Test yourself on the week of March 7: The war in Iran continues, conflict flares in South Sudan, and José Antonio Kast is inaugurated.
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Test yourself on the week of March 7: The war in Iran continues, conflict flares in South Sudan, and José Antonio Kast is inaugurated.
By Drew Gorman, a deputy copy editor at Foreign Policy.
Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo runs a race in Lisbon.
Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo runs a race in Lisbon on March 8. Nuno Branco/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Politics
March 13, 2026, 3:42 PM
The U.S.-Israeli war in Iran continues to dominate headlines. Did you manage to look beyond our homepage for some of the globe’s other happenings?
Have feedback? Email [email protected] to let me know your thoughts.
The U.S.-Israeli war in Iran continues to dominate headlines. Did you manage to look beyond our homepage for some of the globe’s other happenings?
1. Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday accused the United States of striking a facility on Qeshm Island. What is that facility’s purpose?
The ramifications of the strike on the seawater desalination plant could spiral into a regional humanitarian disaster, Nik Kowsar and Alireza Nader write.
2. Amid the war in Iran, what did G-7 finance ministers discuss during an emergency meeting on Monday?
Oil prices have increased sharply as a result of the war, and a protracted conflict will only worsen the financial consequences, FP’s Keith Johnson reports.
3. U.N. peacekeepers in South Sudan on Monday defied a government order to evacuate Akobo, an opposition-held town near the Ethiopian border. Why were they ordered to evacuate?
South Sudan has faced rising insecurity since a power-sharing government agreement broke down last year, with President Salva Kiir firing or arresting dozens of top officials to consolidate power, FP’s Nosmot Gbadamosi writes in Africa Brief.
4. What did Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, call a “provocative and aggressive war rehearsal” on Tuesday?
Meanwhile, North Korea is pursuing weapons that could destroy enemy satellites, and it appears to be motivated by Washington’s Golden Dome missile defense plans, Ankit Panda writes.
5. On Wednesday, José Antonio Kast was inaugurated as president of which Latin American country?
Kast’s inauguration signals the most right-wing shift since Chile’s transition to democracy in 1990, FP’s Alexandra Sharp reports in World Brief.
6. Back to those climbing fuel prices. What did Bangladesh on Wednesday seek permission from the United States to do?
The Trump administration’s ill-conceived war on Iran, with no clear strategy or objectives, signals a decline in U.S. power, FP’s Howard W. French argues.
7. In his first public statement since becoming Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei vowed on Thursday to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed as a “tool to pressure the enemy.” Before its closure, roughly how much of the globe’s oil transited the waterway?
Tehran’s selection of Mojtaba, a son of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a sign of political exhaustion and insecurity, Saeid Golkar argues.
8. On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was waiting for White House approval on a defense production deal that focuses on what type of weapon?
Four years on, the Russia-Ukraine war has revealed how fractured and uncertain the West has become about enforcing the international order that it largely forged, Anastasia Edel argues.
9. Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo set the world record for which race distance on Sunday in Lisbon? (Hint: His finishing time was 57 minutes and 20 seconds.)
Kiplimo beat the previous record by 10 seconds, the Athletic reports. His next event will be the London marathon in April.
10. Kenyan authorities arrested a Chinese national at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Tuesday for allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 2,200 of what insect out of the country?
The Kenya Wildlife Service said a similar consignment of ants had been seized in Thailand, indicating the existence of a widespread ant-smuggling network, Reuters reports.
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Drew Gorman is a deputy copy editor at Foreign Policy.
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