RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/August 2025

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August 2025[edit]

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17United States Rudy Giuliani has been hospitalized after being injured in a car crash.
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18United States Anti-vaxxer trump-FDA official Vinay Prasad silenced one of his critics on YouTube, claiming copyright violation
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17Indonesia Mass protests against inequality and economic problems in Indonesia.
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16United States Wall Street largely silent as Trump intervenes in business. The Financial Times contrasts this with business leaders' "vociferous" criticism of NYC mayor-hopeful Zohran Mamdani. Though some CEOs did take to Fortune to call Trump a commie.
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19United StatesMinnesota. Trump's government cut funding to mass shooting prevention programs for Minnesota, meant to identify potential shooters before they attack, a month before yet another school shooting happened this week in Minnesota. In a journal, the shooter was baffled that the police hadn't noticed signs of the impending attack.
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16IsraelYemenIsrael has assassinated the Houthi prime minister.
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6United StatesVenezuelaThe US Navy is amassing warships off the coast of Venezuela.
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12United StatesThe Trump regime is offering to hold military funeral honors for the slain January 6th insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt.
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23United Kingdom Big scientific review estimates 90% of middle-aged and older autistic adults in the UK are undiagnosed. Bad day for anti-vaxxers, including a certain someone, who wanted to blame the MMR jabs for the uptick in diagnoses among younger people. It likely turns out to have just been increased awareness about autism that led to more diagnoses.
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16United Kingdom The BBC is forced to apologize after a performance at the Proms is interrupted by the group Jewish Artists for Palestine.
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20United Statesthe World At least 25 countries have entirely stopped shipping small packages to the United States due to the end of something called a "de minimis exception". Many shoppers had their orders cancelled after the rule, which has been around nearly a century, was changed. The change reportedly caused "chaos" in retail businesses, as well as among various hobbyists.
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16United States Scientists applying for jobs with the National Weather Service are tested for loyalty to Trump's political agenda.
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12United States The new head of the CDC has no medical training. He is buddies with Peter Thiel though.
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12United States Federal government's Medicare agency pilots using AI to determine whether to accept or deny applications for medical procedures. The agency, CMS, is currently led by Mehmet Oz.
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21United StatesPalestineUnited Nations The US revokes the visas of Palestinian officials including president Mahmoud Abbas thus preventing them from attending the UN general assembly. Further isolating yourself on the world stage because you want to defend a genocidal and apartheid ethnostate is certainly a choice.
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17AustraliaA journalist mentions anti-immigration MP Bob Katter's Lebanese heritage. Katter then threatens to punch said journalist in the mouth.
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16United States Trump revokes Secret Service protection from former VP Kamala Harris.
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13United States Acting US CDC director fired after she "refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts".
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13United States JD Vance says he's ready to be president, and also Trump's health is just fine. There's been speculation about Trump's health for a variety of reasons, and most recently because of the bruising spotted on his hand that he's occasionally covered with makeup.
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15GreenlandDenmark Denmark apologizes to Inuit people in Greenland who were subject to birth control between 1966 and 1970 without their consent.
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25United States Republicans in US Congress open an investigation into Wikipedia, alleging "bias" in Israel articles. The congresspersons reference a report by the ADL, whom in 2024 Wikipedia editors found to be unreliable on Israel/Palestine topics.
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25United StatesGreenlandDenmark Danish sources found Americans "conducting covert operations in Greenland" to "infiltrate society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US". The Danish government summoned the top US diplomat to Denmark as a result, and the US government responded Denmark just needs to "calm down".
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24United StatesWashington. Firefighters beating back a wildfire in Washington state were arrested by federal immigration agents.
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18United StatesRussiaUkraine American officials held secret talks with Russians about oil deals involving ExxonMobil alongside the Ukraine peace talks held in Alaska this August.
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28United StatesCalifornia. Parents of a California teenager who died by suicide have sued Sam Altman and his company OpenAI, claiming ChatGPT "coached" their son into taking his own life.
