RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?
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Keep up to date with all the interesting world news and current events that relate to RationalWiki's mission here. The most popular entries are found at Best of the world and the older entries are found in the archives.
Voting is meant to reflect the quality and relevance of a news item — not whether said item brings good or bad news. |
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December 2024
   | 18 |  
Trump threatens to end trans rights on day one of his second presidency. |
| 19 | 
A Los Angeles County police officer has pled guilty to beating a transgender man who flipped him off in 2023. |
| 11 |  Pakistan is developing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that could hit targets as far away as the United States. |
| 15 | Health insurance companies limit coverage of prosthetic limbs. |
| 20 |   Pope Francis begins beatification process for King Baudouin of Belgium for his decision to abdicate for a day rather than give his assent to a law legalizing abortion. |
| 22 |   The incoming government in Reykjavík has put forward for 2027 a referendum on negotiations for Icelandic membership of the EU. Major reasons include economic uncertainty, the weakness of the Icelandic króna and rising cost of living. |
| 24 |  A Saudi-born doctor drove a car into a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, killing at least 5 people and wounding hundreds of others. While a motive has not been determined, the suspect is an ex-Muslim AfD supporter whose social media was full of anti-Islam themes. Der Spiegel also reported that the perpetrator sympathized with social media agitators like Alex Jones, Tommy Robinson, and Elon Musk. |
| 23 | Elon Musk endorses fascist German party AfD in the run-up to the next election |
| 23 |  Financial Times reports Trump has changed his position on military aid to Ukraine, and may continue supplying it. |
| 24 | Trump already looks to silence the press. |
| 17 | Trump calls for abolishing the debt ceiling. |
| 16 |   Israel has been systematically (ab)using children as human shields in Gaza since October 2023. |
| 20 | Luigi Mangione has been federally charged. |
| 28 | Israel has been deliberately restricting the supply of water to Gaza. |
| 45 |  Ukraine kills Russian chemical weapons chief in Moscow |
| 25 |   Not content with just colonizing Palestine, some Israeli settlers are now eyeing land in Syria and Lebanon. |
| 26 | Biden is making a large number of pardons/commutations on his way out. Of these, one that will likely be notorious: his commutation for judge Michael T. Conahan. Conahan was originally convicted in the "kids for cash scandal". |
| 20 |  A large number of "mystery drone" sightings have been occurring in the New Jersey area since November. There's conflicting information about them, as the federal government appears to be downplaying the importance of the phenomenon, contrary to some locals. Some locals appear to feel "gaslit" about the situation, though it may be a case of misattribution; in at least some cases the "drones" turned out to be planes. Wikipedia's take: 2024 New Jersey drone sightings. |
| 15 |  Law proposed in Texas would ban drugstores from selling sex toys. |
| 22 | Trump reportedly considering privatizing the US Postal Service. |
| 19 |  Yoon Suk Yeol has been impeached following his attempt to impose martial law, though he remains president (albeit with suspended duties) while the Constitutional Court decides what to do with him. |
| 28 | Israel has been blocking shipments of food from entering Northern Gaza for two months now, putting a million people at risk of starvation. |
| 27 | A reporter covered United Healthcare. TMZ thought he might be a killer. Sean Morrow of More Perfect Union received an unexpected call amid a manhunt after the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. … showing the potential danger of poor journalistic practices. |
| 32 | The burial site of the people Andrew Jackson enslaved was lost, until now. |
| 28 | San Francisco tech CEO's billboards are 'dystopian.' That's how he wants it. "Stop Hiring Humans: The Era of AI Employees Is Here"… brought to you by bots at Y-Combinator/ThielCo |
| 26 |  Several drugs, including fentanyl, found in bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico. |
| 26 |   The killer of South African anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani is slated to be deported back to Poland now that his parole has ended. |
| 39 | Israel is now stealing more land in Syria |
| 44 | Damascus has fallen to the rebel forces. Update: The Syrian military has announced that Assad is no longer in power, and the Syrian prime minister says he will cooperate with the rebels. |
