In 2020, one singularity dominated the news. There
was one story that filled almost every front page, of every paper, on every day. If I asked you
what was the biggest story from 2019, or 2018, or 2017, or almost any other
year was, there’d be some debate, but not in 2020. I don’t even have to tell
you what I’m talking about--you already know. But just because the front pages were clogged up,
that’s not to say page two, three, or four were. While we may have stood still, the world
kept spinning, and news kept happening--some of it was heavy, some was sad, some was
bizarre, and some momentous--but what binds these stories together is that you likely
didn’t hear about them. By no fault of your own, it was difficult to follow what was happening in
the world, because the only thing you could hear was that one, singular story. The year’s not over
yet, though, at least as I’m saying this, and so there’s still a chance to catch up on the news you
missed in 2020, from every country in the world. Here’s how this’ll work. We ordered the countries
by population from largest to smallest according to 2019’s statistics. There are 195 of them:
193 countries recognized by the United Nations, plus two UN-observer states: Palestine and
the Vatican City. This list was chosen because it is the most definitive list, it’s the list most
commonly used as a list of all countries, so some of its entries might include nations that you
or your government do not consider as countries, or omit ones that you or your government do
recognize. At the end of the day, we had to pick a list, and if any is the list of countries,
it’s this one. Oh, and one more rule: the C word, as in, the word that describes that one, singular
story of 2020, you’re not going to hear it once. We start in China, the most populated country in
the world, which continues to expand its global presence, and in this case, its space presence
too. It became the second country in the world to plant a national flag on the moon, 50 years
after the United States did. China is trying to catch up with American and Russian planetary
endeavors, and, in recent years, has poured millions into its military-run space program
with the hopes of sending humans to the moon. Another country with a burgeoning space-program
is India, where Amazon recently completed its largest office building in the world. The
1.8-million-square-foot behemoth was erected in Hyderabad--a city of nearly 10 million that’s
grown into a sizable technology and financial hub. India, as the world’s second-most-populous
country, is the fastest growing internet market and Amazon joins other major tech
multinationals which have opened offices there, though none with a campus that
spans 65 football fields. A United States man that was facing
sentencing for two vehicle-theft charges might be looking at a lot more jail time
now that he was caught faking his death. His attorney submitted a fraudulent death
certificate, and it might have passed had there not been typos, like the misspelling
of “registry.” Stay in school, kids. In Indonesia, a stimulus bill aimed at restarting
Southeast Asia’s largest economy was met with months of protests because citizens
said it slashed worker’s rights and environmental regulations. But, President
Joko Widodo signed the bill into law anyway, saying it will bring over a 1 million jobs to
the struggling economy, which until this year, had been on an upward trajectory.
Opponents, though, argue it weakens rules that already don’t do enough to protect
the country’s natural resources and workers. Rice is a serious business in southern Asia, and
it’s a profitable one too. That’s why Pakistan is vehemently fighting India over the
long grain—basmati to be specific. This year, India applied to the European Union
for a designation that recognizes basmati rice as an exclusive export of the country, even
though one-third of EU imports on the product come from Pakistan. In recent years, Pakistan’s
basmati rice exports to the EU have doubled, while India’s are shrinking—which
makes the designation, if granted, potentially more devastating and further
increases tensions between these two neighbors. Between rain forest fires
and a negligent president, the news streaming out of Brazil has been
heavy. But, a new discovery about the mating habits of the Thoropa taophora frog lightened
the feed. Frogs are either typically monogamous or not—meaning they get around. This species
however, prefers “harem” style—one male to two or more specific females—which is much more
common in mammals throughout the animal kingdom, but not seen before in amphibians. Dubbed
“group fidelity,” finding this behavior in another set of four-legged animals checks
another box in the evolutionary list. One particular virus has dominated the
news cycle this year, but in Nigeria, they’re dealing with an entirely different
one too--the yellow fever. The disease, which is spread by mosquitoes, had basically
been eradicated for 20 years until 2017 when it crept back into the country because
of climate change and lower vaccination rates. Now, it’s spiking. In the latter part of
2020, 75 people have already died and health officials worry that number will increase as
people are still hesitant to get vaccinated. India is being beat in another metric as well,
and it’s an important one. Bangladesh most likely surpassed India in gross domestic product
this year, according to International Monetary Fund estimates. Why does that matter? Well,
India is the world’s sixth-largest economy, and its 10% GDP contraction is a
concerning indicator for the world economy. Thanks to increased agricultural production and a
focus on developing its low-wage labor workforce, Bangladesh, on the other hand, was able
to expand its GDP by 4% this year. Another country that’s known to be slightly
competitive is Russia, and that’s a problem since they were banned from the biggest global sporting
competition of 2020 because of doping—that would be the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Of course
the event was postponed until 2021 anyway, but new investigations reveal that Russia
was planning to cyberattack the games, which is something they’ve done before
when they attempted to wreak havoc on the Winter Olympics in South Korea by dismantling
ticketing and wifi for the opening ceremony, as well as targeting individual
broadcasters, sponsors, and athletes. Before flights were ground to a halt in the
spring, one health insurer in Utah was taking advantage of Mexico’s inexpensive pharmaceutical
prices and actually flying public employees from the United States to south of the border so they
could buy drugs at a fraction of American prices. They also got the benefit of those in-flight
snack peanuts and a free soda. It’s already saved the company a quarter of a million
dollars, and now other states are eyeing the move—and may mimic it once flight schedules
resume to normal levels—meaning Mexico is bound to see an even greater boost to its already
burgeoning pharmaceutical tourism industry. Fugaku is not just fun to say, it’s also
the name of the world’s speediest computer, which was built this year in Japan. The
room-sized computer took first place in a speed-ranking competition between supercomputers,
carrying out 2.8 times more calculations than the second-place IBM machine built in the United
States. This is notable for the Japanese, who have remained less competitive in
the supercomputer realm, often following the leads of the US and China. The systems are
used for complex military and scientific tasks, including breaking code and modeling climate
change, and, of course, winning competitions. Africa is getting its own great wall: a green one.
