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The MeToo movement, Trump-Russia probe and the historic meeting between leaders of the two Koreas dominated the headlines in 2018. While Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping cemented their position in Russia and China respectively, German’s Angela Merkel announced that she would step down as the chancellor in 2021. In Australia, Scott Morrison became the prime minister, while Brazil saw the rise of right with Jair Bolsanoro being chosen as the President-elect.
As 2018 draws to a close, here is a look back at the 18 events that created buzz this year.
In the first-ever meet between the leaders of the US and North Korea, Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un met in Singapore in June this year and pledged to work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. The ‘bonhomie’ between the two leaders also continued throughout the year, with Trump claiming that they “fell in love” after exchanging letters. A second meet between the two is on cards in early 2019.
In a first for any member of the Kim dynasty since 1953, Kim Jong Un in April crossed over to the southern side of the world’s most heavily armed border to meet rival South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Later, Korean families separated by war, reunited briefly at a North Korean resort for three days.
When a dozen young soccer players of the ‘Wild Boars’ and their coach ventured into a cave in Thailand to explore, little did they know that the entire world would watch them as they made their way out. Torrential rain pushed the team deep inside the Tham Luang cave, where they were stranded for more than two weeks with depleting oxygen and without any supplies.
The Thai Navy Seal Unit, foreign divers and experts from across the world raced against ‘time and water’ to save the boys. One by one divers pulled the boys, who were sedated, through narrow, dark and water-filled passageways to the cave’s entrance. The daring rescue operations got the attention of a global audience, drawing support from US President Trump, football star Lionel Messi, tech guru Elon Musk (who showed up with his ‘mini-sub’) among others. A Navy official lost his life during the process.
In October, Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul only to get some documentation for his wedding. He never came out alive. In the days that followed, Riyadh told various stories about what had happened, finally admitting that he was killed in a brawl by Saudi officials inside the consulate. The killing sparked global outrage with many critics pointing fingers at crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman under whose leadership political dissidents and human rights activists have been repressed. Turkey called for an international inquiry to get a clear picture of the journalist’s last moments. The divergent narratives about the death have left the US stuck between two allies, though President Trump has backed status quo.
The #MeToo movement, which surfaced late in 2017, reverberated across the globe in 2018 as well. Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was charged with rape and popular comedian Bill Cosby was sentenced to prison for sexual harassment. The campaign also reached India where prominent names – editor-turned-politician MJ Akbar, actor Alok Nath, singer Kailash Kher, celebrity consultant Suhel Seth – cropped up in sexual harassment cases. This reignited conversations about sexual abuse, male gaze and the deep-rooted misogyny in the country.
Imran Khan, the “Captain” who led Pakistan to its first World Cup victory in 1992, became the Prime Minister, 22 years after watching the political action from the margins. Vowing to create a “new Pakistan that Jinnah dreamed of,” Khan also called for resolving the Kashmir conflict. “If India takes one step towards us, we will take two, but at least need a start,” he said.
Meanwhile, former PM Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam were sentenced to a 10-year-jail in one of the three corruption cases against him in the high-profile Panama Papers scandal. Calling the judgment a “very small price to pay” to save the sanctity of vote in Pakistan, Sharif returned to Lahore from London. The duo were later granted bail.
Weeks after a bitter debate over sexual harassment allegations, the US Senate in October confirmed Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court – Brett Kavanaugh. Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school. While millions of Americans watched on TV, senators heard testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford. His confirmation provides a defining accomplishment for Trump and the Republican Party, which found a unifying force in the cause of putting a new conservative majority on the court.
Amid protests over Brexit, Theresa May postponed a vote on the agreement she had negotiated with the European Union to January, acknowledging that it would be defeated by “a significant margin.” This sparked a no-confidence motion against her. Her government was also found in contempt of Parliament for failing to release the advice her government’s lawyers on Brexit. Britain’s exit is due to happen on March 19, 2019, regardless of whether there is a deal with EU or not. Will it happen or won’t it – is the question we will look forward to in 2019.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena reinstated Ranil Wickremesinghe as the prime minister last week, bringing an end to the power struggle in the island nation. The tussle began after Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe and instead named Mahinda Rajapakse as prime minister in October. Ranil refused to vacate the spot, leaving the country with two claimants to the prime minister’s post and no functioning government. Wickremesinghe’s dismissal was overturned after fierce opposition from the Sri Lankan court and legislature which called it “illegal.”
Hyperinflation, mass food shortage and astute poverty drove millions of people out of this once rich oil reserve country. Of the 2.3 million Venezuelans living abroad, more than 1.6 million have fled the country since the crisis began in 2015, according to the UN. The mass influx of people into neighbouring Columbia, China, Ecquador has triggered a humanitarian crisis.
