The Biggest Moments of 2022

Featured photo by: Arek Socha from Pixabay

It’s that time of the year again. Although I am pretty sure I am doing this earlier than usual and backing on nothing overly big happening in the next two-ish weeks. But I have done these kind of posts on an end-yearly basis so I thought why not look back through the year again and do it again. And then again next year… so let’s take a look at the biggest moments of the year in chronological order.  

Kazakhstan Unrest  

Near to the beginning of the year one of the first major events to take place was unrest in Kazakhstan – a country not well known internationally apart from the fact that it used to be part of the Soviet Union. If you’re a space junkie you may know that Kazakhstan is one of the places commonly used for launches.  

The country’s political system is known to be corrupt and rather authoritarian – especially under its former President Nazarbayev who led the country since its independence in 1991 all the way up until 2019 when he resigned following anti-government protests – but even despite this he remained very influential within the country’s politics, including being a member of the country’s Constitutional Council, an honorary Senate member, and was the Chair of the country’s Security Council. They even changed their capital city of Astana to the new planned city of Nur-Sultan after him which has recently been reversed.  

The spark for this latest unrest was triggered by a rise in the cost of liquefied gas following the lifting of a government price cap. Protests begun peacefully and soon spread across the country to other cities. Some protests would soon turn violent due to dissatisfaction with the government and poverty, as well as anger against Nazarbayev’s continued influence in the country’s politics. The government responded with violent crackdowns that would lead to the deaths of over 200 and over 9000 would be arrested.  

Troops of the military CSTO alliance (basically Russia’s equivalent of NATO) would be called on to intervene in the unrest by the country’s current and only second President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. And also in an attempt to placate the unrest the Prime Minister Askar Mamin and his Cabinet resigned and Nazarbayev was removed from the chairmanship of the Security Council, and gas price caps were reinstated for 6-months. The CSTO would also agree to deploy troops in the country in what they described as a peacekeeping mission.  

Putin himself described the deployment as a concerted effort to prevent the spread of a ‘Colour Revolution’ from spreading to regional allies with him blaming such a possibility on foreign interference in allies’ internal affairs. Tokayev went on to say that he had ordered troops a ‘shoot to kill’ order against protesters who he called ‘bandits and terrorists’. Order had been restored by the 11^th January in which Tokayev called the events an attempted coup. Tokayev also fired the defence minister and accused him of poor leadership during the unrest and later arrested him for ‘official inaction’ during the unrest.  

Tokayev also promised further reform, acknowledged discontent over income inequality, and openly criticised Nazarbayev and his associates wealth. A number of reforms were later announced in Tokayev’s state-of-the-union address in March and later in the year a major constitutional amendment would be passed via a national referendum and is only the second time the constitution has been amended by referendum with the last in 1995.  

The constitutional amendment is viewed as something that will lessen the influence of the executive branch, grant more powers to the Parliament, and eliminate powers held by the former President Nazarbayev.  

Other observers have claimed that Tokayev exploited the unrest and its aftermath to consolidate his own power and influence in the country. Time will tell if things have truly changed or if Tokayev will simply become the next Nazarbayev.  

Hunga Tonga Volcano Eruption 

The eruption itself begun on the 20^th December 2021 but would reach a hugely explosive climax on 15^th January 2022 in what is one of the largest ever recorded eruptions. The volcano that basically exploded was a submarine volcano called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai located in the Tongan archipelago in the Southern Pacific Ocean. Despite its isolation the shockwave still traveled around the world and greatly affected nearby islands, killing 6 and injuring 19 and causing 10s of millions of dollars in damages.  

The eruption even caused tsunamis that not only affected islands within the region such as Tonga, Fiji, American Samoa, and Vanuatu – but that also affected countries such as New Zealand, Japan, the US west coast, the Russian Far East, Chile and Peru. It was the largest eruption since the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption and the most powerful since the infamous 1883 Krakatoa eruption. The eruption was described as hundreds of more times powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and that it caused more atmospheric disruption than any other 20^th Century volcanic eruption or nuclear bomb test.  

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine  

By far the biggest and most shocking event of 2022 that is still ongoing and probably will continue to go on for a number of years more. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine begun on 24^th February 2022 after a period of build-up and warnings from US intelligence that a planned invasion was coming. It is the most significant war and humanitarian disaster in Europe since World War II with over 7 million Ukrainians having fled the war, and at least 8 million internally displaced. Deaths on both sides are staggering and are estimated to be in the 10s of thousands each, as well as the many thousands of civilian deaths, and untold life changing injuries.  

The war has also had wider ranging effects on global food security and gas/energy supplies which has played a part in causing cost of living crises in some countries. Resulting retaliatory sanctions have caused a major economic crisis and worldwide isolation in Russia itself, and military failures and a partial mobilisation since then have only further worsened conditions for the Russian populace and has caused one of the biggest exoduses of its population since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.  

The invasion is part of the much longer running Russo-Ukrainian War which has been going on since the Russian annexation of Crimea and the conflict in the eastern Donbas region with Russian-backed separatists in 2014 within the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. This war itself was triggered following the aftermath of the earlier Ukrainian Revolution which overthrew the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych and his government, the protests that led to the revolution had themselves been triggered by Yanukovych’s refusal to sign a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union in favour with closer ties with Russia and its Eurasion Economic Union.  

Putin announced the beginning of the Ukraine invasion as a ‘special military operation’ aiming to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. But overall, it was all invented propaganda to try and justify Ukraine’s invasion with the ultimate goal of either pro-Russia regime change or total subjugation of Ukraine’s land or a mixture of the two. The war though has not exactly gone in favour of Putin’s goals and has likely dragged on for far longer than he wished, with many military and strategic losses against forces of Ukraine fighting tooth and nail for their freedom, and whom have greatly benefited from the support of western weapons and weapon systems.  

