RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/December 2020

December 2020
The UK's only British territory in mainland Europe, Gibraltar, is to enter Schengen owing to its economic reliance on Spanish commuters, theoretically separating it from the rest of the British territories. Paleontological evidence suggests that early humans might have survived harsh winters through hibernation Argentina's Senate legalizes abortion Scott Morrison's government pushes legislation establishing greater control over online content including the power to unmask "trolls", block websites in crisis events and forcing removal of offensive posts House votes to increase stimulus checks to $2,000 after Trump signs relief bill Councillors in Comhairle nan Eilean Siar [the Outer Hebrides] in Scotland have voted to reject the official government sex education programme in favour of Catholic influenced relationship education. The End of the American Century: China is set to become the world's largest economy by 2028 as an economic fallout of the pandemic Channel 4 has decided to make a serious point about deepfakes by doing a satirical one of the Queen’s Christmas Message for this year’s alternative message. (YouTube Link) Reports of an "intentional explosion" in Nashville, Tennessee. Police in Columbus, Ohio, shoot an unarmed black man, the second in three weeks. The EU and the UK have reached a post-Brexit free trade agreement at the eleventh hour Leaked Nintendo documents reveal extreme measures of corporate surveillance on so-called hackers Using Russia's own data market, Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny's FSB poisoners were doxxed by a Bellingcat journalist team, uncovering real and fake names, photos, occupations, phone numbers, home and work addresses, and direct connections to the Kremlin The Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, has passed a motion in support of Sweden opening up to the possibly of NATO membership in the future. This would lead to the first change in the country’s foreign policy of neutrality since Napoleonic times. The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Walmart for helping to fuel the opioid epidemic. The lawsuit alleges that Walmart pharmacies did not properly screen prescriptions, understaffed pharmacies, and pushed employees to fill prescriptions quickly. The Trump lameduck administration labels Vietnam as a currency manipulator and some experts expect the administration to slap tariffs on the country before Biden's inauguration The two voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion are suing Fox News, Newsmax and OANN for defamation for claiming they rigged the presidential elections. The New York Times reports that this lawsuit could bankrupt the news channels. OPSEC for Dummies: Alexei Navalny dupes FSB goon into discussing details of the failed attempt to assassinate him with Novichok. The attacker behind the deadly 2019 Synagogue attack in Halle has been sentenced to life imprisionment Twitter has started to mark Trump's tweets that contradict the statement that Joe Biden is the president-elect. They have been marking the tweets with these phrases in blue;  This claim about election fraud is disputed  &  Election officials have certified Joe Biden as the winner of the U.S. Presidential election . The English county of Kent, which voted overwhelmingly in favour of Brexit, is reaping the rewards - with miles of gridlocked lorries, fields being turned into parking lots, delays in vaccine deliveries, and everything reeking of pee. Despite the deadline running out for UK-EU trade negotiations, both parties are still at the same impasse they have been all year. Newly released video shows Minneapolis pig telling Somali American teens he's glad US troops killed "you folks" in  Spain’s parliament votes to legalize euthanasia An analysis of Australia's Liberals malicious mismanagement of climate policy The Zodiac Killer's infamous 340 cypher has finally been solved after 51 years Unicef, the UN agency providing humanitarian aid to children in developing countries, conflict areas and during natural disasters has given a grant to help feed children in UK for the first time in the organization's 74 year history. The world's largest iceberg, the 1,500 sq mile A-68A, which broke off the Larsen C ice shelf in 2017, is on a collision course with the South Georgia and Falkland Islands. An investigation finds that a quarter of a million children and young people in the Kiwi Country's religious and state owned care institutions were abused. Reports emerging of a Russian hack on multiple U.S. agencies in recent months, including the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of the Treasury, using an exploit in a Texas-made monitoring software. Attorney General Bill Barr will leave office before Christmas Due to the behaviour of Republican Party in respect of the vote of the Electoral College, outgoing Congressman Paul Mitchell (MI-10) has left the GOP and changed his affiliation to Independent. Supreme Court declines case that would have repealed marriage equality protections for LGBTQ couples Andrew Cuomo accused of sexual harassment Judge sentences Jair Bolsonaro to pay approximately $2,000 in compensation to a journalist