Greece asserts that most of the recent fires were started by human action, and there is evidence for arson.

Why would anyone commit such a heinous crime? ISTR that Greece has a law that if a protected forest is destroyed by fire, it ceases to be protected and the landowners can build what they wish. This would be a powerful motive for greedy people with contempt for everything else in the world.

*Hong Kong judge defies government’s bid to [issue an injunction against various uses of] pro-democracy protest song,* known unofficially as the "Hong Kong national anthem."

The infamous "national security law" makes it a crime to sing the song in Hong Kong — doing so would be interpreted as a protest. This decision about an injunction seems to threaten to pressure non-Chinese web sites to delete it.

I hope that judge won't be imprisoned and subject to brainwashing.

El Salvador plans to hold trials with up to 900 defendants in a trial.

That is a highly efficient way of trying large numbers of people, if justice for each one is not required.

The US rejected Australia's mild pressure to drop charges against Julian Assange, continuing to sidestep the point that Assange is being prosecuted for journalism, and that this threatens the freedom to do national security journalism in the US.

Arguing that machine learning cannot enable authoritarian states to figure out what people really want, because they will get only the data of what people say when they are intimidated by an authoritarian state.