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The Covid-19 pandemic cast a long shadow over 2020, but it also saw President Donald Trump defeated by Joe Biden in a tumultuous election in the United States and the Black Lives Matter movement shook the world.
These are some of the key events of the year:
On January 11, less than two weeks after alerting a cluster of pneumonia cases “of unknown cause,” Beijing announced its first death from a disease that will become known as Covid-19.
A pandemic was declared in March and a month later half of humanity is locked up as governments strive to stop its spread.
Massive state aid programs are implemented to save jobs, as the International Monetary Fund predicts a recession, and the world economy contracts 4.4%.
In November, drug companies announced positive results for several vaccines as a second wave of cases hit the planet.
Within a month, the first injections are being given, but by Christmas around 1.7 million people have died, with the United States being the most affected.
The world holds its breath after senior Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani is killed in a US drone strike in Iraq on January 3, days after pro-Iranian protesters stormed the US embassy in Baghdad.
Iran retaliates by launching a missile barrage at bases in Iraq hosting US troops. On the same day, he shot down a Ukrainian airliner “by mistake” shortly after taking off from Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.
Tensions rise again in late November, when Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is assassinated, and Tehran blames Israel.
The UK becomes the first country to leave the European Union on January 31 after its 2016 Brexit referendum.
But crucial talks about future ties and trade with the bloc drag on for months, missing deadline after deadline as negotiators try to avoid a hard Brexit ahead of a last-minute deal on Christmas Eve.
While British Prime Minister Boris Johnson proclaims victory, Scottish anti-Brexit leader Nicola Sturgeon says his future is “an independent European nation”.
The United States and the Taliban sign an agreement in Doha on February 29, with all foreign forces to leave Afghanistan in May 2021 after nearly two decades of war.
Talks between the Afghan government and the insurgents begin in September, but the fighting continues as the Taliban launch attack after attack and a number of civil society figures are killed.
The Pentagon must withdraw 2,000 of the 4,500 US troops from the country by January 15, 2021.
The murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American, by white police officers on May 25 in Minneapolis, sparks protests across the United States and inspires anti-racist demonstrations around the world.
The Black Lives Matter movement leads to a great debate about race and the overthrow of statues of figures linked to slavery or colonization.
Protesters hold up portraits of George Floyd.
In June, a year after a massive wave of demonstrations, China imposes a comprehensive new security law in Hong Kong that opponents say undermines the freedoms of the semi-autonomous city, promised under its handover from Britain in 1997.
Pro-democracy lawmakers are toppled, harassed, and arrested. In December, three prominent Hong Kong activists are jailed, including Joshua Wong.
Students provoke pro-democracy protests in July that continue for the rest of the year calling for a new constitution, the reform of the untouchable monarchy and the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha.
A massive explosion on August 4 destroys much of Beirut’s port and devastates parts of the capital, killing more than 200 and injuring at least 6,500.
The explosion of a large reserve of ammonium nitrate fertilizers devastates an already reeling Lebanese economy and the credibility of its ruling elite.
A helicopter puts out a fire at the scene of an explosion in the port of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on August 4, 2020.
Massive wildfires ravage Australia in what is known as its “Black Summer”, while San Francisco and other regions of the west coast of the United States wake up to orange skies in September as the state’s largest hell breaks out.
In November, two hurricanes devastate Central America, leaving more than 200 dead.
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is flown to Berlin in a medically induced coma after becoming seriously ill after boarding an internal flight to Moscow.
Tests reveal that he was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. Navalny accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to kill him and later publishes a recording in which he appears to trick the alleged responsible agent into telling him that they put poison in his underwear.
The disputed victory of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the August 9 elections sparked four months of anti-government protests, centered on his main rival, political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
Opposition leaders are jailed or taken into exile.
The UAE and Bahrain normalized ties with Israel on September 15 as Palestinians condemn the move as a “stab in the back.”
The following month, Donald Trump announces that Sudan is joining them, while in November unconfirmed reports of a secret trip to Saudi Arabia by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparked speculation that the kingdom will follow.
In another twist, Morocco “resumed its relations” with Israel on December 10 in exchange for the United States recognizing its claim on Western Sahara.
In 2020, relations between the United States and China plummet, with Trump calling Covid-19 the “China virus” and saying that Beijing is responsible for “a massive carnage around the world.”
They are also shocked by the repression of the Turkish-speaking Uighur minority in China’s Xinjiang region, as well as by the national security law imposed in Hong Kong.
Deeply divided Americans vote in record numbers in the November presidential election between outgoing Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
After four days of biting his nails, Biden wins the White House by seven million votes. Trump cries fraud without proof and has yet to admit defeat.
Two women hug in McPherson Square in Washington, DC, on November 7, reacting to the news that President-elect Biden has won the presidential race.
Intense fighting for the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region, which separated from Azerbaijan after a war in the 1990s, continues for 45 days.
Several thousand die before a peace accord negotiated by the Kremlin on November 9, and Armenians lose swaths of territory to Azerbaijani forces.
Ethiopian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed orders a military response to attacks on federal army camps in the dissident northern region of Tigray.
The Tigray Popular Liberation Front, which has dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades, denies responsibility and says the reported attacks are a pretext for an “invasion.”
Federal forces take the capital of Tigrayan on November 28.
