China

• The U.S. will rejoin UNESCO next month after a 10-year hiatus. Its withdrawal and return were both motivated by geopolitics: it stopped paying dues in 2011 and eventually quit the group in 2017 in protest at the group admitting Palestine; now it's returning - and paying back dues - as a counterweight to Chinese influence on the group.
• Honduran president Xiomara Castro is on a six-day trip to China and inaugurated a new embassy in Beijing. Honduras broke off relations with Taiwan in March and promptly switched its allegiance to China. Pres. Xi promised to reward the switch with a free trade agreement "as soon as possible."

• Militia members from the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO) massacred at least 46 people at a camp for displaced people in Ituru, eastern DRC, yesterday. CODECO purports to represent Lendu farmers in their long-running dispute with Hema herders; it frequently loots gold mines too.

• Russia targeted Pres. Zelensky's hometown, Kryvyi Rih, with missile strikes that killed at least six.
• A group of U.S. lawmakers penned a letter asking the Biden Administration to penalize South Africa for arming Russia by revoking its access to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Pretoria insists it's not supporting Russia.