Wikipedia:Current events noticeboard

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Introduction: This page is for reporting concerns and disputes regarding current events, as well as bringing articles about current events to broader attention. Generally, this means cases where editors are repeatedly adding unsourced or improperly sourced material to articles that are marked with {{Current}}, listed at WP:ITN/C, or are otherwise relevant to current events. This page is not for simple vandalism or material which can easily be removed without argument. If you can, simply remove the offending material. Place the {{CEN noticeboard}} template on the talk page of articles that are being discussed here, and remove it when the discussion is resolved. All editors are encouraged to assist fellow editors regarding the reports below. Administrators should review enforcement instructions. Volunteers: To mark a discussion resolved, place {{Resolved|Your reason here ~~~~}} at the top of the section. If the page in question is a biography of a living person, please post it at the Biographies of living persons noticeboard. Additional notes: Discussions regarding whether a current event should be included on the Wikipedia home page should occur at Wikipedia:In the news/Candidates. Discussions regarding the accuracy of the "blurb" for current events on the Wikipedia home page should occur at Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. Not all events in the news deserve a specific article, see the notability guideline for details. If you don't know how to write an article, see Your first article and articles for creation. Sections older than 7 days archived by ClueBot III. If you mention specific editors, please notify them. You may use {{subst:CEN-notice}} to do so.
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2022 Tunisian constitutional referendum

This article about a recent major event is already falling out of date, with some sentences still referring to the topic in future tense. WikiProject Tunisia has been alerted as well, even in the lead:

Preliminary results will be announced from 26 July to 28 July and final results will be announced on 28 August 2022 after all appeals are considered.

–LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 22:47, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Do we really have to place countries all the time?

Shortly after adding this edit about Trump getting sued by NY Attorney General, I was reverted twice with the explanation being that this was done because I did not mention that New York is in the United States. For me, this is nonsense and disruptive, because the idea is, which I hope I have explained well, is that if a place is sufficiently known by itself (California, New York, Canary Islands, Scotland, Kamchatka, Kaliningrad Oblast, Greenland etc.), we don't really have to mention any additional info about it because this level of detail is already good enough to recognise for an average educated reader (I'm not speaking of some Podunk or Mukhosransk).

This is not the first time reverts happen because some event happened in the United States - in my experience, this happened here and here. From the history, I also see reverts happening because something happened in Ontario (Canada - mention the country), Texas (Alex Jones convicted by jury - arguably "domestic" though surely related to Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, so the news is relevant to update the article about the particularly notorious shooting), or in Amazon (the news describing union formation in the company which is known to be anti-union and which so far managed to resist the efforts to unionize).

Also of note is that, at the moment of writing, news about Hurricane Fiona reaching Turks and Caicos and Bermuda were not reverted because the country name (United Kingdom) was not added to them. I'd argue that Bermuda is known enough to be mentioned alone (the article about the Bermuda Triangle has more views than Bermuda), though Turks and Caicos are a borderline case here.

That's less of a complaint, because many other reverts were useful, but some do annoy. So please answer these questions:

1. Do we have to name countries all the time when mentioning some subnational territories (a state, province, region within a country, city, dependency...) or we should by default rely on common sense about the famousness of some places when describing the places where some events happened are mentioned? If the answer is yes, is it appropriate to revert edits simply because the country was not mentioned?
2. Are comments that "we are not an American newspaper" appropriate in comments referring to "Current events" portal edits
3. Is "Use #yearname in country X" comment appropriate to redirect for a domestic event that has relevant and extensive Wikipedia articles written about it?

Any additional comments are welcome. Szmenderowiecki (talk) 18:44, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

What a ridiculous discussion. Those reversions of mine (you can mention me next time, I have no problem) are made so that the user who has added it, add it back mentioning the country where it happened (as I have explained many times in Edit summary), as some editors seem to think Current Events is a North American newspaper, towns or cities in that region are mentioned as if everyone knew about it. Does it really cost so much to add "United States", "Italy", "Fiji" or "Canada"? Less than 10 seconds are wasted. Wikipedia, we must insist, is an encyclopedia. There are things that I'm surprised that I have to explain. You're mixing things up which, frankly, doesn't make it clear to me what your intentions are. It's worth saying that "Use common sense" shouldn't be an appropriate comment on Wikipedia either, right? Cheers. _-_Alsor (talk) 20:12, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

Common sense is frequently the answer on Wikipedia, whether that's right or wrong. Reverting with an edit summary of "Name the country, please" is about 4 times as much work as just writing the country. Maybe just name the country if you find it unclear? -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 21:15, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) Thanks for the answer. I have two things to reply to, because, as I stress, this is more of a clarification than a complaint. I wait for others to say something.

