RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?

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Icon wigo world alt tilted.svg 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.

What is going on?

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Extra! Extra!

July 2024

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11United KingdomIsraelUnited Nations The UK has quietly dropped its opposition to the planned arrest warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and its defence minister Yoav Gallant.
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5United States She's back! Kim Davis together with far-right legal firm Liberty Counsel, has petitioned the SCOTUS to overturn Obergefell v Hodges [marriage equality].
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8the World X_logo_2023.svg Xitter has without notice, started to train its Grok AI tool on everyone's data.
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16United StatesUkraine Pentagon finds $2 billion in Ukraine aid accounting errors. This means more aid can now be sent than expected.
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6United StatesTexas. Texas sues the federal government to stop provision of birth control to teenagers without need for parental consent.
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23United StatesMichigan. Michigan is latest to ban criminal defense of "gay panic" and "trans panic". Here's a non-WaPo and therefore non-paywall version
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12United States Gateway Pundit bankruptcy filing dismissed by a judge, ruling that it was filed in bad faith
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24Poland Protests in Poland against the country's restrictive abortion law and the government coalition's failure to repeal it due to center-right parties in the coalition.
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17Bangladesh Crackdowns on anti-government protests in Bangladesh result in Internet blackout and leave at least 150 dead.
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10IraqTurkey Iraq bans the Kurdistan Workers’ Party as they strengthen their relations with Turkey.
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20United States VDARE possibly closing due to legal pressure from alleged abuse of nonprofit status
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17United States US Congressional Budget Office: "An increase in immigration over the 2021–2026 period … lower(s) deficits, on net, by $0.9 trillion over the 2024–2034 period." However, "CBO's estimates of the effects of the immigration surge on the federal budget and the economy are very uncertain." They explain immigration can boost revenues by increasing overall economic activity and via immigrants paying taxes.
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22Palestine Hamas and Fatah agree to form a future government together, in a reconciliation attempt arranged by China between the two major Palestinian factions.
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14United Kingdom Labour suspends 7 MPs for voting to abolish the two-child benefit cap. The Independent: "The two-child benefit cap prevents parents from claiming universal credit or tax credit for their third child. It was introduced by the Conservatives and came into place in April 2017."
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15United States Kim Cheatle resigns as Secret Service Director following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
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12CanadaAlberta. Thousands flee Jasper National Park due to surging wildfires
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1 the World Mattel has launched a visually impaired Barbie.
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23 United Kingdom After a disastrous election, the Conservatives are now facing a disastrous summer party conference with a number of businesses staying away which is not good for party finances.
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64United States Biden announces he is dropping out of the presidential race, and has endorsed Kamala Harris to replace him.
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11United NationsIsraelPalestineUnited States The US claims that the ICJ ruling may complicate the peace process between Israel and Palestine.
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46United KingdomGay Pride Flag.svg UK's Labour reportedly intends to ban conversion therapy.
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14Vietnam Leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party dies.
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23the World A faulty antivirus update distributed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has caused the largest IT outage in history, causing billions in damages in the travel, banking, and healthcare industries with no clear end in sight. The issue specifically affects Windows systems, which need to be brought in order manually.
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24UkraineHungary Ukraine has decided to stop oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline from Russia to Central Europe, which goes through Ukraine. This has sparked outrage from Hungary’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó, as it gets much of its oil through this pipeline.
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23United States Teamsters union VP John Palmer announces he will try to replace Sean O'Brien as the union's President, after O'Brien gave a speech at the RNC.
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17United Kingdom Massive British doctors' union, the British Medical Association, debates response to the Cass report, and one denied report claimed they may be considering disavowing it. Cass relied heavily on systematic reviews that were published in the BMA union's own BMJ journals, and which have since been criticized for their methodology.
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24IsraelPalestine Israel to begin drafting Haredi Jews into the military on 21 July, amidst war with Gaza. Resistance to the draft could topple Netanyahu's government coalition since it relies on cooperation with Haredi parties.
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27United NationsIsraelPalestine UN top court says Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal.
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15United Kingdom Five Just Stop Oil campaigners have been sentenced to 4–5 years in prison for blocking the M25 in November 2022, the longest sentences ever given for peaceful protests since the Conservative government put legal restrictions on protests. As the sentencing notes, their decision to block the highway led to multiple people suffering severe medical events and endangered the lives and health of people for who the delays resulted in being unable to receive necessary medical care.
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14United StatesSouth Korea Sue Mi Terry,Wikipedia wife of Max Boot,Wikipedia has been charged with espionage and working as a foreign agent for South Korea by the DOJ.
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15United States Ex-CNN anchor and Trump fanboy Lou Dobbs has died.
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18United StatesFlorida. Key Largo tree cactus becomes first US species extinct due to rising sea levels
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28South Korea South Korea's supreme court rules that same-sex couples are eligible to receive the same health insurance benefits as heterosexual couples. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
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33United StatesNew Jersey. Federal jury finds Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) guilty on all counts in his criminal bribery and obstruction case.
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28KenyaPakistan A Kenyan court has found that the death of acclaimed Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif was an assassination possibly sponsored by the Pakistani government, and that he was tortured before his death at the hands of the Kenyan police.
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-10United States Federal judge dismisses classified documents mishandling case against Trump. The judge didn't rule on whether the handling of documents was proper or not. Update: Dismissal will be appealed.
