2021 is coming to an end. A year of successes and epochal events, but also conflicts and tragedies.
One year, the second, with the whole world engaged in the battle against Covid-19.
A year to be retraced, also in images, through the news of UnioneSarda.it.
First stop: the top international news
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2021 - THE WORLD IN IMAGES
THE ATTACK ON THE US CONGRESS
www.unionesarda.it/news/mondo/usa-assalto-al-congresso-4-morti-proclamata-la-vittoria-di-biden-facebook-blocca-trump-gy25gt862021 begins with a shocking news: on January 6, a few days after the inauguration of the new US President Joe Biden, the supporters of Donald Trump, defeated in the autumn 2020 elections, attack the Capitol in Washington, seat of the Congress of the United States.
The images of the violated and vilified sanctum of US democracy go around the world, arousing concern and indignation. Five victims among the rioters after the police response and dozens of arrests. Investigations and trials will follow, which will call into question the former president Trump, accused of inciting the crowd on social media ( from which he is also banned ), shouting electoral fraud and questioning the victory of the democratic candidate. In a fiery climate, the new president will take the oath on January 20 .
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CONGO, AUGUATED TO THE AMBASSADOR
On February 22, the Italian ambassador to Congo Luca Attanasio and a carabiniere of his escort, Vittorio Iacovacci, were killed in an attack carried out in Goma. In action an armed commando linked to a rebel group, which targets the car of the diplomatic envoy from Rome, part of a convoy of the Monusco (the UN mission in Congo). Luca Attanasio, 43, originally from Limbiate (province of Monza and Brianza), is rushed to hospital, but attempts to save his life are in vain. He leaves behind his mother, wife and three young daughters.
He was honorary president of the Mama Sofia association, founded in Kinshasa by his wife Zakia Seddiki for the assistance of children and women in difficulty.
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EVER GIVEN PARALIZES SUEZ
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On 23 March the Ever Given ship, which left Malaysia and headed for Rotterdam, carrying tens of thousands of containers, ran aground in the Suez Canal, in Egypt, paralyzing maritime traffic. For days the canal will remain closed to boats, while rescue teams and engineers will try to find a way to free the giant of the sea, owned by Japanese but chartered by Taiwanese Evergreen Marine. Eventually the ship will be removed, but the damage bill will be very high: almost a billion dollars, then reduced to 600 million.
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On 9 April the Crown of England broke the news of the death of Prince Philip, consort of Queen Elizabeth and Duke of Edinburgh.
"Her Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. The royal family joins people around the world to mourn her loss," Buckingham Palace announced. Philip, 99, married since 1947 to the British sovereign, had been ill for some time.
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WAR BETWEEN HAMAS AND ISRAEL
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In May, the conflict between Israel and Hamas is re-ignited in the Middle East. The Palestinian extremist group fires rockets at the Jewish state, which responds with air strikes in the Gaza Strip.
The crisis lasts from 6 to 21 May. The toll is tragic: almost 300 dead and two thousand injured.
The month following the change of leadership in the Israeli government: Benjamin Netanyahu, defeated in the elections, gives way to the new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
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On 23 May a cabin crashes from the Mottarone cableway (Verbania). The toll is dramatic: fourteen victims and a single survivor . This is the little Eitan Biran, 6 years old, from an Italian-Israeli family. The judge entrusts him to his paternal aunt, Aya Biran, but his paternal grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, picks him up and takes him to Israel. It is the beginning of a long and complex international case, which ends at the end of November, when the justice of Tel Aviv, after Peleg is also being investigated in Italy for kidnapping, orders the return of the child to Italy , to remain next to the family of the father.
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MURDERED THE PRESIDENT OF HAITI
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In the night between 6 and 7 July, an armed commando raids the residence of the president of Haiti Jovenel Moise, who is killed with numerous gunshots. His wife escapes, but is seriously injured. His daughter also survives and manages to hide. The country falls back into chaos. After a few days, the alleged killers are arrested. Others fall during a firefight with the army. The battle for the succession to the role of leader begins, between Ariel Henry, appointed prime minister a few days before the raid and Claude Joseph, interim prime minister who assumes full powers after the assassination of the head of state.
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JEFF BEZOS IN THE SPACE
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On 21 July, the anniversary of the first moon landing, US billionaire Jeff Bezos fulfills his dream: to go to space. Thanks to the technological jewel New Shepard, the Amazon number one flies out of the atmosphere for a few seconds, together with his brother Mark, the 82-year-old former pilot Wally Funk and the 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, who become respectively the oldest and the youngest person in the space. Thus opens the Blue Origin project, with which Bezos himself intends to launch private space tourism.
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THE TALEBANS RETURN, ESCAPE FROM KABUL
www.unionesarda.it/news/mondo/disperati-tentativi-di-fuga-da-kabul-le-donne-lanciano-i-figli-oltre-il-filo-spinato-dellaeroporto-o673awnt
In August, after the progressive withdrawal of US and Western troops, the Taliban regain power in the main cities of Afghanistan. Thus began the race against time to repatriate not only the foreign military, but also the civilians and families of the Afghans who collaborated in the mission of the United States and its allies, which began in 2001 after the attack on the Twin Towers. Thousands of people flock to Kabul airport to board the last available planes, in a desperate attempt to escape from the Islamist regime. Italy also takes care of several asylum seekers, some of whom will find hospitality in Sardinia .
