2023 Current Events: Sum Up the Year With a Quiz!

With Microsoft’s investment package of $1 billion in 2019, OpenAI moved from non-profit to “capped” for-profit (with a profit cap set to 100X). A Semafor report published on Jan. 10, 2023, revealed Microsoft’s plan to invest an additional $10 billion in return for owning a 49 percent stake in OpenAI, which values the company at $29 billion. Other investors would get another 49 percent, and OpenAI’s non-profit parent company would own 2 percent.

Fox News acknowledged that “certain claims” it made about Dominion were false as part of the settlement agreement reached on April 18, 2023. This was shortly before a trial was set to begin in Delaware Superior Court, sparing Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch a court visit. Dominion sued Fox News in 2021 for $1.6 billion, alleging that the network defamed it by broadcasting baseless allegations from former President Trump and his allies. Despite privately expressing skepticism and ridicule about the claims, Fox hosts repeatedly argued on air that Dominion was tied to the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, paid kickbacks to politicians, and flipped millions of votes from Trump to Biden. Fox News said it hoped the settlement would allow the country to move forward from the issues. Dominion said it represented “vindication and accountability.” Fox News did not apologize.

The Wagner Group is a “Russian Ministry of Defense proxy force” formerly managed and financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch once close to Putin. The mercenary group has been involved in conflicts in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and, most recently, Ukraine. In a video address on Mar. 5, 2023, Prigozhin said that the whole front would crumble if the Wagner Group retreated from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. He also said that the Russian Ministry of Defence was not supporting his efforts. On June 23, the Wagner force led the failed rebellion against Putin, and two months later to the day, Prigozhin was assassinated mid-air.

The attorneys of US President Joe Biden found less than a dozen classified records at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in November 2022. When they found the materials, they told the US National Archives, turned them over, and said they’d cooperated with the Justice Department and the Archives.

Are there any more where those came from?

An NBC News report on Jan. 11, 2023, said Biden’s lawyers uncovered more classified documents. White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement on Jan. 14 that six pages of classified documents were found during a search of Biden’s private library.

In case you missed it, the Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on Apr. 15, 1912. It collided with an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The Titan submerged on a dive to the Titanic wreckage site on Jun. 18, 2023, for $250,000 per ticket. The sub was lost 900 miles east of Cape Cod in water 13,000 feet deep. The US and Canadian Coast Guards launched a search and rescue operation to locate the submarine but found only debris. Five people were aboard the Titan: an operator and four passengers. One of them was Hamish Harding, a British billionaire and adventure traveler.

AFTRA is a labor union representing US performers, broadcasters, and other media professionals. It merged with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 2012 to form SAG-AFTRA, the largest actor union in Hollywood. SAG-AFTRA declared a strike against major studios and streamers over issues such as residuals, streaming royalties, artificial intelligence, and diversity on July 14, 2023. The SAG-AFTRA and writers’ guild strikes halted most film and TV production in the US for 191 days.

Fun Fact: SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, best known for her role in the ’90s sitcom The Nanny, has led the strike with fiery speeches against corporate greed and exploitation. She has also called Bob Iger, former Disney CEO, a “medieval land baron” for his comments on union demands.

US military officials notified the Biden administration of a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” flying over Montana on Feb. 4, 2023. According to the Pentagon, China launched the balloon to collect military information, but China called it a “mainly meteorological balloon.”

When was the Chinese balloon shot down?

On Feb. 5, President Biden stated he gave orders to shoot down the balloon but was advised to wait until it reached the safest position. Later that day, an F-22 fighter jet destroyed it with an air-to-air missile over the Atlantic Ocean. US officials said the balloon’s entry violated US sovereignty and international law. Pentagon officials said the administration planned to collect debris for intelligence gathering.

The oil used to anoint King Charles III is called Chrism oil. It was created using olives harvested from two groves on the Mount of Olives, a mountain ridge east of Jerusalem’s Old City, Israel. The olives were pressed just outside the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, where Christians believe Jesus was born. The ceremony was held at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christians believe Jesus was crucified. The March 3, 2023, event was attended by Buckingham Palace representatives. The Archbishop of Canterbury, who performed the May 6 anointing service at Westminster Abbey, said the oil demonstrates the deep historical link between the coronation, the Bible, and the Holy Land.

Prince Harry’s 2023 memoir, Spare, details disagreements with his brother Prince William. “A landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about how love overrides grief,” Penguin Random House has called the ex-royal’s autobiography, released on Jan. 10, 2023.

According to a recording first obtained by CNN, Former President Donald Trump showed a document titled “Plan of Attack” to a publisher and writer working on a memoir by his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in 2021. Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Department, drew up the document. It contained options for attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. The tape contradicted Trump’s recent statement that he was referring to news clippings when he mentioned the document in an interview with Fox News. Trump was indicted for mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them on June 13, 2023.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem. This mosque has stood for centuries and has been a focal point in the longstanding and deeply rooted conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, involving a large-scale surprise terror attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians, were named Al-Aqsa Floods by the Gazan forces committing the atrocities. 1,400 Israelis were murdered by Hamas terrorists in their homes and at a music festival massacre, resulting in the evacuation of 1.1 million Gazans as the IDF retaliated.

