Corax
The number of students being home-schooled in the 2023-2024 school year increased in 19 out of 21 US states surveyed, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, report author Angela Watson is unsure of the reasons but says she knows it's due to something other than the pandemic
World
The Libertarian Party and two independent candidates who have spoken out against smart cities get 11 seats in the local parliament in the state of New South Wales in Australia, in their manifesto it says that if we don't take a stand now, we are headed for a 24/7 government surveillance and a social credit system similar to China
The British territory of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean is transferred to Mauritius as announced jointly by the Prime Ministers of both countries, and the American and British military base on the included Diego Garcia atoll will continue to operate as before
Hezbollah's leader for 32 years, 64-year-old Hassan Nasrallah, is confirmed dead after an Israeli air attack in Lebanon, and most of the organization's leaders are now elimnated according to the Israeli military
Miscellaneous
President of Haiti's Transitional Presidential Council, Edgard Leblanc Fils, spills water in the lectern as he drinks straight from a pitcher instead of a glass, just after addressing the United Nations General Assembly, saying the country has inspired others to throw off the yoke of unbearable colonialism, Fils then demanded justice and respect for Haiti
The Muslim theologian and former professor of Islamology at the University of Oxford, Tariq Ramadan, convicted of rape in a Swiss court, is the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna and four other women have accused him of molesting them when they were his students and between 14 and 18 years old
Brazilian bossa nova musician Sergio Mendes dies at the age of 83 as his health, according to his family, has been suffering from long-term covid, known for the songs Mas Que Nada and The Look of Love among others
Followers of Asatru in Iceland are raising capital to build a temple in East Iceland, according to the law, all legally recognized religious organizations in the country have the right to a plot of land to construct a sacred building, chief clergyman Baldur Pálsson says the goal is for it to be built in the area of Fljótsdalshérað, where the largest town in East Iceland, Egilsstaðir, is located
Russian TV produces comedy series "Goodbye" in which Joe Biden travels incognito to Russia to find out why sanctions against the country are not working, loses his passport and is forced to work as an English teacher to afford a new passport for the trip home while the CIA takes pensioner Ivanovich, who looks exactly like Biden, to the United States
Media
Mel Gibson is working on a television series about the Great Siege of Malta in 1565 and was recently on a visit to the island where he met the country's Prime Minister Robert Abela, says the story of the 700 knights who won when they defended Malta against the attacks of the Ottomans is incredible
British magazine The Spectator is bought by businessman Paul Marshall, owner of right-wing media GB News and online publication Unherd, for GBP 100 million, is profitable and has grown turnover every year since 2013
Youtube stops recommending certain types of health and fitness videos to teenagers as it can be harmful to their self-confidence and body image, the same measures were taken for the US last year
Court upholds previous ruling that the Internet Archive's activity of scanning and lending library books violates copyright laws, assesses that all four requisites for fair use speak in favor of the publisher, but judges that the site's activity is not commercial in nature, unlike the assessment of the previous instance
SpaceX's Starlink will block X in Brazil after the Supreme Court's decision to ban the platform in the country and to freeze of Starlink's assets to ensure that X pays its fines, both companies' owner Elon Musk writes that if Brazil does not return the illegally seized property they will seek reciprocal seizure of government assets too
Russian opposition journalist Sergei Mikhailov, editor of the publication Listok, is sentenced to eight years in prison for reporting on the number of dead civilians in the Kiev suburb of Butja and Mariupol in Donetsk, something that the court judge was knowlingly spreading of fake information
X, formerly Twitter, is being shut down in Brazil after order from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre De Moraes citing refusal to comply with local laws, using VPNs to get around the shutdown faces fines of USD 8,900 daily, and according to X's owner Elon Musk, the social media platform is the country's most used news app and what the people want
Politics
Afro-Swedish EU parliamentarian Alice Bah Kuhnke (MP) tells The Guardian she has learned to keep her ID close at hand as she frequently is stopped in and around the European Parliament and that other black parliamentarians have the same experience, the article author writes that the over-representation of white men in parliament have far-reaching consequences
Argentine President Javier Milei attends a convention of European patriots organized by the right-wing party Vox with Marine Le Pen among others present and has no plans to meet the king or Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during a visit to Spain, calls socialism satanic and a cancer in a speech on the first day of the visit
