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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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November 2024
   | 9 |   Republican-controlled North Carolina House of Representatives has voted to strip power from incoming Democratic governor and attorney general. |
| 19 |   One of the largest unions in the US has backed Bernie's bid to block Israel arms deal. |
| 13 |  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. |
| 19 |  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. |
| 12 | Trump has picked Mehmet Öz as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. |
| 23 | 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. |
| 22 | A Gaza school burned to the ground hours after aid arrived. Witnesses say IDF soldiers were responsible for the arson. |
| 10 | 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 |
| -6 |    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". |
| 4 |        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. |
| 14 |  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. |
| 19 | 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". |
| 24 | Mike Johnson wants to keep "potentially damaging" Ethics Panel report about Matt Gaetz a secret. |
| 19 | Trump-appointed judge blocks new Biden rule that would have expanded overtime protections for millions of workers. |
| 20 |  The UNGA votes in favour to affirm Palestinian's right to self determination. Among those voting against are the usual suspects and Argentina. |
| 23 | 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. |
| 26 | 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. |
| 59 | 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. |
| 30 | 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. |
October 2024
| 31 | Comparing Deaths from Gun Violence in the U.S. with Other Countries: Several US states have higher incidences of gun deaths than countries with active armed gangs, e.g. each of Mississippi, Alabama, New Mexico, Missouri, Alaska, Wyoming, Kentucky, Indiana, Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota > Haiti |
| 42 | 𝕏 has become such a dumpster fire that AP reports that investment firm Fidelity has just valued it at $9.4 billion, lower than Trump's TruthSocial valued at $10 billion. Update: TruthSocial stocks, which in the past few weeks have been traded on perceived results for the upcoming election, have just tumbled in value by 41%.
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| 35 |   It becomes a criminal offence to provoke, harass or try to influence people seeking to terminate pregnancies within a radius of 150 metres (492 feet) outside of abortion clinics in England and Wales. |
| 18 |  At least 95 killed and dozens missing in Spain’s flash floods (Update: A week later, at least 217 dead, 89 missing.) |
| 20 | Health minister Geneviève Darrieussecq says she is planning to ban snus-like nicotine pouches, as they are causing a growing unnecessary nicotine addiction among teenagers. |
| 32 | The Israeli parliament votes to ban UNRWA from operating within Israeli-controlled territory or cooperating with its officials, effectively attempting to destroy what is left of the Palestinian welfare provision and humanitarian aid. |
| 27 | The US presses Israel for answers after a strike in a residential block in Gaza kills at least 93. According to Gaza health ministry, the death toll of the genocide has surpassed 43,000. |
| 37 | A Russian court has ordered a fine of 2 undecillion Russian rubles (2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ₽, US$22.1 decillion) against Google because it blocked 17 Russian state propaganda outlets including RT and Rossiya-1 on YouTube. |
| 30 | The IMF says global fight against inflation is "almost won", projecting that prices will rise by about 3,5% in 2025, below than the 2000-2019 average. Not everything looks good though, especially in the longer term, with trade wars, global conflicts, a sluggish China and deteriorating conditions in Europe and Latin America resulting in a much murkier scenario by the end of the decade. |
| 41 | Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months. |
| 54 |  Over 50% of Kiwis now have no identifiable religious beliefs according to the latest census data. |
| 38 | A man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for using AI to turn innocent photographs of real children into paedophilic child abuse images. This is the first conviction of using artificial intelligence to create child pornography. |
| 35 | The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reports that Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin for the past two years. |
| 25 |  Candace Owens has been refused an Australian Visa, and thus entry to Australia, ahead of her national speaking tour. |
| 15 |  Israel says it launched 'targeted' air strikes on Iran. |
| 25 | Investigative website ProPublica revealed that firearm rebate and warranty cards have been used since the 1970s, have been potential illegally used by gun manufacturers to help lobby for more liberal gun laws. |
| 35 | The UN has warned that the 1.5° C warming goal set by the Paris Climate Agreement is already out of reach. |
| 17 |  
West Texas city enacts total transgender bathroom ban. |
| 26 | A public opinion survey poll released by the Israeli Democracy Institute on the anniversary of October 7th has found that only 6% of Israelis support ending the "war" in Gaza because of its great humanitarian costs. |
