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Take a look at Miss Universe Cuba 2025, where a Miami native was crowned

Take a look at Miss Universe Cuba 2025, where a Miami native was crowned

Miami Herald09-07-2025
Miss Universe Cuba has a new queen named Lina Luaces, a 21-year-old model born in Miami, who comes from Cuban-American royalty. Luaces represented Santiago de Cuba, the city where her mother, Univision host Lili Estefan, and her uncle, music producer and businessman Emilio Estefan, were born.
The Miss Universe Cuba 2025 gala was hosted by Miss Universe 2023 Sheynnis Palacios of Nicaragua, and Carlos Adyan of Puerto Rico, host of 'En Casa con Telemundo.'
The ceremony also paid tribute to the outgoing queen, Marialena Ancheta, the first Miss Universe Cuba in 57 years, who represented Cubans in Miss Universe 2024. She was in charge of crowning Luaces, who will also be the queen of the celebrations for the centennial of the city of Hialeah.
Take a look at images from Miss Universe Cuba 2025.
Read more: Lina Luaces, daughter of Univision star Lili Estefan, is crowned Miss Universe Cuba
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D-Day veteran and TikTok star ‘Papa Jake' Larson dead at 102
D-Day veteran and TikTok star ‘Papa Jake' Larson dead at 102

New York Post

timean hour ago

  • New York Post

D-Day veteran and TikTok star ‘Papa Jake' Larson dead at 102

D-Day veteran ″Papa Jake″ Larson, who survived German gunfire on Normandy's bluffs in 1944 and then garnered 1.2 million followers on TikTok late in life by sharing stories to commemorate World War II and his fallen comrades, has died at 102. An animated speaker who charmed strangers young and old with his quick smile and generous hugs, the self-described country boy from Minnesota was ''cracking jokes til the end,'' his granddaughter wrote in announcing his death. Tributes to him quickly filled his 'Story Time with Papa Jake' TikTok account from across the United States, where he had been living in Lafayette, California. Advertisement 5 D-Day veteran ″Papa Jake″ Larson and TikTok star has died at 102. AP Towns around Normandy, still grateful to Allied forces who helped defeat the occupying Nazis in World War II, paid him homage too. 'Our beloved Papa Jake has passed away on July 17th at 102 years young,' granddaughter McKaela Larson posted on his social media accounts. 'He went peacefully.' 'As Papa would say, love you all the mostest,' she wrote. Advertisement Born Dec. 20, 1922, in Owatonna, Minnesota, Larson enlisted in the National Guard in 1938, lying about his age since he was only 15 at the time. In 1942, he was sent overseas and was stationed in Northern Ireland. He became operations sergeant and assembled the planning books for the invasion of Normandy. Advertisement 5 'Our beloved Papa Jake has passed away on July 17th at 102 years young,' granddaughter McKaela Larson posted on his social media accounts, where he shared humorous anecdotes and somber reminders about the horrors of war. AP He was among the nearly 160,000 Allied troops who stormed the Normandy shore on D-Day, June 6, 1944, surviving machine-gun fire when he landed on Omaha Beach. He made it unhurt to the bluffs that overlook the beach, then studded with German gun emplacements that mowed down American soldiers. 'We are the lucky ones,' Larson told The Associated Press at the 81st anniversary of D-Day in June, speaking amid the immaculate rows of graves at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach. Advertisement 'We are their family. We have the responsibility to honor these guys who gave us a chance to be alive.' 5 'We are their family,' Larson, who survived the machine-gun fire when he landed on Omaha Beach, said about fallen D-Day troops. 'We have the responsibility to honor these guys who gave us a chance to be alive.' AP He went on to fight through the Battle of the Bulge, a grueling month-long fight in Belgium and Luxembourg that was one of the defining moments of the war and of Hitler's defeat. His service earned him a Bronze Star and a French Legion of Honor award. In recent years, Larson made repeated trips to Normandy for D-Day commemorations — and at every stop, 'Papa Jake' was greeted by people asking for a selfie. In return, he offered up a big hug, to their greatest joy. One memorable encounter came in 2023, when he came across Bill Gladden, a then-99-year-old British veteran who survived a glider landing on D-Day and a bullet that tore through his ankle. 5 Larson made trips to Normandy for D-Day commemorations, greeted by people asking for a selfie with 'Papa Jake.' AP 'I want to give you a hug, thank you. I got tears in my eyes. We were meant to meet,' Larson told Gladden, as their hands, lined and spotted with age, clasped tightly. Gladden died the following year. In his TikTok posts and interviews, Larson combined humorous anecdotes with somber reminders about the horrors of war. Advertisement Reflecting to AP on the three years he was in Europe, Larson said he is 'no hero.' Speaking in 2024, he also had a message to world leaders: 'Make peace not war.' 5 Larson talks to a girl during a gathering in preparation of the 79th D-Day anniversary in La Fiere, Normandy, France, on June 4, 2023. AP He often called himself 'the luckiest man in the world,' and expressed awe at all the attention he was getting. 'I'm just a country boy. Now I'm a star on TikTok,' he told AP in 2023. 'I'm a legend! I didn't plan this, it came about.' Small-town museums and groups around Normandy that work to honor D-Day's heroes and fallen shared tributes online to Larson, one of their most loyal visitors. Advertisement 'He was an exceptional witness and bearer of memory,' the Overlord Museum posted on Facebook. 'He came every year to the museum, with his smile, his humility and his tales that touched all generations. His stories will continue to live. Rest in peace Papa Jake,' it read. 'Thanks for everything.'

