|
Nominations and Campaigning for the 2024 RationalWiki Moderator Election are now open |
RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/August 2023
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
August 2023[edit]
   | 32 |  Proud Boy Joe Biggs sentenced to 17 years in Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy case. |
| 34 | Biden administration may loosen federal marijuana scheduling, following a review and recommendation by the Department of Health and Human Services. The Drug Enforcement Administration will conduct its own review. |
| 28 |  Russian government concedes the obvious: Wagner Group leader Prigozhin's plane crashing may have been due to "deliberate wrongdoing". |
| -4 | MrBeast has been criticized as a "White Savior", because "orphanages across the world are set up to exploit children for profit, exposing children to harm and abuse. By promoting orphanages, even well-intentioned ones, we promote the work of those that are not, continuing the cycle of exploitation." |
| 34 |  
Canada has officially issued a travel advisory update warning queer people about the dangers of entering the U.S. |
| 19 |  Gabon's military started a coup d'état on August 30 as a result of Ali Bongo Ondimba being re-elected as president on the 29th. |
| 31 | Thanks to Trump-enabled COVID-19 denialism, more US dog owners are "questioning" the "safety" of the rabies vaccine. |
| 25 |  As part of the fallout of Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull's #LetWomenSpeak rally earlier this year, Victoria is banning Nazi saluting in public. |
| 43 |  Young activists from Europe that are close to Greta Thunberg are demanding that the environmental group Greenpeace change its stance on nuclear power. They say that that the charity’s viewpoint is old-fashioned, and is indirectly supporting the fossil fuel industry, by making the transition to green energy harder. |
| -33 |  Denmark is considering a law that would make it a crime to desecrate holy books in public. |
| 4 |  France will be banning abaya dresses in state schools. |
| 8 |   Tropical Storm Idalia is about to hit Florida & Cuba on Monday, bringing high winds and storm surges later in the week. There's a big chance Idalia could become a Hurricane, given its current strength. |
| 36 |
Major right-wing groups have formed a coalition to criminalize LGBT via criminalizing porn; they would define any LGBT content as porn. They add: "people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders." |
| 47 |   Serbia breaks with Russia (its historical ally), vowing friendship with Ukraine and calling for the reintegration of Crimea into Ukraine. |
| 7 | Racist shooting in Jacksonville, Florida at a Dollar General store. Four killed, including the shooter. |
| 25 | The U.S. is suing SpaceX for hiring discrimination against asylum recipients and refugees. |
| 35 |  
Charges dropped against trans man who had the shit kicked out of him by thuggish cop on live video. |
| 43 |  Trump's mugshot has arrived. |
| 34 | 
Brazil high court rules that homophobic hate speech is on the same level as racist hate speech, and thus is now punishable with prison time. |
| 25 | Florida is seeing significant drops in tourism revenue as a direct consequence of its social policies; conventions and conferences have skipped the state, citing a grab-bag of state government policies as reasons why. |
| -3 | The first GOP primary debate happened. Here are all the takeaways. |
| 28 | 
Some states pull out of the American Library Association due to a resurfaced post by the newly elected president of the group, where she identifies as a "Marxist lesbian". She responds "I didn't anticipate these kinds of targeted attacks being used as a bludgeon against library workers across the country. I really think that is regrettable". |
| 27 | Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell arrested and released on $150k/$100k bond in Georgia. Trump himself has stated he will "proudly be arrested". |
| 32 |   The UK has had its first successful womb transplant. Naturally, this has caused the usual suspects to cry that this is "women erasure |
| 37 | Yevgeny Prigozhin's plane has been shot down. Wagner-linked Telegram channels are claiming it was Russia. According to the Russian Aviation Authority, Prigozhin was on the plane. Russian sources say that Dmitry Utkin was also on the plane. |
| 32 | Jordan Peterson has lost his court battle over "degrading" and "unprofessional" tweets. He will be forced into remedial social media coaching. |
| 18 | Internal Secret Service emails indicate close communication between Secret Service agents and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes. |
| 24 | 
The German government has approved a new law that'll allow for gender and name changes through a simple procedure at government registry offices. |
| 24 | A bill has been tabled to change Germany's citizenship laws including reducing the period from eight to five years and allowing dual nationality for all citizens, not just Europeans. |