Russian Forces Retreat from Areas around Kyiv  

This was one of the first signs that the war in Ukraine was not going to Putin’s favour and that a quick ‘decapitation’ victory against Zelenskiy and his government was not going to be successful. Kyiv was one of the immediate targets as soon as the invasion begun with apparent attempts at encircling the city from the north-east and east. There were also apparent attempts to seize Kyiv by infiltrating using Spetsnaz (Russian special forces).  

In support of such attempts Russia also quickly tried to seize nearby airfields such as Antonov Airport and Vasylkiv Airbase but were ultimately unsuccessful in the face of Ukrainian resistance. Further Ukrainian defenses made advances on the city increasingly difficult for Russian forces, and a large Russian convoy tried and failed to make it to the city.  

Any further attempt at quickly taking Kyiv was thwarted by a Ukrainian counter offensive which led to the withdrawal of Russian forces from around Kyiv in what was seen as one of their first major defeats and a sign that Ukraine would not fall as easily as some had expected, if at all.  

I think it can be largely agreed that this was Ukraine’s make or break moment and was fundamental in exposing Russia’s inability at a quick victory and started raising doubts of Russia being able to achieve their goals in Ukraine to any large degree. It also had the effect of bringing western powers more towards the idea of backing Ukrainian forces with weapons as they had demonstrated capability to successfully stand against Russian forces.  

Sinking of the Moskva  

And the big blows for Russia did not end there. The Moskva (known as the Slava until 1995) was a guided missile cruiser apart of the Russian Navy which was first commissioned in 1983 and was decommissioned in 1990 only to be reinstated again in 2000. It was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and the most powerful active warship within that region.  

The Moskva saw deployment in recent conflicts such as the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, as well as in the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War. Without much of a surprise the ship led the naval assault from the outset of the invasion of Ukraine until it was sunk. It is the same warship that demanded Ukraine forces on Snake Island to surrender who famously responded with ‘fuck you, Russian ship’ before being captured. Russia, despite capturing that island, were unable to maintain a permanent presence there due to continued Ukrainian strikes owing to the island’s exposed nature.  

The fateful day for the ship came on 14^th April wherein Ukrainian officials said the ship had been damaged by two of its R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles and that this damage led to its sinking. Russia on the other hand contests this and claims the ship sunk in stormy seas as the result of an accidental fire that caused onboard munitions to explode.  

The number of crew killed is highly contested with Russia having originally said only 1 had died, 27 were missing, and the rest (396 crew) had been evacuated. 17 of those missing were later declared dead. Other sources contend that many more actually died, some saying dozens dead, others saying hundreds dead. But unfortunately, we cannot be sure how many actually died. The actual cause also cannot be truly determined due to lack of evidence from either claim.  

But even so either way it is still a massive loss for Russia to lose its strongest warship and only further put a damper on its increasingly poor performance in the invasion. It is the largest Russian warship to sink since WWII and Russia’s first flagship to sink since the 1905 Russo-Japanese War.  

Large Hadron Collider Starts Up Again

One for the science lovers. This year the Large Hadron Collider was started up again after three years of inactivity. The LHC is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle collider and has been used in many experiments. It was built by CERN between 1998-2008 in a massive scientific collaboration involving thousands of scientists, hundreds of universities and labs, and over 100 countries. It conducted its first collisions in 2010, breaking world records with it. The collider lies in an underground tunnel under the border between France and Switzerland not far from Geneva.  

The purpose of the collider is to experiment on theories around particle physics, with an initial main aim of discovering the existence of the Higgs boson, and during this time it has made a number of particle discoveries. During the shutdown, which was its 2^nd long shutdown, the collider was upgraded with a goal to implement the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider project to increase luminosity by a factor of 10. Upgrades also gave the collider a new maximum beam energy.  

A 3^rd long shutdown is planned to take place in the later 2020s for further upgrades.  

Sri Lanka’s Mass Protests  

Massive protests erupted in Sri Lanka in March. The original triggers of the protests were a result of anger over government mismanagement of the economy that caused a severe economic crisis that involved severe inflation, daily powercuts, and a shortage on fuel, domestic gas, and other essential goods. Much of the anger would be directed at the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family who also held powerful and influential positions in the country’s administration, including the position of Prime Minister. The family have been accused of corruption, authoritarianism, and nepotism, as well as overseeing human rights abuses.  

Initial attempts at quelling the protests and unrest involved actions seen as authoritarian such as the declaration of a state of emergency, special powers allowing the military to arrest civilians, the imposition of curfews, and access being restricted to social media in an attempt to stop protests spreading. Social media restrictions themselves quickly failed and only caused further momentum and awareness to grow on the platforms which quickly caused the government to reverse its actions on restrictions. Coordinated attacks against protesters were also seen from pro-Rajapaksa mobs which led to protesters retaliating by attacking properties of Rajapaksa loyalists as well as other members of the Parliament.  

Eventually concessions begun to be made to try and quell the protests with the second Gotabaya Rajapaksa government Cabinet resigning apart from the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who remained in office, it was also noted that some ministers who had resigned were quietly reinstated in other administrative positions. 50 MPs aligned with the ruling Sri Lanka People’s Front party would become independent putting further pressure on the administration.  

Eventually a bigger win would come when Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa stepped down on 9^th May, with Ranil Wickremesinghe being appointed as the new Prime Minister although Mahinda Rajapaksa remained the leader of the Sri Lanka People’s Front party. Basil Rajapaksa, the minister of finance, also later resigned from the Parliament along with other Rajapaksa family members resigning from positions. But still none of this was enough to placate protesters many of whom demanded that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa step down.  

