After 26 days in Fiji stuffed with brutal challenges, back-to-back blindsides and an emotional breakdown over Applebee’s, Season 46 of “Survivor” has come to an finish.

Kenzie Veurink was topped the only real survivor in Wednesday’s finale after receiving probably the most votes from the jury. The 26-year-old hair salon proprietor from Michigan got here out victorious in opposition to Siga members Charlie Davis and Ben Katzman.

The solo remaining member of the Yanu tribe, which broke a file for probably the most days with out incomes flint, managed to make it to the tip. Regardless of being perceived a social risk by her fellow castaways, Kenzie managed to be on the proper aspect of most votes, aside from the Tiffany Ervin blindside.

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The Mermaid Dragon, a nickname coined by Bhanu Gopal, gained the second to final immunity problem with the assistance of Liz Wilcox, who beforehand broke down when she wasn’t chosen to go on a reward journey to Applebee’s.

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Nevertheless, sleep-deprived underdog Ben took an surprising win on the ultimate problem, later forcing Kenzie and Liz to duel in a fire-making competitors. Kenzie managed to prevail and light-weight a flame sturdy sufficient to burn her rope earlier than Liz, whose wrists had been working in opposition to her.

Here is what to know concerning the Mermaid Dragon.

Who gained ‘Survivor’ Season 46?

In a 5-3-0 ultimate jury vote, Kenzie Veurink beat Charlie Davis and Ben Katzman to earn the title of “sole survivor” and a test for $1 million.

Through the ultimate tribal council, Kenzie persuaded the jury that her social technique led to her success by forming bonds with every participant.

Q and Tiffany voted for Kenzie whereas Soda and Hunter voted for Charlie.

Who’s Kenzie Veurink from ‘Survivor’ 46?

Kenzie is a 29-year-old from Gibraltar, Michigan who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

She earned her magnificence license as a young person and has owned her personal salon since she was 24. Through the ultimate tribal she mentioned that she doesn’t cost magnificence stylists to function at her enterprise and informed the jury that the money prize would enable her to help herself.

Earlier this month, Kenzie revealed on Instagram that she is pregnant, anticipating her first youngster with husband Jackson.

Did Kenzie Veurink ever win immunity?

Veurink gained two particular person immunities on Survivor 46 after dropping 4 consecutive tribal immunity challenges with Yanu.

Her first win was in episode seven with the Bermuda Triangle problem for immunity and reward. Her second win occurred through the season finale finishing an impediment course and puzzle problem. She was capable of beat Maria Gonzalez with the assistance of Liz, who ran to the beginning of the course to assist Kenzie resolve the mix.

Will there be a ‘Survivor’ 47?

Season 46 of “Survivor” is about to premiere in September and air Wednesday nights. An actual premiere date has but to be introduced.

Pricey Editor,

As Memorial Day approaches, it’s important for all Individuals to take a second to replicate on the true that means of at the present time. Memorial Day isn’t just an extended weekend or the unofficial begin of summer season; it’s a day devoted to honoring the courageous women and men who’ve made the final word sacrifice in service to our nation.

The Veterans of International Wars (VFW) Division of California needs to remind everybody that the freedoms we get pleasure from at present are the results of the braveness and dedication of our fallen brothers and sisters. These people got here from all walks of life however shared a standard dedication to guard and defend our nation. Their sacrifices should not be forgotten.

We encourage you to take part in Memorial Day ceremonies to pay respects to those that have given their lives for our freedom. Moreover, we ask that everybody take a second of silence at 3 p.m. native time (Might 27), as a part of the Nationwide Second of Remembrance.

Allow us to be certain that Memorial Day stays a poignant reminder of the price of our liberty and a possibility to honor and bear in mind our army heroes. By doing so, we protect the legacy of those that served and reaffirm our dedication to supporting the households they left behind.

Respectfully,

Tim Bryant

State Commander

Veterans of International Wars, Division of California

The Individuals’s Liberation Military continues land, sea and air workout routines that started on Thursday across the self-ruled island .

