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

October 2020
The BBC new "no bias" rules prevent staff from joining LGBT pride marches. UPDATE: The staff will be allowed to join LGBT pride marches but must avoid "virtue signalling" which some accuse of being a Tory attack against trans rights and the Black Lives Matter movement It turns out that, the hilariously incompetent coup attempt against Nicolás Maduro, was actually supported by officials at the Trump administration New Zealanders vote overwhelmingly in favour of assisted dying. An investigative report into antisemitism in the Labour Party finds that members used the antisemitism campaign to engage in multiple breaches of the 2010 Equality Act including discrimination, harassment and political interference Nice attack: Three dead and several injured in suspected terror assault at Notre-Dame de Nice. One victim was "virtually beheaded" according to authorities. For the first time, since records began, Arctic Sea ice isn't forming in October. The state of South Australia has achieved the world's first milestone of having temporarily 100% of its electricity generated by solar panels Amy Coney Barrett has been confirmed to US Supreme Court. The Senate vote was largely down partly lines (52-48), with Susan Collins being the only Republican to vote against. A study from the University of Gothenburg has found that, since the year 2000, the Republican Party has abandoned upholding democratic norms and resembles nationalist parties in autocratic nations like in Hungary and Turkey French president Emmanuel Macron has pledged to defend secular values. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sees a chance to imply Muslims in France are in danger and calls on Turks to boycott French goods. The Chilean referendum ends with a whooping 78% agreeing to rewriting the constitution. Elections will be held for the constitutional convention. Chile will hold a referendum on whether to replace its Pinochet-era constitution. Due to Democrats' incompetence boycott, the Senate Judiciary Committee approves ultra-reactionary Amy Coney Barrett for SCOTUS. This sets the stage for a full Senate approval next week It has been revealed in the, that in 1975 Prince Charles so desperately wanted to be the Governor-General of Australia, that in a hand-written note he personally praised John Kerr, the Governor-General at the time, for sacking the Whitlam Government. Neo-Nazi arrested in North Carolina hoped to assassinate Joe Biden, had a huge stockpile of guns and child pornography. Nasty guy. Sudan's transitional government has normalized relations with Israel in a US-brokered deal, and in exchange Donald Trump will remove it from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Two French Muslim women stabbed under the Eiffel Tower by white women who shouted "dirty Arabs!" Hic, in beer news Ireland's most famous brewer Guinness has said after four years of work, it has created an alcohol-free of its iconic stout, called Guinness 0.0. It would be available in British and Irish supermarkets next month and pubs from February 2021. Poland's Supreme Court has effectively banned abortion in almost all instances. Dozens of anti-police brutality protesters gunned down by police in Lagos, Nigeria. James Randi, the skeptic's skeptic, has passed away. Administration officials alarmed by White House push to fast-track lucrative 5G spectrum contract to Rivada, which has close ties to the Trump administration. In the documentary “Francesco” that has been released this week, Pope Francis has said he supports same-sex unions [https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/amp/news/pope-francis-calls-for-civil-union-law-for-same-sex-couples-in-shift-from-vatican-stance-12462 on the grounds that ''“They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable because of it.”'']

