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

January 2021
Hidden amongst all of the COVID news, the US' soaring drug overdose death rate hit a grim new record in 2020: 220 overdose deaths per day. Sexual assault and human trafficking crisis as women attempt to flee Venezuela into Colombia. Gangs are preying on the vulnerable while police do nothing. Ohio GOP legislators propose an annual "Donald J Trump Day" state holiday. Because it's totally not a cult. A month after the UK left the EU, it has announced it is formally applying to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement of 11 Asia-Pacific nations; Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Kenyan inventors create bio-robotic arm prosthesis controlled by brain signals [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55860238 Cemetery in Louisiana denied burial to a black police officer based on a decades-old segregation rule. Cemetery later apologized and revoked the rule, and the family will have their relative buried elsewhere.] Reddit users boost GameStop stock to screw over Wall Street hedge funds. Robinhood and other stockbrokers restrict buying stock from GameStop, Blackberry and other businesses, but endure severe criticism from both sides of US politics and potential lawsuits from the day investors. However, the Democrat-Republican alliance is shaky due to the fallout from the storming of the US Capitol. British citizen Jagtar Sing Johal, who was outspoken about historical human rights violations against Sikhs in India, has been tortured into signing a blank "confession" of supporting terrorism Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has a history of being a "prolific" police informant. Most GOP Senators wimp out of even considering growing a spine. Marjorie Taylor Greene, recently elected "batshit fucking crazy" Representative from Georgia, is under fire for newly discovered social media posts where she advocated the murder of her political opponents. Video has also emerged of her harassing a Parkland school shooting victim with 'false flag' conspiracy claims. Conservative premiers are demanding that Justin Trudeau impose trade and economic sanctions on the United States because of the cancellation of Keystone XL pipeline And like clockwork the GOP loses an election and suddenly there are calls to promote “election integrity.” Texas Supreme Court finds that Infowars is subject to liability in four different defamation lawsuits Larry King has died at age 87 from Covid-19. One of Britain's major far-left groups, the Socialist Workers Party, has been kicked-off Facebook. And they are not happy. The World Economic Forum (aka Davos Forum) published its 2021 Global Risk Report: it's bad (you can read it here) Julie Payette has voluntarily resigned as Governor General of Canada, after a damning report on her record which included bullying and creating a toxic work environment for her staff. The UK has caused a diplomatic row with the EU, after the country refused to give the organisation or its delegation ambassadorial-level diplomatic status, despite over 140 countries doing so. President Joe Biden revokes the Keystone XL pipeline permit. Q-anon believers all over the world (but mostly in the US) beginning to realize they got played Joe Biden picks transgender doctor Rachel Levine as his assistant healthcare secretary. Explosion in Madrid leaves 3 dead, several injured Joe Biden has been officially sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. Trump's long-awaited pardon list has been released. 73 people received a pardon, including former aid Steve Bannon (who is facing fraud charges) and the rapper Lil Wayne (who pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges). Despite much speculation, Trump did not pardon himself or any family members. According to a whistleblower, some of the largest banks on Wall Street have engaged in widespread manipulation of mortgage funds How ordinary women became SS torturers The Mines and Metals Association is demanding the government take away protections from workers because Covid-19 has made it harder to bring in strike breakers and scabs from other places in Australia The famous 6m (19½ ft) high "Trump Blimp" used by protesters on the American president's official visit to the UK back in July 2018 is to be held in the permanent collection at the Museum of London. A FBI affidavit reports that one of the main protagonists of the Congressional Insurrection Riley Williams was planning to steal Speaker Pelosi's laptop to later sell to Russia's foreign intelligence agency, the SVR. UK MPs, including Michael Gove and Nadine Dorries were active on Parler. The UK is set to pass laws to protect statues from "baying mobs". The proposal comes in the wake of the toppling of the Colston statue after the Black Lives Matter protests in the UK (Colston was a slave trader). The