DeSantis orders flags at half staff in honor of ‘true Floridian' Hulk Hogan
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also proclaimed Aug. 1 as 'Hulk Hogan Day' and called the wrestler a 'true Floridian.'
'His larger-than-life personality will be missed, as the 'Hulkster' was an icon for many who grew up in the 80s and 90s as well as today,' DeSantis wrote in a statement. 'He was a true Floridian through and through.'
The WWE star, whose real name is Terry Bollea, spoke at the Republican National Convention in June to a raucous and enthusiastic crowd where he ripped off his shirt with his bare hands. His death last week prompted mourning and condolences from the party's leaders, including President Trump.
'We lost a great friend today, the 'Hulkster.' Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way — Strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart,' Trump wrote on Truth Social last week.
'He gave an absolutely electric speech at the Republican National Convention, that was one of the highlights of the entire week,' he added. 'He entertained fans from all over the World, and the cultural impact he had was massive.'
Vice President Vance called the wrestler a 'a great American icon.'
'The last time I saw him we promised we'd get beers together next time we saw each other,' he wrote on social platform X. 'The next time will have to be on the other side, my friend!'
Hogan's life was not without controversy. In 2013, he sued the website Gawker Media after the online publication released portions of an adult film with him and Heather Clem, who was married at the time to a radio host. He was also captured on the tape saying a racial slur. The wrestler later apologized.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
a minute ago
- Los Angeles Times
Dozens killed seeking aid in Gaza as Israel weighs further military action
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — At least 38 Palestinians were killed overnight and into Wednesday in the Gaza Strip while seeking aid from United Nations convoys and sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots when crowds approached its forces. Another 25 people, including several women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to local hospitals in Gaza. The military said it only targets Hamas militants. The latest deaths came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to announce further military action — and possibly plans for Israel to fully reoccupy Gaza. Experts say Israel's ongoing military offensive and blockade are already pushing the territory of some 2 million Palestinians into famine. A new U.N. report said only 1.5% of Gaza's cropland is accessible and undamaged. Another escalation of the nearly 22-month war could put the lives of countless Palestinians and around 20 living Israeli hostages at risk, and would draw fierce opposition both internationally and within Israel. Netanyahu's far-right coalition allies have long called for the war to be expanded, and for Israel to eventually take over Gaza, relocate much of its population and rebuild Jewish settlements there. President Trump, asked by a reporter Tuesday whether he supported the reoccupation of Gaza, said he wasn't aware of the 'suggestion' but that 'it's going to be pretty much up to Israel.' Of the 38 Palestinians killed while seeking aid, at least 28 died in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza where U.N. convoys have been repeatedly overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds in recent days, and where witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire. The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots as Palestinians advanced toward them, and that it was not aware of any casualties. Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said another four people were killed in the Teina area, on a route leading to a site in southern Gaza run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor. The Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of six people killed near a GHF site in central Gaza. GHF said there were no violent incidents at or near its sites. Two of the Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza City, in the north of the territory, killing 13 people there, including six children and five women, according to the Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the bodies. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its militants are entrenched in heavily populated areas. Israel facilitated the establishment of four GHF sites in May after blocking the entry of all food, medicine and other goods for 2 1/2 months. Israeli and U.S. officials said a new system was needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off humanitarian aid. The United Nations, which has delivered aid to hundreds of distribution points across Gaza throughout the war when conditions allow, has rejected the new system, saying it forces Palestinians to travel long distances and risk their lives for food, and that it allows Israel to control who gets aid, potentially using it to advance plans for further mass displacement. The U.N. human rights office said last week that some 1,400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May, mostly near GHF sites but also along U.N. convoy routes where trucks have been overwhelmed by crowds. It says nearly all were killed by Israeli fire. This week, a group of U.N. special rapporteurs and independent human rights experts called for the GHF to be disbanded, saying it is 'an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law.' The experts work with the U.N. but do not represent the world body. The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots when crowds threatened its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly crowding at its sites. Israel's air and ground war has destroyed nearly all of Gaza's food production capabilities, leaving its people reliant on international aid. A new report by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization and the U.N. satellite center found that just 8.6% of Gaza's cropland is still accessible following sweeping Israeli evacuation orders in recent months. Just 1.5% is accessible and undamaged, it said. The military offensive and a breakdown in security have made it nearly impossible for anyone to safely deliver aid, and aid groups say recent Israeli measures to facilitate more assistance are far from sufficient. Hospitals recorded four more malnutrition-related deaths over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 193 people, including 96 children, since the war began in October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Jordan said Israeli settlers blocked roads and hurled stones at a convoy of four trucks carrying aid bound for Gaza after they drove across the border into the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli far-right activists have repeatedly sought to halt aid from entering Gaza. Jordanian government spokesperson Mohammed al-Momani condemned the attack, which he said had shattered the windshields of the trucks, according to the Jordanian state-run Petra News Agency. The Israeli military said security forces went to the scene to disperse the gathering and accompanied the trucks to their destination. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and abducted another 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 still held in Gaza, around 20 are believed to be alive. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. It is part of the now largely defunct Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source for the number of war casualties. Shurafa, Khaled and Melzer write for the Associated Press. Khaled reported from Cairo and Melzer from Tel Aviv. Israel. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio in Berlin and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.
