World outlook

Methodology

• Once a day, every stored report is classified against a fixed codebook of event types, adapted from established event-data schemes (CAMEO, PLOVER, ACLED) and rights indicators (CIRI, CIVICUS). Whether an event is positive or negative comes from its type in the codebook, never from a model's opinion.
• Justice & accountability asks whether accountability advanced: an investigation, arrest, charge or conviction for corruption or serious crime, through legal process, counts as positive whoever is involved. It is not a finding that anyone is guilty. Detentions for speech, protest or political activity, and restrictions on free expression, count as negative.
• Reports on the same event are merged, so each event counts once. Each event is weighted by its impact (1 minor … 5 severe) × (1 + log₂ of the newsrooms that reported it) × the average rating of those newsrooms (0.5–1.5; a middle rating counts 1), so a war outweighs a minor arrest and well-sourced reporting outweighs poorly sourced reporting. Weights halve every 3 days, after the San Francisco Fed's news sentiment index.
• Sentiment index = (positive − negative weight) ÷ (all weight + 8), scaled to −100…+100. The added 8 is a neutral prior, so a handful of events can't produce an extreme score. An area needs 4 events, and the overall index 12, before an index is shown. Direction compares the last 3 days with the 4 before.
• Storylines link related events by similarity of meaning and the people, organisations and places they share, joining two groups only when many of their events connect. Their write-ups are written by nadu.lk once a day from the events' reports; a write-up that copies an outlet's wording, or uses a legal term (arrest, charge, conviction…) fewer than two newsrooms used, is not published.
• The AI lens covers events substantially about artificial intelligence, in any area. The Earth Pulse lens scores events by their effect on the planet — a war counts as environmental harm there even though it is a stability event.
• The index measures the tone of reported developments. It is not an assessment by nadu.lk of any government, party or person; the original reports remain the authority.