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?

Oregon officials have identified Jesse Lee Calhoun of Portland, as a person of interest in the mystery deaths of four women that police say are linked, law enforcement sources told The Associated Press. The 38-year-old has not been charged with any crimes related to the investigation. He is currently in prison on unrelated charges, after being arrested on 6 June for a parole violation. Court records show that Calhoun has an extensive criminal history including 2003 and 2008 convictions for assault. He was also sentenced to four years in 2019 for burglary. He was released early in July 2021 after being granted a “conditional commutation” by then-Oregon Governor Kate Brown, due to his service as an inmate firefighter during the wildfires and the fear of Covid-19 spreading in prisons. Meanwhile, a woman saying that she’s Calhoun’s girlfriend has said that he had links to two of the four victims, revealing that Calhoun and Ashley Real had been seeing each other on and off for about a year and that he would provide Bridget Webster with drugs in exchange for sex. Read More Woman claiming to be girlfriend of person of interest in Oregon killings reveals alleged links to victims An inmate was pardoned by Oregon’s governor. Two years on he’s a person of interest in four suspicious deaths Jesse Calhoun identified as person of interest in suspicious deaths of four women in Portland Mothers hope for answers as authorities announce 'person of interest' in deaths of 4 women in Oregon Portland police dismissed serial killer fears after the deaths of six women. Then came a chilling connection

An FBI document released Thursday as evidence of bribes paid by Ukrainian businessmen to President Joe Biden and

Donald Trump could be indicted by a grand jury investigating his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6 Capitol riot by Friday. The Independent learned that a possible indictment could be handed down as soon as this week, charging the former president in his third criminal case. Mr Trump announced on Tuesday that he had been sent a letter by special prosecutor Jack Smith informing him that he is the “target” of a grand jury investigation. The target letter cites three statutes under which he could be charged including conspiracy to commit offence or to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under colour of law and tampering with a witness, victim or informant, multiple outlets reported. William Russell, a former White House aide who now works for the Trump presidential campaign and spent much of January 6 with the then-president, is scheduled to testify before the grand jury when it meets today. The former president was given until today to report to the Washington, DC, federal courthouse but with a midnight deadline is not expected to appear. Instead, he shared a fan video on Truth Social with a threatening mob boss feel using audio featuring an expletive and lifted from comments he made in 2020 on Iran. Read More Donald Trump brands US a ‘third-world hellhole’ run by ‘perverts’ and ‘thugs’ Ron DeSantis campaign fires staff as Florida governor trails Trump in the polls Fundraising takeaways: Trump and DeSantis in their own tier as Pence and other Republicans struggle RFK Jr revives antisemitic conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jewish people

A woman in Florida has been arrested on aggravated manslaughter charges after a 10-month-old child she was caring for was found unresponsive in a car. Temperatures inside the car were in excess of 113F, according to Baker County Sheriff's officials. Rhonda Jewell has been accused of leaving the child unattended in the car for "at least five hours" while temperatures outside rose to 98F. The child died as a result. Ms Jewell was babysitting the infant and three other children on the day of the incident, according to CNN. She picked up the 10-month-old girl from her parents' home and drove to another location, where she planned to babysit all the children together. Ms Jewell told investigators that when she arrived, the child appeared to be sleeping, so she left the baby and went inside to see the other children. She said she forgot about the baby in the car. “It wasn’t until the decedent’s mother arrived at the address (…) to pick up her child, that the decedent’s mother found her to still be strapped in a car seat inside the hot vehicle,” the police report said. The mother arrived around 1pm and saw her child in the car, not breathing and with blue lips. She then called 911. The child was pronounced dead at the hospital. A detective examining the baby said the child's skin was "still very hot to the touch" even after she was taken to a hospital for treatment. Medical staff took the infant's internal temperature, which was 110F, but noted that 110 was the highest the thermometer could measure. Ms Jewell was subsequently arrested for aggravated manslaughter of a child resulting in death. She was booked into the Baker County Detention Centre on Thursday. Baker County Sheriff Scotty Rhoden issued a statement after the tragedy asking the community to be mindful of the victims when seeking out information about the incident. "Each of us are given the gift of life every morning we wake up and every evening when we finish our day, we are blessed if our family is safe and healthy. In the blink of an eye, our world can be turned upside down," he wrote. "Please be mindful of this when trying to understand the tragedy that took place in our small town yesterday." Read More Colorado police buy woman groceries after her partner made young children ‘watch him eat’ and go hungry Mother of kidnapped and murdered Alabama teen speaks out after she helped in search for Carlee Russell Father accused of killing his three sons ‘had plotted murders for months’