The defining moment would come in July when the mass protests overwhelmed security forces in Colombo which enabled the massive crowd to occupy the President’s house and caused Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee into exile temporarily. The Prime Minister Wickremesinghe soon announced he was willing to resign to placate protesters, but ultimately in the end it would be Gotabaya Rajapaksa who finally resigned the presidency after trying to hold off despite pledging he would resign and also making Wickremesinghe the Acting President. Rajapaksa did return from his temporary exile in order to resign. Wickremesinghe himself would be elected the new President by the Parliament, and a non-Rajapaksa Prime Minister would be appointed.  

Soon after a joint operation of the Army, police forces, and special police forces cleared out the Presidential Secretariat of protesters which was criticized by some western envoys and was declared a violation of fundamental human rights by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.  

Lower-level protests would continue but by November they largely fizzled out as people became more content with the improving economic situation.  

The ‘Whisky War’ Ends 

This one isn’t an actual war and is simply just a border dispute, but I thought it was pretty funny so decided to include it. The tiny island of Hans can be found in the middle of the Kennedy Channel between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Greenland. When coming to an agreement on where the borders lie between Canada and Greenland (which is administered by Denmark) they could not agree on Hans Island and so when the border treaty was signed in 1973 Hans Island was left up to dispute.  

In my own opinion the island looks like a pile of elephant dung in the channel and really does not seem like anything special so the fact these countries could not agree over whose it should be or how to divide it for this long seems really petty. I mean I guess there is possibly some strategic and scientific value, but nothing super major.  

But why did it become known as the ‘Whisky War’? Well, in 1984 it all began when Canadian soldiers landed on the island and planted the Canadian flag there along with a bottle of Canadian whisky. This action provoked the then Danish Minister of Greenland Affairs to go to the island himself in which he planted the Danish flag, a bottle of schnaps, and a letter that said ‘Welcome to the Danish Island’ in Danish.  

And thus, begun a long timeline of tit-for-tat exchanges of each side landing on the island, planting their flags, and leaving behind an alcoholic beverage. Pretty much all of it was in good taste though and was largely regarded as a joke despite the surrounding seriousness of the dispute. And both Canada and Denmark remained good allies throughout the period despite the small dispute. At the urging of the Greenland Premier the two nations did become more serious about trying to diplomatically solve the dispute in 2005.  

Since that time cooperation between the two nations on Hans Island grew stronger and agreements came about on scientific usage and mineral exploitation on the island between the two nations. A joint taskforce was established between the two nations in 2018 to further speed up the process of resolving the dispute. Finally, it was announced on 10^th June 2022 that an agreement on dividing the island had been reached and used it as an example in the face of the Ukraine invasion the possibility of diplomatic approaches.  

The Assassination of Shinzo Abe  

Although Japan has had a violent and controversial past many people nowadays see it as a rather peaceful and inviting country with people fascinated by its culture, arts, architecture, customs, tourist attractions, and much more. Plus, it is where Pokemon and Nintendo were born. Western bias aside… Japan has a lot to it, and both crime and shocking acts no longer rank high in people’s minds when they think of Japan. When most people come to think of crime in Japan they’ll probably think about the Yakuza, although they are no longer as powerful as they once were.  

But my point being when something shocking happens in Japan a lot of people are extra shocked about it because they see Japan as being one of the less likely places where these things will happen. And that is certainly the case with the assassination of Shinzo Abe on 8^th July 2022.  

If you did not know, Shinzo Abe was the former Prime Minister of Japan at the time of his assassination, and he was perhaps one of Japan’s most popular modern Prime Ministers. He was first elected to office in 1993 as a member of the country’s House of Representatives as a part of Japan’s Liberal Democratic party, which is Japan’s mainstream Conservative political party. Abe would later go on to hold positions such as Chief Cabinet Secretary from 2005-2006 and he served twice as President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 2006-2007 and again from 2012-2020 both pretty much mirroring his two tenures as Japan’s Prime Minister, and he became Japan’s longest serving Prime Minister. Both of his tenures led to him eventually resigning due to issues with ulcerative colitis.  

Although Abe was generally popular there was also controversy for many observers over his political views and standings. He was often described as a right-wing Japanese nationalist and his association with the Nippon Kaigi – Japan’s largest ultra-conservative and ultranationalist far-right non-governmental organisation and lobbying group, as well as his displayed negationist views on Japan’s past history – such as that which surrounds Japan’s actions in World War II have raised eyebrows and caused tensions and disputes such as with South Korea and China. He was also controversially interested in reforming Japan’s Defense Force and military doctrine such as allowing declarations of war and being supportive of making overseas deployment of a military force lawful. He also played an active role in trying to reverse economic stagnation in Japan with his policies becoming known as ‘Abenomics’.  

The day in which Abe was assassinated he was in the city of Nara, the capital of the Nara Prefecture, where he was making a campaign speech for the upcoming elections to the House of Councillors, Japan’s upper house of its National Diet (Parliament). During his speech he was shot by a man from behind who used a crude homemade firearm. Abe was transported to hospital but was later pronounced dead. The suspect is 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami who was arrested at the scene on a charge of attempted murder which was obviously later upgraded to murder.  

Yamagami said he had done it due to a dispute over his mother’s bankruptcy in 2002 with the Unification Church, a new religious movement in Japan that Abe and his family had political connections with. The religious movement has been controversially known to pressure its believers into making overly hefty donations.

This connection in the assassination did actually lead to scandal within the government over UC connections and on 31^st August it was announced that the Liberal Democratic Party would no longer have any connections with the UC and its related organisations and threatened to expel members who did not break ties with the UC. The National Diet as recently as 10^th December passed legislation to restrict activities of religious organisations such as the UC and provide relief to victims.  