proposer called those who tried toppling the statue to be erasing the history "at the hand of the flash mob, or by the decree of a 'cultural committee' of town hall militants and woke worthies". "This is not justice. I dissent." Justice Sotomayer pens a scathing dissent of SCOTUS' bloodlust in granting federal executions, which has included overruling stays of execution, granted by lower courts. The National Rifle Association [https://www.newsweek.com/nra-files-voluntary-bankruptcy-vows-reincorporate-texas-1562046 has said it has filed for Chapter 11 in the Northern District of Texas. It plans to come out of bankruptcy by changing into a Texan non-profit foundation.] Treason Barbie, freshman Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is outraged... OUTRAGED... that Democratic Congressman Maloney should accuse her of giving terrorists a pre-attack tour of Congress, except the Congressman never mentioned her by name. Donald Trump has been impeached by the House of Representatives for "incitement of insurrection", making him the first President to be impeached twice. Ex-Michigan governor Rick Snyder has been informed he will be facing charges for the Flint Water Crisis Update: Snyder is charged with with willful neglect of duty The GOP's piggy bank, Sheldon Adelson, dead at 87. Unfortunately for comedians everywhere, it's not true that one of the insurrectionists died of a heart attack after accidentally tasing his balls Canada's national security minister Bill Blair is looking into whether making the Proud Boys group an official terrorist organization. That would put in the same category as Daesh and al-Qaida. The bank that has the biggest financial relationship with Trump, Deutsche Bank has said it is stopping doing any business with the Trump Organisation. Which could lead to major financial problems for the president and his family. Harun Yahya, a notorious Turkish televangelist and proponent of Islamic creationism, was sentenced to 1,075 years in jail for his crime of running a sex cult among others. The USPGA has stripped Trump National golf course of the 2022 PG Championship. A hacker has crawled the Parler database and released up to 70Tb of posts, pictures and videos, including a complete dump of every Parler post made on January 6. For extra laughs, Parler didn't strip metadata from uploaded photos. Parler [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/10/apple-suspends-parler-from-app-store is now in severe difficulties, after the app stores Google Play, Apple App Store & Amazon Appstore removed the company's own app from their stores. Plus, Amazon's AWS has threatened to pull their hosting of the service due to possible violations of service.] Update: Parler has now been booted off AWS. This is getting serious, Trump's lawyer Lin Wood has been told by Parler(!) that he could be thrown off the platform, after he messaged a call for Pence to be executed. Update: Following publication of the article, Parler CEO John Matze said in a statement to Mediaite that they have removed said posts. US allies say that Trump attempted a coup with help from federal law enforcement Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski demands that Trump resigns as president and if he doesn't, she will quit the GOP. Pelosi has said the Democrats in the House of Repesenatives are going to file an articles of impeachment on T**** on Monday. How Europe's far-right responded to the pro-Trump Capitol riots Biden's win has been officially certified by Congress. UPDATE: Four Five people are now known to have died in the Capitol riot. One of them is a officer, injured fighting with rioters. Welp, Trump has incited a riot over the ceremonial Electoral College voting process, and rioters have broken into the Capitol building itself. If you want to stage a coup, this is basically Step 1. Extra: Baked Alaska is livestreaming from within. Update: Twitter has suspended Trump's account for inciting violence and spreading lies about the election. A Groyper and Election Truther has been arrested after planting a hoax bomb in New York. The Saudi Arabian-led have agreed to end their three year blockade and restore full ties with fellow GCC member Qatar. Tulsi Gabbard is outraged that Democrats introduced gender neutral terms in new House rules In an interview, the Portuguese PM António Costa said that blocking the EU-China trade agreement because of the US would be a "terrible sign" Ahoy, mates! Iran commits piracy, as they seize a South Korean tanker. Allegedly, this is over a dispute that SK has with Iran, where SK is refusing to pay billions in revenues owed, because politics. A British judge rules that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US on the grounds that authorities there wouldn't be able to stop him from trying to commit suicide. Good guy with a gun is disarmed, shot and killed by a bad guy without one.