The Covid-19 pandemic cast a long pall over 2020 but it also saw President Donald Trump beaten by Joe Biden in a tumultuous US election and the Black Lives Matter movement shake the world.

Here are some of the key events of the year:

– Rampaging virus – 

On January 11, less than two weeks after it alerts a cluster of pneumonia cases “of unknown cause”, Beijing announces its first death from an illness which will become known as Covid-19.

By March a pandemic has been declared and a month later half of humanity is in lockdown as governments scramble to halt its spread.

Massive state aid programmes are rolled out to save jobs as the International Monetary Fund predicts recession, with the global economy shrinking by 4.4 percent.

In November, drug companies announce positive results for several vaccines as a second wave of cases lashes the planet.

Within a month, the first shots are being given but by then some 1.6 million people are dead, with the US the worst hit.

– Iranian roulette –
The world holds its breath after top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani is killed in a US drone strike in Iraq on January 3, days after pro-Iranian protesters storm the US embassy in Baghdad.

Iran retaliates by launching a volley of missiles at bases in Iraq housing US troops. The same day, it shoots down a Ukrainian passenger plane “in error” shortly after take off from Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.

Tensions mount again at the end of November when top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is assassinated, with Tehran blaming Israel.

– Brexit endgame –
Britain becomes the first country to leave the European Union on January 31 following its 2016 Brexit referendum.

But crucial talks on future ties and trade with the bloc drag on for months, breaking deadline after deadline as negotiators try to avert a hard Brexit on December 31.

– US-Taliban accord –
The US and the Taliban sign a deal in Doha on February 29, with all foreign forces to quit Afghanistan by May 2021 after nearly two decades of war.

Talks between the Afghan government and insurgents start in September, but fighting rages on as the Taliban launch attack after attack.

The Pentagon is due to pull 2,000 of 4,500 US soldiers out of the country by January 15, 2021.

– George Floyd killed –

The killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, by white police officers on May 25 in Minneapolis sparks protests across the US and inspires anti-racism rallies across the world.

The Black Lives Matter movement leads to a major debate about race and the toppling of statues of figures linked to slavery or colonisation.

– Hong Kong clampdown –
In June, a year after a massive wave of demonstrations, China imposes a sweeping new security law on Hong Kong that opponents say undermines the semi-autonomous city’s liberties, promised under its handover from Britain in 1997.

Pro-democracy lawmakers are ousted, harassed and arrested. In December, three prominent Hong Kong activists are jailed including Joshua Wong.

– Thais rise up –
Students spark pro-democracy protests in July that roll on for the rest of the year calling for a new constitution, reform of the untouchable monarchy, and for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha to resign.

– Beirut blast –

A massive explosion on August 4 destroys much of Beirut’s port and devastates swathes of the capital, killing more than 200 and injuring at least 6,500.

The blast from a vast stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser devastates an already teetering Lebanese economy and the credibility of its governing elite.

– Fires and hurricanes –
Enormous bushfires rage across Australia in what becomes known as its “Black Summer” while in September San Francisco and other regions of the American West Coast wake to orange skies as the state’s largest ever inferno breaks out.

In November, two hurricanes devastate Central America, leaving more than 200 dead.

– The Navalny affair –
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is flown to Berlin in a medically induced coma after becoming violently ill from tea he drank as he boarded an internal flight to Moscow.

Tests reveal he was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. Navalny accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to kill him.

– Crisis in Belarus –
Belarus strongman President Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed victory in August 9 elections sparks four months of anti-government protests, centred on his main rival, political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

Opposition leaders are jailed or driven into exile.

– Israel’s new friends –
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalise ties with Israel on September 15 as Palestinians condemn the move as a “stab in the back”.

The next month Donald Trump announces that Sudan is joining them, while in November unconfirmed reports of a secret trip to Saudi Arabia by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparks speculation that the kingdom is set to follow.

In another twist, Morocco “resumed relations” with Israel on December 10 in return for the US recognising its claim to Western Sahara.

– China-US tensions – 
2020 sees US-China relations nosedive, with Trump calling Covid-19 the “China virus” and saying Beijing is responsible for “a mass worldwide killing”.

They also clash over the repression of Turkic speaking Uighur minority in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, as well as the national security law imposed on Hong Kong.

– Biden beats Trump –

Deeply-divided Americans vote in record numbers in the November presidential election between outgoing Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

After four days of nail biting, Biden takes the White House by seven million votes. Trump cries fraud without evidence and has yet to concede defeat.

– Nagorno-Karabakh –
Heavy fighting for the Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which broke away from Azerbaijan after a war in the 1990s, goes on for 45 days.

