Australia has started making welfare payments, in some localities, via a debit card that limits what they can buy, and tracks them too. This was supposed to reduce their spending on drugs and gambling — but investigation shows it failed to do that.

*The sixth mass extinction is happening faster than expected. Scientists say it's our fault.*

UK thugs spied on antiwar activist Tariq Ali, when he opposed the Vietnam war and when he opposed the conquest of Iraq, and maybe some of the time between.

The surveillance was extreme. *At one point, police reported to MI5 that Ali had collaborated on a book about the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky with a cartoonist. The confidential report noted the name of the cartoonist’s girlfriend, along with her occupation, her address and friends.*

UK companies are asking for subsidy to develop and build rather large "mini" nuclear power plants, which would perhaps be cheaper than the insanely expensive large nuclear power plants, and would create a few thousand jobs.

The article ignores the question of how these "mini" nuclear power plants would compare, in cost and jobs, with renewable energy. Since renewable energy has become so cheap lately, I would expect them to be superior even without figuring in the problem of dealing with the nuclear waste.

I wonder why the Guardian was blind on this point.

Florida's Republican governor proposes laws to allow killing protesters on various pretexts.