World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The climate talks in Durban were a classic case of kicking the can down the road: an agreement in principle is not necessarily progress when so many specific details have to be worked out before an agreement is actually reached.  But here’s an interesting article assessing the talks in a more optimistic manner.

For a little sober background on the downing of the US spy drone over Iran, see this article in Foreign Policy.  Appropriately, the author simply asks the question: what else would one expect?  It’s not clear how long it will take Iran to decipher the drone’s secrets, but such an outcome is inevitable.  After that, the information will be on sale to the highest bidder.  Iran also roiled the oil markets by announcing that it was going to conduct war games near the Strait of Hormuz, an essential access route for all the oil coming out of the Persian Gulf. 

Another photograph of the pollution in Beijing.  Winter is always the worst time of year, but these levels are intolerable.