The Dictatorship
The new Bob Dylan biopic isn’t a history lesson. That’s OK.
After a seemingly endlessthough occasionally hilariouspre-release media campaign, “A Complete Unknown,” the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet, is now in theaters. As with any biopic, there are questions about its historical accuracy — both from sincerely curious fans and from nitpicking diehards.
Pay the armchair historians no mind. Yes, the film gets whole swaths of the known story of Dylan’s early days in Greenwich Village wrong, but those gripes are largely irrelevant. Hollywood has long taken artistic license in portrayals of real-life characters; what matters is how a film does it. Director and co-writer James Mangold and his co-writer Jay Cocks may not always stay true to the literal facts, but they nail the look, feel and emotional and artistic arc of Dylan’s life in the early 1960s.
As the film mentions more than once, Dylan himself began his career by creating a biography from whole cloth.
Besides, when I interviewed Dylan in 2022, and asked him how he imagined a young artist might approach weeding through the infinite choices Spotify offers, he told me, “You’d have to limit yourself and create a framework.” With so much information, so many characters and so many diverging stories making up the early days of Dylan’s professional life, Mangold took essentially the same approach, to great effect. While some may quibble, it is, after all, just a movie, not a history lesson.
Elijah Wald, author of “Dylan Goes Electric!,” on which “A Complete Unknown” is based, says he’s untroubled with the artistic license that Mangold took with his work. “The book was optioned almost a decade ago, and was going to start production just as the pandemic kicked in,” Wald says, “but I think it really benefitted from that delay. It would have been a different film. The script would have been different. And Timothee wouldn’t have had those years of absorbing himself in Dylan’s music; of learning to play the guitar and harmonica. It would have been more an imitation, because he wouldn’t have been able to go so deep. All those things add up to a very different film.”
As the film mentions more than once, Dylan himself began his career by creating a biography from whole cloth, and he has continued to fast and loose with his life’s story throughout his career. For writers covering him, parsing fact from fiction has been a fun, if sometimes frustrating task. But thanks to the dogged work of numerous writers, historians and documentarians, the story of Dylan’s early years are pretty well known, including the film’s moment at 1965’s Newport Folk Festival when Dylan strapped on an electric guitar, simultaneously decimating the cultural importance of that gathering of folk purists and essentially inventing the modern rock star.
So why let the facts get in the way of great storytelling, especially if Mangold, Cocks, Chalamet and company capture the feel and the significance of the period so well?
“There were many people who were pivotal people in the Greenwich Village scene who are not there at all; important people like Phil Ochs, Glen Chandler and Tom Paxton, which I found really irritating,” says author David Browne, author of a new history of Greenwich Village’s bohemian music scene. “But wrapping the film up in an almost completely imagined relationship between Dylan and Pete Seeger — because it was easy to make Dylan a disrupter to the Pete Seegers of the world, even though he was just as disruptive to his contemporaries — as well as a love triangle, makes storytelling sense, and I wound up really liking the film.”
Where do you start if you want to know what really happened to Bob Dylan and his fellow folkies — almost all of whom are barely even mentioned in the film — and what led him to abandon the scene that had nurtured him so unceremoniously?
Why let the facts get in the way of great storytelling?
Wald’s own “Dylan Goes Electric!” is an obvious must-read. The narrative at the book’s heart, chronicling the parallel lives of Dylan and Pete Seeger, allowed Mangold to streamline the film’s narrative, dispensing with many of the Greenwich Village characters Dylan befriended (and often exploited) in favor of Seeger as Dylan’s mentor, foil and unwitting nemesis.
And while Dylan’s own 2004 memoir “Chronicles, Volume One” is replete with half-truths, quarter-truths and not-truths, his recollections of his days in Greenwich Village are gripping, detailed and full of characters and anecdotes that capture the time and place perhaps even better than “A Complete Unknown.”
A fantastic complimentary memoir to Dylan’s is artist Suze Rotolo’s “A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties.” Rotolo was the model for the film’s Sylvie Russo — whose name and character were reportedly fictionalized at Dylan’s own request — but her relationship with Dylan was only a small part of a long and fascinating life. And while her book doesn’t ultimately paint the real-life Dylan in the most positive light, it gives amazing insight into his origin story.
As for the broader background from which Dylan sprung, the core of Browne’s book, “Talkin’ Greenwich Village,” revolves roughly around the period when Judy Collins, Peter, Paul and Mary and eventually Dylan put the neighborhood on the map for young, aspiring East Coast musicians. Quite literally everyone who has been excised from Dylan’s story as told in “A Complete Unknown” — from artists like Dave Van Ronk and Phil Ochs to Dylan’s early patrons and managers like Carolyn Hester and Terri Thal — are present. And even those who do appear in one form or another in the film become fully realized figures in Browne’s book.
Finally, “Bob Dylan in America” by Sean Wilentz is a great choice for anyone looking for something meaty that places Dylan in the wider context of the culture and the times. Wilentz, who is both an esteemed historian and a true fan of Dylan, also digs deep into the artist’s early inspirations, from the Popular Front to the Beats, which are barely even hinted at in Mangold’s film.
