1. Opportunity for peace on the Korean Peninsula
DPRK leader Kim Jong-un (left) and US President Donald Trump in a summit
in Singapore on June 12th, 2018 (Photo: Xinhua)
Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un have met three times in 2018 amid warming ties between the two Koreas.
The two leaders met each other two times in the Truce Village of Panmunjom, on April 27th and May 26th. The third inter-Korean summit took place at Pyongyang on September 20th.
At the events, the two leaders signed the Panmunjom and Pyongyang Declaration in which RoK President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un agreed to end hostile relations, increase cooperation and exchanges, and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
Earlier, DPRK leader Kim Jong-un on April 27th officially stepped over a cracked slab of concrete, the world’s most heavily armed border, to greet the RoK’s President Moon Jae-in.
The two leaders met at the Demilitarised Zone that divides the two countries for a historic summit, the highest-level encounter yet in a recent whirlwind of nuclear diplomacy.
"I am happy to meet you," said President Moon to Kim. President Moon Jae-in also briefly stepped into the DPRK before walking back.
"A new history begins now - at the starting point of history and the era of peace," read the message President Kim wrote in a guestbook at the Peace House summit venue.
President Kim Jong-un became the first DPRK leader to cross into RoK territory since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
US President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong-un on June 12th held a private meeting at the Capella Hotel on Singapore’s resort island of Sentosa.
Shortly after 09h00, the two leaders walked toward each other and shook hands, before the President put his hand on Mr. Kim’s shoulder before a bevy of cameras capturing the historic moment.
The two met in private with only two interpreters by the leader’s sides. The talks, the first of their kind, discussed the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and the warming of relations between the two countries.
After a 41-minute one-on-one meeting, they entered wider talks attended by their top leaders in Singapore.
"Working together, we will get it taken care of," President Trump told leader Kim at the start of the wider meeting. "We will solve it."
2. United States – China trade war to threaten global economic growth
US - China trade war makes the OECD cut its 2019 global growth forecast
(Photo: NHK)
The United States (U.S.) and China are engaged in a trade war as each country continues to dispute tariffs placed on goods traded between them.
Both sides have imposed tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of goods. The US has hit USD250 billion of Chinese goods with tariffs since July, and China has retaliated by imposing duties on USD110 billion of US products.
The escalating U.S - China trade war will inhibit global economic growth this year and next, the International Monetary Fund said, even as U.S. President Donald Trump again threatened to impose higher tariffs on Chinese exports sent to the United States.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which advises many of the world's richest economies, in November said it has cut its 2019 global growth forecast to 3.5 percent from 3.7 percent as predicted earlier.
The OECD also warned that if the United States were to hike tariffs to 25 percent on all Chinese imports, as Trump has threatened, the world economic growth could fall to close to 3 percent in 2020.
At a meeting on the sideline of G20 summit in Buenos, Argentina, on December 1st, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jin-ping agreed to halt new trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks
Mr Trump agreed not to boost tariffs on USD200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% on January 1st.
China will buy a "very substantial" amount of agricultural, industrial and energy products.
Meanwhile, Beijing says the two sides agreed to open up their markets.
It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since a trade war erupted earlier this year.
3. UK Prime Minister and “impossible mission” on Brexit
UK Prime Minister Theresa May (Photo: Getty Images)
Brexit is the impending withdrawal of the United Kingdom from European Union (EU). It follows the referendum of June 23rd, 2016 when 51.9 per cent of those who voted supported withdrawal.
After 20 months of negotiations, the 27 leaders gave the deal their blessing after less than an hour’s discussion.
EU leaders have approved an agreement on the UK’s withdrawal and future relations – insisting it it’s the “best and only deal possible”.
Prime Minister Theresa May won the backing from her Cabinet for a draft withdrawal treaty agreed between EU and British negotiators following months of acrimonious talks. Amid an escalating backlash from hardliners in her party, she warned of “difficult days ahead” as the deal needs to be approved by the U.K. Parliament in addition to EU member states.
She has also floundered in her bid to win additional assurances from the EU to make the package more palatable to her MPs. The bloc has said the 585-page treaty cannot be renegotiated and is reluctant to issue legally binding guidance on how it should be interpreted. In the meantime, the deadline marches ever closer. The UK is scheduled to leave the EU at 11pm local time on March 29th 2019.