Superman is a socialist
Superman is a socialist

Vox

time4 hours ago

  • Vox

Superman is a socialist

In a recent interview with The Times, Superman director James Gunn said that his new blockbuster tells the story of 'an immigrant.' He also explained it was a story about 'basic human kindness.' But that first comment — about Superman's foreign origins — is the one that set off some pundits on the right. Fox News commentator Jesse Watters joked on air: 'You know what it says on his cape? MS-13.' Ben Shapiro blasted Gunn and the Hollywood left for being out of touch with everyday American audiences: 'The reality [is] that Hollywood is so far to the left that they cannot take a core piece of Americana and just say it's about America.' But, Grant Morrison — author of the seminal comic book series All-Star Superman — said the conservative backlash ignores the leftist origins of the world's most famous superhero. Not only was Superman created by the sons of Jewish immigrants, but those very first comics portrayed their character as a 'socialist figure.' Today, Explained Understand the world with a daily explainer, plus the most compelling stories of the day. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. In one comic published in 1939, Superman is seen shielding young thieves from police because he figured the kids were victims of poverty, then tearing down slums and forcing authorities to build low-rent housing. Before becoming the 'Man of Steel,' Superman was 'The Champion of the Oppressed.' Gunn has said that All-Star Superman was a big influence on his new film. Morrison sat down with Today, Explained host Sean Rameswaram to talk about where Superman came from, how the character has evolved, and why he will endure. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There's much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify. How did you get into Superman? What did this character mean to you? I grew up on the west coast of Scotland next to an American naval and nuclear base. My parents were anti-nuclear activists. My father was a World War II soldier who became a peacenik. So, my big fear in the world was the atom bomb, and I associated it with the Americans, but the Americans also brought the comics. Then I discovered Superman. And although I knew no real Superman was coming to save me from an actual atom bomb, metaphorically he really solved a lot of problems for my head when I was a little kid. Those are the primal roots for me, and they're quite deep. So yeah, getting a chance to do that character, sitting here overlooking that same stretch of water where we did the protests…To write All-Star Superman kind of defies the forces of entropy. If anything survives in my career, it will be that one book. Who was the Superman that you created in that series? We went for an older Superman. The basic idea was: What if Superman was dying and he had a year to live? Basically, it's a part of Lex Luthor's scheme to send Superman to the sun, and the solar radiation overcharges Superman's cells, so they begin to decay and die. Basically, Superman's dying of cancer. What would this man do in the last 12 months of his life to leave the Earth a better place than he found it? Were you surprised to find out that James Gunn wanted to relaunch this character and relaunch an entire cinematic universe with your story about a dying Superman? James didn't necessarily take the dying part. His is a younger Superman. But I think he certainly took the character as we decided to define it, and he saw something that he could work with. Instead of Superman having flaws, let's present a fictional character who doesn't have flaws. You know, he has problems of his own. He still can't get the girl. He still works for a boss in an office, but he's Superman. He's a kind of everyman whose life happens at a much higher scale. He's got an unruly dog, but his unruly dog can laser his own dinner and cook a steak. His unruly dog can fly through buildings, but he's still dealing with an unruly dog. In previous attempts people have asked: What would Superman be like if he was in the real world? Which to me is an absurd question. The only existence Superman has in the real world is as a comic book or movie character, and that's where he is most useful and most functional, as far as I'm concerned. He's a metaphor. He is an allegory. He stands for everything that is good in us. It sounds like there have been at least some iterations of this character throughout his near-century of existence — from your dying version to this ideal version, to this all-powerful version. But I believe Superman even started as a bit of a tough guy, a headbasher, and maybe even a left-wing revolutionary. Can you tell us about the non-Kryptonian origins of this character, and how he came to be on Earth? Well, he arrived in Cleveland, Ohio. He was created by two teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who'd met at school. Jerry was the writer and Joe was the artist. They wanted to work for newspapers. Newspaper syndication was the place to go for cartoons back then. They were working on this notion called 'The Superman.' The original version was an evil bald guy who eventually became Lex Luthor in the Superman story. But after a few tries, they hit on this fabulous notion of: Let's give him a wrestling costume with a cape so that we can track his movement across the panels, and make him very colorful so that he's memorable. The greatest addition to the design was to put his monogram on his chest so that the character's entire identity was summed up in this very simple advertising motif that people can remember and people can also wear and partake in being Superman. It was created by two young kids who were the sons of immigrants — European immigrants, Jewish boys — and this was their vision. Superman was a do-gooder. He was here to help people. He'd come from a distant world, but thought the only use for power and strength was to help the downtrodden and the oppressed. Early issues of Action Comics depict a Superman who's very much an outlaw. He goes after corrupt union bosses. He goes after mine owners. He goes after politicians who are corrupt. Superman later was seen as a messianic figure of hope, which I don't really like, because I think he's a fighter, he's a scrapper. He gets into fights on behalf of the little guy. He gets bloodied up and he gets up again. You shoot him [with] a tank shell, and he gets up again. Through the years, that changed quite radically. The socialist figure of the early years hit 1942 and suddenly it was war, and Superman became incredibly patriotic, and that's where the 'Truth, justice, and the American way' thing first appears. Then, in the 1950s, Superman changes again completely. You're dealing with guys coming home from the war, domestication, and living in suburbia. So Superman becomes a family drama, but on a titanic scale. He has friends from the future who visit and cause trouble. He has a cousin who survived the destruction of Krypton, he has a dog, and he has a monkey. So Superman then, to me, was probably at his peak, but he was representative of post-war masculinity trying to adjust to a world of relatives and not being married. Those stories were obsessed with the relationship with Lois [Lane]. In the 1960s, he becomes a cosmic seeker. He almost goes back to his roots, and we have stories where he is fighting for Native American land rights, he's up against polluters, and very much back to the activist Superman. And so it goes. In the 1980s, he's a yuppie. In the 1990s, they kill him in order to make it interesting, then bring it back as a soap opera set around the fictional newspaper, the Daily Planet. And into the 2000s, you get the work that I did. It's funny to hear you lay out this history in which Superman at one point is something of a socialist warrior, because all of these pundits who are mad about James Gunn saying that Superman's an immigrant, if they really knew the history here, there's so much more they could be mad about. Absolutely. As you say, if anyone had bothered to look at the history of Superman, they'd see that he was always an immigrant created by immigrants. He represented that experience, but he was assimilated. I mean, he was an American. He'd been raised by American parents. So that was very important as well. And I think the combination of these two qualities is what maybe drives people mad, because they want it to be either one thing or another, but Superman's trying to embody everyone. It's funny, a thing that we talk about the first half of the show is that depending on how tuned into the news you are, you can see a lot of what's going on in the world today in this movie. But of course, this movie wasn't made this week. It was made a year ago. Yeah. The meetings about this movie probably started five years ago. Do you think there's something about the nature of Superman that makes him timeless? I definitely believe that. I mean, we are talking about the history of Superman, which goes back to 1938. Superman has outlived his creators. He's also outlived the people who took over from his creators, and the next generation of the people who took over from his creators.

