Outside the Beltway

Representatives from 195 nations reached an agreement supposedly devoted to addressing global climate change, but it’s really more hype than anything else.

North Korea’s mercurial leader now claims to have thermonuclear weapons, but analysts are saying this is likely braggadocios nonsense.

Remarks by a Democratic politician in Virginia regarding the Administration’s Syrian refugee program have brought up disturbing reminders of a shameful time in American history.

For the first time since Chang Kai-Shek escaped across the Taiwan Strait, the leaders of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China will meet this weekend.

Obama’s first Secretary of State has come out against Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership.

Yesterday’s stock market drop led some Republican candidates to say some particularly dumb things.

In the past month, the Chinese stock market has lost more than 1/3 of its value.

The winners of the Women’s World Cup will get paid far less than the men that played last year, but that’s not because of sexism.

We live in a random and chaotic universe.

North Korea now claims it has miniaturized nuclear warheads sufficienctly so that they can be placed on missiles. They also say they can launch missiles from submarines.

The Vatican has announced that it will recognize Palestinian statehood, but this is not going to resolve the underlying issues that prevent a Palestinian state from actually coming into existence.

The sources of new immigrants to the United States are changing, but it’s unclear if that will have any impact on the political debate over immigration reform.

Chinese analysts are telling their American counterparts that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is far more sophisticated than previously believed.

The Commerce Department had a Christmas present for investors, businesses, and consumers today.

There’s not a whole lot the United States can do to respond effectively and proportionally to North Korea’s hacking attack against Sony.

With major theater chains having pulled out, Sony bowed to the inevitable, but now there appears to be proof that a foreign power is behind the Sony hacking attacks and threats of violence.

Sony is warning the press not to publish material leaked by hackers, but it doesn’t have much of a legal leg to stand on.

The Obama Administration took some fire yesterday for recent Ambassadorial Appointments, but the President’s record has been consistent with those of his recent predecessors.

A knowledgeable observer has a dim forecast.

Quietly, oil prices have been falling for months now. That’s potentially a very big deal.

Politics, the law, culture, and a very old language collide.

A nation known for adopting new technology is behind the rest of the world in one interesting way.

It’s hard for a party to win four straight presidential elections. The Democrats may pull it off.

School.

A piece at Foreign Policy provides a chance to give some thought to institutions.

More than any other language, English words are being adopted, and transformed, by other languages.

There’s little evidence for the conservative contention that the President has damaged America’s position in the world.

More problems for the planned 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

It may be time to rethink the way we make candidates get on the ballot.

Yet another autiobiography invites public discussion about her accomplishments.

The tragedy in Santa Barbara will. inevitably, revive the same old gun debate. But can it ever evolve beyond shouting?

Today’s foreign-policy disputes rarely consider the way America’s response to one crisis might affect another.

China sends a message to Kim Jong Un.

The Affirmative Action debate is too divisive and largely misses the point.