| 20 |  The Washington D.C. Attorney General is conducting an investigation into Leonard Leo for allegedly funnelling donations for his non-profits into his for-profits. Leo, who is co-chairman of the Federalist Society's board of directors, is often cited as being responsible for a lot of the conservative Supreme Court judge nominations in the past decade. |
| 31 |
A Putin adviser says the U.S. is using brainwashing to make gay Ukrainian super-soldiers: Ukraine's Armed Forces will become "zombified and unified through gay sex, along with cult members ready to sacrifice themselves," he said. |
| 17 |  The Pakistani president is accusing his staff of forging his signature on a bill. The Ministry of Truth and Justice has accused him of "purposely" delaying the approval of the bills. |
| -2 |
California store owner and mother of nine shot to death because she displayed a pride flag outside her store. |
| 26 | 
Chinese hacktivist lesbian with 1.6 million subscribers on her YouTube channel has seemingly been disappeared by the Chinese government, following a large amount of crackdown on queer life by the CCP. |
| 20 | Inmates at California women's prison sue over continued sexual abuse |
| 17 |  Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani has promised to return Niger to civilian rule in three years. Meanwhile, thousands of Nigerien men gathered in a stadium to volunteer to fight if ECOWAS invades. So many men in fact that they were unable to start the official registration process. |
| 26 | Luna-25 has crashed. The Russian moon-landing probe mission has failed. |
| 21 | The Patriot Legal Defense Fund website has been hacked. |
| 24 | The doctor who helped catch Britain’s worst baby killer: Dr. Ravi Jayaram spent two years pleading with hospital managers to investigate Lucy Letby. Instead, they made him apologise and attend mediation with her. |
| 17 |  In Sudan, over 1,000 bodies have been discovered in mass graves after the El Geneina massacre. |
| 24 | DeSantis' debate notes for the first primary have been leaked. He's been told to defend Trump and attack Ramaswamy. |
| 22 |  James O’Keefe said he was exposing waste, fraud & abuse: Now he’s under investigation for looting Project Veritas. |
| 44 |  Swedish government plans to build at least 10 nuclear reactors in the next 20 years. |
| 19 | Wanted: Search renewed for goats at large on University of Florida campus |
| 15 | 
International Chess Federation bans trans women from women's competitions for 2 years, will strip trans men of pretransition titles. The decision was made by the FIDE council, whose members (12 out of 15) are mostly men. |
| 39 | Germany unveils a bill which would legalise cannabis country-wide. |
| 31 | Academia goes to court with Florida, saying DeSantis's "anti-woke" law regulating what can be taught violates academic freedom and the Bill of Rights. |
| 15 |  13 year-old girl forced to give birth in Mississippi after her family was unable to find an abortion provider. |
| 31 | China halts youth jobless data as economy falters |
| 35 |  The Guardian reports that insiders have said that Vice Media quashes any news stories about criticism of Saudi Arabia, since its agreement with the Saudi MDC media group and its major advertising deal with Saudi tourism. |
| 29 | Georgia has unsealed the official indictment in their 2020 election subversion probe. The 41-count indictment accuses Donald Trump and 18 other defendants of racketeering (RICO) and other charges for conspiring to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. Other people charged include Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, John Eastman, and Sidney Powell. |
| 21 |  Taiwan unveils a memorial honoring the island's collaborators with the Empire of Japan during WWII. Needless to say: WTF? |
| 16 |
Two men have been stabbed outside a gay pub in Clapham, London, which police are saying they believe it is a hate crime. Many members of the LGBTQ+ community point to growing queerphobia in the British media. |
| 29 |  After a series of gang rapes, India will revise colonial-era penal code and toughen laws protecting women. |
| 30 | Rupert Murdoch's Australian media properties have been spewing AI-generated bullshit for years. In a recent revelation, News Corp Australia's executive chairman said they generated 3,000 AI articles a week this way. The company's employees had no idea, and only learned this from media reports. |
| 25 | Effective altruist and disgraced crypto-entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried had his bail revoked after he was found to have attempted to influence two witnesses for his upcoming trial |
| 7 | Record labels sue the Internet Archive over copyrighted vinyl works from the 1890s–1950s. They want $412 million dollars. The original musicians are dead. The Archive will also likely pay an undisclosed amount to major book publishers due to a separate lawsuit. |
| 16 |  Maui's wildfire death toll goes up to 89 & 1000 people have been reported missing |
| 12 | Newly released White House photos show the day Bin Laden was killed |
| 26 | Ruble's exchange value gradually approaching lows not seen since the beginning of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Update: The ruble has broke the psychologically important floor of US$1=100₽.