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ELECTIONS IN GERMANY, THE MERKEL ERA ENDS
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2021 was also the year of the end of the Angela Merkel era in Germany. In fact, with the September vote, the alliance between Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals was born, which after long negotiations led to the appointment of Olaf Scholz who took office as the new chancellor on 8 December. Merkel greets the Berlin government after 16 years as leader.
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DRAGHI MAKES HOUSE HONORS AT THE G20
www.unionesarda.it/news/mondo/draghi-il-g20-di-roma-un-successo-intesa-su-clima-vaccini-e-minum-tax-globale-lbhqm645
On 30 and 31 October Italy will host the G20 in Rome. To do the honors at the summit that brings together the leaders of the twenty most industrialized and powerful countries of the planet is Mario Draghi, who in February took the place of Giuseppe Conte at Palazzo Chigi, after the government crisis triggered by the Renzians of Italia Viva . "People, planet and prosperity", the keywords chosen to set the objectives of the summit, where the nations agree on the global mimum tax and on the continuation of efforts to limit global warming below the 2 degrees threshold.
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COP26 ON CLIMATE AND GRETA'S “BLABLABLA”
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The environmental theme was also at the center of the Cop26 conference hosted in Glasgow in early November. As at the G20, at the summit in Scotland the delegations from the various countries of the world reaffirm their commitment to contain global warming. No agreement, however, on the abolition of the use of coal, due to the veto of some emerging nations, such as India. Laconic is the comment by Greta Thunberg, leader of the environmental movement Friday for Future, who dismisses the efforts of the leaders gathered in Rome and then Glasgow as mere and empty "blablabla".
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MIGRANTS, CLASH BETWEEN BELARUS AND EU
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November is also the month of the crisis between Belarus and the European Union on the issue of migrants, with Brussels accusing the Lukashenko regime of inciting thousands of people to reach the border with Poland behind the mirage of being able to enter Europe. A strategy that hides the will to put pressure on the European Union, even behind a cue from Russia. And while Minsk and the EU accuse each other, thousands of people - men, women and children - remain stranded at the border, in the cold, in precarious health conditions, with the road blocked by barbed wire and by Polish soldiers armed to the teeth. .
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HIGH VOLTAGE BETWEEN NATO AND UKRAINE
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In the last months of the year, the situation on the border between Ukraine and Russia becomes tense again, with the government of Kiev accusing Moscow of amassing troops, in view of a new, possible invasion, such as that of 2014, which resulted in the disputed annexation of Crimea to Russian territory. An alarm also confirmed by NATO intelligence, which leads the US and the European Union to distrust the Kremlin from any trespassing, in order not to incur new heavy sanctions. For its part, Moscow vetoes Ukraine's entry into NATO, in a continuous escalation that worries the international community.
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In early December, after 22 months in prison, Patrick Zaki, the Egyptian student enrolled at the University of Bologna, is released, imprisoned at home on charges of having divulged false news.
Human rights activist, very critical of the Cairo government, accused by him, among other things, of not sufficiently protecting the Coptic Christian minority (to which he himself belongs), Zaki was arrested in February 2020. the beginning of a long judicial affair, made up of long waits between one hearing and another, fears of torture and shadows on the work of the judges as well as marked by numerous mobilizations to ask for his release.
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CHILE TURNS LEFT, BORIC PRESIDENT
On December 20, Gabriel Boric, leader of the left, wins the presidential elections in Chile in the ballot against the ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast. The number one of the Apruebo Dignidad coalition thus becomes - at 36 - the youngest president in the history of Chile.
"The season of change is finally starting that must deepen the social justice and democracy of this country", the first words of the new president, a symbol of redemption, hope and discontinuity in the country that has not yet managed to leave behind the shadows of dictatorial regime of General Pinochet.
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THE FIGHT AGAINST THE PANDEMIC
www.unionesarda.it/news/mondo/covid-piu-vaccinati-meno-morti-la-conferma-nel-colpo-docchio-ecdc-hw7zspvv
2021 - of course - was also the year of the international fight against the Covid pandemic, with the various nations that have tried to contain the virus and fight contagions, often going in no particular order. Thus, while Biden's US has tried to take the measures never adopted during Trump's mandate, in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has even come under investigation on the charge of not having adequately protected his people. Furthermore, while Italy was the first to adopt the Green Pass, other nations have followed its example in the face of the new outbreaks of the epidemic, such as that caused by the Delta variant first and then by the Omicron variant , especially in England . putting the government of Boris Johnson in crisis. The Green Pass has been the subject of disputes all over the world and in particular in Europe . The only common denominator in the fight against the pandemic is the government's bet on vaccines, between more or less imposed obligations and the launch of the campaign for booster doses. And at the end of the year - confirming - the need to focus on vaccinations, an eloquent ECDC table, which transformed the data of the EU states into columns, showing how a higher percentage of vaccinated corresponds to a number of deaths inferior. Also for 2022, vaccines remain the main weapon to combat the pandemic.
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Look at the gallery:
2021, il mondo raccontato per immagini
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The stages:
December 23 - 2021: a year in the world in images
December 24 - Men who kill women: a year of crimes
December 25 - 2021 is the year of Italy: all the tricolor triumphs
December 27 - The long goodbye: those who left us in 2021
December 29 - The pandemic a year later, the months we will not forget
31 December - The chronicles of Sardinia and The 2021 film: a year in three minutes