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17Pakistan Pakistani government intends to ban the largest opposition party.
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62United States Assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania; the ex-President/candidate only grazed on ear, but one bystander killed and three injured. The shooter was registered Republican Thomas Matthew Crooks.
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31the World A preserved woolly mammoth genome is reported in Cell and some people want to use it to revive the mammoths. Maybe we can hunt them to extinction a second time.
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27the WorldUnited Nations The UN projects that the global human population will peak at 10.3 billion in the 2080s and then begin to decrease. Meanwhile, global life expectancy has begun to climb again for the first time since the COVID pandemic.
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36the WorldUnited Nations Rabies is all but eliminated in every part of the world but Africa and Asia, which still suffer tens of thousands of fatalities. An international vaccination effort now seeks to eliminate cases of this lethal disease in humans by 2030.
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7Burkina FasoGay Pride Flag.svg Burkina Faso's military junta has criminalised homosexual acts.
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43United StatesRussia FBI disrupts an online, AI-driven disinformation campaign backed by the Russian government. It involved around 1,000 X/Twitter accounts and other than the US, "spread disinformation to countries including Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine and Israel."
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25United KingdomEnglandWales The Green Party has made a formal complaint about the BBC’s lack of coverage of the party during its elections coverage and results.
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22New Zealand New Zealand anti-fluoride groups ordered to pay NZ$40,000 in costs after an attempt to prevent a local council reintroducing fluoride is lost.
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31Brazil Brazilian police indict former president Jair Bolsonaro for embezzling $1.2 million worth of Saudi jewelry.
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38United States "Gay furry hackers" (SiegedSec) claim to have hacked the Heritage Foundation for making Project 2025. Update: Director of the Heritage Foundation's "Oversight Project" contacted one of the hackers and called him a pervert, then said he'll get "pounded in the ass" in prison. Then SiegedSec disbanded.
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21United States How batshit insane are the rich in 2024? Here's a Bloomberg article (archive) on the estate law aspects of cryonically freezing your head and trying to keep all your money in the process.
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28PolandGay Pride Flag.svg The Polish government has introduced a bill to its agenda that would allow same-sex civil partnerships.
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20the WorldUnited States A U.S. study has found lead, arsenic, mercury, nickel, copper, iron, and other toxic metals in tampons. We do not know what 13 brands the study examined.
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29United KingdomEngland Things are getting better with news that the Tate Brothers Andrew and Tristan, are now under investigation by Devon & Cornwall police for tax evasion
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31United Kingdom Ed Miliband, the energy security secretary, has lifted the nine-year moratorium on building on-shore wind turbines.
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17Ukraine Russia has executed one of the largest missile strikes on several cities in Ukraine to date. One of them striking a major children’s hospital, causing the deaths of at least 29 people, and a maternity hospital in central Kyiv killing seven.
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18IndiaNepalBangladesh Massive floods in Indian subcontinent; monsoon season is too early and heavier than usual. Climate change is to be suspected as a culprit.
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29United Kingdom The experiment of a 'four day week' at South Cambridgeshire Council is a significant success - reducing costs and improving service metrics. Even better; due to the early general election, the ideologically-based attacks on it from the Conservative controlled central government are most likely to be at an end.
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23PhilippinesJapan Japan and the Philippines sign a defense pact amid tensions with China.
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25Vatican City Pope Francis excommunicates a conservative bishop who promoted conspiracy theories and called the Pope a "servant of Satan".
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17United States AI-powered, bullet-dispensing vending machines. Because 'Murica.
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8Italy Matteo Salvini has formally renamed one of Italy’s major airports as Silvio Berlusconi Milan Malpensa airport. Personality cult?
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13RussiaAfghanistan Putin: the Taliban are "our allies in the fight against terrorism".
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36United Kingdom Keir Starmer officially takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
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30United States After the SCOTUS ruling granting Trump partial immunity, AOC has released plans indicating she intends to impeach Supreme Court justices. UPDATE: Articles of impeachment have officially been filed against Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
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20United Kingdom It has been revealed that one of the biggest backers of George Galloway is none other than Tristan Tate, brother of Andrew Tate.
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23United States Transcripts from 2006 in the Jeffrey Epstein case were released on 1 July and show what prosecutors knew before cutting a deal with him.
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9United KingdomIreland Ecotricity founder and chief executive Dale Vince is suing Paul Staines of Guido Fawkes for libel, after the website's owner accused Vince of supporting Hamas during a radio interview.
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2United States Supreme Court asked if Trump had immunity from the law as President. They said he is immune, but this only applies to official acts. Decision is 6-3 on ideological lines.

June 2024

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23CanadaOntario. Gay Pride Flag.svg Toronto's 2SLGBTIQA+ Pride parade along city's main street, Yonge Street, was stopped midway and cancelled by Pro-Palestinian protesters.
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22PolandGay Pride Flag.svg In what is considered a normatively homophobic country, Poland has just opened its first LGBT+ museum, QueerMuzeum in Warsaw.
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9United States 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.
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6United States 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".
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-16United States 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.
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13United StatesOklahoma. In an action sure to help Oklahoma maintain its rock-bottom (49 out of 50) education rank, superintendent Ryan WaltersWikipedia 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."