DOJ launches an antitrust lawsuit against Google for anticompetitive practices After five senior bishops including the head of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby criticised them in a letter to the Financial Times about the government’s attempt to break international law. The head of influential Brexiteer group the ERG, Steve Baker has proposed disestablishing the Church to stop it meddling in government affairs. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54608836 A small town in Quebec has just changed its name to Val-des-Sources. Its old name was] Asbestos. The 8chan and other Qanon sites have had their website security protection swtiched off, and are now protected by a company based in St Petersburg. The company in question also ironically provides support for the websites owned by Hamas. After proving her mettle after the Christchurch terrorist attacks, coping with a volcanic disaster and successfully eradicating New Zealand of Covid-19 not once but twice, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is rewarded with a landslide victory in the 2020 elections Unthinkable hell: A UN report shows that in the last twenty years there were nearly 7,350 major recorded disasters, including tsunamis, earthquakes and wildfires, that combined claimed more than 1.2 million lives and affected 4.2 billion people worldwide Thailand's continues streak of three months-long pro-democracy protests against the restrictive laws and allow the banned Future Foward Party to freely operate in the country. The New York Times has reported that a series of what appears to local news media sites like the Pine State News, Empire State Today and the Des Monies Sun, are actually highly partisan conservative and corporate astroturfed sites aiming to bolster local Republicans and smear local Democrats. Elon Musk’s Las Vegas tunnel loop has become a boondoggle, after it was discovered that won’t transport as many people as promised. France: Teacher decapitated in gruesome 'Islamist terror attack' near Paris Twitter and Facebook will ban posts that push for Holocaust denial The Dutch public news broadcaster NOS is removing its corporate logo from its news vans, to prevent attacks by far-right extremists against its staff and equipment. Boris Johnson says that it's time to prepare for a no-deal Brexit Top Afghan diplomat says that Trump's tweet calling for US troops to be home by Christmas has emboldened the Taliban and given it leverage in the peace negotiations. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-tanker/u-n-access-to-decaying-yemen-tanker-could-take-weeks-say-sources-idUSKBN26Z1UW A stranded and deteriorating oil tanker off the coast of Yemen threatens to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil in the Red Sea. The UN is trying to stop the disaster, but they're being held up by Yemeni civil war combatants, potentially for another seven weeks.] For the first time, wind and solar made up a majority of the world's new power generation After widespread protests, the Nigerian government disbands the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) due to instances of torture, police brutality and extra-judicial execution though the government has continued to repress the protestors Cyprus has announced it is shutting down its cash-for-citizenship "golden passport" scheme, due to revelations it has been criminally abused. The golden passport scheme allows people to invest €2 million in Cypriot investments, principally property, in exchange for Cypriot citizenship. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54507064 The Catholic Church is at it again, beatifying Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 aged 15, and putting him on the path to potential sainthood. The Church claims he interceded from heaven in 2013 to cure a Brazilian boy who was suffering from a rare pancreatic disease.] Facebook responsible for 94% of 69 million child sex abuse images reported by US tech firms Historical archives unearthed reveal that Soviet surveillance was targeted at George Orwell and his wife during the Spanish Civil War Magistrate calls for Supreme Court to investigate Deputy PM Pablo Iglesias in relation to the theft of a colleague's cellphone and release of the data within Mexican Senate approves a referendum to ask citizens to decide whether to prosecute five former presidents for corruption

DHS Homeland threat assessment - "Among DVEs, racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists—specifically white supremacist extremists (WSEs)—will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland. " E pur si muove. Human evolution continues - Australian study finds increased incidence of new bones and arteries, disappearing teeth as evidence human micro-evolution is continuing - possibly at a faster rate than previously thought South Carolina's Supreme Court stops Governor McMaster's plan to divert federal relief funds from public to private schools. Alternate link The FBI has arrested six men in connection, and have thwarted a militia plot to overthrow the government of the state of Michigan and kidnap the governor Gretchen Whitmer. It is alleged that the men are connected to the Proud Boys group. The German branch of Extinction Rebellion blocked the roads in and out of the Reichstag, protesting for the demand of an “ecocide law”, which would designate climate and environmental damage as a criminal offence. Three prison guards receive misdemeanor charges after being caught torturing prisoners with "Baby Shark" tune while said prisoners were handcuffed to the wall Leading figures in Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party found guilty of murder, gangsterism, and other crimes following what's called "the biggest trial of neo-fascists since the prosecution of the Nazis at Nuremberg". Facebook bans QAnon across its platforms. The Dáil is voting on whether to, in a limited way, allow assisted suicide for persons who are terminally ill in the Dying with Dignity bill. Donald Trump says stimulus negotiations are over until the election 3,000 years after they disappeared from mainland Australia, Tasmanian devils have been reintroduced into the wild there. Annamie Paul, the new leader of the Green Party, becomes the first black person to lead a political party in Canada. Wildfires in New Zealand destroy holiday village of Lake Ohau. Pope Francis, in his new encyclical [edict] "Fratelli Tutti", declared that the death penalty is inadmissible and all Catholics should work towards its abolition, and life imprisonment is wrong, along with lambasting neoliberal obsession of using the market to solve all problems #proudboys has been taken over by gay men. Well played sir! In forming a new federal government, Flemish Green Petra de Sutter has been chosen as the new minister of the civil service and deputy prime minister. This would make her the first trans minister in Europe. Twitter facing backlash after forcing users to delete posts in which they hope for President Trump's death of Covid-19 but does nothing for death threats and harassment The House of Commons Twitter account has been stopped from reporting the results of parliamentary votes, after Conservative MPs complained it broke impartiality rules. In a move that is totally not unconstitutional, US immigration services have moved to ban immigration to the United States by anyone who is a "member of a communist or any other totalitarian party." The UK government is setting up a full feasibility study on creating a fixed link between Scotland and Northern Ireland, despite expert and local politicians repeatedly pointing out it is an engineering challenge and economically unviable.