he accused of spreading fake news The US Justice Department has sued Alabama, alleging dangerous and unconstitutional conditions in the state's prisons. Newsmax scores higher ratings over Fox News for the first time ever, as Trump supporters reject reality and seek a safe space where Joe Biden has lost the election Tulsi Gabbard joins Republicans in sponsoring a transphobic bill that would limit Title IX protections of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 to biological sex Morocco has agreed to normalize ties with Israel in a deal with Trump over Western Sahara. The US will recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, which it has held since 1975. Bipartisan bill proposes stopping unemployment agencies that demand recipients to repay thousands of dollars if the agency made a mistake The National Poisons Information Centre in Ireland has revealed that last year (2019) over 300 people have tried the Tide pod challenge. Police are questioning a woman at Dublin Port after an old Soviet 82mm mortar launcher was found in her car that had arrived off a ferry in the morning. She told police it was for a collector in Northern Ireland, and consequently, officers are liaising with their northern counterparts. A bi-partisan coalition of 48 Attorney-Generals primarily Letitia James of New York, are suing Facebook for anti-trust violations. The lawsuit is demanding that the social network break-off WhatsApp and Instagram. Iran vows to build two new nuclear facilities Homophobic right-wing politician caught with naked man during online parliamentary session Yee-Haw! Elon Musk announced he is moving Tesla to Texas, due to cheaper costs of living, more business friendly regulations (i.e., basically none), and lower crime (which is maintained through dystopian levels of imprisonment). Do note that Texas actually is a serious player in the Tech world, though. Two members of the right-wing National Christian Resistance Movement [https://www.news24.com/news24/SouthAfrica/News/crusaders-terrorist-plot-two-members-of-right-wing-group-sentenced-to-8-years-in-prison-20201208#:~:text=Eric%20Donald%20Abrams%20and%20Erroll,black%20people%2C%20targeting%20informal%20settlements. jailed for plotting terror attacks and the murder of black people, in South Africa.] Update on the cyberpunk dystopia: California, which has been suffering from an eight-year drought, will see its water joining other high value commodities like gold and oil traded in Wall Street France to deport "foreigners" who find Islamophobic caricatures offensive. France is totally not Islamophobic, not at all. Fort Worth police ransack elderly black couple's home on false pretenses in yet another link in a long of chain of police misconduct. General Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier dies at age 97. The family of the late author apologize for anti-Semitic comments he made. Denmark set to end all new oil and gas exploitation in the. It plans to stop extracting all fossil fuels by 2050. Thanks to the Tories freezing benefits, up to two million disabled people are set to lose £2 billion Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Chinese Chang'e 5 probe has become the first spacecraft since the 1970s to return samples from the moon, unfurls Chinese flag on the lunar surface. Homophobic Hungarian representative to the EU Parliament József Szájer was arrested after he was caught fleeing a 25-man orgy in Belgium. Right-wing protests in Nepal call for restoration of the monarchy and the creation of a Hindu state China turns on "artificial sun" nuclear fusion reactor which uses a magnetic field to reach temperatures of over 150 million degrees Celsius. It also put its flag on the moon. A group of racists destroy one of those "mysterious" obelisks (which are probably a publicity stunt), proclaiming that they don't want illegal aliens from outer space, and replaced it with a wooden cross Lab-grown meat to go on sale for the first time After a wave of violent protests, the French parliament drops a controversial legislation that would harshly punish filming police officers [https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/release-ppp-loan-recipients-data-reveals-troubling-patterns-n1249629 Small Business Administration reveals that over 25 Paycheck Protection Program loans worth more than $3.65 million were given to businesses that pay rent at Trump and Kushner real estate properties. Fifteen of the businesses self-reported that they only kept one job, zero jobs or did not report a number at all.] Update: Project Veritas got $558,900 in taxpayer money for being a "nonprofit". Trump administration is rushing to sell oil drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as they would be very difficult to revoke under a Biden administration. In the wake of closure of the PRC consulate in Houston and arrest of 6 Chinese for undeclared links to PLA, 1000 Chinese researchers leave the country! [https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55150910 World Meteorological Organization says 2020 will be one of the three hottest years on record since 1850, with Arctic temperatures 5C above average. The other two record years were 2016 and 2019.] US Justice Dept investigating pardon for money scheme.