| 25 | Over 60 New Zealand followers of the "sovereign citizens" movement lose their firearms licences for no longer meeting the requirements of NZ Firearms legislation - mostly due to no longer being "fit and proper persons". Predictably, US-based pro-gun lobbyists see it as a warning against firearms registration. |
| 35 |   After North Korea has sent some of its troops to Russia as mercenaries for the Russian government, the South Korean government is considering sending some of its technical staff to Ukraine. |
| 28 | The Internet Archive is back up as read-only. Unfortunately, it appears that the hacker still has access to the Archive's systems. UPDATE: And it's down again. |
| 25 | "That land belongs to us." Far-right Itamar Ben-Gvir has demanded the resettlement of Gaza and the transfer of all Gazan citizens to other countries. |
| 28 |  Top attorneys for Ron DeSantis threatened to criminally prosecute local TV stations over the airing of an abortion rights ad. One DeSantis lawyer has already quit over the matter. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the DeSantis administration from intimidating and coercing television stations, stating in his restraining order that "it's the First Amendment, stupid" |
| 30 |  Fuel shortages, rapidly aging infrastructure, and the failure of a key power plant causes Cuba's electrical grid to go offline, plunging the island into darkness. Radio Habana Cuba reports that a comprehensive plan is underway to fix this crisis, and emphasizes "the need to involve the non-state sector in the collective effort to save, even with the collection of non-subsidized rates according to their profit levels", whatever the fuck that means. |
| 35 | Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein has received a visit from the FBI for his publishing of the Trump campaign's internal JD Vance evaluation. |
| 41 | Teen smoking in the US, including of electronic cigarettes, dropped 20% from last year and has hit an all-time low. |
| 18 | Ron DeSantis has remade New College of Florida, causing "nearly 40% of the faculty" to resign. Now the college is inviting a white supremacist and eugenicist as a guest speaker. |
| 26 | Israel says it can confirm that its forces killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Israeli troops apparently encountered him unknowingly in a shootout and then only realized who it was after examining the corpses left after the battle. Update: Hamas confirms Sinwar's death, pledges to fight on. |
| 21 | Boffins are looking into whether the wonder drug du jour semaglutide, also known as Ozempic or Wegovy, could be used to assist the treatment those with alcohol and drug addiction after a study found those who took the drug had reduction of up 50% in alcohol and drug overdoses. |
| 18 |  Trudeau testifies during an inquiry that multiple Conservative Party politicians, as well as a few politicians from all other parties, are actively involved in or at high risk of foreign interference. Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre calls the testimony an outright lie; Poilievre notably refuses to go through the federal security clearance process, as other party leaders have, to view the intelligence information being reported, saying that doing so would prevent him from questioning or challenging it. |
| 26 |  The IDF has fired on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. |
| 33 | The Palestinian man photographed burning alive in his own tent as a result of the Israeli Tent Massacre has been identified as the 19 year old software engineer Sha'ban al-Dalou. |
| 18 | Biden envoy reportedly told aid groups that Israel was "too close an ally" to impose an arms embargo on. |
| 36 |
Anti-trans woman with no hair devastated when she faced anti-trans harassment herself in a Chicago airport restroom. |
| 32 | Ukraine's President Zelensky has said that North Korea has actually joined the Ukrainian War by suppling personnel in battle line in Russia's Kursk region. However in the last 24 hours, Ukrainian intelligence has reported eighteen defections of North Koreans. |
| 25 | Liftoff! NASA’s Europa Clipper Sails Toward Ocean Moon of Jupiter |
| 23 | ICE is giving civilians firearms training to cosplay as anti-immigrant vigilantes. This training includes how to conduct surveillance and use lethal force. All of this is a propaganda stunt to counter ICE's bad press. |
| 11 | DNA tests show that Christopher Columbus was probably a Sephardi Jew |
| 29 | The genocide in Gaza has left over 50,000 children orphaned or separated from their parents. |
| 12 | Europa Clipper launch delayed by Hurricane Milton. |
| 28 | Retired US army general and former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, calls Trump "fascist to the core" and "the most dangerous person to the country", according to a soon-to-be released book by prominent journalist Bob Woodward. |
| 28 | In a spectacular example of "totalitarian regime fails to think a new censorship policy through", Russia has decided to ban Discord... even though the Russian military uses it to coordinate communications. Milbloggers predictably aren't especially pleased with Roskomnadzor, since this genius decision threatens to throw Russian military communications in Ukraine into disarray. |
| 45 | The Editors Protecting Wikipedia from AI Hoaxes: WikiProject AI Cleanup is protecting Wikipedia from the same kind of misleading AI-generated information that has plagued the rest of the internet. Wikipedia editors are fighting against its enshittification |
| 5 | Putin demolishes Black Sea retreat amid drone fears This was the palace that Putin built on the Black Sea and that was doxxed by the late Alexei Navalny. |