So, as you can see here the assassination definitely led to some results, there is no denying that. But it is certainly still very shocking and not the recommended way to go about with grievances, at all. Yamagami had no previous criminal history and as of yet no formal charges have been brought against him, he remains held at the Osaka Detention House where he is under psychiatric evaluation until 10^th January next year. Shinzo Abe was given a state funeral that was held on 27^th September.  

European Heatwaves  

It feels like we’ve been seeing extreme heat events and heatwaves quite often now. It does feel like every Summer it is getting much hotter for quite a bit longer and we’re seeing more and more wildfires and heat-related deaths. I think it is getting harder and harder to deny at this point that climate change is not a large contributing factor towards these unusual weather patterns. I remember I was quite shocked watching the news of some of the wildfires we had in the United Kingdom during the extreme temperatures, although they were nothing compared to some of the massive fires seen in places like France and Spain.  

Numerous temperature records were broken including in the United Kingdom where we saw 40 degrees C temperatures for the first time. The hot and dry conditions also led to severe drought warnings across Europe with possibly dangerous effects on agriculture, energy, and water supplies, with it being even worse when compounding the situation alongside similar effects on such areas being caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine.  

I do recall that much of the grass went brown here due to the long period of hot weather without any rain. Of course, we can continue to understand that there are places that suffer far worse from droughts and hot weather than Europe such as places in Africa and Asia. But at the same time we should acknowledge that this unusual weather phenomena could continue to get worse and more common and so we should be doing everything we can to determine why it is happening and making sure to keep climate change policies and solutions in an important and prominent place. Because if we continue to ignore it then food and water security and our health is put at ever higher risk, as well as the future of children and other distant generations.  

It is a reminder that more needs to be done and that the issue should not be ignored or dismissed.  

Resignation of Boris Johnson  

The United Kingdom went through some quite hefty political mess during a period of 2022. The beginning of this was the various fumbles and scandals that started surrounding Boris Johnson’s premiership to such a degree that it could no longer be easily ignored, dismissed or brushed under the mat to be forgotten about like so many previous controversies.  

For those who paid attention it did seem for a time that Boris Johnson was impervious to scandals that had so easily toppled past Prime Ministers before him, and it seemed as if a new precedent of what and what was not acceptable was being set. But everything breaks at some point and that was indeed the case here when it all culminated into a major political crisis wherein Boris Johnson tried his hardest to cling on.  

The whole kerfuffle can be traced all the way back to 2021 (and events that took place in 2020) with the Owen Patterson lobbying scandal and Partygate. A House of Commons committee had recommended a 30-day suspension for the then Conservative MP Owen Patterson who said he had broken lobbying rules to try and benefit companies who paid him. But Boris Johnson led the Conservatives to intervene by voting to pause his suspension and set up a new committee to look into how the investigations were conducted. This outcome eventually led to an outcry that saw Owen Patterson resign from the House of Commons and which reflected very poorly on Boris Johnson who admitted had ‘crashed the car’ in the case’s handling.  

Partygate was a big scandal over gatherings of government and Conservative party staff held during the Coronavirus pandemic and that broke lockdown rules in place at the time. Twelve of these gatherings, included three attended by Boris Johnson, would later come under investigation by the Metropolitan Police following media attention and public anger. The investigation led to 126 fixed penalty notices being given to 83 people including Boris Johnson, his wife, and Rishi Sunak the Chancellor at the time and current Prime Minister. The later released Sue Gray report on the scandal also further deepened the scandal for Boris Johnson, as well as electoral losses for the Conservatives in the local elections and the heavy North Shropshire by-election loss which was blamed on the scandal.  

But Boris Johnson managed to trudge on despite some calls for his resignation and the triggering of an in-party confidence vote against him that although he managed to win still left him politically weakened due to the level of revolt within the party of which would only continue to grow as further scandals came up.  

Further by-election losses would dog Boris Johnson as he continued to go on before meeting the ultimate scandal that would ultimately cause his downfall. Conservative MP Chris Pincher who was Deputy Chief Whip at the time was accused of groping two men at a private members’ club in London, these accusations led to further claims against him of sexual harassment. The scandal led to questions over whether Boris Johnson knew of these circumstances before appointing him as Deputy Chief Whip with him initially saying he was not aware of ‘specific allegations’ at the time, although this would turn out to be inaccurate.  

It would later be reported that Boris Johnson did in-fact know of a formal complaint made against Chris Pincher and that he had been aware of it since 2019 but that he had decided to appoint him anyway. Boris Johnson made an apology in hopes that would be enough to move on past it, but this would finally be the final straw.  

Both Rishi Sunak the Chancellor and Sajid Javid the Health Secretary would resign from Boris Johnson’s cabinet on 5^th July and many other government members would begin to resign from their positions following this in an attempt to force Boris Johnson out. Johnson remained stubborn and continually refused to step down despite the huge revolt within his party by this point and continuous and ongoing resignations from his government happening faster than they could be re-appointed. He would give in two days later on 7^th July when he finally agreed to step down.  

But unfortunately, that would not be the end of the UK’s political woes.  

Death of Queen Elizabeth II

Not long after Britain’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss had been sworn in the country’s longest reigning monarch would fall into ill health and soon after she would die. And it came only after a year following her husband’s death. Even though the Queen had lived to a very old age for some reason y

#u still do not really expect some people’s deaths until they actually happen. I think what made it even more shocking was the suddenness of it as well, there was not really any long illness at least that we knew of. Although we knew she had scaled back many of her duties quite a bit and had been putting Charles more upfront. 

But when you’ve lived under this famous and well-loved monarch for all your life like most of us did, it seems very alien to think of someone else being on the throne or even the idea of having a King as quite strange due to such a long period of time of simply not having one due to the circumstances in which Elizabeth II ascended to the throne.  

