RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/October 2017

October 2017
It is revealed that George Papadopoulos, a low-level Trump adviser, was told as early as April 2016 that Russians had "thousands of emails" with "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos had been arrested in July 2017 for making false statements to the FBI. A federal judge blocks the enforcement of Trump's ban of transgender people in the military. Kevin Spacey accused of having sexually assaulted actor Anthony Rapp (who was 14 at the time) in 1986. Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has been indicted on charges that he funneled millions of dollars through overseas shell companies. Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign official, has also surrendered to federal authorities. The indictment of Manafort and Gates makes no mention of Trump or election meddling. Update: Trump's response: "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? ....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" With relations between Baghdad and Erbil rapidly deteriorating, Iraqi Kurdistani President Masoud Barzani is to step down ahead of the currently unscheduled 2017 election. Former Nixon aide and retired fired Trump advisor Roger Stone has been suspended from Twitter for ToS violations in regards to comments directed towards a CNN journalist. Stone intends to sue Twitter, though it is not presently known what exactly for. Two back-to-back "White Lives Matter" rallies held in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to protest the resettlement of Muslim refugees in the state. Germany generates so much power from renewable energy that prices could become negative. Catalonia government dissolved after declaring independence from Spain

A 22-year old has been charged over a plot to butcher an MP with a machete after earlier police raids against the Lancastrian wing of National Action, a British terrorist organization. UN investigators find that Bashar al-Assad's forces were responsible for the April 2017 chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun. Saudi Arabia grants citizenship to a robot for the first time ever A Gallup poll shows that 51% of Republicans now support legalizing marijuana. American consumers lose the right to sue companies. Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman has vowed to return the country to a "moderate Islam open to the world and all religions." Robert Mugabe has said that people who murdered white farmers during a government-sanctioned purge in the 2000s will never be prosecuted. Officials in London accused of being ‘wilfully blind’ to massacre of thousands by Robert Mugabe in 1980s The BBC apologises after BBC Radio 4's Today show did not question Nigel Lawson's statement that global temperatures have not risen. Betsy DeVos rescinds 72 guidance documents outlining rights for disabled students. (Despite never once in her life having worked with such students and knowing nothing about their needs). The Trump administration prevents climate and environmental scientists from presenting their work at a conference. The GOP is fearing a Democratic tidal wave in 2018 as wealthy donors, fed up with an apparent lack of progress, continue to abandon it. The WHO appoints Robert Mugabe as a Goodwill Ambassador. It goes about as well as you'd expect. President Trump to allow the release of currently classified JFK documents, which were scheduled to be released under the 1992 Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. Norway has chosen to make all three major officers of the state (the finance minister, foreign minister & prime minister) women New Zealand has chosen as its delegate for Prime Minister, a female agnostic Labour leader from the Mount Albert constituency that isn't Helen Clark. By 2030, say projections, a third of Americans will have no religious preference. Trump's pick for the head of the Council on Environmental Quality considers CO2 to be "the gas of life" and believes that fossil fuels helped end slavery The "new and improved" EPA scrubs dozens of links and resources about climate change from its websites. About nine million people died in 2015 due to pollution, a number higher than that due to all wars and other forms of violence. Richard Spencer speaks at the University of Florida. He's received, it should come as no particular surprise, by a barrage of counter-protestors both inside and outside the auditorium - with the former drowning him out with chants for the entire duration. Outside, yet another Nazi ends up getting punched in the face. President Trump declares, "Freedom is a gift from God". President Trump is bringing Merry Christmas back. Raqqa liberated. A Hawaiian judge has struck down Trump's 3rd travel ban. On top of the failures to repeal Obamacare, to build a wall along the Mexican border, and to revitalize the Midwestern coal industry, this adds nothing to the number of major electoral promises Trump has succeeded in keeping, a nice tidy zero. Ironically, Donald Trump's actions undermining the Affordable Care Act hurt those who voted for him the most. Physicists have detected gravitational waves from colliding neutron stars for the first time. This paves the way for improved understanding of the origins of heavy elements of the periodic table. Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera is a Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives who claims she's been on board a spaceship piloted by extraterrestrials who have "communicated telepathically with her several times in her life." Somalia faces one of the most lethal terrorist attacks in recent history with 239 people believed dead And...this year's award for Worst Pseudoscience Of The Year goes to Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop. [https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/10/study-claims-vaccines-autism-link-scientists-find-fake-data-have-rage-stroke/ Authors face retraction (again) of their study claiming vaccines-autism link. Scientists demolish it - and find fake data.] California bans the sale of non-rescue animals in pet shops. Angered by gun control, this lawmaker drafted a bill to require licenses for journalists Rebounding from the Great Recession, the city of Lancaster has become the solar capital of California. Sesame Street teaches children on how to cope with trauma. Sovereign citizen claims to be 'some sort of agricultural product' to get out of trial. Judge is unimpressed. EPA chief Scott Pruitt announced in Hazard, Kentucky, that his agency will repeal the Obama-era Clean Power Act. Utah legislator considers bringing back "porn czar". Geophysicists are confident that the number of anthropogenic earthquakes are on the rise. In the wake of the Las Vegas massacre, the National Rifle Association (NRA) calls for stronger gun regulations. [No, not The Onion.] Trump issues a ruling that allows employers to opt out of providing free birth control if it contradicts their beliefs. Russian internet troll factories spreading Islamophobia and secessionist ideas in Texas Measles and rubella officially eradicated from New Zealand after 3 years with no new cases. A conservative Republican who has traditionally opposed abortions changes his mind after it was revealed that he had encouraged his mistress to have one. The GOP is losing rich donors over its inability to repeal Obamacare. Fox News Blames CNN and Atheism for Las Vegas Massacre According to Yahoo, all three billion accounts were hacked in the August 2013 data breach. Iraq liberates the last ISIS urban stronghold. The Disturbing Rise of Cyberattacks Against Abortion Clinics A small subset of Technolibertarians who love Bitcoin decided that an all-meat diet was a fantastic idea and is the most healthy diet ever; hint: they are wrong Mississippi’s Draconian Anti-LGBT Law, the Worst in the Nation, Is Set to Take Effect Paul Ryan touts mental health reforms (and the power of prayer) as key to preventing future incidents of gun violence while defending a GOP bill that undoes an Obama-era regulation making it hard for those with mental illness to purchase firearms. This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to three researchers who developed cryo-electronic microscopy, an imaging technique allowing for the visualization of complex biological molecules in exquisite detail. Soon, all the secrets of life at the most fundamental levels will be revealed to us. On the Internet, nobody knows you are a Russian dog. A number of "blacktivists" actually Russian spies. Putin stoked racial tensions during 2016, pitting black against white, to install orange. The U.S. votes against the United Nations' ban on the death penalty for same-sex relations. The Nobel Prize in Physics this year is shared by three American physicists who played an instrumental role in the detection of gravitational waves. Similarly, another three Americans earned the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for advancing our understanding of the circadian rhythm. Worst mass shooting by a single individual in the US, this time at a country music festival in Las Vegas. Currently tied with the Orlando shooting for number dead but far more injured (and the number of dead may rise). Third worst rampage killing of all time (behind Breivik and the Nice mass murders) The shooter was a wealthy real-estate investor. Tensions increase in Downing Street over the quality of the current government. There have now been repeated calls for Boris Johnson to be fired for interfering with other departments, and Theresa May faces similar calls over her failure to do so. In an effort to win over new voters should an emergency election be called (again), a new youth activist wing is to be set up to compete with Labour's Momentum, spearheaded by Reese-Mogg, while more popular policies such as helping people get a Mortgage and changing the policy on paying back student debt are announced. Puerto Rico remains without power after being hit by a hurricane, and upper limit estimates put it at eight months for repairs of the grid to be finished. A million are without drinking water, and homes and hospitals have been damaged, while Washington and Puerto Rico's government are in disagreement over the effectiveness of federal aid. Typically, President Trump has used the event to deride local mayors for being lazy and incompetent in waiting for federal aid, and accused critics of being part of a Democrat conspiracy. Four pedestrians and a police officer in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, have been injured in a suspected terrorist attack using a van and knife as seen in London earlier this year. A man matching the suspect's identity has been arrested. A suspected terror attack has taken place in Marseille as a man stabs several people at the St. Charles train station before being shot by armed police. At least one stabbing victim has also died. As many as 337 people have been injured in riots in Catalonia started by a judicial order to police to forcibly close schools used for their independence referendum.