List of All Articles with Tag 'sons'

The Minnesota Lynx lost their first six games but have rebounded nicely to reach

New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, who made history as the first Black woman to serve as speaker of the state Assembly, died Tuesday

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss her criticism of the state’s Black history school curriculum standards after she joined widespread outrage over newly approved guidelines that diminish the impact of slavery and racist violence. “In Florida we are unafraid to have an open and honest dialogue about the issues. And you clearly have no trouble ducking down to Florida on short notice,” the governor wrote in a letter on 31 July, referencing her recent remarks in the state. “So given your grave concern (which, I must assume, is sincere) about what you think our standards say, I am officially inviting you back down to Florida to discuss our African American History standards,” he added. The administration also has invited William B Allen, one of the members of the working group that developed the standards who has a long history of inflammatory remarks and partisan rhetoric. The Independent has requested comment from the office of Ms Harris. The vice president travelled to Orlando on Tuesday to deliver remarks at the 20th Women’s Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Quadrennial Convention. Her visit follows remarks in the state on 21 July to condemn the state’s “propaganda” and the “extremist, so-called leaders” who support it. Though she did not name him or any other Florida officials, the vice president’s speech was directly aimed at the governor, whose administration has sought to radically overhaul public education and establish a “parents’ rights” agenda that restricts honest lessons of race and racism, threatens discussion of LGBT+ people and events, targets libraries and reshapes local school boards. A new set of standards for African American history in Florida schools will teach middle schoolers how enslaved people “developed skills” that could be “applied for personal benefit”. Another guideline instructs high schoolers to be taught that a massacre led by white supremacists against Black residents in Ocoee to stop them from voting in 1920 included “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” Civil rights advocates, educators and lawmakers have warned that the guidelines present a distorted, revisionist picture of American history. “Adults know what slavery really was. It involved rape, it involved torture, it involved taking a baby from their mother, it involved some of the worst examples of depriving humanity of people in our world,” Ms Harris said in her remarks in Jacksonville. Members of the working group and the Florida Board of Education have defended the unanimously approved standards, assuring that they include comprehensive lessons on American history, including its darkest chapters. Mr Allen, a Black professor emeritus at Michigan State University who also sits on the national advisory board of the right-wing think tank Center for Urban Renewal and Education, has repeatedly defended the working group’s guidelines. A review of his past statements from Popular Information reveals a history of incendiary, contrarian remarks used to bolster and legitimise right-wing ideology. In 1989, he faced protests while participating in a panel titled “Blacks? Animals? Homosexuals? What is a Minority?” on which he claimed that special classes of protection for LGBT+ people and other minorities are a “fatal” mistake that heighten “tensions and antagonism”. Creating legal protections for minority groups “is the beginning of the evil of reducing American blacks to an equality with animals and then seducing other groups to seek the same charitable treatment,” according to prepared remarks. His speech was denounced by the US Civil Rights Commission – on which he was then serving as chair – as “disgusting” and “necessarily inflammatory”. That same year, he also was charged with kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from a Native American reservation in Arizona while she was the subject of a custody battle between her mother and a white couple who adopted her. Mr Allen also has opposed race-conscious admissions in higher education, including leading a campaign with a group that included members of the conservative Christian Hillsdale College and right-wing interest group the Heritage Foundation. He also has criticised The 1619 Project, which is explicitly banned from Florida schools, and has rejected concepts including “systemic racism, institutional racism [and] white privilege.” Mr DeSantis has routinely accused “the left” and Democratic officials of “indoctrinating” students in the state while he promotes an agenda that bans honest discussions of race and racism, sexuality and gender. The governor’s administration also recently approved materials from right-wing political advocacy group PragerU to be included in K-12 classrooms. The founder himself has said that those lessons are explicitly designed to indoctrinate. The campaign for Mr DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, has fired back at Black Republicans in Congress who have joined criticism of the African American history standards, including US Reps Byron Donalds and John James, as well as 2024 rival and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. Both Mr James and Mr Donalds have endorsed Donald Trump. Read More Why Florida’s new curriculum on slavery is becoming a political headache for Ron DeSantis Most of Florida work group behind controversial new guidelines on African American history did not agree, report says The GOP primary is already decided. We’re just pretending it isn’t

Dozens of Democratic members of Congress are asking the Biden administration to end expedited screening of asylum-seekers in Border Patrol custody, calling it a “rushed practice” that has allowed little access to legal counsel

