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

February 2021
Malaysian man wins landmark challenge against gay sex ban Anas Sarwar wins Scottish Labour leadership race According to a study, the Atlantic Ocean circulation is at its weakest in at least 1,600 years Federal judge rules eviction moratorium to be unconstitutional Adrian Hanstock has been appointed to the position of temporary Chief Constable of the, making him the first openly LGBT chief of police of a police force in the United Kingdom. A German man has been jailed for sending hoax bomb and murder threats to hospitals, protesters and politicians in the UK to extort Bitcoin money. [https://theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/feb/25/mr-potato-head-no-longer-a-mister-gender-neutral One of the most famous toy lines goes gender neutral as Hasbro drops the "Mr." from its Mr. Potato Head brand.] A coalition of Christian evangelical leaders releases an open letter condemning the role of "radical Christian nationalism," particularly white nationalism, in feeding the political extremism that led to the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot

US deports former Nazi concentration camp guard Friedrich Karl Berger to face charges for his participation in the Holocaust. [https://www.npr.org/2021/02/20/969768969/2-killed-in-myanmar-in-worst-day-of-violence-since-feb-1-coup Burma still caught in an increasingly violent nationwide police crackdown against anti-coup protests, with two killed on 20 February. Former elected leader Suu Kyi remains detained]. Pope Francis seems to have ousted one of the Church's most outspoken conservatives, Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, by declining to allow him to continue serving after age 75. The pope and the cardinal differed on major issues like homosexuality and relations with Muslims. New evidence in Malcolm X assassination points to possible conspiracy by NYPD and FBI The LGBT+ Studies Club at the Boğaziçi University has been banned while President Erdogan calls gay rights protestors terrorists Buzzfeed has revealed that Zuckerberg override his advisers advising him to ban Infowars and Alex Jones back in April 2019. This was several overrides that Zuckerberg did over various far-right groups in Facebook. Violent protests in Spain after the arrest of rapper Pablo Hásel for glorifying terrorism

In a somewhat alarming turn of events the French government, led by President Macron, plan to investigate social science fields (especially on studies of race, gender, post-colonial studies) they claim are "imported from American universities and contribute to undermining French society." Academics fear crackdowns and possible government censorship. Wind turbines did not cause the Texas blackouts, instead it was corporate greed (more specifically Telecom's greed). In fact there are wind turbines in Antarctica (last link to Twitter) The Supreme Court has ruled that Uber [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56123668 drivers are employees, and not self-employed contractors. This means that Uber must follow all the rules and laws regarding employment, including the] minimum wage, holiday leave and maximum working times. US immigration news: Biden attempts to rein in ICE by issuing guidelines meant to focus the agency on actual national security threats, and Congressional Democrats unveil a pathway to citizenship bill for undocumented immigrants. Minister of Higher Education and Research Frédérique Vidal calls for an inquiry into "islamo-leftism" Bob Dole diagnosed with stage four lung cancer Perseverance lands on Mars. The massive carbon footprint of the rich While Texas is battered by historic winter storms, leaving millions shivering without power, gas or water, Ted Cruz allegedly flies to Cancun, on holiday. Oh, and Rick Perry, the guy who used to be Secretary of Energy, says Texans would rather freeze than have their power grid regulated. "Time to reactivate MySpace": Facebook, who claim to be incapable of preventing fake news and far right content from being published their platform, manages to block sharing Australian news as well as the contents of news publishers pages on their platform. Even then it managed to stuff that up, blocking government pages such as Queensland Health (during a pandemic), the Western Australian Department of Fire and Emergency Services (during bushfire alerts in that state), the Bureau of Meteorology and their own page. Unelected British peer Lord Frost is to be made a British cabinet minister to improve relations with the EU, which he condemned as run by unelected bureaucrats. Good riddance.: Rush Limbaugh dead at 70 [https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56072219 The European Space Agency is recruiting up to six new astronauts. It wants to see more female applicants than in the past and is keen for one of the new recruits to be someone with a disability.] After five years, the Ebola virus has resurfaced in Guinea, killing three. [https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-trial-live-updates/2021/02/13/967098840/senate-acquits-trump-in-impeachment-trial-again US Senate votes to acquit Donald Trump in his historic second impeachment on a vote of 57-43. Seven GOP Senators voted against the former president.] After weeks of political turmoil, Mario Draghi replaces Giuseppe Conte as Italy's Prime Minister, the country's 7th Prime Pinister since 2010. Texas’ Lieutenant-General Dan Patrick has proposed a law to prohibit the state from doing business with any investment firms that boycott oil and gas companies. The proposed law is based on the previous law that attacks BDS, which was challenged in the courts and upheld. EU provided crowd control training to Myanmar police units involved in crackdown on pro-democracy protests, but claims it did due to concerns about possible human rights abuses Hustler founder, First Amendment advocate and pain-in-the-ass for the religious right, Larry Flynt, dead at 78. Denmark's Social Democratic PM backs a "zero asylum seekers" goal in a speech to parliament

There has now been further revelations that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles have used a little known legal power of “Queen’s consent” to vet and lobby laws in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Needless to say it's not really news. Former Secretary of State, and Theranos investor, George Schultz, dead, at 100. It has been reported by The Observer, that Queen Elizabeth has personally lobbied in the 1970s for exclusion of financial transparency legislation, so no-one would know her financial affairs. Former White House staffer Hogan Gidley begs "woke" companies to hire Trump loyalists for "depth of knowledge" on governing Brazil's watershed anti-corruption "Car Wash" probe ends with a whimper A 95 year old German woman charged with complicity in more than 10,000 murders in the Stutthof concentration camp during WWII According to BuzzFeed News, Parler tried to get exclusive rights to the social media account of Trump in return for a 40% stake in the company, potentially breaking anti-bribery laws. Welcome to the world of Cyberpunk. Nevada bill would allow tech companies to create governments Joe Biden thinks that his "erratic" predecessor shouldn't have access to intelligence briefings, as former presidents usually do, because he can't be trusted not to "slip and say something." According to data, the GameStop mania may not have been the retail trader rebellion it was percieved to be, as institutional investors also participated in the short squeeze The Fox Business Network has canceled Lou Dobbs Tonight, and is planning to completely distance themselves from the presenter. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55945202 Indonesia makes it illegal for public schools to make students wear religious clothing. That is to say, they can't force girls to wear headscarves.] Parler's former CEO John Matze claims that he was fired (effectively by Rebekah Mercer) from his position, because he was planning to step up monitoring on the platform and to ban neo-Nazi groups. Star of Home Alone 2, Zoolander and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Donald J. Trump. quits the Screen Actors Guild before he can be forced out of it. The US will formally cease its support for Saudi Arabia in its "intervention" in Yemen. Parler's CEO has been fired. Poland's justice ministry proposes that women who are forced to give birth by the country's abortion ban are given “a room to cry in”. Canada becomes the first nation in the world to officially designate the Proud Boys as a terrorist entity. Mass rape in Uighyr concentration camps. Allegedly. Due to media blackouts in China, it's impossible to verify every detail of everyone's stories, yet there are a lot of stories. There also appears to be a forced prostitution aspect as well, considering that many of the rapists appear to be from outside the camps and are paying/bribing for the prettier women, making this uncomfortably close to the "comfort women" of WWII. It also appears that it's not unusual for a raped woman to never be seen again, implying the possibility of the women being sold into indefinite sexual slavery. [https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/02/maureen-colquhoun-the-uks-first-openly-lesbian-mp-dies-aged-92 RIP Maureen Colquhoun. The UK's first openly lesbian Member of Parliament and a campaigner for gender balance, access to abortion and protection for sex workers has died at the age of 92.] Pete Buttigieg has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Secretary of Transportation, making him officially the first openly LGBT U.S. department secretary [government minister]. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny jailed for two years and eight months Two researchers have used computer modeling and data from cadaver crash tests to conclude that an unusually small, delayed avalanche is the most likely explanation for the incident at Dyatlov Pass. Brazil has currently the highest number of people in extreme poverty in a decade Two FBI agents are dead following a shooting while executing a search warrant. Screech from Saved by the Bell dead at 44 Military coup in Burma - Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi 'detained by military' ....  because coups always end so well and improve things so much. Guess who was providing "security services" in Myanmar?