January 22 – The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first legally binding international agreement comprehensively to prohibit nuclear weapons, comes into effect. April 30– June 13 – A crush during a pilgrimage on Lag BaOmer, renewed violence during the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis and continuing problems with the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel precede the 2021 Israeli presidential election. October 8 – Israel's Security Cabinet formally declares war for the first time since the Yom Kippur War in 1973 on Hamas.

The NATO interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s, and the overthrow of several regimes during the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, led to mixed outcomes in the Arab world, resulting in several civil wars and political instability. Entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Richard Branson are working towards commercial space exploration, colonization and tourism, while China and India have made substantial strides in their space programs. At the subsequent papal conclave, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina is elected pope on March 13, becoming the first Latin American pope.

From January 2020 to May 2023, the COVID-19 pandemic began to rapidly spread worldwide, killing over 15 million people around the globe, [9] and causing severe global economic disruption, including the largest global recession since the Great Depression. Furthermore, the Holocene extinction event, the sixth most significant extinction event in the Earth's history, continues with the widespread degradation of highly biodiverse habitats as a by-product of human activity. In early 2018, news broke that malicious actors has infiltrated the world’s largest ID database, Aadhaar, exposing information on more than 1. June 26 – The Supreme Court of the United States determines that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry in a landmark case Obergefell v. Somewhat more variation existed in support for reforming the welfare system (around 75 percent support) and limiting affirmative action (around a third).

November 30 – Barbados becomes a republic by replacing Elizabeth II as Queen with Sandra Mason as president in the role of head of state. December 10 – Sanna Marin, at the age of 34, becomes the world's youngest serving prime minister after being selected to lead Finland's Social Democratic Party. November 14– 17 – President Biden hosts the APEC summit in San Francisco which Chinese president Xi Jinping attends, marking the first time since 2017 that Xi has set foot in the United States. Due to the sudden proliferation of internet-accessible mobile devices, such as smartphones becoming ubiquitous worldwide beginning in the early 2010s, more than half of the world's population obtained access to the Internet by 2018.It is the most powerful hurricane to make landfall in Mexico, with the highest winds reaching 165 mph, surpassing Hurricane Patricia's landfall in 2015. September 10 – Storm Daniel, a Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone makes landfall in Libya, killing at least 5,000 people, with Libyan authorities announcing between 10,000 and 100,000 missing. February 20 – 2002 El Ayyat railway accident: A train fire in El Ayyat, Egypt kills at least 370 people.

October 27 – Catalonia declares independence from Spain, [76] but the declaration is not recognized by the Spanish government or any other sovereign nation. March 4 – UN member states agree on a legal framework for the High Seas Treaty, which aims to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.

May 12 – The Title 42 expulsion policy expires at midnight, creating a question about whether a new immigration policy would be formed as a replacement.

The need for majority-minority electoral districts will decline as whites discover that a black representative could represent them. July 16 – The European Parliament elects Ursula von der Leyen as the new president of the European Commission. An article by New York Times attributed the attack to a Chinese intelligence group seeking to gather data on US citizens.We've got cards to celebrate turning 21 from great designers like Quentin Blake, Alex Clark and BellyButton Designs. President Nicolás Maduro and other senior Venezuelan officials are among those implicated in the charges.