RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/April 2023

April 2023

21

The UK's Tory government has a friend in Ron DeSantis. At least as far as "anti-woke" goes. And he's a Churchill fan (The Telegraph can't get enough of it). Wondering what a Florida governor is doing buttering up British nationalists? Why, it's as though he's planning to become US President or something...

21

49% of Americans believe climate change is caused entirely or mostly by human activity, compared to 60% in 2018. Why?

24

A new paper finds that ChatGPT often does better in answering patient questions than actual human doctors. Not a reason to replace your doctor with a chat-bot (indeed other recent writings make clear that's dangerous), but the authors suggest it could be used by docs to help them draft responses to patient questions.

29

Minnesota looks set to legalize recreational marijuana soon, as it has received state House and Senate approval.

26

A Russian "special vessel" was spotted near the Nord Stream pipeline four days before it was blown up, according to reports by media in Denmark.

24

Richard Sharp has resigned as chairman of the BBC after a report found he had broken transparency rules over his dealings with Boris Johnson.

16

International aid groups, including the British government, have funded an anti-LGBT+ group in Uganda that voiced support for a recent law to prohibit LGBT+ identity.

34

The leader of a conspiracy-laden 'Christian' cult goes on trial for the deaths of at least 90 members by starvation., While another has been arrested in relation to at least 100 deaths. Most of the dead are children.

41

Racist Karen whose false accusation lead to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till is finally dead

29

Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani, a powerful cleric on Iran's Assembly of Experts, has been killed in an attack.

-17

Bank of England "economist" to Britons: You need to accept you're poorer

45

Delaware legalizes recreational cannabis, becoming the 22nd state to do so

86

Tucker: "We'll be back on Monday!" Monday: lol, no...

14

Putin tries to build antiwar coalition in Germany. Marrying Germany’s far right and far left is a Kremlin goal.

38

Anti-abortionists want to revive the Comstock Act, an unconstitutional 1873 law named for Anthony Comstock. The intention is a national abortion ban. According to the other wiki, the Act criminalized "obscenity, contraceptives, abortifacients, sex toys, personal letters with any sexual content or information, or any information regarding the above items" sent via mail. This Act has now been cited in recent weeks by 2 federal judges as partial abortion pill ban justification.

41

Fox News settles defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems for US$787.5 Million. Fox says: "We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false." Smartmatic's lawsuit against Fox remains pending.

21

165 civilians have been killed by Burma/Myanmar's military junta 'the State Administration Council' in the Pazigyi Massacre.

23

Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio has said it will stop using Twitter, however unlike CBC/Radio-Canada it is not because of its newly imposed description. While, German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF have just started tooting on Mastodon.

28

Public broadcaster CBC has said it's leaving Twitter, because Twitter labelled it government-funded media, implying it is not editorially independent.

29

Top Chinese official vows that the country will not provide weapons to either side in the Ukraine war. At the same time, Ukraine says that it has increasingly found more Chinese components in many Russian weapons.

21

In Sudan, a power struggle between rival armed forces turns violent as dozens are killed. (Reuters, CNN reports)

60

Parler, a conservative Twitter wannabe social network, is shut down by new owner, saying "No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more..." (News source)

32

The supplement industry can dodge the FDA - but it can't dodge the FTC, who just sent 680 marketing companies notice that they will be required to back up their claims about their sugar pills. Here's the list of companies (PDF).

40

Top-secret US military intelligence documents about the war in Ukraine were leaked, in part via a Minecraft Discord chatroom. (More info.) The leaks, beyond containing general US war outcome estimations, indicate the US spied on allies, which has predictably caused some noise. More: [1], [2].

31

Super-rich abandoning Norway at record rate as wealth tax rises slightly. Flood moving abroad has come as a shock and is costing tens of millions in lost tax receipts

23

Analysis of Russia's "unconventional" war against Ukraine shows that the groundwork for the invasions of 2014 and 2022 were laid in the early 2000's, and involve placing agents and symapthizers in all levels of Ukraine's government and military structure.

29

Silvio “Il Cavaliere” Berlusconi is currently in an intensive care unit of the San Raffaele hospital in Milan with cardiovascular problems. It is also been revealed he is suffering from leukaemia, and he is having chemotherapy.

36

Two Democratic lawmakers, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, were expelled from Tennessee's GOP-controlled House of Representatives for participating in a gun control protest after the recent mass shooting in Nashville. Notably, of the three representatives who were put on the chopping block, the only two who got the necessary two-thirds of a majority to get expelled were both young black men. Gloria Johnson, the 60-year-old white woman, fell one vote short of being expelled; she was also the only one who didn't use a megaphone and who apologized for her actions.

45

Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas has regularly taken luxury vacations and gifts from GOP megadonor, billionaire Harlan Crow, for more than two decades. This has not been reported on his financial disclosure forms. Legal regulations for such disclosures have just recently been made stricter. Thomas ceased disclosing these gifts after the LA Times reported on them 20 years ago.

26

Study explains how primordial life survived the Cryogenian era.

26

Another Idaho hospital can no longer deliver babies due to staff shortages. That comes after a rural Idaho hospital further upstate announced the same, and blamed doctors fleeing the state due to a political climate that targets them over abortions and related care.

44

It's official: Finland is now a member of NATO.

50

Donald Trump has been arrested and has pleaded not guilty. He was fingerprinted, but no mug shot was taken.