Several thousand die before a Kremlin-brokered peace deal on November 9, with Armenians losing swathes of territory to Azerbaijan forces.

– Ethiopia: Tigray conflict –
Ethiopian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed orders a military response to attacks on federal army camps in the dissident northern Tigray region.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front — which has dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades — denies responsibility and says the reported attacks are a pretext for an “invasion”.

Federal forces take the Tigrayan capital on November 28.

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A service for global professionals · Sunday, December 13, 2020 · 532,700,221 Articles · 3+ Million Readers

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Written by Isidoros Karderinis

The November 3, 2020, presidential election was arguably the most important election in USA postwar history. In these elections, therefore, the participation of American voters was the largest since 1900, demonstrating the resurgence of their political interest and the strongly polarizing climate that prevailed in the country. At the same time Joe Biden may have won the popular vote (4.5 million more votes than Trump) and the necessary electors, but Donald Trump has shown great resilience, having in fact against him almost all the media, the vast majority of Hollywood and the whole established.

These elections showed the deep division in the United States, which in many places led to extremely marginal election results. The intense confrontation between the two sides and the extreme rhetoric and practice is not an isolated event and may deepen even further, having a negative impact on the country.
The reasons for Trump’s electoral resilience are due to the fact that President Trump had adopted an anti-systemic rhetoric of complaint of the elites, to which he however belongs, as well as an aggressive tactic against the forces of globalization, aspects that touched strongly large sections of the middle class and of course the working class.

So, to the unemployed, to the people who feel they have no voice, to the provincials who are ridiculed for their manners and customs by arrogant metropolitan residents, even to citizens belonging to minorities but also to all large communities, such as African Americans. and Latins, Donald Trump’s speech has found and continues to find great resonance. And this is despite the fact that all the movements for the protection of rights (black lives matter, etc.) were clearly against him.

And if the coronavirus pandemic had not occurred and the second wave had not broken out, which is hitting the United States as violently as the first, Donald Trump would have easily won the elections. Thus, after the first three years of positive economic performances of the Trump administration, the March lockdown caused the closure of many small and medium-sized enterprises, while more than 20 million Americans were suddenly left without a job.

And Donald Trump would certainly have won the presidential election without the health crisis as Joe Biden, who expresses the neoliberal internationalism, the related globalization process and the “open society” of NGOs and the very powerful economic institutions such as George Soros and Bill Gates foundations etc., clearly seemed to have run out of forces, proposals and slogans before it even entered the finish line.

Trump’s political opponents and most analysts and pollsters had focused on the arrogant and selfish traits of his personality, an eccentric and highly impulsive no doubt billionaire, and of course they were wrong in believing that he would be defeated with a big difference. Trumpism as an ideological and social phenomenon is certain, therefore, that it has not left, is present and will continue to exist. Trump is not just a parenthesis in US political history but expresses specific distinct trends in American society and the bourgeoisie.

The Americans citizens want to prosper economically in a country where social peace, order and security will prevail. Due to globalization, many industrial units have left for poor countries where there is a cheap labor force. So, the US working class was greatly hurt. Trump was the one who demanded the return of the factories to his country, putting the USA and the American people first, in the context of the ideological tendency of ethnocentric conservatism.
And to other countries, especially the powerful ones, may not like the politics of “America First”, but the same is not the case with the average American citizen, notably in deep America and the central states.

On January 20, Joe Biden will sit in his chair at the Oval Office with Kamala Harris, in the position of Vice President, for the first time in office, a woman of African, Jamaican and Indian descent. During his term and based on what he said the United States will return to the Paris Climate Treaty, according to which the minimum goal of the states is to keep the temperature at plus 2 degrees Celsius (+2 C), and that will be a positive development, as the climate change is not a “myth”. And this can be easily seen if one takes a look at the extreme weather phenomena that occur on the planet. Let us not forget that the United States is the second largest polluter in the world after China.

Also, multilateral organisms, such as e.g., NATO, the UN and its offshoots, which have been strongly challenged by outgoing President Trump, will likely be treated differently by Joe Biden’s administration, but US relations with its European allies may move in other directions.

It should be noted at this point that Donald Trump had repeatedly threatened to withdraw the United States from NATO and reduce its contribution if other members showed no willingness to increase their spending on the organization. Germany-US relations have also been strained for the past four years, with Trump threatening the German car industry and the European Union as a whole several times with duties. Washington’s relations with Brussels were also frozen after its decision to withdraw the United States from international climate agreements and Iran over its nuclear program.

However, if the Republicans eventually win control of the Senate, it will cause many deep problems for the new President Joe Biden, as he will block most of his legislative agenda.

