Afghan women who are raped are frequently imprisoned for not being virgin. When they get out of prison, they may be murdered for that.

This patriarchal cruelty perpetuates the Taliban. The US has tried to do "nation building", usually taking the form of investing in physical plant which often turns out to be useless. Perhaps it should have funded women's shelters instead.

The way to reduce the waste from plastic things is to reduce the quantity of such things that are made.

"Recycling" plastic by burning it is even more ironic than the article says. The process consists basically of extracting petroleum from the ground and then burning it, but differs from the usual way of doing so in that the petroleum (more precisely, some fraction of it) passes through an intermediate stage as plastic. This does not reduce the greenhouse gas output.

Imagine if every item made of plastic — even fairly durable items — carried a deposit. If the item is recycled in less than 5 years, the consumer gets the deposit back. If it is recycled after 5 years, the consumer refund is a decreasing fraction of the original deposit; after 10 years, the refund goes to zero.

This law would encourage making plastic items that would remain usable for a longer period of time. It could even help put an end to planned obsolescence.

1/5 of young workers in the UK are paid less than the minimum wage.

It seems that this practice is illegal in name only. Does the government have a plan to fine employers and jail managers that participate in this?

The Pentagon finally did an audit — a positive step. Next we need to make it pass an audit.

The article suggests that Congress could reject any increase in the military budget unless the Pentagon passes an audit.

Even better, decrease the Pentagon budget by 5% each year until it passes an audit.

US nurses rebuke the border thugs for keeping border-crossers prisoner in conditions that endanger the prisoners' health.

Keeping children in prison at all endangers their health, and causes them stress that can harm them for life.