2024: A year marked by wars, elections and the Olympic Games

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00:002024 has been marked by both big news shifts and the evolution of existing episodes with

00:05global repercussions, including ongoing wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan.

00:11In February came news of Alexei Navalny's death.

00:14The strongest critic of Russia's Vladimir Putin died in a Siberian penal colony.

00:19Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny.

00:26In March, Putin won another six-year term.

00:30April saw Israeli jets strike the Iranian embassy in Syrian capital Damascus, killing

00:35a senior Revolutionary Guards commander.

00:39Iran responded with its first ever direct attack on Israeli soil.

00:44In May, though, Iran's president died in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijani border.

00:50Sudan's war entered its second year and the RSF paramilitary began a devastating siege

00:55of the army-controlled Darfuri city of al-Fashir.

00:59Its fall would add to the toll of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

01:04South Africa took a new political path in June.

01:07The ANC lost its majority for the first time since the 1994 end of apartheid and had to

01:13form an awkward coalition government.

01:17The European Union went to parliamentary polls too.

01:20Then President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election after the French far right surged

01:25in the polls.

01:26Months of political deadlock followed.

01:29In July, US President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid after a disastrous debate

01:34against Donald Trump.

01:36Vice President Kamala Harris took over.

01:38Amid the tense race, a would-be assassin shot Trump through the ear.

01:42If you want to really see something that's said, take a look at what happened.

01:54Trump later survived a second attempt on his life unharmed.

01:59Elsewhere the UK got a new Labour government after voters booted out the Conservatives

02:04after 14 years.

02:08In August, a surprise offensive saw Ukrainian forces take over swathes of Russian territory

02:13in Kursk.

02:20Also pursuing victory, world-class athletes headed to France for the Paris Olympics.

02:27And in September, in Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters Pages and Borki Torkis began exploding.

02:35Israeli intelligence was blamed.

02:37Its military extended operations and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike

02:43on Beirut.

02:46A full-scale conflict with the militant group would continue for another three months.

02:51In Gaza, the civilian death toll of tens of thousands continued to climb at the one-year

02:56anniversary of the Middle East war.

02:59October saw Israel kill Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader behind the attack on Israel that

03:04sparked the devastating regional fallout.

03:08Today the mastermind of this day of sheer evil is no more.

03:14The deepening conflict led The Hague's International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for

03:19both Israeli and Hamas leaders in November.

03:23That same month, over in the US, Trump clinched a return to the White House, with Republicans

03:36winning both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

03:41In December, South Korea's president was impeached after unexpectedly declaring martial

03:47law.

03:48While here in France, the Christmas reopening of Notre Dame was celebrated with great fanfare.

03:56And Gisele Pellicot became a feminist icon after her husband, who for two decades arranged

04:02for his drugged wife to be raped in her home, was among 51 men given lengthy prison sentences.

04:09And finally, a lightning offensive by Syrian rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad, ending over

04:1513 years of civil war.

04:25It ended the Assad family's half-century grip on Syria, though now the country's new masters

04:31Hayat Tahrir al-Sham are trying to reassure Western powers concerned by their al-Qaeda

04:37roots.

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