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8United States The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strip the Securities and Exchange Commission of its ability to punish instances of fraud by imposing civil penalties through administrative proceedings. The ruling will also likely impact agencies that use similar enforcement mechanisms, such as those overseeing workplace safety.
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14United StatesWest Virginia. West Virginia couple criminally charged for using their adopted black children as modern slaves.
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15United States The US Supreme Court for now blocks enforcement of an Environmental Protection Agency rule against air pollution.
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1North KoreaRussiaUkraine North Korea has agreed to send its soldiers to assist the Russians in the frontline in Ukraine from next month.
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20HondurasUnited States Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug crimes by a US Court.
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36Bolivia Soldiers storm Bolivian presidential palace in apparent coup attempt Update: the coup quickly failed.
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26United States 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.
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33Israel 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."
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36CanadaUnited Kingdom Tommy Robinson has been arrested in Canada for being an illegal immigrant there.
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34United StatesUnited KingdomAustralia 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.
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25Brazil 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.
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11United KingdomTrans flag.svg Keir Starmer says he'll not allow "gender ideology" to be taught at schools.
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32United States 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.
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7United Kingdom 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'.
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12United StatesFlorida. Florida governor DeSantis cuts all funding for arts and culture. Finally, the state will be a dry place.
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36the World Large trial of HIV prevention shots finds them incredibly effective. This treatment involves just two shots a year compared to earlier forms of PrEPWikipedia that required more frequency (e.g. pills or other PrEP shots).
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24United KingdomTrans flag.svg 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 MaughamWikipedia and GLP add this is corroborated by Tavistock documents (see here). Update: Partial corroboration.
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21United StatesGay Pride Flag.svg 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.
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37United States 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.
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-16United Kingdom Nigel Farage: 'Russia was provoked into Ukraine war by the West'
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25Switzerland 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.
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21United States Trump Media (DJT) is in share free-fall, and has lost half of its value in the last three weeks.
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28ArmeniaPalestine Armenia recognizes Palestine
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32NamibiaGay Pride Flag.svg Namibian high court strikes down two colonial-era laws banning gay sex.
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21the World 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.
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28United States 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."
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25Saudi Arabia 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.
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31United StatesLouisiana. Louisiana now requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms; expect lawsuits immediately.
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13United StatesNew Zealand Trouble on the horizon? Apple scraps its “Buy Now Pay Later” feature on Apple Wallet and New Zealand BNPL company Laybuy has gone bankrupt.
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54ThailandGay Pride Flag.svg Thailand approves equal marriage rights for gay people.
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32United StatesMichigan. 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).
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19United Kingdom Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has been convicted for contempt of court over libel against Jamal Hajazi, and faces up to two years in prison.
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23United KingdomEngland 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.
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31United States LessWrong called out for the parade of racialist speakers they've been funding.
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28United States Robert Morris, the founding pastor of Gateway ChurchWikipedia 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.
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23Zimbabwe Police station in Zimbabwe abandoned because of "goblins". CITEZW helpfully clarifies they were lady goblins.
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23the WorldYouTube social white square (2017).svg YouTube is trialling Twitter-like viewer-led “helpful notes” on its platform to prevent disinformation.
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32United StatesMaryland. Governor of Maryland to issue 175,000 pardons to people convicted for marijuana possession.
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30United States Nordic Resistance Movement Symbol.svg US designates Nordic neo-Nazi group as terrorists. Founded in Sweden, the "Nordic Resistance Movement" operates in all the Nordic countries.
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23United States 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.
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18United StatesUnited Kingdom 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.
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19France Former President Hollande wants to take a shot at the 2024 election. France ain't THAT desperate, Hollande.
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15United States 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.
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25Polandthe World 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.
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28United StatesChina 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.
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6United States 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.
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15UkraineItalyUnited States 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.
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20United StatesColombia 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.
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14BrazilIcon hanger.svg 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.
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34United StatesFlorida. Trans flag.svg A judge has deemed Florida's gender-affirming care ban for minors unconstitutional.
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41United StatesIcon hanger.svg 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.
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29ArmeniaFlag of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.svg Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has said the country will start to formally leave the Russian-backed military alliance the CSTO.Wikipedia
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5Belgium Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo has resigned after the far-right Vlaams Belang party prevailed in recent elections.
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31IsraelPalestineUnited Nations A United Nations Inquiry has concluded both Israel and Hamas have committed Crimes against Humanity in the Gaza Strip.
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26IrelandEuropean Union Pro-Russian and pro-Assad useful idiot Clare DalyWikipedia has officially lost her MEP seat in the European elections. It is also looking like fellow traveller Mick WallaceWikipedia may lose his as well. Update: Wallace has lost his seat after the 20th count.
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11the World Experts predict "horrifying" heatwaves that could kill tens of thousands of people, and hospitalize hundreds of thousands more.
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33United States Biden administration to propose a federal rule barring consideration of a person's medical debt in credit reports.
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20United StatesDelaware. 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."
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18United StatesNew Jersey. 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.
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10United StatesWashington. 36-year-old asshole claiming to document "homeless epidemic" shot homeless person on livestream in Spokane, WA
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0Canada 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.
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12United States 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)
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14IsraelPalestine 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”.
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14PalestineIsrael Raid on central Gaza kills over 200 Palestinians
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28United States Alex Jones to sell Infowars to pay off 1.5 billion dollar debt to Sandy Hook families.
