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RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/June 2024
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June 2024[edit]
   | 21 |   
Toronto's 2SLGBTIQA+ Pride parade along city's main street, Yonge Street, was stopped midway and cancelled by Pro-Palestinian protesters. |
| 22 | 
In what is considered a normatively homophobic country, Poland has just opened its first LGBT+ museum, QueerMuzeum in Warsaw. |
| 9 |  Another SCOTUS case: the court sides with January 6 Capitol rioters by narrowing how obstruction charges can be applied. One "defection" both ways: Ketanji Brown Jackson sided with the conservative justices and Amy Coney Barrett with the liberals. Remaining major cases to be decided this term: Trump's "presidential immunity" case and two cases on social media regulation. |
| 6 | Supreme Court allows cities to criminalize homeless people sleeping in public places, even when there's no space remaining in nearby homeless shelters. The court ruled this ban doesn't count as "cruel and unusual punishment". |
| -14 | Supreme Court overturns 40-year precedent that allowed federal agencies to interpret unclear laws to regulate "the environment, public health, workplace safety and consumer protections". The court argued the precedent incorrectly took interpretive power from judges and gave it to agency experts. |
| 13 |  In an action sure to help Oklahoma maintain its rock-bottom (49 out of 50) education rank, superintendent Ryan Walters orders Oklahoma school districts to teach from the Bible in grades 5 to 12. Part of Walters' justification was his contentious belief that the Bible had "substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution." |
| 14 |  West Virginia couple criminally charged for using their adopted black children as modern slaves. |
| 17 | The US Supreme Court for now blocks enforcement of an Environmental Protection Agency rule against air pollution. |
| 25 |    North Korea has agreed to send its soldiers to assist the Russians in the frontline in Ukraine from next month. |
| 20 |  Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug crimes by a US Court. |
| 36 |  Soldiers storm Bolivian presidential palace in apparent coup attempt Update: the coup quickly failed. |
| 26 | In a 6-3 ruling (and a blow to attornies general in Louisiana and Mississippi along with the fake news site Gateway Pundit), the Supreme Court threw out claims that the Biden administration unlawfully coerced social media companies into removing contentious content. According to the majority ruling, the plaintiffs both lacked standing and also failed to demonstrate how the government's communications with social media platforms violated the First Amendment. |
| 37 |  Israel's Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the IDF must begin drafting Ultra-Orthodox men, who have previously been exempt. The ruling came on the basis that the draft exemptions represented "invalid selective enforcement, which represents a serious violation of the rule of law." |
| 36 |  Tommy Robinson has been arrested in Canada for being an illegal immigrant there. |
| 34 |  Julian Assange has been freed from Belmarsh in London after reaching a plea deal with the U.S. that'll see him plead guilty to at least some charges and go free. He will now return to Australia. |
| 25 |  Brazilian conservatives propose bill that would give harsher maximum criminal penalties to rape victims who have an abortion after week 22 than the maximum penalty given to rapists. A massive protest was staged in response to the bill. |
| 12 | 
Keir Starmer says he'll not allow "gender ideology" to be taught at schools. |
| 32 | Democrats try to repeal the largely-unenforced Comstock Act of 1873 because anti-abortion groups want to use it to ban materials used to perform abortions. |
| 8 | Last orders! Rumours are going around that Starmer's chief of staff and former pub landlady Sue Gray, wants to see all three bars in the Houses of Parliament closed. The aim is stop Parliament's drinking culture, which includes 'intimidating behaviour'. |
| 12 |  Florida governor DeSantis cuts all funding for arts and culture. Finally, the state will be a dry place. |
| 36 |  Large trial of HIV prevention shots finds them incredibly effective. This treatment involves just two shots a year compared to earlier forms of PrEP that required more frequency (e.g. pills or other PrEP shots). |
| 24 |
NHS whistleblowers allege to Good Law Project (GLP) that NHS management suppressed knowledge of a surge in suicides among transgender youth interfacing with NHS clinics, after restrictions placed on care in 2020. Jolyon Maugham and GLP add this is corroborated by Tavistock documents (see here). Update: Partial corroboration. |
| 23 |
Sotomayor has warned that same-sex marriage is next on the chopping block, after SCOTUS ruled that non-citizen spouses don't have the automatic right to enter the United States. |
