Hello! This is the final newsletter of the year 2021 — a year that we thought would see the world return to a great degree of normalcy. How wrong we were about that.
Now as the year ends, we are left fighting another variant of the novel coronavirus and looking for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots. As I type this, daily infections in multiple European nations and the United States are at an all-time high. India’s largest cities have started registering a spike. China has placed a city of 13 million people under a strict lockdown. The list goes on.
I’m dedicating this edition of the newsletter to looking back at the year of many ups and downs. Some moments brought the world closer, others dragged us further apart.
Before we begin: I’m aware that some of you didn’t receive the newsletter in your primary inbox in the last two weeks. The email went into the promotions or spam folders instead. This has been a common problem with a lot of newsletters. While there’s currently no way to ensure these emails land in your primary inbox, I’d like to remind you of a popular fix for this problem: manually move these emails into the primary inbox a few times when possible. Empirical evidence supports this jugaad. I really want to thank you all for your patience with this.
This day that year
2019: The World Health Organization (WHO) was first informed about “viral pneumonia” cases in China’s Wuhan. This was the COVID-19 disease, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. You know what happened next.
1999: The United States formally handed over control of the Panama Canal to the country of Panama. The Panama Canal Zone was an unincorporated territory of the US from the early 1900s until 1979.
Reviewing 2021
January
Supporters of US president Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building to disrupt formal certification of the presidential election result. The incident was classified as a domestic terrorist attack and led to Trump being impeached for an unprecedent second time by the House of Representatives on charges of inciting the insurrection.
Former vice president and winner of the presidential polls, Joe Biden, was inaugurated as the 46th US president.
February
Myanmar’s military staged a coup d’état, ousting state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. The coup sparked widespread protests within the country and drew international condemnation.
The US rejoined the Paris climate agreement.
March
One of the largest container ships in the world, Ever Given, obstructed the Suez Canal in Egypt after running aground. Even though the ship was salvaged within six days, the incident disrupted global trade for weeks.
April
Raúl Castro, the brother of Fidel Castro, resigned as First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party. This ended the Castro brothers’ 62-year grip on the country. Miguel Díaz-Canel succeeded him.
By April 24, more than a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered across the world. Half of those had been administered in China, India and the US alone.
May
Second wave of COVID-19 infections peaked in India, becoming the first country to report more than 400,000 new cases in a 24-hour period (technically on April 30). By May 24, the country had reported three lakh deaths since the pandemic started (one lakh of these were recorded in the previous 26 days).
Violence broke out between Israeli defence forces and Hamas, the outfit that controls Palestinian territory of Gaza. Hundreds of combatants and civilians were killed on both sides. An Israeli airstrike destroyed a building in the Gaza Strip housing offices of Associated Press and Al Jazeera, among other news media organisations. Israeli forces claimed the tower had contained military assets of Hamas' intelligence offices.
June
Israeli politicians Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid agreed to form a coalition government to remove Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister of Israel, from power.
El Salvador’s parliament passes legislation to adopt cryptocurrency Bitcoin as the country’s legal tender alongside the US Dollar — the first nation to do so. The formal adoption happened in September.
July
Haitian president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his home, throwing the poverty-stricken country deeper into a political crisis.
In an action widely termed a coup by his opponents, Tunisian President Kais Saied suspended the parliament, sacking the prime minister and took control of the country.
August
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the first part of its landmark Sixth Assessment Report. It concluded that effects of climate change caused by humans were now “widespread, rapid and intensifying”.
The Taliban captured Afghan capital Kabul as the government capitulated without a fight. This happened as the US winded up its 20-year war and left the country. The withdrawal was itself chaotic.
September
Australia, the UK and the US announce trilateral security pact AUKUS to counter growing Chinese influence. This caused tensions with France, which consequently lost out on a mega deal to build conventional submarines for Australia.
The German federal election resulted in a hung Bundestag but gave Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats a lead and chance to form a coalition government with smaller parties such as Greens and Free Democrats. After weeks of negotiations, Scholz became the German chancellor in December replacing Angela Merkel who had decided not to continue after governing the European nation for 16 years.
October
Fumio Kishida became the 100th Prime Minister of Japan after securing the ruling party’s leadership position. Kishida succeeded Yoshihide Suga and then successfully led the dominant Liberal Democratic Party in the general election later that month.
