Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ push to establish the future Donald Trump Presidential Library in his state crossed a major milestone yesterday, angering some Miami residents due in part to the proposed site’s proximity to a Cuban immigration monument, cultural center and museum. At the Torre de la Libertad, or Freedom Tower, a generation of Cuban refugees first entered the U.S. after fleeing the Castro regime. In a unanimous vote yesterday, DeSantis and an executive state committee approved the transfer of 2.6 acres of prime downtown real estate appraised at more than $66 million from the owners Miami Dade College to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, a group spearheading the president’s future archives.

Why is the plan so controversial?
The land transfer and plans for a future presidential library drew “immediate backlash” from critics who argued that the college parcel was “intended to serve educational purposes,” said CBS News. A presidential library “does not belong in a place and space” that’s “taking away from Miami Dade College’s students,” said one protester to the network during a Monday demonstration at the site in question. Earlier this year, DeSantis signed a bill designed to prevent local communities from blocking any presidential library construction.

Backers of the project have argued that the library will “boost Miami’s profile as a cultural and political hub” while “generating opportunities” for the local college community, said Fox13. It’s “not about political values or ideologies,” said MDC board member Roberto Alonso, whose parents emigrated from Cuba in the 1960s, to CBS. 

How does the Freedom Tower factor in?
Situating the proposed Trump library alongside a building that’s both a “shrine to immigration” in Miami and the former home of the Miami Daily News is “abhorrent to some,” said the Miami Herald. Unlike past presidential libraries, Trump’s proposed construction is “not just another historical archive,” and its presence next to the Freedom Tower is “twisted symbolism” given the president’s anti-immigration and anti-press freedoms platform. While the building “highlights the desperate journeys of immigrants fleeing communism and dictators,” a Trump library next door would “likely include his legacy of sweeping deportation proposals and anti-immigration crackdowns.”

Hollywood has long been obsessed with tales of popular actors fighting to keep young rivals from replacing them on the marquee. Now, the competition is coming not from fresh-faced ingenues but from an artificial intelligence “actor” named Tilly Norwood.

Norwood is a “British-accented brunette” who does not exist in the real world, said Vanity Fair. The creator, Dutch producer Eline Van der Velden, expects to sign Norwood with a talent agency and hopes it can rival stars like Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson at the box office. 

"Guilds, actors and filmmakers” have reacted to Norwood’s emergence with an “immediate wave of backlash,” said The Associated Press. Acting performances should remain “human-centered,” the Screen Actors Guild said in a statement. The use of AI in film and TV productions was a “major bargaining point” in the 2023 actors strike, but its implementation continues to be “hotly debated," said the AP.

What did the commentators say?
Calling Norwood an actor is “inaccurate, it’s insulting,” Jenelle Riley said at Variety. Van der Velden calls Norwood a “creation,” though terms like “deepfake” or “animated character” might also work. Van der Velden’s references to Portman and Johansson reveal a “grotesque lack of understanding” of how acting works and “precisely what makes those actors special.” 

Norwood “represents Tinseltown's death knell,” Vinay Menon said at The Toronto Star. There’s no evidence that Norwood “could nail a Nespresso ad,” but AI is “impervious” to the annoyances of human actors who “flub lines” and “have contract demands.” The best that those humans can hope for is that Norwood’s debut is a “box office bomb."

What next?
Finding an agent for Norwood might be tough. Norwood “does not have a future” at some of the best-known talent agencies, said The Wrap. “We represent humans,” said Richard Weitz, the co-chairman of WME Group. Gersh Agency will also not sign Norwood, said Variety. But the issue of AI performance is “going to keep coming up,” said Gersh President Leslie Siebert. “And we have to figure out how to deal with it in the proper way."

Residents stand among the rubble in Cebu after a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake devastated the central Philippines last night. Striking just days after Super Typhoon Ragasa slammed into the country, it has killed at least 69 people and injured dozens.
Daniel Ceng / Anadolu / Getty Images

From memoirs to horror and everything in between, graphic novels can entertain, inform and even scare readers with their striking visuals and text. These are a few of the most gripping from the last year. 

‘This Beautiful, Ridiculous City’ 
In her debut graphic memoir, Kay Sohini pays tribute to her love for New York City, a "crush" she developed while watching American TV shows as a young girl in Kolkata, said The Guardian. Visually, Sohini's graphic novel is a "tour de force" and a work of "careful artisanship," reminding readers that "every representation of New York is a kind of revealing fantasy," said The Washington Post. 

‘Big Jim and the White Boy’ 
This remarkable reimagining of Mark Twain's 1884 "Huckleberry Finn" by David Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson expands the "canvas of Twain's work without losing the scope, flavor and humor of the original," said Forbes. Offering more "nuanced perspectives on race relations," this work is a "modern classic" that goes "well beyond the retelling of the familiar story" of Jim and Huck's adventures on the Mississippi.

‘Feeding Ghosts’
Tessa Hulls' debut memoir, "Feeding Ghosts," is only the second graphic novel to scoop the Pulitzer Prize for memoir or autobiography. It tells the story of her grandmother, a persecuted journalist who fled China; her mother's elite upbringing in Hong Kong; and her own childhood in the U.S. Filled with "compelling characters and haunting illustrations," said The New York Times, it is a fascinating read.