It's the final week of the year 2021 and the world is still on a rollercoaster ride following rising pandemic cases and other happenings. Anyway, as the world prepares to enter the new year with new challenges, it's time to do the Year in Review segment where we get to sum up the twenty things we've learned from 2021.
1) The January 6 insurrection - A mob of Trump supporters have stormed the US Capitol building while the entire Senate is certifying the results of the November 2020 elections in favor of Joe Biden. In response to the said incident, social media giants such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter began blocking Donald Trump for his alleged involvement in the Capital insurrection.
2) Biden's new challenge - As Joe Biden became the 46th US President, he had faced numerous challenges such as the rampant rise of voter suppression laws hammered in Republican-led states, the anti-abortion law that Republicans hammered on their states, and many others, while doing his very best to undo the damages left by the Trump administration.
3) The second Trump impeachment trial - following the January 6th insurrection, the US Congress pulled the second impeachment trial against former president Donald Trump. The Democrat-led House voted in favor of impeaching the former president because of his role in the insurrection but the split Senate, along with the filibuster slapped by the Republicans, has indicted him again of charges.
4) Stellantis is born - The successful merger between FCA and Groupe PSA gave birth to a new company called Stellantis and the new company announced massive electrification plans on their car brands, including Dodge, the car brand responsible for the Hellcat muscle cars.
5) Extreme E - 2021 marks the start of the newest zero-emission motorsport series made by the minds that brought us the Formula E. It's called Extreme E, the zero-emission extreme offroad racing competition where teams from all walks of the world are driving an all-electric extreme offroader through the world's harshest terrains, most are impacted by climate change. In its inaugural season, the RXR team became the first-ever Extreme E champions.
6) COVID Delta - First detected in India in the summer of 2021, the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus has been dubbed a triple mutant variant since it is split into three lineages. It has been labeled as a "variant of concern" and became the dominant strain across the globe until the development of vaccine boosters came in.
7) COVID Omicron - As the world succeeded in developing boosters against the Delta strain, a new strain has been unleashed in South Africa. Known as Omicron, it has multiple mutations, which is more than the Delta strain. The WHO fears it could become the dominant strain in one to two months' time and it heavily hammered not just in South Africa but in the US as well as other countries.
8) F1 2021 - The F1 2021 season became the most interesting F1 season in history. As Lewis Hamilton tries to break the historic record for most world championship titles, the sudden resurgence of Max Verstappen hinders Hamilton's ambition. The two rivals ended up clashing at each other with controversial results and in the end, they're now tied at the driver leaderboards with 369.5 points each. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is their endgame and just as we thought Lewis Hamilton has the upper hand because of his lead, Max Verstappen's final lap endgame caught Hamilton by surprise and the Dutch nailed his first World Champion title, the first to win in a Honda-powered F1 car since Ayrton Senna.
9) Tokyo 2020 - After a COVID delay, the Tokyo Olympics proceeded despite Japan's state of emergency declaration. Team USA completely dominated the Tokyo 2020 games with 39 gold medal wins and 113 overall wins. China is placed 2nd with 38 golds and 88 overall medals, and host country Japan finished 3rd with 27 golds and 58 total medals.
10) Chauvin guilty of all charges - The verdict at the Minneapolis court declared that Derek Chauvin, the former policeman responsible for the death of George Floyd last year, is found guilty of all charges and he is sentenced to four decades of imprisonment. Most who witnessed the trial from the start expressed jubilantly but for some, the fight continues.
11) Myanmar coup - Myanmar's military staged a coup last February, detained Aung San Suu Kyi, and took control of the country for one year under a state of emergency. The coup began after weeks of rising tensions between the military and the civilian government over election fraud allegations. The coup triggered protests and backlash from the international community.
12) The Taliban resurgence - It was the summer of 2021 when the Taliban delivered a sudden resurgence in Afghanistan as the Biden administration prepares to pull out most of the US troops in the country. With the Taliban successfully regaining control of Afghanistan after 25 years, Afghans began fleeing the country to avoid the wrath of the Taliban rule.
13) The shocking interview - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, following the end of their royal duties in 2020, delivered a shocking interview in March to Oprah Winfrey, in which they said royals made racist remarks about how dark their son's skin would be. It is the interview that forever rocked the royal family in decades.
14) The Hypercar Era - The 2021 World Endurance Championship welcomed the new Hypercar class, which is the top-tier class of endurance racing. Toyota Gazoo Racing welcomed the Hypercar era with their first Le Mans win as well as their first world champion title in this new class.
15) Miss Universe - The delayed 69th Miss Universe pageant saw Mexico Andrea Meza crowned the winner. After seven months, Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu of India is crowned as the 70th Miss Universe winner.
16) Bucks vs. Suns - The NBA Finals of this season saw the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns face each other for the very first time. The Suns are aiming for their first championship title while the Bucks are gunning for their second title. These two battleground teams really made headlines. The first two games saw the Suns gain the upper hand but the third game saw the Bucks on the verge of a comeback and their newfound surge, courtesy of Giannis Antetokounmpo's upset, saw the team clawing themselves into the lead until they've hit the final blow to the Suns in Game 6. With the combined efforts of Giannis's, as well as Brook Lopez's third-quarter slam, the Khris-Jrue tandem, and the others, the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Phoenix Suns at the score of 105-98, enough to clinch their first NBA title in five decades.
17) Super Bowl LV - The 55th Super Bowl is the first Super Bowl to be held during the COVID pandemic. It's also the first time the Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced off against the Kansas City Chiefs on their home turf. Tom Brady's experience as a veteran player led the Buccaneers to victory at the score of 31-9.
18) Squid Game - Launched in September 2021, Squid Game is a Netflix original series that centers on a financially-broke man who got involved with other players in a series of six deadly games where the last surviving player will take home 45.6 billion Won. This K-Drama became the megahit of the year 2021.
19) Meta - The scandal-hit Facebook company has been renamed Meta. The renaming comes as the social media giant defends itself from one of its worst crises yet and pivots to its ambitions for the "metaverse" of the internet that the tech giant sees as the future. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will keep their names under the rebranding.
20) Typhoon Odette - It was mid-December 2021 when Typhoon Odette hammered parts of Visayas and Mindanao, leaving almost four hundred people dead.
As the saying goes; "end of one nightmare, prelude to the another". So, what will the year 2022 bring us? Let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst for what the year 2022 will bring us. Until then, have a happy new year.
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