All you had to say was ‘the Queen’ and pretty much anyone immediately knew you referred to Queen Elizabeth II despite the existence of other Queens. There was certainly a great fascination with her and the British monarchy itself under her reign. Many would say she brought the monarchy into the modern age and allowed it to remain acceptable for all that period of time even as monarchies elsewhere had long since fallen, and even as the era of British imperialism and the related influence it held over countries across the world crumbled and came to an end. Of course, you cannot say it still wasn’t without any kind of controversy. A history of colonization, exploitation and subjugation that the British Empire perpetrated across the world will always be remembered as a dark period and should not be marveled at for the power it gave the United Kingdom.  

But even despite this Elizabeth II seemed to have the ability to keep the monarchy relevant and popular among the people during her reign. Many will wonder with her death if the monarchy has the ability under Charles III to remain relevant and popular. I think in that regard Charles III, a polarising and controversial figure himself, will have his work cut out for him in this.  

Unrest Hits Iran  

Unrest hit Iran this year and is still ongoing as of now. As always with these things it is tough to say if it will lead to any changes and Iran has had a number of protest movements in the past that have not led to anything significant and often get met with violent crackdowns.  

For those who do not know Iran has a theocratic form of government meaning religion and the state are not separated and play a fundamental part in its politics and laws. In this case it also means many women in the country do not have the same level of rights other women around the world – particularly in the West – are used to. The position of Supreme Leader in Iran is not elected and instead has a religious-based inheritance with the individual serving for life. You can read about the whole government system in my blogpost here. The country has been like this ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  

Due to this the country is also fairly isolated by liberal democracies and is also dogged by US sanctions which have wreaked havoc on the country’s economy which has also played a part in triggering unrest in the country. There is also a lot more to it such as a fight for influence between Sunni-led and Shia-led Muslim countries in the Middle East as well as rivalry between Iran and Israel with one of the big sticking points being that of the possibility of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons which Israel, backed by the US and other western countries, absolutely does not want to see due to the possible implications – one of which being Iran’s views on Israel’s very existence. As always, these things are very complicated and have a long history.  

This latest unrest in Iran was sparked by the death of a 22-year-old Iranian women Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police, she had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory hijab law by wearing one ‘improperly’. Eyewitnesses before her death claimed that the police had severely beaten her. Following this, protests begun in Amini’s hometown of Saqqez before spreading to other cities within the Kurdistan province and then from there to cities elsewhere in Iran including the capital Tehran where Amini had originally been detained.  

Without surprise Iranian authorities have responded harshly to the protests and unrest in the country both through authoritarian and violent means such as internet blackouts, national social media restrictions, tear gas, beatings, mass arrests, and also live gunfire. Iran has also recently begun to execute protesters it has arrested in an attempt to dissuade the unrest. Although the unrest is widespread and ongoing it still has not become as deadly as the previous unrest seen in the country in 2019 where over 1,500 were killed. But estimates still show that over 400 have still been killed and that over 18,000 have been arrested.  

But what is different this time is that the demands in this latest movement have focused on women’s rights and a widespread call for the overthrow of the Islamic republic. Previous protests in contrast including in 2019 were more focused on economic issues and/or the outcome of elections rather than any strong focus on rights or regime change. Younger people, women, and even children have played a greater role in the movement.  

In response the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (the country’s second only Supreme Leader since the Islamic Revolution who has been in power since 1989 and who is seen as far more of an authoritarian leader) dismissed the protests and unrest as ‘riots’ and a ‘hybrid war’ caused by foreign states and dissidents abroad.  

A major concession towards the protests was recently announced by the country’s Attorney General in that the Guidance Patrol (AKA the morality police) would be disbanded – although whether this will actually happen or not is up for debate, and if it does whether it would just be replaced by something just as bad. In either case it is unlikely to improve conditions for women much in the country without further concessions on women’s rights.  

Ukraine forces Prevail in Kharkiv  

Back to the war in Ukraine. Putin’s next big woe was when he lost most of the Kharkiv region that they had taken up until that point in a sudden collapse. Russian forces had pushed into the oblast, which is a part of the Eastern Ukraine offensive, pretty much since the beginning of the invasion. By late August Russian forces had occupied as much as one-third of the Kharkiv oblast which included the cities of Izium and Kupiansk, although they had failed to take the administrative capital (also called Kharkiv) due to strong Ukrainian resistance.  

Ukraine launched a counter-offensive against Russian-occupied areas of Kharkiv oblast in early September and by the 10^th they had already recaptured Izium and Kupiansk as beleaguered, overstretched, and undersupplied Russian forces retreated. The Russian Ministry of Defense later announced a formal withdrawal of Russian forces from most of the Kharkiv oblast and downplayed it by saying it was an ‘operation to curtail and transfer troops’.  

Russian frontlines in the oblast continued to collapse and Ukrainian forces managed to push all the way back to Russia’s north-eastern border in some areas of the Kharkiv oblast. The vast majority of Russian forces had withdrawn from Kharkiv oblast by 3^rd October.  

It was yet another sign that Ukrainian forces were organised and more than capable at continuing to defend itself from Russian aggression and Putin’s plans. And further signs that Putin’s invasion was not going as expected.  

NASA’s DART Planetary Defense Test  

Alright, let’s go to space. This year NASA conducted a major experiment in space for the purpose of defending Earth against a theoretical devastating asteroid strike. Also, just to note you should search up ‘NASA dart’ on Google to see something interesting happen (not sure if it only works on Google Chrome or not).  

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a mission led by NASA that aims to test a theory of planetary defense against near-Earth objects such as asteroids which could one day enable the prevention of a possible major (or worse) disaster on Earth. The mission was to crash a spacecraft into a chosen asteroid to see if its momentum could change the asteroid’s trajectory.  

