Global heating has enabled earthworms to spread to the Arctic, and they threaten to upset the ecosystems there.

*Africa to be declared free of wild polio after decades of work.*

Only Afghanistan and Pakistan still have polio.

A poll found that 1/5 of US small businesses expect to go out of business close in the next 6 months, if conditions do not improve.

Israel has been bombing Gaza most every day since Aug 6, and has intensified the blockade, cutting off fuel for electric generation.

Israel is also blocking most other imports into Gaza.

Hamas has been sending balloon bombs to Israel, which (like the occasional missiles) rarely actually hurt anyone.

This resembles what Israel has done to Gaza many times since it withdrew colonies and troops from there.

At least one US college requires all students to install a nonfree app which records their location at all times.

The bugs discovered in the app's associated dis-service are just icing on the cake. Unintentional malfunctionalities may well be fixed when reported; intentional ones won't be.

Every portable phone — even if not "smart" — has its location tracked by the phone system whenever it is communicating. A college can't get that data from the phone, but the government sure can. I consider this tracking creepy, so I refuse to carry one of those devices.