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

April 2021
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. arrested for possession of child porn. 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. 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. Boris Johnson's personal phone number has been freely available on the internet for the past 15 years. 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). "State of crisis": Human Rights Campaign warns of unprecedented wave of anti-LGBTQ bills GOP worries that fiscal conservatism is losing its rallying cry The "forgotten astronaut", Apollo 11's Michael Collins has passed away aged 90. Feds raid Rudy Giuliani's apartment, as part of a criminal investigation into his dealings in Ukraine. New research shows that farming without disturbing the soil could reduce the climate impact of agriculture by 30% 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. 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 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. 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. Biden becomes first US president to recognise Armenian genocide. Unsurprisingly, Turkey isn't happy about it. 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. Bones of Black children killed in police bombing used in Ivy League anthropology course 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. 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). 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. Derek Chauvin found guilty on all 3 charges. Dawkins loses 1996 'humanist of the year' title over his trans comments. 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. LGB Alliance given charity status 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. For the first time since 1959, the person in charge of Cuba is not one of the Castro brothers. 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. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter succeeds in historic first flight. How Amazon scared workers into voting "no" by telling them they "might" lose health care Breaking the record 63,000 complaints it received when it aired Jerry Springer: The Opera in 2005, the BBC [https://theguardian.com/media/2021/apr/12/bbcs-prince-philip-coverage-breaks-uk-tv-complaints-record 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.]

Newly-elected Missouri state legislator Rick Roeber is to resign Friday following months of allegations of molesting his children. Chinese researchers brag that their AI text censor is 91 percent accurate Almost 500 engineers have lost their jobs with British Gas after refusing to sign a contract agreeing to forego overtime pay. Bernie Madoff, author of one of the biggest financial frauds in history, dies in a US federal prison at 82. Hank Azaria, the white actor who voiced the Indian character Apu in The Simpsons for 30 years, [https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-56731420 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." ]   US troops will leave Afghanistan by 11 September, Biden is set to announce. 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. Pentagon chief declares 'ironclad' US commitment to Israel. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56713953 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.] Arkansas House passes bill allowing creationism to be taught as science in schools. A local branch of the Loyalist paramilitary force the 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'. New Mexico abolishes qualified immunity, becoming the second state after Colorado to do so [https://www.ksnt.com/capitol-bureau/kansas-lawmakers-vote-out-senate-majority-leader-suellentrop-after-dui-arrest-details-released/ 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.] Turns out, putting anti-union propaganda in bathroom stalls actually works Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip has died, aged 99. The Council of Europe’s has ruled that obligatory vaccinations can been seen as necessary in a democratic society,in a case brought by a Czech anti-vax group. Belfast and south County Antrim faces the "worst riot in Northern Ireland in decades", police says. Jordan Peterson "shocked" that Captain America comic is allegedly parodying his views as philosophy of the super-villain Red Skull [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-politics/myanmar-security-forces-kill-15-protesters-junta-leader-says-opposition-aims-to-destroy-country-idUSKBN2BU0F3 Murderous 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.] Italy has scrapped film censorship, so no more banned movies. Instead cinemas are replacing it with a self-regulatory film classification system. [https://www.npr.org/2021/04/06/984884294/arkansas-gov-asa-hutchinson-on-transgender-health-care-bill-step-way-too-far 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]. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has proposed a global minimum corporation tax rate to stop race-to-the-bottom in corporate taxation. A study shows that extremely popular or well-known members of the US Congress are not the most effective at law-making Glenn 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. [https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/virginia-becomes-12th-state-ban-gay-trans-panic-defense-n1262933 Virginia has banned the "gay/trans panic" legal defense. The bill was authored by Delegate Danica Roem]. Montana bans sanctuary cities The data of some 533 million Facebook users, including phone numbers and dates of birth, have been hacked, and leaked online. Poverty in Argentina climbs to 42% after historic recession. Following on from the largely ridiculed report on racism in the UK, Johnson's ethnic minority adviser, Samuel Kasumu quits.