The rise and fall of strongmen, and justice for a woman unbowed

At the beginning of the year, we looked to our correspondents for tips of what to expect around the world in 2024. Among them was hope for change for millions of people who were to vote in elections in 50 countries.

At least in the United States, that change turned out to be more of the same. Among the surprises, however, there was the end of a dynasty in Syria and the beginning of another in Indonesia. Here are some of the biggest stories of the past 12 months:

Europe

If 1992 was the late Queen Elizabeth II’s annus horribilis, then it’s hard to know how she’d have ranked this year for Britain’s royal family.

In January, her son and successor, Charles III, put out a rather benign statement that he would attend hospital the following week for a “corrective procedure” on his enlarged prostate.

King Charles, Princess Catherine and Princess Charlotte at the Trooping of the Colours in June.Credit: Getty Images

The statement was made shortly after it was revealed his daughter-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales, was expected to be in hospital for 10 to 14 days after undergoing abdominal surgery.

Things would snowball from there. Weeks later, the King would announce he had been diagnosed with cancer. Catherine’s recovery was kept under wraps until the rumour mill went into overdrive. A family photo was released, and it was a disaster. Even more questions were asked. Suddenly came an announcement: she, too, had cancer.

Neither have been given the all-clear but have returned to light duties. Charles joined with Queen Camilla for a royal visit to Australia. But his relationships with son Harry and brother Andrew have continued to plague him.

Australian-born Queen Mary and King Frederik of Denmark.Credit: Steen Evald

Our own Princess Mary, was crowned Queen of Denmark in January after her mother-in-law, Margrethe, stepped down to make way for her son, Frederik. Two decades on from Mary’s fairytale wedding, she waved to the crowds in Copenhagen as the sovereign’s wife. Rumours have swirled about her marriage, too, and the Danish royals showed it ain’t just the Brits who have their problems.

But 2024 was the year of the election. In Britain, Labour was swept to power after 14 years of Conservative rule, with Keir Starmer moving into 10 Downing Street in a landslide victory. Within weeks, however, his popularity would start to tumble in a string of scandals and misjudgments.

In the European Union elections, success by right-wing populist movements delivered a major shock across the continent. Germany’s far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) was jubilant after beating Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left SPD to second place in the European Parliament elections with 16 per cent.

His problems at home reached a peak in December when he lost a confidence vote, and a snap election, a rare event, was called for February.

In France, the EU results triggered an electoral earthquake. President Emmanuel Macron called a bombshell snap parliamentary election after his party was resoundingly defeated by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.

That result left the country without a clear winner but one clear loser: Macron. He continues to struggle to grasp any real power.

But it was another story in France that shocked the nation and the world. Seventy-two-year-old grandmother Gisele Pelicot bravely retold the horrors done to her by her husband of 50 years and his 50 accomplices, to stop rape from being swept under the carpet.

Gisele Pelicot exits the Avignon courthouse, in southern France, after all the men accused along with her husband of raping her were found guilty.Credit: AP

In Georgia, mass protests were sparked by the government’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the EU and push back on Russian influence. In the end, a pro-Russia former Manchester City footballer, Mikheil Kavelashvili, became president. An election in Romania was also plagued by interference, with the result annulled and voters to go back to the polls next year.

In May, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico survived a “politically motivated” assassination attempt, during which he was shot five times. He recovered and is one of many populists slowly diluting Europe’s unity towards Ukraine and against Russia.

Another blow for that cause was Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, as they celebrated an unprecedented election victory. Its leader, Herbert Kickl, aligned himself closely with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his self-styled “illiberal democracy”. Kickl had also spoken of becoming Volkskanzler (people’s chancellor), which for some Austrians carries echoes of the term used to describe Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

War continues in Ukraine after almost three years. Where and when it ends, no one knows. Children are struggling with the turmoil. President Volodymyr Zelensky has laid out a plan for peace. It’s likely many will die before that happens.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin is scrambling to conquer as much territory as possible before those peace talks begin. Last month, Russia captured an area the size of London while suffering its highest casualty rates of the war.