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11Democratic Republic of the Congo Political researcher Jean-Jacques Wondo is one of dozens that has been arrested after the failed coupWikipedia attempt last month.
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15IsraelLebanon Israel is still using white phosphorous in Lebanon
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9IsraelLebanon Israel is now threatening Lebanon
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-26United StatesNew Mexico. 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.
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13CubaRussia Russian warships going to Cuba.
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25United States Steve Bannon ordered to be in his prison cell by July 1st.
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6United States SpaceX accomplishes first soft splashdown of Starship, Super Heavy Booster on Flight 4 mission
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12United StatesMissouri. Missouri’s attorney general is waging war to keep the wrongly convicted locked up.
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29United StatesTrans flag.svg The Southern Poverty Law Center has finally designated Genspect and the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine as hate groups.
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26the World 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.
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26United States 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."
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29United StatesMissouri. Trans flag.svg 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."
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26United States 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.
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14United States 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.
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23United StatesGay Pride Flag.svg 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.
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26United States 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." (BirxWikipedia previously served as US Global AIDS Coordinator and as White House COVID Response Coordinator under Obama and Trump, respectively.)
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21United StatesMexico 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.
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29United StatesWisconsin. 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.
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30United States 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.
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23France 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.
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32China China says its spacecraft has landed on the Moon's far side

May 2024

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25IranSwedenIsrael Iran uses Swedish gangs to target Israeli and Jewish interests in Sweden. Israel's Mossad first claimed and Sweden's Säpo then confirmed gangs were used as proxies. Säpo names Iran one of the big 3 threat actors Sweden faces alongside Russia and China, noting it previously mainly targeted Iranian dissidents. The Foxtrot gang were apparently the ones to place a grenade at the Israeli embassy in January.
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57the World A first step in finding a cure for diabetes: One person with diabetes has been completely cured and no longer needs daily insulin.
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24United States Some US drugmakers will now significantly cap prices for asthma inhalers, which can be quite expensive compared to costs in other countries.
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34United States A little over a year after his wife's conviction of similar, doomsday author Chad Daybell has been found guilty of the murder of his first wife and his second wife's two children. The couple held extreme fundamentalist Mormon beliefs as well as radical End Times doomsday views, and justified the murders with their shared belief that the victims were "zombies" and "dark spirits".
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101United StatesNew York. Jury reaches verdict for Trump's hush money case in New York. Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts.
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-38United StatesTexas. Families of Uvalde School Shooting victims are suing the publisher of the Call of Duty video game franchise, alleging the games "knowingly exposed the Shooter to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as the solution to his problems, and trained him how to use it."
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21United Kingdom Labour MP Jess Phillips has revealed in an open letter to the prime minister that former PM Liz Truss, has planned to be interviewed by Carl Benjamin on the far-right platform Lotus Eaters.
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10United KingdomEngland London's freesheet, the Evening StandardWikipedia has announced to reduce costs it will go from daily to weekly and cut a number of staff.
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14United KingdomCzechia The management board of the Royal Mail, the postal operator for the UK, has agreed to sell the business to Czech billionaire Daniel KřetínskýWikipedia for £5 billion.
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31IsraelPalestine An Israeli airstrike targets a refugee camp in Rafah, killing dozens of Palestinians. Benjamin Netanyahu claims it was a mistake.
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21United StatesFlorida. South Carolina. Alabama. A shady donor's US$273 million donation to a Florida university is canceled and causes a big scandal, a year after he announced, then canceled a US$93 million donation to a South Carolina university. Before that, he promised another big donation to a college in Alabama that never came to pass.
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19United StatesNew Hampshire. Trans flag.svg New Hampshire has passed a bill revoking many previously-established discrimination protections for transgender people.
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20United StatesCalifornia. The Tech Baron Seeking to Purge San Francisco of “Blues”: If Balaji Srinivasan is any guide, then the Silicon Valley plutocrats are definitely not OK.
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25Philippinesthe World ‘A catastrophe’: Greenpeace blocks planting of ‘lifesaving’ Golden Rice: Thousands of children could die after court backs campaign group over GM crop in Philippines, scientists warn
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15HungaryUkraineRussia Orbán holds up Ukraine arms funding from frozen Russian assets
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14United StatesNew York. Film-maker Morgan Spurlock, who created the film Super Size Me has died aged 53 from complications of cancer.
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19United StatesLouisiana. Governor of Louisiana signs a law that restricts two medications used to induce abortions as "controlled and dangerous substances". (See: RU-486.)
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34the World Google's new AI-driven search results sometimes spread conspiracy theories, encourage people to eat rocks, or suggest glue as a pizza ingredient. Apparently this is because it will occasionally prioritize sources as trustworthy as The Onion or random Reddit shitposters named "fucksmith". Google insists the feature has undergone "extensive testing" despite this but will continue to improve.
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27Japan Kabosu, the Shiba Inu dog that was behind all those Doge memes has died in her home in Sakura, Japan, aged 18.
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17Italy A row has erupted in Italy, after a teacher in Treviso allowed two Muslim students to be exempted from learning Dante's Divine Comedy. The reason is there is a section in the poem that places the Prophet Muhammed in Hell.