China’s army has begun its second day of battle video games round Taiwan, with drills that it stated have been to check the armed forces’ means to “seize energy” and management key areas of the self-ruled democracy.

As the primary day of workout routines, codenamed Joint Sword-2024A, bought beneath manner on Thursday, China described them as “punishment” following the inauguration speech by Taiwan’s new president William Lai Ching-te by which he stated Taiwan was a “sovereign and impartial nation with sovereignty resting within the folks”.

Lai additionally confused Taiwan would make no concessions on its freedoms and referred to as on Beijing to “cease its aggression towards Taiwan”.

The drills are a part of an escalating marketing campaign of political and army intimidation by Beijing, which claims the island as its personal and has not dominated out using pressure to attain its aim of unification.

The 2-day workout routines are testing the “functionality of joint seizure of energy, joint strikes and management of key territories,” stated Colonel Li Xi, spokesman for the Individuals’s Liberation Military (PLA) Japanese Theatre Command.

Taiwan mobilised its armed forces to watch and shadow Chinese language exercise because the drills bought beneath manner.

On Friday, the island’s Ministry of Defence printed photos of F-16s, armed with reside missiles, patrolling the skies.

It additionally confirmed photos of Chinese language coastguard vessels, and different navy ships participating within the drills close to the Pengjia Islet north of Taiwan.

Footage printed by China’s army, in the meantime, confirmed troopers streaming out of a constructing to battle stations and jets taking off to a rousing martial tune.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that Chinese language sailors had referred to as out to their Taiwanese counterparts at sea, warning them towards “resisting reunification by pressure”.

Blunt language

Beijing considers Lai a “troublemaker” and a “separatist”. Like his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen, he says solely Taiwan’s folks can determine their future.

At Thursday’s common press briefing, Chinese language Ministry of International Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin used the form of blunt language normally utilized by the nation’s propaganda shops.

“Taiwan independence forces will likely be left with their heads damaged and blood flowing after colliding towards the good … development of China reaching full unification,” Wang informed reporters.

Beijing’s Xinhua information company and ruling celebration newspaper, the Individuals’s Day by day, each ran editorials hailing the drills on Friday, lashing out at Lai’s “treacherous behaviour” and promising a “extreme blow”.

The United Nations has referred to as on all sides to keep away from escalation, whereas america – Taiwan’s strongest ally and army backer – “strongly” urged China to behave with restraint.

The defeated Republic of China authorities fled to Taiwan in 1949 after shedding China’s civil battle to Mao Zedong’s communists, who based the Individuals’s Republic of China.

The drills are going down within the Taiwan Strait and to the north, south and east of the island, in addition to areas across the Taipei-administered islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin.

CNN
 — 

China’s army drills round Taiwan are designed to check its capability to “seize energy” over the island, the Folks’s Liberation Military mentioned Friday as its forces kicked off a second day of large-scale workouts encircling its democratic neighbor.

The drills are the biggest in additional than a yr and are available simply days after Taiwan swore in its new president, Lai Ching-te, who’s brazenly loathed by Beijing for championing the island’s sovereignty and distinct id.

Beijing has denounced Lai as a “harmful separatist” and decried his inauguration speech on Monday, throughout which he known as on China to stop its intimidation of Taiwan, which has grown way more pronounced below Chinese language chief Xi Jinping.

The PLA, which dwarfs Taipei’s outgunned army, kicked off the workouts on Thursday morning, sending warships and fighter jets round Taiwan and its outlying islands in what it known as “a powerful punishment for separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces.”

On Friday, the PLA’s Jap Theater Command mentioned it was persevering with the drills on each side of the Taiwan island chain to “take a look at the flexibility to collectively seize energy, launch joint assaults and occupy key areas.”

China’s ruling Communist Social gathering views Taiwan as a part of its territory, regardless of by no means having managed it, and has vowed to take the island by power if essential.

The overwhelming majority of Taiwanese don’t have any need to dwell below Chinese language rule. However Xi, China’s most authoritarian chief in a era, has made clear the island’s “inevitable reunification” with the mainland can’t be delay indefinitely.

