Recycled PET bottles release more of some dangerous chemicals than bottles made from new plastic.

It may be possible to correct this with more care in the recycling process.

Some Americans are attacking anything in the US associated with Russia — even Russian restaurants.

Since 2020 some have associated the Chinese people with Covid-19, and take it out violently at random on people in the US that might be of Chinese ethnicity. Now some are doing likewise with people that might be of Russian ethnicity.

They should reserve their rage for Trumputin -- he's Putin's biggest and most persistent supporter in the US. He even directly hampered military support for Ukraine and threatened to eliminate NATO.

I more or less agree with the article in regard to Russian sports and art stars, those who would prefer to be apolitical. Those who actively support Putin can be held responsible for that.

Russians who criticize the war, or the government, face repression, and their friends and coworkers pressure them to hush up.

Whether it's killing civilians, using cluster bombs, or launching a war of aggression based on lies, the US and Russia must be judged by the same standards.

The article does not distinguish between war crimes properly speaking and the crime of aggressive war, which is even more grave. In the conquest of Iraq, there were few war crimes or crimes against humanity. There were plenty of them later, during the long occupation of Iraq. But the decision to invade was, as we now know, a crime of aggressive war.

Women in Afghanistan still face repression from many sides.

The women imprisoned by the Taliban for trying to leave the country, raped in prison, then murdered by their relatives, provide a clear illustration of how ingrained this injustice is in Afghan society.

Is there anything we foreigners could do which we could expect confidently to make Afghanistan respect women's rights more, even over decades? Not that I have heard of. Certainly not trying to occupy Afghanistan again. Not "nation-building" either. A just society requires more than peace, but peace in Afghanistan is a step forward from a year ago.

Perhaps we could offer a nonviolent deal to convince the Taliban to allow women to flee the country without permission from a male owner.

The world must maintain readiness for rapid test and vaccine production, for future pandemics.