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Saturday, December 21, 2024

Trump triumph, Assad fall, Olympic joy… key events in 2024

“Vladimir Putin began his fifth term as Russian president in May after winning an election the West slammed as a sham”

PARIS – Donald Trump’s US presidential election win, the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and the Paris Olympics were among the news events that marked 2024.

AFP looks back at the major stories that made the headlines:

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Mideast war spreads

After the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel continued its offensive against the Palestinian armed group in Gaza, killing several of its chiefs, and extending its campaign into Lebanon.

In September Israel launched a huge air strike against Iran-backed Hamas ally Hezbollah, then a ground offensive in southern Lebanon against its strongholds.

In early October Iran then responded to the killings of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh — in a strike on Tehran in July blamed on Israel — and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, by launching 200 missiles at Israel. Israel riposted by hitting Iranian military sites.

Fall of Bashar al-Assad

In Syria, president Bashar al-Assad fled the country to Moscow after an 11-day lightning offensive launched on November 27 by Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

One of the emblematic moments of the fall of Damascus was the freeing of inmates from the infamous Sednaya prison.

That jail north of the capital was a symbol of the torture and executions under the 50-year rule of the Assad clan, especially since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.

Russia-Ukraine conflict escalates

After a failed counteroffensive in 2023, following Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022 invasion, Ukraine in August launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

However, it has failed in its goal of diverting Moscow’s forces from fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Russia responded with deadly strikes and Kyiv’s outgunned and outmanned troops have struggled to hold back steady advances from Russian forces, notably in the eastern Donbas region.

The West, Ukraine and South Korea say thousands of North Korean soldiers are reinforcing Russia’s war effort.

Trump is back

Donald Trump once again stunned the world, and wrong-footed pollsters who had projected a very tight race, to win the US presidential election.

He won all seven swing states on Nov. 5, keeping control of the House and winning back the Senate. He also became the first Republican president in 20 years to win the popular vote.

He beat his Democrat rival Kamala Harris, who had been parachuted into the process just 100 days before the election after the 81-year-old outgoing President Joe Biden pulled out.

That was just one twist in a particularly tumultuous campaign that also included two failed assassination attempts on Trump, 78, who faced four indictments and a criminal conviction.

He returns to the White House on Jan. 20, 2025. Among the personalities he has chosen for his team are billionaire Elon Musk, who helped finance his campaign.

Russia tightens grip

Vladimir Putin began his fifth term as Russian president in May after winning an election the West slammed as a sham.

His nemesis Alexei Navalny died in February in murky circumstances in the Arctic prison where he had been serving a 19-year sentence for leading an “extremist” organisation.

In August Moscow negotiated the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the end of the Cold War, releasing 16 Westerners and Russians including US journalist Evan Gershkovich, in exchange for 10 Russians.

Paris Olympics joy

The summer Games in the French capital brought a welcome respite, particularly in the host country that had for weeks been gripped by bitter political jockeying caused by snap parliamentary elections.

But for three sunny weeks, Paris and its world-famous monuments and sites, from the Eiffel Tower to Versailles, welcomed a spectacular display of sport, kicking off with an extravagant opening ceremony along the Seine.

Records tumbled and stars were crowned, from home crowd darling and swim sensation Leon Marchand to US gym genius Simone Biles who made a joyful return to glory.

Deadly flooding

Temperature records continued to tumble in 2024 across huge swathes of the world during what will almost certainly be the hottest year on record.

Relentless global warming provoked heatwaves, droughts and deadly flooding, with the wet weather proving particularly dramatic.

An unusually intense rainy season in West and Central Africa killed more than 1,500 people, according to the International Organization of Migration (IOM).

In a September of wild weather, Hurricane Helene pounded the southeast United States, Typhoon Krathon slammed into Taiwan and Storm Boris brought floods and devastation to central Europe.

Typhoons Yagi and Bebinca left a trail of destruction in Asia.

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