RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/September 2020

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
← Previous archive Next archive →


September 2020[edit]

upneutraldown
28France Emmanuel Macron laid a plan targeting Islamism and seeking the forcible secularization of the Muslim community
upneutraldown
107United States Donald and Melania Trump test positive for Covid-19.
upneutraldown
44United StatesKentucky. Judge orders the release of the grand jury's transcript relating to the Breonna Taylor case, amidst growing evidence that the trial was a kangaroo court
upneutraldown
35Ireland Ireland’s Supreme Court has ruled that Subway’s bread contain too much sugar to be legally considered bread under the country’s sales tax laws. In Ireland, the bread which has 0% VAT “shall not exceed 2% of the weight of flour included in the dough”. Subway’s bread has a 10% ratio and thus the sub roll is considered a cake, thus has a VAT rate of 13.5%.
upneutraldown
20United Kingdom A survey of Westminster's art found deep links between high ranking historical British officials and the Transatlantic slave trade
upneutraldown
28United StatesWyoming. Wyoming Is Now RationalWiki's Public Enemy Number One
upneutraldown
23United States Acording to a Pew Research Center poll, a quarter (26%) of Americans get their news from YouTube
upneutraldown
27United StatesUnited Kingdom Cambridge Analytica data from the 2016 Trump campaign exposes a racialised ad campaign based on "Deterrence", where African-Americans were disproportionately targeted with ads to stop them voting.
upneutraldown
10United StatesCanada Facebook suspends hundreds of page belonging to social justice, indigenous and climate groups in an attempt to disrupt an online protest against an oil pipeline in British Colombia
upneutraldown
24United StatesTexas. Disaster declartion issued after a brain-eating amoeba was found in water supply, placing at least eight cities in alert
upneutraldown
47United States The New York Times reports that it has obtained Trump's tax returns The world's greatest businessman is sinking in debt. The self-titled genius and walking disaster area paid a grand total of $750 in taxes the year he was inaugurated. (He probably paid more on hookers and blow at an Epstein party, allegedly!)
upneutraldown
21United Kingdom In a sign of growing authoritarianism in the UK, Tory politicians have banned the usage of anti-capitalist materials in school, equivocating them to "rabid extremism" in the same vein as far right or Islamist politics.
upneutraldown
9United Kingdom Queen Liz to receive bailout due to the crown estate being hit by economic slump
upneutraldown
14United States On r/unemployment, a community of desperate people have stepped in where the government has failed
upneutraldown
11United KingdomEuropean Union The UK to scrap its GPS program and instead will seek to rejoin the Galileo program (warning: paywall)
upneutraldown
3United States Donald Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court pick.
upneutraldown
14United Kingdom Labour chaos as MP Nadia Whittome is sacked from the Front bench live in television for opposing a bill that will prohibit British military from being sued for war crimes
upneutraldown
17United KingdomChristian Concern loses legal challenge against at home abortion
upneutraldown
26Australia Australian conspiracy theorist ordered to pay MP A$875,000 ($628,000; £493,000) in a defamation suit for claiming the MP was a member of a "secretive paedophile network". The MP belongs to the conservative National Party that traditionally represents graziers, farmers, and rural voters generally.
upneutraldown
17GermanyUnited Kingdom German Minister Michel Roth warns that the attempts of the British government to bypass the withdrawal agreement made in December is unacceptable and that time is running out for the UK
upneutraldown
17European Union A report of the EU drugs agency highlights that drugs used in parties has fallen out of use, the parchase and selling of drugs has moved online and there has been a notable increase in overdoses amongst over-50 drug users as a consequence of lockdown measures
upneutraldown
42European UnionIreland Facebook says it may quit Europe over ban on sharing data with US. . Oh no what a shame, don't let the door clatter you on your way out. (Side note, it's the obligation of business to meet regulatory requirements, not to moan, bitch and complain about them as unfair to your multi-billion industry.)
upneutraldown
25TurkeyFormer Kurdish MP jailed in Turkey for 15 years on spurious "terrorism" charges sentenced to another year for insulting President Erdogan.
upneutraldown
15IsraelPalestineIsrael has bombed the Gaza Strip again in retaliation for Hamas rocket attacks.
upneutraldown
21PalestineMiddle East flag loop.gifFeeling betrayed, Palestinians have taken to the streets to protest against the recent Arab state normalization agreements with Israel.
upneutraldown
21United StatesKenyaIsraelThe US is attempting to use ongoing trade negotiations to pressure Kenya into enacting trade policies beneficial to Israel, supporting Israel politically, and opposing the BDS movement.
upneutraldown
20Ireland The rise of the far right in Ireland. Scum parading as "concerned citizens"
upneutraldown
26Nigeria Strict new laws in Nigeria implemented that will include the castration of rapists and execution of pedophiles, due to soaring numbers of reported rape cases during the coronavirus lockdown
upneutraldown
38United States According to a groundbreaking new paper written by researchers at the RAND Corporation, from a time period between 1975 and early 2020, the top one percent have captured a total of $50 trillion that otherwise would have gone to the bottom 90%
upneutraldown
30United StatesRuth Bader Ginsburg has died from complications related to pancreatic cancer. She was 87 years old.
upneutraldown
22United StatesMiddle East flag loop.gif The War on Terror has displaced at least 37 million people according to a report
upneutraldown
28United States Jeff Bezos could give US$100,000 to every one of his 876,000 employees and still be richer than he was pre-covid.
