Top 10 Major World Events of 2022

2022 might be a year considered a hinge in history as it witnessed a turning point in global politics, indicating the beginning of a new era. This year, bone-chilling events shaped several countries' international relations. So, let's take a look at these top 10 world events that took place in 2022. 

Top 10 world events

With so many events happening around the world, we have tried to cover the top 10 events that gave us goosebumps or brought changes in the relations between the countries.

1. Iranians Protest

A location that came under scrutiny this year was Iran because of the conservative dress code law prevalent in the country. So, if you plan to visit Iran, you must know the dress code there. The hijab headscarf is the main item one needs to wear every time in public places but did you ever imagine that a slight failure to abide by such dress codes could even cost a girl her life? Just imagining the same is giving us shock waves, right?  

This actually happened in Iran, after which the protests commenced in September when the “morality police” in Tehran arrested Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish-Iranian woman visiting Iran’s capital city, for failing to cover her hair properly. Amini died in police custody & hundreds of people gathered to condemn her death and to fight against Iran’s mistreatment of women. By the end of this year, Iranian security forces killed around 450 protestors on the streets, and public prosecution of the protesters began. 

2. Johnny Depp & Amber Heard's trial

A trial that went viral on every social media platform was the Johnny Depp trial. Depp & Heard got married in 2015 and Heard filed for divorce in 2016 by accusing him of physical abuse. A $7 million settlement was achieved at the court, and the divorce was finalised. But in 2018, Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post saying she was abused. So, after this incident, Depp sued Heard for $50 million for defamation over the Washington Post article. After the trial, the court ruled against Depp, but starting afresh by presenting new evidence, Heard and Depp entered a $100 million libel suit. 

Ultimately, the jury awarded $15m to Depp and $2m to Heard. The $15m judgment was reduced to $10.35m due to Virginia law caps punitive damages at $350,000; Depp also thanked his fans on social media for the support.

3. Death of Queen Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-running British monarch, reigned the nation for 70 years, surpassing the reign of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria. Queen Elizabeth II died of old age on September 8 in Scotland. She has been the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and several other territories, along with the head of the Commonwealth (the group of fifty-three sovereign nations including many former British territories). King Charles III succeeded Queen Elizabeth & became the new monarch of England, her reign as head of state resulted in postwar recession, the transition from empire to Commonwealth (a country which has the queen as its monarch), the end of the Cold War and the United Kingdom's entry into & exit from the European Union. 

4. Brazil shifts to the Left with national elections

Right-Wing Politics and Left-Wing Politics are two ideologies followed by every nation. Right-Wing politics is the conservative one, and left-wing is the liberal one. So, World politics, which moved towards the right for many years, has started moving left again. Subsequent to the victory of Democrats in the USA, the biggest victory for the Left in 2022 was that of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil on October 30, ending far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro’s controversial term with a razor-thin margin. Did you know? Lula da Silva was a prisoner before becoming president in just three years, convicted in a corruption scandal. After being imprisoned for about a year and a half, he was released in 2019 when Brazil’s Supreme Court found that the previous judge in the case was biased and annulled his conviction.

5. World population crosses 8 billion

2.5 billion people in 1950, and 8 billion people in 2022 & with this speed more than 10 billion by the end of this century. The numbers are growing at a massive rate. Presently, the world population crossed 8 billion in 2022, with India being the largest contributor for this reach, (as per UN). India contributed 177 million to the final score. A girl born in Tondo, Manila named Vinice Mabansag was considered as the 8 billionth person (the number is symbolic as it is hard to calculate the exact number worldwide). India is supposed to cross China as the world’s most populous nation in 2023. These 8 countries will be contributing much to an increase in population by 2050- the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the United Republic of Tanzania.

6. Russia invades Ukraine

One of the most important events of 2022 was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This event also formed part of various competitive exams in India concerning questions on international law. Russia getting insecure over Ukraine’s growing closeness to NATO members, it launched a “special military operation” to force the “demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine.” Russia invaded Ukraine resulting in global crises for both food and energy, and displacement of people. Ukraine surpassed everyone’s expectations and gave a tough fight to Russia, and the war is still on. The war freed the captured territory (Kharkiv and Kherson) of Ukraine. It turned back Russian forces, forcing Moscow to abandon its plans to capture Kyiv & making Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy an unlikely hero of the war.

7. UK gets its first Indian-origin PM

The UK has mostly been in the news in 2022 due to losing its longest-running Queen & having three Prime Ministers in one year. All of this started with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigning on July 7 after being alleged of several scandals. Liz Truss was named the new Conservative leader who fought a leadership battle in which Indian-origin MP Rishi Sunak came in second. Truss took charge with great promises of tax cuts, but things went south, thus, she lost support from other MPs. Ultimately, Truss resigned in October & Sunak won the Conservative Party leadership when King Charles III invited him to form a government making him the UK’s first PM of Indian origin. 

8. US-China tensions

US Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and her delegation landed in Taiwan this year, putting an end to speculation about a visit not listed on the official itinerary of her East Asia tour. This was not the first time, even before Pelosi's visit was confirmed, Chinese President Xi Jinping and China's Foreign Ministry had warned the US against sending any senior government official to the island that China considers its own province. The visit outraged Beijing, China, as they believed that the US was supporting Taiwan's de- facto independence & China considered the said island it's own.

9. Sri Lanka’s economic crisis

The Sri Lankan government blamed COVID -19 pandemic for their economic crisis, which massively affected their tourism. From around mid-2021, economic conditions started growing difficult for them. Fuel and cooking gas became increasingly expensive & inflation was highly rising. The government imposed import bans. Many Sri Lankans demanded the resignation of the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose government was blamed for mismanaging the country’s finances. Ultimately, the Rajapaksa family fled the country before resigning due to increased protest. Hence, Ranil Wickremesinghe became the new President. To help this nation, the World Bank has agreed to lend Sri Lanka $600m, and India has offered at least $1.9bn. Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is discussing a possible $3bn (£2.5bn) loan & G7 countries are also ready to support them. Still, Sri Lanka needs a stable government to run the country.

10. Elon Musk takes over Twitter

Billionaire Elon Musk who founded SpaceX, co-founded PayPal, been an early funder of Tesla, had successfully achieved global fame after buying Twitter in a row for $44 billion in 2022. He took control of Twitter after firing its top executives, CEO Parag Agarwal, CFO Ned Segal, and head of legal policy, trust and safety Vijaya Gadde & completely started running Twitter. After completing his acquisition, he tweeted that “the bird is freed.” However, Twitter employees are yet to see those “good times” as Musk started firing them. He asked employees to work overtime and raised issues. Hence, since the takeover, more and more people have been leaving the microblogging site in displeasure.