From the Philippines to Norway to Mexico, the date a country celebrates freedom is often not the date it actually became free. It's the date the story became worth telling.

Six reserved UN seats belong to the Holy See, which can speak and ratify treaties but has never asked for a vote, a choice traced to a wary 1944 letter from Washington.

The UN's opening date isn't chosen fresh each year. It's the output of a decades-old scheduling formula, and this year's session carries an unusually high-stakes agenda.

As Iran and Oman close in on a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the real story is why Washington and Tehran still can't talk to each other directly, and why Muscat always ends up in the room.

North Korea and the United States have never recognized each other's governments, not for a single day since 1948. A Swedish embassy and a UN channel in New York are still the only lines either side keeps open.

Washington keeps a Marine-guarded compound in Taipei that does everything an embassy does except carry the name. The reason dates to a single 1979 decision that still shapes US-Taiwan relations.