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

September 2020
Emmanuel Macron laid a plan targeting Islamism and seeking the forcible secularization of the Muslim community Donald and Melania Trump test positive for Covid-19. Judge orders the release of the grand jury's transcript relating to the Breonna Taylor case, amidst growing evidence that the trial was a kangaroo court Ireland’s Supreme Court has ruled that Subway’s bread contain too much sugar to be legally considered bread under the country’s sales tax laws. In Ireland, the bread which has 0% VAT “shall not exceed 2% of the weight of flour included in the dough”. Subway’s bread has a 10% ratio and thus the sub roll is considered a cake, thus has a VAT rate of 13.5%. A survey of Westminster's art found deep links between high ranking historical British officials and the Transatlantic slave trade Wyoming Is Now RationalWiki's Public Enemy Number One Acording to a Pew Research Center poll, a quarter (26%) of Americans get their news from YouTube Cambridge Analytica data from the 2016 Trump campaign exposes a racialised ad campaign based on "Deterrence", where African-Americans were disproportionately targeted with ads to stop them voting. Facebook suspends hundreds of page belonging to social justice, indigenous and climate groups in an attempt to disrupt an online protest against an oil pipeline in British Colombia Disaster declartion issued after a brain-eating amoeba was found in water supply, placing at least eight cities in alert The New York Times reports that it has obtained Trump's tax returns The world's greatest businessman is sinking in debt. The self-titled genius and walking disaster area paid a grand total of $750 in taxes the year he was inaugurated. (He probably paid more on hookers and blow at an Epstein party, allegedly!) In a sign of growing authoritarianism in the UK, Tory politicians have banned the usage of anti-capitalist materials in school, equivocating them to "rabid extremism" in the same vein as far right or Islamist politics. Queen Liz to receive bailout due to the crown estate being hit by economic slump On r/unemployment, a community of desperate people have stepped in where the government has failed The UK to scrap its GPS program and instead will seek to rejoin the Galileo program (warning: paywall) Donald Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court pick. Labour chaos as MP Nadia Whittome is sacked from the Front bench live in television for opposing a bill that will prohibit British military from being sued for war crimes Christian Concern loses legal challenge against at home abortion Australian conspiracy theorist ordered to pay MP A$875,000 ($628,000; £493,000) in a defamation suit for claiming the MP was a member of a "secretive paedophile network". The MP belongs to the conservative National Party that traditionally represents graziers, farmers, and rural voters generally. German Minister Michel Roth warns that the attempts of the British government to bypass the withdrawal agreement made in December is unacceptable and that time is running out for the UK  A report of the EU drugs agency highlights that drugs used in parties has fallen out of use, the parchase and selling of drugs has moved online and there has been a notable increase in overdoses amongst over-50 drug users as a consequence of lockdown measures Facebook says it may quit Europe over ban on sharing data with US.. Oh no what a shame, don't let the door clatter you on your way out. (Side note, it's the obligation of business to meet regulatory requirements, not to moan, bitch and complain about them as unfair to your multi-billion industry.) Former Kurdish MP jailed in Turkey for 15 years on spurious "terrorism" charges sentenced to another year for insulting President Erdogan. Israel has bombed the Gaza Strip again in retaliation for Hamas rocket attacks. Feeling betrayed, Palestinians have taken to the streets to protest against the recent Arab state normalization agreements with Israel. The US is attempting to use ongoing trade negotiations to pressure Kenya into enacting trade policies beneficial to Israel, supporting Israel politically, and opposing the BDS movement. The rise of the far right in Ireland. Scum parading as "concerned citizens" Strict new laws in Nigeria implemented that will include the castration of rapists and execution of pedophiles, due to soaring numbers of reported rape cases during the coronavirus lockdown According to a groundbreaking new paper written by researchers at the RAND Corporation, from a time period between 1975 and early 2020, the top one percent have captured a total of $50 trillion that otherwise would have gone to the bottom 90%

