Sapere Aude || The Quizarc Newsletter. Year in review Part-4
Fourth edition of Quizarc's "year in review 2024" newsletter
In this special edition of Sapere Aude, we will be looking into the biggest General (anything that was not covered in the previous Business, MELA and Sports editions) news of 2024.
🗳A year of elections
In 2024, 60 countries, representing nearly half of the global population, voted. In January, citizens of Bangladesh voted in a general election with opposition parties boycotting the election. In February, elections were held in Pakistan, Indonesia and Belarus.
In the 2024 South African general elections, the African National Congress lost its majority for the first time since Apartheid.
Joe Biden announced that he will not seek re-election and endorses his Vice President Kamala Harris to be the democratic candidate. Harris was eventually defeated by the Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The UK finally saw a change, with the Labour Party coming back to power and the Conservatives led by Rishi Sunak faring poorly in the polls.
Power also changed hands in crisis-hit Sri Lanka after the defeat of President Wickremesinghe and the victory of far-Left party National People's Power led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The world’s largest democratic exercise unfolded in India and Narendra Modi formed the coalition government for the 18th Lok Sabha, marking his third term as prime minister of India.
Climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum won Mexico's presidential election in a landslide, becoming the first female president in that nation's 200-year history.
Vladimir Putin won a fifth term in power in Russia’s controversial presidential election which saw the death of his political rival Alexei Navalny.
On the other hand, regimes fell in Syria and Bangladesh, marking unexpected defeats against a rising tide of authoritarianism in the world.
😱Scandals, tragedies and controversies
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared “emergency martial law” citing “anti-state forces” and the threat from North Korea in December 2024. The martial law remained in place for only six hours as the opposition lawmakers in the Parliament voted to overrule the president, forcing Yoon to lift the martial law.
Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes after a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a hush money case.
The United States Department of Justice accused Vikash Yadav, a former Indian government employee, of being involved in a plot to kill pro-Khalistan separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in America.
Tragedy unfolded in Kolkata when a 31-year-old postgraduate medical trainee was found dead in the seminar hall of R G Kar Medical College. The incident ignited protests across West Bengal, with doctors nationwide expressing solidarity with the junior doctors in Kolkata.
Road safety became a hot topic in India after a 17-year-old boy rammed his speeding Porsche into a motorcycle in Pune’s Yerwada, killing two young techies in their 20s. Outrage erupted online after it came to light that the teenager was leniently granted bail by the Juvenile Justice Board, asking him to write a 300-word essay on road safety.
Allegations of the presence of animal fat in the laddoos served as 'prasadam' at Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh sparked a massive controversy.
The Hema Committee Report which exposed widespread sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry made waves around the country.
💼Diplomatic Rows
2024 began with a diplomatic row between India and Maldives when the latter had campaigned to reduce India's influence in the island nation. This led to a backlash on social media and a decline in Indian tourist footfall in the Maldives.
The India-Canada diplomatic row which started in 2023 hit a new low in 2024 when India ordered the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats while also announcing its decision to withdraw the Indian High Commissioner to Canada citing security concerns after Ottawa identified them as “persons of interest” in its investigation into the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
🌡️Climate change and natural disasters
For the first time, the average global temperature was 1.5° C hotter than during pre-industrial times, a dangerous sign given that the 2015 Paris Agreement seeks to keep the world from breaching that level permanently.
Japan was hit by a deadly quake in January and disasters continued throughout the year, with Papua New Guinea and Ethiopia suffering landslides that claimed hundreds of lives.
Record drought wracked northern South America, causing parts of the Amazon, the world’s largest river system, to dry up.
Tragedy struck Kerala as landslides in Wayanad claimed over 230 lives.
Deadly floods destroyed lives and property in Kenya and Brazil.
Hurricane Helene battered the southeastern U.S., killing more than 230 people and causing tens of billions of dollars in property damage.
COP 29, the annual international conference on climate, made modest progress on helping developing countries to finance emissions reductions and climate adaptation, but not much else.
💥Man-made disasters
A plane crash in Kazakhstan killed 38 people after the aircraft diverted from a Russian region recently targeted by Ukrainian drones. The Azerbaijan Airlines flight was flying from Baku to the city of Grozny in southern Russia.
A plane crash in South Korea killed 179 people with only two survivors. The Jeju Air flight — a Boeing 737-800 that had taken off from Bangkok — may have suffered from a landing gear failure following a potential bird strike.
Iran's hardline president Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash.
A container ship struck Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing a partial collapse, six deaths, and the temporary re-routing of trade ships.
🧡🤍💚Biggest newsmakers in India
The much-awaited inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya marked a historic moment for India.
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India struck down the controversial electoral bond scheme, citing it as "unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary".
With ethnic conflict in Manipur nearing two years, the National People's Party withdrew support from the state's BJP-led government, alleging that the N Biren Singh administration failed to resolve the crisis and restore normalcy.
Three new criminal laws came into effect in India this year. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) replaced the British-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Evidence Act, respectively.
CMs in trouble:
Former Delhi Chief Minister and the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party Arvind Kejriwal was arrested after not responding to nine summons concerning a money laundering case tied to the Delhi excise policy.