| 56 | Nick Fuentes arrested after throwing a woman who showed up at his house and rang his doorbell down stairs and pepper spraying her. |
| 50 | Amnesty International releases report saying Israel is committing intentional and calculated genocide against Palestinians. Israel's Foreign Ministry calls report "entirely false". |
| 21 | Trump has nominated friend of J. D. Vance Daniel P. Driscoll to be Secretary of the Army and cryptocurrency lobbyist Paul S. Atkins to be chairman of the SEC. Oh, and he also nominated Humpty Dumpty to be head of the IRS. |
| 66 | A gunman has killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one of America’s largest health insurance companies, in what appears to have been a targeted attack. |
| 13 | Donald Trump nominates CEO of Shift4, commercial astronaut and friend of Elon Musk, Jared Isaacman to be the next administrator of NASA. |
| 20 |
Supreme Court hears arguments in challenge to gender-affirming care ban |
| 27 | Neo-Nazis, emboldened by Trump's Second Coming, are on the march across the US. |
| 26 | 
A crowd cheered as two transgender women were assaulted at a Minneapolis rail station. |
| 44 | South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declares martial law, claims he will eradicate "shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces", which (to Yoon) includes the opposition Democratic Party, who currently hold the majority in parliament. Update: South Korea's national assembly has voted to block Yoon's martial law decree. Update: Yoon Suk Yeol has declared martial law to be over. |
| 25 |  Trump's tariffs on Mexico would be devastating for Texas, leading to a loss of 370,000 jobs. |
| 20 | Syrian rebels retake Aleppo. |
| 27 | President Biden has pardoned his son Hunter for felony gun and tax-evasion convictions. Biden had previously said he would not do so. |
| 14 | Nearly a month after the election, the Harris campaign is continuing its fundraising efforts. |
| 8 | Pokémon Go Data ‘Adding Amplitude to War Is Obviously an Issue,’ Niantic Exec Says regarding their players' data-based AI model |
| 30 | Trump has picked vehement conspiracy theorist Kash Patel to be Director of the FBI. Kash has previously testified in court that all the classified documents Trump kept in Mar-a-Lago for over a year were declassified when he was still president, and that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen by Joe Biden. |
| 15 | Trump has picked Jared Kushner's father, felon Charles Kushner, to be Ambassador to France. |
| 25 |        Donald Trump says he will impose a 100% tariff on the BRICS geopolitical coalition of non-Western countries if the group moves away from trading using the U.S. dollar. |
November 2024
| 15 | Hal Lindsey, end times purveyor and writer of The Late Great Planet Earth, has died at 95. |
| 20 | Don the Dove is poised to order an invasion of Mexico. The only debate is to how the invasion will unfold. |
| 22 | Shen Yun was sued by one of their former dancers, who accused them of forced labor and human trafficking |
| 11 | Donald Trump appoints Great Barrington Declaration writer Jay Bhattacharya as the next NIH director. |
| 27 | Israel and Hezbollah have both agreed to an American-brokered ceasfire deal. |
| 18 | Probe shows that Israel used American-supplied bomb kit in likely deliberate attack on journalists in Lebanon. |
| 18 | 
UK Supreme Court will consider whether trans women with gender-recognition paperwork should be legally considered women under the Equality Act. |
| 13 | At the request of special counsel Jack Smith, a federal judge has dismissed the criminal charges against Donald Trump for his attempts to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election. |
| 30 | 
Trump's election has seen increasing numbers of women and queer people taking up firearms training and gun ownership in response. |
| 12 | Foucault's boomerang strikes again: British troops are using Israeli arms technology tested in Gaza. |
| 23 |  Massachusetts electorate votes to allow Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize. |
| 20 | A Marine Corps poolee has been kicked out of the USMC after admitting to having ties to Neo-Nazi groups. |
| 18 | Trump is refusing to sign the president-elect ethics agreement, something he is both legally required to do and also signed into law back in 2020. |
| 11 |  New York judge indefinitely delays sentencing for Trump's felony convictions, will allow Trump's legal team to move to dismiss. |
| 22 | Israel sanctions Haaretz, which was basically the only Israeli news outlet to be remotely critical of Israel's conduct during the ongoing genocide. "Only democracy in the Middle East", people. |
| 17 |  Christian nationalists are descending on Jackson County, Tennessee with the aim of creating a dominionist Mecca. |