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15RussiaFinlandLithuaniaNATO Baltic concerns over Russian plan to move sea borders. Russia wants to unilaterally change Baltic sea borders, but deleted its draft text about it. Apparently Russia plans to draw a map of the proposal and release a new statement later. This may be a provocation aimed at NATO, which the other countries concerned are members of.
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21United KingdomRwanda The British government admits that flights of asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing are unlikely to happen due to the election.
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25United Kingdom Inquiry finds the UK's NHS knowingly infected tens of thousands of people with contaminated blood from the 1970s–1990s. This killed about 3,000 people and sickened more, then multiple governments covered it up.
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23Germany Maximilian Krah is banned from campaigning for the AfD due to his 'not all members of the SS were bad people' comments. during the European elections.
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33IrelandNorwaySpainPalestine Ireland, Norway and Spain have announced they are recognising the State of Palestine.
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30United KingdomScotland New census figures reveal that for the first time, over half of Scots, 51.1% are irreligious. Biggest change are those over-65s, with those saying they are irreligious have more then doubled.
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36United KingdomScotlandTrans flag.svg The Church of Scotland has said in its annual General Assembly that transgender people are made in the image of God, worthy of our respect and love and part of the Church.
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26United StatesSaudi Arabia New 9/11 Evidence Points to Deep Saudi Complicity: Two decades of U.S. policy appear to be rooted in a mistaken understanding of what happened that day.
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19United KingdomUnited States WikiLeaks founder Assange wins right to appeal against US extradition.
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28PeruTrans flag.svg Peru protesters slam new insurance law that deems transgender people mentally ill
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52IsraelPalestine The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar.
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35Iran A helicopter carrying Ebrahim Raisi has crashed amidst massive fog in Iran. Raisi's status is currently unknown. Update: Raisi has been found dead.
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16United StatesIsrael In an excellent example of Foucault's boomerang, an Israeli company is hawking "self-launching" drones to US police departments.
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14Singapore Lee Hsien Loong has stepped down as Prime Minister of Singapore after nearly 20 years in the position. Lawrence Wong will succeed him.
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18European UnionGay Pride Flag.svg LGBT+ think tank ILGA Europe releases its Rainbow Map for 2024. Top five countries are; Malta, Iceland, Belgium, Spain & Denmark. Bottom five are; Russia, Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Armenia & Belarus. Ireland came 15th and the UK came 16th out of 49 countries.
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23PalestineIsrael Israeli protesters arrested after attacking Gaza aid trucks
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19Sweden Swedish government coalition ‘undermined’ by far-right troll farm scandal. After ally Sweden Democrats revealed last week to have been doing it for years, going after even their coalition partners online.
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21PalestineIsraelUnited States Pentagon intelligence officer has quit in protest of continued unconditional support of the Israeli war effort
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19Slovakia Slovakia’s Prime Minister, Robert Fico, is in a life threatening condition following an assassination attempt.
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21United KingdomLGBTQ+ rainbow flag Quasar "Progress" variant.svg Section 28 part deux? Education secretary Gillian Keegan has said there will be new sex education guidelines on what teachers can say to primary school pupils. Notably mentioned is guidance in relation to trans and non-binary people.
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18Indonesia Mt. Ibu erupts in Indonesia, spewing ash and dark clouds into atmosphere.
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59United Kingdom UK toddler has hearing restored in world first gene therapy trial
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37United StatesFlorida. A MAGA Floridian has discovered, despite living in the U.S. for over 60 years, he is an illegal immigrant when he tried to collect his Social Security.
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28Fiji The former prime minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama, has been sentenced to one year in prison for attempting to stop the police from investigating former staff members at a university.
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41PolandGay Pride Flag.svg The mayor of Poland's second city Kraków has said he would march with others in the city's equality march [gay pride] next week, the first time the mayor has marched in the city’s equality march.
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33United States In exchange for Speaker Johnson’s help in passing foreign aid for Ukraine, Democrats overwhelmingly vote against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s abrupt motion to vacate his position.
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26United Kingdom Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke defects to Labour Party. This is notable because Ms Elphicke was one of the most right-wing MPs in the Commons, making her 'crossing the floor' equivalent to a member of the US Freedom Caucus joining the Democratic Party (so cue the WTF?! comments aimed towards Starmer).
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27Afghanistan The Taliban announces that they’ll reinstate public flogging and death by stoning as punishments for women found guilty of adultery.
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15the World Vaxzevria, the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has been voluntarily withdrawn from sale, because the manufacturers believe there are better vaccines available to cope with the current strains.
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10United KingdomScotland John Swinney will become the next First Minister of Scotland after securing the SNP leadership.
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28Israel In a move described by the Foreign Press Association in Israel as "a dark day for democracy", Netanyahu's government has shut down Al Jazeera in Israel, and raided their Jerusalem press office.
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14United Kingdom UKGov proposes new law to mandate separate male/female toilets in new buildings excepting private homes. No, it's really about dealing with 'the complaints of elderly and disabled people' and not at all about doubling-down on the 'bathroom wars' shite in the vain hope to shore up a Conservative Party which just got whipped in local elections and is cruising into a huge electoral defeat within six months.
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27ArgentinaFalkland IslandsUnited Kingdom Javier Milei said in an interview for the BBC, that he accepts that the Islas Malvinas/Falkland Islands are under British management. A complete reversal of Argentine policy, which says that the islands are under the sovereignty of Argentina.