An 18-year-old Florida mother is accused of trying to hire someone to kill her three-year-old son. Jazmin Paez has been charged with first-degree solicitation of murder and third-degree using a communications device for an unlawful use, according to court documents obtained by NBC6. Ms Paez went on a parody website called rentahitman.com and requested a hitman to kill her son by Thursday, according to arrest documents obtained by the outlet. The publications spoke to the website’s owner, Robert Innes, who said Ms Paez sent pictures of the boy and the exact location of where the child was going to be — which he found to be unusually specific. Mr Innes told the outlet that the site sometimes receives fake requests but this one seemed to be a real one: “The ability to research names and addresses and verify the intended target lived in a particular address. That to me is a red flag. If that information is corroborated, to me that is something that needs to be looked at and that’s why I referred it.” Investigators used the information Ms Paez provided on the website, like the address and the child’s photo. They visited the address and spoke to the boy’s grandmother, and saw that the boy was safe at home. Police also traced the IP of the computer that was used to make the request with the website to track down Ms Paez, according to CBS News. They then pretended to be the hired hitman and talked to Ms Paez, who agreed to pay $3,000 to have her son murdered, the outlet added. NBC6 reported that her bond was set for $15,000. She bailed out of jail as of Thursday, according to CBS News. Read More Daughter of British expat accused of murdering terminally-ill wife in Cyprus issues plea for his release Mother of kidnapped and murdered Alabama teen speaks out after she helped in search for Carlee Russell Father accused of killing his three sons ‘had plotted murders for months’

After years of speculation and observation, residents of a leafy section of Brooklyn managed to discover that a veteran New York police officer was behind a string of bizarre littering incidents on a street in Greenpoint. “Now, I’m sure we all have random papers in our weekly recycling bin,” one resident wrote on the local site Greenpointers. “But I need to stress to those who have yet to experience this phenomenon with their own eyes the SHEER VOLUME of papers floating down the street. It looks like the work of someone with an enormous collection of old books who spends their weekend tearing apart pages before scattering them in the wind.” Residents told Gothamist that for years on end, they would wake to find find pile after pile of meticulously sliced book pages strewn across Noble Street, ranging from selections of the Bible to 1970s porn magazines to a book on Greco-Roman art. “Sometimes things would be underlined or highlighted on the pages, and we would try to figure out if there was a message,” former block association president Molly FitzSimons told the outlet. “We really could not imagine who would do this … It was just this shadowy mystery.” “It made me just feel compassion for this person who clearly was processing something difficult.” Others didn’t take so kindly to the document dumps. Neighbours began actively trying to catch the person they dubbed the “book bandit,” with one resident deploying their surveillance camera to the effort, and another arranging for a private security firm to stake out the street in the hopes of catching the serial litterer. Security footage obtained by WNYC shows the man in action, driving slowly in the dark and dumping an armful of paper into the road. Eventually, the citizen efforts helped yield a licence plate number, prompting the NYPD to investigate Sergeant John Trzcinski, a veteran officer who joined the force in 1994 and earned $177,516, according to public records. When asked about the littering allegations, the NYPD directed The Independent to a database of disciplinary actions, which showed Sergeant Trzcinski was disciplined on 30 May for littering, losing a vacation day. The Independent has contacted the officer and the police union for comment. The city Department of Sanitation confirmed to Gothamist that Sergeant Trzcinski, who lives in Long Island, hasn’t been fined for littering or illegal dumping. Litterers need to be caught in the act by police or sanitation personnel, and the bundles of papers Sergeant Trzcinski left in the street weren’t large enough to qualify as illegal dumping. Sergeant Trzcinski has been awarded multiple awards for police service, and hasn’t been previously disciplined, according to public records. Read More Veteran police official Edward Caban becomes first Latino to head the NYPD Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect named as Rex Heuermann after arrest for Long Island murders New York City's Rikers Island, facing possible federal takeover, found violating safety standards

