Random News: July 21, 2025

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s July 21, 2025, and it’s a Monday. I'm often up before the dawn, but this particular morning, it seems like the sun is taking the day off. Probably just heavy cloud cover (as opposed to the apocalypse) but it’s still weird sitting in a dark room at 7am.

• We’ll get rolling today by mentioning that Donnie Dump is doing everything he can think of in that little demented brain of his to distract people from talking about his close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and the list of people who were involved in Epstein’s sex parties with children.
• A panicking Dump has posted instead about added cane sugar to Coca-Cola, forcing the Washington Commanders to change their name back to the Redskins, and arresting Barack Obama for unknown reasons.
• But again, these are the actions of a man desperate to change the subject. Don’t let him.
• Moving on.
• On Friday, a passenger jet landing in North Dakota was forced to perform an aggressive maneuver to avoid colliding with an Air Force B-52.
• SkyWest Flight 3788, acting as a Delta connection between Minneapolis, MN to Minot, ND, was cleared by the tower for landing. But the pilot “performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path,” said SkyWest.
• That other aircraft was a massive B-52 bomber, which was performing a flyover at the North Dakota State Fair. Had the Delta pilot not been cognizant of the situation, there would have been a mid-air collision with the loss of hundreds of lives.
• The Air Force — under the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — did not respond to questions about the location and altitude of the B-52 during the incident and whether the base had coordinated its flyover with the airport.
• Honestly, this presidential administration is the worst in history by a mile.
• Let’s move on.
• The head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said yesterday that he will continue allowing the controversial practice of his officers wearing masks over their faces during their arrest raids.
• As you’ve seen in myriad news stories, ICE goons have become notorious for wearing masks to approach and detain people, often with force. Legal advocates and attorneys general have argued that it poses accountability issues and contributes to a climate of fear.
• Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, was asked about imposters exploiting the practice by posing as immigration officers. “That’s one of our biggest concerns. And I’ve said it publicly before, I’m not a proponent of the masks,” Lyons said.
• Then why allow it?
• Lyons says that the masks are a tool that is necessary for Dump’s gestapo to “keep themselves and their family safe.”
• What about our fucking families, Todd?
• Dump’s order to ICE is straightforward: rid the USA of up to one million brown-skinned people per year.
• Videos have flooded social media showing ICE goons wearing masks over their faces, detaining people without identifying themselves, refusing to answer questions or explaining why people are being detained, and pushing them into unmarked cars with tinted windows.
• The only identification many agents wear is body armor marked with the word “police”, despite not being police officers.
• In the same interview, Lyons also confirmed that ICE obtained and is using Medicaid data to track down immigrants believed to be in the US unlawfully, despite undocumented people not being eligible to receive Medicaid.
• Fun Fact: white people comprise the largest share of Medicaid recipients, at 39.6%.
• 84.2% of Medicaid recipients are born in the US, 6.6% are naturalized citizens. 9.2% are foreign-born non-citizens authorized to be in the US.
• So this isn’t a tool to find undocumented people, because there are nearly none who apply for or receive Medicaid benefits. This will be a tool for the next step of Dump’s scheme.
• And yes, there have been a number reported cases of masked criminals posing as ICE officers, such as a man in Raleigh, NC who kidnapped and raped a woman, threatening to deport her if she didn’t comply.
• There was a man in Brooklyn posing as ICE who attempted in February to rape a 51-year-old woman. And in April, a Florida woman posed as an immigration officer to briefly kidnap her ex-boyfriend’s wife from her job.
• There is some pushback, thankfully.
• A coalition of 21 state attorneys general, including New York’s Letitia James, wrote to Congress last week urging it pass legislation prohibiting “federal immigration agents from wearing masks that conceal their identity and require them to show their identification and agency-identifying insignia”.
• And here in California, state legislators last month proposed the No Vigilantes Act, which would require federal agents to provide identification, including their last name and badge or ID number.
• For now, let’s move on.
• From the International Desk…
• Yesterday, Gaza saw its deadliest day yet for aid-seekers in over 21 months of war as at least 85 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach food.
• This cannot be allowed to continue like this.
• The largest death toll was in devastated northern Gaza, where living conditions are especially dire. At least 79 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel. The U.N. World Food Program said 25 trucks with aid had entered for “starving communities” when it encountered massive crowds.
• That’s when Israeli forces opened fire toward crowds who tried to take food from the convoy.
• Ehab Al-Zei is a Palestinian man who had been waiting for flour. He said he hadn’t eaten bread in 15 days
• “Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours,” he said. ”I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it’s better.”
• We are unquestionably at a low point — at least in my 56 years of life — in terms of how the world treats people.
• Moving on.
• The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has overruled a decision by a federal district judge to allow a Mississippi law that requires social media users to verify their ages to go into effect.
• A tech industry group has pledged to continue challenging the law, arguing it infringes on users’ rights to privacy and free expression. It’s the latest legal development as court challenges play out against similar laws in states across the country.
• Supporters of the new laws have said they are needed to help curb the explosive use of social media among young people, and what researchers say is an associated increase in depression and anxiety.
• But attorneys for NetChoice, which brought the lawsuit, argues that the law threatens privacy rights and unconstitutionally restricts the free expression of users of all ages. The industry group has filed similar lawsuits in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Utah.