Yes, “A Complete Unknown” may not be completely accurate. Like so many rock ’n’ roll biopics, though, its goal was not historical fidelity, but entertainment and the introduction of an important artist to a new generation. So break out the popcorn, damn the facts, and ask your local cinema to turn up the volume.
Jeff Slate is a New York City-based songwriter and journalist. His writing can be found at The New Yorker, Esquire, The Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone, among others. He tweets at @jeffslate.
Fox News apologized for airing old video of a hatless President Donald Trump during coverage Sunday of his attendance at the dignified transfer ceremony for U.S. soldiers killed in the Middle East war, insisting it was an honest mistake.
In a polarized time, some online critics suggested without evidence that it wasn’t an error — that the network was trying to make Trump look better by not showing him wearing a baseball cap during what is considered one of the most solemn duties of a commander in chief. The return of the bodies of six soldiers took place Saturday at Dover Air Force Base.
But Fox News said archival footage of Trump at an earlier ceremony was inadvertently pulled up by a staff member and used on two Sunday morning telecasts. A spokeswoman noted the correct footage was used at other times, including on Saturday.
“We regret the error and apologize for the incorrect footage,” Fox said in a statement.
Fox News anchor Griff Jenkins issued an on-the-air correction Sunday, saying “we extend our respect and condolences” to the families of the service members killed.
The apology didn’t sit well with some critics. “If any other network did this it would be a huge scandal, Fox would lead the chorus of criticisms and faux-outrage, and people would lose their jobs,” said Mehdi Hasanfounder of the online site Zeteo.
Johnny “Joey” Jones, a veteran and co-host of “The Big Weekend Show” on Fox News Channel, said on social media that he was “embarrassed and ashamed” that this happened.
“My belief was that this was an honest mistake, but that doesn’t make it an acceptable one,” Jones wrote. “Few things are more sacred than our heroes who give their lives in the line of duty.”
Jones said that “if posting snarky comments and insults is your way of reacting to this, please direct them at me. I’m the one with sharp words on these issues. If you are using this as a way to take a partisan jab at my hard working colleagues, check your watch.”
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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
The Dictatorship
Honduras weighs shift in China-Taiwan ties as Trump pushes for US dominance in Latin America
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three years after Honduras parted ways with Taiwan and forged diplomatic ties with China in hope of economic gainshrimp farmers in the Central American country are in revolt.
Their sales to Taiwan fell to a mere $16 million in 2025, down from more than $100 million in 2022, and the Chinese didn’t fill the void as hoped.
“We were deceived,” said Javier Amador, executive director of the National Aquaculture Association of Honduras, as he described the promises from former President Xiomara Castro of better opportunities with China when she severed ties with Taiwan and opened an embassy in Beijing in 2023.
Nasry Asfura, who was elected president with the backing of President Donald Trump and sworn into office in January, has ordered a review of agreements between Tegucigalpa and Beijing. This has fueled expectations that Honduras will distance itself from China, in line with a Trump administration campaign to reduce Chinese influence and economic clout in Latin America.
Asfura is expected to join other regional leaders for a security summit Trump is hosting at his golf course near Miami on Saturday.
“Honduras is probably the most likely country in the world right now to switch diplomatic recognition back to Taiwan,” said Francisco Urdinez, an associate professor at the Political Science Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. “President Asfura campaigned on it, he met Trump at Mar-a-Lago within days of taking office, and his vice president has confirmed the government’s intention.”
“But it’s not as simple as flipping a switch,” he said, noting that Honduras has signed more than a dozen agreements with China since 2023.
China and Taiwan were both diplomatic in responding to questions about a potential shift in allegiance.
Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said Honduras has better prospects for its long-term development since establishing diplomatic ties with China and both countries have “reaped fruitful cooperation outcomes in various fields.”
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, the island’s de facto embassy in Washington, said Taiwan will continue to advance relations with Honduras “in an open and pragmatic manner, without preconditions, and on the basis of equality and reciprocity.”
The Honduras government has not responded to a request for comment.
Taiwan as a barometer of influence
Latin America’s ties with Taiwan have gained attention because they have become a barometer of the power balance between the world’s two largest economies.
Beijing considers Taiwan to be Chinese territory, while Washington, despite its lack of formal ties with Taiwan, is the island’s strongest partner and has vowed to help Taiwan keep its formal allies, seen as necessary for the island to eke out a legitimate space on the global stage.
Of the 12 governments that still recognize Taiwan’s statehood, seven are in Latin America, including Guatemala, Paraguay and five in the Caribbean.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during a visit to Guatemala in February, thanked the country for sticking with Taiwan.
“It’s not easy in a world where there is a lot of pressure to change that recognition and to break those ties, but you have always stood firm,” Rubio said, as he promised to work with Guatemala to deepen its economic ties with Taiwan.
Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, had a similar message when hosting a delegation from Guatemala in November.
“While too many countries bow to the bullying of Beijing, Guatemala stands with the people of Taiwan and prospers through a strong trade relationship,” Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said. “I support Guatemala’s efforts to oppose Chinese aggression in our hemisphere and look forward to working with Guatemala on areas of common ground.”
