The US ambassador to Australia is suggesting the possibility that the US will give Julian Assange a plea bargain:
Consortium News
Caroline Kennedy Says US Open to Assange Plea Deal
The U.S. ambassador to Australia told a Sydney newspaper that "there absolutely could be a resolution" of the case just weeks after U.S. Secretary ...
 Whether that corrects the injustice of the charges against him depends partly on how much more time he would have to spend in prison, but alas on what he would have to plead guilty to, and whether than ends up criminalizing journalism (which conviction the current charges would do).
[01/02] 9% of employees in Britain are denied their workers' rights because the state does nothing to punish their employers for doing that:
The Conversation
A ‘shadow economy’ of firms like hand car washes and nail salons is exploiting workers – and regulations are making things worse
Enforcement of labour market regulation among small businesses such as hand car washes and nail salons is too complicated.
 Similar problems happen in the US, including theft of wages, denial of sick leave, and exploitation in the gig economy. The traditional reason has been that elected politicians listen to what the employers want. However, the California referendum shows that big tech companies have the power to mobilize voters to vote to exploit...
[01/02] Most US doctors are now employees of businesses, in many cases very large private-equity exploitationist businesses. And these businesses decide whether a patient gets to see a doctor at all:
The American Prospect
When M.D.s Go Union - The American Prospect
The wave of professionals who are joining unions has now reached the ranks of physicians.
 The article's main topic is that some of the MD employees are responding to this by unionizing. I applaud that — but that won't necessarily help the patients. It may not help the doctors at the deep level, because the corporate power that stops doctors from...
San Francisco approved driverless taxis for commercial service, ignoring objections that they drive over fire hoses and cut crime scene lines, and also delay various sorts of emergency vehicles: https://www.npr.org/2023/08/10/1193272085/san-francisco-has-lots-of-self-driving-cars-theyre-driving-first-responders-nuts They also do lots of surveillance. And since you can't hail one on the street, or get it with an ordinary phone call, they surely imitate Guber's injustice by identifying the customer and making per run nonfree software.
[01/04] The famous Tintin series of graphic novels from Belgium included adventures in the Belgian Congo, and they depicted realities of colonization. There have been demands to censor the books over that:
the Guardian
Blistering barnacles! Tintin mystery in Brussels after bust of Hergé vanishes
The disappearance of a bust of the comic book artist in his Belgian birthplace was thought to be an act of decolonisation
 When it comes to judging Belgian colonialism, we need not bother thinking of Tintin. The realities of the Congo were oppression from beginning to end. Initially, the Congo was King Leopold's personal possession, and he treated the inhabitants so cruelly that even...
Gordon Brown [ex-PM of UK] calls for Taliban to face crimes against humanity charges; urges UK and allies to impose sanctions on Afghan regime over its "brutalisation" of women and girls:
the Guardian
Gordon Brown calls for Taliban to face crimes against humanity charges
Ex-PM urges UK and allies to impose sanctions on Afghan regime over its ‘brutalisation’ of women and girls
 That policy is a massive denial of human rights. But those responses are less effective than one might hope for — especially on Afghanistan. It is not clear to me that they would do any good.
Concealed gun licenses and homicides rise in tandem:
Futurity
Concealed gun licenses and homicides rise in tandem
"...more concealed carry permits issued in a given county are linked to a greater number of homicides in that county the following year."
 In other words, the evidence says that more people with concealed guns does not prevent or discourage killings with guns.
*CNET Deletes Thousands of Old Articles to Game Google Search:
Gizmodo
CNET Deletes Thousands of Old Articles to Game Google Search
Google says deleting old pages to bamboozle Search is "not a thing!" as CNET erases its history.
 This is an atrocity to records of the past. It is bad for secondary reasons too, as the article says, but the harm to society is the principal issue. I hope these pages are all saved in archive.org. Google ought to provide instructions for new sites about how how they can obtain, in some other way that deletes nothing, whatever SEO benefit (albeit small) they might have obtained by deleting anything.
US citizens: call on the Smithsonian to add coverage of the effects of the nuclear weapon used on Hiroshima to its exhibit about the airplane that dropped it:
Win Without War
Sign now and tell the Smithosonian to acknowledge the victims of Hiroshima!
The Enola Gay exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum is glaringly incomplete.