The US is pressuring Turkey to release one political prisoner who is an American Christian preacher.

The idea that a Christian foreigner collaborated with Gülen, an Islamist, in a supposed coup plot is absurd. But then again, we never saw proof that Gülen himself was involved in the coup plot.

The preacher's release would be a step forward, but we shouldn't forget the thousands of Turks that are political prisoners in Turkey.

Florida's "stand your ground" law is not as loose as it is presented. It covers only people that kill based on a reasonable belief that they are in danger. To kill based on an unreasonable belief is still a crime.

Notwithstanding that, I still think it is better not to have such a law. If you face a real threat, and you can protect yourself by moving away or by shooting someone, I think it is valid for the law to say that you ought to move away rather than shoot.

Álvaro Uribe, the former president of Colombia who I referred to as el presidente horrible, is being investigated for bribing and intimidating witnesses.

He was closely associated with the paramilitares, right-wing state-supported terrorists that plagued Colombia then and still plague it now.

Doctors in the Netherlands, where euthanasia is lawful, are in trouble because they euthanized a demented woman who at that moment was uncooperative. She had previously given them instructions to do so, but it was not done in the proper legal form.

I agree that the system should be very careful to prevent people from being killed unwillingly. At the same time, if the system investigates small failures like this one, that gives me the impression that overall it is very effectively careful.

Europe has ruled that organisms with genes edited with Crispr-Cas9 are considered "genetically modified".

It would be absurd to deny this. The real question is what rules should apply to them.

Perhaps that should depend on what the modification does. A modification for use with a pesticide is potentially dangerous because pesticides are often dangerous. A patented gene is legally dangerous. A variety that could outcompete the wild type is evolutionarily dangerous.