The probe used to do this test was actually launched from Earth back on 24^th November 2021 but did not reach its target (a minor planet-moon called Dimorphos of the asteroid Didymos, so the target was not a full-fledged asteroid) until 26^th September this year where the probe crashed into Dimorphos. The experiment was declared a success on 11^th October as it had shortened Dimorphos’ orbital period around Didymos by around 32-minutes. A secondary craft called the LICIACube provided by the Italian Space Agency detached before the impact to take photos and send them back.  

This means that one day crashing things or perhaps even ‘shooting’ things at asteroids and other near-Earth object threats could be effectively used to defend Earth. Follow-up research and analysis will be conducted in 2026 on and around Didymos (with an aimed launch of the Hera craft in 2024). It will also have a number of secondary craft for various uses such as photos and landing on Didymos itself.  

Ukraine Strikes Crimean Bridge  

The next major moment in the Ukraine war was when Ukraine seemingly demonstrated their ability to strike strategic targets within Crimea and no more was that the case by hitting a strategically important and symbolically significant road and rail bridge called the Crimean Bridge – Kerch Bridge being another common name. Russia had begun construction on the bridge two years after its forces annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.  

The bridge is a parallel set that includes a four-lane road bridge and a double-track railway bridge. The bridge spans over the Kerch Strait (connecting the Black Sea and Sea of Azov) from the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea to the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai in Russia, enabling easier logistical access between Crimea and Russia following the annexation. Its construction begun in February 2016. The road bridge was inaugurated on 15^th May 2018 with cars allowed to travel on it the following day and then trucks from 1^st October that year. The rail bridge was inaugurated on 23^rd December 2019 with the first passenger train using it two days later – the rail bridge would be opened to freight trains from 30^th June 2020.  

The Crimean Bridge played a pivotal role in preparation for the 2022 Invasion of Ukraine via the movement of military equipment and vehicles to the Crimean Peninsula and during the invasion it continued to provide a vital supply route for Russia’s Southern Ukraine offensive as well as for Crimea itself. Naturally, this meant it became a big target for Ukraine although it was not known if they had the ability to do any significant hits on it, at least not without obtaining certain weapon systems from allies.  

But Ukraine would soon seem to prove otherwise by taking a cruder approach that did not utilise advanced weapon systems. On 8^th October a massive explosion would occur. The attack caused significant damage to the bridge causing two two-lane vehicular spans of the bridge to collapse into the water, while two eastbound adjacent lanes survived. The railway bridge also took a lot of damage from the hit as it caused a train on it to catch fire. Four people were killed in the attack.  

Details surrounding the attack do remain hazy though as Ukraine itself does not directly claim it ordered the attack, although US intelligence and Ukrainian media said the attack was done by the Security Service of Ukraine, who Russia also blames the attack on. There is also dispute on how exactly the attack was conducted such as whether it was a truck bomb on the bridge or a bomb delivered by maritime drone.  

In response Russia detained five of its citizens and three people from Ukraine and Armenia who they accuse of being involved in the attack.  

Liz Truss Becomes Shortest Serving UK Prime Minister in History  

Following the whole Boris Johnson fiasco many people was hoping that a change of leader would bring us back to some sense of stability, something that has been sorely lacked ever since the chaos that followed the result of the BREXIT referendum.  

The leader elected by Conservative MPs and Conservative members to replace Boris Johnson was Liz Truss. During the campaign which ended up coming down to a two horse race between her and Rishi Sunak she had pledged an emergency mini-Budget to help tackle the ongoing Cost of Living crisis that included radical tax cuts and borrowing while avoiding spending cuts – of which her opponent Rishi Sunak had criticized as something that would drive up inflation and interest rates.  

Once she had won the leadership election the mini-budget was soon introduced by her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and would soon lead to economic instability of the pound that suddenly begun to drop in its wake as world markets reacted negatively to the budget. As a result, Truss faced much criticism and begun to lose confidence from her party. As pressure mounted Truss fired her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and replaced him with Jeremy Hunt who would eventually go on to reverse almost all of the mini-budget to calm the economic instability.  

But further instability of the political kind was yet to come. First Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, resigned her position over a technical breach of the ministerial code that followed a disagreement between her and Truss over immigration policy – her resignation letter was overly critical of the government that further served to worsen Truss’ situation.  

The final straw would come on the evening of 19^th October during a vote on a Labour Party motion that asked for more time to debate a ban on fracking, with which the government was opposed to. There was confusion over whether the government was treating this motion as a confidence vote in its administration and then yet further confusion came about during the chaotic vote that the Chief Whip Wendy Morton and Deputy Chief Whip Craig Whittaker had resigned. Claims were also made that some Conservative MPs had been man-handled while voting in an attempt to get them to vote against the motion. Such allegations are very serious within a democratic nation.  

This night of chaos and confusion would finally put an end to the Truss administration as she would announce the following day her intention to resign as Prime Minister, which she did so on 25^th October. This made her the shortest serving Prime Minister in the UK’s history and further brought about an unprecedented crisis of how she would be replaced and in what manner the election would be conducted. Opponents meanwhile demanded a General Election, something that would have been disastrous for the Conservatives as they had fallen so far in the polls due to both the Boris Johnson fiasco and now the Liz Truss fiasco.  

A leadership election was hastily organised by the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs that would take place in as little as a week – again unprecedented. If things could not get crazier the election itself almost saw the return of Boris Johnson who may have crazily actually been able to win it if he had decided to run, although he declined to in the end (who knows how much more chaos would have followed that). In the end, Rishi Sunak went on to win the leadership election – and so far, he has managed to hold things together. There are signs that the Conservatives are making gradual progress in the polls although remain quite a bit behind Labour.  

Elon Musk Finally Acquires Twitter  

The acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk has been quite controversial and polarizing between those who support it, those who do not, and those who have raised concerns over it. This can all be traced back to January 2022 when Elon Musk begun buying Twitter shares and eventually became its highest shareholder.  