U.S. lawmakers have introduced a bill that could provide $120 million over three years in assistance to Taiwan’s partners.
Thousands of shrimp farmers lose their jobs
In 2016 and 2017, Panama, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador all switched their allegiance from Taipei to Beijing. Nicaragua flipped in 2021, and Honduras in 2023.
The loss of the Taiwanese market led to the closure of at least 95 shrimp farms and one processing plant, the loss of more than 25,000 direct and indirect jobs, and the loss of millions of dollars in foreign exchange for the Central American country, according to Amador.
“Most of the companies closed in 2024 because many couldn’t ship to other markets, and China hasn’t been the answer, because we’re not competitive for them,” he said.
Amador hopes the president restores ties with Taiwan for the benefit of the 330 shrimp farming companies that are still operating.
“The issue of returning to Taiwan is not about recovering what we have already lost, but about whether we are going to start over to reactivate industry, improve productivity and generate foreign currency and employment,” he said.
Honduras’ new president has a dilemma
For Asfura, who campaigned on severing ties with Beijing, there’s more to untangle. China has hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investments in Honduras.
Enrique Millán-Mejía, senior fellow on economic development at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, said Honduras could confer “a special status” on Taiwan and withdraw from Beijing’s global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, which has helped the Chinese government open markets and extend its influence.
Last year, Panama became the first Latin American country to quit the Belt and Road Initiative, prompting an angry response from Beijing, which accused the U.S. of using “pressure and coercion” to undermine the cooperation.
Urdinez said Asfura may go further and rebuild formal ties with Taiwan.
“Asfura’s calculus is fundamentally about the U.S., not about Taiwan per se,” Urdinez said. “Taiwan recognition is essentially the price of admission to Trump’s good graces.”
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Gonzalez reported from Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Iran’s regime has named Mojtaba Khamenei the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, succeeding his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike at the start of the ongoing Middle East war.
Several of Mojtaba Khamenei’s other family members were also killed in the initial strikes, including his wife, Zahra Adel, his mother, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, and his son, according to Iranian state media.
The ascension of Khamenei to his father’s seat of nearly absolute power suggests a determination by regime hard-liners to dig in against internal and external pressure for reform, even as U.S. and Israeli bombs continue to fall.
It also creates the awkward appearance of a ruling family leading an Islamic Republic that supplanted the monarchy of the shahs after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
In an interview with ABC News on SundayPresident Donald Trump reiterated that any new Iranian leader will “have to get approval from us.”
“If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it,” Trump said.
But Trump did not rule out accepting a new Iranian leader with ties to the old regime.
Khamenei, the late ayatollah’s second son, becomes just the third person to hold the title of supreme leader, after his father and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the republic.
Like his father when he took power in 1989, Khamenei, 56, is not an ayatollah but a mid-level Shia cleric. The elder Khamenei had the law changed to make himself an ayatollah essentially overnight – a source of tension that never quite went away during his brutal reign of nearly 37 years.
Until now, Khamenei has been considered a quietly powerful figure who has played a behind-the-scenes role in the regime. He has reportedly amassed a vast real estate portfolio through shell companies with several properties in Dubai, Frankfurt, Mallorca and on London’s “Billionaire’s Row” worth more than $100 million combined, according to a Bloomberg investigation.
In addition to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, his new role also means he is the de-facto leader of the so-called Axis of Resistance, a collection of paramilitary groups within the region united against the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza, as well as smaller groups in Iraq.
Regardless of who the leader would have been, they have a target on their back as U.S. and Israeli officials have vowed to assassinate them. Several high-ranking Iranian officialsincluding Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Pakpour, have already been killed.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on X on Wednesday that “every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people—will be an unequivocal target for elimination.”
President Donald Trump has said that “someone from within” the Iranian regime may be the best choice to assume power after the U.S.-Iraeli military campaign, but added that “most of the people we had in mind are dead.”
The new leader was chosen by Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the governmental body comprised of 88 clerics established at the beginning of the revolution. The group’s building in Qom, a city south of capital Tehran, was hit in an airstrike on March 3.
In an interview with MS NOW on March 4, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi did not confirm if Mojtaba would succeed his father, but said that “a new body has been established, comprised of three people, so they will be in charge until the new leader is elected,” adding that the group was “working to prepare the ground for the election of the new leader.”
Cabrera questioned Takht-Ravanchi’s definition of an “election,” asking, “Will the people of Iran have any say on who leads this country next? Or is that predetermined?”
“The people have already chosen that body who is going to elect the supreme leader,” Takht-Ravanchi said, calling the process “very transparent” and “democratic.”
Trump had repeatedly and publicly urged Iran to accept his terms for a nuclear weapons agreementamid fragile negotiations mediated by Omani diplomats, and threatened an attack if it did not. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, according to U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). Iran has struck several U.S. military bases and civilian sites throughout the Middle East in retaliation, with at least six U.S. service members killed and numerous other deaths around the region from Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile strikes.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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