The historic global climate accord reached last December in Paris is moving rapidly toward enactment, with 60 countries — representing 48% of all greenhouse gas emissions — having formally approved it as of Wednesday. To become law, the accord must be approved by at least 55 nations and those nations must collectively be responsible for at least 55% of the climate-altering emissions. The United States and China, the world’s largest emitters, formally approved the agreement this month.

President Obama used his final address to the U.N. General Assembly yesterday to warn that climate change would worsen the kind of unrest and inequality that has spurred a global refugee crisis. Speaking before a high-level summit on migrants he convened at U.N. headquarters, Obama told the assembly of world leaders and foreign ministers that the problems they are seeing would only worsen in a warming world. “If we don’t act boldly, the bill that could come due will be mass migrations...

Acknowledging the dark aftershocks of the Vietnam War, President Barack Obama paid tribute Wednesday to survivors maimed by some 80 million unexploded bombs America dropped on Laos decades ago and pledged U.S. help to finally clean them up. Touring a rehabilitation center in Vientiane, Obama said the U.S. had a "profound moral and humanitarian obligation" to work to prevent more bloodshed from the remnants of the U.S. bombardment.

Mostly unnoticed amid the political brawl over climate change, the United States has undergone a quiet transformation in how and where it gets its energy du

President Barack Obama called off a planned meeting Tuesday with new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, seeking distance from a U.S. ally's leader during a diplomatic tour that's put Obama in close quarters with a cast of contentious world figures. It's unusual for one president to tell another what to say or not say, and much rarer to call the other a "son of a bitch." Duterte managed to do both just before flying to Laos for a regional summit, warning Obama not to challenge him over extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

US President Barack Obama has cancelled a meeting with controversial Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had earlier called him a "son of a whore". Mr Duterte was responding to the US president's promise to raise the issue of drug-related extra-judicial killings in the Philippines at their meeting. The Filipino leader is known for his colourful language, though this time it has had a diplomatic impact, correspondents say. He has now said he regrets the remark.

The Pentagon announced on Monday that 15 Guantanamo detainees have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates — the largest single release of captives held at the detention facility during Barack Obama's presidency. Some of the detainees were cleared for transfer in 2010 by an interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force, while the release of others was approved by a parole board established in 2013. None of the freed detainees have ever been convicted of a crime.

Fidel Castro thanked Cubans for their well-wishes on his 90th birthday and criticized President Barack Obama in a lengthy letter published in state media. He appeared but did not speak at a gala in his honor broadcast on state television. "I want to express my deepest gratitude for the shows of respect, greetings and praise that I've received in recent days, which give me strength to reciprocate with ideas that I will send to party militants and relevant organizations," he wrote about his birthday on Saturday.

Last year, the White House jumped on Spotify to post President Obama's summer playlist. Today, we've got the encore. President Obama is once again sharing his summer picks -- an eclectic mix of hand-selected tracks on two lists that take listeners from day to night. The vacation playlists feature legendary songs from Prince and Aretha Franklin, some more recent tracks from hip hop artists like Common and Chance the Rapper and the musical styles of Manu Chao and Caetano Veloso.

For the last 8 years, Pete Souza has been the Official White House Photographer.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday cut short the sentences of 214 federal inmates, including 67 life sentences, in what the White House called the largest batch of commutations on a single day in more than a century. Almost all the prisoners were serving time for nonviolent crimes related to cocaine, methamphetamine or other drugs, although a few were charged with firearms violations related to their drug activities. Almost all are men, though they represent a diverse cross-section of America geographically.

Speaking in Poland on Saturday, Obama addressed the recent events in Dallas, as well as the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. "This has been a tough week. First and foremost for the families [of] who'd been killed. But also for the entire American family," he said. But "as painful as this week has been, I firmly believe that America is not as divided as some have suggested," he added.

U.S. President Barack Obama enjoys a 'Snowbama' shave ice at Island Snow on January 1, 2010 in Kailua, Hawaii. There's been much speculation about what President Barack Obama might do once his term is up in January - he's talked about owning an NBA team and doing philanthropic work, but he reportedly hasn't settled on a plan yet. It seems, however, that he's eager to escape the stresses of the highest office in the country.

Nearly 400 international scientists called on Barack Obama to rule out further expansion of oil and gas exploration in Arctic waters under US control. The letter, signed by prominent Arctic, marine and climate specialists – including a former member of Obama’s administration, urges the president to rule out any future hunting for oil in the waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. “No new oil and gas leasing or exploration should be allowed in the Chukchi and Beaufort...

A steel worker union official asked President Barack Obama at a June 1 town hall in Elkhart, Indiana, about job losses at a plant run by Carrier, an air conditioning manufacturer that recently announced plans to move jobs from Indiana to Mexico. He replied that some jobs "are just not going to come back," while others are in flux or rebounding.

As it seeks to modernize its nuclear arsenal, the United States faces a big choice, one which Barack Obama failed to mention during his moving Hiroshima speech on May 27.The Conversation Should we spend a trillion dollars to replace each of our thousands of nuclear warheads with a more sophisticated substitute attached to a more lethal delivery system? Or should we keep only enough nuclear weapons needed for a devastatingly effective deterrence against any nuclear aggressor, investing the money saved into other means of making our nation more secure?

US President Barack Obama left Washington on Sunday for his first visit to Vietnam, a trip aimed at sealing the transformation of an old enemy into a new partner to help counter China's growing assertiveness. Four decades after the Vietnam War, Obama was expected use the visit to deepen defence and economic ties with the country's communist government. "What we want to demonstrate with this visit is a significant upgrade in the relationship between the United States and Vietnam...

With less than a year in office, President Barack Obama is continuing to make nothing less than history. Two months after he became the first sitting US president in a century to visit Cuba, the White House has announced that he will visit Hiroshima, the first American leader to do so since the Japanese city was turned to rubble in 1945 by a US nuclear bomb.

Here's one thing Washington can agree on: The majesty of the North American bison. President Obama signed the National Bison Legacy Act into law Monday, two weeks after both houses of Congress approved the bill by what appeared to be unanimous voice votes. Sponsored by Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., the bill has just one purpose: To declare the bison the national mammal of the United States.

Father Daniel Berrigan died Saturday at 94. The longtime peace activist gained national attention in 1968 when he and eight others, including his brother Philip (also a priest), burned draft records taken from a Selective Service office in Maryland. Decades later, he remains a powerful example of a man who never wavered in his beliefs, standing up time and again for the poor and oppressed. In his last years, Berrigan no longer had the energy to protest as frequently.