As we approach the end of 2025 it's an opportune moment to reflect on the last decade, one of much upheaval everywhere: throughout the world; in Spain; and at a personal level.
[Image courtesy of Steam]
The last 10 years have presented everyone with a deluge of challenges: Al-Qaeda, Covid-19, Gaza Strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, school shootings, Sudan, terrorism, Ukraine, to name a few .....
Covid-19 jab [EL PAIS]
..... and at a political level: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Yong Un, Viktor Orban, Bojo "The Clown" Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Pedro Sanchez, Emmanuel Macron, Xi Jinping .....
"Bojo The Clown" [YouTube]
..... and the rise of ultra-right political parties in Western countries, eg AfD, Reform UK, and VOX.
Chile has just elected - the day before yesterday -Jose Antonio Kast, the ultra-right-wing candidate, as their new prime minister.
Nigel Farage, Reform Leader [The Guardian]
Not to mention the apparent increase in natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, danas, wildfires, hurricanes, widespread flooding, melting ice-caps and glaciers, all caused by climate change.
A tsunami [MuyInteresante]
Watch out too for the meddling in politics of billionaires like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Warren Bufett and Lakshmi Mittal.
There are others .....
Elon Musk does a Nazi salute [RTVE]
2015
Queen Elizabeth II becomes Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
TV personality and real estate mogul Donald Trump launches his campaign for the Republican nomination for US President.
A series of massacres in Baga, Nigeria and surrounding villages by Boko Haram kills more than 2,000 people. Two gunmen belonging to Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch kill 12 people and injure 11 more at the Paris headquarters of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, prompting an anti-terrorism demonstration attended by over a million people and more than 40 world leaders.
An Airbus A320-211 operated by Germanwings is deliberately crashed by First officer Andres Lubitz in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
148 people are killed, the majority students, in a mass shooting at the Garissa University College in Kenya, perpetrated by the militant terrorist organization al-Shabaab.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Nepal and causes 8,857 deaths in Nepal, 130 in India,, 27 in China and 4 in Bangladesh with a total of 9,018 deaths.
Greece becomes the first advanced economy to miss a payment to the International Monetary Fund in its 71-year history.
The 2015 UK General Election results in the first Conservative majority government in 18 years.
I reach the age of 65 and can start drawing my old age pension from the UK, tiny though it is!
2016
30 people are killed and 56 injured in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, targeting a hotel and a nearby restaurant.
Suicide bombing attacks at Brussels' Zaventem airport and Maalbeek metro station kill 35 people and injure 300 more.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 strikes northwestern Ecuador killing 676 people and injuring over 6,000.
Ten people are killed and 15 wounded in a bombing near the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.
30 people are killed and 56 injured in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso,
The World Health Organization announces an outbreak of the Zika virus.[9]
EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 people on board.
A gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State opens fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others.
ISIL is suspected of being responsible for attacking Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 44 people and injuring over 230 others.
86 people are killed and more than 400 others injured in a truck attack in Nice, France, during Bastille Day celebrations.
An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 hits central Italy, killing 299 people.
International investigators conclude that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Buk missile fired from an area controlled by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Global CO2 levels exceed 400 ppm at the time of year normally associated with minimum levels. A 400 ppm level is believed to be higher than anything experienced in human history.
Hurricane Matthew makes landfall in Haiti as a category 4 hurricane, killing 842 and causing $2.8 billion in damages.
2016 United States presidential election: Businessman and television personality Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States in a surprise victory against his opponent, former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton.
A truck is deliberately driven into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, leaving 12 people dead and 56 others injured.
Withdrawal of the majority of US troops from Afghanistan after 15 years of war.
Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić is sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War.
The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, triggering the so-called Brexit.
Rita reaches 65 and starts to receive her pensions from Germany and the UK.
2017
- January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 39 people and injuring 79 others.[2]
- January 8 – 2017 Jerusalem truck attack: A Palestinian assailant entered the road where the Israeli defense forces were located with a truck, killing 4 people and injuring 15 others.
- January 16 – Turkish Airlines Flight 6491, a cargo flight en route from Hong Kong to Istanbul via Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, crashes in a residential area while attempting to land at Manas International Airport, Bishkek, killing all four crew members on board and 35 people on the ground.
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- January 27 – U.S. President Donald Trump issues executive order banning travel and immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations. Protests against the immigration order erupt nationwide for about two weeks.
- January 29 – A gunman opens fire at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada, killing 6 and injuring 19 others.[8] [9]
March 10 – The UN warns that the world is facing the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, with up to 20 million people at risk of starvation and famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria.
June
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- June 1 – Amidst widespread criticism, the U.S. government announces its decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement in due time.[27]
- June 3
- London Bridge attack: Eight people are murdered and dozens of civilians are wounded by Islamist terrorists. Three of the attackers are shot dead by the police. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.[28]
- 2017 Turin stampede: During a screening of the 2017 UEFA Champions League Final, pepper spray is discharged by individuals attempting to rob soccer fans in the square, causing the crowd to panic. There are 3 deaths and 1,672 people wounded.[29]
- June 8 – A snap general election is held in the United Kingdom, three years before the next was due, resulting in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Theresa May, losing their majority in Parliament. The Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, makes gains for the first time since 1997. Days later, the Conservative Party, now lacking a majority, enters a confidence-and-supply deal with the Northern Ireland loyalist party DUP.[32]
- June 10 – The 2017 World Expo is opened in Astana, Kazakhstan.[33]
- June 14 – The Grenfell Tower Fire in West London claims the lives of 72 residents, making it the worst UK residential fire since World War II.