1. We do not invent rules that do not exist (and the thing you se em to enforce isn't in the instructions). So yes, it takes much more than 10 seconds to clarify why exactly this is a problem.

2. WP:COMMON is a thing. While admittedly "just use common sense" isn't exactly the best reply, thing is, there is no rule that says "always mention countries", so by default we should use common sense. So again, instead of asking "why not write countries", we can ask "why bother to enforce a rule that does not exist".

If the concern is that too many news pieces are from US or Canada (probably because most news report on these countries in probably too much detail), you can report on news from other countries that you think are underrepresented - Spain, Thailand or Nigeria, for example - and add them to US reports for balance. I mean, if there is no evidence of collusion between editors, the fact that the end result is that we may be too much US/EU-centric doesn't mean that editors are breaking the Current events rules, it's that they collectively may be more interested in US coverage. That's not ideal but it isn't against the rules.

Finally, you can add the country name yourself it that is important for you - that's fine with me.

But first, let's hear from others. Szmenderowiecki (talk) 21:35, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

I repeat, if I have made these removals is so that the same editor who has added the entry, improve it. Basically because there comes a point where it’s frustrating and exhausting to make the same kind of corrections (or specifications) to content added by the same editor(s). If I don't add news from Spain, Thailand or Nigeria usually is for two reasons: first, because fortunately I’ve responsibilities that occupy me much more time than in previous months. And second, because some news from Spain, Thailand or Nigeria I can consider "very domestic", so it would not be congruent to add them if, if they were from other countries, I would remove them. And that reflection, often, some users (I'm not talking about you) don't do it. _-_Alsor (talk)

The whole point is that there is no rule saying you must mention a country, so what's the point in urging that I do something about it? You like it that way? Fine, I like it the other, and I think my way serves our readers well, and so long as there is no rule, you may of course correct the text the way you like, just don't involve me into that (by reversion/deletion) without a good reason, OK? Let me do my own business. Szmenderowiecki (talk) 12:10, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

If we are talking about WP policy, per the WP Manual of Style (WP:PLACE), no requirement for including the country name exists for the name of locations. Furthermore, there are requirements for the country name to not appear, except for special cases, for most of the countries (ie. United States, United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, Ireland..). Carter00000 (talk) 13:04, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

"no requirement for including the country name exists for the name of locations", nor the opposite (per WP:PLACE). _-_Alsor (talk) 14:44, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

I suppose it should be better understood that this is an encyclopedia and, therefore, the better the information included, the more specific it's, the better it's always. A question of quality. In this case, it's clear that we are not going to understand each other. _-_Alsor (talk) 14:40, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

Noting that issues relating to Alsoriano97, including the issues presented in this discussion, was previously discussed at ANI [[1]]. Pinging Cryptic who previously undertook enforcement action against Alsoriano97. Carter00000 (talk) 06:24, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

You can also think back on how you ended up being valued after those discussions you opened and how they ended up in general. Good morning. _-_Alsor (talk) 07:46, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

Szmenderowiecki Please try to understand that the world does not revolve around English-speaking countries, even on English Wikipedia. It's appropriate to name the country because there is more than one country in the world. Believe it or not, there is more than one English-speaking country in the world. There are three places called "New York" in the UK alone. There's even one in Ukraine. Turks and Caicos and Bermuda are not countries in the sense of being self-governing, but they are not part of the UK either. You are meant to be writing for everybody, so think twice before you declare that "everybody knows" what you mean. Deb (talk) 16:11, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

I imagine that the four New Yorks that you mention (including one on the frontline today) are not what 99.99% of people think when we speak of New York, particularly as none of those are cities within a state (England is a country, while the New York in Ukraine belongs to an oblast). This is regardless of whether we are on en.wp or on other language WP.

