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

March 2021
Cannabis is now legal in New York. Hey there's a real win with 40% of tax income from weed sales are going to assist marginalized communities. Honestly this probably finally happened because wanted to sweep the whole "sexual assault allegations" and "sending COVID patients to nursing homes" thing under the rug. The Other Nuremberg trials, Seventy-Five Years On: Or the deep links between big business and the Nazis London schoolkids remind us that the future belongs to them. [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56585538 An official report concludes that the UK is no longer an institutionally racist country. Many people in Britain think those findings are a load of crap.] Church membership in the U.S. has fallen below the majority for the first time in nearly a century. Non-paywalled alternative. Arkansas passes law banning gender-affirming care for trans youth. Beijing overhauls Hong Kong's electoral system to ensure the city is governed by “patriots”. Capitol riot suspect arrested at home wearing an “I Was There, Washington D.C., January 6, 2021" T-shirt.  Massacre as Daesh fights government forces in northern Mozambique   Nigel Farage's new job is planting trees to offset CO2 - for a company owned by QAnon promoter and Brexit donor John Mappin, who was also a funder of astroturf culture wars student organisation Turning Point UK.  Ever Given finally unstuck from Suez Canal one week after grounding, allowing traffic through the canal to resume. In a 6-0 ruling, Minnesota's Supreme Court rules it's not rape, if a woman gets voluntarily drunk.

Good job with your, Chinese branch of Hugo Boss. An unnamed 6 year old boy was arrested and brought to trial alone for picking flowers at a North Carolina bus stop, highlighting the low age threshold for court in the state. (The judge dismissed his case.) A teacher showing his students a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad from the French magazine Charlie Hebdo during a Religious Studies lesson about blasphemy in Batley, West Yorkshire, an area with a large Muslim population, leads to days of protests outside the school and accusations that those protests have been taken over by extremists on both sides. In 2020, renewable energy met 97% of Scotland's electricity demand Georgia's government enacts their comprehensive voter suppression law, which limits absentee ballot drop boxes, allows unlimited challenges to a voter's qualifications, cuts the runoff election period from 9 to 4 weeks, significantly shortens the amount of time voters have to request an absentee ballot, empowers the state legislature to appoint a majority of members on the state election board, allows the state election board to strip local election boards of their power, and makes it illegal to distribute food or water to voters waiting in long lines. Goddamn. Arkansas is now the second state to ban transgender women and girls from competing in school sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Massive container ship plots an (probably unintentional) enormous dick pic and then gets jammed in the Suez Canal.

