The past year

2024 was a “remarkably bad” year for the world’s incumbent governments

In 2024, billions of people went to the polls in over 70 different countries. After all the votes were counted, Rachel Kleinfeld at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank draws a clear conclusion.

“It has been a remarkably bad year for incumbents,” she tells NBC News.

The list is long. Among other things, the Democrats lost the presidential election in the US, the conservative Tory Party lost power in the UK and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party failed to gain a majority in parliament.

Kleinfeld believes, among other things, that social media and the apps’ algorithms have influenced the results in 2024. Anger and dissatisfaction are more easily spread than positive tones, she reasons.

 

 

NATO entry, scandals and political assassination attempts – here are the biggest news stories of the year

The news year 2024 has not gone unnoticed. Omni lists some of the biggest and most memorable events of the past year in brief.

January

Accidental Boeing plane. AP

A Boeing plane from the airline Alaska Airlines was heading to Ontario on January 6 when a window and part of the wall were suddenly torn off and all the air was sucked out of the cabin. The plane made an emergency landing and, miraculously, no one was hurt.

– There was a guy sitting in the same row who had his shirt torn off as he was leaving the plane, and that his mother held him down to make sure he didn't go along, passenger Evan Smith told the New York Times.

The incident was followed by a series of further failures on planes belonging to the manufacturer Boeing, which generated strong criticism.

February

Memorial site for Navalny. Thomas Padilla / AP

On February 16, the news came that Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny had died in a Russian prison.

The news sparked strong reactions, protests and condemnations around the world.

– I am not surprised but furious. Putin is responsible, said US President Joe Biden, for example.

March

 Joe Biden, Ulf Kristersson and Jens Stoltenberg Javad Parsa / NTB

After many ups and downs, Sweden finally became a member of NATO on March 7, and 200 years of formal military non-alignment were over. Hungary became the last of 31 countries to ratify the Swedish application.

– Unity and solidarity should be Sweden's guiding light as a NATO member. We will share burdens, responsibilities and risks with our allies, said Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson during the ceremony.

April

Protests in Tbilisi. Shakh Aivazov / AP

Throughout much of April, tens of thousands of people gathered in the Georgian capital Tbilisi to protest the government's controversial "agent law." The law means that organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad will be labeled as organizations that carry out the affairs of a foreign power.

The bill, which is expected to bring the country closer to Russia, was passed in late May.

May

Trump after the verdict. On the right, the charges and the outcome. Seth Wenig/Jon Elswig/AP

At the end of May, Donald Trump became the first former president to be convicted in a criminal trial in the United States.

He was found guilty of 34 counts of accounting violations, including ordering payments to people who threatened to release sensitive information about him in connection with the 2016 presidential election campaign.

June

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Oscar Olsson/TT / TT News Agency

In June, it was time for the European elections. There are of course many conclusions to be drawn and analyses to be made based on the election results, but we will content ourselves with the main election winners listed by the Euronews website:

• France's far-right National Rally party reaped great successes.
• The conservative EPP group remained the largest group in parliament and also gained 13 more seats compared to 2019.
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni secured her role as the EU's kingmaker.

 

Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron Thomas Padilla / AP

As a result of the National Rally's successes and his own defeats, French President Emmanuel Macron called new elections.

- I have decided to give you the choice to decide your parliamentary future by voting, he said, describing the whole thing as a democratic moment of fate.

The new elections were not the success Macron had hoped for. Instead, it was the French left-wing alliance and, to some extent, the far-right that had reason to celebrate.

July

Trump injured by gunshot AP

On July 14, shots were fired during Donald Trump's campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Trump, who was on stage giving a speech, was hit by a gunshot in the ear.

A person in the audience died after being hit by a gunshot.

20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks has been identified by the FBI as the shooter behind the assassination attempt on Trump. He was shot dead by the Secret Service in connection with the incident.

Error message on computers after technical problems at the global cybersecurity company Crowdstrike. Caisa Rasmussen/TT / TT News Agency

On July 19, problems at the IT security company Crowdstrike caused technical disruptions around the world. The crash resulted in flights being stopped from taking off, payment systems being down and medical technology being disrupted.

Spain celebrates European Championship victory. AP/TT

Spain won its fourth European Championship gold medal in July – no other country has won so many times. The final was decided with only four minutes of regulation time remaining, when Mikel Oyarzabal scored 2–1 after a pass from Marc Cucurella.

August

Duplantis sets new WORLD RECORD! | Men's Pole Vault Final | Paris Champions
On August 25, Armand Duplantis sets a new world record with a height of 6.26. The Swedish pole vaulter cleared the height on his second attempt during the Diamond League competitions in Katowice, Poland.

– I'm just going to chill and enjoy the evening, Duplantis said after the jump.

September

Sean "Diddy" Combs Jordan Strauss / AP

On September 17, rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs is arrested at a hotel in New York. He is suspected of trafficking and of running a criminal organization. Since November last year, the artist has been involved in ten legal cases, nine of which involve sexual assault.

October

Beirut shortly after one of the Israeli attacks on October 1. AP/TT

October began with Israel's first ground incursion into Lebanon since 2006.

The incident followed nearly a year of airstrikes between Israel and Hezbollah.

Fans mourn the death of Liam Payne. Natacha Pisarenko / AP

In mid-October, British pop star Liam Payne died after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires.

Five people have been charged with involvement in the singer's death. One of the people is Argentine businessman Rogelio Nores, who has previously described Payne as a "very close friend." The others are the hotel's head receptionist and security manager, as well as two other hotel employees.

November

Donald Trump. Evan Vucci / AP

Donald Trump won an unexpectedly large victory in the US presidential election. In front of cheering supporters in Florida, Trump declared himself the 47th president of the United States.

- It's a political victory that our country has never seen before, he said.

Republicans also won majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

December

Picture from Damascus after the rebels entered. AP/TT

On December 8, it became clear that President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria had fallen.

"We declare Damascus free from the tyrant," wrote the Islamist rebel group HTS, promising a new era for Syria.

Bashar al-Assad had ruled the country since 2000, when he succeeded his father Hafez al-Assad, who seized power in a coup in 1970.

Gisèle Pelicot. Lewis Joly / AP

The Gisèle Pelicot case received a lot of attention around the world. On December 19, her former husband Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for raping his wife while she was sedated and allowing other men to do the same.

All 51 defendants in the high-profile French case were found guilty, most of them for aggravated rape.