Margaret Thatcher

2013 was a mixed bag for the world. Syria’s chemical weapons are on the road to being neutralized, but dictator Bashar al-Assad remains in power. Fewer people around the world are going hungry, but many are now overweight or obese. And Japan is still a long way from solving the problems stemming from the 2011 meltdown at Fukushima. All those stories and more in today’s Global Scan.

Margaret Thatcher was controversial in her life. As the world contemplated her legacy, a number of musicians who composed songs opposing Thatcher’s time as British prime minister recalled how they felt and the songs they wrote while she was in office.

Margaret Thatcher was a controversial figure in life and was similarly so in death. While world leaders, especially conservative ones, praised her accomplishments, some liberals panned the Iron Lady’s legacy while recognizing the impact she had on the world in 11 years as Britain’s prime minister.

A new study links health with economic change, focusing on the collapse of the Soviet Union and higher death rates of men.

Cartoonist Steve Bell has been skewering British politicians since his career took off in the late 1970s. Because his obsession is politics, a good number of American presidents have come in for in his particular brand of satire. Steve Bell’s leftist politics inform how he characterizes US presidents. George W. Bush was easy. Barack Obama: not so much.