Hemant Soren, the JMM executive president, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on January 31 shortly after he resigned as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand over charges of corruption in a land scam case in Ranchi.
Troubles mounted for Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah after the state Governor sanctioned his prosecution over alleged irregularities in site allotment by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority.
🔬On the Science front
Space:
Japan landed a SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon) on a lunar crater in January and transmitted data back to earth for three months; China sent a mission that brought back soil samples from the far side of the moon; NASA’s Perseverance rover found possible evidence of microbial life on Mars; The Clipper spacecraft, the largest ever to have been sent to another planet/moon by NASA, shot off towards Jupiter’s moon Europa as scientists believe the moon’s sub surface ocean may harbour life; a joint EU-Japan mission photographed the south pole of Mercury.
The most dramatic geomagnetic storm in over two decades gave Earthlings a glimpse of ethereal auroras in places people would least expect.
Cameroon started world's first malaria vaccine program for children.
Hundreds of scientists, working over a decade, were finally able to map a fruit fly’s brain with the help of an AI model.
Scientists found that a simple blood test could accurately detect Alzheimer’s.
Two new moons were spotted orbiting Neptune and one orbiting Uranus.
Researchers stumbled upon what is believed to be the oldest known fossilized reptile skin, dated at over 300 million years old.
Gene therapy allowed a deaf child to hear for the first time.
The first fully robotic double lung transplant was successfully performed.
🏺Archeological discoveries
The ancient Bronze Age town al-Natah was identified by archaeologists under an oasis in the Saudi Arabian al Madinah province.
An ancient Egyptian tomb with 11 sealed burials was excavated in Luxor, next to the Temple of Hatshepsut.
An elaborate throne room and hall were found at Pañamarca, an archaeological site that was once a religious and political center of the ancient Moche culture.
After a blaze nearly destroyed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019, archaeologists had a rare opportunity to dig beneath the building. There, they found as many as 1,035 artwork fragments, as well as a hundred graves, increasing the cathedral’s total record to more than 500 burials.
Greek writing previously unreadable inside a 2,000-year-old scroll that burned during the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius was deciphered, thanks in part to the Vesuvius Challenge. Using artificial intelligence technology, as part of the contest, participants uncovered a previously unknown philosophical work on senses and pleasure. The text discusses music, the taste of capers, and the color purple, along with a description of a possible known flautist Xenophantus who has been mentioned in texts by the ancient authors Seneca and Plutarch.
A wild pig painted with crude red pigment, standing at peace beside three humanlike figures some 51,200 years ago on the ceiling of a limestone cave, was discovered on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi. The discovery of this artwork marks the world’s oldest known cave painting, surpassing the previous record holder by more than 10,000 years.
📰Other news
Kenneth Eugene Smith, an American convicted murderer, is executed by means of nitrogen hypoxia. He was the first person in the world to be executed by this particular method.
Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates joined the BRICS group, doubling the size of the group.
Notre-Dame Cathedral reopened five years after a devastating fire.
🔤Words of 2024
The 2024 Oxford Word of the Year is “brain rot,” defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material considered to be trivial or unchallenging.”
Collins Dictionary has selected "brat" as its Word of the Year for 2024, reflecting shifting social dynamics and pop culture influences. Once synonymous with misbehaving children, the term has evolved, largely through British singer Charli XCX's album, to embody a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.
Raw dogging plane rides entailed sitting in silence — no entertainment, snacks, or naps — during entire flights.
This year, demure got a whole new meaning. It is now used to describe refined and sophisticated appearance or behavior in various contexts. It started with TikToker and beauty influencer Jools Lebron, who made the phrase ‘Very demure. Very mindful’ viral through her satirical videos.
According to Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary, enshittification was the word of the year 2024. It refers to “the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.”
Cambridge Dictionary named manifest as its word of the year. The word that now means willing something into existence through the power of positive thinking has been given a nod after several celebrities have used it on social media platforms. As the dictionary explained, “In 2024, the word manifest jumped from being mainly used in the self-help community and on social media to being mentioned widely across mainstream media.”
🪦In Memorium
Former Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh passed away at the age of 92. A distinguished economist and statesman, Singh is credited for bringing in economic reforms in 1991 that liberalized Indian economy and transformed the country’s financial landscape.
Jimmy Carter, who served as the 39th President of the United States, passed away on December 29, 2024.
Veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury passed away at the age of 72.
Tin Oo, one of the closest associates of Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as a co-founder of her National League for Democracy party passed away at 97.
Peter Higgs, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who proposed the existence of the so-called “God particle” that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang died at 94.
Dick Rutan, who along with copilot Jeana Yeager, completed the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling passed away in May 2024.
And that’s a wrap for this special edition of Quizarc’s Sapere Aude newsletter, in which we delved into the top sports stories of 2024.
We will return to our usual "weekly newsletter” from next week.
50:50, A Quizarc exclusive quiz was held over the last week. The prelims were conducted on Unstop and the top 6 battled it out in an exciting final!
You can find the whole set of the finals here.
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