In a week of dreadful events, news that Malala Yousafzai is going to Oxford was a bright spot. The 20-year-old Pakistani-born activist who is the world's youngest Nobel laureate, tweeted her acceptance to the world on Thursday.

In March, Malala received a conditional offer from Oxford’s Lady Margaret Hall, contingent on her exam results. Pakistan’s first female prime minister and the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation, Benazir Bhutto, also studied at Lady Margaret Hall in the 1970s.. Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt after being shot in the head by a gunman in 2012, will be studying philosophy, politics and economics or PPE. AOC followed the terrible challenges to girls' education in the Swat Valley before the assassination attempt on Malala Yousafzai's life. This New York Times video is very distressing and does contain violent images.

Malala's story was specifically called out in James Murdoch's Thursday email to friends and colleagues concerning his $1 million donation to the Anti-Defamation League in response to the horrible events -- not in Pakistan -- but Charlottesville, Va.

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Aug 18, 2017

Text Of James Murdoch Email Seeking Support For ADL & His $1 Million Donation | Apple Commits $1 Million Each To ADL & SPLC

Aug 18, 2017

In an appalling act of absurdity, The UN Economic and Social Council voted days ago to award Saudi Arabia a four-year term on the Commission on the Status of Women. beginning in 2018

“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “It’s absurd.”

“Every Saudi woman,” said Neuer, “must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death. Saudi Arabia also bans women from driving cars.”

“I wish I could find the words to express how I feel right know. I’m ‘saudi’ and this feels like betrayal,” tweeted a self-described Saudi woman pursuing a doctorate in international human rights law in Australia.

Saudi Arabia was elected by a secret ballot last week of the U.N.’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Usually ECOSOC rubber-stamps nominations arranged behind closed doors by regional groups, however this time the US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley U.S. forced an election, to China’s chagrin.

The former governor of South Carolina is making a name for herself in New York and beyond, with her willingness to speak clearly. On Monday Ambassador Haley brings the entire UN Security Council to Washington for a series of first-ever meetings with key US officials including President Trump.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley is serving this month as the President of the Security Council, a role that rotates each month among the five Permanent members: the U.S., Great Britain, France, China and Russia. There are 15 members of the group — but the others, right now including Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Sweden, Ukraine and Uruguay are non-voting members.