From a devastating earthquake in Syria and Turkey to a march on Moscow and the war against Hamas in Gaza, 2023 was full of dramatic moments, from the heartfelt to the heartbreaking. FRANCE 24 takes a look back at 12 key events that defined the year in news.
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Lula takes office in Brazil, Amazon destruction slows
On January 1 of this year, Brazil’s leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to office after narrowly beating his right-wing predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. During his first two terms from 2003 to 2010 he presided over strong economic growth and channelled funding into social programmes, with his signature Bolsa Família financial aid policy lifting millions out of poverty and inspiring similar programmes in almost 20 countries. A one-time union leader from a poor family, Lula was imprisoned in 2018 on corruption and money laundering charges handed down by a controversial judge, serving more than a year and a half in prison before a Supreme Court ruled his imprisonment unlawful while appeals were ongoing.
In the year since Lula returned to the presidency the destruction of the Amazon has slowed dramatically, an Amazon Conservation forest monitoring programme found, dropping more than 55 percent from the same period in 2022. Deforestation hit a six-year low in July, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.
Turkey-Syria earthquake
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey near the Syrian border in the early hours of February 6, followed several hours later by another quake measuring 7.5. More than 55,000 people were killed, according to the latest figures from the British Red Cross, and more than 100,000 were injured, with tens of thousands more left homeless. Compounding the tragedy, the first quake’s epicentre in south-central Turkey struck an area where hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees had taken shelter since 2011 from the Syrian civil war. The disaster prompted a massive international relief effort to rescue and shelter survivors, but anger grew in subsequent months over the Turkish government’s failures in its response as well as its history of ignoring blatant violations of building safety codes. Turkish officials responded by issuing more than 100 arrest warrants and launching a series of investigations into the construction sector. In a situation assessment issued in mid-October, the British Red Cross said more than 17 million people had been affected by the quakes and warned of the continuing risk of cholera in affected areas.
Saudi-Iran rapprochement and a Mideast diplomatic revamp
The Middle East seemed on the verge of key diplomatic breakthroughs in 2023 that could have rewritten alliances across the region. Regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to restore diplomatic relations on March 10 under a China-sponsored initiative after years of hostility and the formal suspension of ties in 2016. Riyadh and Tehran have been on opposite sides of several conflicts, notably Syria and Yemen, where a proxy war between Iran-backed Houthis rebels and the Saudi-backed regime has been raging since 2015. The agreement not only eased tensions between two bitter rivals but earned China a certain credibility as a global power broker, part of a larger Chinese initiative to present itself as a viable alternative to the United States in world affairs.
India surpasses China as most populous nation
India took over the dubious title of the world’s most populous nation in April this year when it surpassed 1.429 billion people, outstripping China’s 1.426. India’s population will almost certainly keep growing for the next several decades, according to the UN, with it expected to peak around 2064 before beginning a gradual decline.
Both nations introduced policies to slow the birth rate in the latter half of the 20th century, but India’s federal structure saw vastly different results across its various states. Where state governments emphasised “socio-economic development and women’s empowerment, fertility declined earlier and at a more rapid pace”, a UN policy analysis found. “Those states that invested less in human capital, especially for girls and women, experienced slower reductions in fertility, despite controversial mass sterilisation campaigns,” the UN observed.
French pension reform signed into law despite months of protest
French President Emmanuel Macron signed his unpopular and vehemently protested pension reform into law in April after a final attempt to get the draft law branded unconstitutional failed just a day before.
The reform, which notably raised the standard retirement age from 62 to 64, now requires most French citizens to work for some 43 years to be eligible for a full pension. Many argue that such stringent requirements place an unfair burden on women (who are more likely to take time off from work to care for children) or any worker who does not work for a year (to attend higher education, for example). Macron’s government argued repeatedly that the reform was needed to make the pension system sustainable in the long term.
Britain crowns Charles III, its first new monarch in 70 years
Charles III was crowned king of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth nations in a May 6 ceremony replete with religious and historical symbolism. It was Britain’s first coronation in 70 years and followed the death in 2022 of Queen Elizabeth II, the nation’s longest-serving monarch.
Charles was coronated with St Edward’s Crown, an ancient symbol of the monarchy, before an audience of some 2,300 people including foreign royalty, political leaders and cultural figures. It was Great Britain’s first coronation since 1953 and the first coronation of a British king since 1937. It was only the second of Britain’s coronations ever to be televised and the first to be both broadcast in colour and streamed online.
Camilla was crowned in a smaller ceremony the same day and was the first Queen Consort to be crowned since the Queen Mother alongside King George VI in 1937.
