RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/March 2022

March 2022
 [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/30/mps-vote-to-continue-abortion-pills-by-post-scheme-in-england MPs have voted 215 to 188 to allow doctors in England, to continue permanently to telemedicate and prescribe women abortion pills by post. The practice was initially allowed two years ago under special COVID-19 laws.]   The various scandals over Hillsong has meant that some megachurches in the U.S. Heartland including those in Dallas and Kansas City, have recently disaffiliated with the Australian mother church according to the New York Times.   Several states including Lower Saxony and Bavaria are planning to make the Russian Z symbol, a hate sign under. This would put it in the same category as the swastika or the Daesh flag. Antarctic ice shelf nearly the size of Los Angeles collapsed as temperatures soared to 40 above normal  Not long after Jamaica announces it is planning to be a republic, the Caribbean nation of Belize is investigating about dropping Lilibet as their head of state. Kawasaki Motors unveils a rideable robot goat.  Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) says SCOTUS was wrong to legalize interracial marriage, and the decision should've been left to the states to decide.   Spencer Cox, Republican Governor of Utah, receives a bill banning transgender kids from sports and... vetoes it? "Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live."  Prime minister Andrew Holness has announced that Jamaica is making the first steps to remove Elizabeth II as head of state, and become a republic by August.  Never letting a good opportunity go amiss. French DIY chain, one of the few businesses that hasn't pulled out of Russia in face of international sanctions, has said it is fact planning to expand in the country as so many of its competitors have pulled out.  Physical punishment of children becomes illegal in Wales.

Cuba's dictatorship sentences more than 100 protesters in Havana to prison terms that ranged between four and 30 years.  RT has its licence to broadcast in the UK revoked. A study on the consequences of ceasing energy imports from Russia by Germany reveal that Germany's real income would drop by 2% akin to a moderate recesssion ISW daily summary for 17 March paints an increasingly bizarre picture of Russian military incompetence - Russian troops deserting, reserves being parceled out in penny packets that will likely make no difference, and including Marine infantry thought to have been held for invading somewhere on Black Sea coast, Syrian troops being promised they'll only be used as police in occupied territories but also some self mutilating to avoid being sent to Russia and others hoping to be able to desert when they get there as an easy path to the EU.... and more....  The US Senate has passed a rare bi-partisan bill that would permanently switch the whole country to daylight savings time next year. Now it would head to the House of Representatives for congressional approval. Update: Turns out the vote may have passed by mistake. Two British-Iranian nationals, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, are returning to the UK after years of imprisonment on dubious charges. Russia has officially given its notice to the Council of Europe that it is withdrawing from the organisation. Shortly after announcing its withdrawal, former president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev has already suggested that Russia brings back the death penalty.  Marina Ovsyannikova, (no doubt, former) editor at Russia's flagship state-controlled TV station Channel One, interrupts a live evening news broadcast holding a placard that says, "stop the war, don't believe the propaganda, they are lying to you." Update: Ms Ovsyannikova was fined by a court in Moscow 30 000₽ (US$280, €260) for hooliganism. Over 300 companies including 3M, GM and Coca-Cola, have either suspended or withdrawn from doing business in Russia, but oddly not Koch Industries; in fact they are expanding. Saudi Arabia executes 81 people in one day, mostly for terrorism related offenses -- the most in decades (and already more than either 2020 or 2021). Trucker convoy circles D.C. for the third day as organizers meet with GOP lawmakers. Due to boycotts, sanctions, the falling ruble and international isolation, ratings agency Fitch has downgraded Russia's credit rating status to junk, and says that debt default is imminent. Gas prices have officially reached all-time highs, breaking the previous record from 2008. The most recent spike can be attributed to the conflict in Eastern Europe. After 122 years and 200 failed attempts, the Senate unanimously passes a bill that specifically criminalizes lynching. The Danish government is talking with other parties in parliament about raising the defence budget to 2% of GDP and introducing a referendum removing Update: The budget increase has been agreed and a referendum is going to happen on June 1st. Following on from the Finnish support, polling in Sweden has shown a majority of Swedes supporting the country joining NATO, with 51% saying yes to 27% saying no. The American arm of RT, RT America has ceased productions and lays off most of its staff. Members of the British and Irish TSSA transport union have agreed overwhelmingly in a ballot, to merge with the North American International Brotherhood of Boilermakers. This makes the first time that a significant trade union in the British Isles is merging with another union across the Atlantic. Various broadcasting platforms including the UK's Freeview, Freesat and Sky Digital; the USA's Spectrum, Comcast, Direct TV and Roku; South Africa's DStv, Australia's Foxtel and YouTube have all stopped broadcasting RT. Warlord that oversaw the "gay purge" in Chechnya killed in Ukraine Financial sanctions have meant that the major global bankcard networks Visa and Mastercard, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay have now stopped working in Russia. The European Parliament has passed a resolution to give Ukraine candidate status in the European Union, arguably the first step to membership of the bloc.