2023-12-27 17:36:46
As we turn the page to a new year, we review the events that marked the year 2023: a war that continues in Ukraine to another that began between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas. This was also the hottest year ever recorded in history.
Israel declared a state of war alert after being the target of an attack by the Islamist group Hamas on October 7. The leader of the Palestinian group’s armed wing confirmed the offensive and said “to have fired more than five thousand rockets”. The Hamas attack lasted more than an hour and took the lives of 1,200 people. In response to this unprecedented attack, Israel announced a “I’m looking for total” of Gaza, “without electricity, food and fuel”.
It was from the Palestinian enclave, where around 2.3 million people live, that Hamas defends itself. The Israeli government has recruited 300,000 reservists to “go on the offensive.”
On the 47th day of conflict, the Israeli government gave the green light to an agreement to guarantee the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a four-day truce in the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian aid was reinforced with the entry into force, on November 24, of a four-day ceasefire, extended for 48 hours according to Hamas and Qatar, insufficient according to UN agencies. Fifty hostages were released, in accordance with the agreement, in exchange for the planned release of 150 Palestinians detained in Israel.
The passing of the year also highlights an event that comes to us from 2022: the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Deaths in the tens of thousands in a conflict overshadowed by Gaza: in 2023, the counter-offensive did not have the expected effects and Kiev fears that Western support will lose strength.
In January, the Russian army, reinforced by 300,000 reservists and supported by Wagner group paramilitaries, again attacked Donbass, in eastern Ukraine. February 23rd marked one year since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A conflict that took the lives of thousands of people, destroyed infrastructure and changed a country. Over the past year, with the help of allies, Kiev resisted Russian attacks and believed in victory. On March 9, Kiev lost electricity and in Lviv, attacks left civilians dead.
In May, Moscow ended up claiming the capture of Bakhmut, at the end of the longest and bloodiest battle since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Kiev’s counteroffensive, awaited by the Western allies, was launched at the beginning of June to try to reconquer the territories occupied by Moscow. Despite billions of Western military aid, the Ukrainian army was only able to retake villages in the south and east.
On June 24, fighters from the Wagner group march towards Moscow. President Vladimir Putin denounces the “betrayal” of the leader, Yevgeni Prigojine, who orders the men to “come back” to their posts. The death two months later of Wagner’s boss in a plane crash raised questions, with Westerners and Ukraine suspecting Kremlin involvement.
According to the European Copernicus Observatory, the months from June to October were the hottest ever recorded. These temperatures are accompanied by droughts, fires or hurricanes. Canada experienced forest fires this year, with more than 18 million hectares burned and 200,000 people displaced.
This was also a year of the space race to find water on the Moon. Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years failed: the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed on the Moon. The Russian space agency, Roskomos, said it lost contact with the unmanned spacecraft shortly after a problem occurred as the spacecraft entered in pre-landing orbit. India became the fourth country in the world to land on the Moon, after the United States, Russia during the Soviet Union and China.
On August 20, a few minutes after Spain’s victory in the Women’s World Cup in Sydney, Luís Rubiales, then president of the Spanish Football Federation, unexpectedly kissed striker Jenni Hermoso on the mouth, sparking international outrage. While Jenni Hermoso denounced an act that was “sexist, inappropriate and without any consent”, Luís Rubiales maintained for a long time that it was just about “a consensual kiss”, before resigning from his position on September 10th. Accused of “sexual assault” by the courts, he was suspended for three years from any activity related to football by FIFA.
On September 19, Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-majority separatist territory that Baku and Yerevan have disputed for more than three decades. This mountainous enclave – which unilaterally proclaimed its independence in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, with the support of Armenia – was the scene of two wars between the former Soviet republics of the Caucasus (from 1988 to 1994 and in autumn 2020). Within 24 hours, the territorial authorities abandoned by Yerevan capitulated and a ceasefire was concluded. After this lightning offensive, which left almost 600 dead, the majority of the 120,000 inhabitants fled to Armenia, while Nagorno-Karabakh announced its dissolution for January 1, 2024.
Ultraliberal economist Javier Milei, 53 years old, took office as president of Argentina on December 10, after his victory against centrist Sergio Massa. O “anti-system” promised shock therapy for Latin America’s third-largest economy, in the grip of record inflation: total privatizations, “chainsaw” in public spending, and replacement of the Argentine peso by the dollar, with the extinction of the Central Bank. Among the controversial ideas are the deregulation of weapons sales and a “market solution” for organ donation.
Presidential elections are scheduled for 2024 in Russia and the United States of America and European elections. “Future electoral acts will be a test of the ability of Western Europe and the United States to keep liberal models and democracies intact”, highlights the internationalist and professor at the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Maria João Ferreira.
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