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13United StatesTexas. Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife have been charged with bribery, among other crimes.
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15United StatesSouth Carolina. Trans flag.svg Ignoring the recent 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that recognises bans on gender-affirming care are unconstitutional, South Carolina has banned gender-affirming care for minors, among other abhorrent rules.
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24United StatesTrans flag.svg The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that state bans on gender-affirming care are unconstitutional.
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18PalestineIsraelEgyptUnited States Hamas negotiators arrive in Cairo for truce talks. William Burns, the chief of the CIA, is also present.
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29Russia Russian state-owned energy company GazpromWikipedia sees worst loss in decades as European exports collapse
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24United StatesCanada Two far-right news websites, Human Events and The Post Millennial, hacked with a message saying Andy Ngo came out as trans and leaking the personal information of the contributors. Many government-affiliated emails were signed up.
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29United StatesArizona. Arizona repeals an 1864 law that bans abortion. The state's Supreme Court previously ruled that the law should have been enforced.
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6United StatesOklahoma. Oklahoma passes a series of laws. Among other things they ban ranked-choice voting, ban homeless camps on public property, tax-incentivize people to be poll workers, and make the soybean an official state symbol.
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19United States A second Boeing whistleblower has died in a short time span.
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23Georgia Thousands have shown up to protest as the Georgian parliament has advanced the "foreign influence" bill that'd basically allow Georgia to ban and suppress non-governmental organisations and news sources.
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33UkraineUnited StatesRussia US accuses Russia of using chemical weapons in Ukraine
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27United Kingdom The MP for Ipswich Tom Hunt, who has voted to introduce voter ID laws for British elections, is scrambling around for help after he has discovered he has no such ID on him. Updated: Boris Johnson, whose government demanded voter ID, has also revealed that he tried to vote without the appropriate voter ID.

April 2024

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33United StatesKansas. Trans flag.svg Two defections prevented Republicans from overriding Governor Kelly's veto on their bill that would have banned gender-affirming care for minors.
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42United KingdomWales Welsh politicians are considering criminalising lying by politicians.
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13Russia Russia Clones Wikipedia, Censors It, Bans Original
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37United NationsNorth Korea UN investigators said they found remains of North Korean Hwasong-11 ballistic missiles in Kharkiv, Ukraine. This means that Russia has clearly violated North Korean weapons sanctions.
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22United KingdomScotland First Minister Humza Yousaf will resign. He had been facing a no-confidence motion following the collapse of the SNP-Scottish Green coalition deal.
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25Cuba Cuba is now suffering a new shortage, a shortage of physical cash. Due to a growing black market and triple digit inflation of the peso, many banks and ATMs are unable to dispense their customers' savings.
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20United KingdomRussia A Briton has been charged for masterminding an arson attack against an Ukrainian-linked target in London for the benefit of the Russian state. It has been said that he was recruited by the Wagner Group to commit arson in the UK.
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-8IraqGay Pride Flag.svg Iraq has criminalised homosexual activity, with a maximum of 15 years in prison as punishment.
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23RussiaUganda Wagner Group mercenaries are now on the hunt for Joseph Kony.
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56United States The FCC votes to restore net neutrality.
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25United StatesPalestine US military begins construction of a temporary pier to deliver aid to Gaza, including food aid.
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-3United StatesNew York. Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction has been overturned.
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47DominicaGay Pride Flag.svg Homosexual activity in Dominica is now legal, as they've overturned their anti-sodomy laws.
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22United States US Department of Labor attempts to expand eligibility for overtime pay to millions more workers.
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15Burkina Faso "Burkina Faso’s military summarily executed more than 220 civilians, including at least 56 children, in two villages in late February, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch."
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22United StatesNew York. The Secret Service are preparing for the possibility of having to protect Trump while he is in jail.
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17PalestineIsrael Mass graves of Palestinians have been found at the Al-Shifa hospital.
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18United States The Gateway PunditWikipedia files for bankruptcy.
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11Ireland Taoiseach Simon Harris has formally apologised in the Dáil to the families and survivors on the government’s handling and response to the Stardust tragedy,Wikipedia a nightclub fire that killed 48 people in 1981.
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10Germany An aide of the AfD politician Maximilian Krah has been arrested. Allegedly, he spied on Chinese opposition members and repeatedly passed on secret information from the European parliament to China. Another member of the far-right party, Petr Bystron, is currently being investigated by the Czech secret service for receiving money from the Russian propaganda channel "Voice of Europe". Krah also received "compensations" for "technical expenditures" from the pro-Russian activist Oleg Woloschyn.
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23United States The FTC has voted to ban non-compete clauses.
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23Australia Prime Minister Albanese has labelled Musk ‘an arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law’ in response for not removing video showing the church stabbing.
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13PalestineIsraelUnited Nations An independent probe has found that Israel hasn't provided any evidence for their bullshit UNRWA allegations.
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13United Kingdom Judge throws out Government's case; the accused's crime? To remind jurors at a climate activist trial (with a sign outside the court) that jury nullification is a thing in England & Wales.
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26United States Rolling Stone has revealed that Trump's Save America Super PAC is running out of money, due to Trump's personal legal fees.
