The 22 international news that have marked 2022

MADRID, 24 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The year 2022 will be remembered to a great extent in the international arena for the war in Ukraine and its effects worldwide, but it has not been the only news that has marked a planet that on November 15 officially exceeded 8,000 million inhabitants:

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the biggest war effort Europe has experienced since World War II. More than nine months later, the conflict is still ongoing and the deaths and Human Rights violations number in the thousands.

Domestically, Putin has toughened the laws to persecute dissent with arrests, convictions and censorship. Moscow pursues any hint of criticism in the face of a war that, militarily, is not the ride that was expected.

The conflict has transcended borders, like a butterfly effect that has caused everything from an energy crisis -- including sabotage of gas pipelines and hasty attempts to reduce dependence on Russia -- to another food crisis, especially in developing countries.

On a political level, the West has agreed to sanctions and NATO, which Putin sees as an enemy, has strengthened itself in Eastern Europe and is preparing the entry of two new partners: Finland and Sweden.

In China, it has been the year of Xi Jinping, endorsed for an unprecedented third presidential term in a congress from which his predecessor, Hu Jintao, emerged repudiated in the eyes of the entire world. The country has also fired its former leader Jiang Zemin, who died on November 30.

In the street, meanwhile, there have been unprecedented protests due to the restrictive measures against the COVID-19 pandemic, modified in December at the cost of a foreseeable unprecedented increase in infections.

Both Al Qaeda and the Islamic State have lost their leaders. In the case of Al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri died on July 31 in a US operation in the heart of Kabul, while the Islamic State, increasingly strong in Africa, has been beheaded twice -- in February and October. -.

Kim Jong Un's regime has redoubled its weapons challenge with the launch of dozens of missiles and constant suspicion of an imminent nuclear test. A missile flew over Japan on October 4 and another crossed the de facto border with South Korea for the first time on November 2.

The visit to Taiwan on August 2 of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, unleashed an unprecedented escalation of tension. Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the island, conducted military tests in the area.

2022 has been the year of polarization in Latin America and also of the rise of the left, with victories for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, Gabriel Boric in Chile and Gustavo Petro in Colombia, the latter country that had always been governed by the right.

Petro is now seeking "total peace" in Colombia, with a new attempt at dialogue with the ELN guerrillas.

Giorgia Meloni became the first woman to become the head of the Government of Italy on October 22, at the head of a tripartite alliance in which two formations, including hers, identify with the extreme right. Among its first measures is the tightening of immigration policies.

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, has managed to stay in power and stop the rise of the extreme right, but his second term began on May 7 with the streets mobilized and in front of a Parliament where he does not enjoy a majority.

A year and a half after the rise of the coalition that ousted Benjamin Netanyahu from power in Israel, the Likud leader, with several pending court cases, savored an electoral victory again on November 1, putting his return to power on track.

On July 8, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead in public by a man carrying a homemade weapon. The assailant justified the attack by Abe's alleged links to a sect.

The United Kingdom has experienced a turbulent year even in a field, the monarchy, in which it accumulated 70 years of stability. The death of Elizabeth II on September 8 has marked a 2022 that, politically, has seen three prime ministers pass through Downing Street: Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

With Putin eyeing Ukraine, Russia quietly fired Mikhail Gorbachev. The last Soviet leader, father of Perestroika, died on August 30 amid international recognition and the disdain of his co-religionist theorists.

The death on September 16 of the young Mahsa Amini, arrested for wearing the veil incorrectly, unleashed a wave of protests in Iran, once again harshly reprimanded by the security forces. According to an NGO, more than 400 people have died, while the regime already recognizes the first executions of detainees.

In Argentina, the vice president, Cristina Fernández, has been in the news for two issues outside of her political activity: the assassination attempt she suffered on September 1, when a man pointed a gun at her, and the conviction for corruption handed down on September 6. December. Fernández, standard bearer of 'Kirchnerism', says she is the victim of political persecution.

Peru has lived through an almost constant political crisis that ended up blowing up on December 7, when the then president, Pedro Castillo, ordered the dissolution of Congress and announced an "exception" government. Two hours were enough for him to be removed from office and his 'number two', Dina Baluarte, became head of state -the first woman in Peruvian history-.

After years of isolation, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has once again received public greetings from leaders who repudiated him and relief from sanctions from theoretical enemies, such as the United States. All this at a time when his government and the opposition have resumed dialogue, still to be specified.

The mid-term elections in the US have left a divided Congress -- Republicans now control the House of Representatives -- and a president, Joe Biden, who still holds out politically. Donald Trump, under investigation for the assault on the Capitol, has confirmed that he wants to return to the White House in 2024.

Two years after the start of the conflict, the Government of Ethiopia and the guerrillas of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) signed a ceasefire on November 2 that, in the humanitarian field, has partially alleviated an extreme situation need.

The celebration of Halloween left more than 150 dead in Seoul, victims of a human stampede that shocked South Korea and forced a cascade of apologies and dismissals. A month earlier, on October 1, Indonesia experienced a similar tragedy with more than 130 deaths in a soccer stadium.

Spain's endorsement of Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara, on March 18, triggered a cascade of reactions in the Maghreb that, although it calmed the tensions between Madrid and Rabat, opened a new front with Algiers, which has woven alliances with other European governments.

The Ukraine war has led the EU to forge a common front against Russia, but this unity, weakened in recent weeks, has not overshadowed other underlying tensions. Brussels keeps Hungary and Poland in the spotlight for issues related to the rule of law, which has even called into question the granting of European funds.