Outside the Beltway

Seventeen years ago, America was thrust into a war that seemingly has no end.

Lost in all the news about Serena Williams and her arguments with an umpire during last night’s match is the fact that Naomi Osaka represents the face of what appears to be a Japan that is changing for the better.

The fact that American officials talked with Venezuelans plotting a coup against the government of their country is a dangerous turn of events.

A significant advance for LGBT rights in the world’s most populous democracy.

Thankfully, they chose not to help.

President Trump wants Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department to investigate the anonymous Op-Ed published earlier this week even though there doesn’t appear to have been a crime committed.

British authorities have charged two members of Russian military intelligence in connection with a poisoning attack on British attack.

The military regime in Myanmar has sentenced two reporters to prison for reporting on the repression of the Rohingya Muslims.

There’s no real plan and nobody appears to know what waits on the other side, but the United Kingdom continues to meander towards Brexit.

President Trump is alienating our allies and making friends with dictators, and the world is responding as you might expect they would.

President Trump’s much-hyped replacement for NAFTA doesn’t really amount to much and won’t amount to anything unless he can get Canada, and the U.S. Congress, on board.

Who could have seen this coming?

Kofi Annan, who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations at the dawn of the “War On Terror,” has died at the age of 80.

Venezuela has arrested two military officers in connection with the alleged assassination attempt on President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

One year after Charlottesville, it’s clear that President Trump still doesn’t understand what happened there, or that he just doesn’t care.

A new study finds that a majority of the UK population—and of UK Parliamentary seats—support remaining in EU.

President Trump appears to be ready to expand his ignorant, counterproductive trade war with China.

A basic explanation for Trump’s behavior towards Russia.

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro survived an apparent, albeit amateurish, assassination attempt yesterday in what could be a sign of underlying instability in Venezuela.

A powerful political network is distancing itself from the Trump-dominated Republican Party.

The natural intuition of the aluminum tariff is that it would help Alcoa, the largest manufacturer of aluminum in the U.S. But apparently these things are a bit more complicated that one’s intuition would indicate.

Senator Corker provided a pretty damning run-down last week.

The recent report of 4.1% GDP growth over the previous quarter is indeed welcome news. However, taking a look at the data both recent and in the past and there are some reasons to be concerned about GDP growth in general.

Trade deals take more than an afternoon chat.

I have heard Trump supporters offer the following rationale for Trump’s tarris, “It is a bargaining strategy.” Then they sit back and smirk, and tell me, “Trump really wants zero tariffs, but to get these other countries to come to the table he has to get their attention. And once he has softened them up, they’ll be willing to reduce their tariffs.”

Trump’s trade war will claw back 25% of the growth in GDP, slightly more than 20% of the wage growth and more than wipe out all the jobs his tax cuts would provide.

President Trump and the President of the European Commission announced an agreement late yesterday on trade issues, but it’s long on promises and short on results.

If President Trump’s trade war continues, it could have a serious impact on the political fortunes of President Trump and his party.

The President is apparently getting ready to take yet another ill-advised step in his ill-advised, economically illiterate trade war.

The President was up late last night sending an incredibly over-the-top tweet directed at Iran.

For example, Turkey’s Erdogan.

At a minimum, Trump is betraying his oath of office. That is one hell of a minimum.

The 95-year-old elder statesman is slowly shedding his public reticence at the risk of the access on which he has built his fortune.

The Trump Administration is inviting Vladimir Putin to Washington, D.C. for a second summit in the fall. What could possibly go wrong?

We still don’t know what President Trump and Vladimir Putin talked about or agreed to during their two-hour meeting on Monday.

Three new polls show that Republicans basically agree with the leader of their party when it comes to the issue of Russian interference in American elections.

There should be no question about a request to interview a former US Ambassador.

The Office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has issued indictments against twelve Russian intelligence officials for election-related hacking, and in the process has shown most of the arguments made by the President and his surrogates regarding the Russia investigation are nonsense.

Not surprisingly, the President’s visit to the United Kingdom wasn’t exactly diplomatic, or even borderline polite.

The NATO Summit is going about as well as can be expected.

The Thai SEALs have completed an amazing rescue effort with success.

On the eve of the NATO Summit, President Trump continues to engage in tactics that seem to serve no purpose other than to undermine America’s most important and successful alliance.

With Brexit negotiations proceeding slowly, Theresa May loses her Brexit Minister and, more significantly, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who is likely to become one of her leading critics inside the Conservative Party going forward.

The situation isn’t as awful as portrayed by the AP—but it’s still pretty bad.

The ill-advised move is sure to raise costs for businesses and consumers and roil global stock markets.

Donald Trump had to be talked down from considering military intervention in Venezuela.

The right-wing government in Warsaw has purged more than one-third of the members of the Polish Supreme Court in a crackdown on political opponents.

Donald Trump’s trade war continues to have negative consequences for American consumers and businesses.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a populist from the left, rode a wave of populism and public disdain for the outgoing President to a landslide win in Mexico

Trump’s deal-making prowess in NK and Iran isn’t too impressive.