(2023) Amazon's new anti-competitive requirement: sellers who don't pay for Amazon to ship their products are now required to pay for not doing so:
Ars Technica
Amazon pinches sellers: Use our costly logistics services or pay extra fee [Updated]
Change comes as booksellers urge FTC to launch another Amazon antitrust inquiry.
[01/02] Iranian filmmaker Saeed Roustayi has been sentenced to 5 years isolation from other cinema professionals, and to take a brainwashing course in how to make films that embody the regime's propaganda:
the Guardian
Iranian director Saeed Roustayi jailed for ‘unauthorised’ Cannes film screening
Sentence of the Leila’s Brothers maker, along with producer Javad Noruzbegi, was for ‘propaganda of the opposition against the Islamic system’
 It occurs to me that copyright law is what enables the Iranian regime to use threats to block the showing of Iranian's' films in other countries. Copyright gives the filmmakers the power to deny permission for such showings, and thus makes it effective for the...
Ethiopia's rapid population growth is leaving no room for wildlife:
the Guardian
‘Humans everywhere’: lions cling on in Ethiopia’s last patches of wilderness
‘It’s not just the lions that are under pressure, it’s biodiversity in general,’ warn conservationists, amid a rapidly expanding human popu...
 The next stage will cause famine.
(satire) Florida Students Given Lifelike Dolls To Simulate Responsibility Of Owning Slave:
The Onion
Florida Students Given Lifelike Dolls To Simulate Responsibility Of Owning Slave
LAKE MARY, FL—Hoping to instill an important life lesson in the impressionable teens, a Florida school reportedly began handing out lifelike doll...
Saudi Arabia is on a global charm offensive. By blocking critical articles, Vice is helping it:
the Guardian
Vice blocked an article criticising Saudi Arabia. This is why we published it instead | Jemimah Steinfeld
At Index on Censorship, we don’t buy into a global charm offensive that can’t hide the fact that regime opponents are still being jailed, says ...
 Let us not forget that Crown Prince Bone Saw is responsible for murdering a journalist.
(satire) Prison Guard Heats Lunch Up Inside 150-Degree Solitary Confinement Cell:
The Onion
Prison Guard Heats Lunch Up Inside 150-Degree Solitary Confinement Cell
JACKSON, LA—With a scorching heat wave causing temperatures inside the Dixon Correctional Institute to soar, local prison guard Jeffrey Wittsack ...
 This is outrageous! That lunch did nothing to deserve solitary confinement.
The UAE's state oil company, headed by the same emir who is heading this year's UN climate conference, failed to report its methane emissions to the UN:
the Guardian
UN climate summit host UAE failed to report methane emissions to UN
Exclusive: State oil firm, whose chief will preside over Cop28, also accused of ‘incoherent’ reduction targets
Plutocracy in Britain has pushed 100,000 children into destitution, situations of incredible poverty:
the Guardian
Poorest UK families enduring ‘frightening’ collapse in living standards, survey finds
Survey of frontline social workers finds 120,000 children are living in destitution
Some restaurants in St Tropez won't let people have a table unless they spent big the previous time:
the Guardian
Row over restaurant ‘wealth screening’ boils over in French resort of St-Tropez
Mayor threatens sanctions over reported practices of large minimum spends and selecting diners by size of previous bills
 I can propose a simple solution to this: make sure it not, practically speaking, necessary for customers to identify themselves.
The US Leads the World in Millionaires, but the Wealth Is Not Trickling Down:
Inequality.org
New Stats, Old Story: Our Rich Are Raking It In - Inequality.org
From Swiss bank researchers, an alarming update on our global maldistribution of wealth.