Hundreds of elite officers in Israel’s military reserves said they would not show up for duty starting Mar. 19, 2023. This is in protest against the ruling coalition’s planned overhaul of the judicial system. The protesters say the plan undermines democracy by restricting the power of the Supreme Court. The protests paused after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, and the reservists did not follow their threat.

Turkey’s presidential election saw an unprecedented runoff on May 28, 2023. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the man who’s been at the helm for two decades and counting, won 52.1% of the votes. His victory means continuing his populist politics. Erdogan’s rule has been marked by a painful cost-of-living crisis, limited freedom of speech, and recent earthquakes.

Apple, the tech giant from Cupertino, California, recently faced a heated situation with its iPhone 15 models. Users around the globe reported that their shiny Apple iPhones were getting too warm for comfort. Apple found that a software bug and some popular apps like Instagram and Uber caused the devices to run hotter than a summer day in the desert. On Sept. 30, 2023, Apple announced that they’re working on an update to the iOS 17 system to cool things down.

Elon Musk values Twitter at $20 billion, according to an internal memo reported by the Information on March 25, 2023. Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter in October 2022, meaning Twitter lost more than half its value in just half a year. However, Musk acknowledged it as an overpayment at the time of the deal. The company’s value dropped throughout the year as advertisers pulled out of the platform.

Holmes was the founder and CEO of Theranos, a startup that raised nearly $1 billion from investors and became a Silicon Valley sensation. However, The Wall Street Journal exposed her technology as flawed and dangerous in 2015. She was convicted of fraud and conspiracy in January 2022 and sentenced to 11 years in prison in May 2023. She was incarcerated on May 30, 2023, in a women’s prison camp in Texas.

India recently stirred the pot (and not just a curry one) by referring to itself as “Bharat” in the Sept. 2023 G20 summit dinner invitations. For those who missed the memo, “Bharat” is an ancient Sanskrit term deeply rooted in India’s history and is also the name mentioned in the Indian Constitution. But why the sudden change in RSVP name tags? Well, with national elections looming, the ruling party, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to spice things up a bit. Some say it’s a nod to India’s rich Hindu past. Others believe it’s a political strategy to challenge the newly formed opposition alliance named “INDIA” (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance).

India’s railway system is ranked #1 in the world in terms of passengers carried, with a record of 721.6 billion person miles per year. This means India’s railways transport more people over greater distances than any other country. The second busiest is China, with 423.3 billion person miles per year. On June 2, 2023, two passenger trains and a goods train collided in Odisha state in India, killing over 300 people and injuring about 1,000 more, making it one of the most tragic train collisions in India’s history. The most severe one was in 1981 when 800 people died.

The Khalistan movement advocates for an independent homeland for Sikhs in India’s Punjab region. While the idea of Khalistan has been around for a while, it made headlines in 2023 due to the alleged assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Canadian Sikh leader and Khalistan advocate. This incident led to a diplomatic tiff between Canada and India, with ambassadors expelled. Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, even suggested there was “credible evidence” of India’s involvement in the assassination.

Nova Kakhovka Dam is a strategically vital dam in southern Ukraine. It is situated on the Dnieper River and holds back an enormous body of water that supplies water to the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014. It also provides cooling water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is now under Russian control. On June 6, 2023, Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam in Nova Kakhovka. Moscow denied the attack and said Kyiv intentionally sabotaged the dam. The dam’s collapse caused water to cascade over the damaged structure, flooding homes and forcing thousands to evacuate.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia. While it’s internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, it has been under Armenian separatist control for decades. In Sept. 2023, a mass exodus of up to 120,000 Armenians fled the area due to fears of persecution under Azerbaijani rule.

On Sept. 12, 2023, Kim Jong-Un, North Korea’s supreme leader, didn’t just hop on a plane or drive to Russia. Instead, he chose his dark green, luxuriously decorated armored train for a 20-hour journey to Vladivostok, Russia. This slow-moving fortress comes complete with reddish-pink leather armchairs and an average 60 kph (around 37 mph) speed. The grand purpose? Meeting with Vladimir Putin to talk about sending a North Korean cosmonaut into space, building satellites, and cooperation on military-technical matters. Kim Jong-un took the opportunity to express his full support for Russia’s “just fight.”

The much-anticipated Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was banned in Vietnam. The movie, set to hit Vietnamese – and worldwide – theaters on July 21, 2023, includes a scene featuring a map showing China’s controversial “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea. This line is a bone of contention between China and several other countries, including Vietnam. It extends Beijing’s territorial claims far into the waters claimed by these nations. The Vietnamese National Film Evaluation Council, finding this subplot unamusing, banned the movie on July 3.

AFTRA is a labor union representing US performers, broadcasters, and other media professionals. It merged with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 2012 to form SAG-AFTRA, the largest actor union in Hollywood. SAG-AFTRA declared a strike against major studios and streamers over issues such as residuals, streaming royalties, artificial intelligence, and diversity on July 14, 2023. The SAG-AFTRA and writers’ guild strikes halted most film and TV production in the US for 191 days.