The ambitious reforestation project is supposed to stretch 4,350 miles or 7,000 kilometers from
Djibouti to Senegal, with an aimed completion date of 2030. Ethiopia is on track to meet its goal,
having already planted 5.5 billion seedlings. But its neighbors are slow to start, and the project
is only 4% complete at the halfway mark, mostly due to financial struggles. It turns out, it takes
a lot of green to make a green wall, and so it's proving difficult for some of the world’s poorest
countries to take this project to completion. Money problems are also the reason that the
Philippines’ largest news network cited when it shuttered dozens of its regional stations around
the country, but the audience isn’t buying this excuse. Instead, they’re wondering if it has more
to do with President Rodrigo Duterte’s criticism of the network’s coverage of his antidrug
platform. Either way, the loss will be felt by millions of rural residents who rely on the
network as a lifeline for critical information. Wealthy residents of Egypt are getting their
15 minutes of fame, just 2,500 years too late. More than 100 ornately painted wooden coffins
were unearthed by archaeologists near Saqqara, 20 miles or 30 kilometers south of Cairo. This
area is a large burial ground and is home to more than a dozen sites with similar tombs. This
discovery, however, is one of the most exciting in recent years and comes at a time when the
country continues to try to draw tourists back after a sharp decline resulting from
the Arab Spring in the early 2010s. Tourism isn’t a problem in Vietnam,
where 18 million people visit per year, and that should mean liquor sales aren’t either.
But, a new zero-tolerance drunk-driving law that went into effect this year has taken the fizz out
of one of the world's faster growing beer markets. Since implementation, beer sales have dropped
25% in the country, and violators face a fine of up to $345, which is double what the average
Vietnamese makes in a month. Even those who think riding a bike is a safe alternative will be
shocked with a $25 fine for drunk-pedaling. In other 2020 epidemic news, the
World Health Organization declared that an ebola outbreak in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo was officially over, after two years and 2,280 deaths. It was
the country’s 10th outbreak of the disease, but its second most deadly, stemming
from people’s mistrust of the government and feuding between officials. That doesn’t
mean the country is in the clear though, as it’s now dealing with the world’s largest measles
epidemic, and, of course, the global pandemic. Germans are taking a stand, and, well, technically
a sit, in Dannenröder forest, south of Frankfurt, where they’ve been camped out to oppose the
government’s construction of a highway that will route through the wild lands and cut down 67
acres or 27 hectares of 250-year-old trees. These activists are calling the government hypocritical
for cutting down cherished trees when it should focus on public transportation infrastructure, and
both sides expect standoffs for months to come. Also bad news for trees are the more than 9
million that have died in Turkey. Last year, as part of National Forestation Day, volunteers
across the country planted 11 million trees across more than 2,000 sites—including 303,150 saplings
planted in Çorum, which broke the world record for most trees planted in a single location. Now,
officials are reporting that up to 90% of these have died because they either weren’t planted
properly or lacked enough rainfall to grow. In neighboring Iran, a woman was filmed
riding a bike without a hijab near a major mosque in Najafabad. Why is this news?