4. Russia – Western relations tumbling
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a meeting
in Finland's capital of Helsinki in July, 2018 (Photo: AFP)
Russia faces new US sanctions after failing to take steps to prove it has ended its chemical weapons program in the wake of the Skripal nerve agent attack in the UK in March.
Moscow strongly denies it was behind the poisoning, which has also added tension to already severely strained ties between Russia and the West, leading to additional European Union sanctions on Moscow and to diplomatic expulsions of Russian and Western officials.
It is unclear what form of sanctions the US will impose but US officials have warned that they would be substantial, potentially affecting diplomatic relations, trade or banking ties.
In response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil, President Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats and the closing of the Russian consulate in Seattle.
Besides, Donald Trump also confirmed the US will leave an arms control treaty with Russia dating from the cold war that has kept nuclear missiles out of Europe for three decades.
Trump was referring to the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF), which banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500km to 5,500km.
The US says Russia has been violating the INF agreement with the development and deployment of a new cruise missile. Under the terms of the treaty, it would take six months for US withdrawal to take effect.
After years, a summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin took place in Helsinki, Finland in July, 2018. But, the event has not taken steps toward a brighter future of the two countries' relations.
5. Disasters in 2018 in Indonesia
Devastated images after a tsunami hit Anyer beach, Serang city, Indonesia
on December 22nd (Photo: AFP)
The passenger jet, a Boeing 737 Max 8 coded JT610, was en route from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang on Bangka Island in the early morning of October 29th, carrying 189 people onboard. It lost contact with the air traffic control just 13 minutes after takeoff.
Data shows that the plane might have crashed into the sea from the height of over 1,000m and a speed of about 640km per hour. It is likely there were no survivors from the accident.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked Lombok Island in Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province on August 19th, just two weeks after a quake which killed hundreds of people, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Previously, on August 5th, a strong earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale shook the island, killing over 460 people and injuring 1,300 others. Nearly 353,000 people living in the island lost their houses after the quake.
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province on September 28th, 2018, triggering a tsunami and landslides that caused widespread destruction and loss of life. 2,086 people are known to have died and 4,438 are seriously injured, according to the Indonesia Disaster Management Agency. About 1.5 million people in Central Sulawesi are likely affected. With about 68,000 houses damaged or destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people are still displaced.
On December 22nd, the eruption of the Anak Krakatau volcano, the name of which translates to “Child of Krakatoa,” is thought to have triggered the devastating tsunami the following day.
281 people have died, 1,016 people have been injured and 57 are reported missing after the disaster struck.
Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and a large portion of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. Anak Krakatau is one of 127 active volcanoes which run the length of the archipelago.
6. CPTPP deal signed by 11 nations
The CPTPP was signed by 11 members at a ceremony in the Chilean
city of Santiago on March 8th, 2018 (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), also known as TPP11 or TPP-11 is a trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The deal was signed by 11 remaining members at a ceremony in the Chilean city of Santiago on March 8th, 2018, just before Trump slapped steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, setting up what many allies both at home and abroad warn could escalate into a global trade war.
The deal covers a market of nearly 500 million people.
The eleven countries' combined economies represent 13.4 percent of the global gross domestic product, approximately USD13.5 trillion, making the CPTPP the third largest free trade area in the world by GDP after the North American Free Trade Agreement and European Single Market.
"The CPTPP will establish a new standard for other regional economic integration agreements, and even for future negotiations in the WTO (World Trade Organization) and in APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation)," said Chile's foreign ministry.
The Agreement entered into force for Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore on December 30th, 2018; and Vietnam on January 14th, 2019.
7. “Yellow vest” protests in France
Yellow vest protesters took to the streets across the country to protest
against rising fuel prices in France (Photo: NHK)
For the past three weeks, France has been experiencing one of the most significant social mobilisations in its recent history, which laid bare the country's social ills, anti-elite sentiment, growing inequalities and thirst for social justice.
It all started on November 17th when tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country to protest against rising fuel prices.