Fun Fact: SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, best known for her role in the ’90s sitcom The Nanny, has led the strike with fiery speeches against corporate greed and exploitation. She has also called Bob Iger, former Disney CEO, a “medieval land baron” for his comments on union demands.

On Jan. 18, 2023, Maria Ressa, a veteran journalist and Nobel laureate, was acquitted of tax evasion charges in the Philippines, where she is regarded as the “face of the free press.” Rappler, her news outlet, has been known for its in-depth coverage of Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug war. In what’s considered a silencing campaign, Ressa has been charged with several civil and criminal offenses since 2018. In 2021, she won the Nobel peace prize for “safeguarding freedom of expression.“

Is that the end of Ressa’s legal fights?

Ressa and Rappler face three more legal cases, a separate tax case filed by prosecutors in another court, her supreme court appeal on an online libel conviction, and Rappler’s appeal against the closure order issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For her first full concert since 2018, Beyoncé performed for invited journalists and influencers at the new Atlantis – The Royal Resort in Dubai on Jan. 21, 2023. The set included 19 songs and a duet with her oldest daughter, 11-year-old Blue Ivy, “Brown Skin Girl.” There were similar live debuts for songs from “The Lion King” soundtrack album, but no songs from her Grammy-nominated “Renaissance” album from 2022.

Nikki Haley served as the US ambassador to the UN during the Trump administration and was governor of South Carolina from Jan. 2017 to Dec. 2018. She announced her presidential run in February 2023.

How is Trump taking it?

Haley was the first Republican candidate to run against former President Donald Trump this year. Trump told reporters Haley had called and said she was thinking about running for president, to which he replied, “You should do it.”  Haley told Fox News’ Special Report, “I think we need a young generation to come in, step up and start fixing things… Can I be that leader? Yes, I think I can be that leader.”

Adele won the “Best Pop Vocal Performance” award at the 2023 Grammy Awards for “Easy on Me.” She dedicated the award to her son Angelo.

Rihanna performed a 13-minute set while dressed in head-to-toe red at the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 12, 2023, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. After her first child, the performance was seen as a return to the public stage. Accessorized with a 19.47-carat Bayco ring and wearing custom-made pieces by Loewe and Alaïa, the performance also showed Rihanna’s power in the fashion industry. But the main focus of the halftime show was her pregnancy reveal. Her representative confirmed after the show that the singer was pregnant with her second child.

Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress at the 95th Academy Awards for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” She dedicated her award to her father, who passed away last year. Yuh-Jung Youn won Best Supporting Actress in 2021 for her performance in “Minari.”

Maria Lvova-Belova is a Russian politician and the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights. She is accused of unlawfully deporting children from Ukraine to Russia during the invasion. The EU and Japan have sanctioned her, and the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against her and Russian President Putin on March 17, 2023. Lvova-Belova has five biological and eighteen adopted children with her husband, Pavel Kogelman, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church and formerly a programmer, who she married in 2003.

According to 2019 court documents originally filed by Terry Sanderson, a retired optometrist seeking more than $300,000 in damages, the accident happened while he and Gwyneth Paltrow were skiing in 2016 at Deer Valley Resort in Utah. No vehicles were involved in the incident. Paltrow allegedly “skied out of control… knocking him down hard, knocking him out, and causing a brain injury, four broken ribs, and other serious injuries”. Paltrow filed a countersuit against Sanderson seeking $1 million in damages, claiming he skied into her. The trial began on March 21, 2023.

Sanna Marin became the world’s youngest leader when she became Finland’s Prime Minister in 2019 at age 34. She headed a coalition of five parties, all led by women. Marin was widely praised for steering Finland toward its imminent NATO entry and navigating her country through the Covid-19 pandemic. However, she was scrutinized in 2022 when a video emerged of the young PM singing, dancing, and drinking at a party.

What happened in Finland’s 2023 elections?

While all mainstream parties in Finland backed NATO membership, Sanna Marin’s center-left Social Democrats (SDP) garnered just 19.9% of Finland’s Apr. 2, 2023, election vote and secured second place. As a result, Marin resigned as chair of her party. The right-wing Finns Party achieved the highest result in its history with 20.1% of the vote and won more regions than any other party in mainland Finland. Petteri Orpo’s center-right National Coalition Party won with 20.8%. Orpo became Finland’s prime minister. Finland officially joined NATO on Apr. 5, 2023.

The Order of Merit for special achievement is Germany’s highest distinction for a former leader. On April 17, 2023, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier honored former Chancellor Angela Merkel with this award for her near-record 16 years of leading the country. She was the first woman, the first East German-born, and the longest-serving chancellor since Otto von Bismarck in the 19th century. Only two other ex-chancellors received the honor: Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor of West Germany after World War II, and Helmut Kohl, the chancellor who oversaw Germany’s reunification in 1990.

E. Jean Carroll alleged in her 2019 memoir that Donald Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman store in New York City in 1996. Trump denied the allegation and called her a “nut job.” Carroll sued for defamation and battery under a New York law that allowed her to file a civil lawsuit despite the expired statute of limitations. The trial began on April 24, 2023, and lasted three weeks. On May 9, 2023, the jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation but not rape. They awarded Carroll $5 million in damages: $2 million for sexual abuse, $1 million for defamation, and $2 million in punitive damages.

