President Joe Biden stressed the importance of learning US history, both “good and bad", as he commemorated the brutal suppression 58 years ago of a civil rights march in Selma, Alabama.
“History matters,” the President said during a speech on Sunday at Edmund Pettus Bridge, where a march of hundreds of peaceful activists was violently suppressed by police on March 7, 1965.
“Bloody Sunday” catalysed support for black rights and led a few months later to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, a federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.
The marchers “forced the country to confront the hard truth”, Mr Biden said, accusing today's Republican opposition of trying to “hide the truth” of history.
“No matter how hard some people try, we can't just choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know,” he said, as debate rages over how US history is taught in America's schools.
“We should learn everything — the good, the bad, the truth of who we are as a nation — and everyone should know the truth of Selma.”
Several conservative states have passed laws since 2020 to ban the teaching of critical race theory, an academic discipline investigating systemic racism in American society.
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, considered a favourite for his party's 2024 presidential nomination, recently defended a ban on a high school African-American studies course, railing against it as “indoctrination” that pushes “social justice” topics such as “queer theory”.
In his speech, Mr Biden said the country must remain vigilant in defending electoral freedom, saying the Voting Rights Act had been gutted by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court and threatened by dozens of reform laws passed in certain states. Critics say these changes make it harder for black and other minority people to cast ballots.
The 80-year-old President, whose political career has relied heavily on the support of African-American voters, has urged Congress to adopt major electoral reform but it has been blocked by Republicans.
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Neil Thomson – THE BIO
Family: I am happily married to my wife Liz and we have two children together.
Favourite music: Rock music. I started at a young age due to my father’s influence. He played in an Indian rock band The Flintstones who were once asked by Apple Records to fly over to England to perform there.
Favourite book: I constantly find myself reading The Bible.
Favourite film: The Greatest Showman.
Favourite holiday destination: I love visiting Melbourne as I have family there and it’s a wonderful place. New York at Christmas is also magical.
Favourite food: I went to boarding school so I like any cuisine really.
Boston%20Strangler
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Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
Tips%20for%20holiday%20homeowners
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RESULTS
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Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
More coverage from the Future Forum
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
THE BIO
Favourite author - Paulo Coelho
Favourite holiday destination - Cuba
New York Times or Jordan Times? NYT is a school and JT was my practice field
Role model - My Grandfather
Dream interviewee - Che Guevara