| 58 | The Supreme Court has upheld the law that bans those convicted of domestic violence from owning guns in a 8-1 ruling. Only Clarence Thomas dissented. |
| -41 | Nigel Farage: 'Russia was provoked into Ukraine war by the West' |
| 47 |  Four members of one of the richest families in the world, the Hindujas, have been sentenced by a Swiss court for between 4 and 4½ years in jail for exploiting domestic staff. |
| 23 | Trump Media (DJT) is in share free-fall, and has lost half of its value in the last three weeks. |
| 40 |   Armenia recognizes Palestine |
| 55 | 
Namibian high court strikes down two colonial-era laws banning gay sex. |
| 21 | Low-Earth-orbit satellite constellations may be jeopardizing the recovery of the ozone layer, due to aluminum oxide particles that get released as old satellites fall back to Earth and burn up. |
| 28 | Senate Democrats launch probe into the business dealings of Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, with foreign governments (including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar). The probe is said to be due to "significant conflicts of interest and potential counterintelligence risks." In 2018, while Kushner worked in the White House, the Saudi Crown Prince reportedly said Kushner was "in his pocket." |
| 26 |  Temperatures reach a record 51°C (124 °F) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. This had led to over 500 pilgrims dead over heat related issues as they perform the hajj. Update: The death toll now is at least 1301, with thousands more needing treatment for heat exhaustion. |
| 31 |  Louisiana now requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms; expect lawsuits immediately. |
| 13 |  Trouble on the horizon? Apple scraps its “Buy Now Pay Later” feature on Apple Wallet and New Zealand BNPL company Laybuy has gone bankrupt. |
| 55 | 
Thailand approves equal marriage rights for gay people. |
| 32 |  Nick Fuentes's neo-Nazi rally shut down in Detroit. The venue company says it was shut down "due to fraudulent, knowing misrepresentation of the true nature of the event". The venue added they were "baffled" by the group's location choice, since it's "a performance and arts complex, not a political rally hall." Former KKK leader David Duke was there, and Fuentes's buddy Sneako got punched in the face. Fuentes claims 2,000 of his fans, who are known to roleplay as cartoon toads on the internet, would have attended (only 100 did). |
| 19 | Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has been convicted for contempt of court over libel against Jamal Hajazi, and faces up to two years in prison. |
| 23 |  Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city, is being forced to turn the lights off and cut sanitations services due to bankruptcy. The city is in heavy debt, with childhood poverty near 50 per cent. |
| 31 | LessWrong called out for the parade of racialist speakers they've been funding. |
| 28 | Robert Morris, the founding pastor of Gateway Church and a member of Donald Trump's Evangelical Advisory Board, has admitted that in the 1980s he sexually abused a girl over a period of five years, beginning when she was 12-years-old. Update: He has resigned. |
| 23 |  Police station in Zimbabwe abandoned because of "goblins". CITEZW helpfully clarifies they were lady goblins. |
| 23 | .svg){kind=small} YouTube is trialling Twitter-like viewer-led “helpful notes” on its platform to prevent disinformation. |
| 32 |  Governor of Maryland to issue 175,000 pardons to people convicted for marijuana possession. |
| 30 |  US designates Nordic neo-Nazi group as terrorists. Founded in Sweden, the "Nordic Resistance Movement" operates in all the Nordic countries. |
| 23 | The Nation: The integrity of a YouGov/Economist poll that reported some 20% of Americans ages 18-29 are Holocaust deniers has been questioned by Pew Research Center. The very same poll was a WIGO entry in December 2023. Pew did its own survey with better methodology, and found 3% of Americans ages 18-29 are Holocaust deniers — the same as other age brackets. |
| 18 | Fox News and the Daily Telegraph are spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation way past its due date. It hinges on a BMJ journal's paper that may "insinuate" a connection between COVID vaccines and excess deaths, but establishes no causation and might be better explained by surges in COVID cases. The journal itself came out and rebuffed various media for their reports on the paper. Update: There are now calls to retract the BMJ paper. |
| 19 |  Former President Hollande wants to take a shot at the 2024 election. France ain't THAT desperate, Hollande. |
| 15 | Former US CDC director predicts a bird flu pandemic is a matter of "when, not if". There's currently no solid evidence of human-to-human transmission potential, but evolution could find a way. |
| 25 | Poland’s lower chamber, the Sejm, has passed a bill to allow all Poles, including overseas Poles, to vote by post. Currently, only domestic resident elderly and disabled Poles can vote by post. |
