning growers since November that this time would come and providing training on their legal rights. Many know to ask for search warrants, he said. But that still leaves undocumented workers vulnerable on their way to and from work.

“I think overall here, they’re fairly safe on the farms or the building,” Roy said. “But when they leave work, they’re very concerned.”

Elaine Yompian, an organizer with VC Defensa, said she is urging families to stay home, if possible, to avoid exposure.

“We actually told a lot of the families who contacted us, if you can potentially not work today, don’t go,” Yompian said, adding that they are able to provide limited support to families through donations they receive.

Families whose loved ones have been detained are struggling to understand what comes next, she said.

“People are terrified; they don’t know at what point they’re going to be targeted,” Yompian said. “The narrative that they’re taking criminals or taking bad people off the streets is completely false. They’re taking the working-class people that are just trying to get by.”

This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California’s economic divide.

In many towns and cities across northern Nigeria, the voices once carried on the airwaves to inform, empower, and provoke reflection have dimmed to whispers of praise songs, sponsored jingles, and obsequious commentary.

Behind the studio microphones and soundproof booths, journalists, mostly young men and women, say they work under suffocating conditions that leave them voiceless both figuratively and literally.

While the region faces intensifying insecurity, mass displacement, and a crisis of governance, local radio and television have largely retreated from their watchdog roles. In their place is a culture of cautious Public Relations (PR) journalism, tailored to please state authorities and avoid retaliation from both government regulators and armed non-state actors.

A culture built on the airwaves

For a long time, radio has been the primary means of communication in northern Nigeria, especially for Hausa speakers. In rural communities where literacy rates remain low and access to newspapers or television is limited, radio serves as a crucial lifeline. It is not merely a medium for entertainment but a trusted channel for education, public health campaigns, civic participation, and political discourse. It is so instrumental that former Boko Haram members have told HumAngle that they laid down their arms and returned to state-controlled areas because they heard constant appeals to do so on the radio. 

From the era of Radio Kaduna’s dominance to the rise of community and FM stations in the 2000s, northern Nigeria has nurtured a unique culture of listenership. Markets pause during radio dramas; political discussions unfold around communal radios in village squares. Yet, this cultural power is precisely what makes radio such a potent target for manipulation.

Barely paid, but always owing

Few local journalists report earning a stable income. Most complain they are unpaid volunteers or receive stipends far below minimum wage.

“Many of us are not paid respectable salaries, and irregular, low wages or sometimes no payment at all are common challenges. Some colleagues take on additional freelance work to survive. These financial strains affect our focus, morale, and overall performance as newsroom staff,” said a radio presenter in Gombe, northeastern Nigeria.

“I’ve been reporting for three years, and my salary is ₦10,000, barely enough to feed myself,” said Rukaiya, a young reporter at a privately owned FM station in the north-central region. “Sometimes, I survive on commissions from adverts that I get. Otherwise, we survive however we can.”

The term “however” often refers to morally or socially risky paths. One other young female journalist who spoke with HumAngle on condition of anonymity described engaging in transactional relationships to supplement her income. Others depend on charitable contributions from friends, side hustles like event hosting, voice-over work, or farming, or even resort to panhandling. Some are offered contracts with state governments in exchange for loyalty on-air.

With no employment contracts, health insurance, or protection against harassment, young broadcasters in many communities across Nigeria are vulnerable to exploitation by station owners, politicians, and advertisers.

A 2023 study on media poverty highlights the challenges that affect the growth of rural news journalism in Nigeria. From journalists not well paid to several media houses owing salaries for months or years. “This discourages journalists in Nigeria from going to live in rural areas to practice rural journalism.” 

“My salary is barely enough to cover my transport fares to the office, but I have grown so popular in my community that gifts keep pouring in regularly,” said a broadcaster in Nassarawa State, who said she will not demand better pay because she has created an agency that caters to her needs.

When confronted with the suggestion that her views might lead to conflicts of interest and set a negative precedent for young journalists who may succeed her in the future, she said, “We don’t report anything serious; we cover events, read out press releases handed to us, and air drama, music, and shows.”

For some of these journalists, critical journalism is something they admire, but it is not for them to contemplate practising: “We were never trained for this, and we were never told these types of stories are for platforms such as ours,” another radio presenter said. 