| 20 | The House has voted 219-184 to pass a bill that would empower the Treasury Department to eliminate the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit it unilaterally deems to be "supporting terrorism." 15 Democrats voted in favor. ACLU statement here. |
| 21 |  Vice-president of the Philippines Sara Duterte, daughter of infamous Rodrigo Duterte, says she has contracted an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of infamous dictator Ferdinand Marcos, should she herself be killed. |
| 21 |  An Illinoisan woman faces felony hate crime charges after harassing a man and assaulting his wife for simply wearing a hoodie with "Palestine" on it. |
| 20 |  Georgia fires entire maternal morality panel after they report on abortion ban deaths. |
| 22 | German Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck has died. |
| 26 | 
Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) has introduced the the "Defining Male and Female Act of 2024," which seeks to legally erase transgender people. The bill will likely fail due to the Democratic Senate majority, but Marshall can resubmit it next year, when the Democratic majority ends. |
| 20 | The Senate has rejected Bernie's measure to block arms sales to Israel. |
| 21 | Trump wants Republicans to "kill" bill that would protect journalists from intimidation. |
| 10 | Pam Bondi selected as Trump's new presumptive Attorney General (AG) nominee after Matt Gaetz withdrew. Bondi is Florida's former state AG & has ties to (but isn't a member of) the Church of Scientology, particularly the branch in Clearwater, Florida where Scientologists own a large proportion of the downtown area. Update: She also seems to have a history of lobbying for foreign governments, including having registered as a foreign agent of Qatar. |
| 27 | Jair Bolsonaro and aides indicted for their roles in the 2022 coup attempt |
| 27 | Matt Gaetz withdraws Attorney General nomination. |
| 16 | Russia fires intercontinental ballistic missile in attack on Ukraine, Kyiv says |
| 30 | ICC issues arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged Gaza war crimes. His office also claims "ICC warrant for his arrest over alleged war crimes is "antisemitic" and "absurd"" |
| 16 |  Republican-controlled North Carolina House of Representatives has voted to strip power from incoming Democratic governor and attorney general. |
| 29 | One of the largest unions in the US has backed Bernie's bid to block Israel arms deal. |
| 20 | Documents obtained and released by Greenpeace suggest the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), which includes membership of companies ExxonMobil and Shell, was setup with the implicit goal to “change the conversation” away from plastic bans and productions caps to just recycling; the viability and effectiveness of plastic recycling has been called into serious question by environmental advocates. |
| 29 | New Delhi declares a state of emergency due to extreme air pollution. India's National Air Quality Index gives a general AQI score of 50-100 as satisfactory for public health and 400-500 as severe; in the past two days the AQI score for New Delhi was at 1785. |
| 13 | Trump has picked Mehmet Öz as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. |
| 24 | Trump's Secretary of Defense pick, Pete Hegseth, had been flagged as an "insider threat" by fellow service members. Hegseth has a tattoo of the phrase "Deus Vult" on his inner bicep; the phrase has significant use among far-right, Christian-nationalist, and white-supremacist groups. |
| 24 | A Gaza school burned to the ground hours after aid arrived. Witnesses say IDF soldiers were responsible for the arson. |
| 11 | Trump nominates Fox host Sean Duffy to serve as Secretary of Transportation. |
| 12 |  Hong Kong sentences 45 pro-democracy leaders to prison terms of up to 10 years |
| 18 | Matt Gaetz, Trump's announced nominee to lead the US Department of Justice, did reportedly pay for sex with two women, according to a lawyer representing two women who testified for the House Ethics Committee investigation. Additionally, one of the women said she witnessed Gaetz having sex with a minor, but that he learned she was underaged then stopped having sex with her. The new Senate Majority Leader supports Trump's proposed use of recess appointments in case this proves controversial. |
| -17 |   Germany reiterates the country's refusal to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine. Italy and Hungary are also opposed, with the latter stating "This is not only undemocratic, but also extremely dangerous". |
| -1 |     President Biden has authorized Ukraine to use US-supplied long-range missiles to strike military targets further within Russian territory. Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer agree with the decision and will send some of their missiles to Ukraine as well. Putin responded by saying that he will "take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face". Sweden, Norway & Finland have issued pamphlets discussing what citizens should do if the war escalates to their countries. |