Buzz Feed
a minute ago
- Buzz Feed
RFK Jr. Cuts mRNA Vaccine Funding
I'm not sure if you've heard, but everyone's least favorite Health and Human Services Secretary, RFK Jr., recently announced that he's cancelling $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine development. mRNA vaccines, which stand for messenger ribonucleic acid (RNA), are "highly effective" and "safe," according to the National Council on Aging, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of older adults in the US. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the mRNA vaccine helps teach your body to fight infectious diseases. More specifically, mRNA technology is utilized in the COVID-19 vaccine, which infectious disease experts say is what helped to slow the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak in the US. According to CBS News, RFK Jr. reiterated that "HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them." In response to the news, Mike Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases and pandemic preparations, recently said, "I don't think I've seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business." Following these vaccine funding cuts, millions have expressed deep concern for the future of medicine, as well as the impact of future pandemics in the US. Here's how medical professionals, lawmakers, and citizens are reacting: Commonly, people threw some personal digs at RFK Jr., with one person calling him a "despicable quack." ...and a pediatric MD calling him an "anti-vaxx weirdo." While other medical professionals directly contradicted RFK Jr.'s claims about the mRNA vaccine, calling them "simply false." And called out RFK Jr.'s "fundamental misunderstanding of immunology." Another infectious disease doctor argued that RFK Jr.'s decision came from "ideology" and "online anti vax talking points." And this medical professional and health writer called mRNA vaccines "one of the most important tools we have for preventing future pandemics." Another person expressed their anger about "throwing away" years of research: Even politicians have weighed in, with Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock calling the funding cuts a "tragedy." "Whatever your reason for not voting or voting 3rd party, I promise it wasn't worth destroying our country over," this person wrote. And this person made a scary observation, writing: "A diseased population is easier to control..." And finally, this Reddit user summed up what many are feeling: "Imagine being so privileged to have lived in a tiny slice of human history when MILLIONS of people have been spared from pyrogens at the hands of vaccines……only to be somehow convinced the answer to the threat humanity faces going forward is to stop researching the most proven and effective medicine mankind has ever known." What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
Fast Company
a minute ago
- Fast Company
The real meaning behind that viral Department of Homeland Security painting
In recent months, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has used its social media platforms to promote its vision of an ideal country. In between posts celebrating mass deportations and defending ICE, the department has taken on the role of curator, posting a series of artworks that appear to communicate an idealized, Eurocentric concept of the American dream. The department's artistic choices haven't been subtle, but none can compare to the overt messaging of its most recent art choice. On July 23, DHS posted a painting titled American Progress, alongside the caption, 'A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending.' The 1873 painting by John Gast shows a group of white pioneers traveling west, forcing a group of Indigenous people out of frame. The irony of the DHS' post and caption, according to Martha Sandweiss, Princeton professor and historian of the U.S., is that American Progress does not show Americans 'defending' a homeland: 'What we actually see here are American settlers invading a homeland,' Sandweiss says. 'Of course, that's the homeland of the Native people that we see fleeing into the darkness, and, metaphorically, into extinction.' Gast's painting has long been used as an embodiment of the concept of ' Manifest Destiny,' a belief held by many during the nineteenth century (and beyond) that the United States was destined by divine right to control the entire territory from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. For decades, this dogma was used to explain and legitimize the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Native Americans. The DHS's choice to highlight American Progress shows that its art choices have become an intentionally provocative flashpoint in an ideologically divided United States. And, Sandweiss says, it represents a whitewashing of the past that might signal a desire to exclude non-white Americans in the present. The fraught history of John Gast's 'American Progress' Gast's work on American Progress began in 1872, when he was commissioned to make a work for George Crofutt, an American publisher of several different guides promoting westward expansion. The image shows settlers traveling by stagecoach, conestoga wagon, and railroads, guided by a giant allegorical female figure of America, who holds a schoolbook in one hand and places a telegraph wire in the other. While these figures are glowing in a bright light, the fleeing Indigenous people are shrouded in darkness. 