Ten most outstanding international events in 2020

A medical worker takes swab from a woman for COVID-19 testing in Samut Sakhon province of Thailand (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam NewsAgency (VNA) has selected the Top 10 events that shaped the world in 2020.

1.COVID-19 pandemic rages, triggers global crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the coronavirusSARS-CoV-2, which first appeared in China’s Wuhan city, spread rapidly aroundthe world, infecting more than 78 million people and claiming over 1.7 millionlives. It has pushed many countries into a twin public health and economiccrisis.

The pandemic has intensively and extensivelyaffected every aspect of the socio-economic life, changed the way people work,live, and communicate, and forced the world to adapt to a “new normal” state.The “race” to seek and develop COVID-19 vaccines has seen considerableprogress, with some countries having begun to conduct vaccination programmes.The pandemic remains complex and unpredictable, however, as a new variant ofSARS-CoV-2 has been found in Europe during the final days of the year.

2. Abnormal US presidential election

The “race to the White House” took place amidthe COVID-19 outbreak, but nearly 160 million US voters - a record turnout -cast ballots. With more than 81 million votes and 306 out of 538 electoral votes,Joe Biden became the 46th President of the US. Kamala Harris, meanwhile, becamethe first female Vice President in the country’s over-200-year history.

Joe Biden (L) and Kamala Harris (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Protracted arguments and a legal battlefollowing the election on November 3 deepened divisions and disagreementswithin the US political arena and society. The difficult transition has alsohampered efforts to fight the pandemic, with the US already posting the highestnumber of COVID-19 infections and fatalities in the world.

3.Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) signed

After eight years of negotiations, 10 ASEANmember nations and five partners on November 15 signed the RCEP agreement,forming the world’s largest free trade area, with 2.2 billion consumers, ormore than 30 percent of the global population, and a combined GDP of about 27trillion USD, or 30 percent of the global economy.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (L) and Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh at the RCEP signing ceremony on November 15 (Photo: VNA)

The RCEP is a comprehensive, high-qualityagreement that opens up new opportunities for multilateral trade cooperation inAsia-Pacific and creates important momentum for promoting growth and recoveringthe global economy, which is currently in recession due to COVID-19.

4. Globaleconomy experiences worst recession since World War II

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimatedthat the global economy will contract by 4.4 percent in 2020 due to the impactof COVID-19. Lockdown and border shutdown measures to contain the spread of thecoronavirus have led to trade stagnation and disruptions in supply chains,triggering a wave of business bankruptcies worldwide, especially in theaviation, tourism, and retail sectors.

Lines at a supermarket in Berlin, Germany, to help shoppers keep social distancing amid the COVID-19 outbreak (Photo:Xinhua/VNA)

The global market has witnessed the strongestever fluctuations, with prices of light sweet crude oil on the New YorkMercantile Exchange collapsing to negative 40 USD per barrel, while gold pricesexceeded 2,000 USD an ounce for the first time, and many stock marketsactivating the “circuit breaker” mechanism to halt trading. Countries have alsolaunched economic stimulus packages worth trillions of USD, along withunprecedented monetary and emergency lending measures to aid their economies.

5. Israelnormalises relations with four Arab countries

Over the course of four months, Israel set updiplomatic ties with four Arab nations: the United Arab Emirates (UAE),Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, shaping a new geopolitical complexion in theMiddle East.

Officials of Morocco and Israel at the singing ceremony for an agreement on the establishment of diplomatic relationship in Rabat, Morocco, on December 22 (Photo: VNA)

These agreements, however, were also criticisedas running counter to the Arab League’s policy of associating the normalisationof relations with Israel with the foundation of the State of Palestine. Therealso remain many latent risks of uncertainty in the Middle East after thekilling of the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, in a US airstrike, and the assassination of Iran’s leading nuclear scientist MohsenFakhrizadeh.

6. Waveof racial, religious protests, violence

The protests against racial discriminationacross the US, which followed the death of African-American man George Floydfrom police violence, spread around the world. The Black Lives Matter movementresonated in a number of cities in France, Germany, Belgium, the UK, Italy, theNetherlands, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Thailand, involving hundredsof thousands of demonstrators. Many protests in the US turned into riots,leading to a serious racial crisis.

Demonstrators march in Montreal, Canada, to protest against racial discrimination after the death of African-American man George Floyd (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Meanwhile, a wave of protests was seen inIslamic countries to call for a boycott of French products, following FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macron’s declaration of support for the publication ofcartoons of Prophet Mohammed. Samuel Paty, a French teacher, was murdered by anIslamic extremist on October 16 after showing caricatures of the prophet to hisstudents.

7. Armedconflict re-emerges in Nagorno-Karabakh region

The military clash between Azerbaijan andArmenia in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region re-emerged and escalated latein the year. The month of hostilities led to thousands of casualties andjeopardised security and stability across the Caucasus.

The scene of an area following the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region (Photo: DPA/VNA)

After at least three ceasefires were violated,Russian President Vladimir Putin, his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, andArmenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed an agreement on November 9 toend the military conflict. Russia and Turkey deployed personnel to monitor thenew ceasefire in the region, within the framework of joint peacekeepingactivities, paving the way for the parties involved to seek sustainablesolutions.

8. UK, EU reachhistoric post-Brexit trade deal

After nearly nine months of tough talks, the United Kingdom(UK) and the European Union (EU) struck an agreement reshaping their traderelations in the future after the transition period ends on December 31, 2020.The agreement will provide the legal foundation for the UK and the EU to avoida “chaotic” breakup and ensure that the flow of goods worth hundreds ofbillions USD will continue between the UK and 27 EU members.

The EU flag flies near the Elizabeth Tower in London, the UK (Photo: AFP/VNA)

With this deal, the two sides officially completed the Brexitprocess, the UK’s separation from the EU, nearly five years after the 2016referendum.

9. Manycountries move to strictly “manage” tech giants

Tech platforms with billions of users, likeFacebook, Google, and Twitter, have been investigated or sued in many countriesfor not acting strongly enough to prevent the spread of wrong information orillegal content.

A large number of major businesses have joined acampaign to boycott advertising on Facebook and Twitter, to put pressure onthem to fight hazardous misinformation. Facebook and Twitter have also faced anarray of charges of personal data leaks, privacy policy violations, and unfaircompetition. Australia and France requested the tech platforms pay domesticmedia outlets for reusing news content.

The logos of Facebook and Twitter (Photo: AFP/VNA)

The US, India, Pakistan, and Australia havebanned mobile apps such as TikTok and WeChat, citing national security reasons.

10.Sudden death of football legend Diego Maradona

Diego Maradona, one of the greatest footballersof all time, passed away suddenly on November 25 at the age of 60. Argentinaheld three days of national mourning, with tens of thousands of people comingto pay tribute to him, while many events were held worldwide in his name.Argentina decided to rename the Argentine Professional League Cup the DiegoMaradona Cup, while Napoli city in Italy, where he once played, renamed its SanPaolo Stadium the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

Fans grieve over the death of football legend Diego Maradona (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Maradona was honoured in 2000 as the FIFA Playerof the 20th Century, together with the “King of Football” Pele (Brazil). Thoughhis personal life was often controversial, with his talent, devotion, andcapacity as a source of strong inspiration, he won over the hearts ofgenerations of football fans around the globe./.

VNA