RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/February 2017

February 2017
Four Mosques Have Burned In Seven Weeks — Leaving Many Muslims and Advocates Stunned. Study shows how information sources affect voters. Donald Trump: "Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated." Germany to boost army to 200,000 troops amid growing concern over Donald Trump's commitment to Nato. Father of US commando killed in Yemen refused to meet Trump. World Health Organisation says new drugs urgently needed to fight 12 bacteria families. In South Africa, 1054 rhinos were poached in 2016, down from 1175 in 2015 and after a surge from 83 to 1215 between 2008 and 2014. In response to public outrage, the Arizona House kills a bill that would have made it legal to seize the assets of protesters. Literally scores of True American Patriots respond to Trump's call for a mass rally. Palestinians create a new political entity. A French historian who has regularly visited the United States for the past 30 years was threatened with deportation by an "inexperienced" immigration officer, who was looking really hard for a reason to deny entry. An estimated 366 migrants died at sea during their Mediterranean journey to Europe in the first 53 days of 2017, down from 425 of the comparable period of last year. In Germany, preliminary official figures indicate that nearly 10 attacks a day were made on migrants in 2016. It turns out that punching Nazis is a time-honored American tradition. Homework for elementary school children is not linked to better academic performance. Witches are trying to cast spells on Donald Trump and more than one supporter is praying and fasting in an effort to counter the magic. Donald Trump says he will not attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner. A South African court has ruled the government's plan to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) was "unconstitutional and invalid". Fox News digs itself deeper as it puts a fake Swedish "defense and national security advisor" with a criminal record on air. Family Christian, the "world's largest retailer of Christian-themed merchandise," is going out of business after 85 years. Arizona Senate gives police power to seize assets of protestors A man in Kansas shoots two Indian men in a bar, yelling,"Get out of my country!" An Indian official used $750,000 of public funds to offer gold at a temple to "thank the gods". The Pope says "an atheist is better than a hypocritical Catholic." Astronomers discover that nearby star has seven Earth-sized planets, three of them at least being likely to support liquid water Google delists NaturalNews and its subdomains from its search results. Mike Adams, predictably, loses it. Iraqi & US forces retake Mosul airport. Alan Colmes, Fox News pundit, is dead. Invisible particles washed off from products like synthetic clothing and car tires account for up to a third of pollution by plastic. India is seeing an alarming rise in caesarean section surgeries. [http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/22/516664633/trump-administration-rescinds-obama-rule-on-transgender-students-bathroom-use And the destruction of the few federal level LGBTQIA protection begins. (Dept. of Ed. Rescinds Obama-era rule on transgender students' bathroom use.)] Same-sex marriage policies are associated with reduced adolescent suicide attempts. Texas is probably going to be the next location for a future outbreak. The Dutch House of Representatives has approved a bill to legalise cultivating marijuana. Famine has been formally declared in parts of South Sudan with 100,000 people facing starvation and a further 1 million people classified as being on the brink of famine. Milo Yiannopoulos dropped from CPAC amid his pedophilia controversy. Edit:Simon & Schuster has pulled their book deal, as well. And he's resigned from Breitbart. Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extent was the lowest on a 38-year-old satellite record for the month of January. Malaysia has recalled its North Korean ambassador. The Detroit Free Press published an article on ChurchMilitant.tv. Norma McCorvey, Roe in Roe v. Wade, dies. One million Ukrainian children are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Small victory for sanity: Court overturns Florida's law preventing doctors from asking their patients about gun ownership. Should presidents be tested for dementia? Apparently we are in danger because we don't feel threatened, but that can be fixed with a holy war and reliance on 'facts and spiritual conviction' which couldn't possibly have anything to do with conspiracy theories. (sarcasm: fact or fiction? you decide!) The Endangered Species Act may become endangered. The release date for Milo's latest book has been pushed back by 3 months. Seeing a pattern here? His last 2 book projects mysteriously disappeared without trace, and his only published books to date - poetry books - contained substantial amounts of plagiarism. A coastal region in South Africa is about to face water shortages. The Australian financial regulator APRA officially recognizes climate change as a financial risk. Goats can recognize their friends from sight or sound Cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski has been fined and put under severe restrictions by the Texas Medical Board. In Holland, paranoid racist True Hero Geert Wilders is the current frontrunner of the elections, with his party expected to get 20% of the votes. Virtually everyone else has sworn never to work with him, but him getting the largest vote would normalize anti-Euro and xenophobic sentiment throughout Holland, and encourage other ultra-nationalists throughout Europe. France’s Marine Le Pen quietly pledges to end same-sex marriage. U.S. airstrikes on oil trucks in Islamic State-controlled areas employed depleted uranium, which has been accused of causing cancer and birth defects. Trump Labor Nominee Andrew Puzder Withdraws, First Cabinet Pick To Fall Hallucinations are more common than people realize, aren't exclusively symptoms of psychosis, and shouldn't be stigmatized. Kellyanne Conway banned from show "Morning Joe" with the host saying,"I don't believe in fake news." Dementia replaces HIV/AIDS at number 7 position in global list of leading causes of death. (WHO portal and data sheet) Europe is affected by anti-migrant fake news and the German newspaper Bild has apologized for publishing a false report of mass sexual assault based on unreliable claims by 'witnesses'. And now for a tinsy bit of lulz: there is an executive order on how to make executive orders. Trump violated that. After several Republicans balked at supporting his nomination to Labor Secretary, Andrew Puzder has withdrawn. In South Sudan, a humanitarian crisis started in 2013 is still deepening, overwhelming aid organizations and putting millions of lives at risk. Dear Kremlin: it's great that you're finally realizing that just because you can support an insane ideologue, doesn't necessarily mean you should. In the ancient city of Palmyra, Daesh militants have destroyed two of Syria's most iconic archaeological monuments.

