The Year that was, remembering 2024

THE TIMES KUWAIT REPORT

As the 24th year of the third millennium draws to a close, we take a look at some of the events that made their way to media headlines in 2024. The incessant flow of news, thanks to 24-hour cable television news channels and online media, meant that we were inundated by the good and bad news of 2024, as well as by events that scarred the collective conscience of humanity.

The steady stream of information, as well as misinformation and disinformation, covered a mind-boggling array of stories from dismal crises, conflicts, and catastrophes, to uplifting ones on human achievements in science, sports, and space, as well as on humanitarian initiatives that supported millions of distraught, displaced people worldwide.

Throughout the year, major armed conflicts that overflowed from 2023 continued unabated. From the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the civil wars in Sudan and Myanmar, to simmering insurgencies in other parts of the world. Meanwhile, the ongoing Israel–Hamas war in Palestine saw it spillover into several countries, most notably into Lebanon. These human-induced catastrophes claimed tens of thousands of lives and devastated millions of livelihoods all over the world.

However, more than wars and conflicts, the year gone by will probably be best remembered as a super election-cycle year, with a quarter of the global population going to the polls in 2024. As of mid-December, over 1.6 billion eligible voters in 73 countries, home to more than 3.7 billion people, cast votes to elect representatives to their national legislatures. Voters in four out of the five most populous nations in the world—India, United States, Indonesia, and Pakistan— as well as voters in France, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom headed to polling booths this year.

But 2024 was not just about elections and evolving conflicts; the year gone by also witnessed its fair share and more, of climate-related devastations, including torrential rains, floods, fires, droughts and famines that claimed lives worldwide. However, 2024 was not just bad news all the way, humanity had its highlights as well. The uplifting Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games were held this year, as were breakthrough achievements in medicine and health, in science, in space, and in artificial intelligence.

So without further ado, let us take a look at some of the happenings that shaped narratives around the world in 2024.

1 January: The year begins with the entry of Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as new members of the five-nation BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia. India, China, and South Africa. With the expansion, the bloc now represents more than 3.7 billion people, or close to half of the global population; accounts for an economy worth over US$28 trillion; and holds 30 percent of the world’s oil.

The first day of the year also witnessed people living in the Noto Peninsula, along the western coast of Japan, experiencing a 7.5 Mww earthquake that killed at least 462 people and injured 1,344 others.

19 January: Japan becomes the fifth country to break into the exclusive club of nations that have successfully landed spacecraft on the Moon, with its SLIM mission achieving a soft landing on the Moon.

8 February: The general election in Pakistan leads to Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) returning as prime minister for the second time, with support from a coalition of parties that include the Pakistan People’s Party and others. Independent candidates backed by former prime minister Imran Khan’s party wins a plurality of seats but fails to gather a majority in the assembly.

22 February: The ‘Nova-C Lander’ owned by Intuitive Machines, a US-based private company becomes the first commercial vehicle to land on the Moon

13 March: The European Union passes the world’s first comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for Artificial Intelligence, the ‘Artificial Intelligence Act’.

15–17 March: Russian presidential election leads to incumbent Vladimir Putin being reelected as Russian President for a fifth term.

25 March: The UN Security Council passes a resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

15–17 April: Torrential rains over parts of Iran and the south-eastern Arabian Peninsula lead to flash floods that cause the death of at least 48 people across the area. Although Oman and the UAE are the worst affected, with the UAE witnessing its heaviest rains in 75 years, the cascading downpour also causes havoc in Bahrain, Qatar, and eastern Saudi Arabia.

29 April: In Brazil, heavy floods in the state of Rio Grande do Sul causes dozens of deaths and leaves thousands homeless. Further afield, in Africa, 50 people are killed, and 84 reported missing, when a railway embankment fails near Mai Mahiu, Kenya. This adds to the woes caused by floods in that country and neighboring Tanzania, which leads to the death of 488 people and displacement of over half a million.

30 April: The G7 group of countries—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—agree to phase out ‘unabated’ coal power by 2030–2035. Unabated coal power refers to power derived from coal without the use of technologies to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions .

10 May: United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passes a resolution to grant the State of Palestine the right to be seated among member states in the Assembly.

20 May: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeks arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar over alleged war crimes. Four days later on 24 May, the UN’s highest court the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rules that Israel must halt its military offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza.

29 May: South African general election sees the ANC party failing to win a majority of the vote for the first time in the country’s post-apartheid history. However, two weeks later, on 14 June, the party formed a national unity government with support from the Democratic Alliance and other parties, with Cyril Ramaphosa of ANC retaining his post as President of South Africa.

