Guards in an immigration prison in Texas are telling the prisoners that they can be immediately reunited with their children if they agree to deportation and give up their legal right to apply for asylum.

This means, in effect, using their children as hostages. Aside from the injustice of this offer, it seems to be dishonest, since the US government is apparently not able to carry out that promise.

In Nigeria, poverty does not make people hopeless or depressed.

Aside from the possible reasons in the article, I wonder if something about Nigerian society makes it less dangerous simply to be poor. If you are confident you can last through a bout of poverty, that it won't put you in debt or in jail, maybe it is no reason to despair.

An Australian who revealed that Australia had bugged the East Timor negotiators is being prosecuted; his lawyer is being prosecuted, too.

The attorney general blanks out the injustice of this with a 100% closed mind.

The negotiations in which these events occurred were about how to do something that must not be done at all: extracting fossil fuels from the sea bottom between Australia and East Timor.

The left candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, won the presidential election in Mexico.

What he says is good, but people tell me he hasn't gone much into details. Meanwhile, some of the deals described here may play into the hands of business.

His acknowledged victory demonstrates that the right wing didn't rig the election. That in itself is a step forward for Mexico, since several presidential elections have been stolen in the past 20 years, including once from López Obrador.

Greg Palast says that right-wingers are stealing elections for the Mexican Senate, though.

Spanish Chambermaids Seek Tripadvisor's Help to Fight Exploitation. I hope it works.