A reporter in Kano who spoke to HumAngle admitted that not all programmes reflect the real problems people face, particularly because private broadcasters are heavily driven by revenue. “We don’t always talk about these issues because we’re afraid or because the station owners don’t want us airing anything that goes against their views or interests,” the reporter noted.

Regulated into silence

Senior media professionals widely view the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), which oversees Nigeria’s broadcast sector, as a tool of censorship. Stations that broadcast critical commentary, especially regarding security failures or corruption, risk suspension, fines, or outright closure.

“Therefore, we train our mentees and reporters in a practice that better serves our reality.” The term “reality,” according to this station manager in Nassarawa State, means young journalists are handed rules of engagement; there are words and phrases that are never to be aired, and some stories, even if you witness them, you tell them to your friends and family “off-air.”

The NBC’s lack of institutional independence, with its leadership appointed by the executive arm of government, has entrenched political interference, turning the commission into an enforcer of ruling party interests rather than a neutral regulator.

After airing a report critical of the national security leadership in 2022, Vision FM Abuja faced fines and a temporary shutdown. The message was clear.

“Since then, we don’t touch anything security-related that is sensitive,” said a senior manager at the station. “It’s not worth NBC’s hammer.”

Journalists say the ambiguity of NBC guidelines encourages preemptive censorship. Rather than risk sanctions, station managers vet programming scripts for anything potentially “inciting” or “divisive,” terms that critics say are weaponised against dissent.

Through these, NBC undermines citizens’ access to diverse perspectives and weakens the role of the media as a civic watchdog. The deliberate stifling of the airwaves, in a region already grappling with insecurity and governance failures, intensifies public disempowerment and undermines the remaining pillars of accountability. 

HumAngle looked at all TV and radio stations in northern Nigeria and found that up to 15–20 per cent of media ownership lies with the federal and state governments. 

Infographics by Damilola Lawal/HumAngle.

Infographics by Damilola Lawal/HumAngle.

Political capture of the airwaves

Across northern states, local broadcasting is not merely cautious — it is captured. In states like Borno, Sokoto, and Zamfara, station managers say governors and political appointees directly influence their programming. They often determine who gets airtime, what topics are discussed, and which voices are silenced.

“During the last election, I was warned not to host opposition candidates,” said a producer at a state-owned station in Kano. “We were told it would ‘destabilise the peace,’ so we played safe.”

Often, stations are directly owned or heavily funded by state governments. Editorial independence becomes a fiction. Presenters who align with the party line receive rewards such as political appointments, contracts, or PR gigs. Those who deviate risk professional exile.

“It has been a norm in our journalistic practice [for funders] to dictate the tune when you pay for the piper,” said a staff member at a state-owned broadcaster in northwestern Nigeria, adding that not all reports or leads on insecurity can be aired, especially without censorship. “Stories that may cause chaos are rather dropped or rejigged,” the reporter added.

Authoritarianism at the state level

The erosion of press freedom in northern Nigeria is not just an outcome of national-level repression; it is deeply rooted in the authoritarian instincts of state governors who wield enormous influence without sufficient checks.

These governors routinely deploy state security services to intimidate journalists, withhold advertising revenue from critical outlets, or threaten the revocation of broadcast licenses.

Governors in the region have always wielded significant power over local media organisations in their states. In 2016, a TV anchor in Sokoto was forced off air after criticising the state’s healthcare policies.

A broadcast reporter in Borno faced detention in 2021 for “cyberstalking” after exposing purported corruption in post-insurgency reconstruction contracts.

Such actions rarely provoke public outrage, partly due to a climate of fear and partly because the press itself is too compromised to amplify its oppression.

Caught between armed groups and the microphone

In parts of the North West and the North East, fear of armed groups has further stifled local media. Journalists in the northwest, northeast, and north-central states describe receiving direct threats after airing reports perceived as critical of armed groups.

“We stopped reporting kidnappings in some areas,” one radio editor in the north central told HumAngle. “They called and said if we mentioned their names again, they would burn down the station.”

“The threat of violence, whether from state actors or armed groups, has influenced editorial decisions,” a radio presenter in Maiduguri told HumAngle. “Sometimes, we have to downplay or completely avoid certain sensitive topics for personal safety and the safety of our families and colleagues, as well as to secure our jobs. It’s a constant internal conflict between professional duty and survival.”

