Australia finds that plain packaging for cigarettes reduces smoking, especially among teenagers.

Senators have proposed a bill to regulate the chemical industry, apparently written by the chemical industry.

Google cut off its advertising service to antiwar.com because that site displays photos of torture carried out by the US military.

Google ads track the user, so when a site displays them, it treats its visitors badly. (I think IceCat blocks them but I don't a way to verify that quickly.) Sites that take a controversial position, or have material some people might criticize, have a special duty not to display ads that work this way.

One beneficial effect of the low price of oil is that many oil wells are being closed, or not started. That's a step in the right direction: leaving 80% of fossil fuel in the ground.

The UK government's response is a tax cut to stimulate oil extraction.

Students have occupied a part of the London School of Economics as a protest against "marketisation of higher education".

Among other demands, they want the cleaning staff to get predictable hours.