Dutch Geert Wilders presents an agreement between four parties that will introduce the country's strictest immigration policy ever by, among other things, getting exemptions from the EU's immigration policy similar to Denmark, takes place after his party the Freedom Party became the largest party in the 2023 election and since then negotiated the formation of a government, still unclear who will be prime minister
The Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang is leading the polls ahead of the Belgian election at June 9 with 28 percent support and the party's Barbara Pas says the desire to have children generally remains the same, but cannot be fulfilled by the people due to practical and financial obstacles which the party seeks to eliminate
Opinion
Andrew Beck: Ten years ago, Javascript's creator, Brendan Eich, was forced out as CEO of Mozilla, which he co-founded, as a result of donations he made to lobby groups opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage, which I felt at the time was a major escalation of the culture war and made me realize that the ideological conformity to the top-down, programmatic transformation of the country was all that mattered
Robin Hanson: Global monoculture is a dangerous mistake which is on track to repeat historical patterns of population collapse, centuries of minimal development and increasing illiberalism, no cultural counterforce has realistic chance of reversing the trends but high tech could prevent some of the problems ahead
Europe
The European Commission is suing Hungary over legislation intended to defend the country against undue political influence by foreign entities that came into force in December 2023, saying the law violates several EU rules and principles
Every chicken in the UK must be registered with the state from October 1st, citing improved preparedness for avian flu and other infectious diseases
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen in court together with 26 other party members accused of misuse of EU funds by fabricating employees of the EU Parliament with whose salaries they financed domestic political activities, threatened with up to ten years in prison, five-year ban on political assignments but says nothing will stop her from standing in the upcoming presidential election
The anti-immigration Freedom Party, FPÖ, with party leader Herbert Kickl, becomes the largest party in Austria with 28.8 percent of the vote after Sunday's parliamentary elections, unclear how the government will be formed
Iceland's Justice Minister Gudrún Hafsteinsdóttir says gang criminals are sent from Sweden to commit crimes in the country, citing arson attack on police car in August 2023, announces stricter border controls
North America
Black Marcellus Williams is executed in Missouri after being sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle who was found at home by her husband with 43 stab wounds, became a devout Muslim while in prison, acted as an imam for other inmates, was spared execution in 2015 and 2017, has the entire the time maintained his innocence and until the very end, attempts were made to overturn the sentence
US Department of Justice publishes letter written by Ryan Wesley Routh, who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump during a round of golf, in which he confirms it was a failed assassination attempt and offers 150 000 USD to whoever succeeds
Latin America
The Dominican Republic announces plan to per week deport up to 10,000 Haitians who made it to the neighboring country after the recent lawlessness, according to the UN, the Dominican Republic sent back 200,000 Haitians last year
Venezuela plans to issue arrest warrants for Argentina's President Javier Milei, his sister Karina Milei and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich over the expropriation of state-owned aircraft at the behest of the US Justice Department, which claimed it actually belonged to Iranian airline affiliated with the terrorist-designated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
All gifts to Argentine President Javier Milei are declared and include a chainsaw key ring, a pair of underwear, a mug with the inscription "socialism kills" from a German fan, Toblerone, a toy dog, the Argentina national soccer team jersey during a trip to Israel, red wine and olive oil from Georgia Meloni and cognac of the Hennessy XO brand from Emmanuel Macron
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro brings forward the start of the Christmas celebration for the third time during his administration, which was announced in a speech to the people during his show Con Maduro+ broadcast on Youtube, this year the celebration starts on October 1st, while in 2020 it was on the 15th and in 2021 on the 4th of October
Asia
Former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba is expected to become Japan's new prime minister after a vote in parliament next week after winning the Liberal Democratic party leadership vote with 215 votes to female challenger Sanae Takaichi's 194 votes
