NewsTracker Answers for week of July 21, 2025

Q: Faced with an aggressive Russia and wavering U.S. support for NATO, the United Kingdom (UK) strengthened its defense ties with Germany last week, following an earlier agreement to coordinate with France on their nuclear deterrents. Where are the UK, Germany, and France?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 alarmed European leaders, particularly those on Russia’s borders. What Nordic nation bordering Russia joined NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) after the invasion?

A. Finland

B. Norway

C. Sweden

D. All of the above


A. Finland shares an 830-mile border with Russia, and it joined NATO in 2023. Finland’s neighbor, Sweden, gained NATO membership a year later. Sweden does not border Russia, but Norway has a 121-mile border with Russia in the far north. Norway was a founding member of NATO in 1949.


Q: On occasion, President Donald Trump called NATO “obsolete” and expressed doubts about defending other members of the alliance. The NATO provision calling for members to defend any ally when attacked has been invoked only once. It happened after which terrorist attack?

A. Berlin 12/19/2016

B. London 7/7/2005

C. New York 9/11/2001

D. Paris 11/13/2015


C. The North Atlantic Council voted to invoke NATO’s collective self-defense provisions after the September 11 attack killed 2,977 people. Islamist terrorists hijacked four airliners, crashing two of them into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one into a Pennsylvania field. Most casualties were in New York.


Q: Since taking office in January, the Trump administration delayed aid to Ukraine and blamed its president for the war with Russia. Who has committed more military, financial, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine?

A. Europe

B. United States


A. European nations committed a total of $387.2 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia’s full invasion. The United States committed $128 billion, the biggest contribution by any single nation. Germany, France, and the UK were the next largest individual contributors.


Q: Most NATO nations have pledged to increase defense spending, but many citizens have said they are reluctant to fight for their countries. Which NATO nation has the largest percentage of its people defending their country in military, reserve, and paramilitary forces?

A. Estonia

B. Finland

C. Norway

D. United States


A. For every 1,000 Estonians, 58.2 of them are enrolled in the forces to defend the small Baltic nation from its huge Russian neighbor. It’s 47.8 defenders per 1,000 people in Finland; 11.9 in Norway; and 6.2 in the United States. Estonia also committed 4% of its GDP to aid Ukraine, a bigger share of its wealth than any other nation. The United States spent 0.55% of its GDP.