Librarians are protesting Trump's anti-immigration executive orders. Teenaged former member of banned terrorist organisation is ordered to attend counselling after making pipe bomb - This leniency obviously has nothing to do with him being white and far-right. Trump's National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has resigned. Coders are volunteering time and scripts to save scientific data from being 'disappeared'. The UN Security Council voiced strong opposition to the latest ballistic missile launch by North Korea. Water pollution is more widespread than previously thought. Scientists have discovered alarmingly high levels of chemical contaminants in the deepest of ocean trenches on Earth. [http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/02/cia-director-medal-top-saudi-royal-170212073731973.html The CIA just gave a medal to a Saudi Prince for his "anti-terror efforts". Despite the irony, this kind of stupidity is to be expected from the CIA.] The Intercept: Telecom companies team up with civil rights groups to support Donald Trump's culling of net neutrality. Antisemitic incidents reached a record high in the UK in 2016. Interesting to note: of 236 antisemitic incidents showing clear ideological motivations, 162 showed far-right motivations, while just 12 showed Islamist motivations. W3C is considering standardizing DRM-enabling technology posing potential security, legal and ethical challenges, and possibly redefining how we access the web. Some people just "know" that reality is fake. In India, local temporary Internet shutdowns for "security reasons" have increased in the past 2 years. The National Security Adviser got his hand caught in the cookie jar. Here we go again: Kentucky debating bill that would protect students' religious expression...and allow teachers to use the Bible. Mencius Moldbug denies a report that he has been in secret talks with Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon Trump flips his stance (again?) and backs One China policy in his first call with Xi. Donald Trump 'to approve arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain' blocked by Barack Obama. Trump's executive order for travel ban suffered a major setback on Thursday after a panel of three judges upheld a temporary restraining order issued last Friday to prevent the enforcement. French Intelligence Agency Braces for Russian Bots to Back Le Pen Children being born in the United States today have a near one in two (43%) chance of being born into households living on the brink of poverty. The Guardian: Fact checking AI is having a hard time with Trump because he makes no sense. The Guardian, "Fake news for liberals: misinformation starts to lean left under Trump" Cutting off Internet access (to prevent "spreading false news") is becoming routinely used as an oppression tool in some African countries like Cameroon. Wikipedia bans Daily Mail as 'unreliable' source. Rationalwiki was light-years ahead! [https://www.yahoo.com/news/let-liz-speak-supporters-protest-gop-silencing-of-elizabeth-warren-153653050.html Elizabeth Warren is prohibited from reading a Coretta Scott King letter denouncing Jeff Sessions. Her supporters protest on social media.] ISIS calls Trump's travel ban "the blessed ban". Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced bills to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education. Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz discussed their diametrically opposing viewpoints on healthcare on live television. However, they agree to go after the pharmaceutical industry. Syria conflict: As many as 13000 people hanged by Assad regime at Saydnaya prison, Amnesty says. Witness reports that the victims were condemned to death in a two- to three-minute hearing. Trump more or less singlehandedly saves an entire failing American industry, the mainstream media For the second time in less than 2 months, India's Supreme Court authorizes an abortion at 24 weeks for medical reasons (there is a plan to extend the current legal limit of 20 weeks to 24). [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/most-europeans-want-muslim-ban-immigration-control-middle-east-countries-syria-iran-iraq-poll-a7567301.html Most Europeans want immigration ban from Muslim-majority countries, poll reveals. A ban was supported by 71 per cent of people in Poland, 65 per cent in Austria, 53 per cent in Germany and 51 per cent in Italy.] Betsy DeVos is confirmed as Education Secretary only after a tie-breaking vote from Mike Pence. In an effort to tackle the spread of HIV and AIDS, the Chinese government is growing support for home remedies. A UKIP MEP has been ordered to pay a total of £196,000 to three Labour MPs after being taken to court for accusing them of being complicit in a campaign of child sexual abuse by taxi drivers in South Yorkshire. Russian Academy of Science issued memorandum that calls Homeopathy a pseudoscience. UPD: Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (which has to combat false advertising) supports this point of view. UPD2: Russian Ministry of Health considers ban on homeopathic remedies. A federal judge in Seattle said he would temporarily block enforcement of the President's ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries entering the United States. Citing its recent missile test and its support for rebels in Yemen, the US imposed new sanctions on Iran. President Trump said he would not be as "kind" on Iran as Obama was. Betsy DeVos faces serious opposition from the American public as the new Secretary of Education. The US economy added about 227,000 new jobs in January. However, wages on average are increasing very slowly. DAESH claims responsibility for a machete attack on a group of four soldiers at the Louvre. The attacker, posing as an Egyptian tourist from Dubai, was injured and detained. One soldier was injured. The Trump administration will cut white supremacists from counter-terrorism programme. Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, has stood down from his role as an economic advisor to Trump due to fears that an immigration ban could damage the taxi industry, as well as the recent #DeleteUber backlash. Protests erupting at UC Berkeley over Milo Yiannopoulos's plan to speak there. The event has been canceled. A leaked draft shows Trump's forthcoming "Executive Order to Respect Religious Freedom" will allow widespread discrimination in services, employment, education and healthcare against same-sex couples, LGBT people, women who have or need an abortion, and even people practicing premarital sex. In other words, Trump wants to shove Christian sex ethics down Americans' throats.