“The US has said it will leave the United Nations’ culture and education agency Unesco, accusing it of supporting ‘woke, divisive cultural and social causes’. Unesco’s Director General Audrey Azoulay described the decision as ‘regrettable but anticipated’. The move is the latest step in the Trump administration’s efforts to cut ties with international bodies, after removing the US from the World Health Organization and Paris Climate Agreement, as well as cutting funding for foreign relief efforts. Unesco has 194 member states around the world, and is best known for listing world heritage sites. The US’ decision will take effect from December 2026. The state department said Unesco’s ‘globalist, ideological agenda for international development’ was ‘at odds with our America First foreign policy’. It also described the inclusion of the Palestinians in Unesco in 2011, as ‘highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization.'” (07/22/25)
“A Tennessee judge on Tuesday set a February trial date for a man who faces the death penalty if convicted on charges of killing three people and wounding three others in a daylong series of shootings in Memphis that was livestreamed on social media. Shelby County Judge James Jones Jr. scheduled Ezekiel Kelly’s trial for Feb. 9 during a court hearing in Memphis. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to more than two dozen charges, including three counts of first-degree murder, in the September 2022 shooting rampage that led to a citywide shelter-in-place order and a frantic manhunt. Kelly’s trial had been set to begin July 14, but was delayed after his lawyers asked for more time to review evidence in the case, including investigating about 400 witnesses and more than 300 videos. Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty if he’s convicted of first-degree murder.” (07/22/25)
“President Donald Trump on Monday followed up his lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over last week’s Jeffrey Epstein story by banishing one of the newspaper’s reporters from Air Force One for an upcoming Scotland trip. The moves reflect Trump’s aggressiveness toward media who displease him — even a media magnate, Rupert Murdoch, with outlets that have been friendly to him in the past. Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Journal and Murdoch on Friday because of the newspaper’s article about a sexually suggestive letter bearing Trump’s name that was included in a 2003 album compiled for alleged sex trafficker Epstein’s birthday. The president has denied having anything to do with it.” (07/22/25)
“Dozens of anti-Israel rabble-rousers were slapped with hefty suspensions and a handful were fully expelled after they took part in the recent violent takeover of a campus library and last year’s notorious tent encampment, The Post has learned. More than 70 students are set to be punished for their involvement in the hugely disruptive Butler Library chaos that unfolded on May 7, as well as the encampment that popped up on the Morningside Heights campus in spring 2024, sources familiar with the disciplinary action said. Roughly two-thirds of those will be hit with suspensions between one and three years, with the majority being hit with two-year suspensions, the sources said.” (07/22/25)
“A ballistic missile launched Tuesday morning at Israel by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen was intercepted by air defenses, the Israel Defense Forces said. There were no reports of injuries or damage from the attack, which set off warning sirens in numerous towns across central Israel, sending hundreds of thousands of people to shelters in the pre-dawn attack. The Houthis later issued a statement claiming responsibility for firing the missile, saying it targeted Ben Gurion Airport.
A ballistic missile launched Tuesday morning at Israel by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen was intercepted by air defenses, the Israel Defense Forces said. A second missile fired several hours later fell short outside the country’s borders, according to a military official.” (07/22/25)
“A remarkable finding has surfaced in the colorful, fossil-rich badlands of Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park: North America’s oldest known pterosaur. The newly identified species — a flying reptile that soared over the dinosaurs during the late Triassic Period — was unearthed by a team led by Ben Kligman, a UC Berkeley graduate and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History paleontologist. Their discovery is hundreds of millions of years (or 16 years, depending on how you look at it) in the making. In 2009, Smithsonian geologist and vertebrate paleontologist Anna Behrensmeyer spearheaded a project aimed at finding fossils from the earliest mammals, which came about during the late Triassic Period (about 225 million years ago). Mammals were small when they first evolved, with fragile bones that were poorly preserved.” (07/21/25)
“AstraZeneca on Monday said it plans to invest $50 billion in bolstering its U.S. manufacturing and research capabilities by 2030, becoming the latest pharmaceutical firm to ramp up its stateside spending in the wake of U.S. trade tariffs. The Anglo-Swedish biotech company, which is headquartered in Cambridge, England, said the ‘cornerstone’ of the commitment would be a new multi-billion dollar facility to produce its weight management and metabolic portfolio, including its oral GLP-1 obesity pill. The facility, planned for the Commonwealth of Virginia, is set to be AstraZeneca’s largest single manufacturing investment in the world and will ‘leverage AI, automation and data analytics to optimize production,’ the company said.” (07/22/25)
“Dozens of provincial officials and hospital staff attempted to cover up a lead poisoning case that made hundreds of children sick in north-west China and sparked widespread outrage, an official investigation has found. The officials tampered with the blood tests of students who were poisoned at Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui city, Gansu provincial authorities said in a report on Sunday. City officials also accepted bribes from an investor in Peixin while neglecting food safety inspections across several pre-schools, the report said. In an attempt to attract more students, Peixin chefs had used inedible paint to ‘enhance the look’ of its meals, the report said. Food samples were later found to contain lead 2,000 times in excess of the national safety limit..” (07/22/25)
“Australia’s Parliament resumed Tuesday for the first time since the center-left Labor Party won one of the nation’s largest-ever majorities in the May elections. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese thanked the traditional owners of the national capital Canberra at a Welcome to Country ceremony in Parliament House. He noted that such ceremonies performed by Indigenous people to welcome visitors to their traditional land at the start of a new parliament had been introduced by a Labor government in 2007. … The government has said the first legislation will be a bill to reduce student loan debt by 20%.” (07/22/25)
“Authorities are looking for several peacocks that were allegedly stolen over the past week from a historic hotel in the California Delta. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office received a call Sunday morning reporting that as many as 37 peacocks were taken from the Ryde Hotel in Walnut Grove, Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a spokesperson for the office, told SFGATE. But as of Monday afternoon, only six have been confirmed missing, Gandhi said. Managers at the hotel along the Sacramento River told KCRA-TV that over the past several days, they had begun to notice fewer of the peacocks that normally walked around the hotel’s grounds. One peacock even used to walk through the ballroom, Rafe Goorwitch, the hotel’s catering coordinator, told the news outlet. The hotel, known for its garden and wedding venue, has had peacocks for ‘at least a generation or so,’ Goorwitch told the outlet.” (07/21/25)