These threats come amid a broader climate of insecurity, where state protection for journalists is practically nonexistent. As a result, communities find themselves under siege, yet they lack a voice or a platform to express their concerns.

From watchdogs to whispers

In a healthy democracy, local media act as civic mirrors and watchdogs—holding power accountable and giving voice to the voiceless. But in much of northern Nigeria, local radio has been reduced to echoes of power, playing jingles and feel-good stories while real crises unfold off-air.

The tragedy is not just professional; it is societal. When local media fail, communities lose more than news; they lose agency.

Suleiman Shuaibu, a business development specialist in Abuja, highlights that international broadcast stations, airing in local languages like Hausa, are uniquely positioned to pose and tackle challenging questions. “The sole constraint they face is their inability to address context-specific topics that pertain to individual communities.” They focus solely on major news developments.

The VOA Hausa has ceased operations in light of Donald Trump’s decision to freeze US foreign aid and activities. The presence of BBC Hausa, Dutch Welle, Radio RFI, and others is notable, yet their future hangs in uncertainty due to various European governments implementing policies aimed at reducing expenditures on extensive and ambitious initiatives that do not directly benefit their citizens.

Towards a new frequency

To reverse this trend, several experts who spoke to HumAngle on this subject call for a multipronged approach: “fair remuneration and protections for media workers, the depoliticisation of regulatory bodies like the NBC, and coordinated efforts to protect journalists from both state and non-state threats.”

Support can also come from within: local media houses banding together to resist political capture, civil society amplifying their role as watchdogs, and donors investing in long-term media independence projects.

The stakes are high. In a region where radio remains the most accessible and trusted medium for news, revitalising local broadcasts is critical to preserving democracy. 

This report was produced by HumAngle in partnership with the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) as part of a project documenting press freedom issues in Nigeria.

As looming fear over ongoing ICE raids in the greater Los Angeles area continues, one group of music enthusiasts is using their platform to call out for more visibility and support from famed artists — underscoring tense conversations about influence in the Latino music scene.

Since 2021, the “Agushto Papá” podcast — founded and hosted by Jason Nuñez, Diego Mondragon and Angel Lopez— has played a key role in chronicling the rise of música Mexicana by giving up-and-coming artists a platform to showcase their talent and personalities. Popular genre acts like Xavi, Eslabon Armado, Becky G, DannyLux, Ivan Cornejo and more have appeared on their YouTube channel, which has amassed over 635,000 subscribers to date.

However, on Monday, the trio strayed away from their standard entertainment content, uploading an Instagram reel reflecting disappointment over ICE sweeps, which have targeted communities of Paramount, Huntington Park, Santa Ana and other predominantly Latino communities.

“It’s super unfortunate to see what’s happening within our Latino community,” Nuñez states in the clip. “I think it’s very important that we stay united and spread as much awareness as possible.”

The video initially highlighted efforts by Del Records, who are providing free legal assistance to members of the community who are facing deportation orders; earlier this year, the Bell Gardens label was caught in a web of guilty court verdicts due to their links to cartels. Still, the label is one of the few Latino-led music entities outspoken about providing resources for affected individuals, “but I definitely think they shouldn’t be the only ones,” added Nuñez in the video.

Podcast co-host Lopez prompted viewers to tag their favorite artist in the comment section if they would like for them to speak up, he said, “I think it’s fair and just that [artists] show some of that love back to the community that’s in need and that is hurting.”

“I think that [artists] do play a big role because I think we see them as role models or leaders in our community,” said Lopez in a Tuesday interview with The Times. “These are times when we need those leaders to speak up and for us and people that maybe can’t speak up as well.”

The topic of immigration hits close to home for two of the members; Nuñez and Mondragon are both DACA recipients and openly discuss their unique experience on the podcast. The Obama-era program, which provides temporary relief from deportation and work authorization, has also come under attack in recent years by Trump-appointed judges and is currently recognized as unlawful by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, although application renewals remain.

“I feel betrayed because with [“Agushto Papá”], we have a lot of artists and companies and labels reach out to us to promote albums, tours,” said Mondragon. “We’ve actually reached out to some of these companies [and] they’ve been ignoring us.”