– Rob Harris, Europe correspondent

North Asia

This year, China continued its re-engagement strategy with Australia, and finally agreed to remove the remaining trade restrictions on the live lobster trade and two beef exporters, ending the $20 billion of economic sanctions slapped on Australian industries during the Morrison government.

China lifted its import ban on Australian lobsters.Credit: Joe Armao

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers was the first Australian treasurer to visit China in seven years when he went to Beijing in September. His trip tapped into ongoing concerns about China’s struggling economy and the flow-on impact on Australia.

But the rapprochement has not dimmed security concerns posed by China’s increasingly aggressive tactics in the Indo-Pacific, which included confrontations with Australian naval forces and repeated clashes with Filipino vessels in the South China Sea this year that heightened fears of sparking a full-blown conflict.

In the face of a drumbeat of negativity from economic analysts and investors, Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared to reverse course in the second half of the year and began pursuing stimulus measures aimed at pumping money and confidence into his beleaguered housing sector.

Taiwan inaugurated new president William Lai in May, drawing the ire of Beijing, which regards him as a “dangerous separatist” and responded by launching a round of war drills encircling the island. A second round of drills in October piled pressure onto Taiwan’s stretched defence systems.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stepped down in September as his government slid to record low approval ratings. His replacement Shigeru Ishiba’s gamble in calling a snap election proved costly, leaving the governing Liberal Democratic Party scrambling to form a minority government.

In November, Hong Kong jailed Australian Gordon Ng and 44 other pro-democracy protesters on subversion charges under its Beijing-led national security crackdown, in a case that drew international condemnation for its perceived silencing of political dissent. It also reignited the debate about the role of Australian judges serving in Hong Kong’s top court.

And in December, South Korea virtually imploded under President Yoon Suk Yeol who misread his electorate and fellow politicians, and declared martial law as a political manoeuvre, only to have to retract it when he was overruled by parliament. Having been impeached, he now, along with his replacement who was also impeached, awaits a court decision to confirm the parliamentary move.

Members of the national federation of farmers, known as “Junnong”, and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, with effigies of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (right) and his wife, Kim Keon-hee.Credit: AP

The year closed with the future of the Sino-American relationship, and hence global stability, facing a new era of uncertainty under the incoming second presidency of Donald Trump. Trump’s appointment of China hawks Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz to key administration positions, and his pledged to impose 60 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports, has set the stage for more turbulence between the two nations.

– Lisa Visentin, North Asia correspondent

South-East Asia

After two failed attempts against Joko Widodo, Prabowo Subianto finally realised his decades-long dream of becoming president of Indonesia. Widodo was constitutionally barred from running for a third term, so when his sniffing around for ways to run again went nowhere, the president and Prabowo teamed up for some win-win.

Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto (right) and his running mate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, (Joko Widodo’s son) at a post-election party. TikTok helped the strongman dance his way to the presidential palace.Credit: AP

Prabowo, the former son-in-law of late autocrat Suharto, enlisted Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to be his vice presidential running mate. Widodo then turned his back on his own party and threw his considerable political and popular weight behind his former enemy.

Never mind his dodgy human rights track record as a military strongman, Prabowo won the February elections in a canter. After backroom deals with self-interested politicians and parties in the months leading up to October’s inauguration, the 73-year-old now sits atop a massive coalition, troubling democracy watchers.

Singapore changed prime ministers for the first time in 20 years.Credit: iStock

Singapore, too, underwent a rare change of boss. Lee Hsien Loong stepped down in May after 20 years as prime minister, handing the reins to his deputy, Lawrence Wong. Wong inherited a middle power punching way above its weight division, a stable and wealthy nation in a region of regular upheaval. He is an erudite statesman and seems eminently capable, but he has shown little interest in loosening the government’s tight grip on free expression.

Thailand’s leadership transition, meanwhile, was a bin fire. Srettha Thavisin was tossed out by order of the dubious court system, which many Thais and observers consider a big-time cog in the self-serving military and royalist establishment. Pita Limjaroenrat’s Move Forward Party won the most votes in the 2023 election but was blocked from forming government by an unelected senate.

Amid the chaos, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of controversial and once-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, became prime minister.

Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte’s hatred for her boss, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, crossed into the unhinged. In October, she warned “Bong Bong” she would dig up his old man’s bones and throw them into the sea. Last month, she told the press of her done deal with an assassin to have the president killed if she was killed first. She really said this.

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte’s death threat was taken seriously, though she later tried to walk back the remarks.Credit: AP

The feud is unfolding amid investigations into Duterte’s alleged misuse of funds and her dad’s bloody “war on drugs”. It is not a great time for toxic politics in the Philippines, which is clashing almost weekly with China in the West Philippine Sea.

In Vietnam, which has its own claims to the South China Sea, To Lam inherited the job of Communist Party secretary-general after 80-year-old statesman Nguyen Phu Trong died in July. In his 12 years at the top (not to mention nearly three decades in the Politburo), Trong significantly reduced poverty rates, strengthened ties with the United States and implemented a fierce anti-corruption drive dubbed the “blazing furnace”. As is often the case in South-East Asia, and Communist regimes more broadly, he also preferred his dissenters in jail.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet inspects an honour guard during a visit to Malaysia. The prime minister’s family retains control of many senior roles in the Cambodian government.Credit: AP

Meanwhile, those who hoped Cambodian leader Hun Manet’s considerable Western education might yield democratic changes were sorely disappointed in his first full year as prime minister. He was gifted the job by his ruthless and ageing father Hun Sen, who still pulls strings, only now as president of the Senate.

If anything, the intimidation of opposition and arrests of protesters have only increased. The most high-profile arrest was journalist Mech Dara, whose reporting touched on the businesses of Ly Yong Phat, a senator, tycoon and Hun Sen adviser, who was sanctioned by the US in September. Dara was bailed several weeks after his October arrest after a coerced public apology, a typical ploy of the Huns’ regime that they think demonstrates their beneficence.

Myanmar, a nation with so much economic potential, continued to suffer repeated wrecking by military men. Min Aung Hlaing, who ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, still holds onto power through force despite serious losses to myriad armed opposition groups. ASEAN, a wet lettuce leaf among regional blocs, has been unable to bring the general to heel.

Underscoring the complexity of this multi-front civil war, one of the worst atrocities came at the hands of a group fighting the junta, when the Arakan Army slaughtered hundreds of innocent Rohingya Muslims near the border of Bangladesh in August.

In recent weeks, however, two major armed rebel groups – Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and ally the Ta’ang National Liberation Army – signalled they were ready for peace talks.

Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones died after a suspected mass drink poisoning.

The most tragic case closer to Australia in South East Asia was the methanol poisoning of backpackers in Laos in November, Australian 19-year-olds Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles among them. Several hostel staff have been detained, and investigations continue. – Zach Hope, South-East Asia correspondent

South Asia

The biggest election ever staged delivered a shock result in India. Ahead of the national poll, concluded on June 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was expected to romp home. But once the 642 million ballots were counted his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost a swag of seats, he needed to rely on other parties to control parliament. Modi has dominated Indian politics for the past decade, but now faces a more uncertain era of coalition government.

Elsewhere on the subcontinent, 2024 was marked by political turmoil.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP won power in 2014. This year, he was expected to romp it in, but his party lost many seats, complicating his rule.Credit: AP

In Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, prime minister for 20 of the past 28 years, was driven out by a vast display of people power on the streets of the capital city, Dhaka. After she made a dramatic escape to neighbouring India on August 5, her government was replaced by military-backed caretaker regime led by Muhammad Yunus, an 84-year-old Nobel Laureate, economist and social entrepreneur. Yunus has the difficult task of building consensus for much-needed reforms and staging a fair election.

There was political change in Sri Lanka as well when the little-known former Marxist, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, emerged the surprise winner in a presidential election held in September. The country continues to grapple with the aftermath of a debilitating financial crisis in 2022.

In Pakistan, the incarceration of cricket great and former prime minister Imran Khan continues to roil politics and society. His party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), did surprisingly well in February elections and his supporters have since staged huge and sometime violent protests demanding his release. – Matt Wade, former India correspondent

Middle East

The power dynamics in the Middle East were dramatically reshaped this year, with Israel on the ascendancy and its bitter rival, Iran, substantially weakened. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May, and things only got worse from there for the hard-line rulers in Tehran.

