We haven't even seen the worst of El Niño, NASA scientists said, and next year will likely be even warmer for the planet.

A man who worked as a politically appointed State Department official in former President Donald Trump’s administration has been convicted of charges that he attacked police officers during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021

Disaster recovery funds set up by Kentucky’s Democratic governor to assist victims of tornadoes and flooding will be scrutinized by the state auditor’s office

The outspoken US senator Kyrsten Sinema has, along with other American lawmakers, attempted to get in on the Barbenheimer meme craze, with mixed results. If you've spent any time on the internet in the past few months, you'll no doubt have noticed a lot of memes about the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer, which you might have heard are being released on the exact same day (July 21st). Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Inevitably, all memes end up jumping the shark and this has now happened with Barbenheimer with several politicians getting in on the trend including Sinema. The controversial figure, who was once a Democrat representing the state of Arizona before becoming an independent in December 2022. On Thursday on the eve of the release of Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig's respective films, she tweeted: "Get you a Senator who can do both. #Barbenheimer." This was accompanied by a colour picture of her wearing a bright pink dress and a black and white picture of herself, thus representing the aesthetics of the two movies. Unfortunately for the 47-year-old her attempt at the meme didn't go down too well thus reflecting Sinema's overall popularity in the United States. Sinema wasn't alone, as many other Senators attempted their own Barbenheimer memes including John Fetterman and Ben Cardin. Nice effort folks but we doubt it'll make Margot Robbie's favourite meme list. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden will host a second summit with leaders of Pacific island nations in September, Joseph

Several floors of a three-storey building were destroyed after Russian strikes hit the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv overnight, officials said on 20 July. The attack caused a fire in the building that affected an area of 450 square meters and burned for several hours. In footage released by Ukraine’s emergency services, firefighters were seen battling the flames throughout the early hours of the morning and removing people from the area. In a statement released on Telegram, the region’s Governor Vitalii Kim said at least 19 people had been injured following the strikes.

Fewer shipping container deliveries this spring slowed railroad CSX's second-quarter profit and offset a sharp increase in shipments of automobiles

NFL owners have unanimously approved the sale of the Washington Commanders from Dan Snyder to a group led by Josh Harris

GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa on Thursday released an internal FBI document containing unverified allegations President Joe Biden was involved in an illegal foreign bribery scheme.

An abortion opponent who told investigators that anxiety and nightmares about a planned Wyoming abortion clinic led her to burn the facility has pleaded guilty to arson

New York City has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accuses the city's police department of using unlawful tactics against protesters following the death of George Floyd, according to a proposed settlement filed in a Manhattan federal court Wednesday.

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.” Members of the Florida Board of Education have defended the standards for African American history lessons they unanimously approved, with Ron DeSantis-appointed board member MaryLynn Magar assuring the attendees at a hearing in Orlando on 19 July that “everything is there” and that “the darkest parts of our history are addressed” in the curriculum. But civil rights advocates, educators and Democratic state lawmakers have warned that elements of the guidelines present a distorted, revisionist picture of the state’s history of racism. “The notion that enslaved people benefitted from being enslaved is inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish in our education system,” Democratic state Rep Anna Eskamani told the board. State Senator Geraldine Thompson said that a recommendation suggesting that Black people sparked the Ocoee massacre is “blaming the victim”. Ms Thompson helped pass a law in 2020 that requires schools to teach lessons about the massacre. The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, said in a statement that the standards represent “a big step backward for a state that has required teaching African American history” for more than three decades. “Our children deserve nothing less than truth, justice, and the equity our ancestors shed blood, sweat, and tears for,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson added in a statement. “It is imperative that we understand that the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow were a violation of human rights and represent the darkest period in American history. We refuse to go back.” The new standards add another victory in the DeSantis administration’s radical education overhaul and a “parents’ rights” agenda that has restricted honest lessons of race and racism in state schools, reshaped local school boards, and banned public colleges from offering classes that “distort significant events” or “teach identity politics”. Florida’s Board of Education also adopted five rules targeting LGBT+ students, including punishing transgender students and staff who use restrooms that align with their gender and add barriers to students who want their names and pronouns respected in and out of the classroom. LGBT+ advocates have accused the board and the governor’s administration of weaponizing state agencies to implement the DeSantis agenda as he mounts a national campaign, fuelled in part by what opponents have called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation adopted by several other states. That bill, which Mr DeSantis signed into law in 2022 and expanded earlier this year, has sparked fears that its broad scope could be used to effectively block discussion of LGBT+ people, history and events from state schools, and threaten schools with potential lawsuits over perceived violations. “This politically motivated war on parents, students, and educators needs to stop,” said Jennifer Solomon with Equality Florida. “Our students deserve classrooms where all families are treated with the respect they deserve and all young people are welcomed,” she said in a statement. “Let parents be parents. Let educators be educators. And stop turning our kids’ classrooms into political battlefields to score cheap points.” The African American history curriculum advanced by the board does not fully adopt the recommendations from the African American History Task Force, which urged the board to consider “contemporary issues impacting Africans and African Americans”. Education Commissioner Manny Diaz defended the standards as an “in-depth, deep dive into African American history, which is clearly American history as Governor DeSantis has said, and what Florida has done is expand it.” Under the new standards, students will be taught to simply “identify” famous Black people, but it fails to add requirements for students to learn about their contributions, challenges and stories overall. “We must do better in offering a curriculum that is both age-appropriate and truthful,” according to Democratic state Rep Dianne Hart, chair of Florida’s Legislative Black Caucus. “Education is a critical part of an individual’s personal foundation and when you chose to build a foundation on falsehoods, lies, or by simply erasing history, you’ve laid a foundation that will ultimately fail,” she said in a statement. The board’s adoption of the standards follow the board’s decision to ban the teaching of Advanced Placement African American Studies in high schools, claiming that the course “significantly lacks educational value” and “inexplicably” contradicted Florida law. A letter dated 12 January from the Florida Department of Education to the College Board, which administers AP exams, said the board is welcome to return to the agency with “lawful, historically accurate content”. Read More DeSantis campaign video crossed a line for gay right-wing pundits despite governor’s record on LGBT+ rights Florida schools remove books by John Milton and Toni Morrison and restrict Shakespeare under DeSantis rules Jury awards Florida girl burned by McDonald's Chicken McNugget $800,000 in damages Florida rulings ease concerns about drag performers at Pride parades, drag queen story hours What are the 10 largest US lottery jackpots ever won?