Politics

Iceland’s anti-establishment Pirate Party have been invited to form government and have been handed a mandate to begin instituting some of their progressive policies. Icelandic President Guðni Jóhannesson made the announcement on Friday, over one month after the general election, after meeting with head Pirate Birgitta Jónsdóttir. “I met with the leaders of all parties and asked their opinion on who should lead those talks. After that I summoned Birgitta Jónsdóttir and handed her the mandate,” he said.

How was this ever going to end well? An election post-mortem forum erupted into a shouting match as top strategists of Hillary Clinton’s campaign accused their Republican counterparts of fueling and legitimizing racism to elect Donald Trump. Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri exclaimed "I would rather lose than win the way you guys did," to which Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, fumed "I can tell you are angry, but wow...

Ever since the US adopted a “One China” policy after the 1972 Nixon-Mao meetings, followed by President Carter formally recognizing Beijing as the sole government of China in 1978 leading to the closure of the US embassy in Taipei one year later and cutting off relations with Taiwan, when it comes to US-China diplomacy Washington has maintained a steady posture when it comes to Taiwan: non-recognition.

Over this weekend, Italy will vote on a referendum that, if passed, will give the government sweeping powers to enact radical change. According to the latest polls, the referendum is expected to fail -- which might then pave the way for the nationalist Five Star Movement party to form a government -- who literally hate the EU.

Coming off the the "Thank Your Tour" that got started yesterday with stops in Indiana and Ohio, Vice President-Elect Mike Pence sat down with the Wall  Street Journal to discuss the new administration's aggressive plans for the first 100 days in office.  Pence said the new team plans for a "burst of activity" right out of the gate and said "the only thing that will surprise them is that Washington, D.C., is going to get an awful lot done in a short period of time."