World Affairs

A single 60-word sentence passed three days after 9/11 has been used to justify US military operations in at least 22 countries.

See front pages from 13 countries covering the results of the 2026 US midterm elections from France to Tehran.

In the school year before the Islamic Revolution, Iranians were the largest group of international students in the US, about 18% of all foreign students.

The US gave Iran its first nuclear reactor in 1967, fueled with weapons-grade uranium, on a campus that later hosted weekly 'Death to America' chants.

From 1946 to 2022, there were 20 midterm elections, and the president's party gained House seats in only two of them.

No party has ever won a majority of the Knesset's 120 seats, forcing every Israeli government to be built from a coalition.

Brazilians reelected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Oct. 25, 2026, even though most say they are dissatisfied with how their democracy is working.

French students blockaded schools to demand repairs and more teachers, just as France's borrowing costs hit a 24-year high.

Alberta once cut its oil supply to the rest of Canada to fight a federal energy program, a 1980s feud that still feeds separatism.

A single 60-word sentence passed after 9/11 has been used to justify US military operations in at least 22 countries.

NATO has only invoked its mutual defense clause once, in the days after the 9/11 attacks.

The US has fought only five formally declared wars, yet presidents have sent troops into Korea, Lebanon, Grenada, and Panama without approval from Congress.

The UN complex in NYC is an international zone belonging to all member states, with its own postal service, fire department, and security forces.

It is unclear how NATO would respond if Russia attempted a limited hybrid attack or incursion on the alliance's territory.

The REAL ID requirement was passed in response to the 9/11 attacks, but was not implemented until 2025.

During the Cold War, a mid-air fire led to a nuclear bomber crash in Greenland that left a piece of a hydrogen bomb missing to this day.

The US and Denmark signed a military agreement over Greenland in 1951.

In 1975, the Soviet Union fired a space cannon as part of testing a defense system that would prevent anyone from approaching and inspecting Soviet military satellites.

In 2026, the world's third-smallest country changed its name from Nauru to Naoero to return to the spelling and pronunciation that align with its national language.

After the World Trade Center attacks, all bridges and tunnels were closed, and civilian ships helped evacuate roughly half a million people from Manhattan.

Queen Elizabeth II ordered the US national anthem played at Buckingham Palace in the days after 9/11.

9/11 permanently changed air travel security in the US with the creation of the Transportation Security Administration.

US intelligence warned in multiple reports of al-Qaida's plans to strike before 9/11.

9/11 reshaped US foreign and military policy for decades, shifting focus to non-state actors and the Middle East.

Welcome to Gander, a tiny town of around 10,000 people in Newfoundland, which took in nearly 7,000 passengers for days after the 9/11 attacks grounded all air travel in the US.

343 members of the Fire Department of New York died on 9/11 trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center.

Osama bin Laden declared jihad—a call for armed struggle framed as a religious duty—against the US in 1996.

See intact objects found in the wreckage of Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after its 40 passengers and crew stormed the cockpit, stopping the hijackers from reaching their likely target, the US Capitol Building.

Vladimir Putin was the first world leader to call Bush after 9/11, and visited the US two months later.

Decades of instability in the Middle East, including the Soviet-Afghan war, gave rise to al-Qaeda.

The treaty's Article 5 requires mutual defense, but not necessarily military action.

The origins of Ukrainian identity are a matter of historical debate.

Protests in Ukraine from 2013 to 2014 set the stage for the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

NATO was founded in 1949.

Hear the reasoning behind Trump's resurrection of the Monroe Doctrine in 2025.

Eleanor Roosevelt transformed the role of the first lady of the United States.

See an animated map of the entire Cold War.

NATO consists of 32 countries across North America and Europe.

China doubled its nuclear stockpile between 2020 and 2025, with plans for further expansion.

As of 2025, every NATO member spent at least 2% of GDP on defense, a target the alliance had been pushing toward for over a decade.

Language and regional differences are faults lines in Ukraine's conflict.

British economist John Maynard Keynes originally proposed a global currency called the bancor.

The United Nations was founded in San Francisco in 1945.

See South Korea's nighttime light usage, which far surpasses that of North Korea.

Faithless electors have never changed the outcome of a US presidential election.

Hear how the US and Iran went from close allies to bitter adversaries after the 1979 revolution.

The attack at Pearl Harbor led to the world's first around-the-world commercial flight.

Japan's imperial expansion in Asia in the 1930s set the stage for war with the US.

See a visualization of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Unconditional birthright citizenship is rare outside the Americas.