The XDefiant Open Session runs from June 21 to June 23 for all players who register to participate in the last Beta before the game launches this summer.

Why was a major candidate for the presidency just asked about a lesson set to be taught to middle school students in Florida social studies classes? Governor Ron DeSantis found himself answering yet more questions about his state’s new conservative-friendly social studies curriculum at a press event in Utah over the weekend as the Republican sees continued signs that his record on racial and social issues in the Sunshine State will be an issue in the upcoming GOP primary debates and, potentially, the 2024 general election. Mr DeSantis’s campaign held a summit with donors in Utah this past weekend where top advisers pledged a reboot to the Florida governor’s stagnating presidential bid including cutbacks to pricy expenditures including private events that have not helped his standings in the polls improve. The candidate himself held a press conference on Friday, where the question about Florida schools was directed to him. The Florida Department of Education’s social studies standards for the 2023-2024 school year, released this month, provide lesson topics for middle school teachers including a “benchmark clarification” which instructs educators to teach students that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit”. It isn’t clear what “their personal benefit” would be in this scenario. The line is included as part of a broader lesson entitled: “Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).” Mr DeSantis has come under fire for the curriculum changes, from both Democrats and Republicans alike. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris railed against Mr DeSantis without naming the Florida governor. “There is a national agenda afoot. Extremist so-called leaders for months have dared to ban books. … Extremists here in Florida, passing a law ‘Don’t Say Gay,’ trying to instill fear in our teachers … And now, on top of that, they want to replace history with lies.” And former New Jersey Gov Chris Christie, who is seeking the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, also called out the governor for what he claimed was a lack of leadership. While the change to the curriculum itself is subtle — a single sentence added to a much larger document — the news of its insertion played into a larger narrative of Florida’s right-wing shift under the DeSantis administration. Florida schools, in particular, are the biggest battleground for this war, where liberal groups and nonpartisan experts alike warn that students are increasingly the recipients of a whitewashed educational environment devoid of anything that conservatives find unseemly or uncomfortable, such as discussions of the sins of slavery, representation of LGBT+ persons in the classroom or teaching materials, and other narratives that brush up against conservative belief systems. The changes to Florida schools had already earned the state the condemnation of the NAACP and other civil rights groups, something that has enraged conservatives and drawn the state into an ugly national fight against any group or organisation that the governor perceives to have a liberal agenda, including the Disney corporation. Now, he is officially a candidate for president and facing the reality that his loyally conservative record in Florida has failed to allow him to make serious inroads against Donald Trump and his support base, while he remains engaged in fighting off competitive rivals like Vivek Ramaswamy and others in the crowded Republican primary contest. It remains to be seen whether his campaign reset (which continued this week with layoffs of roughly a third of his staff) will be a necessary fat-trimming measure or the sign of his campaign’s early demise; what is certain is that the issue of the quality of education in Florida’s schools is not going away, at least any time soon. Read More Four cars in Ron DeSantis motorcade crash into each other on way to Tennessee fundraisers Biden laughs off impeachment threat after McCarthy teases inquiry Trump goes on late-night Truth Social rampage against ‘loser’ and ‘lowlife’ Mitt Romney Ron DeSantis: The new Jeb Bush Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his presidency? DeSantis campaign fires aide behind neo-Nazi meme video

Lies of P will arrive on Sept. 19, but when can players pre-load the game?

Duke Dennis recently criticized fans' involvement in the dissemination of IShowSpeed's accidental flash incident

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The ISO Hemlock AR in Warzone Season 5 now kills in just 872 milliseconds thanks to buffed .300 Blackout ammunition and zero recoil.

SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 5, 2023--

Geoffrey Hinton, one of the so-called "godfathers" of artificial intelligence, urged governments on Wednesday to step in and make sure that machines do...

Sergio Aguero has been hit with a ban that is the biggest of his career since his forced retirement. It comes after the Argentian football player was banned on the streaming platform Twitch following his venture into content creation. The former Manchester City legend was forced to retire from football in 2021 after being diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat. The end of his footballing career saw the beginning of a new journey into streaming as Aguero earned a strong number of followers on streaming site Twitch largely sharing football-based content. Now, however, users attempting to access his profile (slakun10) are being met with the service’s generic message about “copyright” issues. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The message reads: “Content from this channel has been removed at the request of the copyright holder.” While no specific information has been given about his indefinite ban, it is likely that it could be due to Aguero using content that he was not permitted to. Due to the timing of the ban, some have hypothesised that Aguero may have live-streamed part of his former side Manchester City’s 4-0 Champions League semi-final second-leg win over Real Madrid on Wednesday 17 May. It is the first time the former football player has been banned from Twitch since many of his on-field fans followed him to the site to view his content, including watching him play FIFA video games, both old and new. Despite having won 12 major trophies with Manchester City and scoring 260 goals for the club, he is perhaps best known for his last-ditch winner against Queens Park Rangers during the 2011/2012 season which help City win their first league title since 1968. 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.

A new study suggests the treatment of A-levels makes it harder for NI students to get in.

Tohoku Electric Power Co. is accelerating plans to test the co-firing of hydrogen at a natural gas power

Activision Blizzard Inc. agreed to give Microsoft Corp. three more months to close their $69 billion merger so