The US and South Korea are running a joint military exercise that includes mock rehearsals for an attack on North Korea’s nuclear facilities. The exercise was planned some time ago, but there is little question that the specific configurations of some of these exercises are designed to buttress the impact of the economic sanctions the UN imposed on North Korea last week. North Korea has already announced that it is ready to launch a nuclear attack against the US and South Korea.
Libyan rebels associated with Daesh (the Islamic State) attacked a town in Tunisia near the Libyan border. The attack raises fear that Daesh is trying to take advantage of the Libyan civil war and is intent on increasing its range of influence. Tunisia has been relatively stable since the Arab Spring of 2011, but no state in North Africa is immune to the pressures fueling Daesh.
The Guardian is running a series on the demographic group known as “millennials”–those people born between 1980 and the mid-1990s. The circumstance of this cohort is different from previous generations, not jut in the US but in many rich countries. According to The Guardian:
In seven major economies in North America and Europe, the growth in income of the average young couple and families in their 20s has lagged dramatically behind national averages over the past 30 years.
In two of these countries – the US and Italy – disposable incomes for millennials are scarcely higher in real terms than they were 30 years ago, while the rest of the population has experienced handsome gains.
It is likely to be the first time in industrialised history, save for periods of war or natural disaster, that the incomes of young adults have fallen so far when compared with the rest of society.
It remains to be seen how these grim conditions affect the politics of rich countries. Typically, such economic adversity contributes to a sense of unfairness which is usually politically volatile.
World Politics News 
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