2022 promises to be an exciting year in politics, sport, entertainment and science despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
A number of known milestones will shape the agenda for the new year.
From February 4 to February 20, the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing. The Chinese capital will become the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics.
Despite the diplomatic boycott announced by several western powers, including the U.S,, the Winter Olympics are likely to showcase China’s modernity and thriving economy to the rest of the world.
Whereas the 2008 Summer Olympics was widely regarded as China’s “coming out party” on the world stage, the 2022 Winter Games will be held within a tightly sealed Covid-safe “bubble,” isolating participants and attendees from the wider Chinese population.
Queen Elizabeth celebrates Platinum Jubilee
On February 6, Queen Elizabeth II will celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne, a distinction that no other British monarch before her has ever held.
The Queen’s role went from head of an empire to a figurehead for a Commonwealth of nations that are now growing in power and confidence themselves.
In December, Barbados – where the first 200 years of British colonial rule resulted in a large number of Africans being enslaved in the sugar trade – became a republic, replacing the Queen as head of state with a president.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed he expects to be able to launch his new social media platform by the end of the first quarter of 2022 – meaning by March 31 at the latest.
He has big ambitions. TRUTH Social, as it is to be called, aims to rival Twitter and other platforms that banned Trump after the January 6 Capitol riots, along with Netflix and other streaming video services.
The French Presidential election is expected to be held in April. Emmanuel Macron, who arrived at the Elysee Palace in 2017, will seek re-election in the face of a strong challenge from the far-right.
Added to that is the revival of the center-right, which could see Macron not even make the second round of the vote.
America goes to the polls, Football World Cup in Qatar
On November 8 America goes to the polls for the 2022 midterm U.S. elections which will select the 118th Congress, state and local officials. It will be the first election after the redistricting reflecting the 2020 U.S. Census.
On November 21, the FIFA World Cup kicks off in Qatar. The world will be witness to a global football competition the likes of which has never been seen before.
Never in history has the World Cup been staged in an Arab country, a Muslim country, in Winter, or in a country as small as Qatar.
Space station around the Moon to be launched
The first component of the Lunar Gateway, a proposed inhabitable space station to be implemented by multiple international space agencies in lunar orbit, is set to be delivered by an undetermined commercial launch vehicle.
It will serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module for government-agency astronauts, as well as a holding area for rovers and other robots. It is both the first space station in deep space (beyond low Earth orbit) and the first space station to orbit around the Moon.
Veteran Swedish pop stars ABBA, who released their first album in 40 years in 2021, are planning a world tour for 2022. But, with all the ABBA members now in their 70s, the tour is scheduled to feature the performers as virtual representations of themselves, as well as a 10-piece band on stage, in a bid to recreate the experience of seeing them live in their heyday.
Also in 2022, India is expected to surpass China as the most populous country in the world, and Germany plans to phase out the last of its nuclear power plants.
2022 marks the centenary of Asia Minor Catastrophe
Greece will dedicate 2022 to the anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe and to the promotion of the memory and identity of the refugee communities that grew up after the enormous displacement of the Greek peoples who once lived there.
Under the “All Greece, One Culture 2022” program, refugee associations and unions are invited to propose actions and events dedicated to the centennial of the disaster for Hellenism.
The destruction of Smyrna, the great cosmopolitan metropolis of the Mediterranean sea, in September of 1922 marked the beginning of the end of the 3,000-year-long presence of Greeks in Asia Minor.
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