COMMENT: Welcome to the return of an independent foreign policy.

Here are five unlikely black swan events that might catch everyone unawares in the coming year.

Sketch show at top of its game amid a bizarre political climate ripe for parody.

Every Christmas season, first ladies have visited sick children at Children's National Medical Centre.

With five of the year's Biggest Pinocchios, President-elect Trump shatters his own record.

COMMENT: It's no lie. The Oxford Dictionary's international word for 2016 is "post-truth".

Will the US collapse the moment Trump takes power in January? There are plenty of indicators the President-elect will change everything.

Donald Trump explicitly declared that he was ready for a new nuclear arms race with Russia and claimed that the United States would win it.

One might expect Russian President Vladimir Putin to take a victory lap after a lucky 2016. But Putin looks more tired than triumphant.

COMMENT: Steve Braunias looks back on satire and the secret diaries of 2016.

Comedian Tom Arnold says he has a tape of Donald Trump saying "every offensive thing ever". But releasing it would cost him big time.

Andrea Bocelli finally gave a definitely "no" to performing at Trump's inauguration after getting "too much heat" from fans.

The US President-elect, Donald Trump, (which still sounds like a joke) made Twitter his preferred means of communication in his election campaign.

COMMENT: The situation is complex even for the people who live there, let alone us trying to understand it. None of our business.

To the West he's the world's most threatening figure, but is North Korea's leader simply misunderstood?

What happens to the working class when millionaires and billionaires are in charge?

Time magazine got it wrong. The Person of the Year is Pinocchio, and 2016 will be remembered for its lies.

Of all the events of 2016, the Syrian conflict has been the darkest.

The end of an economic era may have occurred yesterday.

Lauren Batchelder stood up and asked a simple question of the now President-elect last year. He slammed her on Twitter, then this happened.

Donald Trump rejected the CIA's claims that Russia interfered in the US election, as senators demanded a probe.

President-elect Donald Trump said he won't spend any time working on the new version of the TV reality show he starred in.

Melania Trump has said she wants to stay in New York so her son Barron can finish his final year at a prestigious primary school.

If everything you know about the world's most famous plane is from the movie, then fasten your seat belt. It's even better in real life.

The contest for the National Party leadership and the job of Prime Minister lasted barely 72 hours.

The murder of an anti-crime campaigner points to police involvement in the wave of vigilante killings.

On the day Donald Trump lashed out at Boeing for the cost of replacing Air Force One it was making the first 787-10 Dreamliner.

Since she entered office in July, there has been a lot of interest in the clothes worn by Theresa May, Britain's Prime Minister.

Seventy-five years after Japanese warplanes streaked over the hills here thousands gathered on a placid morning to pay tribute to those who died that day.

Syrian government forces swept through the old city of Aleppo as rebel forces debated when to withdraw from their shattered stronghold.