| 63 |  A Reuters investigation found that the Pentagon ran an anti-vax campaign to undermine China during the COVID pandemic. Oh, and this WIGO is NOT part of a Chinese campaign to slander America. I swear. |
| 7 | The US House voted 216-207 to hold US Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for defying a Congressional subpoena regarding an investigation of Joe Biden's mishandling of classified information. Rep. Jordan, a primary advocate for the measure, had himself refused to comply with a Congressional subpoena in relation to the January 6th attack on the Capitol. |
| -32 |  At a meeting in Italy, the G7 countries agreed to loan $50 billion to Ukraine, which will be paid for by collecting the interest from frozen Russian assets. The US and the European countries disagree on how quickly the money should be sent, with the US position being that it should be sent at once and the Europeans wanting to send it over a number of years. |
| 46 |  A US federal jury has found the fruit corporation Chiquita liable for murders perpetrated by the AUC, a far-right Colombian paramilitary organization, as the company had paid them millions of dollars even after the US government had designated the group as a terrorist organization. The jury awarded $38.3 million to the families of eight victims. |
| 18 |  Bill aims to equate abortion and homicide for both mothers and doctors in Brazil. Current legislation already bans abortions in most cases, with penalties of up to three years in prison for mothers, and up to four years for doctors. |
| 35 |
A judge has deemed Florida's gender-affirming care ban for minors unconstitutional. |
| 51 | In a blow to Mike Johnson's old fundamentalist legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, as well as associated groups like the American College of Pediatricians (who were co-plaintiffs), the Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that these groups lacked legal standing to challenge the FDA's regulation of the abortion inducing drug mifepristone, preserving access to this medication. |
| -18 |  Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has said the country will start to formally leave the Russian-backed military alliance the CSTO. |
| 4 |  Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo has resigned after the far-right Vlaams Belang party prevailed in recent elections. |
| 64 |  A United Nations Inquiry has concluded both Israel and Hamas have committed Crimes against Humanity in the Gaza Strip. |
| -15 |   Pro-Russian and pro-Assad useful idiot Clare Daly has officially lost her MEP seat in the European elections. It is also looking like fellow traveller Mick Wallace may lose his as well. Update: Wallace has lost his seat after the 20th count. |
| 20 | Experts predict "horrifying" heatwaves that could kill tens of thousands of people, and hospitalize hundreds of thousands more. |
| 34 | Biden administration to propose a federal rule barring consideration of a person's medical debt in credit reports. |
| 18 |  Hunter Biden found guilty on all three counts in gun case. NPR: "The jury found Hunter Biden guilty on two counts of making false statements about his drug use when he bought the weapon, and one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a drug user or addict." |
| 18 |  The three Trump golf courses in New Jersey could soon have no nineteenth holes, as the state is reviewing the alcohol licenses of the on-site bars in light of his convictions. |
| 11 |  36-year-old asshole claiming to document "homeless epidemic" shot homeless person on livestream in Spokane, WA |
| -10 | Inside the brain school: CBC reports on a "brain wave training school", which back in 2014 provided a 7-day program to indigenous children. The training promised to increase IQ and provide trauma relief via the manipulation of brain waves. |
| 13 | Post publisher draws more scrutiny after newsroom shake-up — The new publisher, William Lewis, wants to create a separate newsroom unit focused on "social media-driven and service journalism" (a euphemism for tabloidism) |
| 15 | Benny Gantz resigns from Benjamin Netanyahu‘s War Cabinet, saying “Netanyahu is preventing us from approaching true victory, which is the justification for the painful ongoing crisis”. |
| 33 | Raid on central Gaza kills over 200 Palestinians |
| 29 | Alex Jones to sell Infowars to pay off 1.5 billion dollar debt to Sandy Hook families. |
| 11 |  Political researcher Jean-Jacques Wondo is one of dozens that has been arrested after the failed coup attempt last month. |
| 44 |  Israel is still using white phosphorous in Lebanon |
| 38 | Israel is now threatening Lebanon |
| 32 |  A New Mexican pickup driver who killed a cyclist in a traffic collision, has been let off by local police. Police accepted the reason for the accident due to the sun being in the eyes of the driver leading to no visibility.
