Miss Universe Is India’s Harnaaz Sandhu, 70th Winner – NBC 7 San Diego
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Harnaaz Sandhu of India was crowned the 70th Miss Universe on Sunday, leading a field of about 80 entrants in a competition touched by politics and pandemic.
The previously reigning Miss Universe, Andrea Meza from Mexico, crowned her successor, a Bollywood actress, in the Israeli resort of Eilat on the Red Sea. The pageant took place in the middle of the night and ended at 5:00 a.m. local time (10:00 p.m. EST) to keep up with the prime-time schedule in the US
The pageant included traditional displays of national costumes, swimwear and a series of interview questions to test participants’ skills in public. The top 10 featured lavishly dazzled full-length dresses in either gold, silver, or bronze. Filipino Beatrice Luigi Gomez wore an asymmetrical one-sleeve dress that highlighted a new tattoo that she said “celebrates her femininity”.
But the competition has also attracted attention in recent weeks for other reasons.
A Palestinian-led boycott had asked attendees to skip the event to protest Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
Only Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country with close ties to the Palestinians, ended up not sending a representative, citing the global COVID-19 situation. The South African government, which also strongly supports the Palestinian cause, withdrew the country’s representative from participating.
In an interview last month, Meza urged attendees to keep politics out of the competition and said the gathering should bring together women from diverse backgrounds. “When you’re in there, you forget politics, your religion,” she told The Associated Press at the time.
Sara Salansky, an official with Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, said the country was selected to host the competition earlier this year because of Israel’s successful coronavirus vaccination program.
The competition suffered a hiccup with the arrival of the Omicron variant at the last minute, forcing Israel to close its borders to foreign tourists late last month.
Most of the Miss Universe nominees were in the country before the new regulations came into effect. But those who came after received special permission, albeit with a mandatory 72-hour quarantine period.
In the run-up to the competition on Sunday, all participants were tested for the corona virus every 48 hours and had to comply with strict mask requirements.
Amid all security measures, France’s candidate Clemence Botino tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after arriving in Israel. After 10 days of quarantine, she was declared virus-free last week and was allowed to participate in the competition again.
Last year’s pageant was postponed due to the pandemic before Meza was crowned for her shortened tenure in May.
Sunday’s competition was hosted by US TV personality Steve Harvey. Organizers said the pageant is expected to reach 600 million viewers over the FOX network in 172 countries.
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