2021 in a nutshell: a timeline of major events in the outgoing year

Shafaq News / One good thing can be said about 2021: it was not as tumultuous as 2020, which put in a claim to be the worst year ever. That, however, may be damning with faint praise. In fact, the past twelve months were an ambivalent collage of both good and bad events; some of which will shape many aspects of the national and international scene for years to come.

Before ringing the bell in 2021, Shafaq News Agency assembled a timeline of major events that molded the features of the outgoing year.

 The United Kingdom began the New Year outside the European Union’s orbit after ending a tempestuous 48-year liaison with the European project, its most significant geopolitical shift since the loss of empire. Brexit took effect in substance on Thursday at the strike of midnight in Brussels, or 2300 London time (GMT), at the end of a transition period that largely maintained the status quo for 11 months after Britain formally left the E.U. on Jan. 31, 2020. For five years, the frenzied gyrations of the Brexit crisis dominated European affairs, buffeted the sterling markets, and tarnished the United Kingdom’s reputation as a reliable pillar of Western stability. Supporters cast Brexit as the dawn of a newly independent “global Britain”, but the drama that weakened the bonds that bind England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland brought the Kingdom closer to its historical ally, the United States.

For the Gulf region, the year 2021 started on a positive note. On December 5, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates announced they were ending their air, land, and sea boycott of Qatar's tiny, gas-rich state, With varying degrees of enthusiasm. The boycott began in June 2017, when the four countries accused Qatar of supporting Islamist groups in the region and having warm ties with Iran.

On January 6, Hundreds of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a stunning bid to overturn his election defeat, battling police in the hallways, and delaying the certification of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory for hours. In the gravest assault on the symbol of American democracy in more than 200 years, rioters forced their way past metal security barricades, broke windows, and scaled walls to fight their way into the Capitol. Police said four people died during the chaos, one from gunshot wounds and three from medical emergencies, and 52 people were arrested on that day. 

A week later, Donald Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice as 10 of his fellow Republicans joined Democrats in the House of Representatives to charge him with inciting an insurrection in the violent rampage in the Capitol.

On January 20, Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday during a ceremony at a heavily protected U.S. Capitol, ending the tumultuous four-year presidency of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.

Towards the end of the month, on the eve of the Eid al-Adha festival, a suicide bomber killed at least 35 people and wounded dozens in a crowded market in al-Sadr City, east of Baghdad.

On February 1st, Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup against the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her party. The army said it had responded to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief General Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for a year in the country, also known as Burma, where neighboring China has a powerful influence.

On the ninth of February, The United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars reached the red planet and entered orbit after a seven-month, 494 million-km (307 million-mile) journey, allowing it to start sending data about the Martian atmosphere and climate. The very next day, China’s Tianwen-1 probe successfully rolled into Mars orbit after a nearly seven-month voyage from Earth. Less than two weeks later, NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance streaked through the Martian atmosphere and landed safely inside a vast crater; the first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. However, it took until April 22 until NASA managed to produce oxygen from the Carbon dioxide of the neighboring planet’s atmosphere.

Oddly enough, The Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, ran aground on March 23 in the southernmost stretch of the Suez Canal, which has a single lane that ships pass through in convoys. The ship, operated by Evergreen line, blocked the canal for six days causing a backlog of more than 400 ships at both ends of the canal and disrupting world trade.

In a political intrigue that is still a somewhat shrouded mystery, Jordanian authorities on April 3 made a sweep of arrests targeting powerful figures including a onetime heir to the throne, Hamza bin al-Husayn, and a confidant of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Bassem Awadallah. The situation in a country known to be a beacon of stability in a volatile region became a showcase of regional rivalries and is testing U.S. alliances with two important allies in the Middle East, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. 

On April 24, a fire caused by an oxygen tank explosion at Ebn Khatib COVID-19 hospital in Baghdad took at least 82 lives and injured dozens. At that moment, the already decimated by war and sanctions, Iraq's healthcare system has struggled to cope with the coronavirus crisis, which has killed more than 15,000 people and infected more than 1 million. Less than three months later, a similar incident in a hospital in Dhi Qar, south of Iraq, killed more than 90 persons. The tragedy left the Iraqis in shock and Mustafa al-Kadhimi's government in utter embarrassment that toppled Iraq's Minister of Health, Hasan al-Tamimi, and many other senior officials in the Ministry.

On May 8, explosions shook the neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi, home to a large community of Shi'ites from the Hazara ethnic minority targeted in the past by Islamic State. A car bomb was detonated in front of the Sayed Al-Shuhada school, and two more bombs exploded when students rushed out in panic. The death toll from the attack amounted to nearly 70, most of whom are female pupils, and more than 150 others.

In the same month, on May 24, a military coup took place in the African Republic of Mali, apparently in the context of an external conflict over Mali's resources and wealth.

On May 26, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won a fourth term in office, second under the 2012 Constitution, with 95.1% of the votes in an election that will extend his rule over a country ruined by war but which opponents and the West say was marked by fraud.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s record 12-year run as Israel’s prime minister ended on June 13 with parliament approving a new “government of change” led by the self-made millionaire Naftali Bennett, an improbable scenario only a few once could have imagined. Bennett won a razor-thin 60-59 vote of confidence after securing the votes of the Arab parties.