Russian prosecutors asked a court to sentence imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 20 years in prison on extremism charges, his ally Ivan Zhdanov said Thursday. According to Zhdanov, the trial against Navalny, which went on behind closed doors in the prison where the politician is serving another lengthy sentence, is scheduled to conclude with a verdict on Aug. 4. In his closing statement released Thursday by his team, Navalny bashed Russian authorities as being governed by “bargaining, power, bribery, deception, treachery ... and not law.” Navalny said: “Anyone in Russia knows that a person who seeks justice in a court of law is completely vulnerable. The case of that person is hopeless." Navalny, 47, is President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe who exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. The authorities sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison for parole violations and then to another nine years on charges of fraud and contempt of court. The politician is currently serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison east of Moscow. He has spent months in a tiny one-person cell, also called a “punishment cell,” for purported disciplinary violations such as an alleged failure to properly button his prison clothes, properly introduce himself to a guard or to wash his face at a specified time. Navalny's allies have accused prison authorities of failing to provide him with proper medical assistance and voiced concern about his health. The new charges relate to the activities of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. His allies said the charges retroactively criminalize all the foundation's activities since its creation in 2011. Navalny has rejected all the charges against him as politically motivated and has accused the Kremlin of seeking to keep him behind bars for life. One of his associates — Daniel Kholodny — was relocated from a different prison to face trial alongside him. The prosecution has asked to sentence Kholodny to 10 years in prison. The trial against the two began a month ago and went along swiftly by Russian standards, where people often spend months, if not years, awaiting for their verdict. It was unusually shielded from public attention and Navalny's lawyers haven't offered any comments on the proceedings. Navalny, in his sardonic social media posts, occasionally offered a glimpse of what was going on with his case. In one such post, the politician revealed that a song by a popular Russian rapper praising him was listed as evidence in the case files, and claimed that he made the judge and bailiffs laugh out loud as the song was played during a court hearing. In another, he said that the case files linked him to U.S. mogul Warren Buffet. In his closing statement, Navalny referred to the recent short-lived armed rebellion by the fighters of Russia's private military company Wagner, after which their chief and the leader of the mutiny, Yevgeny Prigozhin, walked free, even though a number of Russian soldiers were killed by his troops. “Those who were declared traitors to their Motherland and betrayers, in the morning killed several Russian army officers as the entire Russia watched in astonishment, and by lunch agreed on something with someone and went home,” Navalny said. “Thus, law and justice in Russia were once again put in their place. And that place is not prestigious. One sure can't find them in court," the politician said. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Jailed Alexei Navalny ‘forced to listen to Putin speech for 100 days in a row’ Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin? Russia restricts movement of British diplomats over Ukraine support - live news

Watch a live view of Mandra, Greece, where wildfires continue to rage amid a record-breaking summer heatwave in Europe. Smoke continues to rise across the sky on Thursday 20 July, while sizzling temperatures have swept across the continent in recent days and the hot weather has taken hold across many popular holiday hotspots in the Mediterranean. Much of southern Europe has been in the high 30s, while some parts of southern Italy and areas in Greece have been in the low-to-mid 40s, which is eight to 12 degrees above the seasonal average for the region. Notably, firefighters battled a blaze in Rhodes, threatening to stoke tinderbox conditions across the country. The Greek meteorological service had warned of a heightened risk of fires from Thursday. Elsewhere, thousands have also been evacuated in the Canary Islands and Switzerland in recent days, as southern Europe is gripped by ongoing wildfires and extreme heat caused by the fossil-fuel-driven climate crisis. Read More European heatwave - latest updates as record temperatures continue What is driving the record-breaking global heatwaves across three continents? Families unable to cancel summer holidays despite extreme heat warnings and wildfires

An Irish father and his 10-year-old son have died in a crash on holiday in Turkey just hours before they were due to fly home. Eoin Fitzpatrick, 36, and his son Dylan were on holiday at the tourist resort of Alanya when the moped they were riding was hit by a bus. The crash happened at 3.30pm on Monday, just hours before they were due to fly home to Portlaoise in Co Laois, Ireland. Mr Fitzpatrick's other son, 14-year-old Cian, was with his father’s partner and her children at the time and did not witness the crash. The 10-year-old’s mother Claire Dowling has now paid tribute to her son after arriving in Turkey to comfort Cian. She told the Irish Mirror said she is just “glad they’re together” as she described her son as a “kind” boy who loved life. “My smallest boy. I just hope that when it happened – I don’t know how it happened – that he was smiling,” she added. “He loves me and he loves his daddy too and I am so happy that they’re okay together somewhere. “He was such a character and anyone who met him would have said the same. He is 10 years of age and he still holds my hand and tells me he loves me, no matter where we are. He is so, so kind. “What breaks my heart is he was supposed to land today and I know he was dying to come home.” Another family member told the Irish Mirror that it could be anything from a week to 10 days before the remains of Mr Fitzpatrick and his son are returned to Ireland. Laois-based Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley described the deaths as an “awful tragedy”, adding: “My heartfelt sympathies go to the mother of the boy and also to the parents of the deceased man and the grandparents on both sides. “In the days and weeks ahead, the community in Portlaoise will rally around both families and hopefully be able to give them some support and comfort.” A 28-year-old Turkish national who was believed to be driving the bus was arrested following the crash, which happened close to a pedestrian crossing on Monday afternoon, according to local media reports. Mr Fitzpatrick and Dylan were pronounced dead after medics and police rushed to the scene. The Department of Foreign Affairs has said it is providing consular assistance in the case. Read More Turkey crash: Fifteen people killed and 22 injured as bus collides with emergency vehicles 12 killed in multi-vehicle crash in Turkey's Hatay province Bus collision at accident site leaves 15 dead in Turkey Ukraine and Pakistan call for restoring the Black Sea grain deal after talks in Islamabad Turkey hikes interest rates in another sign of economic normalcy. But markets expected more Flooded with sightseers, Europe's iconic churches struggle to accommodate both worship and tourism