In a first, women in Saudi Arabia took to the driver’s seat and steered their way through the streets after the Kingdom lifted the ban on female drivers on June 24. However, activists involved in the “Right to Drive” campaign were imprisoned for working with “foreign entities,” days before the ban was lifted. According to activists, the arrests were made to stop the women from “publicly claiming success” and stealing the credit from the government, Reuters reported. Ahead of allowing women to drive, the kingdom passed a law against sexual harassment with up to five years prison for the most severe cases.
In another news, the Kingdom also opened its first cinema hall in over three decades and also declared Yoga as a sport
Thousands of protesters burned effigies, clashed with police, indulged in vandalism in one of the worst street riots seen in Paris since 1968. The anger coursing through French streets has put President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership to test. Under the Gas tax, the trigger behind the riots, the price of diesel was hiked by almost 20 per cent. After the protests, the government suspended planned increases to fuel taxes for at least six months.
The United States and China called for a temporary truce on the escalating trade war between the two economies and agreed to suspend imposition of any new tariffs. President Trump shelved the plan to increase the existing tariff from 10 to 25 per cent scheduled to begin from January 1. Trump earlier this year said he wanted to stop the “unfair transfers of American technology and intellectual property to China”.
On the other hand, the US pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal and announced the return of economic sanctions on the country. It also targeted Iran’s lifeline – oil by imposing sanctions on it. Later, waivers were granted to eight countries including India.
Natural disasters around the world put the focus back on climate change this year. Nearly 200 countries at the COP 24 in Poland, adopted a rulebook to implement Paris Agreement the landmark 2015 global pact to fight climate change. While welcoming the finalisation of the rulebook, India and many other developing countries rued the fact that the “balance” that they would have liked to see in the agreement was missing.
In Indonesia, more than 1200 people were killed after a 7.5 -magnitude earthquake struck the coast of Sulawesi island in September. It triggered waves as high as 20 feet, which surprised the scientists. Another Tsunami hit the island nation on December 23. In California, the colossal wildfire was finally contained after it displaced thousands of people. The Camp Fire – the nation’s deadliest in a century – was contained within 153,336 acres, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, more than half of Puerto Rico was left without electricity, for almost an entire year
As against 2017 which was the safest year in history for commercial airlines, 2018 has seen its share of fatalities in numerous aviation tragedies. Minutes after takeoff, a Lion Air flight with 188 passengers on board crashed into the Indonesian seas in October. In May this year, 110 of the 113 aboard were killed after a Boeing passenger jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Havana. At least 49 people were killed and 12 critically injured as a US-Bangla aircraft with 71 people including four crew members on board crash-landed in Kathmandu in April and erupted in flames.
In the US, gun violence continued to remain a concern. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were about 334 mass shootings in the US in the last 365 days. After the Florida school shooting, a group of student survivors launched the March for Our Lives movement that organized massive walkouts and peaceful protests at schools across the country, demanding tough gun laws.
Children split from parents, teargas fired on refugees and asylum seekers turned away from the border – immigration was a dominant issue in the US in 2018. The US government, earlier this year, was under fire for separating families who seek asylum by crossing the border illegally.
Meanwhile, a trail of migrants from Central America, some on foot and few by vehicles were forced to wait at the Mexico border. The Trump administration responded by narrowing who is eligible, declaring that neither those escaping gang violence or domestic abuse nor those who cross the border illegally qualify. Both changes have been blocked by federal courts.
The Yemeni civil war entered its fourth year in 2018. In October, a picture of a malnourished 7-year-old published in The New York Times turned the attention of the world towards the war-torn country. Amal Hussain, died a week later in November. Considered to be one of the worst humanitarian crisis, over 50,000 Yemenis are said to have died because of the war-induced famine. Recently, the United States and Britain, Saudi Arabia’s biggest arms suppliers, called for a cease-fire in Yemen. The US also confirmed that it would soon withdraw its troops from Syria.
Once considered a global hero, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi today is the face of a regime that has jailed journalists, excused a “genocidal” campaign against Rohingya Muslims and let hundreds die in a military-led ethnic cleansing campaign. Amnesty International stripped Myanmar’s de facto leader of its highest honour, the Ambassador of Conscience Award.
Suu Kyi also came under fire for defending the jailing of two Reuters journalists who had been reporting on brutal crackdown and alleged ethnic cleansing in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. The duo were sentenced to seven years of imprisonment under the official secrets law.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the US House Commerce Committee to explain the social media platform’s role in the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal – that left information of over 50 million users exposed. The data was later used to swing the voters in the run-up to the 2016 US Presidential election. The company that was already scrambling to win the users’ trust, was hit with another data scandal in October this year when information of 30 million people was stolen.
Google’s Sundar Pichai came under the scanner too and was questioned by the US Judiciary Committee about the company’s plans for a separate search engine in China, allegations of bias against conservative sites and content, as well as the company’s privacy practices and whether it is tracking users.
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