The wind of change arrived in Tehran on June 19, as Iran's hardline Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi secured 62% of the votes in a landslide presidential race to become the eighth elected president of the Islamic Republic. Raisi's ascension to the presidency is sought to reshape Iran's foreign and nuclear policy after eight years under the reformist administration of Hassan Rouhani. 

On July 20, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of the spaceflight company Blue Origin, launched into suborbital space with three other people on the first crewed mission of the company's New Shepard vehicle; a landmark moment for the man and the space tourism industry.

Tunisia faced its worst crisis in a decade of democracy on July 25 after President Kais Saied ousted the government and suspended parliament with help from the army, a move denounced as a coup by the country's main parties, including Islamists. Saied's action followed months of deadlock and disputes pitting him against Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and a fragmented parliament, as Tunisia descended into an economic crisis exacerbated by one of Africa's worst COVID-19 outbreaks. Saied later ordered that the annual celebration of the country's 2011 uprising be moved from January 14 to December 17.

Over the course of a week and a half in mid-August, Taliban reclaimed most of Afghanistan's provincial capitals, entering Kabul on August 15. The Afghan government collapsed, and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. The reverberations of Taliban's Reclamation of power might remain in the center of the world's attention for years as it marks the end of 20 years of U.S. presence in Afghanistan. 

On August 28, leaders and top diplomats from nine nations converged on the Iraqi capital to attend the Baghdad Conference for Partnership and Cooperation. Participants and supporters of Baghdad's efforts to reclaim its regional stature labeled the event a success. France's President Emmanuel Macron called it "historic", while U.S. President Joe Biden congratulated the Iraqi government on hosting a "ground-breaking regional summit". The event showcased the regional and international role Baghdad seeks to play as part of the Iraqi government's approach led by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. 

On September 10, Lebanon had its first full government in more than a year. The country last had a government on August 4, 2020, after a devastating explosion at the Beirut port forced out then Prime Minister Hasan Diab. The new government led by the billionaire businessman Najib Mikati had to push against a torrent of economic and monetary crisis; probably the worst in Lebanon's contemporary history. 

Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms went black on October 6 after a massive global outage plunged the services and the businesses and people who rely on them into chaos for hours. The outage cast huge question marks on humanity's relationship with technology and how the latter affects our lives. 

On 10 October, Iraqis went to the polls in the fifth general election since 2003. The campaign was competitive, and afterward, U.N. and European Union (E.U.) observers affirmed that the vote was well managed. But these formalities apparently mattered little to Iraqis, as most of them did not cast a ballot. Turnout hit a record low for the post-2003 period, with only 36 percent of eligible voters and 44 percent of registered voters participating. Few, however, had predicted that the results would shake up the system in another way. With larger than usual gaps between winners and losers, the vote has upset the balance within Iraq’s elite pact. To save face, the losing side in the loose amalgam of Shiite parties sought to discredit the elections that its rivals won. And as the subsequent tension has shown, the stakes in this struggle are high and the dangers to Iraq's security are real.

On October 11, Tunisian academic Najla Bouden was sworn in as the first female Tunisian and Arab Prime Minister. Bouden's government encompassed a record number of female members, nine aside from herself. 

October 25; Sudan's military seized power, dissolving the transitional government hours after troops arrested the prime minister. Thousands of people flooded into the streets to protest the coup that threatened the country's wobbly progress toward democracy. The takeover comes more than two years after protesters forced the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir and just weeks before the military was supposed to hand the council's leadership that runs the country over to civilians.

Nearly 200 nations agreed to adopt the Glasgow Climate Pact on November 12 after more than two weeks of intense negotiations. The deal is sought to keep alive international hopes of averting the worst impacts of global warming.

On November 7, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped unharmed an assassination attempt by armed drones targeting his residence in Baghdad. The incident dramatically raised tension in the country weeks after a general election disputed by Iraqi political forces aligned with Iran.

On November 24, A new coronavirus (or SARS-CoV-2) variant, none other than the notorious Omicron (or B.1.1.529), was identified by scientists in South Africa. The highly transmissible variant was soon been detected in 106 countries.

On December 7, Iraq recovered 3,500 years old clay tablet featuring the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh after being looted three decades ago.

Social Democrat Olaf Scholz became Germany's chancellor on December 8, ending 16 years of conservative rule under Angela Merkel.

On December 15, UNESCO added Arabic calligraphy to its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. The proposal was put forward by a coalition of 16 Arabic-speaking countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine.

On December 25, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, built to give the world its first glimpse of the universe as it existed when the earliest galaxies formed, was launched by rocket from the northeastern coast of South America, opening a new era of astronomy.

In 2021, we lost a constellation of art stars; the Egyptian actor Samir Ghanem on May 20, the Iraqi poet Lamia Abbas Amara on June 18, the Kurdish singer Omar Reda on August 7,  and the Syrian singer Sabah Fakhri on November 2.