In closing, I would like to emphasize that the predominance of Joe Biden, who has also starred in all the pathogenic characteristics that led America to its current decline – that is, widespread social inequalities, the problematic welfare state, the favor to the strong economic elites, international lawlessness etc.-is not going to lead the US on bright paths. Besides, he did not present an inspiring, comprehensive and convincing program plan for the social, economic and political reorganization of the society and the country.

Isidoros Karderinis was born in Athens in 1967. He is a novelist, poet and columnist. He has studied economics and has completed postgraduate studies in tourism economics. His articles have been published in newspapers, magazines and sites around the world. His poems have been translated into English, French and Spanish and published in poetry anthologies, literary magazines and literary columns of newspapers. He has published eight poetry books and three novels in Greece. His books have been translated and published in the USA, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.

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Disclaimer! The views expressed in this article are the writer’s, they do not reflect the views of The Maravi Post

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NASA’s first Black crew member is amongst the four astronauts who are on their way to the International Space Station.

Resilience, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, launched from Florida on the morning of November 16, Unilad reveals. The crew members on board are Shannon Walker, Michael Hopkins, Soichi Noguchi, and Victor Glover – the first Black astronaut to live aboard the ISS.

Seven years after Glover joined the space agency, he finally has the chance to make history by becoming the first African-American to join the crew en route to the ISS, following their 27-hour journey across space.

Throughout NASA’s chronicles, from a total of 300 astronauts, there are only 14 Black Americans who have been sent on space missions. While most of them had the possibility to explore space for a brief period of time, Glover will stay for around six months.

Talking about the massive opportunity and the act of making history with his ISS attendance, Glover said:

“It is something to be celebrated once we accomplish it, and I am honored to be in this position and to be a part of this great and experienced crew. And I look forward to getting up there and doing my best to make sure, you know, we are worthy of all the work that’s been put into setting us up for this mission.

You know, unlike the election – that is in the past or receding in the past – this mission is still ahead of me. So, let’s get there, and I’ll talk to you after I get on board.”

Who are the other NASA African-Americans who made history in the space agency?

The first Black American man who went to space was Guion S. Bluford Jr. In 1983, Bluford became a member of the SDS-8 space shuttle Challenger crew.

The first Black woman who went to space was Mae Jemison. She joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected to serve for the STS-47 mission. In 1992, during the mission, Jemison orbited the Earth for nearly eight days.

As for the future, the first Black woman to join the ISS crew in 2021 is expected to be the aerospace engineer Jeanette Epps.

In an interview with The Christian Chronicle, while talking about his space journey, Victor Glover says:

“It is bittersweet because I’ve had some amazing colleagues before me that really could have done it, and there are some amazing folks that will go behind me. I wish it would have already been done, but I try not to draw too much attention to it.”

Furthermore, earlier this year, defending the purpose of astronauts, he wrote:

“Remember who is doing space. People are. As we address extreme weather and pandemic disease, we will understand and overcome racism and bigotry so we can safely and together do space. Thanks for asking.”

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¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. – John 13:15-17

Global creative joy, mirth, and dancing erupted globally when it was announced that former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris were projected winners of the 2020 US Presidential US elections. The elections show that the former Vice President amassed not only the majority of the popular vote (over 76 million people) but also acquired 279 of the Electoral College votes against his competitor, incumbent President Donald Trump (71 million popular votes and 214 Electoral College votes).

There are triple reasons to sing and shout for joy in this win (which is yet to be conceded to by Trump and his Republican Party officials). Biden’s win brings to the highest tables of US leadership the first female Vice President, Kamala Harris, an African American, born of immigrant parents who were a Jamaican father and an Indian mother.

The cream on top of all this gaiety, Joe Biden also happens to be the second Catholic elected to the US Presidency, in US history.

Four years ago I was sick for four days when Hilary Clinton lost the electoral vote paving the way for outsider Donald Trump to be declared the 45^th President of the US; four years later, I have not stopped breaking into dancing since the announcement on Saturday that Biden has won and Harris is his VP. Thank you America, democracy is back, again liberty is guaranteed, and to quote former US President Gerald Ford, “the long national nightmare is over.” 

Global celebrations included among others, bells peeling in Paris, fireworks erupting in London, dances bursting outs along streets and parks in most major cities, all giddy in joyous celebrations like some menacing dictator had fallen. Through all the formal media and social media platforms, this gaiety manifested in an endless spontaneous stream of news articles, cartoons, mimes, and humorous forwards. A German front-page newspaper had two cartoons, one with Trump cutting off the head of the Statue of Liberty; next to it is one of Joe Biden replacing the decapitated head back to Liberty; another cartoon is of a very giant Liberty shouting to a small Trump the famous words from his reality show, “You’re fired!”