Linda Yaccarino, previously the head of advertising and partnerships for NBCUniversal, was confirmed as the new CEO of Twitter on May 12, 2023. She was appointed by Elon Musk, who bought the platform last year for $44 billion. She will focus on business operations while Musk works on product design and technology. Yaccarino is one of the rare female chief executives in technology. She has often said she was the only woman at the table and faced bias incidents in her career.

Kim Yo Jong is a high-ranking official of the Workers’ Party of North Korea and a member of the State Affairs Commission of the isolated nation. Oh, and she’s Kim Jung Un’s sister. She manages her brother’s image and promotes his diplomatic outreach. On June 2, 2023, she slammed the UN Security Council for denouncing a failed North Korean satellite launch earlier that week. She also promised to put a military spy satellite into orbit soon. The Malligyong-1 satellite rocket crashed into the sea on May 31. The launch was widely criticized by South Korea, Japan, the US, and the UN as violating Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from using ballistic missile technology.

Taylor Swift achieved this feat with her latest release, “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” which debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated July 22, 2023, with 716,000 equivalent album units. Her other three albums in the top 10 were “Midnights” (No. 5), “Lover” (No. 7), and “Folklore” (No. 10). The last living artist to have four albums in the top 10 simultaneously was Herb Alpert in 1966. Prince did it posthumously in 2016.

Fun Fact: She also surpassed Barbra Streisand as the female artist with the most #1 albums in history, with 12.

Madonna has six children: two biological and four adopted. She gave birth to her daughter Lourdes in 1996 and her son Rocco in 2000 before adopting four children from Malawi: David in 2006, Mercy in 2009, and twins Estere and Stella in 2017. Madonna recently recovered from a bacterial infection that forced her to postpone her Celebration tour. She thanked her children, friends, and fans for their support on Instagram. She also posted a video of her dancing to her first album on August 1, 2023.

Back in the days when the internet was still dialing up, and Y2K was the biggest scare, young Serena Williams was making waves at the US Open. Fast forward to 2023, and 19-year-old Coco Gauff follows in her footsteps, advancing to the quarterfinals of the US Open in consecutive years. On Sept. 3, 2023, Gauff showcased her prowess by defeating Caroline Wozniacki, reminding us that history repeats itself. By Sept. 5, she also became the first American teenager to reach the US Open semi-finals since Williams in 2001. On Sept. 10, she won her first grand slam title, becoming the first American teenager to win the US Open and the youngest American woman to reach the US Open final since 17-year-old Williams in 1999. This time, with much better internet.

Baltic nations, known for their serene landscapes and rich history, have added another feather to their cap. All three nations – Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania – are now led by dynamic women. Latvia is the latest to join the female leadership club, with Evika Siliņa taking the reins on Sept. 15, 2023. The 48-year-old Right-Centrist Silina is the second woman ever to hold the prime ministerial post in Latvia.

On Sept. 24, 2023, in the Berlin Marathon, Tigist Assefa from Ethiopia redefined marathon running for women. She completed the race in a jaw-dropping 2 hours, 11 minutes, and 53 seconds, obliterating the previous world record set by Brigid Kosgei in 2019 at the Chicago Marathon. This achievement was even more remarkable, considering it was only her third competitive marathon.

Fun Fact: During her record-breaking run, Assefa wore the newly released single-use Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1s by Adidas. These shoes are claimed by Adidas to be “enhanced with unique technology that challenges the boundaries of racing” and have a price tag of £400.

During the Synod of Bishops held from Oct. 4-29, 2023, in Vatican City, for the first time, women were not only participants but also had the right to vote in the discussions. Among the 365 voting members, 54 were women, actively contributing to the synod dialogues and decisions. The discussion topics were wide-ranging, including women’s roles in decision-making positions within the church and the potential for their ordination as deacons. This event also hosted discussions on contemporary issues, including LGBTQ+ inclusion and accountability in church governance.

Narges Mohammadi, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, is imprisoned in Iran. Her relentless pursuit of human rights and unyielding criticism of the Iranian regime has earned her international acclaim and authorities’ wrath. Mohammadi is often likened to Nelson Mandela for her unwavering resistance and activism even behind bars.

Rashida Tlaib, the trailblazing Michigan congresswoman and sole Palestinian American in Congress, has recently made waves with a video accusing President Joe Biden of backing what she termed the “genocide of the Palestinian people,” a statement as subtle as a sledgehammer and as well-received. This political firecracker was dropped on social media on Nov. 3, 2023. With her pointed phrase “from the river to the sea,” Tlaib has united Democrats and Republicans, though not in the way one might hope—both sides are equally annoyed.

In a historic turn at the 2023 CMAs, Tracy Chapman’s 1988 hit “Fast Car,” given a new lease on life with Luke Combs’ cover, sped past the competition to win Song of the Year. This made Chapman the first Black songwriter ever to snag the award. This win came 35 years after the song’s debut. The CMAs aired on ABC on Nov. 8, 2023, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Chapman was not present at the ceremony but sent a prepared statement that presenter Sara Evans read.

One of the 150 companies Trump reported in 2020 was called “Unreimbursed expenses.” This company claimed losses of $438,000 through gift card redemptions, and the Joint Committee on Taxation called on the IRS to investigate.