Twitter soon offered Elon Musk a position on its Board of Directors which he initially accepted but then declined. Elon Musk, who has been quite an eccentric tweeter on the platform, had begun to make tweets suggesting he may be interested in buying Twitter, although others believed he could simply be joking about. But, on 14^th April he would make an official unsolicited offer to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, of which a lot of the money would be raised from selling off shares in Tesla, one of Musk’s other well-known electric vehicle and clean energy solutions technology company.  

Twitter initially responded defensively with a ‘poison pill’ (shareholder rights plan) to resist a takeover from Musk but would eventually go on to unanimously accept Musk’s proposed buyout on 25^th April. Some of Musk’s biggest promoted plans for Twitter once he owned it was to combat spam accounts and promote free speech (such as unbanning certain accounts). He has also expressed his interest in eventually turning Twitter into a ‘super app’ similar to China’s WeChat that can be used for various day-to-day things beyond simply social activities/advertising (such as purchasing services).  

But a snag would soon be hit. Musk in July attempted to back out of the deal saying Twitter had breached the agreement by refusing to crackdown on spam-bot accounts. This would lead to Twitter launching a lawsuit against Musk for misleading it and its shareholders. Weeks before the trial begun Musk did another u-turn and once again decided he was indeed going to buy Twitter via the same deal originally proposed.  

Musk’s acquisition of Twitter was finally completed on 27^th October and Musk became Twitter’s new CEO and owner and made Twitter private (meaning Twitter shares could not be publicly acquired). Musk would go on to purge top executives from Twitter including its former CEO Parag Agrawal. He also controversially laid off half of Twitter’s workforce and was faced with a further exodus of Twitter employees when he issued an ultimatum to existing employees to commit to so-called ‘extremely hardcore’ work.  

The loss of employees from Twitter would stoke fears that the platform’s processes would begin to break down over time and cause it to have ever growing bugs and outages that would become more and more common, including possible growing exploits that could expose personal information – as well as it being harder for Twitter to maintain commitments to regulations and laws around the world. Many users have also gone on to boycott the platform over concerns that Musk’s changes will lead to greater misinformation, harassment and hate speech on Twitter – as well as becoming overly friendly with conservative users (including via the unbanning of controversial accounts such as Donald Trump who has refused to return to Twitter despite being unbanned).  

It has without doubt been a very hectic time since the takeover although it is still early yet. We shall have to continue to wait and see how things change and what new features Musk introduces. Twitter Blue, one of Musk’s first big new features has already faced issues with it having to temporarily be taken down after it caused problems with identification on the platform – and allowed users to masquerade as companies and other people, potentially causing them controversy and damaging their market positions.  

Others have criticized Twitter Blue as merely being something that Musk is using to recoup his losses from the Twitter buyout, that it is overly pricey compared to premium features on other platforms, and that the feature unfairly represents people over those who may not have the money to afford it, and that Twitter Blue lacks many worthwhile features in its current state. Musk has promoted the feature as something that will help to bury spam accounts.  

I personally do not believe Twitter is going anywhere, anytime soon – namely because there are not really any viable or powerful enough alternatives (Mastodon being overly complex as one example). Twitter still remains highly beneficial for companies and self-employed individuals’ advertisement, reach, and connections – and for many of them pulling the plug so soon just is not worth it for some lesser known and potentially fleeting alternatives. The smart move for them is to instead watch and wait patiently to see what happens while continuing usual activities on the platform.  

Ukraine Forces Recapture Kherson  

For some time, it seemed the war in Ukraine had largely ground into a grinding stalemate, especially with Winter around the corner. But then came the recapture of Kherson from Russian forces and the latest major defeat to Putin’s invasion.  

The city of Kherson is the administrative capital of the Kherson oblast of which Russia had invaded as part of its Southern Ukraine offensive. The city of Kherson was the only administrative capital that Russia had yet managed to occupy and so its loss in that regard is even more of a blow, as well as the fact of it going in the face of the sham Kherson referendum to join Russia.  

Russia had begun invading the Kherson oblast since the outset of the invasion and had captured the city of Kherson by the 2^nd March. Following this Russian forces attempted to advance on the city of Mykolaiv, the administrative capital of the Mykolaiv oblast but were repelled by Ukrainian resistance. Further attacks against the Odessa oblast were also repelled.  

Ukraine begun counterattacks and started taking territory in the area back from Russia, while responding Russian counterattacks failed to achieve much progress. Then for a time in the area was stalemate with neither side making much if any gains. Ukraine would eventually launch a big counteroffensive on 29^th August.  

The Ukraine attacks against Russian forces made steady progress towards Kherson over the coming months as more and more settlements were liberated. Then on 9^th November Russia would announce yet another withdrawal of its forces, this time from the city of Kherson. On 11^th November Ukrainian forces marched into the city to liberate it and were met by cheering crowds.  

NASA Launches the Artemis 1  

The Artemis 1 launch is part of NASA’s ongoing Artemis program and is the first lunar exploration program performed by NASA since the end of the Apollo program that famously landed the first humans on the Moon. The Artemis program aims to reestablish human presence on the Moon and will also be used to demonstrate technology and business practices for future scientific studies – such as exploring Mars in the future.  

The Artemis 1 launch used the Orion spacecraft – a Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle that is partially reusable and is planned to be used by actual crews in future Artemis missions – Artemis 1 though simply aims to test it uncrewed first to test that it works safely, especially focusing on testing its heat shield on reentry to Earth. The spacecraft was manufactured by Lockheed Martin and Airbus Defense and Space for NASA. It can hold 2-6 crew members.   

