*Russian journalist who covered Navalny trials jailed on extremism charges.*

Putin, like the bullshitter in the US, believes that presenting himself as a total oppressor will intimidate people into giving up all resistance.

The UK government claims that extracting oil and gas in the UK supports 200,000 jobs. Activists are calling that claim into question.

I would not trust any claims the fossil fuel industry makes about how much it benefits the rest of society. But whether that claim is true or false is a secondary issue.

The principal question in this issue is how many additional deaths it will cause in the coming climate disaster. When the government downplays that question, it is prioritizing the short term over the long term.

Biden has increased prosecution of corporations — it is a good start but he should increase it more.

The decrease in this is part of one of plutocratists' goals: impunity for the plutocrats. Plutocratist Democrats have joined with plutocratist Republicans to achieve it.

*Israel's attempt to destroy UNRWA is part of its starvation strategy in Gaza.*

The US cannot assure Britain that that the First Amendment will apply to Julian Assange outside the US, because an old Supreme Court decision says it does not. This probably means that Assange's last appeal will proceed, and go on for a long time during the US election campaign.

The article contends that Biden's interest, as well as justice, argues for dropping the charges against Assange.

• To ask (even rhetorically) whether Assange has been "punished enough" is to normalize horrible abuse. The conditions that Assange has suffered in Belmarsh prison are too cruel even for the worst criminals. No one should be kept alone in a cell for 23 hours a day.
• Giving Assange a plea bargain would be better than trying him as a spy, but it is not enough for freedom of the press. The US should drop all the charges against Assange.
• The threat to the freedom of national security journalism in the US is a direct consequence of the Espionage Act. As long as it stands in its current form, it will tempt prosecutors and their superiors to prosecute journalists. We can struggle to keep the government resisting that temptation, but what we really need is to add a public interest defense to the Espionage

The concept of spying means reporting secretly to some entity. Public reporting about state crimes that Americans have a right and a duty to consider in their political activities is not legitimately considered spying.