RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/April 2021

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

April 2021[edit]

upneutraldown
26European Union United States The European Commission has ruled that Apple has broken competition laws, by saying that its App store rules gives a disadvantage to rivals over its own Apple Music service.
upneutraldown
37United States Josh DuggarWikipedia arrested for possession of child porn.
upneutraldown
17United KingdomNorway As yet another Brexit setback, trade talks have collapsed between the two kingdoms over the issue of fishing rights. UK trawlers will now have less access to the arctic circle than they had in the EU, and the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations is concerned supermarkets will simply ditch them in favour of importing fish from Norway.
upneutraldown
21United KingdomEngland Benjamin Hannam, a former member of two banned neo-Nazi groups and the first serving British police officer to be convicted of a terrorist offence, is sentenced to 4 years and 4 months in prison.
upneutraldown
13United Kingdom Boris Johnson's personal phone number has been freely available on the internet for the past 15 years.
upneutraldown
23United StatesWisconsin. Taiwan Once touted by a former president as "the eighth wonder of the world," the 2017 Foxconn manufacturing plant project in Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin has been officially drastically scaled back. Despite the town spending hundreds of millions and displacing hundreds of residents, Foxconn's $10 billion in investment and goal of introducing 13,000 new jobs has been reduced down approximately an entire order of magnitude (to $672M and 1,454 jobs, respectively).
upneutraldown
23United States "State of crisis": Human Rights Campaign warns of unprecedented wave of anti-LGBTQ bills
upneutraldown
20United States GOP worries that fiscal conservatism is losing its rallying cry
upneutraldown
42United States the World The "forgotten astronaut", Apollo 11's Michael Collins has passed away aged 90.
upneutraldown
40United States Feds raid Rudy Giuliani's apartment, as part of a criminal investigation into his dealings in Ukraine.
upneutraldown
27the World New research shows that farming without disturbing the soil could reduce the climate impact of agriculture by 30%
upneutraldown
17United Kingdom Arlene Foster’s term as First Minister of Northern Ireland is coming an end, as 75% of DUP MLAs and MPs have signed a letter saying that they have no confidence in her as leader. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the vote to ban LGBT+ conversion therapy, and the lack of votes to stop it. Update: Foster will resign as First Minister in June. Update: Forster will also quit both as a MLA & as a member of the DUP.
upneutraldown
25United States The Biden administration will ask Congress to increase capital gains taxes for those that make more than $1 million a year to pay for childcare, paid leave, community colleges and other measures
upneutraldown
58United KingdomChina British House of Commons declares Uighurs are being subjected to genocide in China and approves a motion calling on the government to fulfil its obligations under international human rights law.
upneutraldown
28Ireland The latest citizens' assembly in Ireland in reviewing family rights, has supported removal of the "women in the home" clause and changes to the role of carers in the Irish constitution. The proposal is now heading to the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) for deliberation and arranging constitutional referenda.
upneutraldown
86United StatesTurkey Biden becomes first US president to recognise Armenian genocide. Unsurprisingly, Turkey isn't happy about it.
upneutraldown
23United Kingdom The Court of Appeal overturns the convictions of more postal staff, who were originally accused of - and some jailed for - theft, after the Post Office installed new software, which reported incorrect shortfalls in takings.
upneutraldown
22United States Bones of Black children killed in police bombing used in Ivy League anthropology course
upneutraldown
31United Kingdom The Brexit hits keep coming - the "Pick for Britain" scheme scrapped after Brits fill as few as 5% of roles. Now there's concerns about who will bring the harvest in.
upneutraldown
19New Zealand Australia United Kingdom United States Canada New Zealand's foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta, says that she and the government are not keen to expand beyond military intelligence the remit and scope of the “Five Eyes” (Australia, the UK, the USA, Canada and New Zealand).
upneutraldown
12United Kingdom Downing Street has shelved its press briefing room, despite having for just two press briefings and spending £2.6 million on it. Speculation suggests, it was due uncomfortable questioning the prime minister by the press themselves.
upneutraldown
89United StatesMinnesota. Derek Chauvin found guilty on all 3 charges.
upneutraldown
22United Kingdom Dawkins loses 1996 'humanist of the year' title over his trans comments.
upneutraldown
28United States the District of Columbia. The Biden administration has put its support for the DC Statehood Act which would turn the District of Columbia into the state of the Douglass Commonwealth, and admit Washington as the fifty-first state of the Union.
upneutraldown
-15United Kingdom LGB Alliance given charity status
upneutraldown
14Chad Idriss Déby, the President of Chad since 1990, has been killed in clashes with rebels. Chad will now be governed by a military council for the next 18 months.
upneutraldown
28Cuba For the first time since 1959, the person in charge of Cuba is not one of the Castro brothers.
upneutraldown
21RussiaUnited States The "Russian bounty on US soldiers" conspiracy theory falls apart as US intelligence agencies find the story, at best, unproven and possibly untrue. So, possible stopped clock for Trump calling it a hoax.
upneutraldown