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8PalestineUnited StatesUnited Nations Despite claims that the Biden administration supports Palestinian statehood, leaked cables reveal that the US has been exerting diplomatic pressure on Security Council member states to reject a bid for full Palestinian membership in the UN, contradicting these apparently bullshit claims. Ironic how the US keeps advocating for a two state solution yet keeps rejecting the recognition of one state whilst bootlicking the other.
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13RussiaBelarus In discussing the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, Dmitry Medvedev has proposed reintroducing the death penalty, something that would need a constitutional amendment. While former NRA member and Russian spy, now Duma deputy Maria Butina has proposed extraditing the attackers to Belarus where the death penalty exists.
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31United Kingdom The Future of Humanity Institute shuts down. Among other things it claimed to have a goal of reducing existential risks to humanity (earning it funds from Elon Musk among others), and it was associated with the effective altruism movement.
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23United StatesNew York. A man set himself on fire outside the Trump trial. Before doing so he scattered pamphlets about "a 'hellish fascist dystopia' that includes cryptocurrency, climate change, Covid vaccines, Palantir Technologies founder Peter Thiel, artificial intelligence, and 'The Simpsons' cartoon television show."
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33Switzerland Nestlé shareholders reject proposals to change the company's business model to focus on healthier / more nutritious products. Reason; it would possibly cost them some profit.
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17United Kingdom Rishi Sunak has plans to strip doctors of their ability to issue sick notes. He claims the U.K. has a "sick note culture" and that benefits have become a "lifestyle choice". No, this is totally not a headline grabbing lash-out at benefit scroungers minus any actual productive help for said people merely to tickle the bellies of Mail and Express readers due to fears of Conservative wipeout in the upcoming general election.
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16IsraelIran Israel strikes Iran, possibly at multiple sites.
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21United States Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson introduced separate aid bills for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. This comes with resistance among a few other House Republicans, including Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG), who threatened an attempt to remove Johnson as Speaker due to the standalone Ukraine aid. MTG proposed an amendment to the Israel aid bill, so that it would also fund a "space laser" targeting migrants at the US-Mexico border.
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12United StatesColorado. Republicans in Colorado's state-level Senate block a measure that would have allowed voters to decide via referendum whether child sex abuse victims can be exempted from the statute of limitations — thus allowing them to sue their abusers. The measure required a supermajority and failed by one vote, with Democrats and Republicans all voting party-line.
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19United StatesMassachusetts. Researchers at MIT demonstrate that LLM chatbots can be used to durably persuade some conspiracy theorists to reconsider their beliefs. (Paper here, currently in preprint.)
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26SwedenTrans flag.svg Sweden's parliament has passed a law that changes the minimum legal age to change your legal gender from 18 to 16. You also no longer require a gender dysphoria diagnosis.
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22United States SCOTUS just effectively abolished the right to mass protest in three states.
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15United States US House of Representatives delivers articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate. Roll Call suggests he will "almost certainly" not be convicted. Update: The Senate dismissed the articles of impeachment without trial.
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13United KingdomUnited StatesIranIsrael David Cameron, the UK's current foreign minister, says during his visit to Israel: "It's clear the Israelis are making a decision to act", i.e. to retaliate against Iran. The US, UK, and others are likely to impose economic sanctions on Iran in the hopes these "will help persuade Israel to limit the scope of its retaliation."
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22United StatesNew York. Trump on trial in Manhattan for a hush money case. On the second day of the trial, jury selection continued, and many were disqualified because they posted memes mocking Trump online.
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11United StatesFlorida. Florida bans city and county governments from mandating heat protections for outdoor laborers beyond state and federal protections.
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15United Kingdom Muslim pupil loses High Court challenge to pray at school. The school fought this case on the reason they are strictly secular. However, the headteacher is also the 'Tiger Teacher' who is rigid, authoritarian, treats resistance like a steam-roller does grass and is geared solely towards exams and obedience.
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12United Kingdom Eternal ban on purchasing cigarettes for those born on or after 2009 in the UK passed in the Commons. As the opposition Labour Party is also in favour, it is highly unlikely to be scrapped after the upcoming elections (like in New Zealand), making it the first country to potentially have a 'smoke free' generation (unless they take up pipes or cigars).
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11Belgium 'National Conservatism' conference 'closed' by Brussels police. Cue wails of anguish, 'censorship' and 'thought police' from attendees such as everyone's fave Brits Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman. Closing the thing (if indeed it is closed) could be courting the Streisand effect as reports state attendence was rather low (~250 with a capacity for ~850). A court has now overturned the closure.
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13United States US CDC study finds no link between COVID-19 vaccines and deaths among young people due to heart problems. The analysis looked into death certificates in the state of Oregon, and it also found that of thirty people killed by COVID-19 in the same sample, a majority were unvaccinated.
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20Australia 6 dead in Australian knife attack. Police officer manages to kill offender (who was actually armed and a danger to all!) using only 2-3 bullets. UPDATE: The perpetrator has been identified, but not before the usual reactionaries and pro-Putin trolls on social media (particularly Twitter) circulated several false claims attributing the attack to either a Jewish individual or a Muslim.
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30United StatesKansas. Kansas governor Laura Kelly has vetoed a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, a measure to require more reporting from abortion providers, and what she called a "vague" bill making it a crime to coerce someone into having an abortion. The GOP has narrow supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
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36IsraelIran Israel and the United States prepare for a possibly imminent direct military retaliation from Iran, weeks after Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus. (Update: they've done it.)
