Caleb Wallace, an anti-masker who organized protests for "freedom" from protecting others, caught Covid-19 and died at the age of 30.

I am sorry for him, because I don't see him as a rational being who is responsible for what happened to him. I won't despise him for having acted in a way that brought this on himself.

Rather, I think he was sucked into a contagious and deadly collective insanity, and it killed him. It is killing others, too, and I think that is very unfortunate.

It will kill many more Americans in coming months. Dr Fauci predicts around 100,000. But its deadliness is not limited to the people who believe it.

After rigging the next Russian election in several ways, so he can't really lose, Putin still needs to give out handouts to make people want to vote.

*Extinction Rebellion protesters target [London] Science Museum over Shell sponsorship.*

This deal was as corrupt as we could have imagined: the museum let Shell explicitly limit what the exhibit could say.

Many Britons are showing hostility towards NHS doctors and nurses, which is increasing the pressure on them and causing them PTSD.

I speculate that many frustrated Britons are using NHS personnel as a whipping boy for the pain and frustration caused by Covid-19. They are not to blame for it. But the Tories are, for cutting and undermining the NHS for so many years in accord with their ideology that the state should never help individuals.

The Taliban have said they will allow Afghans with foreign visas to travel.

That is good news.

The Taliban don't have full effective control over Afghanistan. There may be hateful factions who are trying to find and beat up or kill women who they consider too "uppity", as well as PIS supporters. To the Taliban, they will be terrorists and criminals. The Taliban is in a much better position to vanquish them than the US was.