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.

A new UN report concedes the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C limit will be crossed within years. What happens next is called "overshoot" — and it will shape climate policy for the rest of the century.

Kosovo has been recognized by roughly 100 UN member states since declaring independence in 2008, but it has never formally applied to join the United Nations. Here's the veto math that makes an application pointless.

A giant flag lit into a Mediterranean mountainside marks a state almost nobody recognizes. In 2026, renewed UN and EU diplomacy is testing whether that finally changes.