Well, in Iran, it’s been against Islamic law since 1979 for women to be seen in public without
a covering for their head and hair and this is largely obeyed. Though women have started to
push the limits in larger cities, like Tehran, it’s still widely criticized
and, in this case, punishable. The woman was arrested for this display,
which was widely shared on social media. Another arrestable offense, this time in
Thailand, is writing a bad online review--yes, you heard that correctly. An American living
in the Southeast Asian country wasn’t happy with being charged a $15 corkage fee at a
beach resort in Koh Chang, so he did what any thumb-happy traveler would do and wrote
a negative TripAdvisor review. The hotel was equally displeased and had him arrested on
defamation charges, which are notably harsh in a country that attempts to stifle some free
speech. He therefore spent a weekend in jail. In more turbulent waters, construction started on
what will soon be the world’s largest off-shore wind farm. When completed, the Dogger Wind
Farm in the North Sea off the eastern coast of the United Kingdom, will provide enough
energy to power 4.5 million homes every year, or 5% of England’s total energy demand.
The enormous energy production capability is made possible by their use of one
of the world’s largest wind turbines, the Haliade-X, which stands 853 feet or 260
meters tall and has 351-foot or 107-meter blades. Requiring much less power than that, though, is
the Ami, a mini car released in France that can be driven without a license by anyone over 14.
Manufactured by Citroen, the all-electric Ami is what’s officially dubbed a light quadricycle. The
four-wheel cube can travel 28 mph or 45 km/h with a range of 46 miles or 75 kilometers, and it’s got
a mini price too, ringing in at just over $7,000. Another European product is making headlines,
but this time it’s for lack of it. The world’s second-largest producer of olive oil, Italy, has
been plagued by bad weather and a deadly bacteria, cutting production by more than a quarter this
year. The Xylella bacteria, also called leprosy, has hit the olive trees in the Puglia region
particularly hard, and those effects will be felt globally, especially in the United States,
which purchases one third of Italy’s oil. At the southern end of the world, a 116-year-old
man died in South Africa. He was, however, the oldest man in the world at the time
of his passing, at least unofficially, having lived through the Spanish Flu,
which took the lives of his entire family. He credited his long life to “God’s grace,” but
it may have been health and strength too—a couple weeks before he died of natural causes, his family
said he was chopping wood with a 4-pound hammer. Up the African coast, the two largest
Tanzanite gemstones ever unearthed were pulled out of the only country
in which they’re found: Tanzania. The two dark violet-blue minerals, each about 11
inches or 30 cm long and 4 inches or 10 cm thick, rang in roughly $3.35 million for the mining
boss who runs the 200-person operation in the country’s northern region. He did what
anybody who struck the motherlode would do: promised to build a school and shopping
mall, but first threw a neighborhood party. Multiple drug raids in the hills of Myanmar
revealed a complex and burgeoning synthetic drug market that’s speculated to be fueling
global demand for opioids like methamphetamine and fentanyl. The seizures were the
largest finds in Southeast Asian history, and represent a transition away from China,
which had previously been supplying many of the chemicals for synthetics but
cracked down under worldwide pressure. In Kenya, the score is 1 for the fig tree, 0 for
developers. A four-story tree in the country’s capital of Nairobi was set to be cut down to make
way for an expressway but environmentalists put up a fight—and they won. Not only will the tree be
preserved in its spot, but it’s now been elevated to legend status, gaining notoriety both as an
environmental symbol and as a call to action to protect even more green space in a city that’s
constantly seeing parks and nature eliminated. In grimmer news, the mayor of
Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was found dead in a park this summer. He
was a potential presidential candidate and the second-most powerful person in the country, so the passing sent unrest through the nation.