The Orion was launched into orbit using the Space Launch System – a super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle, and the first super heavy lift vehicle to be stacked by NASA since the last Saturn V launch in 1973. The Space Launch System has the highest payload capacity of any rocket that is operational, as well as the greatest liftoff thrust of any operational rocket. The rocket is a replacement of the retired famous Space Shuttle and even reuses some hardward from that program, such as the solid rocket boosters and the RS-25 first stage engines. It was manufactured for NASA by Aerojet Rocketdyne, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and the United Launch Alliance with its development beginning in 2011.  

After two cancelled launch attempts – one due to a faulty engine temperature reading and another due to a hydrogen leak during fueling, the launch finally took place at the Kennedy Space Center on 16^th November. The launch into orbit, as well as the additional deployment of some Cubesats in orbit, were successful and the Orion begun its 25-day space mission which saw it complete two flybys of the Moon, one on 21^st November and another on 25^th November. It then successfully returned to Earth by splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on 11^th December.  

The next part of the program will be Artemis 2 which plans a crewed flyby of the Moon using the Orion which is planned to launch in May 2024. Then the Artemis 3 is next aimed for 2025 where a crewed lunar landing on the Moon will take place – the first since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.  

Rare China Protests  

It is very rare to see protests in China. The country’s strict form of authoritarian single-party control aims to make China look the greatest it possibly can to the perspective of those outside of the country as well as those within it. They like to display an orderly China that is able to maintain control even during the most pressing of times – and for a time their Zero COVID Policy was looked at by many as a successful herculean effort that had managed to control Coronavirus from spiking out of control while it ran rampant elsewhere in the world.  

Censorship and propaganda are one of China’s biggest weapons for maintaining control and to many outside of the country you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who’d believe that the people of China would ever be able to experience a true liberal democracy anytime soon.  

But every now and again you will see cracks form even in the toughest looking shells. The Zero COVID Policy would hit its breaking point as outbreaks of COVID in China kept popping up, and harsh lockdowns kept being implemented, far harsher than many lockdowns seen in other parts of the world. Many people in regions and cities that were put on lockdown would literally be locked inside of their dwellings or specialised quarantine facilities as a way to enforce it, many finding it very difficult to even obtain their essential day-to-day needs and were unable to complete work, or in other cases were trapped within inhumane working conditions.  

The breaking point over Zero COVID lockdowns would come about in November but even before that there had been an inspired event that helped trigger it. On 13^th October shortly before China’s 20^th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party – the country’s biggest political event that takes place every 5-years and elects important party institutions such as the Central Committee and the party’s General Secretary as well as defining future policies – a protester on Beijing’s Sitong Bridge demonstrated against Xi Jinping’s cult of personality, human rights violations, censorship, and the zero COVID policy via the placement of banners and the burning of tires, the person who did it is unknown.  

The protest quickly spread through social media and attracted wide interest and discussion, the protest site itself was quickly cleaned up by Chinese authorities and a crackdown on the Chinese internet was done in an attempt to censor further discussion, as well as censorship conducted by state media. Despite this it did inspire some small-scale protests in China, although these may have not led to much more if it were not for another event that would take place.  

A building fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang province led to the deaths of 10 people with many blaming the deaths on their inability to leave the building due to the ongoing COVID lockdown in the area that had been going on for three months. This event and the anger it caused would fully spark much larger protests and even some violent confrontations with authorities that would end up spreading across various areas of China including the capital Beijing in unprecedented fashion. The protests were also further emboldened by citizens of China witnessing broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup that showed crowds of people together and largely maskless.  

The protest mainly focused on criticism of China’s Zero COVID Policy and lockdowns, but also for some included the opportunity to express their discontent at current CCP leadership such as that under Xi Jinping, as well as inhumane working conditions caused by lockdowns (such as at an iPhone 14 production facility), as well as anger over human rights abuses against ethnic Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province – especially made more prominent as that is where the fire had happened that triggered this. The protest also featured people holding up blank white pieces of paper as a way to protest CCP censorship, which would become a prominent symbol of the protests.  

In many places authorities did allow protests to go on without incident, while in some places there were confrontations and arrests, as well as some reports of alleged beatings and heavy usage of pepper spray. The protests did manage to achieve some concessions such as making COVID policies less strict via reduction of tests, less lockdowns, and allowing more people to quarantine at home rather than in quarantine facilities. The protests would eventually dissipate.   

Fusion Energy Breakthrough  

Fusion energy is one of the next big, exciting things for the world as it would produce a much cleaner way to produce energy for countries. Fusion power would be a way to produce energy using heat from nuclear fusion reactions, and it avoids harmful emissions, produces far less radiation, and does not produce nuclear waste, unlike nuclear fission which is currently used by nuclear power plants.  

Research on finding a sustainable way to create a fusion reactor has been going on since the 1940s, with billions spent on it due to its great potential. But over the years the main issue has been finding the right balance in temperature, pressure, and duration that is practical and economically viable – as well as finding a way to manage neutrons released in the reactions which can degrade many common materials used.  

Much time has also gone into finding an effective confinement for the reaction to take place in. Current popular confinement methods being looked into include z-pinch, stellarator, and magnetic mirror. Current leading designs are the Tokamak and Inertial Confinement which uses a laser to be heated.  

But most recently after many, many decades of research and tests a big breakthrough has finally been made. For the first time a fusion reaction has outputted more energy than was put in to cause the reaction itself showing that it is indeed possible to create a net-gain of energy through human-made fusion technology. The design that did this was an inertial confinement laser-driven fusion machine within the US’s National Ignition Facility in California.  

It is an exciting peak into what the future may hold for an exciting new era of energy creation for human civilisation. It is to be noted though that much more research and development yet needs to be done before such methods become commercially viable.  

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Well, there you have it. It has been quite the big year and I am sure 2023 will also be a big one. Have a great Christmas and a happy new year! See you in January.  

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