Sudan’s military staged a coup d’état to remove Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. The military leadership led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dissolved the government, prevailing arrangements with the civil society and declared a state of emergency. Hamdok was reinstated as the prime minister in November.
The WHO endorsed the first vaccine against malaria. It’s said to have at least 75 percent efficacy.
November
The WHO designated a new SARS-CoV-2 strain a ‘variant of concern’ and named it Omicron. Early study showed that the variant, first identified in South Africa, was seemingly more infectious than Delta — the dominant strain in most parts of the world at that time. Eventually, in less than a month, Omicron became the dominant coronavirus variant in multiple countries, forcing them to introduce stricter combative measures.
Barbados removed Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state on its 55th anniversary of independence to become a republic. It opted to remain a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, like other republics such as India and Pakistan.
December
Gabriel Boric, a tattooed 35-year-old, was elected Chile’s next president after a tense election campaign.
Cases of COVID-19 surged in Europe ahead of the holiday season, sparking concerns of another wave in other parts of the world. More countries streamlined policies for administering vaccine booster doses.
More stories are available in the Untwined archive here.
Pin it on the map
Time for some head scratching: This satellite image shows the capital of a Pacific island nation. In 2011, the country skipped the date December 30. That is, after December 29, it directly jumped into December 31 — effectively never being in December 30. What country is this?
The correct answer is at the bottom.
What else this week?
Ukraine crisis: Biden, Putin exchange warnings
This reminds me of numerous scenes from House of Cards wherein US president Francis Underwood spars with Russian president Viktor Petrov.
On December 30, Russian president Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Joe Biden warned each other over the Ukraine crisis. Heavy Russian military deployment along the Ukrainian border has sent alarm bells ringing in Washington DC and other capitals of the West. They are not rejecting the possibility of the Russians invading Ukraine as early as next month. We had discussed this in detail earlier.
The 50-minute telephonic conversation was the second direct interaction between the two leaders this month. But they ended up merely reiterating their positions and there was no breakthrough. The Biden administration has warned of “costs and consequences” if Russia invades Ukraine. Putin has said that imposition of such “unprecedented sanctions” may lead to a “complete breakdown in ties” between the two nations.
The latest conversation came ahead of a US-Russia security meeting on January 9-10, Russia-NATO meeting on January 12, and a conference involving Russia, the US and European nations on January 13.
S. Korean presidential candidate seeks nuclear-powered subs
Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate from South Korea’s ruling party, told Reuters and other news outlets that he will seek American support to build nuclear-powered submarines. This is meant to counter threats from its neighbour North Korea. The move would be seen by Pyongyang as unfavourable.
While Lee also pledged to set aside “strategic ambiguity” amid a growing Chinese challenge, Reuters quoted him as saying that pragmatic diplomacy would stop South Korea from getting dragged into the brewing China-US rivalry. Lee cited the US and the United Kingdom helping Australia with nuclear-powered submarines as part of the AUKUS deal announced earlier this year.
President Moon Jae-in’s tenure will conclude in March 2022 (constitution doesn’t allow re-election) when the next presidential elections are scheduled for. Lee, running as the candidate of Moon’s Democratic Party is expected to face tough competition from Yoon Seok-youl of the People Power Party. The two parties dominate South Korean politics. The election outcome will obviously have a major impact on geopolitics of the Korean peninsula as the two Koreas still technically remain at war and continue to share mutual distrust.
Lee said he won’t retain Moon’s policy of strategic ambiguity between the country’s ally the US and largest trading partner China, Reuters report suggests.
Interesting stuff
Is the central London house where Queen Elizabeth II was born, a Chinese restaurant today? BBC News’ Royal Correspondent Sean Coughlan has tried to find out. Also, why hasn’t the place become a tourist attraction? The answers aren’t straightforward. Read the full story here: The mystery of the home where the Queen was born
Also, take a look at The New York Times’ annual ‘The Year in Pictures’ photo gallery. These pictures from around the world, recapping the year, capture the “Visions of a Volatile World”.
‘Pin it on the map’ answer: The image shows the satellite view of Apia, the capital of Samoa (not to be confused with American Samoa). Samoa — situated mid-way in the Pacific Ocean between US’ Hawaii and New Zealand — deliberately skipped December 30, 2011 to jump ahead by one day. It was an attempt to streamline processes with its major trade partners Australia and New Zealand. Tokelau, a dependent territory of New Zealand, situated north of Samoa did the same.
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