• They represent some of the country’s most high-profile technology companies, including Google, which owns YouTube; Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat; and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
• Let’s move on.
• Most of us recall that when we were kids, we were told horror stories about the planet’s runaway population growth.
• There would be violent disorder on the streets. Mass starvation. War over scarce resources. 
• And now? That fear has flipped in recent years. Now the alarm is being sounded about population collapse, as women are having fewer babies both in the U.S. and globally.
• The proposed reasons for that are mixed. They include more access to education, workplace empowerment, financial anxiety, cultural shifts, and a dramatic decline in childhood mortality.
• Political leaders worry it will lead to labor shortages, overtaxed retirement programs, and a less dynamic society, but so far, policy responses in various countries such as new benefits for parents haven’t worked.
• Is any of this based in reality?
• Let’s start with a factoid: for a country’s population size to remain stable, its fertility rate — the average number of children born per woman — needs to be 2.1. And around the world, it’s still 2.3.
• But in Mexico and the Latin American region, it’s down to 1.9. 
• And around the world, 141 of the world’s 195 countries have a total fertility rate of less than three. They include around 6.4 billion of the world’s 8 billion people. It is a remarkable change compared with 1990, when only 75 countries had a total fertility rate below three.
• And I can’t blame for people not wanting to fill the world with new people. Look around you. Do you want to bring a child into this world right now? And can you afford to raise multiple children? And do you want to spend your life as a parent, rather than enjoying your time here in your own way?
• All good questions.
• And now, The Weather: “Real Thing” by Alex G
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s mid-July 2025, and I’m some guy who owns a small marketing communications business, and every day I write news blurbs to share with people, and… hey, wait a second.
• Yes, this is the current top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. As in, right now. How many of these current hits do you know?
• Three? One? None? That’s okay, neither do I. DOn’t get me wrong; I know most of the names, just not the music they make.
• And yes, I post new music recommendations every single day, and I enjoy a ton of young and exciting artists and bands. They just aren’t on the pop charts for… reasons.
• Final note: how does an artist even get on the charts in 2025? Is it Spotify plays? YouTube performance? Bandcamp downloads? TikTok music for people showing a pie recipe? I really don’t know.
• 1. Ordinary (Alex Warren). 2. What Did I Miss? (Drake). 3. What I Want (Morgan Wallen Featuring Tate McRae). 4. Just In Case (Morgan Wallen). 5. A Bar Song (Tipsy) (Shaboozey). 6. Golden (HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna & REI AMI). 7. Luther (Kendrick Lamar & SZA). 8. I'm The Problem (Morgan Wallen). 9. Lose Control (Teddy Swims). 10. Die With A Smile (Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars). 11. Manchild (Sabrina Carpenter). 12. Love Me Not (Ravyn Lenae). 13. Pink Pony Club (Chappell Roan). 14. I Had Some Help (Post Malone Featuring Morgan Wallen). 15. Beautiful Things (Benson Boone). 16. Your Idol (Saja Boys: Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo & samUIL Lee). 17. Mutt (Leon Thomas). 18. Birds Of A Feather (Billie Eilish). 19. Espresso (Sabrina Carpenter). 20. Mystical Magical (Benson Boone).
• From the Sports Desk… American Scottie Scheffler won his first British Open yesterday. He kicked some ass, winning by four strokes ahead of fellow American runner-up Harris English.
• Scheffler ended up at -17, scoring 68 on the fourth round of the tournament and earning a final score of 267. He’s only the fourth player to win The Open, the Masters and PGA Championship before age 30.
• The other guys? Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Tiger Woods. Not too shabby.
• Today in history… The Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, is destroyed by arson (356 BC). The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight (1545). Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issues an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus (1645). Napoleon's forces defeat an Ottoman-Mamluk army near Cairo in the Battle of the Pyramids (1798). In the market square of Springfield, MO, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown (1865). Louis Rigolly becomes the first person to drive over 100 mph (1904). In Dayton, TN, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching human evolution in class and fined $100 (1925). Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph on land (1925). The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty, leading to the formation of NATO (1949). Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green becomes the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last MLB team to integrate (1959). Astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon, followed 19 minutes later by Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (1969). President Barack Obama signs the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010). NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (2011). Two major motion pictures, Greta Gerwig's fantasy comedy ‘Barbie’ and Christopher Nolan's epic biographical thriller ‘Oppenheimer’, are released in theaters on the same day (2023). US President Joe Biden announces he will no longer seek a second term and withdraws from the 2024 election (2024).
• July 21 is the birthday of Queen Jeonghyeon of Korea (1462), Austrian archduchess Anna de’ Medici (1616), astronomer Jean Picard (1620), journalist Paul Reuter (1816), singer-songwriter Sara Carter (1898), novelist Ernest Hemingway (1899), philosopher Marshall McLuhan (1911), violinist Isaac Stern (1920), actor Don Knotts (1924), US attorney general Janet Reno (1938), music manager Kim Fowley (1939), singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, aka Yusuf Islam (1948), cartoonist Garry Trudeau (1948), actor/comedian Robin Williams (1951), singer-songwriter Eric Bazilian (1953), bass player Howie Epstein (1955), singer Taco (1955), actor Jon Lovitz (1957), soccer player Brandi Chastain (1968), actor Josh Hartnett (1978), singer-songwriter Damian Marley (1978), MLB player CC Sabathia (1980), singer-songwriter Paloma Faith (1981), and NBA player DeAndre Jordan (1988).

That’s enough for a Monday. By the way, it’s now almost 8am, and it’s still dark as fuck. I’m going to assume the sun will show itself eventually and I won’t spend eternity in a world of constant twilight. Enjoy your day.