The 2-day workouts, involving joint operations of China’s military, navy, air power and rocket power, are being performed within the Taiwan Strait – a slim physique of water separating the island from mainland China – in addition to north, south and east of Taiwan, based on the PLA.

For the primary time, the PLA drills additionally concerned China’s Coast Guard, working in areas round Taiwan’s outlying islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin, positioned simply off the southeastern coast of China.

CCTV aired footage on Friday that reveals PLA troopers transferring cell artillery and missile techniques into place, although it didn’t present any dwell hearth.

Taiwan’s Protection Ministry has condemned China’s army workouts as “irrational provocations” and dispatched its personal sea, air and floor forces in response.

Between 6 a.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday, the ministry detected 49 Chinese language plane, together with 35 that crossed the Median Line, an off-the-cuff demarcation level within the Taiwan Strait that Beijing doesn’t acknowledge however till current years had largely revered.

A complete of 19 Chinese language warships and 7 coast guard vessels have been detected close to the Taiwan Strait, based on the ministry.

Taiwan’s presidential workplace mentioned Thursday it’s “regrettable to see China threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom and regional peace and stability with unilateral army provocations,” including Taiwan has the “confidence and talent to guard nationwide safety.”

Lai has had a busy and politically turbulent begin to his presidency after taking on from two-term chief Tsai Ing-wen, to kick off a historic third consecutive time period for the ruling Democratic Progressive Social gathering (DPP).

The PLA’s drills pose the primary actual take a look at for the veteran politician in managing tensions with Beijing, which has refused his provide to speak and to renew cross-strait tourism and scholar exchanges.

On Friday, China’s Protection Ministry accused Lai of pushing Taiwan into “a harmful state of affairs of conflict”and “enjoying with hearth.”

“Those that play with hearth will burn themselves,” ministry spokesperson Wu Qian advised reporters, utilizing rhetoric China incessantly deploys for Taiwan’s authorities. “Every time ‘Taiwan independence’ (forces) provoke us, we are going to push our countermeasures ahead till the whole reunification of the motherland is achieved.”

Domestically, Lai is going through chaos within the legislature, the place opposition events who favor nearer ties to China maintain a majority, and have pushed to topic his administration to tighter scrutiny.

1000’s of principally younger individuals have taken to the streets to protest the opposition’s try to fast-track the proposed payments to grant the parliament extra energy.

However regardless of Beijing’s massive present of power, life continued as regular in Taiwan, whose 23 million individuals have turn out to be used to China’s army threats, whilst they turn out to be extra common and distinguished lately.

“We’re not petrified of the Chinese language Communist Social gathering, and we have now confidence,” an 88-year-old retiree, who gave his surname Liu, advised CNN.

“If the Chinese language Communist Social gathering does assault Taiwan, it gained’t be straightforward for them to take Taiwan. Taiwanese individuals are not afraid of conflict.”

A 42-year-old mom, who gave her surname Tsai, mentioned she wasn’t even conscious the PLA drills have been happening.

“I imagine leaders will prioritize individuals’s happiness, so I’m not anxious. I believe peace might be maintained,” she mentioned.

China’s army drills are sometimes as a lot about enjoying to a home viewers as signaling intentions internationally, and state media has ramped up protection of the drills.

Zhang Chi, a Chinese language army skilled, advised China’s state broadcaster CCTV that the PLA’s workouts targeted on “practising a brand new mode of blockading Taiwan.”

“Taiwan is an remoted island, suspended within the sea with weak self-sufficiency. Taiwan’s economic system is export-oriented, and most of its vitality consumption depends on imports. As soon as besieged and blockaded, it might simply result in financial collapse, turning it right into a useless island,” he mentioned.

The workouts to the south of Taiwan are essential for the blockade, focusing on Kaohsiung port, Taiwan’s largest port and an vital base for the island’s navy, Zhang mentioned. In the meantime, drills to the east of Taiwan are designed to follow reducing off the island’s vitality imports, the escape routes for “Taiwan independence” forces and the help line from the US and its allies, he added.

