2024: The most important events that marked the world the year it left

2024 in a few hours will be a past, but many important events will be remembered by this by being one of the names that dominated. Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential election, Bashar al-Assad’s fall in Syria the Paris Olympic Games are three of 13 events that marked the year of 2024, according to an account-review of the French Agency. CORVERSE After Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, Israel continued its military offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, eliminating many of its high-ranking officials, and the conflict extended to Lebanon against Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. Israel launched in September an intensive bombing campaign against the Lebanese Islamist movement supported by Iran and then land attack on the southern part of the country against its strongholds. In retaliation for the death of Hamas leader Ishmael Haniya in Tehran in an explosion, the responsibility for which was attributed to Israel, and for the death of Hezbollah Hassan’s leader Nasrala, Iran launched on 1 October 200 missiles against Israel, which hit, in response, military facilities in Iran. CORVERSE After two months of open war between Israel and Hezbollah, a fragile ceasefire agreement came into force on 27 November in Lebanon. At least 4,000 people have been killed there since October 2023, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military retaliation campaign caused at least 45,000 deaths, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas government’s Health Ministry for Gaza, which are considered reliable by the UN. The enclave, where 62 hostages believed to be alive are still being held, has plunged into a serious humanitarian crisis. In Syria, a lightning attack by a coalition of rebels led by the radical Islamist organization Hayat Tahrir al Sam (HTS), launched on 27 November, led within a few days to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, a country devastated after 13 years of civil war. Abandoned by his allies, Iran and Russia, Assad fled to Moscow. One of the most powerful symbols of Damascus’s fall was the release of prisoners from the notorious Sentnaya prison, where thousands of rivals of the Assad dynasty had been imprisoned, tortured and murdered, who were in power for over 50 years. In response to the concerns of Syrian minorities and the international community, given the jihadist past of some guerrilla organizations, including HTS, the new government, which has been charged with the transition, has assured that the rights of all Syrians, regardless of religious beliefs, will be guaranteed in the country. Israel launched hundreds of blows against military facilities in Syria, saying it wanted to prevent the possibility of “fall into the hands of terrorist elements” weapons depots, and took control of the neutral zone at the limits of the annexed section of the Golan Highlands. In the United States, Donald Trump, although characterized by his opponents as a danger to democracy, won on 5 November an unquestionable victory over Democratic Kamala Harris, who emerged as a candidate urgently in July after the withdrawal from the eighty-year-old outgoing president Joe Biden race. While polls predicted a bilateral result, Donald Trump won the seven states considered the most bilateral and is the first Republican president in 20 years to win the popular vote. He also controls both bodies of Congress. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo The 78-year-old Republican, whose campaign was marked by two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction, will take office on January 20th. Among the personalities that will follow him to the top of power is billionaire Elon Musk, who contributed greatly to funding his campaign. Following its fruitless counterattack in 2023, Ukraine, in which Russia invaded on 24 February 2022, launched a surprise attack from the summer on the border Russian region of Kursk. But this operation failed to force Russia to extract troops from eastern Ukraine, as Kiev hoped. Moscow responded with deadly blows, bringing to a dire position the smaller in number and less well-equipped Ukrainian forces, mainly on the eastern front of Donbas. Westerners, Kiev and Seoul spoke of North Korean reinforcements to Russian forces. Kiev began in November using American and British long-range missiles against Russian territory, after securing Washington and London’s license. Russia responded by hitting Ukraine with the last-generation Orechnik missile, without a nuclear head, and warned that it could repeat it, even bombarding military targets of European countries arming Kiev. He carried out a massive attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in late November. In recent weeks, Moscow has stepped up the blows in southern Ukraine, strengthening fears of a new land attack in the region. In Russia, Vladimir Putin began his fifth term in May, following his victory in the presidential election, which the West denounced as a parody of democracy. His most famous opponent, Alexei Navalni, died in February under unclear conditions in the prison of the Russian Arctic Circle where he served a long prison sentence for “extremism”. On August 1, the Western and Russia advanced to the largest exchange of prisoners after the end of the Cold War: among those released were American journalist Evan Gershkovic and former Marine Paul Willan, as well as Russian dissidents. Since then, the pressure has not been relaxed for the opposers in the war, with many persecutions being exercised for “damaging”, “treason” or “terror” that impose heavy penalties. The Paris