Proposed development in Florida could drive the Florida panther to extinction.

Meanwhile, sea-level rise will push from the other side.

When foreign workers in Dubai get pregnant, they are imprisoned unless they conceal it. Some of them abandon their children to get out. Others hide their children for years because their families won't accept them back.

Dubai's cruelty to women who get pregnant, indeed its cruelty to foreign workers in general, is inexcusable.

However, the root cause of this problem — the reason why women from countries like the Philippines take the risky course of going to work in Dubai — is overpopulation in their home countries. That is why they take the risk of travelling to a country where they will certainly be exploited and from which they can't return home. Desperate conditions at home push millions into competitions in which many competitors must surely lose.

When Japan brings in foreign workers, they are sometimes exploited in the same way.

Japan should admit immigrants — not temporary workers to exploit. And in case someone does want to go home, Japan should guarantee the air fare. Japan can afford it.

Vietnam has adopted a Chinese-style requirement for ISPs to block criticism of the government.

The avowed ideology of the Vietnamese government is "serve and obey global investors."

The European Union doesn't adequately respect freedom of speech. One example: an anti-abortion activist was forbidden by Europe's highest court from calling abortion "murder" and from comparing abortions with the Holocaust.

I disagree totally with what he said, but freedom of speech includes the right to say it. We who oppose plutocracy must defend all unpopular opinions against censorship, or we will be the next ones censored.

If the non-rich can't afford a court case, rule of law degenerates into rule of the rich. That's what the UK is pushing things toward.

The US situation is different in detail, but worse overall. Criminal defendants get a public defender who tries to only get them a plea bargain. In any other situation, including an asylum hearing, you have no help unless some charity wants to assist you.