Russia has been warned that it will face more drone attacks – after a Moscow high-rise housing a number of government ministries was hit for the second time in three days. An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, tweeted that the Kremlin will soon "collect all of their debts" over the invasion of Ukraine with further strikes on Russian soil. While Ukraine stops short of directly claiming such attacks, of which there have been a flurry in recent weeks, officials often show their satisfaction and seek to undermine Russia in any way they can as Kyiv's forces press on with their counteroffensive. "Moscow is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war," Mr Podolyak wrote on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter. He said Russia should expect "more unidentified drones, more collapse, more civil conflicts, more war". The building that was hit by the drone is known as the "IQ quarter", which houses the Russian ministry of economic development, the digital ministry and the ministry of industry and trade. While the repeated drone incidents have not caused casualties or major damage, they have provoked widespread unease and are an embarrassment for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, which is constantly seeking to give the impression to the country's citizens that its invasion – now nearly 18 months long – is proceeding according to Moscow's plan. "In this situation, any place can be hit, so it is quite hard to feel 100% safe... We don't know what will hit us and where," Moscow Alexander Gusev, 67, told Reuters. "Indeed, a threat exists, it is obvious, but measures are being taken," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, declining to comment further. In a statement, the Russian defence ministry claimed to have thwarted what it labelled an "attempted terrorist attack" and downed two drones west of the Moscow city centre. It said another one was foiled by jamming equipment and went "out of control". Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that was the drone that hit the same tower that had been struck on Sunday. "The facade has been damaged on the 21st floor. Glazing was destroyed over 150 square metres," Mr Sobyanin said. Vnukovo airport, one of three major airports serving the capital, briefly shut down but later resumed full operations. Elsewhere, Ukrainian regional officials said a doctor was killed and five medical workers were wounded in Russian shelling of a hospital in the southern city of Kherson. "Today at 11.10am [local time] the enemy launched another attack on the peaceful residents of our community," military administration head Roman Mrochko wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said four medical workers had been wounded in addition to a badly wounded nurse whose injuries were reported earlier. Mr Mrochko said the young doctor had only worked in his job for a few days and that doctors were fighting for the life of the nurse. Meanwhile, Russia also claimed it had stopped attacks by sea drones on its navy ships, plus civilian vessels in the Black Sea. Mr Podolyak later said that such statements were "fictitious" and that "Ukraine has not attacked, is not attacking and will not attack civilian vessels, nor any other civilian objects". Mr Podolyak said nothing of attacks on Russian navy ships, which Ukraine considers legitimate targets given the invasion it is battling. Moscow has said it would treat any ships leaving or entering Ukrainian ports as valid targets after it ended a deal for Ukraine to export its grain through Black Sea last month. Russia has since struck Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure repeatedly. Kyiv has previously used drones to target Russia's navy base in Crimea and the bridge that Russia has built to the peninsula. Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and Kyiv has pledged to recover it along with other territory seized by Moscow since its full-scale invasion began last February. Late on Tuesday, the Moscow-installed governor of the Sevastopol district of Crimea said a drone had been shot down there too. Reuters contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary What would ECOWAS’ threat to use force to restore democracy in Niger look like? Mapped: The latest strikes on Ukraine and Russia as war rages on BP profits are cut in half to $2.6 billion as oil and natural gas prices fall

Crumbling COVID-19 vaccine and treatment sales chopped Pfizer’s second-quarter earnings, but both the drugmaker and Wall Street expect a rebound in the back half of 2023

Ron DeSantis on Tuesday defended his record delivering "pro-life protections" as Florida governor following criticism from the Susan B. Anthony anti-abortion group over his reluctance to embrace a national ban.

While there are plenty of MLB rumors out there about Justin Verlander potentially reuniting with the Houston Astros, it may not be on Houston's priority list.There are plenty of rumors out there connecting Verlander and the Astros, the franchise where he spent the last five seasons before s...

The 2023 Leagues Cup Group Stages are complete, and the knockout round bracket is set for competition.The MLS and Liga MX have been fighting and clawing to get out of the group stage and move onto the knockout round of the Leagues Cup. There have been many memorable moments and heartbreak everyw...

Bongi Mbonambi will become the second black Test captain of South Africa on Saturday when he leads the Springboks against Argentina in a Rugby World Cup...

The current iteration of the Boston Red Sox likely won't compete in the Fall Classic. Yet, if they make the right trade deadline moves, they could get there.The Red Sox kicked off the second half of the season with a bang, cementing themselves in the AL Wild Card race with an impressive win...

Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors guard, recently revealed his personal power rankings of the NBA's toughest defenders.Usually, it's defenders that are scared of Stephen Curry.His ability to shoot the ball from deep, combined with his ball handling, relentless off-ball movement,...