The US maintains shut however casual relations with Taiwan and is sure by regulation to provide the island with weapons to defend itself.

Zhang additionally famous that the drills had achieved “a brand new breakthrough” by getting into waters close to Wuqiu and Dongyin, which maintain vital geographical significance.

“The Taiwanese army views them because the entrance outposts for Taiwan Strait protection operations. This train additional squeezed the exercise area of the Taiwanese army,” he mentioned.

Analysts mentioned the China Coast Guard motion near and across the outlying islands was an vital new side of the present drills, which comply with earlier encirclement workouts in August 2022 and April 2023.

“The urgent of Coast Guard and different forces into waters near these offshore islands is provocative,” mentioned Carl Schuster, a former director of operations on the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Heart.

He mentioned he anticipated such Chinese language actions to proceed and that they “will turn out to be the norm,” with Beijing at any level in a position to then flip an train into an actual army operation.

Craig Singleton, senior China fellow on the nonpartisan Basis for Protection of Democracies, mentioned China’s sample of workouts round Taiwan doesn’t sign an imminent invasion menace.

“These drills help in blurring the strains between peace and conflict, a lot in order that future workouts might be used as a pretext for an precise invasion,” Singleton mentioned.

However Singleton and others say the workouts are sending a much bigger political message than a army one.

“Joint Sword – 2024A goals at reactivating the army stress lever to claim a level of affect on the brand new (Taiwan) administration and its narrative,” mentioned Lionel Fatton, assistant professor of worldwide relations at Webster College in Geneva, utilizing China’s title for this week’s drills.

Beijing will use the stress of the drills to attempt to improve divisions inside Taiwan, which might “weaken” the island from the within, he mentioned.

“Fixed and visual army stress on the island may even assist polarize the political equipment, if not the social material itself,” Fatton mentioned.

HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES — A star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame was unveiled Thursday honoring Chris Hemsworth, someday earlier than the U.S. launch of his newest movie, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.”

George Miller, who directed and co-wrote the screenplay for the post- apocalyptic motion journey movie, and Robert Downey Jr., a castmate of Hemsworth in 4 “Avengers” movies, had been amongst these becoming a member of him on the ceremony in entrance of the Ovation Hollywood procuring complicated on Hollywood Boulevard. His “Furiosa” co-star, Anya Taylor-Pleasure, was additionally in attendance.

Hemsworth heaped reward on followers, castmates and household, giving explicit kudos to his dad and mom.

He stated his dad and mom raised him “with the idea that in the event you do select one thing you are enthusiastic about, in the event you lean into one thing you’re keen on together with your coronary heart and soul, then the aim and the that means is specified by entrance of you.

“We do not say rising into love, we are saying falling into love, so fall into it. There is a leap of religion that happens, and there is a threat in that. However when you’ve got folks round you to catch you and assist you then it is a far simpler threat to take. And I am so grateful for my dad and mom’ encouragement alongside the best way, and the boldness they gave myself and my brothers to pursue one thing we had been enthusiastic about that ignited curiosity and creativity.”

The star is the two,781st for the reason that completion of the Stroll of Fame in 1961 with the preliminary 1,558 stars.

Hemsworth is finest identified for his portrayal of the hammer-wielding god Thor, first within the eponymous 2011 stand-alone Marvel movie, then in “The Avengers,” “Thor: The Darkish World,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Avengers: Infinity Warfare,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Thor: Love and Thunder.”

He additionally starred because the mercenary Tyler Rake within the 2020 motion thriller “Extraction,” Netflix’s most-watched authentic movie, and its 2023 sequel “Extraction 2.”

Hemsworth’s different memorable movies embrace “Snow White and the Huntsman” and its sequel, “The Huntsman: Winter’s Warfare,” “Males in Black: Worldwide,” the 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot; the biographical sports activities movie “Rush,” and “Trip,” the fifth and last theatrical installment of the “Trip” movie sequence.

The actor made his American movie debut within the 2009 science fiction movie “Star Trek,” showing within the opening scene as George Kirk, the primary officer of the Federation starship USS Kelvin and father of James T. Kirk, the long run Enterprise captain.

