Analysis by Alberto García Marrder / Special for the digital process
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was undoubtedly the story with the most journalistic impact in 2020.
I think the rest would be: 2- Messi and Argentina winning the World Cup. 3- China aspires to be the first world power and to recover Taiwan. 4- The sensational photos of the James Webb space telescope and 5- The new political map of Latin America, tinged with leftism.
The sixth: Donald Trump on the tightrope. 7- The death of Queen Elizabeth II, 8- Spain, an institutional crisis, 9- Elon Musk disrupts Twitter and 10- Pelé dies at the age of 82.
1-THE NEWS OF THE YEAR: The invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
It was February 24 when hundreds of Russian tanks crossed the border with Ukraine to retake what Russian President Vladimir Putin considers “historic Russia”. In Moscow, they considered that this “special military operation” (they never referred to a war) would last a few weeks and that Kyiv, the capital, would be controlled in a few days.
None of this happened and the year 2023 begins with the Russians bogged down in the Donbass (in the east of the country, in Donetsk and Lugansk), which the pro-Russian Ukrainians already controlled, and the peninsula Crimea (which Russia invaded in 2014). And more than a hundred thousand of its soldiers killed and wounded, as well as huge losses of tanks, aircraft and artillery. And above all the prestige of the floors.
It is not surprising that a desperate Putin has been complaining in recent days that the leader of Ukraine, Volodomir Zelensky, does not want to negotiate a peace agreement… but a peace in his own way and claiming more territory than it already has. The Russian leader does not want to appear as the big loser in this military adventure. His political future in the Kremlin (very pessimistic by all accounts) depends on how the end of this war is perceived.
2- Messi and Qatar, the winners of the football world cup
If France had won the World Cup in Qatar (Qatar), I don’t think its star Kylian Mbappé would have had the global impact (and sympathy) that Leonel Messi had with Argentina.
Messi is already a God and it has been good for Argentina, almost bankrupt, overwhelmed by inflation of almost one hundred percent and a vice-president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and former president twice, prosecuted for corruption and other offences.
Messi, 35, forgave everything, even his verbal arrogance, when he addressed Weghorst, a player from the Netherlands, after the game between the two teams: “What are you looking at, fool? What are you looking at, fool? Go ahead, fool, go ahead”.
But I don’t think he can be forgiven for being allowed to wear, during the presentation of the champion’s trophy, a “besht” tunic (which only Qatari leaders wear) of Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad. And that in the photos of the whole team’s celebration, he hid his Argentinian uniform and looked like a Qatari. (For this tunic, an Omani parliamentarian offers him a million dollars.)
And Messi, who was a millionaire before the World Cup, is now a multi-billionaire, contracts are raining down on him. One comes from Saudi Arabia to promote their tourism. You can already buy a second private plane.
3- China is the great enigma of this century
Its leader, Xi Jinping, has renewed his mandate for the third time, after ten years in power, and now he can do so “for life”. It has deepened its antagonism with the United States, and Washington’s tough stance in defense of Taiwan is the only thing stopping Beijing from launching a massive invasion of the archipelago to regain what it considers its territory.
Currently, it is the second world power, after the United States and already exceeds Russia. And when will be the first?
I turned to my friend, Cuban-American sociologist Ricardo Puerta, a migration expert and resident of Honduras, to answer this question:
“China will not exceed United States as the first power until at least 2060. The Already Ended Congress of the Communist Party Chinese buried all hope of He will reach the economy of United States for the year 2035, as they “had anticipated” for years,” Puerta wrote to me.
4- The Universe as we had not seen it before
One of the big news of 2022 was the incredible out-of-space photos of the solar system, released by NASA. They came from a new world seen for the first time.
Wikipedia explains it very well: The James Webb Space Telescope is a space observatory developed through the collaboration of 14 countries, built and operated jointly by the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and NASA to replace the Hubble telescopes and Spitzer. It offers unprecedented resolution and sensitivity and enables a wide range of investigations in the fields of astronomy and cosmology.
One of its main purposes is to observe some of the most distant events and objects in the universe, such as the formation of the first galaxies, which are beyond the reach of ground-based telescopes.
(He is named after James Webb in honor of the NASA administrator from 1961 to 1969, who was a key figure in early space explorations, such as putting the first man on the moon.)
5- Left-wing governments throughout Latin America
The victory in June of Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla, as president of Colombia, a country where the left has never governed, sheds light on the new political map of Latin America.
In addition to Colombia, leftist leaders govern the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela.
In the case of South America, there are only conservative or right-wing governments in Ecuador (Guillermo Lasso), Paraguay (Mario Abdo Benítez) and Uruguay (Luis Lacalle Pou).
6- Trump has a bad political future
Former President Donald Trump aspires to be elected by the Republican Party in the primaries as its 2024 presidential candidate. And to be able to return to the White House to exact revenge on his rivals and enemies. But that dream is a long way off after the devastating report of a congressional committee that investigated the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and recommended that he be prosecuted for instigating it, not arresting it.
7- Without Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdom is no longer the same
Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022 in her castle in Scotland at the age of 96 and after reigning 70 years and 214 days. And having dealt with 16 prime ministers, including Winston Churchill. He kept his eldest son, now 74, who is now King Charles III, and his former lover (when he was married to Princess Diana), Camilla Parker Bowles, waiting today. queen consort today.
8- Spain: An unprecedented institutional crisis
I copy it from the Madrid newspaper “El Mundo”:
“In a scenario of unprecedented institutional crisis, the Constitutional Court accepted, on December 19, by a slim majority of its members, to paralyze the legislative reform promoted by the government parties in Parliament to modify the functioning of both the Council General of the Judiciary and the High Court”.
The TC attended a call from the People’s Party, the main opposition party. The reform promoted by the Socialist-Far Left-Communist coalition government was also supported by Catalan and Basque separatists.
9- Elon Musk buys Twitter to change it
Elon Musk, until recently the richest man in the world, decided it was not enough to face the challenges caused by his companies Tesla, SpaceX or Starlink and bought the social network Twitter in October for the sum mad $44 billion. It was an impulse buy and since then he has lost $130 billion and fired the entire Twitter board. It remains to be seen which Twitter will come out under Musk’s orders.
10- LEAVES OF PELE
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pelé, He died last Thursday at the age of 82 in Sao Paolo, where he had been admitted to palliative care after failing to respond to the chemotherapy treatment he had been undergoing since being diagnosed with colon cancer in 2021 .
World champion with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970, he was considered one of the best players in the history of football, along with Diego Maradona and Alfredo Di Stéfano. Now Leo Messi and Ronaldo Cristiano are left alone on this throne of the best.
“Entrepreneur. Amateur gamer. Zombie advocate. Infuriatingly humble communicator. Proud reader.”
