Escalating Crisis Unfolds Across Multiple Regions

Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.

Zeina Khodr is a Lebanese broadcast journalist for the Al Jazeera English channel.

Peter Brian Hegseth is an American government official and former television personality who has served as the 29th United States secretary of defense since 2025.

Ali Ardashir Larijani is an Iranian politician and former military officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who has served as Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council since 2025. He served as the speaker of the Parliament of Iran from 2008 to 2020. He has been a member of the Expediency Discernment Council since 2020, having previously served from 1997 to 2008. He filed for candidacy in the 2024 presidential election, but was ultimately disqualified. He previously ran in 2005, but finished in sixth place, and was also disqualified from running in 2021.

Nicolás Maduro Moros is a Venezuelan politician and former union leader who has been the de jure president of Venezuela since 2013. On 3 January 2026, US forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores; they were transported to the US and charged with drug trafficking to which they pleaded not guilty. Although he was de facto removed from power, according to the Venezuelan government and interim president Delcy Rodríguez, he is still the de jure president of Venezuela. Prior to his presidency, he served as the vice president of Venezuela under President Hugo Chávez from 2012 to 2013 and as minister of foreign affairs from 2006 to 2012.

António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who has served as the ninth secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Portuguese Socialist Party, Guterres served as the prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.

Abbas Araghchi is an Iranian diplomat and politician, who has served as the foreign minister of Iran since August 2024. He previously served as the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as the Iranian ambassador to Finland and to Japan.

Mark Neville is a British social documentary photographer.

Sir Keir Rodney Starmer is a British politician and lawyer who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He served as Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2024. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015, and was Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.

Marco Antonio Rubio is an American politician, attorney, and diplomat serving as the 72nd United States secretary of state since 2025, also the acting national security advisor. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Florida in the U.S. Senate from 2011 to 2025.

Gholamreza Soleimani ; is an Iranian military officer who is a senior officer in the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and commander of the paramilitary Basij forces.

Israel Katz is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Likud currently serving as Minister of Defense and a member of the Security Cabinet of Israel. Katz has been recognized for his role in modernizing Israel's transportation infrastructure, including the expansion of highways, the development of high-speed rail, and reforms to Israel's ports that increased competition and reduced shipping costs. Katz has previously served as Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Transport, Minister of Intelligence, Minister of Energy, Minister of Finance, and twice as Minister of Foreign Affairs. On 5 November 2024, it was announced that he would be nominated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Defense Minister after Yoav Gallant was dismissed.

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is an Israeli politician and diplomat who has served as Prime Minister of Israel since 2022. Having previously held office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021, Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. He has been described as the de facto leader of Russia since 2000.

Masoud Pezeshkian is an Iranian politician and former heart surgeon who has served as the ninth president of Iran since 2024. A member of the reformist faction, he is the oldest person to serve in this position, taking office at the age of 69.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. He has been described as the de facto leader of Russia since 2000.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War with Russia's annexation of Crimea and invasion of the Donbas, and has continued to serve during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has been ongoing since February 2022.

The Gaza Strip is experiencing a humanitarian crisis as a result of the Gaza war and genocide. The crisis includes both an ongoing famine and a healthcare collapse. At the start of the war, Israel tightened its blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in significant shortages of fuel, food, medication, water, and essential medical supplies. This siege resulted in a 90% drop in electricity availability, impacting hospital power supplies, sewage plants, and shutting down the desalination plants that provide drinking water. Doctors warned of disease outbreaks spreading due to overcrowded hospitals. According to a United Nations special committee, Amnesty International, and other experts and human rights organisations, Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinian people during its ongoing invasion and bombing of the Gaza Strip.

Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb is the president of Finland, having taken office in 2024. He previously served as prime minister of Finland from 2014 to 2015.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) strategy in the Arctic refers to the Alliance’s approach to security, presence, and cooperation in the Arctic region. During the Cold War, the Arctic was strategically important for NATO, but following the end of the conflict, NATO’s approach to the region became more limited, cautious, and cooperative.

Joseph Clay Kent is an American politician, former United States Army warrant officer, and former Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary officer who served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center from 2025 to 2026. A member of the Republican Party, Kent was the Republican candidate in the United States House of Representatives election for Washington's third congressional district in 2022 and 2024.