Armed faction of the West Papua National Liberation Army in Indonesia, led by Egianus Kogoya, are according to audio message published by spokesman willing to release the New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens who was kidnapped over a year ago, the Indonesian army has said that military intervention would be dangerous and has instead prioritized diplomacy
Philippines and China reach agreement on Philippines-controlled reef Second Thomas Shoal which is also claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, the US has repeatedly warned that attacks on Philippine ships in the South China Sea might lead to intervention as the US and the Philippines have a joint military agreement
Africa
In order to operate in South Africa, Starlink needs to be 30 percent owned by "historically disadvantaged groups", which includes blacks, women, youth and disabled, the service can be accessed from most parts of the world but for the delivery of necessary products to customers, permission from the states is required
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine seriously injured after being shot in the leg by police outside the capital Kampala on Tuesday, street confrontations between him and the police is not unusual and in this case police say he had to no avail been advised against holding a street procession when he left a private event
Germany ends its military presence in Niger in Africa as the last 60 soldiers and equipment leaving, but the countries write in a joint statement that their military cooperation will not end, since 2016, 3,200 German soldiers served on air bases in the region
More cases so far in 2024 of people infected with monkeypox in Africa compared to all of 2023 and the World Health Organization calls for a meeting of its Emergency Committee, a new deadlier and more infectious strain of the virus is said to have been discovered in April in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Mahamat Idriss Deby is sworn in as president of Chad after winning elections with 61 percent of the vote after three years as a leader under military rule following the assassination of his father who ruled the country since a military coup in the early 90s, present at the installation was, among others, the minister of foreign trade of France and the international cooperation organization for French-speaking countries and areas, Francophonie
Congo-Kinshasa's army says the stopped failed coup attempt in capital Kinshasa following a shootout with three dead and says several foreigners among those arrested
Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi says in response to German authorities' proposal to limit the import of hunting trophies that they would like to offer 20,000 elephants to Germany and will not take no for an answer, says the number of elephants has increased explosively as a result of conservation efforts and that the country had to pay the price
Economy
Japan's Nikkei stock market falls 12.4 percent on Monday, which is the biggest fall in 37 years, and rises 10.2 percent on Tuesday, July 31 Bank of Japan raised interest rates and on Friday US jobs data came in worse than expected
Nvidia becomes the world's most valuable company with a market capitalization of more than 3.3 trillion dollars when it surpasses Microsoft earlier this week, the company has around 80 percent market share of the chips used for the development of artificial intelligence
EU imposes additional tariffs of up to 38.1% on Chinese electric vehicles from July, the move follows a nine-month investigation finding that unfair Chinese battery electric vehicles subsidies threaten EU industry, the EU braces for trade war with Beijing but argues that Chinese manufacturers can easily absorb the increased levies
Technology
Encrypted chat app Ghost, which police say is used by criminals, is cracked by Australian police, the apps owner, 32-year-old Jay Je Yoon Jung in Australia, was arrested on Tuesday and police raids are being carried out simultaneously in Ireland, Italy, Sweden and Canada
SpaceX performs the first private spacewalk ever as 41-year-old billionaire financier Jared Isaacman and 30-year-old astronaut Sarah Gillis step out of the capsule at nearly twice the height as the International Space Station
Nasa announces that SpaceX spacecraft will bring home the two astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station since June, instead of Boeing's Starliner that took them there and was then deemed unfit to take them back, would have returned after eight days but now expected to return in February next year
The U.S. AI Safety Institute under the US Department of Commerce, which was established after the Biden administration's executive order on AI in October 2023, signs cooperation agreements with OpenAI and Anthropic, which means that they will get access to new models before they are publicly launched
After a five-year absence, Curtis Yarvin is back at the helm of Urbit, which he founded, after its executive director since 2021, Josh Lehman, has been fired and the non-profit organization that intends to rebuild the Internet from scratch is close to running out of money
Science
Researcher Nathan Cofnas is fired from Emmanuel College, part of the University of Cambridge, for violating its diversity and inclusion policies when he argued that the number of black professors at Harvard would approach zero in a meritocracy and that they would not hold any high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment