PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 22, 2023--

Gina Miles, along with Noivas, Sorelle, D Smooth and Grace West, advanced to 'The Voice' Season 23 finale round

United Airlines is reporting a profit of more than $1 billion for the first part of the peak summer travel season

“On the 13th of this month, we buried my brother.” Those are the first words out of Chris Eubank’s mouth after he takes a seat beside his nephew Harlem, son to the late Simon Eubank, in a Westminster high-rise on an October afternoon. Loss has been far too rife in the Eubank family in recent years. Simon’s death, at the age of 61, came two years after the passing of Chris’s son Sebastian, who was just 29 when he died of a reported heart attack – the same age that Harlem is now. But Chris and Harlem are not focusing on endings. They are focusing on beginnings. Both think in “spiritual” terms. They make that clear. “Divine intervention” brought the icon and the contender together, as Harlem puts it, while Chris describes Simon’s death as the former boxer having “now left this dimension”. It was at Simon’s funeral that Harlem and Chris connected in a way that they had not done previously. Now, Harlem is Chris’s “son”, the former two-weight world champion stresses repeatedly. “This is our life, this is more than boxing,” Harlem tells The Independent, reflecting on the bond behind the new partnership, which has been forged in the lead-up to his fight with Timo Schwarzkopf on 10 November – and a year after Chris’s split from his son Jr. “To have each other close and to have him by my side is very important, it’s a big deal. Boxing is a spiritual experience. You’re going into the fire, and it means the world to have my uncle Chris, who is a king of this realm, by my side.” Chris, meanwhile, takes a moment and a breath before weighing in. “What does it mean?” The 57-year-old has always taken his time choosing his words, and it has always made him a mesmeric orator. “It means I’m delighted. Delighted. I’ve given him tips over the years, and every tip I’ve given him, I’ve seen him actually carry them out in fights. Even just coming up from Brighton this morning in the car, the amount of information that I’ve been able to give him, it’s like: ‘Is he gonna be able to actually take on board this much experience and wisdom? Not only in boxing, but also to do with the media, the public, being still. Is it going to overload him?’ But it’s fun. When I get up, I pull him up; and when he gets up, he pulls me up.” By the end of the day, the duo will be back in Brighton, where their fighting family have roots – including Simon’s twin brother Peter, and Chris’s son Jr. It is there that the unbeaten Harlem will box Schwarzkopf, marking the Brighton Centre’s first fight night since 1991, when Chris retained his WBO middleweight title. Three years after that bout, to the day, Harlem was born. Some will call it coincidence; Harlem, with his feel for the spiritual and the divine, might point to something more. The 29-year-old also has a feel for philosophy. “I think I’ve always been attracted to philosophy, and the philosophy of fighting, because it’s so real,” Harlem says. “There’s nothing fake about it. When you step in the ring, you see someone’s personality in true form.” “It’s the only vocation that’s real,” Chris concurs. “Almost all vocations are pretend, but when you get hit, there’s no pretence behind it. I think of our trainer, Charlie; he’s a fireman, and he’s beautifully placed, because his spirit teaches what Harlem has to do when he’s in a fight. If it’s not going your way, you’ve got to stay in that fight, and if you get knocked down, you’ve got to get up and run back into the fire. Do you have the courage, the testicular fortitude to do what most people can’t do?” Chris, wearing a glinting badge in acknowledgement of Charlie’s service and his own unique role as a US city marshal, turns to Harlem. “I was gonna say, ‘I pray it doesn’t happen to you.’ Sorry, it’s not like that; I pray it does happen, because that’s how you cut yourself away from the rest of the pack. “That’s the warrior, and that’s why we’re creatures of irony, because we really are here to protect and bring peace, but in the ring we’re fierce!” Chris leans forward as he says it, contorting his face into a mock kind of menace. Now, he is posturing as only he can. Then, he leans back and laughs. “Sorry, I’m taking over the interview, but this is why I’m here, because I’ve got to give you copy!” Chris, who places much focus on the idea of “protecting” Harlem, takes over a few times. I wonder if Harlem minds, but he smiles softly as if to suggest he doesn’t. I certainly don’t – as keen as I am to hear from Harlem. When I ask the younger Eubank what he will be thinking as he emerges in front of a home crowd in Brighton, he manages, “You don’t have time for thoughts. I’m ready, I’m ready to go, I’m ready to––” “Inflict punishment,” Chris cuts in, before apologising to Harlem again. “I’m sorry! But that’s what I’m here to teach: He has to inflict legal punishment on his adversary. That’s right. I’m gonna teach you a quote by...” he searches for the name, thinking of Samuel Johnson but saying Winston Churchill. “‘Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled.’ So, treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle. The battle has already started, Harlem’s job is to eviscerate them. We’re here to smash it, we’re going to smash it.” Again, Chris is posturing in trademark fashion. “When you walk into that arena,” he continues, “and you hear the crowds booing you – or cheering, but it’s better when they boo – oooh, it’s beautiful!” There will be no boos in Brighton. Harlem will be the hero, Chris his mentor. But for all that Chris feels he can teach his new mentee, he effuses about his nephew’s learnings so far. To Chris, Harlem is a “pure” soul and a “sweetheart”. As a boxer? “Beautiful, brilliant, sugar.” They will hope for a sweet homecoming. Harlem Eubank vs Timo Schwarzkopf will air live on Channel 5 on Friday 10 November. Coverage begins at 10pm GMT, with ring walks due at 10.05pm. Read More Harlem Eubank is the latest brick in a house of glory and grief What is an exhibition fight and how is it different to a professional bout? The Independent’s pound-for-pound boxing rankings What is an exhibition fight and how is it different to a professional bout? The Independent’s pound-for-pound boxing rankings Jake Paul’s next fight confirmed as ‘toughest’ opponent yet revealed