The attorneys of US President Joe Biden found less than a dozen classified records at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in November 2022. When they found the materials, they told the US National Archives, turned them over, and said they’d cooperated with the Justice Department and the Archives.

Are there any more where those came from?

An NBC News report on Jan. 11, 2023, said Biden’s lawyers uncovered more classified documents. White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement on Jan. 14 that six pages of classified documents were found during a search of Biden’s private library.

Announcing her resignation on Jan. 19, 2023, Jacinda Ardern will not run in New Zealand’s Oct. 14, 2023, general election. She’ll be a lawmaker until then. Ardern was a role model for women worldwide after becoming Prime Minister in 2017 at 37. Despite being lauded globally for her handling of the Coronavirus pandemic, Ardern faced growing criticism at home.

Fun Fact

Ardern is the second world leader who has given birth while holding office.

Nikki Haley served as the US ambassador to the UN during the Trump administration and was governor of South Carolina from Jan. 2017 to Dec. 2018. She announced her presidential run in February 2023.

How is Trump taking it?

Haley was the first Republican candidate to run against former President Donald Trump this year. Trump told reporters Haley had called and said she was thinking about running for president, to which he replied, “You should do it.”  Haley told Fox News’ Special Report, “I think we need a young generation to come in, step up and start fixing things… Can I be that leader? Yes, I think I can be that leader.”

Former mayor of Mexico City and left-wing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the Mexican presidential election with 53% in 2018. In his campaign, he promised to rid Mexico of corruption and inequality, which he credited to previous administrations he called “a mafia of power.”

Did he keep the promise?

On Feb. 26, 2023, tens of thousands of people filled Mexico City’s main plaza to protest President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s changes to the electoral law, which they say threaten democracy. Most marchers wore white and pink, the colors of the National Electoral Institute, as they yelled, “Don’t touch my vote!” In the same week, López Obrador insisted that he had documented a real-life elf, tweeting: “Everything is mystical.“

Mitch McConnell surpassed Mike Mansfield’s record of 16 years as Senate leader on Jan. 4, 2023. The Republican from Kentucky has been in the Senate since 1985 and is currently the minority leader after losing the majority to the Democrats in 2021. McConnell fell at a Washington, DC, hotel on Mar. 8, 2023. He suffered a concussion and a minor rib fracture. On Mar. 13, he was released to recover in an inpatient rehabilitation facility. McConnell is 81 years old and has a history of polio, a shoulder fracture, and difficulty climbing stairs.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping met Vladimir Putin in Moscow on March 20, 2023. He is the first world leader to meet the Russian leader, a few days after the International Criminal Court charged him with war crimes in Ukraine. Xi presented China as a global peacemaker intent on ending the Ukraine war. In its peace plan, China calls for formal respect for Ukrainian sovereignty, protection of civilians, and prohibition of nuclear weapons. Russia applauded China’s willingness to play a constructive role, but Western leaders dismissed the peace plan, arguing that Beijing lacks the international credibility to mediate. China looks to Russia as a source of oil and gas for its energy-hungry economy and a partner in opposing what both see as American dominance in global affairs.

Fun fact: On the same day, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Kyiv. Kishida and Xi’s visits highlight deep divisions in northeast Asia over the Ukraine war, with Japan promising substantial assistance to Kyiv while China remains isolated in its support of Putin.

On March 26, 2023, thousands of Israelis protested the country’s planned judicial overhaul after Prime Minister Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said the judicial overhaul must be stopped due to the damage it is doing to the military. The next day, Netanyahu agreed to delay his flagship judicial changes to the next parliamentary session, saying he wanted time to compromise with his political opponents over the divisive package, but not before passing a law protecting him from prosecution while in office.

Sanna Marin became the world’s youngest leader when she became Finland’s Prime Minister in 2019 at age 34. She headed a coalition of five parties, all led by women. Marin was widely praised for steering Finland toward its imminent NATO entry and navigating her country through the Covid-19 pandemic. However, she was scrutinized in 2022 when a video emerged of the young PM singing, dancing, and drinking at a party.

What happened in Finland’s 2023 elections?

While all mainstream parties in Finland backed NATO membership, Sanna Marin’s center-left Social Democrats (SDP) garnered just 19.9% of Finland’s Apr. 2, 2023, election vote and secured second place. As a result, Marin resigned as chair of her party. The right-wing Finns Party achieved the highest result in its history with 20.1% of the vote and won more regions than any other party in mainland Finland. Petteri Orpo’s center-right National Coalition Party won with 20.8%. Orpo became Finland’s prime minister. Finland officially joined NATO on Apr. 5, 2023.

Turkey’s presidential election saw an unprecedented runoff on May 28, 2023. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the man who’s been at the helm for two decades and counting, won 52.1% of the votes. His victory means continuing his populist politics. Erdogan’s rule has been marked by a painful cost-of-living crisis, limited freedom of speech, and recent earthquakes.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis filed paperwork to run for president on May 24, 2023. He announced his decision on Twitter, just ahead of a scheduled Twitter Spaces conversation with Twitter chief Elon Musk. The event faced more than 20 minutes of technical problems and attracted only about 300,000 concurrent listeners and 3.4 million total listeners – far below expectations.

