MAGDEBURG, Germany Thousands took to the streets to protest against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Friday

Amazon employees have been pushing back against the company’s return to office policy for months — and it seems the ecommerce giant’s CEO has had enough

An activist detained in Hong Kong has partially won his appeal seeking recognition for same-sex marriage registered overseas

Ron DeSantis continues to defend newly approved curriculum guidelines in Florida instructing students to learn that enslaved people “developed skills” that could be “applied for personal benefit”. “That means they developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of slavery,” the governor told NBC News in a recent interview that aired on 7 August. “It was them showing resourcefulness and then using those skills once slavery ended,” he added. Mr DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, has dismissed criticism from Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic and Republican members of Congress urging Florida officials to amend the state’s African American history standards and reflect an honest history of race and racism in school curricula. The vice president has also rejected an invitation from Mr DeSantis to “discuss” the standards, telling a crowd in Orlando earlier this month that “there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: there were no redeeming qualities of slavery.” Mr DeSantis had previously stated he “wasn’t involved” with the guidelines approved by the state’s appointed Board of Education. He said the standards are “probably going to show some of the folks” – enslaved people – “that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.” The development of such “skills” would not have benefited the millions of enslaved people in the US in the decades before slavery’s abolition. Another controversial guideline instructs high schoolers to be taught that a massacre in the state led by white supremacists against Black residents to stop them from voting in 1920 included “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” “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 last month. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, echoed Ms Harris in his criticism of the standards, stressing that slavery was defined by “separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives”. “It was just devastating,” said Mr Scott, who is also seeking the 2024 Republican nomination. “So I would hope that every person in our country – and certainly running for president – would appreciate that.” Mr DeSantis told NBC in response: “Don’t take that side of Kamala Harris against the state of Florida. Don’t indulge those lies.” The new standards join the governor’s overhaul of public education and a “parents’ rights” agenda that targets honest lessons on race and racism and gender and sexuality, which the governor told NBC amounts to “indoctrination”. “Those standards were not political at all,” he added. “The legislature didn’t dictate any of that. [The] governor’s office didn’t dictate anything of that.” Last week, before thousands of high school students enrolled in advanced placement courses begin classes for the 2023-2024 school year, the DeSantis administration criticised the College Board’s warning that Florida education officials had “effectively banned” AP Psychology courses in the state under the Parental Rights in Education Act, what opponents have derided as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Read More Ron DeSantis admits ‘of course’ Donald Trump lost the election DeSantis blasted for ‘un-American’ restrictions on AP psychology course under ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law Why Florida’s new curriculum on slavery is becoming a political headache for Ron DeSantis

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In an urgent appeal to wealthy Republicans who had assembled in Milwaukee ahead of the first GOP presidential primary debate, top brass for the super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told donors they needed an injection of $50 million over the next four months, according to leaked audio obtained by CNN.

Britain’s top antitrust enforcer pushed back against claims that the watchdog was forced into a reconsidering its Microsoft

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A British tourist has said she was raped by five men in her hotel room while on holiday in Cyprus. The 20-year-old said told Cypriot police she was attacked by five men in her hotel in the city of Famagusta. Cypriot police have since arrested five men from Israel. A spokesman at the island’s police headquarters in Nicosia said on Monday: “The five were detained overnight in a cell following the charges. They will appear today before Famagusta’s district court. We have not released their ages but can confirm that they are all young.” The news comes after last year a British woman won her appeal to overturn a conviction for ‘lying’ about being gang-raped by 12 tourists when she was 18 in Cyprus, On Friday Cyprus police arrested 20 people after a march against migrants and refugees on the island’s second-largest city, Limassol, turned violent with mobs vandalising property. Five people were injured during the unrest on Friday evening after about 500 people took to the streets for the march, the police said. Rubbish bins were set alight and some shops were vandalised, police said. Witnesses quoted by Cypriot media outlets said some foreigners were attacked during the march. Asian delivery drivers were assaulted and storefronts belonging to migrants were smashed as the violence continued until the early hours of Sunday, according to Reuters news agency. Police used water cannon to disperse the protesters, some of them hooded and holding a banner that read “Refugees not welcome”. Overnight Saturday to Sunday, three people from southeast Asia were attacked and robbed, state media said. Among the victims were a group of visitors from Kuwait, according to social media accounts of witnesses. Senior diplomat Kyriakos Kouros said a protest was filed by an ambassador of an unnamed Arab state on Saturday after tourists were targeted. “They cut short their visit. I doubt they will ever return,” Kouros, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote on the social media platform X on Sunday, posting a picture of the departure of a group at an airport. One member of the group was in a wheelchair. “It is the first time I have felt so embarrassed about such an incident in our country,” he wrote. “This isn’t the Cyprus I was born, raised, had a family and am getting old in,” he said. Read More Israel's prime minister pitches fiber optic cable idea to link Asia and the Middle East to Europe Greece: Firefighters rescue 25 migrants trapped in forest as massive wildfire approached Greece further reinforces firefighting forces in massive wildfire in northeast burning for 13th day Massive wildfire in northeastern Greece persists for 11th day despite European firefighting efforts Official says the UN remains committed to helping reach a deal healing Cyprus' ethnic split Greece reinforces firefighting forces to tackle massive blaze in the country's northeast

After Osama Bin Laden’s old letter defending 9/11 resurfaced online, TikTok saw a surge in videos discussing its views on America's global role

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By Daren Butler ISTANBUL Turkish citizens based abroad began voting on Saturday in Turkey's presidential runoff election between