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19ArgentinaArgentina investigates alleged kickback scheme entangling President Milei's inner circle
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36United StatesTexas. California. In response to the Texas GOP's horrifically gerrymandered new congressional map, California Democrats have passed a redistricting bill of their own. The California electorate is now slated to vote on this proposal in November.
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35United StatesFlorida. Florida has been ordered to shut down the "Alligator Alcatraz" concentration camp because of its environmental impact.
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20United StatesMaryland. John Bolton recently had his home raided by the FBI.
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20United StatesMaine. There are now three Shakers in the world.
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41United StatesJames Dobson is dead.
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29United StatesTrans flag.svg Trump has banned federal health insurance from covering gender-affirming care, but makes sure to allow for faith-based counselling services.
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25IsraelHundreds of thousands of protesters gather in Tel Aviv to demand an end to Gaza war.
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23United StatesOn Monday 18 August, Donald Trump claimed to have ended six wars. On Tuesday 19 August, he claimed to have ended seven. He hasn't really ended any.
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18United StatesNew York. New York City. Zohran Mamdani is widening his lead over all other candidates in the New York City mayoral race, according to recent polling.
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35United StatesAnother Trump official has been outed as a Nazi.
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28United StatesCalifornia. Trans flag.svg Federal park ranger fired for helping to display a trans flag at Yosemite National Park. It was pointed out that other flags had previously been allowed to be displayed. The ranger intends to challenge the firing under free speech rights, citing a Trump administration executive order.
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41United StatesNevada. Israel Israeli cybersecurity official Tom Alexandrovich – charged with luring a child for a sex act – was released on bond after a Nevada sting operation. News organizations from different sides are highlighting how strange it is to let a suspect (who isn't a diplomat) go out of the country without facing trial or bail conditions, especially since the other suspects involved in the same case are facing such legal ramifications.
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36United StatesRussiaUkraine Documents immediately leaked from the (apparently fruitless) Trump–Putin meeting about Ukraine. Trump's team left the papers behind in a publicly accessible printer at a hotel.
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27United States Smithsonian museums subjected to an ideological "review" by the Trump White House.
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16United StatesBrazilIsraelEl SalvadorSouth Africa Trump's Department of State revises its international human rights report to be less critical of perceived political allies to Trump, such as Israel and El Salvador, more critical of perceived political foes like Brazil and South Africa (given examples).
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20United StatesNew York. PalestineIsrael Jewish federation from New York donates $1 million to aid civilians in Gaza. There continues to be extreme starvation in the Gaza Strip as Israel blocks much of the food aid, and people are regularly dying of malnutrition. Some very limited food aid is being let in, but this is highly insufficient; many people in Gaza require specialized nutritional care at this point.
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17United StatesLouisiana. Louisiana attorney-general sues the gaming platform Roblox. She said it's "the perfect place for pedophiles". Roblox has been in the news for this recently after banning a "predator hunter" and YouTuber called Schlep from the platform. U.S. congressman Ro Khanna also released a petition to pressure the company.
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15United States U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi exposes "Deep State" conspiracy. A man is accused of throwing a sandwich at a CBP officer. The sandwich was reportedly "sub-style". He's now been released from jail.
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11United States The White House is keeping a list of corporations with a "loyalty rating" for how much they're promoting Trump's agenda.
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12Russiathe World Russia banned the international group Reporters Without Borders.
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8United StatesRussiaUkraine Trump and Putin meet in Alaska to discuss Ukraine.
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14United States The Trump administration closed many of the government investigations into Big Tech companies.
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13United States OpenAI CEO Sam Altman: yes, A.I. is in a bubble. He compares it to the dot-com bubble which crashed down in 2000. This comes as AI data centers have overtaken all consumer spending in the United States, measured by contribution to GDP growth. Brian Merchant: "spending on IT for AI is so big it might be making up for economic losses from the tariffs, serving as a private sector stimulus program."
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21United StatesUnited KingdomEnglandVacationing J. D. Vance is turned away from an English pub after staff refuse to serve him.