Tulsi Gabbard is an American politician and U.S. military officer serving as the eighth director of national intelligence (DNI) since 2025. She previously served as U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021 and in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2002 to 2004. Gabbard was a member of the Democratic Party until 2022, after which she became independent until joining the Republican Party in 2024.

The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic or president of the Republic, is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is the supreme magistracy of the country, the position is the highest office in France. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, in addition to their relation with the prime minister and government of France, have over time differed with the various constitutional documents since the Second Republic.

Ali Hosseini Khamenei was an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the 2nd supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination during the 2026 Iran conflict. He previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. His tenure as supreme leader, spanning 36 years and six months, made him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East at the time of his death. He held the title of Ayatollah and was considered one of the world's leading Shia marja'.

ABN Barda was an Azerbaijani football club from Barda, Azerbaijan.

Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.

Kanishka Singh is an Indian politician. He is a political aide to the Congress MP and former President, Rahul Gandhi.

Paul Hastings LLP is an American multinational white-shoe law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers in 24 offices throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. The firm represents a client base in finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, private credit, and litigation.

Chapo Trap House is an American politics and humor podcast hosted by Will Menaker, Matt Christman, Felix Biederman, and Amber A'Lee Frost, and is produced by Chris Wade. The podcast became known for its irreverent leftist commentary in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election.

The prime minister of Spain, officially the president of the Government, is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers. In this sense, the prime minister establishes the Government policies and coordinates the actions of the Cabinet members. As chief executive, the prime minister also advises the monarch on the exercise of their royal prerogatives.

The Iraqi–Kurdish conflict consists of a series of wars, rebellions and disputes between the Kurds and the central authority of Iraq starting in the 20th century shortly after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Some put the marking point of the conflict beginning to the attempt by Mahmud Barzanji to establish an independent Kingdom of Kurdistan, while others relate to the conflict as only the post-1961 insurrection by the Barzanis.

Paul Chan Mo-po is the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong and former Secretary for Development of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.

Vincent Clerc is a former French professional rugby union player who played on the wing.

Ivan Sergeyevich Kolpakov is a Russian journalist, writer, one of the founders of the Sol newspaper, editor-in-chief of the Meduza newspaper from 2016 to 2018 and since March 2019.

Peyman Viyan is a Kurdish-Iranian guerrilla and co-chair of PJAK, a left-wing Kurdish militant group in Iran.

Giorgia Meloni is an Italian stateswoman and politician who has served as Prime Minister of Italy since October 2022. She is the first woman to hold the office and the head of the third-longest government in the history of the Italian Republic. A member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2006, she has been president of the right-wing to far-right party Brothers of Italy (FdI) since 2014, and was president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party from 2020 to 2025.

France 24 is a French state-owned publicly funded international news television network based in Paris. Its channels, broadcast in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, are aimed at the overseas market.

Russian war crimes are violations of international criminal law including war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide which the official armed and paramilitary forces of Russia have committed or been accused of committing since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, as well as the aiding and abetting of crimes by proto-statelets or puppet statelets which are armed and financed by Russia, including the Luhansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic. These have included murder, torture, terror, persecution, deportation and forced transfer, enforced disappearance, child abductions, rape, looting, unlawful confinement, starvation, inhumane acts, unlawful airstrikes and attacks against civilian objects, use of banned chemical weapons, and wanton destruction.

Masoud Pezeshkian is an Iranian politician and former heart surgeon who has served as the ninth president of Iran since 2024. A member of the reformist faction, he is the oldest person to serve in this position, taking office at the age of 69.

Scott Kenneth Homer Bessent is an American businessman and government official serving since 2025 as the 79th United States secretary of the treasury. Bessent was a partner at Soros Fund Management (SFM) and founded Key Square Group, a global macro investment firm. He is the first openly gay person to lead the U.S. Treasury Department, the first openly gay U.S. Senate-confirmed Cabinet member in a Republican administration, and the second openly gay U.S. Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretary.

Xi Jinping is a Chinese statesman and politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) since 2012, and the president of China since 2013. Xi has been the leader of the fifth generation of Chinese leadership since 2012.

The secretary of state for health and social care, also referred to as the health secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department of Health and Social Care, mainly overseeing health and social care in England. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

António Luís Santos da Costa is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has served as president of the European Council since 2024. He previously served as prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and secretary-general of the Socialist Party from 2014 to 2024.

Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev is an Azerbaijani politician who has been the fourth president of Azerbaijan since 2003. He has been the leader of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2005.

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is an Israeli politician and diplomat who has served as Prime Minister of Israel since 2022. Having previously held office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021, Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister.

Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa is a French former politician and convicted criminal who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012.

Michael Anthony Guetlein is a United States Space Force general who serves as the direct reporting program manager of the Office of Golden Dome for America. He recently served as the second vice chief of space operations from 2023 to 2025. He previously served as the deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office from 2019 to 2021 and as the first commander of Space Systems Command from 2021 to 2023.

This is a list of some of the most important writers from Latin America, organized by cultural region and nationality. The focus is on Latin American literature.

Kevin Allen Hassett is an American economist who has been the director of the National Economic Council since 2025. He was the senior advisor and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2017 to 2019.

Sviridenko, Svyrydenko, or Svirydzienka is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:Dmitry Sviridenko, Belarusian footballer Pavel Sviridenko, Russian footballer Georgi Sviridenko, Soviet-Belarusian handball player Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukrainian politician

José Antonio Kast Rist is a Chilean conservative politician, lawyer, and the president-elect of Chile. He served in the Chamber of Deputies from 2002 to 2018, representing districts in the capital, Santiago. Kast was a member of the Independent Democratic Union until 2016, after which he became an independent and later founded the Republican Party in 2019.

Étienne, Count Davignon is a Belgian former diplomat, top civil servant, businessman, and former vice-president of the European Commission.

Bidzina Ivanishvili, also known as Boris Grigoryevich Ivanishvili, is a French-Georgian businessman, politician and billionaire oligarch. He is founder and the leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party and has ruled Georgia de jure or de facto since 2012, after Georgian Dream secured victory in the 2012 Georgian parliamentary election. Since 2024, he has been sanctioned by the United States and several European Union countries "for undermining Georgian democracy and advancing the interests of the Russian Federation".

Gregory Michael Guillot is a United States Air Force general who has served as the commander of United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command since 5 February 2024. He most recently served as the deputy commander of United States Central Command from 2022 to 2024. He served as commander of the Ninth Air Force from 2020 to 2022.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War with Russia's annexation of Crimea and invasion of the Donbas, and has continued to serve during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has been ongoing since February 2022.

NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led activist and advocacy organization based in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States. Founded in 2018, NDN Collective works with more than 200 Indigenous-led groups in the U.S.

Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the First Congolese Republic from June until September 1960, following the May 1960 election. Lumumba was the leader of the Congolese National Movement (MNC) from 1958 until his assassination in 1961. Ideologically an African nationalist and pan-Africanist, he played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic.

A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate, so-called as an assembly of the senior and therefore considered wiser and more experienced members of the society or ruling class. However the Roman Senate was not the ancestor or predecessor of modern parliamentarism in any sense, because the Roman senate was not a de jure legislative body.

Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif is a Pakistani politician and businessman who has served as the prime minister of Pakistan since March 2024, having previously been in the role between April 2022 to August 2023. He has also served as the president of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and chief minister of Punjab three times, making him the longest-serving person in the role.

Bertha Isabel Cáceres Flores was a Honduran (Lenca) environmental activist, indigenous leader, co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). She won the Goldman Environmental Prize, one of the most prestigious awards for environmental activism, in 2015 for "a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world's largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam" at the Río Gualcarque.

Gerard Adams is an Irish republican retired politician who was the president of Sinn Féin from 1983 to 2018. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020 and as a Member of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly for Belfast West. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Belfast West constituency, but followed the Sinn Féin policy of abstentionism in the UK Parliament.

Giovanni Angelo Becciu is a Sardinian Catholic prelate and convicted felon who was prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints from 2018 until his resignation under duress in 2020. Pope Francis had made him a cardinal in 2018. On 24 September 2020, Becciu resigned the rights associated with the cardinalate while retaining the title of cardinal. In July 2021, a Vatican judge ordered Becciu and nine others to stand trial on charges of embezzlement, abuse of office and subornation. On 16 December 2023, the Vatican announced that he had been found guilty and sentenced to five years and six months imprisonment, permanent disqualification from public office, and a fine of €8,000.