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26the World Global monthly heat record broken for a tenth consecutive month, "with the past 12 months being 1.58 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels."
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18Switzerland Members of the Swiss far-right SVP have put together a referendum proposal which would effectively end Swiss sanctions on Russia and China, stating that such actions would break the country's strict neutrality.
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36the World Global poverty and inequality have declined dramatically between 1980 and 2019, with both declines accelerating over time. By using a poverty line of $6.85 a day, poverty rates have declined from 60-70% to 50% of the global population.
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47United States O. J. Simpson dies at age 76.
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33United Kingdom Sky News has revealed that millionaire hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall, who is the biggest owner of GB News, is quitting as a member of the channel’s executive board.
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41United StatesRussiaUkraine Russian troll factories are supplying Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene with talking points against Ukraine.
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38United StatesArizona. The Supreme Court of Arizona has banned abortion in all cases. Gov. Katie Hobbs has denounced the decision. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has has said she won't enforce the law. In fact, this is so bad even Kari Lake denounced the decision.
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7New Zealand It's a newsroom bloodbath in Aotearoa with Newshub, which does the news for TV channel Three and various commercial radio stations, saying it is closing down in July. On the same day, public broadcaster TVNZ said a number of news programmes including Midday, Sunday and Fair Go, are to be cut due to budget issues.
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19RussiaFlag of the Chechen Republic.svg Chechnya bans all music that's not between 80-116 BPM
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16Canada Canada has said it's in talks about joining AUKUS, and it's planning to buy nuclear submarines.
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25EcuadorMexico Ecuadorian police break into the Mexican embassy to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas, who's seeking asylum in Mexico. This is considered a violation of international law. Mexico has ended diplomatic relations with Ecuador over this.
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24New Zealand In New Zealand a "sovereign citizen" is fined for resisting police, having just come from a 21 day jail sentence for contempt of court for disruptive behavior including the usual stuff about not recognizing the authority of the court and similar.
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13Spain The Spanish government has said it is following the lead of other countries and introducing plain packaging for cigarettes by the end of the year.
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26United StatesVermont. Bernie Sanders's office in Vermont targeted by arson. Fortunately, no one was injured.
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7GermanyFlag of Hesse.svg The courts in the state of Hesse have ordered a chain of human-free digital supermarkets to close on Sundays and public holidays, as they violate Sunday trading laws.
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37United StatesIndiana. ‘Severely decreased their sexual intimacy with their husbands’: Indiana appeals court uses Mike Pence’s religious liberty law to block abortion ban
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23Germany Björn Höcke has been charged with using a Nazi slogan, again.
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30United StatesOklahoma. The city of Enid, Oklahoma, has voted out city council commissioner Judd Blevins after it was revealed he was a neo-Nazi who ran a Groyper Twitter account and attended Charlottesville.
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35IsraelPalestine The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties, +972 and Local Call reveal.
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19United StatesMassachusetts. Russia A former Massachusetts city councilor who was charged with possession of child pornography in 2020, has skipped his trial and has been found working for the Russian Army in the War in Ukraine.
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17Italy Italian island offers goats up for adoption.
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19United Kingdom The Guardian reports that the Conservatives planned to create a “True Blue” app to track party members and allow companies to "geo-market" products to users based on their location.
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32United StatesDominica The Guardian reports that Truth Social was nearly bankrupt in 2022, but was saved by loans by a Russian-American who was under criminal investigation and a Dominican bank that is used to evade sanctions.
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29United StatesIndia Amazon is scrapping its “Just Walk Out” feature in its Amazon Go grocery stores, as they revealed that in reality it is just a load of Indian workers watching cameras.
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15Taiwan An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 hits the city of Hualien, leaving some buildings to look like the Tower of Pisa. 9 people died and 821 injured and counting.
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15IsraelPalestine The World Central Kitchen has halted its humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip after the IDF struck three of their vehicles, killing seven WCK workers. Bellingcat believes these strikes to have been from low-yield munitions.
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16Ukraine Ukraine lowers military conscription age from 27 to 25.
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20United StatesFlorida. Abortion rights and recreational marijuana legalization will be separately put to the test on Florida ballot initiatives this November. The same day, Florida's supreme court has allowed enforcement of the exact 15-week abortion ban which one of said ballot initiatives could overturn.
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25IsraelQatar Netanyahu has threatened Al Jazeera and other foreign news providers with expulsion by a new security law which will restrict foreign broadcasters.
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26IsraelSyriaIran 6 killed as Israel strikes Iran embassy annex in Damascus
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-31United StatesRussia Unraveling Havana Syndrome: New evidence links the GRU's assassination Unit 29155 to mysterious attacks on U.S. officials and their families. A yearlong investigation by The Insider, in collaboration with 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel, has uncovered evidence suggesting that unexplained anomalous health incidents, also known as Havana Syndrome, may have their origin in the use of directed energy weapons wielded by members of Russian GRU Unit 29155.
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38Germany Cannabis leaf.svg Hochdeutsch (hochdeutsch = high German, 'standard' German) has gained another meaning as Germany has formally legalised cannabis. Germans can now possess up to 25g of pot, or have up to three plants at home.