Erdogan re-elected in Turkey
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan began a third decade in power after narrowly beating centre-left civil servant Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a presidential run-off in May. Admirers laud the devout Erdogan for loosening restrictions on practicing Islam in officially secular Turkey and launching ambitious – but controversial – infrastructure projects. Critics have accused him of sweeping authoritarianism for a brutal crackdown following a failed 2016 coup that saw hundreds jailed including teachers, civil servants, human rights activists and others deemed critical of his regime. Erdogan’s detractors also argue that he has pursued misguided policies that contravene conventional economics; inflation in Turkey remains stubbornly high, at almost 62 percent in November after peaking at more than 85 percent in October 2022.
Ukraine launches counteroffensive as the war drags on
A much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces was launched in early June after Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries claimed to have taken control of Bakhmut after months of fighting. The June 6 collapse of the massive Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on the Dnipro River complicated Ukrainian efforts, forcing thousands to flee flooding, threatening the supply of water used to cool the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and causing more than €1 billion in damage. Experts have said the aftereffects from the dam’s collapse will be seen in the environment for decades to come.
It remains difficult to ascertain the number of military casualties as neither side publicizes its losses. A Ukrainian civic group said in November that it estimates Ukraine’s military losses at more than 30,000 troops. An August report by the New York Times citing US officials estimated that some 70,000 Ukrainian and more than 120,000 Russian soldiers had so far died since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
March on Moscow and the death of mercenary chief Prigozhin
Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin stunned the world in late June amid reports that his long-beleaguered Wagner Group had begun marching toward Moscow in what appeared to be a direct challenge to the regime of President Vladimir Putin. But just hours later the crisis appeared to be over, with Prigozhin agreeing to call off his “March for Justice” and go into exile in Belarus instead of risking an all-out confrontation with the Russian army. In exchange, the Kremlin declined to press charges against him and offered Wagner fighters immunity from prosecution.
The unusual détente was not to last, however, as Prigozhin’s days were numbered. Progozhin was on board a small plane that crashed in Russia on August 23, two months to the day after his aborted mutiny. Given the dire fates often met by those who challenge Putin’s authority, speculation has been rife that the plane may have been downed on the Kremlin’s orders, allegations it has vehemently denied.
Coups in Niger and Gabon
The year 2023 saw more coups in Africa, notably Niger in July and Gabon the following month.
A military junta detained Niger’s president Mohamed Bazoum in July, prompting both France and the European Union to suspend security cooperation and financial aid to the landlocked Sahel country while the African Union revoked its membership. The head of Niger’s influential presidential guard, General Abdourahamane Tiani, was declared the country’s new leader. The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave Tiani a week to reinstate Bazoum and threatened the use of force if the demand was not met; it was a threat that ultimately did not materialize.
A coup in the West African nation of Gabon in August saw the downfall of the country’s dynastic family with the ouster of Ali Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled Gabon since his father’s death in 2009; Omar Bongo had ruled Gabon for more than 40 years. Coup leaders proclaimed General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, head of the elite republican guard, the country’s new head shortly after Bongo won re-election in a disputed vote that observers said was marked by irregularities. It was the eighth coup since 2020 in west-central Africa, a region that is becoming known as a “coup belt” as persistent insecurity and corruption give rise to political frustration, paving the way for military takeovers.
Trump’s 91 indictments
Former US president Donald Trump in March became the first US president to be charged with criminal activity when a New York grand jury voted to indict him for falsifying business records linked to hush-money payments made to an adult film star. Trump was indicted with 40 criminal counts in Florida in June for his mishandling of sensitive or classified government records after leaving office.
The former president also faces four criminal counts in Washington, DC, where he was charged in August on charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith related to subverting US democracy. Trump was indicted on similar charges that same month in Georgia, where he was charged along with 18 others for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. He is charged with 13 criminal counts, including in relation to pressuring an elected official to “find” enough votes for him to win.
In total, Trump is facing a total of 91 felony counts in four jurisdictions as he seeks re-election.
In May, a jury also found Trump liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll in a civil case dating from 1996, awarding her $5 million in damages.
October 7 attack and war in Gaza
Members of Hamas’s military wing launched a multi-pronged attack on several communities in southern Israel on Saturday, October 7, with fighters infiltrating the fortified border by air, land and sea. The offensive caught authorities off guard in a significant failure for the Israeli intelligence services, with more than 1,000 people killed and around 240 taken hostage; victims ranged from less than one year old to people in their 80s.
The right-wing government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded by launching a war on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, warning civilians to move south as the north was bombarded before also targeting southern areas. A weeklong pause in hostilities allowed hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza as well as the release of more than 100 hostages and some 240 Palestinian prisoners before Israel’s offensive resumed on December 1. The United Nations and other international agencies have called for Israel to do everything it can to protect civilians while demanding that Hamas and its armed allied groups release all remaining hostages unconditionally.