2023: 11 Events That Surprised The World

The year 2023 has seen world reeling in disasters to fresh wars occurring between neighbours to the globe heating up to new levels. As each year witness new events, this year has seen breaking new records. Let us look at some of the events that left a big impact on the economies and societies.

1. The global recession of democracy is still going strong. Africa’s coup epidemic persisted. The democratically elected president in Niger was overthrown by the military in July. After seizing control of Gabon in August, the military gave hazy assurances that elections would be held soon. In May’s Thai election, the most seats were taken by a newly formed progressive party. But a backroom deal resulted in a pro-military government. The attorney general of Guatemala attempted to prevent the nation’s incoming president from taking office.

   

2. Large bets are being placed on space by both nations and businesses. When Russia’s lander crashed into the moon’s surface in August, their moon effort came to an abrupt end. A few days later, India made history by becoming the first nation to set foot on the moon’s southern polar region and the fourth nation overall to land an unmanned vehicle there. The Artemis Accords, which aim to “govern the civil exploration and use of outer space,” have been supported by the US.

   

3. Sudanese civil war RSF forces attacked SAF bases throughout the nation on April 15, 2023. Negotiations for a cease-fire were fruitless. There was especially intense fighting in Darfur, where in the early 2000s the RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed, carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign against the region’s predominantly non-Arab populace. By the end of the year, the fighting had claimed over 10,000 lives and forced 5.6 million more to flee their homes, nearly 15% of Sudan’s total population.

   

4. With the release of ChatGPT last year, AI gained widespread attention. In 2023, governments, businesses, and private citizens acted swiftly to take advantage of the potential of the so-called large-language model-based technology, which not only improved but the most recent iteration of ChatGPT is purportedly ten times more sophisticated than its predecessor. One of the AI pioneers, Geoffrey Hinton, resigned from Google to alert people to the risks associated with AI, and prominent figures in the tech industry, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, signed an open letter stating that AI poses a “profound risk to society and humanity.”

   

5. When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. It was the deadliest day in Israel’s history, with about 1,200 Israelis killed. A total of 240 persons were held captive. Israel invaded northern Gaza after launching airstrikes against the Gaza Strip and making a vow to destroy Hamas. After the fighting was negotiated to stop at the end of November, about one hundred hostages were freed. However, combat quickly returned as Israeli forces advanced into Gaza’s southern region.

   

6. Most likely, the year 2023 is the hottest ever recorded. The world’s temperature is about to surpass the 2 degree Celsius threshold set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, and it has not been this high in 125,000 years. As a result, there have been unprecedentedly high levels of drought, flooding, and wildfires all over the world. The total amount invested in green energy has increased.

   

7. Between February 6 and the end of the week, Turkey and Syria saw five consecutive earthquakes that claimed over 19,000 lives and left tens of thousands injured. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck multiple provinces and centred in the Pazarcik district startled Kahramanmaras. Later on in the day, the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras was the epicentre of a 7.6-magnitude earthquake that rocked the area. Lebanon and Syria were among the neighbouring countries that felt the effects of the earthquake. Goksun in Turkey was struck by the third earthquake, which had a Richter scale value of 6.0.

   

8. The Titan submersible, which was carrying five people, vanished on June 18, 2023, in international waters in the North Atlantic Ocean close to Canada’s Newfoundland coast. An hour and forty-five minutes into its dive to the wreck site, communication was lost. The search for the submersible, which lasted four days, was concluded. The Titan was prone to a “catastrophic implosion” at some point during its journey towards the Titanic shipwreck. All five of the passengers on board died. The submersible’s wreckage was discovered 500 metres from the Titanic’s bow on the ocean floor. British billionaire Hamish Harding,58, and Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood,48, with his 19-year-old son Suleman were on Titan for a tourism trip. Also were French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Stockton Rush, founder, and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions.

   

9. Elon Musk revealed plans to completely revamp the Twitter. He decided to do away with the famous bird logo, rename the platform “X,” and concentrate all of his energy on quickly getting into the payment, banking, and commercial domains.

   

10. All seven charges against Sam Bankman-Fried pertaining to fraud and money laundering have been found to be true. He is a co-founder and former CEO of trading company Alameda Research and cryptocurrency exchange FTX. He was found guilty of fraud by a jury in New York in a scheme that defrauded investors and clients of at least $10 billion.

    

11. Cop28 disregarded the critics. The world has finally come to an agreement to shift away from the main contributors of global warming, which are coal, oil, and natural gas. In a resolution adopted by the 198 signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, it was proposed that fossil fuels be phased out “in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.”