Nicola Sturgeon became Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister on May 25, 2022, serving seven years, six months, and five days after becoming the county’s first female first minister. Sturgeon resigned in February 2023 amid a scandal over her ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) funding. She was arrested and questioned by police on June 11, 2023, becoming the first Scottish first minister to be arrested. She was released without charge later that day. Sturgeon maintained her innocence and vowed to clear her name.

Fun Fact: Humza Yousaf is the current, youngest and first minority ethnic first minister of Scotland. He succeeded Nicola Sturgeon in March 2023 after she resigned. He has not been in office long enough to break other records.

Silvio Berlusconi was Italy’s longest-serving postwar prime minister, serving three non-consecutive terms: 1994-1995, 2001-2006, and 2008-2011. He was known for his lavish lifestyle, controversial policies, and numerous legal troubles. In 2013, he was found guilty of tax fraud in a case involving his media empire. He was sentenced to four years in prison, later reduced to community service. He was also barred from holding public office for six years. He died on June 12, 2023, at 86, two months after being diagnosed with leukemia.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the center-right New Democracy party, won a landslide victory in Greece’s general election on June 25, 2023. He was sworn in as prime minister for a second consecutive term a day later. Mitsotakis, who was at Greece’s helm during the Covid-19 pandemic and Europe’s energy crisis, staged a stunning economic turnaround for his country, now on the brink of returning to investment grade on the global market for the first time since losing market access in 2010. Mitsotakis has also taken a tough stance on immigration, overshadowed by several scandals and disasters.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head honcho of the Russian mercenary Wagner force and the failed June 2023 rebellion, often dubbed “Putin’s chef,” met his untimely end in a plane crash on August 23, 2023. Following the event, President Vladimir Putin, in a rare display of culinary critique, described Prigozhin as an adept entrepreneur who navigated a challenging destiny and made serious mistakes. Prigozhin was buried in St. Petersburg, away from public attention. Russian state television hardly covered the funeral.

On Sept. 12, 2023, Kim Jong-Un, North Korea’s supreme leader, didn’t just hop on a plane or drive to Russia. Instead, he chose his dark green, luxuriously decorated armored train for a 20-hour journey to Vladivostok, Russia. This slow-moving fortress comes complete with reddish-pink leather armchairs and an average 60 kph (around 37 mph) speed. The grand purpose? Meeting with Vladimir Putin to talk about sending a North Korean cosmonaut into space, building satellites, and cooperation on military-technical matters. Kim Jong-un took the opportunity to express his full support for Russia’s “just fight.”

Baltic nations, known for their serene landscapes and rich history, have added another feather to their cap. All three nations – Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania – are now led by dynamic women. Latvia is the latest to join the female leadership club, with Evika Siliņa taking the reins on Sept. 15, 2023. The 48-year-old Right-Centrist Silina is the second woman ever to hold the prime ministerial post in Latvia.

On Oct. 3, 2023, the US House of Representatives witnessed an unprecedented event. Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his lofty perch as Speaker of the House. He became the first individual to experience such a fate through a resolution to remove them. The vote was a nail-biter, tallying 216 to 210, with a twist of eight Republicans, led by Matt Gaetz, voting to boot McCarthy. Amidst the turmoil, McCarthy declared he would not seek the Speaker’s gavel again, leaving the House in a frantic search for a successor and political spectators grabbing their popcorn.

Donald Tusk, a prominent figure in Polish politics and former president of the European Council, secured a majority in the Sejm following the Oct. 15 elections along with his Civic Platform and other opposition parties. As a result, Tusk is widely tipped to become Poland’s next prime minister. This development is a positive sign of improved relations between Poland and the European Union. This is especially after years of strained relations under the PiS-led government.

David Cameron, once the British Prime Minister, made a grand return to the political stage on Nov. 14, 2024, as the UK’s Foreign Secretary. This move is part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s cabinet reshuffle. Cameron resigned in 2016 after the Brexit referendum. His appointment has stirred the pot in the UK’s political scene, with reactions ranging from applause to raised eyebrows.

Before Javier Milei, AKA El Loco, became President of Argentina, he was a well-known figure on Argentine television. The far-right libertarian made a name for himself as a financial pundit, a role that allowed him to blend his economic expertise with a flair for the dramatic. Milei was known for his passionate and flamboyant delivery. Milei’s victory in the presidential election, with nearly 56% of the votes in a run-off, proved his popularity and unconventional approach to politics. His swearing-in on Dec. 10 marks the beginning of the next chapter in Argentina’s political history. He has proposed closing several ministries, including culture, women, health, and education, as part of his plan to slash bureaucracy. He has also proposed loosening gun laws, abolishing abortion, and allowing human organ sale and purchase.

Mark Rutte, the answer we’re looking for, has been the face of Dutch politics for what seems like forever but is 13 in actual years. He became Prime Minister on Oct. 14, 2010. Known for his pragmatic leadership and fondness for cycling to work (because, let’s face it, who needs a limo when you have a bike in the Netherlands?), Rutte has been a steady hand at the Dutch political wheel. In July 2023, Rutte announced his resignation. The Dutch parliamentary elections were held on Nov. 22, 2023, paving the way for the first leader to take the helm in over a decade. Forming the next government will probably take months, as no party took over 20% of the vote.

