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matthew says this is important

Another Comparative Index! Check it out.

Both Japan and France rank in the top 50 for Global Peace Rankings-- Japan 8th and France 48th. The biggest difference in their rankings comes from France's possession of heavy and nuclear weapons. The Japanese have limited possession of heavy and nuclear weapons as a result of the pacifist constitution they were forced to adopt following WWII which limited their ability to arm for war. Furthermore, France is involved in more conflicts and exports more weapons than Japan, which is also heavily related to the restrictions placed on Japan following WWII. However, Japan has a worse record when it comes to relations with neighbors which may be related to actions from WWII and rising tensions between Japan, China, and South Korea. Yet, perhaps unrelated to WWII and relating more to culture of society, France has a higher level of violent demonstrations and internal organized conflict than Japan. Japan has a homogenous population that has a main focus of work and a culture that accepts the social and economic hierarchy, but France has a more heterogeneous population with many disenfranchised groups that were once colonized that continue to face discrimination.

The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index is a composite measurement of the adequacy, sustainability, and integrity of twenty-five of the world's pension systems. It finds an incredible gap between nations: the lowest scoring nation, India, scored a 40.3. The highest scoring nation, Denmark, scored an 81.7. Further, the list was topped by Denmark (81.7), the Netherlands (80.5), and Australia (79.6). The United States, on the other hand, scored a 56.3, which is significantly below the world average of 60.5. The report goes on to detail common challenges and possible solutions for lower-scoring nations.

Simon Anholt speaks about the "Good Country Index." Maybe this could be a part of data dives in the future?

An article about a global summit on biodiversity. It would be interesting to see if countries that disagree politically can set aside their differences to work together on a global problem.

Similarly to what Harrison said, it's interesting to see countries that can't seem to agree on much politically starting to come together here. Good!

It's scary to think that we may need to protect 1/4 of the world's land. I hope that we can make that happen. But at the same time, there are daunting problems facing that possible goal, one of the largest being over population. I clicked on this link in the article (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/17/biodiversity.un.summit.briefing/index.html), and found this excerpt that I thought was great: "The demand for food, energy and clean water is projected to increase sharply, over the next 40 years. The world population is expected to grow from 6.8 to 9 billion people, and disposable incomes will also increase. Agriculture and urbanisation often compete with nature over the same land areas. Under unchanged policy, biodiversity will continue to suffer. If we keep meeting this growing demand, the amount of land used for human activity will expand enormously; not only in the supply of food but also in relation to biofuels. This would mean a further decrease in the space available for natural ecosystems. Biodiversity also reduces as a result of ecosystem overexploitation, disturbance and fragmentation, climate change, soil contamination, and water and air pollution. However, biodiversity is useful and of great importance to humanity, among other things because it stimulates soil fertility, manages water regulation and takes care of essential carbon uptake. In addition, many people feel that preservation of species richness and maintaining valuable nature areas are also our moral obligation." In light of that, I feel even more strongly that people should think hard about how many kids they have and their effect on overpopulation. Maybe each woman should have no more than one child (unless she happens to have twins, triplets, etc.), and strongly consider adopting at least one child. But then population decline means trying to support a proportionally larger elderly generation.... O.o

The 2017 index of failing and fragile states.

The US has decided to pull support for Syria. They are not able to come to agreements with Russia, and after both the US and Russia have dropped bombs that have killed civilians, the ceasefire is "at risk". It is possible that with this the war will be over sooner rather than later with the rebels losing, but it will not be a peaceful end.

I found it interesting how both sides believe the other is "the bad guy" in this situation: US thinks Russia is helping Syrians attack civilians, and Russia is upset that the US 'accidentally' dropped a bomb. I hope that the ceasefire will hold out and that the war will be over soon. I wonder if there is something that can be done for the end to have a chance of being peaceful.

Russia has been accused of abusing their veto power by vetoing a UN resolution that would halt Aleppo airstrikes. Russia has supported the Assad regime, which has led to disagreements with the US.

A young man stabbed 59-year-old man multiple times. The victim is in the hospital and remains in critical condition. The attacker was arrested and his actions are linked to terrorist behavior, specifically for ISIS. Australia as a whole has become increasingly "radical" over the past few years.

In Syria, there has been a rise in child suicide rates. Due to living in war conditions for years, the children have become psychologically disturbed. They do not laugh or dance anymore. Not only that, but they are not able to recieve even basic health nececities, which only leads to more death and poorer living conditions.

There has been a major increase in suicides from children as young as 12 in a war torn Syrian town. These suicides are linked to a major increase among depression and paranoia, along with a lack of mental health support as well as basic medical care. In school, teachers note that the kids no longer laugh as they used to, and draw pictures of the war.

There's debate in the Obama administration about how to respond to the hacks targeting Democratic Party organizations and increasing evidence that Russian hackers also were behind attacks on election registration websites. FBI and Justice Department officials believe there's strong evidence to warrant publicly naming Russia as responsible for the political organization attacks, law enforcement and intelligence officials briefed on the investigation say.

As dawn broke, the streets were awash with grief as the reality of the Thursday evening passing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej began to set in. The tide of pink and yellow, worn as a show of support for his majesty, has now made way for a sea of black.

The people of Thailand lost their national father figure on Friday. This king has ruled for 70 years, so most of the Thai people have lived with only this one king. The successor has yet to be announced. The government is asking the Thai people to mourn for a whole year, showing how loyal the Thai people were to their king, no matter what he has done for the country.

Stories from people who are religious minorities on the edge of extinction in Iraq.