• Plundering Libya: Sidra under the NATO bombs
• NATO claims 'no end in sight' to bombing campaign in Libya
• EU Council extends Libya mission until August 2017, approves $19 million budget
• Observations of US airstrikes that hit Libya to bolster UN-created government

• Bizarre 'foiled terror plot gone wrong' in Germany
• Berlin bomb plot suspect Jaber Albakr was a White Helmets terrorist
• Joe Quinn on terror attack in Nice - should be seen in context, 'hands of Western powers extremely dirty'

The Global Slavery Index: Helpful or Harmful?

A major weakness of the Index is the extrapolation process used to estimate prevalence and absolute numbers for the "hidden" figure of those enslaved. Since 2014, survey questions based on the possible occurrence of forced labor have been incorporated into Gallup's World Poll, but only in 25 countries (and seven of those countries' estimates reflect survey data from 2014). Survey data is then extrapolated to the remaining 139 countries, which are now grouped into twelve clusters (the number of clusters has doubled since 2014). The extrapolation process also uses some secondary sources, taking into account additional factors such as state-sanctioned forced labor and conflict.

Year over year estimates are questionable as well. In 2014, the total number of those estimated to be enslaved was roughly 36 million. In 2016, that number is now estimated to be 45.8 million. Has the number of those enslaved globally actually risen - meaning the problem is getting worse, or should we attribute this increase to a larger sample size? Either way, there is no mention of past years' results or analysis to assess the rise or fall in numbers year to year.

Another area of major contention is the stipulations in which the primary random-sample survey data was collected. Most notably, the sample size was extremely small. In the 25 countries where surveys have been administered, roughly 1000 random families were sampled in each country (with the exception of Russia and India, with 2000 and 3000 surveys, respectively). In Pakistan, where the population is roughly 182 million, the representative sample amounts to .00001 percent of citizens, which arguably is too small of a sample to be representative.