| 16 |  Trump is compiling list of military officers involved in US withdrawal from Afghanistan, despite the fact that Trump was the one who negotiated the withdrawal in the first place. |
| 20 | After 2 years of silence, German Chancellor Scholz has started negotiations with Putin about Ukraine, telling him that he "should be open to negotiating with Ukraine". Putin, on the other hand, demanded that "any peace deal should acknowledge Russia's territorial gains" and that that "Kiev should renounce joining the NATO". |
| 25 | Mike Johnson wants to keep "potentially damaging" Ethics Panel report about Matt Gaetz a secret. |
| 20 | Trump-appointed judge blocks new Biden rule that would have expanded overtime protections for millions of workers. |
| 21 |  The UNGA votes in favour to affirm Palestinian's right to self determination. Among those voting against are the usual suspects and Argentina. |
| 25 | Since Musk became part of Trump presidency, several companies and organisations have left 𝕏 due to the site's toxicity and disinformation; including newspapers The Guardian and La Vanguardia, German football club St Pauli, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, Austrian Airlines & Clifton Suspension Bridge. |
| 6 | Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. |
| 27 | Bernie Sanders has announced that a vote to block "certain offensive weapons sales" to Israel is in the works. |
| 29 | Dennis Prager, the founder of PragerU, has been hospitalized because of a back injury. |
| 62 | The Onion buys Alex Jones' Infowars site out of bankruptcy, plans to turn it into a parody of itself |
| 5 | Trump has picked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. |
| 7 | Trump has picked Matt Gaetz (who had been under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct) as Attorney General and Russian asset Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. |
| 19 | Trump announces his Secretary of Defense will be Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who previously refused to wash his hands for ten years and denied germs exist since he can't see them. |
| 23 | Israel has failed to comply with the US' humanitarian access demands in Gaza, Refugee International reports |
| 35 | The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is seeking to take over party leadership amid the fallout of the Harris campaign's electoral loss. |
| 6 | Trump has picked dog killer and South Dakota governor Kristi Noem to be Secretary of Homeland Security. |
| 9 | Trump has picked ex-Arkansas governor and evangelical theocrat Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel. |
| 7 | Trump has picked Elise Stefanik as Ambassador to the U.N. under his administration, and Lee Zeldin as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Good grief. |
| 29 | Trump's plans for day one of his new presidency include mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, pardoning January 6th coup participants, rolling back protections for transgender youth in schools, and ending the criminal cases against him. |
| 31 | Lead executive for COP29 climate change conference caught on camera facilitating oil and gas deals for event. This is the second year in a row that event officials have been found striking fossil fuel deals. |
| 28 | Chancellor Olaf Scholz's fragile coalition government has collapsed after he fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democratic Party. Scholz says there will be a confidence vote on 15 January and elections in March. |
| 17 | It appears that for the second time, Trump has prevented the US from having their first female President. Unlike Trump, his opponent will concede the race. |
| 17 | "You can’t hide, because we’re constantly looking" says the director of the National Reconnaissance Office, which is working with SpaceX to create a network of at least 100 satellites to monitor American adversaries around the world. |
| 27 | Tennessee Neo-Nazi has been caught attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction to destroy an energy facility. |
| 46 | The situation in north Gaza is "apocalyptic" as the whole population is at risk of imminent death, warns the UN. |
| 41 | As data centers for AI strain the power grid, bills rise for everyday customers: The huge demand for electricity from data centers driving the AI boom has fallout for everyday ratepayers. Regulators are concerned. |
| 23 | A Polish man living in the UK, has been sentenced for 2½ years under the Terrorism Act for claiming to be part of the Wagner Group, and wearing its insignia during a Viking re-enactment. |