An estimated 10,000 yellow vest protesters flooded Paris' otherwise largely deserted streets, while 125,000 demonstrated around the country, according to Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. Police arrested over 1,000 people. In addition, 135 were injured, including 17 police officers, he added.
Ahead of his televised address to the nation in the evening of December 10th, the President Emmanuel Macron has been meeting with unions, employers’ organizations and local elected officials to try to find answers to the crisis.
In the face of the protests, the government canceled a planned fuel tax.
Since winning France's presidency last year, President Emmanuel Macron has won praise for seeking to reform France's labor laws, but he has faced opposition from protesters who feel that the changes favor the wealthy.
8. Journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder
Journalist Jamal Khasoggi (Photo: Reuters)
On October 2nd, Jamal Khashoggi, a well-known journalist and critic of the Saudi government, walked into the country's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, where he was murdered.
Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor has said Khashoggi was killed inside the building on the orders of a rogue intelligence officer.
Donald Trump has called the response to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi ”the worst cover-up” in history as the US announced it would sanction Saudi Arabian officials who are implicated in the death.
Saudi Arabia admitted the death of missing Saudi journalist after international pressure to explain Khashoggi's disappearance.
Theresa May condemned to the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying the Saudi Arabian explanation was not "credible".
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US National Security Adviser also condemned Saudi Arabia’s conduct over Khashoggi’s murder.
The exact cause of his death is unknown since his body has never been located or examined. Government officials of several countries, including Turkey, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, believe Khashoggi was murdered. Turkey in particular believes it was premeditated murder and anonymous Saudi officials have admitted that agents affiliated with the Saudi government killed him.
UN chief Antonio Gutterres said he was “deeply troubled” adding there needed to be “full accountability for those responsible.”
On December 16th, UN chief Antonio Guterres called for a "credible" probe into journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder./.
9. Russia – Ukraine crisis
Three Ukrainian navy boats were captured on November 25th (Photo: TASS)
Russian border guards intercepted and seized three Ukrainian navy boats off Crimea on November 25th, in a major escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Russian ships attacked and boarded three Ukrainian vessels in Crimean port of Azov near the Black Sea. It placed a freighter to block the port. It said Ukraine has violated Russian waters. The two sides signed an agreement in 2003 to guarantee free passage through the strait. In recent months, they've been harassing each other’s ships.
It is the most dangerous clash at sea off Crimea, which was annexed from Ukraine by the Russian Federation in 2014.
Kremlin critics have said Russia is preparing a show trial of the sailors, while Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met on Tuesday (December 4th) with families of Ukrainian sailors captured by Moscow, vowing to do everything in his power to bring them home.
In an emergency Security Council meeting requested by Ukraine following the seizure of three its naval vessels by Russian Federation warships in a waterway near Crimea, the United Nations top political official urged restraint from both sides to prevent dangerous escalation.
“The United Nations is deeply concerned about this escalation of tensions, which is taking place in the broader context of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea,” Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said in a briefing that followed the first meeting on the issue which had been called by the Russian Federation under the provisional agenda item titled “Violation of the borders of the Russian Federation”.
10. American strategy change in the Middle East
US soldiers in Syria (Photo: ABC News)
Donald Trump vowed on the campaign trail to withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
In May, Donald Trump pulled America out of the Iran nuclear deal. In an address, he announced that he would re-impose sanctions on Iran’s oil sector that had been lifted as part of the agreement. This put the US in violation of its obligations under the agreement, and thus constitutes a unilateral American withdrawal from the deal.
Under the deal signed in Vienna with six world powers - the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union - Iran scaled back its uranium enrichment programme and promised not to pursue nuclear weapons.
The president explained that the U.S. will begin enforcing the “highest level” of sanctions on the Iranian regime. The sanctions will target key parts of the country’s economy, such as energy and financial sectors.
On December 19th, President Donald Trump ordered U.S. troops to leave Syria, as the White House declared victory over the Islamic State.
Responding to the reports, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared to confirm a pullout.
“Five years ago, ISIS was a very powerful and dangerous force in the Middle East, and now the United States has defeated the territorial caliphate. These victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the Global Coalition or its campaign. We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign,” she said./.