Joe Biden was born on Nov. 20, 1942, just days before the classic film “Casablanca” premiered. Biden, stepping onto the world stage in Scranton, Pennsylvania, became the oldest President of the United States. He celebrated his 81st birthday with the traditional Thanksgiving turkey pardon.

One of the 150 companies Trump reported in 2020 was called “Unreimbursed expenses.” This company claimed losses of $438,000 through gift card redemptions, and the Joint Committee on Taxation called on the IRS to investigate.

Colin Farrell started his acceptance speech for his role in “The Banshees of Inisherin” at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards with a rave about presenter Ana de Armas’s appearance in the Netflix movie Blonde. He preceded to thank fellow cast members, including “Jenny, the donkey.”

30,000 Swarovski crystals and red body paint adorned Doja Cat’s head-to-toe look at Schiaparelli’s Couture Spring-Summer 2023 runway show in Paris on Jan. 23, 2023. The show was inspired by Dante’s “Inferno” and the nine circles of hell. It took almost five hours to complete this look.

M&M announced on Jan. 23, 2023, that they would take “an indefinite pause” from their “spokescandies” as they felt they were too divisive for a polarized country. Maya Rudolph is the new spokesperson for the brand.

How are the cartoon candies divisive?

Recently, M&M changed its characters’ shoes, replacing their green M&M heels with flats and swapping their brown M&M stilettos for smaller, more comfortable ones. Mars Wrigley also introduced a purple M&M in Sept. 2022, “celebrating women across the country who are flipping the status quo,” and figures on the right criticized it as “Woke M&M’s.”

On Feb. 1, 2023, Australian authorities found the capsule containing a radioactive substance that was lost during transportation from north of Newman to the north-eastern suburbs of Perth and reported on Jan. 25, 2023. The round and silver capsule measuring 6mm in diameter and 8mm tall, was searched for along a 1,400km (870-mile) section of the Great Northern Highway in the Western Australian desert – a distance longer than the Californian coastline.

How dangerous was it?

The missing capsule is a 19-GBq (a unit of radioactive decay) cesium-137 ceramic source used in radiation gauges. It emits beta and gamma radiation. An hour at a one-meter distance from the capsule is like getting 10 X-rays. The steel container prevents radioactive material from escaping, but contamination would be disastrous had it broken.

Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded actor Steven Seagal the Order of Friendship on February 27, 2023, for his “humanitarian work,” which included his cooperation with Russia and his adoration for Putin. Seagal got Russian citizenship after expressing admiration for Putin in 2016 and is known for backing the annexation of Crimea.

On March 17, 2023, scientists unveiled new data on the possible origins of the Covid-19 pandemic — and put this confusing creature in the spotlight. Raccoon dogs are members of the canine family, which includes domestic dogs but are most closely related to foxes. They are native to East Asia, including parts of China, Korea, and Japan. Raccoon dogs have long been farmed for their fur and sold for their meat in live animal markets. The animals were occasionally sold at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where many virologists suspect the Covid-19 pandemic may have started.

Former Florida school principal Hope Carrasquilla was given an ultimatum to resign or be terminated during an emergency meeting on March 20, 2023. This was after parents complained sixth graders were exposed to “pornography” during a lesson on Renaissance art that included Michelangelo’s “David” sculpture. The incident in Florida also prompted social media users to draw comparisons to a 1990s episode of “The Simpsons” where characters debate the censorship of the “David” statue.

In John Wick 4, Keanu Reeves speaks just 380 words in 2 hours and 49 minutes, as reported by Wall Street Journal. John Wick fans can rejoice as Lionsgate motion picture group chair Joe Drake told The Hollywood Reporter on March 26, 2023, that a fifth John Wick movie is back on the table. This follows the recent movie’s series-record opening at the global box office. Keanu Reeves will return to the character in the future, but not necessarily in the lead role. He will appear in Ballerina, the series’ first spinoff starring Ana de Armas. (This explanation is 100 words long.)

Netflix announced that it would end its DVD-by-mail service on Sept. 29, 2023, after shipping more than 5 billion discs over 25 years. Launched in 1998, the service was once Netflix’s biggest money maker but became obsolete in the video streaming era. Netflix split its DVD and streaming services in 2011, creating a separate website called DVD.com for its mail-order business. They stopped disclosing the number of DVD subscribers in 2018 as the service declined in popularity and profitability.

Lagerfeld fell in love with the Birman cat while cat-sitting over Christmas 2011 and decided to keep it. Choupette lived in luxury with Lagerfeld, flying on private jets, eating Goyard dishes, and having her own iPad. She also became a fashion icon, appearing on magazine covers and in ad campaigns for Chanel and other brands. Lagerfeld once said he wished to marry her. After Lagerfeld’s death in February 2019, Choupette inherited part of his fortune and became a social media star. At the Met Gala 2023, which honored Lagerfeld’s work and life, several celebrities paid tribute to Choupette. Doja Cat and Jared Leto dressed as the famous muse in white costumes and cat ears. Get more fun 2023 Met Gala trivia facts here.

