411 Results for:

April 9, 2025

Public Health Threats and Pandemics
How Vaccines Changed the World

Vaccination campaigns have nearly eradicated some of the most deadly and transmissible diseases. In a rising tide of vaccine hesitancy, however, outbreaks are cropping up again.

A woman administers drops of a polio vaccine into a young boy's mouth, as children stand by, waiting to be vaccinated themselves.

March 28, 2025

Public Health Threats and Pandemics
Fentanyl and the U.S. Opioid Epidemic

Opioid addiction has become one of the United States’ biggest killers, endangering public health, the economy, and national security. But closing the floodgates on fentanyl poses a significant foreig…

Photos of fentanyl victims are on display at The Faces of Fentanyl Memorial at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters.

March 19, 2025

Taiwan
Why China-Taiwan Relations Are So Tense

Differences over Taiwan’s status have fueled rising tensions between the island and mainland. Taiwan is the likeliest potential flash point in U.S.-China relations.

A man watches a news programme about Chinese military drills surrounding Taiwan, on a giant screen outside a shopping mall in Beijing on October 14, 2024.

February 28, 2025

United Nations
Funding the United Nations: How Much Does the U.S. Pay?

Many UN agencies, programs, and missions receive crucial funding from the United States. In his second administration, President Trump is again calling for greater scrutiny of U.S. funding and involv…

Displaced people get off a UNHCR truck in Kanyaruchinya, Democratic Republic of Congo.

January 27, 2025

Lebanon
Lebanon: How Israel, Hezbollah, and Regional Powers Are Shaping Its Future

An array of domestic and foreign powers are vying for influence in Lebanon, including the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah, Israel, Iran, Syria, and the United States.

A boy stands inside his damaged house in Tyre, Lebanon, in November 2024.

November 21, 2024

China
The China-North Korea Relationship

Complex dynamics between the two Asian nuclear powers are shifting once again as North Korea deepens ties with Russia and the U.S.-China rivalry intensifies.

Chinese and North Korean artists perform during the opening ceremony of "North Korea-China Friendship Year" at the Pyongyang Grand Theatre in Pyongyang on April 12, 2024.

November 15, 2024

G20 (Group of Twenty)
What Does the G20 Do?

The Group of Twenty, an informal gathering of many of the world’s largest economies, is the premier global forum for discussing economic issues. It is facing continued divisions over trade, climate c…

World leaders sit around a circular table at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India.

November 12, 2024

Iran
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

The IRGC is one of the most powerful organizations in Iran, conceived as the principal defender of the 1979 revolution, and now a critical link to Islamist militant groups violently opposed to Israel…

Members of the Revolutionary Guards attend a parliamentary session in Tehran.

October 29, 2024

Lebanon
What Is Hezbollah?

The Iran-backed Shiite militia was considered the most powerful non-state group in the Middle East, but an Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah in 2024 has considerably weakened it.

 A man bearing a Hezbollah flag leads ranks of militants through Beirut’s southern suburb.

October 17, 2024

Palestinian Territories
What Is Hamas?

The Palestinian militant group struggled to govern the Gaza Strip before launching a surprise attack on Israel in 2023. Now facing Israel’s military campaign to destroy it, Hamas’s future is in doubt…

Gun-toting Hamas militants ride a vehicle amid a massive crowd of the group's supporters