The lager-maker will take a huge loss on the division which, it said, had taken longer to jettison.

Josh Peck has revealed he got down to the final four actors in the running to play vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight franchise

If Quordle is a little too challenging today, you've come to the right place for

Ron DeSantis is officially running for president, and on Tuesday landed in the early caucus state of Iowa to give voters a preview of what his campaign will look like. What that shaped up to be in Des Moines was largely what analysts had expected for months: a bid for higher office that leans into Republican culture war battles and as far away from direct confrontation with the incumbent de facto leader of the party, Donald Trump. Mr DeSantis spoke to an enthusiastic crowd that cheered enthusiastically at his vows to score major wins on those issues like LGBT+ rights and “critical race theory”, but less for his veiled shots at the former president, who was never mentioned by name for obvious fear of losing the audience. The governor instead heaped his criticism on Joe Biden and the administrative state which he hinted that Mr Trump had failed to rein in. He was joined by his wife, Casey, and a handful of state-level elected officials — a preview of the battle that is no doubt shaping up in the state where the governor will have his first (and potentially only) real chance to prove that he can credibly compete with the former president, who has turned his fire wholly on his top rival in recent weeks amid continued polling showing the governor falling further behind him. Here are five things you should remember about Tuesday night’s rally going forward into the 2024 primary season: 1. DeSantis was backed by powerful state officials In a clear coup for the DeSantis campaign, the Florida governor charged into his rally on Tuesday backed by both Iowa’s governor and lieutenant governor, Kim Reynolds and and Adam Gregg respectively. To be clear: in a pre-Trump political world, this would be a massive advantage for any candidate to have. Winning the endorsements of the two highest-level officials in state government, let alone at one’s launch rally, is a sign of political dominance that would make any candidate other than Donald Trump think twice about even competing in the state. But Mr Trump is no ordinary opponent, and his continued star power in the GOP far outstrips that of any GOP statewide official — even at home. The former president’s endorsement hasn’t proven to be ironclad, seeing key defeats to opponents of Mr Trump on various sides of the political spectrum in 2022, but it’s fair to say that Mr Trump remains a credible competitor, even perhaps the frontrunner, to win in Iowa regardless of Ms Reynolds and Mr Gregg’s endorsements. 2. The governor won’t touch Trump Mr DeSantis was more than eager to turn his sights on Joe Biden and the actions of his administration during the speech. Not so much for Mr Trump, who was not mentioned by name at all in the governor’s remarks. The desire of Mr DeSantis to avoid a confrontation with the former president might be more convincing, however, had he not indirectly referenced Mr Trump multiple times during his remarks — including at one moment when he asserted that four years in office was simply insufficient to rein in America’s bureaucracy. Even George Washington, the governor charged, would be unable to do so in that amount of time. Mr DeSantis’s tone notably changed when speaking to reporters after the event ended — “He used to say how great Florida was... Hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship,” he noted of the former president. But that fire has yet to emerge in front of those who actually decide elections: voters. The governor therefore appears to be largely stuck in limbo; unwilling or unable to land a blow against Mr Trump when it counts, but more than cognisant of his