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30United Statesthe District of Columbia. Citing a non-existent crime wave, Trump has taken over the DC police and unleashed the National Guard on the capitol.
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20Serbia Coordinated attack by the Serbian Progressive Party activists on people of Bačka Palanka and Vrbas
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30United Kingdom British government asks citizens to delete old emails to stop droughts. It comes after the government led the charge to "turbocharge AI" in Britain; AI data centers are well known to use obscene amounts of fresh water. This exact scenario was warned against in a February 2025 BBC News report.
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26United StatesKentucky. Gay Pride Flag.svg Kim Davis has formally asked SCOTUS to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges.
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23IndonesiaFlag of Aceh, Indonesia.svgGay Pride Flag.svg Two men subjected to being publicly caned eighty times for hugging and kissing each other in Indonesia
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31United States Trump administration dismantling some anti human trafficking services amidst Epstein scandal.
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31United States US education secretary, former wrestling CEO Linda McMahon, interrupted by a hacker playing circus music at her event.
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24United States FEMA employees reassigned to ICE during hurricane season.
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21United States Somebody keeps robbing US National Guard armories, possibly with insider assistance.
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24United KingdomTrans flag.svg British government plans to restrict all trans people's access from both male and female spaces, "including shops, museums, gyms, prisons, and NHS departments, among others." A trans man would potentially be disallowed in both a male space or female space, for example, based on the strange guidance the EHRC created.
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23United StatesTexas. LebanonThe Lebanese-born co-owner of Trump Burger, a Texas chain of Donald Trump-themed fast food restaurants, has been detained by ICE. In response, ICE has said that "what restaurant you own or political beliefs you might have" make no difference.
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25UkraineRussia Russia creates 'catalogue' of stolen Ukrainian children for adoption
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33United Statesthe District of Columbia. DOGE's Big Balls gets his ass kicked by two teenagers.
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17United Statesthe WorldTrans flag.svg Brown University is now "inaccessible" to transgender students after the university's cowardly capitulation to Trump.
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30the WorldWikipedia has decided to adopt a "speedy deletion policy" for AI slop articles.
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34IsraelPalestineThe Israeli government has reportedly decided to occupy Gaza. UPDATE: Now confirmed by Israel PM Netanyahu.
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44United Statesthe District of Columbia. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has decided to restore references to Donald Trump in its exhibit on presidential impeachments in the U.S., after the removal of those references triggered widespread backlash.
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25United StatesTexas. Illinois. In an attempt to block the vote on redrawing Texas' congressional map in a manner that favors Donald Trump in the 2026 midterms, the state's Democrats have fled Texas...for Illinois.
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36United StatesA new report has found that Elon Musk's DOGE has burned through almost 22 billion dollars' worth of taxpayers' cash.
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30United StatesTrump fires statistics chief due to poor economic statistics - they show his tariffs are not instantly making America wonderful (namely inflation and job creation), so they must be wrong. So now expect the new boss to give Americans the 'correct' news on that in the hope Americans stop blaming him. Alas, this is likely to make things worse because business and finance rely on accurate and reliable statistics.
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32United Statesthe District of Columbia. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has announced that it will cease operations in light of having lost $1.1 billion in federal funds; President and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a press release that she made the decision "despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans". The organization has funded programming on NPR, PBS, and the latter's predecessor, NET, for nearly six decades.
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21United StatesFlorida. Texas. Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of child sex trafficking and other offenses in relation to Jeffrey Epstein, has been sent to a minimum security prison in Texas after her meeting with the Department of Justice regarding Trump. A perk very rarely granted to people convicted of her crimes.
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18United StatesRussia In response to threats from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, President Trump claimed to have ordered the relocation of a pair of nuclear submarines to the "appropriate regions".
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19United States Apparently oblivious or indifferent to recent events, Trump names former NFL player Lawrence Taylor to lead a national youth fitness initiative. Taylor was convicted in 2011 for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl.