RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/May 2019

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May 2019[edit]

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29United StatesColorado governor signs gay conversion therapy ban
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32United States New Hampshire has become the twenty-first state to abolish capital punishment.
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17Canada British Columbia has passed the law requiring the sale of all vehicles in the province be emissions-free. This is one of the toughest emissions law in North America.
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22United StatesDue to poverty, guns, and isolation, middle aged white males dominate the suicide demographics.
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26United StatesThe Satanic Temple advises its members they can claim religious exemption to Indiana's fetal burial laws
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38United StatesAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz form an unexpected alliance to propose a lifetime ban on former Congress members becoming lobbyists.
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14United StatesA court in Missouri to decide the fate of that state's only abortion clinic.
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34United States In the "Trump is a pathetic manbaby" category: USS John McCain ordered to hide its name from the president's view with tarps to avoid reminding him of his late rival. (Update: It isn't even named after the Senator).
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16RussiaA new bill is being put forward in the Duma which will restrict the releasing and dissemination of information that is held on the national land registry. Critics of the new bill say that it is designed to frustrate anti-corruption activists and stop them trying to prevent oligarchical land grabs.
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15Bosnia and HerzegovinaYugoslav Wars 2: Electric Boogaloo as ethnic tensions rise in Bosnia
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16United StatesPrivate prison staff have been spying on inmates inside restrooms and showers
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13United StatesSmithsonian appoints its first black secretary
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14ChinaChina blocks Wikipedia nationwide without warning in a likely attempt to suppress information on the Tiananmen Square Massacre on the eve of its 30th anniversary.
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30CanadaB.C. Green Party introduces legislation to ban conversion therapy
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21the WorldHumans causing shrinking of nature as larger animals die off
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26United StatesColorado governor signs bill capping insulin co-pays to $100/mo to shield its citizens from skyrocketing prices.
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3United StatesHawaiian surfer dies in shark attack, first such case since 2015
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27ChinaHong KongProtesters in Hong Kong demand Chinese government be held accountable for the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
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20United StatesTeva Pharmaceutical pays $85 million to the state of Oklahoma to avoid litigation over claims that the company intentionally exacerbated the nation's ongoing opioid crisis.
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23IrelandIreland has voted by one of the largest margins on record 82.1% to 17.9%, to liberalise the country's divorce laws. Divorce was only legalized (and narrowly at that 50.28% to 49.72%) in Ireland in 1995!
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5United StatesOne of the next products that could receive a hike in tariffs by President Trump in the current US-China trade war, are video game consoles such the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and the PlayStation 4. Currently they are at a 10% tariff, but they could go to full 25% tariff.
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11United KingdomEuropean UnionThe government is facing the possibly of a legal challenge in the courts, after reports of hundreds of cases of non-British Europeans living in the UK having ‘systemic denial’ of suffrage in the current European parliamentary elections.
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20United StatesIsn't it IronArk? The Ark Encounter, Ken Ham's flagship Noah's ark experience in Kentucky, has recently sued their insurance provider... over rain damage.
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26UkraineIn his presidential inaugural speech, Volodymyr Zelenisky is trying to curb any cult of personality of himself by stopping the display of portraits of the president in official buildings. Instead he has asked for displays of the person’s children, as a thinking point.
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-17United StatesSaudi ArabiaUnited Arab EmiratesTrump declares emergency to expedite arms sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE
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9European UnionThe right-wing populist plan to destroy Europe
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16Spain Having established itself as a mainstream political party, Spain's "VoxWikipedia" movement is to change its focus away from opposing Catalan independence to opposing gay marriage, transgender issues and bestiality, which it insists are all supported and encouraged in schools.
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30United KingdomTheresa May announces her resignation, set for 7 June.
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33United StatesLeaked private chat logs from the alt-right extremist group 'Proud Boys' shows members plotting violence at rallies. Looks like they're not "just a drinking club" after all.
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41United States Never let the mask slip. The person behind "Blacks for Trump", "Catholics for Trump" and a dozen similar Facebook pages that push Islamaphobia and anti-Soros conspiracy theories is not Catholic or black.
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5United StatesA 23-year-old trans woman was shot dead in Texas—just a month after she was beaten in public
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13AustriaAustria's Chancellor Kurz calls for early elections after vice chancellor resigns over alleged corruption video
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18PolandMass grave in Poland embodies the violent beginning of the Bronze Age
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7United StatesAI is now able to convincingly imitate the voices of real people as well, as it did to Joe Rogan
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35United StatesHouse passes Equality Act to increase protections for sexual orientation and gender identity
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-18GermanyIsraelPalestineGerman parliament votes to condemn BDS as antisemitic.
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53TaiwanTaiwan legalizes same-sex marriage in first for Asia
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10United StatesChelsea Manning sent back to jail after refusing to testify before a grand jury again
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19United StatesOfficials: Camp Fire, deadliest in California history, was caused by PG&E electrical transmission lines
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13United StatesAlabama's governor signs an abortion law that restricts abortions even in the cases of rape or incest. Doctors in Alabama who perform abortions could possibly face 10 to 99 years in prison.
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19Democratic Republic of the CongoNew Ebola epidemic "out of control" in northeastern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, made worse by civil war. Already 1000 dead, communities are failing to support public health actions to prevent its spread, clinics are being attacked, and it threatens to be as serious as the outbreak in west Africa in 2013-16.
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20United KingdomEuropean UnionTheresa May will put her Brexit deal to a vote—for the fourth time
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17European UnionArchaeological survey of submerged Doggerland underway
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27the WorldCarbon dioxide levels hit new landmark at 415 ppm, highest in human history
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24the WorldUN report: 1 million species at risk of extinction
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21SwedenProsecutors are to reopen an investigation into an allegation of rape against Julian Assange.
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16United StatesSan Franciso Police raid home of journalist in reporting death of public defender
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18United StatesUnder new climate change rules, Trump Organization could face up to $2.5 million dollars in fines
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30United States44 states have accused 20 pharmaceutical companies of conspiring to fix prices.
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16NetherlandsInvestigations by the TV channel RTL, found that hundreds of products are incorrectly sold as organic. Plus, it also found that as many as 1 in 10 Dutch organic producers have broken the country's rules about organic standards.
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26United StatesChelsea Manning released from jail on contempt charge.
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-11IrelandOnly 10 mins by foot from the famous Temple Bar in Dublin, The Virgin Mary, the city's first alcohol-free pub opens on Capel Street.
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13United KingdomRadio host Danny BakerWikipedia is fired by the BBC after tweeting a photo of a chimp with a caption saying it was royal baby Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, the first person of African American heritage to be born into the British royal family.
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13United StatesProgressive Christian Rachel Evans dies at the young age of 37, she will be missed.
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25United StatesDenver becomes the first city to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushrooms.
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13United StatesDoctors suggesting vaccination to their patients are "Sorcerers" according to Texas Lawmaker.
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12United StatesOhio legislature considering anti-abortion bill that, among other things, demands the entirely fictional medical procedure of "re-implanting ectopic pregnancies."
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26Saudi ArabiaGeorgiaTwo Saudi sisters who fled to Georgia, to escape their male guardians who threaten to kill them for disobeying them, have received Georgian travel documents to enable them to leave the country and seek asylum elsewhere.
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-8South Africa Allegations afoot that specialists connected to Putin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, are trying to interfere in the current South African general election. The aim is to support the current ANC government, and diminish the opposition centre-right Democratic Alliance and the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters.
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12United StatesNewly signed Georgia law prohibits abortion after 6 weeks, often before many women even know they're pregnant
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17PolandA Polish woman faces up to 2 years in prison for photoshopping an LGBT pride rainbow onto a portrait copy of the "Black Madonna".
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26United StatesKey portions of Trump's tax returns leaked, showing Trump was in deep financial trouble back in the 1980s
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12United States Yet another mass shooting, this time in Colorado
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16MyanmarTwo Reuters reporters freed in Myanmar after more than 500 days in jail.
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10United KingdomGerard Batten announces he will step down as leader of UKIP on 2 June, in order to trigger a leadership election. He has not stated if he will seek reelection to run UKIP. Note: He had stated his intention to do this when elected leader of UKIP back in April 2018, having been the then interim leader.
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13United StatesPolice solve 47 year old murder case
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29the World"Human society under urgent threat from loss of world's biodiversity"
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19Turkey Turkey is to hold fresh elections in Istanbul, following government claims of corruption.
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14United Arab EmiratesUnited StatesSomaliaThe improbable comeback of Erik Prince
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18Afghanistan An assembly of 3,200 Afghans called for a ceasefire between Taliban and Afghan forces and an "orderly" withdrawal of foreign troops. The assembly, which includes 900 women, also wants the freedoms and rights put in place since the end of the Taliban's rule in 2001 to be maintained. The Trump administration is eager to reduce U.S. forces, currently numbering at about 14,000, in Afghanistan.
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32United States The State of Illinois is considering a bill that would allow the possession of up to 20 grams of marijuana and five plants by individuals aged 21 or older. Lawmakers want to use the tax revenue from this industry to rejuvenate communities "devastated" by the War on Drugs.
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16United StatesThe Trump administration rolls back Obama-era offshore drilling safety measures which were implemented to prevent a repeat of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
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24United StatesMinnesota governor repeals law protecting marital rapists from prosecution.
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25United StatesAstronomers may have detected black hole swallowing neutron star for the first time.
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-2United StatesNew Conscience rule protects health care workers who refuse care for religious reasons. Whether it's refusing to perform abortions or operations on LGBT individuals
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6AustraliaThree-eyed snake found on Australian highway.
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33United StatesFacebook bans extremists Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Nehlen, Paul Joseph Watson, and Laura Loomer for being "dangerous." Trump reacts by by supporting the banned account holders and whining about his political opponents.
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15CanadaHealth Canada announces that plain tobacco packaging will be introduced on November 9th, in an aim to cut the number of smokers to 5% in 2035.
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6United KingdomThe 2,862 new words added to the latest edition of the Official Scrabble Words book include "agender", "cisgender", "genderqueer", "transperson", the gender-neutral pronoun "ze","antifa", "antivaxxer", "incel" and "mansplaining".
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36Saint LuciaScientology's cruise ship quarantined off the coast of St. Lucia after measles outbreak. Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
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23the WorldNew Denisovan jawbone found in Tibetan cave
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10United StatesBill Barr defiant amidst calls to resign due to deliberate misleading of American people over the Muller report
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6United KingdomDefence secretary Gavin Williamson has become the fallout guy in the scandal in leaking a report over using Huawei equipment in the UK’s 5G networks. Penny Mordaunt has replaced him, becoming the country’s first female defence secretary.
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13the WorldIn surprising news that shocked everybody the world over, people are rioting on May Day, and also having some pastoral looking celebrations