For almost two years US-backed Iraqi government forces, with Kurdish Peshmerga forces and other allies, fought to remove IS fighters. 63 factions make up Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) - groups united by ethnic and tribal leaders, whose fighters are either loyal to religious scholars, Iraqi political leaders, or Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. The diversity of PMF's forty divisions of 60,000+ fighters sheds light on many of Iraq's sectarian tensions and its ambiguous political future. Although formed via a religious decree to fight IS, many fighters are empowered by Iran and other non-state commands. Others are represented in Iraq’s parliament. A Middle East Forum analyst said that various larger PMF factions have been fighting to expand their political influence to gain ground for next year’s parliamentary elections while smaller, weaker PMF factions also have political ambitions and cannot be ruled out.

Conservative MPs in Iran are proposing that Iranians should only be allowed to vote for members of their own religious group, making it impossible for members of religious minorities to be elected to any position of authority (90-95% of the population is Shia Muslim). Recently a Zoroastrian was suspended from the city council of Yazid, a historic city with many ancient Zoroastrian sites. The ruling clerics are becoming increasingly unpopular for taking harsher measures to block members of religious minorities from higher office. The proposal to force voters to vote for candidates from their own religious background would violate everyone’s democratic right to elect and be elected. Journalists, lawyers and some MPs have pointed to the presence of three Christians, a Jew and a Zoroastrian in Iran’s national parliament. The constitution currently allows each of the three minority groups a representative in parliament.

In 2012, International Justice Mission (IJM) began a project in Uganda to improve the legal response when criminals attempt to steal from widows. An IJM study showed that nearly one in three widows had their property stolen from them after their husbands died. When they narrated their personal experiences, widows commonly described perpetrators threatening and physically assaulting them. 18.3% of victims reported that attempts were made on their lives, and 31.6% had threats made against their children by perpetrators. In the study’s review of police case files, more than half of property grabbing cases included physical violence. IJM are now evaluating the successes, failures and overall impact of their project so that they can develop a strong national programme to protect women and children in Uganda from violence.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) is the UN’s authoritative voice on the behaviour of the Earth's atmosphere, its interaction with land and oceans, and the weather it produces. On 6 November WMO predicted 2017 to be among the hottest years recorded. A few days earlier NASA revealed maps of Greenland's coastal seafloor and bedrock beneath its ice sheet having up to four times as many coastal glaciers at risk of accelerated melting as previously thought. We are in a long-term warming trend with the highest ever recorded CO2 in the atmosphere and many unusual meteorological events this year, seemingly due to climate change. These issues were discussed at the COP 23 climate talks (6 to 17 November) in Bonn. Justin Welby wrote to the delegates to say that the Anglican community supports their work and recognises addressing climate change as an urgent priority requiring immediate attention. See