Israel and Iran traded missile fire at several points throughout the year, setting off fears of an all-out regional war. Thanks to Israel’s Iron Dome system and support from Western nations, the Iranian strikes caused minimal damage, while Iran’s missile-production capability was crippled.

After the monumental intelligence failure of last year’s October 7 attacks, the Jewish state regrouped and achieved some significant strategic victories. The Israeli military assassinated the mastermind of the October 7 attacks, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. After a year of tit-for-tat fighting on its border with Lebanon, Israel escalated the fight against Hezbollah. This began with the shock September pager and walkie-talkie attacks against the Iranian proxy group and culminated in a ground invasion and air strikes on Lebanon. It ended on favourable terms for Israel, with Lebanese civilians paying a heavy price for a conflict many did not want to be involved in.

Israeli bombardment and ground invasions have left vast areas of Gaza in ruins.Credit: Getty Images

Meanwhile, the devastating war in Gaza continues and there is still no clear vision for what will come when it is over. Almost 45,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war and over 100 Israeli hostages still remain in Gaza.

In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza, reflecting widespread international horror at the war.

At home, though, Netanyahu’s popularity has been creeping up.

In the most surprising development of all, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime was swept from power in a matter of days in December.

A defaced portrait of Bashar al-Assad inside the presidential palace.Credit: Nicole Tung/The New York Times

Syrian rebels from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham took advantage of Assad’s key allies – Russia and Iran – being distracted by fighting elsewhere and stormed into Damascus with remarkable ease.

This has injected new uncertainty into the region, with Iran again the loser after losing a crucial ally in Assad.

By contrast, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is emboldened and empowered after backing the rebel forces. – Matthew Knott, Foreign Affairs correspondent

North America

This year was meant to culminate in an election rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. But after imploding on a debate stage in June, the United States’ oldest president was forced to withdraw his bid for a second term, setting in motion one of the most extraordinary political comebacks in history.

Donald Trump celebrates his victory flanked by daughter-in-law Lara Trump (left) and his wife, Melania.Credit: AP

While Biden’s decision to pass the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris upended the trajectory of the 2024 campaign and sparked fresh enthusiasm among voters, it was not enough to dent the anger millions of Americans felt over soaring cost-of-living pressures or immigration.

In a victory so resounding even some Republicans were shocked, Trump not only won all seven battleground states, he also narrowly secured the popular vote and helped Republicans take control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

It was a remarkable turnaround for a former president who began the year facing 91 charges and four criminal trials: one in Washington for trying to subvert the 2020 election; one in Georgia for election interference in that state; another in Florida for mishandling classified documents; and one in New York for falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal with a porn star.

In the end, only the New York “hush money” trial would eventuate, resulting in Trump becoming the first convicted felon to run for the White House. A US Supreme Court decision to grant presidents substantial immunity for acts conducted in office helped him thwart all the other trials.

Trump’s ascendancy was also fuelled by an attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania – an event that shocked the world, reignited the debate over political violence, and created one of the most iconic images in political history.

Assassination attempt: A defiant Trump raises a fist to the crowd after his right ear was nicked by a sniper’s bullet in July.Credit: AP

Two months later came another assassination plot – this time by a lone gunman hiding in the bushes of his golfing resort in West Palm Beach, Florida.

In other North America news, environmental scientist Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico’s first female president; the war in Gaza sparked student uprisings at elite universities across the US; and Taylor Swift continued her global dominance, concluding her 149-show Eras Tour in Canada after becoming the most-awarded artist in VMA history. – Farrah Tomazin, North America correspondent

South America

Interest in South America rose briefly in Australian minds last month owing to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to Lima, Peru, for the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation annual summit, overshadowed by incoming US president Donald Trump’s economic agenda. Albanese then went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for this year’s G20. Neither gathering produced groundbreaking deals, except to serve as further demonstration of China’s continued geopolitical wins and deepening ties in the region where it has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (front, second from right), holds hands with China’s Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Take the new $5.6 billion port President Xi Jinping – who arrived pushing for an “orderly multipolar world” – inaugurated in Chancay, north of Lima. The intended continental logistics hub creates a direct route between Asia and South America across the Pacific Ocean. Apart from allowing Beijing to look beyond Australia and Asia for imports such as iron ore, wine and soybeans, the port could also, says the US, be used as a foothold by Chinese military ships in the Americas. China’s influence in the region could also extend to ground stations for Chinese satellites.