28United StatesFlag of Mars.svg NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter succeeds in historic first flight.
upneutraldown
23United States How Amazon scared workers into voting "no" by telling them they "might" lose health care
upneutraldown
33United Kingdom Breaking the record 63,000 complaints it received when it aired Jerry Springer: The Opera in 2005, the BBC receives 110,994 complaints about its coverage of the death of Prince Philip. Most people complained there was much too much coverage of the death across BBC TV and radio. Some complained that not all TV presenters were wearing black. And 116 people complained that it was too easy to complain.
upneutraldown
25United StatesMissouri. Newly-elected Missouri state legislator Rick Roeber is to resign Friday following months of allegations of molesting his children.
upneutraldown
21China Chinese researchers brag that their AI text censor is 91 percent accurate
upneutraldown
12United Kingdom Almost 500 engineers have lost their jobs with British Gas after refusing to sign a contract agreeing to forego overtime pay.
upneutraldown
37United States Bernie Madoff, author of one of the biggest financial frauds in history, dies in a US federal prison at 82.
upneutraldown
14United States Hank Azaria, the white actor who voiced the Indian character Apu in The Simpsons for 30 years, has unreservedly apologized for doing that. Azaria says that the series was part of "structural racism" and that, although Apu was created with good intentions in mind, "it doesn't mean that there weren't real negative consequences for the thing that I was accountable for."
upneutraldown
19United StatesAfghanistan US troops will leave Afghanistan by 11 September, Biden is set to announce.
upneutraldown
5United Kingdom Shirley Williams, a politician whose career spanned 50 years, former Labour MP and Secretary of State for Education and Science, founder member of the Social Democratic Party and leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, has died at the age of 90.
upneutraldown
8United StatesIsrael Pentagon chief declares 'ironclad' US commitment to Israel.
upneutraldown
32Vanuatu God is dead. Well, a god is dead at least. Or maybe just a spirit, nobody seems quite sure. Anyway, it's definitely a sad time for the few villagers in Vanuatu who revered Prince Philip.
upneutraldown
4United StatesArkansas. Arkansas House passes bill allowing creationism to be taught as science in schools.
upneutraldown
15United Kingdom A local branch of the Loyalist paramilitary force the Ulster Volunteer ForceWikipedia orders the removal of three Catholic families from a housing estate in the predominately Protestant town of Carrickfergus, which has been described an act of '21st century form of ethnic cleansing'.
upneutraldown
25United StatesNew Mexico. New Mexico abolishes qualified immunity, becoming the second state after Colorado to do so
upneutraldown
23United StatesKansas. Kansas Senate Maj. Leader Gene Suellentrop was removed from his post after police reports surfaced showing that he drove under the influence 90mph the wrong way down a highway, then led cops on a high-speed car chase, and then threatened to fight one of the cops while calling him "donut boy". The senator also faces formal charges and is out on bail.
upneutraldown
24United StatesTurns out, putting anti-union propaganda in bathroom stalls actually works
upneutraldown
42United Kingdom Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip has died, aged 99.
upneutraldown
25Flag of Europe.svg Czechia The Council of Europe’s European Court of Human RightsWikipedia has ruled that obligatory vaccinations can been seen as necessary in a democratic society,in a case brought by a Czech anti-vax group.
upneutraldown
27United Kingdom Belfast and south County Antrim faces the "worst riot in Northern Ireland in decades", police says.
upneutraldown
32CanadaUnited States Jordan Peterson "shocked" that Captain America comic is allegedly parodying his views as philosophy of the super-villain Red Skull
upneutraldown
22MyanmarMurderous crackdowns committed by the military junta continue in Burma as the military tries to suppress anti-coup protests with live rounds, machineguns, and grenades. The total death toll since the takeover has reached about 600.
upneutraldown
40Italy Italy has scrapped film censorship, so no more banned movies. Instead cinemas are replacing it with a self-regulatory film classification system.
upneutraldown
15United StatesArkansas. Arkansas' state legislature has overridden Gov. Hutchinson's veto on their bill to ban gender-affirming healthcare for trans minors. Hutchinson said he was disappointed and criticized the bill for failing to take into account trans minors who are already undergoing treatment.
upneutraldown
31United States the World Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has proposed a global minimum corporation tax rate to stop race-to-the-bottom in corporate taxation.
upneutraldown
18United States A study shows that extremely popular or well-known members of the US Congress are not the most effective at law-making
upneutraldown
10BrazilGlenn Greenwald and husband David Miranda bound and robbed at gunpoint in a burglary by small gang. It should be noted that Miranda, while less famous stateside, is a member of Brazil's equivalent of House of Representatives; even Brazil's leaders are not insulated from the crime there.
upneutraldown
48United StatesVirginia. Virginia has banned the "gay/trans panic" legal defense. The bill was authored by Delegate Danica Roem.
upneutraldown
-27United States Montana. Montana bans sanctuary cities
upneutraldown
23the World The data of some 533 million Facebook users, including phone numbers and dates of birth, have been hacked, and leaked online.
upneutraldown
35Argentina Poverty in Argentina climbs to 42% after historic recession.
upneutraldown
16United Kingdom Following on from the largely ridiculed report on racism in the UK, Johnson's ethnic minority adviser, Samuel Kasumu quits.