'On the one hand, [Crofutt] needs a set of ideas that his readers will readily respond to and are, in a sense, already familiar with,' Sandweiss says. 'In addition, he's using the picture as a kind of propaganda. He's picturing an imaginary scene that he hopes will resonate with people who might want to buy his travel guides and travel west themselves.' American Progress ultimately appeared in the monthly publication Crofutt's Western World. The image's description, as written by Crofutt, is full of racist tropes that align with the Manifest Destiny ideal of bringing 'civilization' to an 'uncivilized' place and people. 'This rich and wonderful country—the progress of which at the present time, is the wonder of the old world—was, until recently, inhabited exclusively by the [lurking] savage and wild beasts of prey,' Crofutt writes. Crofutt goes on to describe how the painting associates American settlers with the transformative power of technology, like transcontinental rail lines, trans-Atlantic trade (pictured in the top right of the image), and new telegraph wires. On her head, the symbolic female figure of America wears what Crofutt calls the 'Star of Empire.' In contrast, he writes, the lefthand side of the image 'declares darkness, waste and confusion.' The Indigenous people in the image are visually grouped with fleeing wild animals like a herd of bison and a black bear, all shown, per Crofutt, 'as they flee from the presence of the wondrous vision.' 'It doesn't reflect reality in any way' According to Sandweiss, it's no coincidence that American Progress shows trains in conjunction with the displacement of Native peoples. By 1872, it had been three years since the completion of the first transcontinental rail line, and several other lines were already underway. In the coming decades, Indigenous people would be forcibly located away from these routes. advertisement 'Absolutely, when the large reservations were created in the late 1860s, it was in part to move Native peoples away from the prospective railway lines so that they would not pose a threat to either the railroad companies or the settlers that the railroads would bring west,' Sandweiss explains. American Progress, Sandweiss says, is an idealized version of the American settler story. Encoded in the image is the idea that white Europeans were the sole people living in the American West, while, in actuality, the region was primarily settled by people of Spanish origin who arrived from Mexico. 'It doesn't reflect reality in any way,' she says. 'It doesn't reflect the multiple sources from which non-Native people came into the West. It doesn't depict the more complex racial identity of people who came into the West, which, by 1872 is including more free people, is including people coming north from Mexico, and it doesn't convey the role of women and families in the settlement of the Western landscape.' The press office of California Governor Gavin Newsom also reposted the painting with the response, 'This painting is housed at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. The museum heavily features Native American history and intentionally embraces a more honest, inclusive understanding of Western history—a concept the Trump administration fails to understand.' This painting is housed at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. The museum heavily features Native American history and intentionally embraces a more honest, inclusive understanding of Western history — a concept the Trump administration fails to understand. — Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) July 23, 2025 Whitewashing of the past leads to whitewashing of the present Many American schoolchildren will be familiar with American Progress because, for decades, textbooks have used it as a visual explanation of the Manifest Destiny concept. The image's themes of divine conquering, the spread of technology, the superiority of European settlers, and patriarchal structure capture the complex dynamics at play within this belief system. For the DHS to post this painting through an uncritical lens, Sandweiss says, signals 'a broader ignorance of American history on the part of the current administration'; an ignorance that she sees reflected in the administration's efforts to alter the historical information shared by agencies like the Smithsonian and the National Park Service. 'If you overly simplify the past—if you pretend that the only important people in the story were white men—you not only distort the past and dishonor the many other kinds of people who were part of American society at that moment, you also suggest that there's not a space for different kinds of people in the present,' Sandweiss says. 'Whitewashing the past makes it easier to whitewash the present, and pretend that people who are not like the people we see in this painting have never had a part in the American nation.' The early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