While Mondragon won’t disclose names, he says that many individuals have not spoken out because, “their artists are not born in the U.S.” To that he quips, “We don’t have papers as well, and we’re still using our platform.”

There’s a sense of betrayal, the group says, especially given how various artists and labels came out to support Californians during the January wildfires, “but now when it comes down to bringing awareness to things that are happening to their people, it’s just unfair that they’re keeping quiet,” says Nuñez.

Still, the “Agushto Papá” podcast is not alone in this sentiment; if you scroll across the comment sections of trending música Mexicana acts, you’ll likely come across comments asking them why they’re staying silent about recent sweeps, which immigration-leaders say have totaled at least 300 people.

“I think my big let down is that these companies/artists are vocal about their culture, their heritage, their ethnicity every chance they get, but now I feel like they’re picking and choosing only when it matters,” said Lopez.

In days following public demonstrations and protests, several Mexican American artists have vocalized their support of the immigrant communities including big acts like Ivan Cornejo, Becky G, and Chiquis.

On Tuesday, the boisterous San Bernardino band Fuerza Regida, uploaded a statement to their 9.1 million followers, sharing support for the Latino community. The podcast trio later thanked in a follow-up video.

“There’s still a lot of artists that are staying silent and we hope by this week they speak out about what’s going on,” states Mondragon in the video, urging artists to spread awareness, or perhaps, if they’re bold, front a portion of their millions to the community, even if it means opting for first class instead of their private jet, he says.

IT IS probably the cringiest moment from Michael Owen’s long list.

But now he has broken his silence on the infamous “well done, he’s 13” gag from Neville Southall.

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Owen featured in a Michael Owen Soccer Skills video in 1999 where he faced a young goalkeeper at an empty Stoke City stadium.

The former England striker did his best to humiliate the 13-year-old Jamie Hutchinson, who was given goalkeeping tips from Southall.

To his credit, Hutchinson did make some saves.

But the video is remembered for Owen chipping, rounding and firing past the helpless child between the sticks – before shamelessly celebrating each finish.

The laughing ex-Liverpool man clenched his fists, ran away with his arms aloft, mocked the goalkeeper for nutmegging him and pointed to his name on the back of his shirt.

But it was his embarrassing shout of “get in there – game, set and match, Owen” that triggered Southall’s brilliant quip.

Southall said: “Well done, he’s 13,” a comment which remains a viral sensation and etched into British football heritage.

But now, 26 years on, Owen has opened up on the clip – and revealed not all was quite as it seemed because he was told to play up for the cameras.

CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS

He told talkSPORT: “I was only a couple of years older than him myself!. It’s probably funny now.

“I got back from the World Cup in 98 and there were loads of commercial opportunities, things like that. 

“I was asked to do a soccer skills video and a soccer skills book. So I had to explain, talk through finishing, volleying, heading, whatever the skill was. Inevitably, you need a goalkeeper there.

“I never picked them and so I turned up to do the show and to talk through how I see scoring a goal and what I think in certain scenarios and whatever. 

“There was a kid in goal that I had to score past and when I scored they’re like, ‘Come on, no, you need to show a bit more animation. Like celebrate when you score, this is going on a video.'”

talkSPORT host Andy Goldstein clarified: “So people don’t know this, right?”

And Owen continued: “People just laugh at you no matter what. Then they take a little extract of anything.

“There’s loads of things like that on the internet on me.”

‘NOT EXACTLY IDEAL’

Hutchinson spoke about the viral video in 2016 and admitted he knew it would not come out too well for him.

He said: “Being the goalkeeper on a programme headlined by a striker wasn’t exactly ideal for me.

“It was made clear that it wouldn’t make good filming if the goalkeeper was saving all the shots taken by the other kids after they had been coached by Michael.”

And even Southall himself did defend Owen’s actions earlier this year.

The 92-cap Wales goalkeeper – who reunited with Hutchinson a few years ago – added: “I think he was being ironic to be fair, but I think he was enjoying himself and being ironic.

“But the poor kid, he scored a squillion goals past him and I was thinking ‘give him a break’.

“On the day, Michael was okay and he’s always okay. 