Other than that, I do not say that specifying countries is never appropriate. I say that reverting because no country was mentioned is simply not appropriate. If people have doubts, they can just click the link to make sure we are speaking of the UK, US, Russia or whatever other country. I assume that articles being within level 4-vital or similar are such that the majority of WP readers should know about or at least should have heard of. Szmenderowiecki (talk) 23:08, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

I understand your point, but it's never wise to assume that WP readers "should have heard of" something. People generally use encyclopedias to look up things they don't know about - so yes, context is important. I would agree that reverting something because it doesn't include the country is a little extreme, and personally I would just have added the country, but please do consider the need for context when you are writing for Wikipedia. Not everyone is as well-educated as we are. (I recall a conversation with a sales assistant in Hong Kong who, when I told her I was from Britain, replied "You speak very good English"!) Deb (talk) 08:31, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

Agreed, except that some readers may ask if "New York" alone refers to New York City or New York (state) — this mention is about the latter, and that needs clarification for those who have heard of only the city. I do agree, though, that we should mention that this is in the United States for the same reason why most current events specify a country — not everyone knows where New York (state) is. In Calgary, Alberta, Canada, my dad had to explain to a friend where Texas is in the United States, and New York (state) has a similar population. Meanwhile, most Americans would be baffled by any mention of Uttar Pradesh, which makes up about 20% of the population of India. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 06:49, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

Handling legal changes concurrent with the 2023 Israeli judicial reform

For the past few weeks Israel has been going through a socio-political turmoil, at the core of which is a so-called "judicial reform" - a set of quasi-constitutional amendments that the government is trying to pass, which will radically alter the power balance between the judiciary and the executive branches. Surrounding this "reform" is a plethora of other proposals, some of which directly depend on the "reform" passing. The whole thing is seen by many as one big "power grab", drawing sharp criticism from across the globe, and sparking waves of protest throughout the country.

So we have one subject (the "reform") contained in, and fueling another (the "power grab"); and many criticisms that address either, or both. How and where should we make the distinction?

Opinions welcome here. François Robere (talk) 18:57, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

Armed conflicts and attacks

In Portal:Current events for March 10th, under the category, Armed conflicts and attacks, Israeli–Palestinian conflict the following sentence is written:

A Palestinian man is shot and killed by an Israeli settler near a farm in Karnei Shomron, in the West Bank. The sentence sights Al-Jazzera.

This sentence is very POV-pushing and misses a critical piece of information. A Palestinian was shot due to holding knives and two IEDs. The suspect allegedly hurled two IEDs, one of which exploded, before the owner of the farm shot him dead. The Rescuers Without Border emergency service said at least 10 IEDs were found in the area. This is evident in this source. This should be fixed and Al-Jazzera should never be sighted as a source anyway.

Thanks, --TippedNotion (talk) 11:36, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

Hi TippedNotion,

The entry was amended to the following by another editor since you posted this comment:

A Palestinian man is shot dead by an Israeli settler near a farm in Karnei Shomron, in the West Bank. The Israeli military claims that the man was armed at the time.

You may further amend the entry or source if you wish to do so. Editing Portal:Current Events does not require special editing rights, and can be edited by any user. Instructions on how to edit: Wikipedia:How the Current events page works.

Carter00000 (talk) 08:26, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

Requesting time-sensitive review on Draft:2023 Las Anod conflict

• Draft:2023 Las Anod conflict - Wikipedia is a current conflict with coverage in BBC News Somaliland section and The Guardian's Somalia section. Could this article be draft-reviewed in a timelier way by somebody with AfC reviewer rights in Current events project?
• There is a dead redirect named "Draft:Second Battle of Las Anod" that could be deleted.

NB: the area is not strictly Somaliland at all - it is disputed between local clans with Puntland's ideological support, and Somaliland's colonial border claim.

MathAfrique (talk) 12:04, 9 March 2023 (UTC)

Moved from Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Current events. 22:42, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

Please note 500+ critical hospitalisations & humanitarian alarm in @MSF_EastAfrica Twitter & United Nations Security Council.

MathAfrique (talk) 22:43, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

 Done The 2023 Las Anod conflict article was published and will be merged with 2023 content from Las Anod article. MathAfrique (talk) 11:55, 18 March 2023 (UTC)