MIAMI — Donald Trump is getting a street named after him in Hialeah.

The Hialeah City Council voted on Tuesday, Nov. 14, to designate Palm Avenue as “President Donald J. Trump Avenue,” making good on Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo’s promise less than a week ago to honor the former president with a namesake road in the majority-Hispanic, Republican stronghold.

The vote came just days after Trump rallied supporters at Henry Milander Park as five of his GOP rivals participated in the third Republican presidential debate in Miami. During that rally, Bovo presented Trump with a street sign bearing the former president’s name.

The Nov. 13 vote wasn’t the first time city officials considered naming a road after Trump. Hialeah weighed a similar proposal last year, but the resolution was unanimously rejected by the city’s Historic Preservation Board.

The decision means that Trump will become the first president, current or former, to have a road named after him in Hialeah. And in some ways, it’s a natural fit. A heavily Republican city where the vast majority of residents are Hispanic and nearly 75% are Cuban, Trump has proven deeply popular in Hialeah, carrying it handily in the 2020 presidential election.

The vote was more of a formality than a real debate. Meeting attendees who spoke out in favor of the resolution outnumbered its opponents 2-to-1 in public remarks, and city council members made clear early on that they had every intention of approving the measure.

At the start of the meeting, Bovo had the Trump Avenue sign — autographed by the former president himself — placed at the front of the council chambers. Many meeting attendees donned red Trump-themed baseball caps and shirts. Each of the few community members who stepped up to the lectern to oppose the designation faced jeers from a largely pro-Trump crowd.

Robert Gewanter, the owner of M&M Liquors in Hialeah, was among those who spoke out against the Trump Avenue resolution. He claimed that Trump’s long history of alleged corruption — in both his business and political careers — made the notion of naming a road after him unthinkable. Gewanter’s remarks were interrupted at one point by meeting attendees chanting “USA.”

Another opponent of the resolution, Ferny Coipel, the chair of Hialeah’s Historic Preservation Board, proposed naming a road after former President Barack Obama. Councilman Carl Zogby loudly put down the suggestion: “Absolutely not.”

Bovo offered an even harsher response to Coipel’s proposal. In remarks ahead of the Trump Avenue vote, Bovo recalled Obama’s 2016 trip to Havana and his meeting with then-Cuban President Raul Castro and accused the former U.S. president of shaking “the hand of the devil.”

While Obama made “Cuba great again,” Bovo said, “Trump made America great again.” He said that message carried particular resonance in Hialeah.

“This is an American city first and foremost,” Bovo said. “We may be a little different from other American cities, but we are an American city.”

Pūteketeke named New Zealand’s ‘bird of the century’

CANBERRA, Australia — The pūteketeke, also known as the Australasian crested grebe, has clinched the title of New Zealand’s bird of the century after a little help from late-night talk show host John Oliver.

“Congratulations to campaign manager John Oliver and all those who gave their support to the pūteketeke,” New Zealand’s newly elected prime minister Christopher Luxon wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The bird of the year contest has been going on for nearly two decades in the country, but this year’s poll drew an unprecedented number of votes, according to BBC News.

Over 350,000 votes from nearly 200 countries were reportedly tallied and crashed the voting verification system for a time, pushing back the result by two days.

Oliver, host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” launched an aggressive campaign for the bird, also known as the Australasian crested grebe. With fewer than 3,000 native crested grebes estimated to remain in the wild, his campaign aimed to raise awareness about their vulnerability.

“They are weird puking birds with colorful mullets. What’s not to love here?” Oliver said last week on his show.

The comedian also put up billboards in countries including New Zealand, France and the U.K., referring to the bird as “Lord of the Wings.”

“This is what democracy is all about — America interfering in foreign elections,” Oliver also joked. He even appeared on fellow comedian Jimmy Fallon’s show donning a giant pūteketeke costume.

The pūteketeke, which does have a propensity for vomiting, secured over 290,000 votes in the final count, overshadowing the second-place kiwi, which garnered just 12,904 votes.

North Korea tests new engines for ballistic missiles to strike US bases in Guam

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea tested new engines for intermediate-range ballistic missiles, its state media said, a move that could help Pyongyang deliver quick strikes on U.S. bases in places such as Guam.

Tests were conducted in the last week on “new-type high-thrust solid-fuel engines” for “further enhancing the strategic offensive capabilities” of North Korea’s armed forces, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Nov. 15.

The tests were for a first and second stage of a missile, and North Korea released images on the event on its state media. In the past, Kim Jong Un’s regime has conducted tests of missiles a few months after engine tests.

North Korean state media frequently says that its arsenal of ballistic missiles is capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

The announcement of the missile tests comes as the U.S. is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. Isolated North Korea is not a member, but the tests shine a light on Kim’s nuclear program ahead of high-stakes talks on the summit’s sidelines between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his counterparts from Japan and South Korea on the sidelines of APEC to discuss North Korea’s “increasingly destabilizing actions,” the State Department said in a statement Nov. 14. Blinken also reaffirmed the U.S.’s “ironclad commitment” to defend Japan and South Korea, which host the bulk of the America’s military personnel in the region.

While the U.S. removed its deployments of nuclear weapons from Japan and South Korea decades ago, it maintains what the Pentagon bills as America’s largest munitions depot in the world in Guam. The jungle-strewn island is home to a U.S. Air Force base with bombers capable of delivering nuclear strikes in places such as North Korea and further afield.

North Korea has been modernizing its ballistic missile arsenal over the past few years by testing and deploying solid-fuel rockets that are easier to hide, quick to deploy and capable of being sent into flight before the U..S and its allies in the region could launch a counterstrike to shoot the missiles on the pad.

Pyongyang had already fired 28 ballistic missiles and two space rockets so far this year. They included four intercontinental ballistic missiles that could hit the U.S. mainland. Kim’s regime launched more than 70 ballistic missiles last year, a record for the state.

In July, North Korea tested its new solid-fuel Hwasong 18 ICBM, which flew longer than any of its other ICBMs and appeared designed to carry a multiple nuclear weapons payload. This increases the chances that at least one bomb could slip past interceptors and make its way to a target.

Liquid-fuel ballistic missiles, which were used almost exclusively by North Korea before Kim took power, generally take more time to prepare as propellant is added to their tanks. This makes them vulnerable to attack before taking off.