| 22 | McDonald's sues the top meat-packing companies in the United States, alleging they colluded to artificially inflate the price of beef. |
| 43 | Macron calls for halting of arms shipments to Israel. |
| 11 | Researchers have taught AI to exhibit pareidolia. |
| 36 |  The IDF is using Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon as human shields. |
| 21 | Hurricane Milton quickly became one of the strongest hurricanes in history. It's likely to cause especially severe damage in the Tampa area, which for a long time was flagged as one of the "most at-risk areas on the globe." It had at least one meteorologist crying on TV! |
| 17 | 
Missouri called J. Michael Bailey as an expert witness to defend the state's trans medicine ban. Things went a bit off-topic as on the stand he started defending convicted serial child molester Jerry Sandusky, citing a podcast he listened to as evidence Sandusky's accusers were lying. The court also examined Bailey's research history which included Reddit threads as scientific evidence. According to LGBTQ Nation the US Supreme Court will rule on the topic this autumn. |
| 34 | The US bribes Israel not to strike certain targets in Iran. |
| 5 |  The Georgia Supreme Court has temporarily restored the state's near-total ban on abortions while it considers the constitutionality of the ban. |
| 21 | FEMA refutes rumors surrounding its Hurricane Helene response. (Another rumor that FEMA wasn't offering over $750 in aid was also refuted elsewhere.) The hurricane has been the most deadly for the mainland United States since Hurricane Katrina, and a second is coming right on its heels. |
| 22 |
NHS trans care officials speak at anti-trans hate group SEGM's conference |
| 18 |
The Texas Department of Public Safety may begin reverting trans people's valid drivers licenses. |
| 12 | The anti-extremist Institute for Strategic Dialogue reports that American neo-Nazis like the Atomwaffen Division are moving away from Telegram to another platform SimpleX, due to the fact it allows completely anonymous communications. |
| 25 |  Election-denier Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, was sentenced to 9 years in prison for helping a man associated with Mike Lindell (the MyPillow guy) hack into voting machines after the 2020 election. |
| 28 | 
European court strengthens trans rights by making document changes simplified and compatible between nations that are European Union member states. |
| 14 | American documentarian Cullen Hoback claims to have identified the creator of Bitcoin, the pseudonymous "Satoshi Nakamoto". The alleged findings are to be presented in a new HBO documentary he produced. (Another one he made, Q Into the Storm, had an interview where Ron Watkins seemed to inadvertently admit to being 8chan's QAnon.) |
| 21 |  Book ban activists in Utah, not satisfied with purging school libraries, now target "Little Free Libraries", free-standing outdoor cabinets for book-sharing. They would like the owners of these installations arrested for "distributing pornography". |
| -17 |  Moldova claims Russia is spending tens of millions of dollars worth to sway a referendum on whether Moldova joins the European Union. (Russia would prefer if they didn't, obviously.) |
| 44 | Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed to temporary ceasefire days before assassination, according to the foreign minister of Lebanon. |
| 19 | Texas's power grid will finally connect to the rest of the US. The fact that it wasn't was a big part of the reason why the 2021 Texas power crisis was such a disaster. |
| 23 |  The MAGA grift continues: The criteria for Oklahoma's "Bible in all classrooms" mandate has been specifically designed so that only Donald Trump's expensive $60 or $90 "Bible" versions qualify. |
| 29 | The US port strike has ended, at least temporarily. The International Longshoremen’s Association has agreed to have its workers return to their jobs on October 4 after a tentative deal was reached. |
| 30 | Federal judge allows temporary restraining order to expire, possibly allowing tens of millions of people's student loan debt to be relieved by the Biden administration. |
| 28 |  United Kingdom cedes the Indian Ocean territory of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The deal retains the UK-US military base on the islands. Previously the UK ethnically cleansed the indigenous residents in the expulsion of the Chagossians. In 2019, the International Court of Justice and United Nations ruled the UK had no sovereignty over the islands and should transfer their control to Mauritius. |
| 45 | Israel bans UN chief Guterres from entering the country |
| 32 |  Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico's first female president, took office on October 1, 2024. |
| 49 | Israeli settlers are already planning to colonize southern Lebanon, and have shared ads for properties to that effect. |
| 54 | Iran launches major missile attack on Israel |
| 14 |  Montana man sentenced to six months in prison for cloning hybrid sheep |
| 62 |  More ghoulishness from California as California cities crack down on homelessness. Santa Monica is seeking to ban sleeping bags. Fresno has banned camping anywhere within city limits, even when no shelter is available. Multiple other localities are either dusting off old camping bans that haven't been enforced in years, or adding more punitive measures to camping regulations even in localities where camping hasn't been explicitly prohibited. |
| 43 | Jimmy Carter is still alive at 100 years old, making him the first ex-president to reach triple digits |