Cardinals get a pay cut as Vatican income takes a dive due covid related closure of museums and lack of tourists. Virginia becomes the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty. Garment Workers Win $22 Billion in Historic Victory Against Wage Theft 10 shot dead in a Boulder, Colorado grocery store, [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56491949 Polish journalist Jakub Zulczyk could face up to three years in prison for the "crime" of calling President Duda a moron. In Poland, it is illegal to insult state leaders or religion.] Atlanta police wrongfully detain Latino man for four hours after spa shooting. He was the husband of one of the deceased. Donald Trump is going to create a new social media site in order to maintain influence Spain legalizes euthanasia. Turkey quits the anti-domestic violence Istanbul Convention on the grounds that it is incompatible with the nation's family values and seeks to normalize homosexuality. [https://www.npr.org/2021/03/21/977797909/amid-a-wave-of-targeted-killings-in-afghanistan-shes-no-11-on-a-murder-list Afghanistan is facing a wave of assassinations by religious conservatives aimed at journalists, human rights activists, judicial workers, doctors and clerics. These murders claimed 700 lives in 2020 and still seem to be escalating]. Violent protests in Bristol against bill that would allow police officers to impose time and noise limits on street protests. The bill, although has existed long before the events, was put up for debate in wake of protests and vigil that follow Sarah Everard's kidnapping and murder by Wayne Couzens, a police officer. Nawal El Sa'adawi, an Egyptian feminist and human rights activist, dead at 89. How inequities get built into America's vaccination program. Treaty rights asserted by Native American protesters during creation of White Earth protest camp Denmark plans to limit non-Western residents in disadvantaged areas Studies done by Yale University and the University of Leeds have suggested that life on Earth may have been a result of lightning strikes dating back billions of years. Spain to test a 4-day/32 hours workweek program over a period of three years Stephen Yaxley-Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson has declared himself bankrupt. Now many of his followers are questioning much of the funding they have given to him and whether he has defrauded them. Man shoots 8 dead in Atlanta, in a spree seemingly aimed at Asians. Local sheriff claims the shooter was having a "bad day," but then it turns out he posted anti-Asian Covid pictures on Facebook. Tanzanian President John Magufuli has died in a Dar es Salaam hospital. He had not been seen in public and recent reports had suggested he was being treated for covid overseas. Widely seen as a "do something" sort of guy, but his lasting legacy may end up being his covid denial. Across the internet, a game Of Whac-A-Mole is underway to root out extremism. Israeli experts announce discovery of more Dead Sea Scrolls Speaking from prepared notes, Australian PM, Scott Morrison says that women attending the March 4 Justice events in an effort to end gendered violence, should be thankful they can protest, and aren't "being met with bullets," like people in Myanmar. [https://apnews.com/article/vatican-decree-same-sex-unions-cannot-bless-sin-077944750c975313ad253328e4cf7443 The Vatican's orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has declared that the Church will not bless gay unions since God "cannot bless sin". The ruling was approved by Pope Francis.] Met Police criticised for "deeply disturbing" handling of a vigil for a woman murdered by a cop Bloody week of military crackdowns brings the number of murdered anti-coup protesters in Myanmar to about 70. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56275274 Mississippi governor signs bill banning trans athletes from participating in school sports. The bill argues that boys and girls have "inherently different athletic capabilities".] Since the announcement that the American lottery will introduce Australia and the UK to the game later this year, Idaho has said it will pull out of the multi-state game over concerns that non-Americans or non-Canadians would win the jackpot. The British postal operator Royal Mail has announced its plans to trial delivering parcels on the sabbath, the first time in over 500 years. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56343982 A group of Myanmarese policemen have fled to India after defying orders to shoot anti-coup protesters, saying the military junta is becoming more desperate and brutal. Since the coup, the military and police have killed an estimated 50 people.] President Biden's relief package is projected to reduce poverty by one third, making it the most ambitious anti-poverty program since the War on Poverty. Study suggests that the modern antivaxxer movement is shaped by Christian nationalism Bye, bye: Piers Morgan leaves Good Morning Britain after a wave of complaints due to his racist remarks against Meghan Markle Remember Milo? He now claims to be ex-gay. Remember when French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by an Islamic terrorist for allegedly showing religiously offensive cartoons? The girl who accused him just admitted in court that she made up the story to hide from her father that she got suspended for chronic truancy. US Capital insurrection rioter who fled to (of all places) Kenya to escape justice is deported and arrested at JFK airport in New York City. Members of Parliament from various parties call for "conversion therapy" for LGBT+ people to be made illegal in England and Wales as quickly as possible. Demonstrating a lack of tolerance for different cultures in spite of being an inherently multi-ethnic country, a committee with ties to the Swiss People's Party, the Swiss vote to ban burkas in public. At least 615 injured and 98 dead in explosions in Bata, Equatorial Guinea. Every building in the city appears to have suffered some amount of damage, and the number of injuries/deaths are likely to climb. Much like the recent Beirut explosion, it appears to be the result of improperly stored dynamite. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56312443 General Baptist pastor Stewart Allen Clark of Missouri uses a sermon to tell women it's their duty to look beautiful to keep their husbands faithful. He said, "I'm not saying every woman can be the epic trophy wife of all time like Melania Trump. Most women can't be trophy wives, but you know... maybe you're a participation trophy." He is currently on leave and in professional counselling.] Nigel Farage says to the Sunday Telegraph he is quitting politics this time, and his Reform UK fiefdom is going to be headed by his millionaire mate and founder of Leave.EU, Richard Tice. Stockton's Basic Income experiment pays off It's now a felony in Alabama to provide HRT or affirmative surgery to trans kids under the age of 20. The bill is yet to be approved by the governor. Ex-staffer at RT’s news agency Ruptly’s office in Berlin reveals that the company purposefully put out provocative videos to support extremist politics, and tries to undercut prices and other anti-competitive practices against traditional news agencies such as Reuters and AP. Israel is currently dealing with the largest environmental disaster in its history, with a massive oil spill along its shores. But what's weird is that it's unclear where the oil came from. Israel is claiming that an Iranian-linked oil tanker turned off its transmitter and intentionally dumped oil 40 miles off the coast of Israel. Iran of course disputes this. The ship's ownership is overly complicated, making determining responsibility unclear. Israel was nearly vaccinated enough to reopen the beaches to tourism, whereas Iran is in the middle of dealing with trying to get the best possible nuclear deal with the US, so this comes at a bad time for both countries. Interesting times and all...  [https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-56280318 Its singer says it's about an abusive relationship. But the Cyprus Orthodox Church says that "El Diablo", the Cypriot entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, promotes submitting to the will of Satan.] Study found that police killings declined by as much as 20% in municipalities where Black Lives Matter protests were held Richard Barnett, the self-described white nationalist who, on January 6, carried a weapon into the United States Capitol, posed for pictures sitting at Nancy Pelosi's desk, and left a note for Pelosi stating "Nancy, Bigo was here, you bitch," threw a temper tantrum in court complaining that he's being incarcerated pending trial. Support for Welsh independence reaches an all-time high, with 39% of Welsh people polled say that they would vote Ie/Yes if there was a Welsh independence referendum tomorrow. Three Polish women who protested against "LGBT" and "gender" being labelled sins by putting up posters of a Madonna and Child with rainbow halos are found not guilty of offending religious feelings. The esteemed publication the New Scientist has been sold to the Daily Mail's parent company DMGT for £70 million. Texas is enjoying the taste of that sweet, sweet deregulation as their largest power cooperative is filing for bankruptcy protection, following the recent snowstorm. The High Court of Justice rules that people who convert to Judaism in Israel through Reform and Masorti movements must be recognized as Jews and thus entitled to Israeli citizenship, puncturing the longstanding Orthodox monopoly on conversions

It has now been revealed that one of the accounts that were in the Gab hack, belonged to former president Trump. Nope, not The Onion. Six of Dr Seuss's books have been pulled from publication for being too racist. Additionally, a number of schools in San Francisco are being renamed to remove racist Presidents such as Abraham Lincoln. An investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has determined the family resort Pontins racially discriminated against Irish people by training its employees to refuse service to people with Irish names and accents. Gab, the original Twitter for Nazis, has been hacked, with over 70Gb of personal information and private chats made available. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to 3 years in jail (2 of which are suspended) after being convicted of corruption.