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It will not be easy for many in the world to forget the year 2020, due to the unprecedented events it witnessed, especially the spread of the Corona virus epidemic that killed some two million people and turned people’s habits upside down. Although this event was the highlight of this year, it was not the only one.
Time magazine called 2020 “the worst year ever.” For many, 2020 will remain immortal in memory, passed down to future generations, due to the spread of the deadly Corona virus that changed habits and weakened countries around the world economically and socially. What are the most notable events the world has witnessed in 2020?
A global quarantine
Since the beginning of February, entire towns around the world have been asked to remain in home quarantine and limit their movements as much as possible to slow the spread of COVID-19 and relieve pressure on hospitals.
According to Agence France-Presse statistics, more than 3.9 billion people, equivalent to half of humanity, have been forced or forced to undergo a stone.
China, specifically the city of Wuhan, the origin of the epidemic, was the first to impose a home quarantine on its residents on February 17, and the procedure seemed strange at first, before dozens of countries did the same a few weeks later. .
From Tokyo to New York, passing through Berlin or Johannesburg, the whole planet gradually began to implement quarantine measures, as most companies closed their doors, as well as schools and cultural spaces, depriving thousands of people of activity, and it became necessary to work and study at a distance.
The new Corona virus has killed one million 685,785 people since its appearance in China in December last year, according to a census based on official sources from the French News Agency as of Sunday, December 20.
With the decrease in the number of injuries at the beginning of the summer season, countries began to gradually reduce closures, but the first signs of the second wave did not appear very late, which began to be monitored with the beginning of the fall season .
Normalization with Israel
Israel’s relationship with several Arab countries has evolved in a short time since last August, when the United Arab Emirates announced a “historic peace agreement” with Tel Aviv under the auspices of the United States.
The UAE confirmed that the agreement stipulates “an end to the annexation of Palestinian lands by Israel.” But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the annexation was only “postponed.” The Palestinians described the agreement as “treason.”
On October 18, Israel and Bahrain signed an agreement in Manama establishing full diplomatic relations between the two countries and seven memorandums of understanding.
On October 14, unprecedented negotiations to demarcate the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel took place on October 14, mediated by the United States, two neighboring countries still officially at war. The fourth round of talks scheduled for December 2 was postponed.
On October 23, Trump announced the normalization of relations between Israel and Sudan, stating that the two countries had achieved “peace.”
On November 23, identical sources reported that Netanyahu had made an unprecedented visit to Saudi Arabia and had held secret talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan denied on Twitter that a meeting had taken place between the crown prince and the Israeli prime minister.
On December 10, Trump announced that Morocco had committed to normalizing its relations with Israel and that the United States recognized Moroccan sovereignty over disputed Western Sahara.
Beirut port explosion
On August 4, a major explosion occurred in the port of Beirut, echoing in areas tens of kilometers from the city, killing hundreds and injuring thousands, as well as thousands of homeless people.
This huge explosion was caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored for six years in a warehouse in the port.
Seismologists measured the pressure of the blast, which blew the windows of Beirut International Airport nine kilometers (more than five miles) away, equivalent to a 3.3 earthquake on the Richter scale.
In the context of this case, Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers were charged with “negligence, negligence and causing death.”
The collapse of the ceasefire in Western Sahara after 29 years
The ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front militants collapsed on October 16, following clashes between the two parties along the wall that separates them in Western Sahara, which stretches for approximately 2,700 kilometers.
The ceasefire agreement signed between the two parties under the auspices of the United Nations, and which was in force for almost thirty years, dates from September 1991.
In December, after King Mohammed VI of Morocco announced the resumption of relations with Israel, US President Donald Trump declared Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. In this context, the United Nations stated that it would not “change its position”, while the Polisario expressed its “deep regret” for the US decision.
Controversial defeat of Donald Trump in the US presidential race
This year also saw outgoing Republican President Donald Trump lose the presidential election to Democratic challenger Joe Biden. On December 14, the US electorate confirmed the result, which Trump still refuses to acknowledge was defeated.
Trump is a president who generated controversy and much criticism of him during his presidency of the United States, which began in 2017, especially after his decision to ban citizens of six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for security reasons, which They were later confirmed by the United States Supreme Court.
Trump followed the slogan “America first” and withdrew his country from the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Iran nuclear deal, further straining relations between the two countries. Trump also announced that his country recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The death of Sultan Qaboos after half a century of rule
The Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said, died on January 10 at the age of 79, after serving half a century in power. The deceased, who came to power after a coup against his father in 1970, knew his role in international mediation as he followed the policy of “friend to all” and worked as a mediator in the region, especially between Iran and the United States. in the nuclear agreement signed in 2015. He also had a role in trying to bring the parties to the conflict in Yemen to the negotiating table with the outbreak of the Gulf crisis. It is noteworthy that the Sultanate of Oman has not taken sides in the dispute within the Gulf Cooperation Council between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia on the one hand, and Qatar on the other.
Clashes erupt between Azerbaijani army and Armenian separatists
On September 27, violent clashes broke out between the Azerbaijani army and Armenian separatists in the Nagorno Karabakh region, and the clashes resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000 military personnel and civilians from both sides, while each side accused the other of initiating hostilities.
Armenian separatists seized Karabakh from Baku in a war in the 1990s that killed 30,000 people, while talks to resolve the conflict have been frozen since the ceasefire agreement concluded in 1994.
Fighting lasted six weeks between Armenian separatist forces and the Azerbaijani army before the Russian ceasefire went into effect on November 10, and Armenia agreed to hand over three regions in the Nagorno Karabakh region that had been outside of Baku’s control. for almost 30 years.
The lands were recovered in a climate that remains marked by tensions and some skirmishes. Despite the ceasefire, fears are growing that the conflict will become international in a region where the interests of Russians, Turks and Westerners intersect.
French teacher killed by beheading near Paris
A French history teacher was killed on October 16 after showing his students, as part of a lesson on freedom of expression, caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, beheading near Paris, while the attacker was killed by the police, three weeks after an attack by a young Pakistani near the previous headquarters. To the satirical newspaper “Charlie Hebdo”.
An investigation was opened into the commission of a “terrorist act” and the formation of a “terrorist criminal group”.
French President Emmanuel Macron and other politicians condemned the attack on the teacher. The head of the O-de-France (north) region Xavier Bertrand said that “Islamist barbarism has affected one of the symbols of our republic: the school.” “They have to know that we do not submit: they will never prevent us from reading, writing, drawing, thinking, teaching,” he added.
Assault on a church in Nice, France
Three people were killed and others injured in a knife attack on October 29 at the Notre Dame church in Nice, France. The attack was carried out by a 21-year-old Tunisian.
The French counter-terrorism prosecutor announced at the end of the first week of December that the perpetrator, Ibrahim Al-Essawi, had been charged and imprisoned.
An unexpected rebound awakens in Belarus
2020 also saw an unexpected awakening of the opposition in Belarus. On August 9, President Alexander Lukashenko announced his re-election as head of state, with a score 80% higher than his rival, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. A result considered by the opposition and many Western countries as manipulated, and since then, thousands of protesters have gathered every Sunday in Minsk and in many major cities of the country to demand the departure of the head of state that has ruled the country for more 25 years.
In the midst of these protests a trio of women emerged (Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Veronica Tsepkalo and Maria Kolesnikova), who embodied a new, young and progressive political class, who aspired to freedom and democracy.
Despite European condemnations, many protest leaders were jailed or forced into exile. However, street pressure against Minsk did not appear to diminish. “We are destined to win and we will win,” said Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, winner of the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights, which was awarded to the democratic opposition in Belarus.
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