1 June: Indian general election, which began on April 19 and concluded on 1 June results in the incumbent ruling party, the BJP, losing its majority in the Lok Sabha (Parliament), but its electoral alliance, the National Democratic Alliance retains majority, and Narendra Modi is sworn-in as Prime Minister of India for a third term..

1–29 June: India wins the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States.

6–9 June: Election to the European Parliament is held across the European Union. The EPP, of incumbent Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, retains its status as the largest group in parliament amid notable gains by far-right political groups.

23 June: A severe heat wave during the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, results in the death of more than 1,300 people. .

24 June: Australian activist and founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is freed from prison in the United Kingdom, after spending the last 12 years in the UK, first as a refugee in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012, and then from 2019 as a prisoner in a British jail. The United States had sought his extradition from the UK, under its Espionage Act for publishing a series of leaks from Chelsea Manning, a US Army intelligence analyst in 2010.

4 July: General election in the United Kingdom sees Keir Starmer lead the Labour Party to a landslide victory, the first time in 14 years that his party had won a general election,

5 July: Early presidential election in Iran, due to the death of incumbent president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on 19 May, results in Masoud Pezeshkian being elected as president of Iran.

7 July: French legislative election sees the left-wing New Popular Front win the most seats in the National Assembly, upsetting a first-round victory by the far-right National Rally, but the Front fails to achieve a majority.

19 July: A faulty update to the Falcon Sensor security software, distributed by American cybersecurity company CrowdStrike causes widespread problems with systems running the software. Around 8.5 million systems worldwide crashed and were unable to properly restart, in what has been called the largest outage in the history of information technology.

26 July–11 August: France hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and in metropolitan cities across France. The US emerged at the top of the medal tally with 126 medals, followed by China (91 medals), the UK (65), host France (64) and Australia in fifth spot with 54 medals. Despite controversies related to the opening ceremony and conditions in the Olympic Village, the games overall were a resounding success, breaking an all-time record with ticket sales of 9.5 million.

30 July: At least 334 people are killed, over 200 injured and 281 missing following landslides triggered by heavy rains in the southern Indian state of Kerala’s Wayanad district.

5 August: Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, who was elected to office for a fourth term in January, is forced to resign by the Army and flees to India, after nationwide protests against her government. An interim administration, with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as Chief Adviser is formed on 8 August.

28 August–8 September: The 2024 Summer Paralympics is held in Paris, France. China tops the medal table winning 221 medals. Great Britain comes in second with 124 medals. The United States is in third position with 105 medals, followed by Brazil winning 89 medals, and Ukraine in fifth spot with 82 medals.

21 September: Sri Lankan presidential election results in Anura Kumara Dissanayake being elected President with a second round of vote counting held for the first time in Sri Lanka’s history.

30 September: The UK becomes the first G7 country to phase out coal power for electric generation, after 142 years of using the energy source

1 October: The Israel Defense Forces invade southern Lebanon, expanding its conflict against Hezbollah.

9 October: The Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the 2024 Nobel Prizes for achievements to 12 laureates, considered to have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The laureates are John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton in Physics; David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper in Chemistry; Victor Ambrose and Gary Ruvkun in Physiology or Medicine; Han Kang in Literature; and Nihon Hidankyo in Peace. In addition, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences went to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson.

13 October: SpaceX, the US space technology company founded by US billionaire Elon Musk, achieves the first successful return and capture of a Super Heavy booster from Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever to fly.

30 October: Torrential rainfall in several eastern areas of Spain results in the country’s worst flooding in half a century. With more than a year’s worth of rain failing in less than eight hours in some areas, the floods leave over 200 killed and many more missing.

5 November: Presidential election in the United States leads to Donald Trump being elected for a second non-consecutive term as US President.

11–22 November: The 29th iteration of the annual global climate gathering, COP29 is held in Baku, Azerbaijan, with a commitment to triple finance to developing countries to $300 billion annually by 2035, as well as to scale up finance to developing countries from public and private sources to $1.3 trillion yearly by 2035.

26 November: A ceasefire deal announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aims to end fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon

30 November: Opposition forces seize control of most of the Syrian city of Aleppo, and in the span of a week sweeps through various other cities in Syria. President Bashar al-Assad fled the capital Damascus on 8 December ahead of the opposition forces capturing the city. He and his family are provided asylum in Russia. The opposition forces form the Syrian Transitional Government.

12 December: Indian chess prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju becomes the youngest World Chess Champion after defeating former world champion Ding Liren of China in the 2024 World Chess Championship. With his win Gukesh, aged 18, breaks the previous age record of 22 set by chess legend Garry Kasparov.

24 December: The US space agency, NASA, announces that its Parker Solar Probe survived its closest approach to the Sun’s surface, breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) above the surface of the Sun. The Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing speed of 692,000 kilometers per hour— faster than any human-made object ever moved.