“People judge him on that and that’s not him.”

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Doctor Who aired its latest season finale on Saturday night, in which the likes of Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu and Millie Gibson appeared to bid farewell to the BBC show

Cast member Varada Sethu has now broken her silence following the season finale of Doctor Who on the weekend. The episode, which featured the departure of her co-star Ncuti Gatwa, is thought to mark her exit from the show.

Varada, 33, played companion Belinda Chandra in the latest season of the BBC show. The character made her debut in the first episode, which aired in April, and then bid farewell to the Doctor – played by Ncuti, 32 – in Saturday’s finale.

The actor has since addressed her apparent departure from Doctor Who in a lengthy post shared on Instagram today. Varada wrote about her experience as a cast member alongside various photos, including several of her and Ncuti.

She wrote in the caption: “Wow wow wow wow wow. I’m sooo late to the party (as always), but needed to take a few days to process this show, this finale and everything & everyone it has brought into my life, what it all means.

“My heart has doubled in size. I have felt so so full of gratitude and love, I still feel I haven’t found the words to express it. It has been a true gift to know a woman like Belinda, I will never forget our journey together.”

Praising her co-stars, she continued by writing: “Thank you [Ncuti] for being my partner in crime, my beloved Doctor. You are unending, pure magic, what a privilege it’s been to bear witness to it. Mom & Dad forever. My sweet angel [Millie Gibson], thank you for your kindness, for always lifting me up, you have stolen everyone’s hearts!! I cannot wait to see what life has in store for you.”

Varada then expressed gratitude for some colleagues who worked behind-the-scenes. She wrote: “For teaching me and showing me love & support like I’ve never known before.” She added in the post this week: “Thank you to every beautiful soul involved in this madness.”

She concluded: “And of course to the beautiful fans, thank you soooo much for embracing Belinda, for all the kind words, all the joy! I think I finally understand what you meant [Russell T. Davies] when you said my life would never be the same. I feel transformed. Thank you thank you thank you.”

The post has amassed more than 16,000 likes and former colleagues reacted in the comments section. Ncuti wrote: “MOM AND DAD FOREVER. Love you endlessly.” Whilst co-star Millie said in her reply to Varada: “I LOVE YOU.”

Varada’s post comes after lead Ncuti addressed his own departure from Doctor Who. Last week’s season finale, the Reality War, on Saturday night saw his Fifteenth Doctor regenerate – showing Billie Piper in his place – in a bid to save Poppy (played by Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps), who in one reality was the child of the Doctor and Belinda.

In a video message shared by the BBC, Ncuti said: “It’s a role that demands a lot of you physically and emotionally and mentally. The actors playing the Doctor are only actors playing the Doctor. Unfortunately, we are mere mortals.”

Ncuti, who also reflected on the experience elsewhere in the video, released on Saturday, added: “I would love to have the energy and the youth to be able to do this full time for the rest of my life, but my knees are telling me it’s time.”

And in a statement, he said: “You know when you get cast, at some point you are going to have to hand back that sonic screwdriver and it is all going to come to an end, but nothing quite prepares you for it. This journey has been one that I will never forget and a role that will be part of me forever.”

Ncuti said elsewhere in the statement: “The fans are truly the final character and beating heart of this show and I can’t thank the Whoniverse, and the Whovians, enough for welcoming me in, and making this such a touching experience. I’ve loved every minute of it, but now is the time to hand over the keys to that beloved blue box.”

There had been speculation over his potential departure in recent months. It came after Ncuti, who starred in two seasons of Doctor Who, reportedly revealed in an unaired moment on the Graham Norton Show in October last year that he would be “filming the third series next year”.

Amid recent speculation, just days prior to the finale’s broadcast, the BBC confirmed to the Mirror that Ncuti had not been “axed”. A spokesperson told us at the time: “Whilst we never comment on the future of the Doctor, any suggestion that Ncuti Gatwa has been ‘axed’ is pure fiction.”

Addressing the future of the show, they added: “As we have previously stated, the decision on season 3 will be made after season 2 airs and any other claims are just pure speculation. The deal with Disney+ was for 26 episodes – and we still have an entire spin off, The War Between the Land and the Sea, to air. And as for the rest, we never comment on the Doctor and future storylines.”

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