Former Ohio State quarterback Will Howard discusses last six months while at ESPYs
Former Ohio State quarterback Will Howard discusses last six months while at ESPYs

USA Today

time12 hours ago

  • USA Today

Former Ohio State quarterback Will Howard discusses last six months while at ESPYs

To say that it's been a memorable and eventful last six months for former Ohio State quarterback Will Howard would be an understatement. Not only did he realize a couple of childhood dreams by winning a College Football Playoff national championship and by being selected in the NFL draft, but he also appeared on the red carpet at the ESPYs because the Buckeyes were nominated for "Team of the Year." And while OSU didn't win that award, he still got to rub elbows with American sports' royalty and experience all that comes from being a part of the festivities. One other thing Howard has been able to do is learn from future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers after he was signed to lead the Steelers this coming year. Howard -- all decked out in his best -- took some time while at the ESPYs to talk about those things and more while on the red carpet ahead of sitting in the audience in person to watch the annual sports awards show. As he always is, Howard was gracious and engaging in talking about a six-month whirlwind that will undoubtedly be unlike any other in his life. He reflected on his transfer to Ohio State, making a run to the national championship, and what it means to be mentored by Rodgers. You can catch all of his comments below, thanks to the ESPN College Football "X" account. It's unlikely that Howard will get much time under center in Pittsburgh this season, but as Rodgers moves on, if he can learn and make the most of the opportunity he has, maybe we can see him doing some of the same things he did for Ohio State for the Steelers in the near future. I wouldn't bet against him at this point. Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X.

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