need to do so. 3. Culture wars rise to the top The greatest targets for criticism on Tuesday were not Mr Biden or his team in the White House at all. Mr DeSantis reserved his harshest tone for so-called “woke” ideologies such as support for LGBT+ rights among public officials and private businesses. He vowed to purge any teachings he deemed remotely “inappropriate” for children from schools, and pledged to do the same to the military and other federal agencies if elected president. This is Mr DeSantis’s true strategy: master the issues that make GOP voters the angriest, and bet that it will propel him not just through a primary race against Donald Trump but to the White House against Joe Biden as well. The governor argued that keeping the attention on these issues and presenting a “positive” alternative to Mr Biden’s vision for America would be their ticket to a victory. 4. Pressure against Republicans on the debt ceiling After Donald Trump came out and said that Republicans in Congress should “do a default” unless they score significant concessions from Democrats in legislation to raise the debt ceiling this week, Mr DeSantis upped the ante further and declared on Tuesday that Republicans should oppose the idea entirely. He railed at the idea of raising America’s debt ceiling by $4 trillion and warned that the GOP’s existing cuts to spending secured in a Saturday-night deal between Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy were not enough — America would still be spiralling towards bankruptcy, he asserted. Expect that to raise the stakes for hardline conservatives in Washington this week as Mr McCarthy hopes to whip as many votes as possible in his caucus to support the bill aimed at averting a default on the US’s loans. 5. Leaning on parents in the battle for suburbia One last interesting theme that Mr DeSantis’s rally touched on multiple times was the idea of families and parents having sovereignty over their kids, their local schools, and other entities. It was hardly a surprising point for the Florida governor to tout, given his signing into law several bills affecting the teachings allowed in schools in the Sunshine State which have been decried by the NAACP and other organisations. But it also played into another larger dynamic that has been playing out across the country for several years. The governor’s repeated statements of support for parents and his efforts to draw support from conservative-aligned education activists are part of the greater GOP’s response to a trend that quickened sharply under Donald Trump’s presidency: the blue-ing of America’s suburbs, which have trended steadily Democratic in recent years while the party simultaneously lost its grip on blue collar voters in the Rust Belt and other areas. His strategy mirrors the one pursued by Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin in 2021, which led to Mr Youngkin beating out former Gov Terry McCaulife and becoming the first Republican to win a statewide election in that purple state since 2009. Read More DeSantis hits familiar targets of Fauci, Disney and ‘wokeism’ in first rally as 2024 candidate Ron DeSantis called out for ‘ignoring’ Hollywood beach shooting: ‘He doesn’t care’ LGBTQ people are fleeing Florida in ‘mass migration’ with some fundraising via GoFundMe Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Marvel Snap Quantum Tunnel location explained, cards to try and more.

High-tech gadgets are all about making your life easier, and nothing is easier (or gives

The Boston Red Sox are falling all the way out of playoff contention and Chaim Bloom deserves the lion's share of the blame for his trade deadline dud.The Boston Red Sox are dead. Sure, in theory, they could make up the five-game deficit that's grown in the wild card race over the rema...

The US summer travel season is kicking off with forecasts for the third-busiest Memorial Day on record, driving