K-Pop superstar Jung Kook says making their own tracks will boost the band's bond when they reform.

Wagner mercenaries are training Belarusian special forces just a few miles from the border with Nato-member Poland. Warsaw said that it was ready for “various scenarios as the situation develops” – having started moving around 1,000 of its own troops towards the border earlier this month. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video on Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now but ordering them to gather their strength for Africa while they trained the Belarusian army. Mr Prigozhin, who agreed to move to Belarus as part of a deal to end a mutiny by his forces that rattled Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, said what is happening with Russian forces on the Ukraine frontline is a “disgrace” and that his group wants “no part of it”. Minsk posted pictures of masked Wagner instructors, their faces covered in accordance with the mercenary group's rules, training Belarusian soldiers with armoured vehicles and what appear to be drone controls. “The armed forces of Belarus continue joint training with the fighters of the Wagner PMC (Private Military Company),” the Belarusian Defence Ministry said. “During the week, special operations forces units together with representatives of the Company will work out combat training tasks at the Brest military range.” That range is just three miles (5km) east of the Polish border. According to claims in a post by a senior Wagner commander, known by his nom de guerre “Marx”, which was republished by Wagner's Telegram channel, up to 10,000 fighters “have gone, or will go” to Belarus. Although the accuracy of that statement is difficult to verify. Poland's Defence Ministry said the country's borders were secure. In response to Warsaw reinforcing its border, the Kremlin tried to paint it as an “aggressive” move – despite Moscow's invasion of Ukraine being the ultimate genesis of it. “Of course it is a cause for concern. The aggressiveness of Poland is a reality,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said. “Such a hostile attitude towards Belarus and the Russian Federation requires heightened attention [from our side].” As part of the deal that ended the 24-hour uprising by Wagner, which involved the groups forces marching towards Moscow – eventually stopping about 125 miles from the capital – mercenaries could move to Belarus in return for charges against them being dropped. Putin said the fighters could either leave for Belarus, come under the command of the defence ministry or go back to their families. The episode exposed cracks in the Russian leader's authority, almost 18 months into an invasion that the Kremlin originally assumed would only last weeks. While Mr Putin has tried to put on the air of everything is business as usual, rumblings of discontent in the Russian military over the situation in Ukraine have bubbled to the service in a way rarely seen in the tightly-controlled world of the Kremlin. The mutiny started after weeks of complaints from Prigozhin about the state of the war, although he has been careful to state that his ire is aimed at Russia's military top brass and the country's Defence Ministry, not Putin himself. He believed that his fighters were not being supported in the fierce fighting around the symbolic city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Wagner has lost 22,000 of its men in the Ukraine war while 40,000 have been wounded, according to the Wagner commander “Marx”. If accurate, those numbers give an insight into the extent of the losses both sides are suffering in the war. The commander said in his post that a total of 78,000 Wagner men had participated in what he cast as “the Ukrainian business trip”, 49,000 of them prisoners. Wagner helped Russia to illegally annex Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and have fought Isis in Syria and operated in the Central African Republic and Mali in recent years. “Up to 10,000 fighters have gone or will go to Belarus,” the commander said. “About 15,000 have gone on holiday.” The post contradicted remarks by a Russian who said that as many as 33,000 Wagner fighters had signed contracts with the Russian Defence Ministry. “If all the dead and those who went on holiday signed up then I suppose it is possible,” the commander Marx said. 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 Organisation sewing reusable sanitary pads for refugees gets charity status Varadkar pledges unwavering solidarity with Ukraine on day-long visit to Kyiv Czech parliament approves treaty making it easier to deploy US troops on Czech territory