World leaders congratulating Joe Biden include Pope Francis, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor, Angela Merkle, French Premier Emmanuel Macron, and many others.

The election of Joe Biden and Hamala Harris is a 76 million-strong repudiation of Trumpism, the four-year rule that has reigned terror on almost every sector of the US with extended tentacles in the global community.

In the US, it was four years of lies, using conspiracy theories, high among them that the global COVID pandemic is a hoax that will miraculously go away. This led caused him to fail to act swiftly, to develop a national plan for mitigating and stopping the spread of the virus. He also dangerously advanced a malaria drug as a cure for COVID, and later said that injecting bleach could possibly kill the virus. He refused to model to his followers during his rallies, to wear a mask.

Even before he was elected president, Trump said that the first African American president (Barrack Obama, the first African American US President) was illegitimate because according to Trump, Obama was not born in the USA. He sought to undo many achievements that were introduced during the Obama presidency, among them the Affordable Care Act, the Clean Air, and Emissions of Gas Act.

Historically he is also the first president to ever seek re-election for a seat in which he was impeached. In December 2020 articles for his impeachment were approved by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives: these included charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Republican-controlled Senate voted against his removal from office. He is widely accused of being assisted to have won the 2016 elections with help from Russia. He broke from vital global agreements among them the Paris Treaty on Climate Change, WHO; and he also breathed hot coal on the NATO allies, and just showed a lot of disrespect on American friends.

Around the world, President Trump moved away and alienated the US from its traditional allies and instead admired global dictators; he warmed up to and embraced the once enemies of America; among them Russia and North Korea. He denigrated African countries as “shitholes,” called Mexicans rapists and drug dealers, separating over 600 children from their parents as they sought asylum in the US.

President Trump ironically treated Russia with unfamiliar kid gloves when it came to Russia. He said he believed Putin in opposition to US intelligent sources that accused Russia of meddling in US elections; Trump also failed to demand an explanation from Putin on the accusation that Russia was offering bounties for the killing of US troops in Eastern Europe. 

This caused large parts of the Republican Party to break and from the Lincoln Project that campaigned for the Biden/Harris ticket. It also caused a large group of minority voters – among them African American women, Latinas, young and never before voted; flooding the voter airwaves in the early vote and election day, they came like a swarm of bees.

As the count continues, President-Elect Biden lead is widening, as soon-to-be-former President Trump and his allies hang on to recounting of votes, court cases and intimidation tactics. He has also promised to hold rallies to show voter fraud and how the Biden side is attempting to steal his win. 

But American democracy won bigly. “We the people” have spoken. For the second time, they’ve elected a catholic and for the first time, they’ve elected a woman, who is also a person of color and daughter of immigrant parents, the VP. Harris will hold the second-highest office in the US. Her picture will sit among a sea of male faces.

Ooooh what a feeling, I’m dancing on the ceiling! “We the people” have spoken.

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US President-elect Joe Biden announced it was “time to heal” a divided America in his first speech since winning the tense vote, as Donald Trump refused to concede and mounted legal battles against the outcome.

In the parking lot of his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, he told a crowd of supporters to turn the page from what he described as a “grim era of demonisation” and urged Trump supporters to give him a chance.

“The people of this nation have spoken. They have delivered us a clear victory, a convincing victory,” he said.

Biden’s win on Saturday in Pennsylvania put him over the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes he needed to clinch the presidency, which ended four days of nail-biting suspense as ballots were being counted.

He did not address Trump but did reach out to the 70 million who voted for him.

“For all those of you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment tonight. I’ve lost a couple of times myself. But now, let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again” he said.

“This is the time to heal in America.”

Biden also thanked Black voters, saying the African American community had stood up for him in the vote.

‘Not the last’

It was his third time running for the presidency. The 77-year-old has spent half a century in public life as a US senator and vice president.

He was introduced by vice-president elect Kamala Harris, who has made history as not only the first female vice president in US history but also the first black and first Asian-American to do the job.

“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,” she told a crowd of supporters who honked and cheered from their cars.

Harris also paid tribute to her late mother who emigrated to the US from India at the age of 19.

First order of the day

As well as promising to unite the US, the Democrat also pledged to battle the coronavirus pandemic, rebuild the economy, root out systemic racism and secure healthcare.

He said even before he enters office he will name a COVID-19 taskforce on Monday “to help take the Biden-Harris Covid plan and convert it into an action blueprint that will start on January 20, 2021,” Biden said.

“That plan will be built on bedrock science. … I’ll spare no effort, none, or any commitment, to turn around this pandemic.”

The United States confirmed 126,742 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, a record number for a fourth day in a row.

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