|
| 15 |  Russian warships going to Cuba. |
| 62 | Steve Bannon ordered to be in his prison cell by July 1st. |
| 7 | SpaceX accomplishes first soft splashdown of Starship, Super Heavy Booster on Flight 4 mission |
| 13 |  Missouri’s attorney general is waging war to keep the wrongly convicted locked up. |
| 30 |
The Southern Poverty Law Center has finally designated Genspect and the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine as hate groups. |
| 26 | Study finds that the world is unsurprisingly warming up, with 2023 breaking records. Of last year's heat, 92% was accounted for by human activity. Bad as that is, the study indicated that warming isn't "accelerating", meaning it isn't evident that global tipping points were surpassed. |
| 26 | Economists warn Trump's plan to tax "virtually all foreign goods" with a universal baseline 10% tariff could spark a global trade war and worsen inflation. A trade conflict with China in particular could take place no matter who is president, however Trump's plan for trade with China may be riskier. Criticism by economists of the proposed universal 10% tariff "has been relatively bipartisan." |
| 29 |
Missouri appeals court sides with a transgender boy who was denied access to boys' bathrooms and locker rooms at school. It was found to be sex discrimination on the basis that he "did not fit their stereotype of what a male should be." The judge who penned the court's decision said: "This is no different than discriminating against a male because he is not tall enough or not muscular enough." |
| 26 | FBI raids corporate landlord Cortland Management, in connection to a nationwide antitrust inquiry "into an alleged rental price-fixing conspiracy that may have already impacted millions of Americans." A price-setting algorithm (RealPage) was used by corporate landlords representing much of the urban housing market. |
| 14 | Republicans in the US Senate (except two) block The Right to Contraception Act, which does pretty much what it says on the tin. The vote was 51-39, and required 60 votes to pass. |
| 23 |
A study reflecting on 20 years of evidence about equal marriage rights for gay people finds that not only did it have significant positive effects for married gay couples in a plethora of measures, it also had no detected negative effects on straight couples and somehow even increased the amount of straight marriages too. |
| 26 | Deborah Birx on bird flu (H5N1): "I'm really concerned because we're making the same mistakes today that we made with COVID. And what do I mean by that? We're not testing to really see how many people have been exposed and got asymptomatically infected." (Birx previously served as US Global AIDS Coordinator and as White House COVID Response Coordinator under Obama and Trump, respectively.) |
| 21 |  Joe Biden has signed an executive order that'll "gain control" of the border and suspend the processing of asylum claims by asylum seekers who came from the U.S.–Mexico border if the daily crossing rate surpasses 2,500. It's the same law Trump used in 2017 to ban immigration from several Muslim-majority countries. The ACLU claims both of these actions are illegal, and intends to sue. |
| 29 |  Wisconsin's Attorney General has filed felony forgery charges against two attorneys and an aide who helped submit paperwork falsely saying that Trump had won the state in the 2020 election. |
| 30 | US Department of Justice indicts Bill Guan, alleging a "massive money-laundering scheme" involving "at least" $67 million dollars. Guan is chief financial officer for The Epoch Times, a right-wing newspaper that the DOJ says was funded by the money-laundering scheme. |
| 23 | A French environmental NGO is warning about the growing trend it calls “fast deco”, basically fast fashion for the home, from retailers like Shein and Temu. |
| 67 | China says its spacecraft has landed on the Moon's far side |