[https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/politics/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dead/index.html Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died from complications related to pancreatic cancer. She was 87 years old]. The War on Terror has displaced at least 37 million people according to a report Jeff Bezos could give US$100,000 to every one of his 876,000 employees and still be richer than he was pre-covid. A coalition of enviromental groups and agribusiness are urging Jair Bolsonaro to protect the Amazon and stop deforestation DHS whistleblower alleges he was pressured by senior officials to suppress facts in intelligence reports that President Trump might find objectionable, including information about Russian interference in the election and the rising threat posed by white supremacists. In a shocking development, the scientist claiming that the coronavirus was deliberately engineered by the Chinese government works for groups run by Steve Bannon Since he took office, Trump's properties have charged the Secret Service more than $1.1 million to protect the president on site, even when neither they nor he were on premises. The Libyan Civil War coming to a close as the Government of National Accord Premier resigns and handsover power to a new administration Major retailers used the trillions in bailout to engage in stock buyback and then slashed workers' pay See also Capitalism as a dictatorship As Emmanuel Macron's government faces controversies and electoral losses, French mainstream politics are rocked by a far-right neogolism named "Ensauvagement" (becoming more savage) to refer to immigrants (warning:paywall) The wetlands of central-west Brazil, one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, are on fire In a speech by the country's Governor-General, the government of Barbados has announced it will declare itself a republic by November 2021. [https://theconversation.com/life-on-venus-traces-of-phosphine-may-be-a-sign-of-biological-activity-146093 Life on Venus? Traces of phosphine may be a sign of biological activity] Scientific American endorses Joe Biden, citing Trump's brazen rejections of evidence and science ICE facilities have been using small, easily treated cases of ovarian cancer as a justification for full hysterectomies and sterilization of inmates often misleading patients about what procedure will be performed. Boris Johnson's government proposes to renege on key Brexit deal provisitions that would allow for a hard border with Ireland, fueling fears of a potential trade war with the European Union A Gallup poll shows that 65% of Americans approve of unions with also a 45% approval rating from Republicans, the second highest in the GOP since 2004 After a photo of her child and her likeness was used to create a child sex doll, mother is fighting to have them banned nationwide A young black kid beaten to death by gang south of Rome in what's believed to be a hate crime A study reveals that about 93% of racial justice protests since the death of George Floyd have been peaceful A gender reveal party has triggered a fire in the San Bernadino county that has spread to 10,000 acres of land. People, however, are mislead to thinking it started the big fires around California this season; it is only one of the many and got merged with the others. In a scientific breakthrough, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider for the first time transformed light into matter, more speficially the particles responsible for nuclear decay, W bosons The end of an era - the micronation of Hutt River Province in Western Australia is for sale, after tourism stopped due to COVID-19, and farming income wasn't sufficient to keep it going. Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is made a trade adviser to the UK government in spite of his history of making sexist and homophobic statements and climate change denial. Trump's Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down, which is the primary independent news source for US soldiers abroad.  Pvt. Bonespurs, a patriot, honors the fallen: "Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers." Update: reports of Trump disparaging fallen and wounded service members confirmed by the Associated Press. Update (!!): Et tu, Fox News?! A “bang” in LIGO and Virgo detectors signals most massive gravitational-wave source yet A binary black hole merger likely produced massive gravitational energy equal to the mass of eight suns. An appeals court ruled that the NSA's bulk phone data collection is illegal US places sanctions on ICC officials for daring to investigate possible war crimes committed by US forces.....  calling the court a "thoroughly broken and corrupted institution". The language is similar to that used in the announcment to not join international covid vaccine efforts - ".... by the corrupt World Health Organization and China.”   Amazon is hiring intelligence analysts to track "labor organizing threats".  Update: Ad has been withdrawn.   Paul Rusesabagina, hero of the Rwandan genocide, arrested by the government on terrorism charges   Germany says there is 'unequivocal proof' that Putin critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. Navalny remains in intensive care in a German hospital. Satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republishes the controversial cartoon that prompted the terrorist attack in 2015 amidst an ongoing trial for suspected accomplices Trump, in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, leans further into conspiracy theories, claiming, without providing any evidence, that Joe Biden is being controlled by "people that are in the dark shadows".