|
| 17 |  Innocent pregnant woman jailed amid faulty facial recognition trend |
| 6 | Russia launches rocket aimed at the Lunar South Pole, aiming to be the first power to land on the Lunar South Pole |
| 2 | 
Iraq bans the words "homosexuality" and "gender". The government now requires media to say "sexual deviance" instead. |
| 16 | ECOWAS has ordered deployment of a "standby" force to restore democracy in Niger. The junta has said they will kill the president if any countries intervene. It's an international hostage situation. |
| 15 | Extreme heatwave has burned down an entire town in Maui, Hawaii, and has killed over thirty people. Unaddressed climate change has made it exceedingly hotter and rain rarer. |
| 24 | Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for Donald Trump's Twitter account, prompting a legal dispute with Twitter that led to a $350,000 fine for the company's initial resistance. |
| 27 | 
A Trump-appointed judge in Ohio has denied a "right to transgender-free bathrooms" in schools. |
| 20 | A member of the Bundeswehr has been arrested by the country's intelligence agency the BfV for allegedly spying for Russia, by offering to pass secret information to Russians by their embassy in Berlin. |
| 14 | World’s oldest moss could go extinct as a result of climate crisis |
| 26 | The Australian public broadcaster the ABC, has deplatformed nearly all of its 𝕏 [Twitter] accounts, citing toxicity and better engagement elsewhere. |
| 37 | In a win for abortion-rights supporters, Ohio voters overwhelmingly reject Issue 1. In short, it would have weakened ballot initiatives and made them harder to conduct. Because GOP abortion policies are so unpopular (as demonstrated even in Kansas), plebiscites threaten their ability to implement such policies. |
| 27 |  'Satanic' band Behemoth donates money to children's hospital, but Polish UNICEF doesn't accept due to the band's 'message'. |
| 15 | Niger coup: Wagner Group is taking advantage of instability |
| 16 | Reforms implemented in China to salvage the economy, which has had lower than expected growth. Some reforms have to do with free movement, both for foreign businesspeople and for domestic workers; Rural Chinese people will be able to move into cities more easily. |
| 18 |  Irish conspiracy newspaper The Irish Light has been sued for defamation and harassment over false claims that the COVID vaccine killed the plaintiff's son |
| -4 | The FBI groomed developmentally disabled teenager into "joining ISIS" for over two years from when he was 16 until after he reached the legal age of majority. |
| 14 |  The future of the Commonwealth Games is looking doubtful, after Alberta, Canada has backed away from hosting the 2030 Games. This was only a few weeks after the Games in Victoria, Australia were scrapped. |
| 29 |  A Texas judge has ruled that the state's abortion ban is too restrictive for people with serious pregnancy complications, and must allow some exemptions. |
| 7 | Imran Khan, Pakistan's ex-Prime Minister, has been sent to jail for three years on corruption charges. |
| 22 |  Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is suing Placebo singer Brian Molko for defamation after he called her a fascist and a racist during a gig in Turin last month |
| 23 |
Protests across Europe opposing Italy's legal targeting of two-mom families, e.g. lesbian mothers. |
| 17 | The EPA have approved a fuel ingredient even though it could cause cancer in virtually every single person exposed over a lifetime. |
| 20 | Robert Bowers, the shooter of the Tree of Life synagogue, has been given the death penalty. The shooting was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. |
| 14 |  The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has threatened Niger with military intervention to reinstate the elected president. Following this, Nigeria cut its electricity supply to Niger. ECOWAS has previously followed through on an intervention threat against The Gambia. |
| 14 | Russia looks to ban internet anonymity and privacy. The proposal would force identity verification before using websites. Furthermore, sharing advice for how to use VPNs or Tor would become illegal. |
| 21 | US credit rating cut from AAA to AA+ due to "steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit". It goes to show that recurring debt ceiling battles may impact trust for the US. |
| 39 |
Federal judge denies a "right to bully" trans students in Ohio. |
| 26 |  Newly discovered species of extinct whale dating to the Late Eocene may be the largest animal to ever exist |
| 24 | Twitter sues the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), claiming it lost tens of million dollars in advertising revenue by exposing unregulated hate speech on the platform, in multiple articles since Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform. CCDH's response to the suit |
| 35 | Missionary Raised $30M for Bibles—Then Blew It on Diamonds and Gambling: DOJ. Jason Shenk allegedly spent about $1 million on diamonds, gold and precious metals, among other hefty personal purchases. US$320,000 of the allegedly stolen funds were used to buy property at Galt's Gulch, Chile, a Libertarian real estate scam |
| 54 | Donald Trump charged with 4 counts, including conspiring to defraud the US, over his handling of his 2020 election loss. Update: Of course, he has pleaded not guilty on all 4 counts |
| 34 | NASA has lost contact with its Voyager 2 probe billions of miles away from Earth after mistakenly severing contact with it. Update: They got contact back. |