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- August 18 – The first terrorist attack ever sentenced as a crime in Finland kills two people and injures eight others. Islamic terrorist Abderrahman Bouanane, a Moroccan man carried out the ISIS-inspired attack in southwest Finland.[49][50]
- August 25–30 – Hurricane Harvey strikes the United States as a Category 4 hurricane, causing catastrophic damage to the Houston metropolitan area, mostly due to record-breaking floods. At least 108 deaths are recorded, and total damage reaches $125 billion (2017 USD), making Harvey the costliest natural disaster in United States history, tied with Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
- September 19 – Twelve days after another powerful earthquake, and on the 32nd anniversary of the deadly 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a 7.1 Mw earthquake strikes central Mexico, killing 370, leaving up to 6,000 injured[63] and thousands more homeless.[64]
- September 19–20 – Just two weeks after Hurricane Irma struck the Caribbean, Hurricane Maria strikes similar areas, making landfall on Dominica as a Category 5 hurricane, and Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane. Maria caused over 3,000 deaths and damages estimated in excess of $91.6 billion (2017 USD).[57][65]
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- October 1 – 60 people are killed and 867 more injured when Stephen Paddock opens fire on a crowd in Las Vegas, surpassing the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting as the deadliest mass shooting perpetrated by a lone gunman in U.S. history.[67][68]
- October 12 – The United States announces its decision to withdraw from UNESCO,[69] and is immediately followed by Israel.[70]
- October 14 – A massive blast caused by a truck bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia kills at least 587 people and injures 316 others.[71
- October 27 – Based on the results of a previously held referendum, Catalonia declares independence from Spain,[75] but the Catalan Republic is not recognised by the Spanish government or any other sovereign nation.[76]
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- November 12 – A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes the border region between Iraq and Iran leaving at least 530 dead and over 70,000 homeless.[82]
- November 15
2018
Pedro Sanchez becomes prime minister of Spain.
2019
The Coronavirus hits the world. this potentially global pandemic is named Covid-19.
2020
Covid becomes a world-wide pandemic. People start to die in their thousands.
2021
Rita and I both contract Covid-19 in January. Rita is hospitalised and I am locked down at home.
Andy, my niece's husband, dies in a plane crash in Australia.
Rita goes to Germany for post-Covid health care. They discover a tumour and she is operated on immediately to remove it. She is away in Germany for 2.5 months.
5 die in Montejaque (Malaga, pop. 960), our second home village.
2022
2023
My half sister Heather dies aged 83 following a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
2024
The year saw the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war, and the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel.
Israel's war on Gaza led to widespread protests and spillover conflicts into numerous other countries, most notably Lebanon, which was invaded by Israel in October.
This followed an intensification of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. In September, Israel escalated an offensive against the group, which resulted in the killing of four senior members of the Hamas hierarchy.
In November, heavy fighting resumed in the Syrian civil war, leading to the toppling of Ba'athist Syria, with Bashar al-Assad fleeing Syria in December.
The year also saw a rise in activity by the Houthi movement which contributed to a crisis in the Red Sea that impacted global shipping.
Approximately 80 countries, representing around 4 billion people, conducted national elections throughout the course of the year, including eight out of the ten most populous countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, Pakistan, Russia, India, Mexico, Indonesia, and the United States), as well as France, the United Kingdom, and Japan. The European Parliament also held elections.
Among democracies, over 80% saw the incumbent party lose support compared to the last election, including many significant losses. In countries like Japan, Botswana, and South Africa, incumbent parties that had dominated domestic politics for decades lost their majorities and either relinquished power or are holding on through coalitions with minor parties.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye won the 2024 Senegalese presidential election, becoming the first opposition candidate to win in the first round since the country's independence. In Sri Lanka, voters delivered a landslide victory to the National People's Power, previously a minor party.
On November 5, 2024, Republican Donald Trump won the 2024 United States presidential election.. The French and German governments lost votes of no confidence. In December, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol's attempt to declare and impose martial law was thwarted by members of parliament, sparking a political crisis that led to his impeachment.
Drought was declared in many regions of Spain.
I spent Christmas "home alone" for the first time in my seven-and-a-half decades of life on this earth. A Spanish man would call this situation "de Rodriguez" and he might look forward to a bit of "slap-and-tickle".
I had no such luck, but I enjoyed my own company with Paulinchen, our rescue kitten.
2025
A turbulent year
Dana in Valencia
Links:
"Bye, bye, Pedro. Pedro bye bye"?
Eye on TRUMP
My Covid-19 Diary - March 2020 to date
Rogues gallery – Hijo de Putin
Sanchez gives a masterclass
© The History Man
Pictures:
ELPAIS, Karl Smallman, MuyInteresante, Paul Whitelock, RTVE, Steam, The Guardian, YouTube
Thanks:
Karl Smallman, MSN, Paul Whitelock, RTVE, Wikipedia
Tags:
Al-Qaeda, AfD, Bojo "The Clown" Johnson, Chile, climate change, danas, Covid-19, Donald Trump, earthquakes, Elon Musk, Emmanuel Macron, Gaza Strip, glaciers, Hamas, Hezbollah, hurricanes, ISIS, Jeff Bezos, Jose Antonio Kast, Karl Smallman, Kim Yong Un, Lakshmi Mittal, Liz Truss, Mark Zuckerberg, melting ice-caps, MSN, national disaster, Paul Whitelock, Pedro Sanchez, RTVE, Reform UK, Rishi Sunak, Sudan, terrorism, Ukraine, ultra-right political parties, tsunami, Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin, VOX, Warren Bufett, widespread flooding, wildfires, Xi Jinping, YouTube