In Brazil, former president Jair Bolsonaro was indicted along with 36 others in a failed coup to reverse the last election and overthrow the government of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in a US Capitol-inspired takeover of Congress in 2022. He denies the charges, which add to his long list of legal woes. Lula, 79, had emergency brain surgery to relieve bleeding but was back to work in a few days.

In Argentina, the election of right-wing Trump-like disruptor and cloned-dog owner President Javier Milei provided some relief to the US, after Milei declared a preference for traditional Western alliances to the alternative BRICS – the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa group that has evolved to admit myriad other countries, and hopes to launch an alternative trade currency to the US dollar.

Argentinian President Javier Milei at home with his cloned mastiff puppies.Credit: Marcelo Dubini/Caras via The New York Times

In Venezuela, new elections returned President Nicolas Maduro to power, but no one believed the results, which the opposition said were stolen and the UN human rights watchdog is investigating. The crisis-torn country was also in the headlines owing to campaign-mode Trump blaming “Venezuelan gangs” for rampant crime in the US. In December, prominent human rights lawyer Claudio Grossman quit the International Criminal Court in The Hague over what he said was its failure to prosecute members of Maduro’s government for crimes against humanity.

In early December, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, under the bloc Mercosur, signed a blockbuster free trade deal with the European Union. If ratified, it will create one of the world’s largest free trade zones, covering a market of 780 million people. But in France, the Netherlands and other countries with big dairy and beef industries, critics say it will create unfair competition. – Lia Timson, Deputy World Editor

Oceania

In New Zealand, the year started with a large “unity meeting” convened by Maori King Tuheitia to discuss action against changes proposed by the new coalition government of Prime Minister Chris Luxon, including the watering down of policies previously designed to elevate Maori language and recognition. Tuheitia said the Treaty of Waitangi was not open for reinterpretation.

Tuheitia died in August, with King Charles leading the tributes, saying “a mighty tree has fallen”. His daughter, 27-year-old Nga Wai Hono i te Po Paki, was chosen by a council of 12 male elders to succeed him, over her two older brothers, although the crown is not automatically inherited.

Tensions over the government’s “race-based” changes, and the introduction of a bill to reinterpret the treaty, spilt over when thousands participated in a seven-day march that ended in parliament, where Maori MPs interrupted proceedings with a haka that made headlines around the world.

France declared a state of emergency in its Pacific territory, New Caledonia, in May after an electoral reform approved in Paris triggered protests and the death of three indigenous Kanak and a police official. It sent hundreds of police to help stem the riots, including soldiers to secure the port and airports, which were closed, trapping tourists on the otherwise idyllic islands.

Macron then followed with a visit but was criticised as being out of touch. His government later blamed Azerbaijan and Russia for causing the chaos and stoking separatism.

Continuing its efforts to keep Papua New Guinea closer to Australia than to China, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese headed to PNG and along with Prime Minister James Marape, did a two-day Kokoda hike, complete with birthday cake for his counterpart. It was all part of Anzac commemorations and soft diplomacy, which continues with the inclusion of a PNG rugby team in the NRL, helped along by $600 million from Australian taxpayers over 10 years.

And a devastating earthquake struck Vanuatu in later December, causing many deaths, hundreds of injuries and crippling the nation’s electricity, water and communications systems. – Lia Timson, Deputy World Editor

Prime ministers Anthony Albanese and James Marape take a selfie after the Anzac Day dawn service at the Isurava memorial site on the Kokoda Track in PNG.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Africa

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela’s party ANC lost its parliamentary majority 30 years after the vote that ended apartheid and brought it to power. President Cyril Ramaphosa managed to retain his job after a coalition deal with the country’s second-biggest party, the Democratic Alliance.

In Kenya, the discovery of footprints near a lake added to evidence that two human species lived side-by-side 1.5 million years ago, in a closing reminder that humans are capable of getting along.

with agencies

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