Olympic Games were during the summer a parade of welcome celebration, with the impressive opening ceremony in the Seine and the return of Celine Dion who performed with tears in the eyes “Hymnos in Love”. The heat records, due to climate change, continued to succeed each other, with a sequence of heats, droughts, and lethal flooding. In West and Central Africa, a period of severe rainfall caused at least 1,500 deaths, according to the International Immigration Organisation (IM). Extreme weather phenomena and floods multiplied in autumn around the world: the Boris storm struck Central Europe, Hurricane Helene hit the southeastern US, Hurricanes Yagi and Bebinka caused major disasters in Asia. Historical flooding caused major disasters in southern and eastern Spain, mainly in Valencia. In the Indian Ocean, Cyclone Shindo caused huge disasters in mid-December in the French archipelago of Mayotte. China has announced a development support package, such as a reduction in basic interest rates or an increase in the debt limit of local authorities. The second largest economy in the world sees growth slowed down due to the real estate crisis and a free consumption of households, which it seeks to strengthen. It also has thorny commercial differences with the US and the European Union: Washington strengthened American tariffs on various products (electric cars, batteries, solar panels or components) and Brussels imposed high tariffs on electric cars imported from China. Beijing responded with “temporary anti-dumping measures” on EU brandy, including cognac. Donald Trump confirmed that one of the first economic measures he will take will be to increase customs duties on products imported from various countries, including China. In Senegal, Bashiru Diomage became at the age of 44 the youngest president since independence in 1960, after his election in March with the promise of a radical change. The results of his employment rate policy are particularly expected in a country where 75% of the population is under 35 years of age. In Kenya, the protest movement led by the Z generation (of young people born after 1997) forced President William Ruto to withdraw in late June a not popular draft budget and move on to reform his government. The mobilisation of a youth thirsting for change also resulted in Botswana, contributing in late October to the opposition’s historic victory over the power party since independence in 1966. The June European elections confirmed the rise of the nationalist and extreme right in France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands and Italy. In Austria, Parliament first elected a far right-wing president in late October, following the historic victory of the Austrian Free Party (FPÖ) in the September parliamentary elections. In France, a democratic front formed in the face of the early summer parliamentary elections announced by President Emanuel Macron, prevented the rise in power of the National Alarm (RN), but the absence of a clear majority caused a political crisis. Laurent Cipriani/Pol via REUTERS The far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the regional elections in Thuringia for the first time in September and achieved historically high rates in two other states. Dozens of cities in England and Northern Ireland were shocked during the summer by anti-immigration riots fueled by far-right instigators. After being named a successor to Hugo Chavez in 2013, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro won a third six-year term on 28 July, in a vote whose results were contested by the opposition and internationally, especially by Washington. Brazilian president Luis Inassio Lula da Silva blocked Venezuela’s entry into the group of emerging BRICS countries in October. After announcing his victory, spontaneous protests brutally suppressed the death of 28 people and the injury of 200 others, while 2,400 people were arrested. Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Uroutia fled to Spain and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado lives in a hidden location. Maduro will be sworn in on January 10th. Social media practices began to be closely monitored by authorities in 2024. Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was examined in France, with justice accusing him of not taking action against the spread of criminal content in the implementation. The operation of X (formerly Twitter) was suspended in Brazil for 40 days beginning in August, as its owner, Elon Musk, refused to close dozens of far-right accounts accused of spreading false news. The service came back when the demands placed by the Supreme Court in connection with the battle against misinformation were met. Photo by Reuters In the US, a law passed in April obliges the Chinese company owned by TikTok, ByteDance, to divest by 19 January the social media – accused of allowing Chinese authorities to collect data from American users – Otherwise the platform will be banned on American soil. The Supreme Court will previously examine the constitutionality of the law. For its part, the European Union is conducting an investigation into whether TikTok opened the door to possible Russian manipulation of the presidential elections cancelled in Romania. American singer Taylor Swift completed in December in Canada her major world tour. Starting in March 2023 in the US, the tour brought revenue of at least $2 billion, a record, according to the American professional magazine Pollstar. The pop star had started in Paris in May and completed in London the European section of this “Eras Tour”, attracting hundreds of thousands of fans. The three concerts in Vienna were however cancelled after revealing a suicide attack plan.