In 2015, 45.5 million visitors came to the City of Angels, an increase of 1.3 million from the previous year, tourism officials announced Monday. The numbers marked the fifth consecutive year of growth, according to Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board. Garcetti has set a goal of boosting tourism to Los Angeles to 50 million people per year by 2020.

President Barack Obama will host a summit with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in California on Feb. 15 and 16, the White House said on Wednesday. [...] “This unprecedented gathering – the first hosted by the United States with the ASEAN leaders – builds on the deeper partnership that the United States has forged with ASEAN since 2009 and will further advance the Administration’s rebalance to Asia and the Pacific,” 

China’s top negotiator at the UN summit on climate change practically gushed as he described his country’s relationship with California […] And with a slew of agreements with foreign leaders, Gov. Brown has turned California’s Air Resources Board and Environmental Protection Agency into de facto diplomatic organizations […] “California basically has a foreign policy,” said David Victor, a UC San Diego professor.

Almost 21 months into an administration characterized by dramatic economic and political reform, U.S. perceptions of Mexico continue to reflect an echo of Mexico’s past rather than the reality of Mexico’s present. Americans see poverty and insecurity rather than a middle-class democracy that has become a rising export powerhouse and valuable economic partner of the United States intent on deepening engagement with its northern neighbor.

France has gone so far in the debate over .wine and .vin as to demand an overhaul of how ICANN is structured and run. TheFinancial Times reported over the weekend that Paris planned to call for an international "general assembly" to oversee ICANN with a "one country, one vote" policy at a meeting on Monday. The French have also said that proceeding with the domain names could "imperil" talks on a transatlantic trade deal between the EU and the U.S.