Fiji says that Neil Prakash does not have Fijian citizenship and cannot apply for it. Thus, Australia seems to have rendered him stateless.

Once Australia adopted the policy of making bets like this, it was certain that it would lose a bet sooner or later.

What if he did have Fijian citizenship even though he has never been there? I question the legitimacy of telling a person, "You are now required to live in that country over there, which you don't know, where you don't know anyone, and you don't speak the local language."

I criticized the US for doing that — for instance, deporting to Mexico a man who was indeed a Mexican citizen but had been brought to the US as a small child.

Countries sometimes need to punish their own citizens, after a fair trial, but should never exile them. Not even after a trial — which Prakash did not have. Australia exiled him without a trial.

Proposed development in Florida could drive the Florida panther to extinction.

Meanwhile, sea-level rise will push from the other side.

When foreign workers in Dubai get pregnant, they are imprisoned unless they conceal it. Some of them abandon their children to get out. Others hide their children for years because their families won't accept them back.

Dubai's cruelty to women who get pregnant, indeed its cruelty to foreign workers in general, is inexcusable.

However, the root cause of this problem — the reason why women from countries like the Philippines take the risky course of going to work in Dubai — is overpopulation in their home countries. That is why they take the risk of travelling to a country where they will certainly be exploited and from which they can't return home. Desperate conditions at home push millions into competitions in which many competitors must surely lose.

When Japan brings in foreign workers, they are sometimes exploited in the same way.

Japan should admit immigrants — not temporary workers to exploit. And in case someone does want to go home, Japan should guarantee the air fare. Japan can afford it.

Vietnam has adopted a Chinese-style requirement for ISPs to block criticism of the government.

The avowed ideology of the Vietnamese government is "serve and obey global investors."

The European Union doesn't adequately respect freedom of speech. One example: an anti-abortion activist was forbidden by Europe's highest court from calling abortion "murder" and from comparing abortions with the Holocaust.

I disagree totally with what he said, but freedom of speech includes the right to say it. We who oppose plutocracy must defend all unpopular opinions against censorship, or we will be the next ones censored.