Sauron is the main antagonist of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings fantasy series, seeking to conquer Middle-earth with his army of orcs and all-seeing eye. A team of scientists named an entire group of butterflies after him in a paper published in May 2023 because of the black rings on their orange hindwings, resembling Sauron’s eye. Saurona butterflies belong to a group called Euptychiina in the southwest Amazon rainforest.

Fun Fact: Sauron is not the only Lord of the Rings character to inspire species names; others include Gandalf, Gollum, and Bilbo. Sauron is also the name of a dung beetle, a frog, a dinosaur, and a galaxy.

The Queen’s Paddington Bear skit won the Most Memorable Moment Award at the Bafta TV Awards on May 14, 2023. The skit was created as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and featured the Queen and Paddington Bear having a dance-off. It marked the first time a royal won the public vote at the Bafta TV Awards.

Pelé, who won three World Cups with Brazil and scored over 1,000 goals in his career, died on Dec. 29, 2022, at 82. His body was placed in a golden casket and laid to rest in a mausoleum in Santos, where he played most of his club soccer.

Fun Facts: The mausoleum has two golden statues of Pelé, artificial grass, images of fans in a stadium, and an endless soundtrack of cheers. It opened to visitors on May 15, 2023. Fans visiting the mausoleum must book a time on the Memorial Cemetery website.

The traditional “Korean age” system considers the time spent in the womb as one year and adds another year every January 1, regardless of the actual birthday. This means some Koreans can be two years older than their international age. However, this system changed starting June 28, 2023, when South Korea adopted the international age system for all official documents. This means more than 51 million people have become younger overnight.

The much-anticipated Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was banned in Vietnam. The movie, set to hit Vietnamese – and worldwide – theaters on July 21, 2023, includes a scene featuring a map showing China’s controversial “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea. This line is a bone of contention between China and several other countries, including Vietnam. It extends Beijing’s territorial claims far into the waters claimed by these nations. The Vietnamese National Film Evaluation Council, finding this subplot unamusing, banned the movie on July 3.

The ITU held the world’s first-ever news conference with humanoid robots in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 7th, 2023. Nine robots and their creators were available for reporters’ questions at this “unprecedented media event.” This was part of the UN’s AI for Good Global Summit. The humanoid robots reassured human reporters at the event that they had no intention of overthrowing or replacing them. They did suggest they could be more efficient government leaders.

Techno Mechanicus Musk, affectionately dubbed “Tau,” was born in June 2022. Tau made his grand debut not in a tweet or a press release but in the pages of Elon Musk’s new biography, as chronicled by Walter Isaacson. While X Æ A-13 might’ve been the talk of the town in 2020, and Starship continues to aim for the stars, it’s Techno “Tau” Mechanicus who’s the latest buzz in the Musk household.

On Sept. 12, 2023, Kim Jong-Un, North Korea’s supreme leader, didn’t just hop on a plane or drive to Russia. Instead, he chose his dark green, luxuriously decorated armored train for a 20-hour journey to Vladivostok, Russia. This slow-moving fortress comes complete with reddish-pink leather armchairs and an average 60 kph (around 37 mph) speed. The grand purpose? Meeting with Vladimir Putin to talk about sending a North Korean cosmonaut into space, building satellites, and cooperation on military-technical matters. Kim Jong-un took the opportunity to express his full support for Russia’s “just fight.”

On Sept. 18, 2023, the US Military lost an advanced F-35B Lightning II jet, a plane so stealthy that even they couldn’t find it. So, in a move that sounds straight out of a sitcom, they turned to the most reliable source they could think of: the internet. Military officials made online appeals, asking the good folks of the internet to help them locate their pricey toy. The incident occurred over North Charleston, and while the pilot made a safe exit with a parachute, the $80 million jet seemed to have played an epic game of hide and seek. Searchers found the wreckage of the missing jet in South Carolina one day later.

In 2023, Paris and other French cities experienced a notable increase in bedbug infestations, leading to widespread public and mental health concerns. The French government, recognizing the severity of the issue, hosted emergency meetings to devise strategies to manage the situation, especially in light of the ongoing Rugby World Cup and the upcoming 2024 Olympics. Bedbugs, notorious for their blood-sucking habits, can cause physical discomfort and psychological distress despite not being carriers of diseases. The resurgence of these pests observed not just in France but globally, has been attributed to factors like globalization and bedbug adaptation to resist chemical eradication methods used in the past.

Jacob Chansley, who gained notoriety as the “QAnon Shaman” during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, is charting a completely different course in his life. After serving approximately 27 months in prison and being transferred to a halfway house in Phoenix in March 2023, Chansley has filed paperwork to run for Congress as a Libertarian in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District in November. This political aspiration comes after he disassociated himself from the QAnon movement.

Screenshot: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver / HBO

The Pūteketeke bird, known for its unique vomit-producing behavior, won the “Bird of the Century” contest organized by Forest & Bird, a conservation group in New Zealand. Comedian John Oliver played a significant role in the contest. He promoted the Pūteketeke bird on his show, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” encouraging viewers to vote for it. The competition, while humorous, served the serious purpose of raising awareness about New Zealand’s native birds and their conservation.