Josh Tyler of the leisure information web site Cinemablend known as Hemsworth’s scene the “finest 5 minutes I’ve spent in a movie show this 12 months.”

Hemsworth was born on Aug. 11, 1983 in Melbourne, Australia, and raised each there and within the Australian outback city of Bulman. He started his profession in 2002 in Australian tv, starring in two episodes of the fantasy sequence “Guinevere Jones” as King Arthur, showing on the nighttime cleaning soap opera “Neighbours” and one episode of the authorized sequence, “Marshall Regulation.”

His first high-profile function got here in 2004 as hunky highschool dropout Kim Hyde on “Residence and Away,” which introduced him a Logie Award in 2005 as hottest new male expertise. The awards honor the perfect in Australian tv.

Hemsworth appeared in 171 episodes of the nighttime cleaning soap opera, leaving in 2007 to focus on his film profession.

Chris Pizzello/Related Press

Trump addressed supporters in Crotona Park, a public inexperienced house in a neighborhood that’s among the many metropolis’s most numerous and its most impoverished, a change from the majority-white areas the place he holds most of his rallies. Whereas the gang was not fairly as numerous because the South Bronx as an entire, it included giant numbers of Black and Hispanic voters; Spanish was heard all through the gang.

Some within the crowd responded by chanting, “Construct the wall,” a reference to Trump’s push whereas within the White Home to construct a U.S.-Mexico border barrier.

However the Bronx rally was his first occasion open to most of the people as he insists he’s making a play to win an overwhelmingly Democratic state that hasn’t backed a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Apart from making a spectacle of rallygoers and protesters, the rally additionally gave Trump a chance to spotlight what he argues are benefits on financial and immigration points that would lower into key Democratic voting blocs.

“Everybody wished to be right here,” he instructed the enthusiastic viewers. “However sadly that is now a metropolis in decline.”

Hours earlier than Trump’s rally was set to start, a protracted line of supporters decked out in purple “Make America Nice Once more” hats and different Trump gear snaked across the park, ready for safety screening to start. Individuals had been nonetheless getting into the park properly into Trump’s speech, with some keen supporters sprinting up a hill towards the rally website after getting via safety.

The Bronx Democratic Get together protested Trump’s look with its personal occasion on the park.

“We’re used to elected officers, to authorities officers, to opportunists of all types who come to our group and use our painful historical past,” stated Democratic State Rep. Amanda Septimo, who represents the South Bronx. “They speak in regards to the Bronx and every thing that’s improper with it, however they by no means get to the half that talks about what they’re going to do for the Bronx and we all know that Trump is rarely going to get to that half in his speech.”

NYC Assemblymember Amanda Septimo, in addition to civil rights activist Kirsten John Foy, instructed the New York Submit on Monday they don’t need Trump and his views on points corresponding to immigration to go unchallenged within the borough, so that they organized counter-programming.

Members of the Democratic and Working Households Get together, pro-immigration advocates and union activists may even be a part of the anti-Trump rally, the Submit reported.

A number of longtime figures in New York politics — each Republican and Democrat — argued there’s good motive for Trump to go to the Bronx and different majority Black and Latino communities.

Trump has usually pointed to the success of former Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican who ran for governor in 2022 in opposition to Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul. Zeldin in the end misplaced the race by an unusually shut margin.

Whereas different presidential candidates have visited and met with native leaders, Díaz recommended Trump for being “the primary and solely president or presidential candidate who has proven respect to minority communities within the Bronx” by holding a rally.

“Individuals are fed up,” he stated. “Democrats say they’re there to assist us … however our individuals are doing worse underneath the Democratic management.”

Harlem bodega rally

Wildwood, NJ rally

Hours earlier than he was scheduled to take the stage, hundreds of Trump loyalists donning “By no means Give up” T-shirts and purple “Make America Nice Once more” hats crowded onto the sand between the boardwalk and carnival rides to greet the previous Republican president.

The rally comes throughout a pause in Trump’s legal hush cash trial. Court docket will resume following the Memorial Day weekend with closing arguments.