UNESCO member states expected to approve US decision to rejoin the UN’s cultural agency

PARIS (AP) — UNESCO’s 193 members states are gathering for a two-day meeting in Paris aimed at voting on the United States’ plans to rejoin the U.N. cultural and scientific agency. The U.S. withdrew from the agency five years ago, during Donald Trump’s presidency. U.S. officials say the decision to return was motivated by concern that China is filling the gap left by the U.S. in UNESCO policymaking. The U.S. and Israel stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011. The Trump administration decided in 2017 to withdraw from the agency altogether the following year, citing long-running anti-Israel bias and management problems. The vote at UNESCO is expected by Friday evening.