upneutraldown
33Brazil A coalition of enviromental groups and agribusiness are urging Jair Bolsonaro to protect the Amazon and stop deforestation
upneutraldown
26United StatesDHS whistleblower alleges he was pressured by senior officials to suppress facts in intelligence reports that President Trump might find objectionable, including information about Russian interference in the election and the rising threat posed by white supremacists.
upneutraldown
25United StatesIn a shocking development, the scientist claiming that the coronavirus was deliberately engineered by the Chinese government works for groups run by Steve Bannon
upneutraldown
17United StatesSince he took office, Trump's properties have charged the Secret Service more than $1.1 million to protect the president on site, even when neither they nor he were on premises.
upneutraldown
6Libya The Libyan Civil War coming to a close as the Government of National Accord Premier resigns and handsover power to a new administration
upneutraldown
21United States Major retailers used the trillions in bailout to engage in stock buyback and then slashed workers' pay See also Capitalism as a dictatorship
upneutraldown
13France As Emmanuel Macron's government faces controversies and electoral losses, French mainstream politics are rocked by a far-right neogolism named "Ensauvagement" (becoming more savage) to refer to immigrants (warning:paywall)
upneutraldown
18Brazil The wetlands of central-west Brazil, one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, are on fire
upneutraldown
23BarbadosIn a speech by the country's Governor-General, the government of Barbados has announced it will declare itself a republic by November 2021.
upneutraldown
23the World 40px Life on Venus? Traces of phosphine may be a sign of biological activity
upneutraldown
27United States Scientific American endorses Joe Biden, citing Trump's brazen rejections of evidence and science
upneutraldown
31United StatesICE facilities have been using small, easily treated cases of ovarian cancer as a justification for full hysterectomies and sterilization of inmates often misleading patients about what procedure will be performed.
upneutraldown
13European UnionUnited KingdomIreland Boris Johnson's government proposes to renege on key Brexit deal provisitions that would allow for a hard border with Ireland, fueling fears of a potential trade war with the European Union
upneutraldown
36United States A Gallup poll shows that 65% of Americans approve of unions with also a 45% approval rating from Republicans, the second highest in the GOP since 2004
upneutraldown
31United StatesFlorida. After a photo of her child and her likeness was used to create a child sex doll, mother is fighting to have them banned nationwide
upneutraldown
20ItalyCabo Verde A young black kid beaten to death by gang south of Rome in what's believed to be a hate crime
upneutraldown
48United States A study reveals that about 93% of racial justice protests since the death of George Floyd have been peaceful
upneutraldown
30United StatesCalifornia. A gender reveal party has triggered a fire in the San Bernadino county that has spread to 10,000 acres of land. People, however, are mislead to thinking it started the big fires around California this season; it is only one of the many and got merged with the others.
upneutraldown
41the World In a scientific breakthrough, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider for the first time transformed light into matter, more speficially the particles responsible for nuclear decay, W bosons
upneutraldown
6Australia Hutt River Flag.svg The end of an era - the micronation of Hutt River Province in Western Australia is for sale, after tourism stopped due to COVID-19, and farming income wasn't sufficient to keep it going.
upneutraldown
24United KingdomAustralia Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is made a trade adviser to the UK government in spite of his history of making sexist and homophobic statements and climate change denial.
upneutraldown
24United States Trump's Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down, which is the primary independent news source for US soldiers abroad.
upneutraldown
52United States Pvt. Bonespurs, a patriot, honors the fallen: "Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers." Update: reports of Trump disparaging fallen and wounded service members confirmed by the Associated Press. Update (!!): Et tu, Fox News?!
upneutraldown
20United StatesA “bang” in LIGO and Virgo detectors signals most massive gravitational-wave source yet A binary black hole merger likely produced massive gravitational energy equal to the mass of eight suns.
upneutraldown
36United States An appeals court ruled that the NSA's bulk phone data collection is illegal
upneutraldown
18United States US places sanctions on ICC officials for daring to investigate possible war crimes committed by US forces..... calling the court a "thoroughly broken and corrupted institution". The language is similar to that used in the announcment to not join international covid vaccine efforts - ".... by the corrupt World Health Organization and China.”
upneutraldown
22United States Amazon is hiring intelligence analysts to track "labor organizing threats". Update: Ad has been withdrawn.
upneutraldown
12Rwanda Paul Rusesabagina, hero of the Rwandan genocide, arrested by the government on terrorism charges
upneutraldown
25GermanyRussia Germany says there is 'unequivocal proof' that Putin critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. Navalny remains in intensive care in a German hospital.
upneutraldown
21France Satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republishes the controversial cartoon that prompted the terrorist attack in 2015 amidst an ongoing trial for suspected accomplices
upneutraldown
25United States Trump, in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, leans further into conspiracy theories, claiming, without providing any evidence, that Joe Biden is being controlled by "people that are in the dark shadows".