By MDS- C19 Staff , December 26 2020
LCI .
IN THE RETRO – With Christmas over, many of us are now looking forward to turning the page on the year 2020, which is synonymous with a lot of bad news. But not only that. Retrospective in pictures.
For many, 2020 will have been nothing but a succession of bad news. Between the Covid-19 pandemic, the social and economic crisis and natural disasters, the picture does indeed look bleak. Time magazine even recently called it "the worst year in history". Fortunately, some (rare) good news has however brightened the picture, of a darkness rarely observed.
Less than a week before New Year's Eve, we rewind the past twelve months, with photos to back it up.
January: the end of the fires in Australia, the death of Kobe Bryant and the beginning of the pandemic.
The flames were not extinguished until January 2020. Since November 2019, Australia, which was experiencing a heat wave, had been devoured by gigantic fires. In three months, they burned an area larger than Portugal, killing or forcing the displacement of nearly 3 billion animals. 40% of the forests of Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were also destroyed.
On January 26, on a foggy morning, Kobe Bryant, 41, his daughter Gianna, 13, and seven other people died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, near Los Angeles. The former Lakers basketball player and five-time NBA champion is mourned around the world.
On January 11, after a mysterious pneumonia outbreak in China, Beijing announced the first official death from a disease later named Covid-19. This photo was taken on January 30 in Wuhan, a city in the east of the country that is believed to be the birthplace of the virus. It shows two men in protective clothing next to the body of an elderly masked man. He died in the street, not far from the hospital in Wuhan. The next day, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international concern, after China reported the deaths of 213 people from Covid-19 – the name that would be given to the disease a few days later – and nearly 10,000 infections, and other cases were reported around the world. The outbreak will be designated as a pandemic by the WHO on March 11.
March: France facing the first wave of Covid-19
At the peak of the first wave of Covid-19 in France, hospital intensive care units were saturated. More than 1,900 patients are in a serious condition. In order to relieve congestion, the establishments undertake patient transfers to the least affected regions. On April 1, 36 Ile-de-France patients from 10 different hospitals were sent to Brittany, relatively spared, by TGV. This mission proved to be a delicate one due to the condition of these patients. In the photo, a doctor watches through the window of the train before its departure from Austerlitz station.
May: George Floyd's death revolts the entire planet
On May 25, George Floyd, a black American in his forties, died of asphyxiation in Minneapolis after being held for long minutes under the knee of a white policeman. Viral images of him saying he "can't breathe" sparked violent protests on a scale not seen since the 1960s, calling for reforms against police violence and an end to racial inequality under the banner Black Lives Matter. In the photo, a demonstrator stands with his fist raised in front of a burned building on the bangs of a protest in Minneapolis. Protests are spreading around the world. On December 25, 96 black people were victims of a policeman from George Floyd in the United States.
August: deadly explosion in Beirut
On 4 August, a gigantic explosion killed more than 200 people and injured at least 6,500 in Beirut. The deflagration was triggered by a fire in a warehouse in the port of Beirut housing tons of ammonium nitrate without precaution. The port of Beirut and several neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital were destroyed, putting at the same time an already struggling economy ashore. Four months later, reconstruction is at a standstill. The resigning head of the Lebanese government, Hassan Diab and three former ministers have been charged with negligence.
September: Spectacular fires in California
On September 9, San Francisco and other parts of the American West awoke to an orange sky worthy of an apocalyptic scene. Five of the six largest fires in California's history have ravaged 1.6 million hectares since August, helped by record temperatures. At least a dozen estates in this wine paradise have also burned. The smoke, which was particularly dense, traveled across the country and across the Atlantic to Europe.
October : Hurricane Zeta
Hurricane Zeta was the record-tying sixth hurricane to make landfall in the United States and the record fifth named storm to strike Louisiana in 2020. The system was also the first tropical cyclone since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to produce accumulating snow and one of only four tropical cyclones since 1804 to do so.
October : Hurricane Zeta
Hurricane Zeta was the record-tying sixth hurricane to make landfall in the United States and the record fifth named storm to strike Louisiana in 2020. The system was also the first tropical cyclone since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to produce accumulating snow and one of only four tropical cyclones since 1804 to do so.
November: Joe Biden elected president in the United States
Ending four days of suspense, the American media announced on November 7 the victory of Joe Biden in the race for the White House against Donald Trump. Loyal vice-president of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017, he took over from Donald Trump three industrial states that had eluded Hillary Clinton four years ago: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. "It's time for America to come together and heal its wounds (…). We are the United States of America. There is nothing we can do if we do it together," he said in a statement. In total, the Democrat received more than 74 million votes, against 70 million for Donald Trump.
December
The Diego Maradona star goes out, the vaccine arrives and Brexit comes to an end.
To everyone's amazement, Diego Maradona died on November 25 at the age of 60. Operated on a subdural hematoma, a blood pocket formed under the skull at the beginning of the month, the 1986 world champion was convalescing in a house in Tigre, 30 kilometers north of Buenos Aires, in a condominium near the home of his daughter Giannina. He succumbed to cardiac arrest. Tributes have been paid to him all over the world. On December 4, the San Paolo stadium, where Diego Maradona wrote his legend with Napoli, was renamed in his honor.
A few hours before Christmas and four and a half years after the referendum, on Thursday December 24, the separation agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union was finally concluded. The text guarantees the free movement of goods and people in both directions, as well as, in particular, facilities for customs formalities. After grueling negotiations, Boris Johnson, who had made Brexit his hobby horse and his only promise during the election campaign, presented the agreement to the British as a Christmas present, saving them the devastating shock to the economy that a "no deal" would have been.
Undeniably, the year 2020 will have been marked by many events, each as sad and worrying as the next. Nevertheless, it ends, with the arrival of vaccines against Covid-19, the peace agreements between the Arab countries and Israel and the conclusion of an agreement on Brexit, on a hopeful note. The year 2021 could, in any case, hardly be worse than the one we have just passed.
However, the current tenant of the White House is still not ready to give up his seat, while the transfer of power should take place in a little more than three weeks.
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