Several days before his death, a former secretary accused him of sexual harassment—especially
shocking since he was a champion of women’s rights in a male-dominated country—so
his death is being treated as a suicide. A less grim story comes from another mayor on
the other side of the world in Bogota, Columbia, who recently became the first openly lesbian
mayor ever for the capital city in January. This was an historic moment for
the conservative Catholic country, and Latin America in general. Claudia
Lopez married her partner in 2019, and is recognized for being a progressive beacon
in a region that’s slow to progress LGBTQ rights. Yachting in the Iberian Sea was a little
more raucous than usual this fall, after a string of orca incidents
were reported in Spain, in which killer whales were targeting boat rudders
and causing damage to more than a dozen vessels. The increasingly aggressive interactions initially
puzzled researchers, but they now believe the trio of orcas—which accounted for almost two-thirds
of the two dozen reports—were previously injured by a boat and perhaps reacting defensively to
yachts because of those traumatic incidents. Another boating story brings us to
Argentina, where a determined sailor finally docked on land after completing an
85-day journey across the Atlantic Ocean. The Portugeuse resident set sail in mid-March
after lockdown restrictions kept him from traveling to see his 90-year-old father. He
would not be deterred by the lack of flights, and decided to voyage by sea in his 29-foot boat,
accompanied by rice, canned tuna, and fruit. Uganda is home to 50% of the world’s mountain
gorillas, so when one of the country’s most famous, Rafiki, was killed by a poacher,
the government took a harder stance than it had previously. Officials chose to jail the
killer for six years. This landmark ruling sends a message to future poachers that animal
killings won’t be tolerated and is a win for wildlife groups which have been calling for
more restrictive measures for many years. In terms of on-brand news for 2020, wildfires
coming within 1 mile of Chernobyl in Ukraine has to be near the top of the list. An 18-mile
radius exclusion zone was set up after the nuclear disaster there in the ‘80s, and this wildfire
spread into that area, causing officials to worry that not only would radioactive material be
dispersed into the air, but that it might threaten existing structures and a disposal site. More than
300 firefighters were able to control the burn, preventing this lesser-known story
from becoming a major headline. When a migrant rescue boat came across a
backpack floating in the Meditteranean Sea, officials assumed its owners had perished
in crossing from Algeria to Italy, as is often the case with many found personal
objects floating in this part of the world. But this time, there was a happy ending:
An NGO in Italy was able to track down the owners of the personal items, who
were migrants that survived a shipwreck, and return the contents to them, which
included their inscribed wedding rings. Sudan is taking baby steps toward democracy,
after three decades of oppressive laws that were primarily targeted toward women. Of
highest priority is banning female genital mutilation--a typically religious practice
that affects almost 90% of Sudanese women. The new transitional government is also
loosening wardrobe restrictions for women, and saying OK to alcohol consumption, at
least for non-Muslims in the country. The 3,600-year-old Gilgamesh Dream Tablet is being
returned to its rightful home in what is now Iraq, where it originated, after a curious and illegal
journey that brought it to the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC, which was co-founded by none
other than tablet king and crafts retail giant Hobby Lobby. The rare cuneiform tablet features
one of the oldest works of literature in the world, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and was purchased by
Hobby Lobby at auction for $1.6 million in 2014. This isn’t the first time Hobby Lobby has had
problems with the provenance of its acquisitions, as it previously had to forfeit 5,500
artifacts and pay a $3 million fine. National identity cards in Afghanistan
include a person’s name, date of birth, and now, both of their parents’ names,
which sounds pretty normal, but previously, just the father’s name was listed because using
a woman’s in public was traditionally frowned upon and even considered an insult—it’s a
restriction that goes so far that much of Afghanistan does not list females’ names on their
gravestones. This step in updating ID cards is seen as a small victory for women’s rights
in the overwhelmingly conservative country. When a herd of elephants at Poland’s Warsaw zoo
became sad after losing their matriarch—which lead a given herd—veterinarians turned
to Colorado’s favorite stress reliever: medical marijuana. The three African
elephants are being given doses of liquid cannabis through their trunks, and
researchers will study hormone levels in their blood over the next two years to
monitor how it affects their stress. A small town of 7,000 people in Canada gave
itself a new identity when they voted this year to change the city’s name from Asbestos
to Val-des-Sources, or Valley of the Springs. The town got its name for being home to
the largest asbestos mine in the world, but since the mineral has been linked
to causing cancer and the mine has shut, residents voted to disassociate from the toxic
substance. But it wasn’t without a fight. More veteran members of the community were
opposed to the name change as they felt it was unnecessary, because in French, which is
spoken there, the word for asbestos is amiante. Tensions are simmering in a United Nations-backed
buffer zone between Morocco and Mauritania, which could bring a 29-year truce to a
boiling point. The Western Sahara-contested zone has long been controlled by Morocco under
a ceasefire agreement with the Polisario Front, a pro-independence movement. But now, the
front has blocked transportation between the two countries, and Morocco launched
a military operation in response. On the same latitude, but a few time zones over, Saudi Arabia wants to maintain its claim
as the world’s top energy exporter, but now with hydrogen. Blue hydrogen is a carbon
dioxide byproduct of reforming natural gas, and Saudi Arabia sent its first cargo shipment
of it to Japan this year, all in an effort to profit off of the world’s transition to greener
fuels. Part of this goal also includes plans to build a $5 billion hydrogen-based ammonia plant
powered by renewable energy on the Red Sea. Uzbekistan’s language can be written in
three ways: Arabic, Cyrillic, and Latin, but it’s the latter that will soon be the norm,
thanks to a decree by the country’s president which called for a faster transition away from
Cyrillic. Though Uzbek was originally written in Arabic, Russian influence during the early
20th century changed it to Cyrillic and now, to distance itself from Russia, Uzbekistan wants
to move toward Latin script, consisting of 29 letters and 1 apostrophe, to help develop
a stronger, more unique national identity. Peruvians are hoping that the third time’s a charm
after three presidents reigned in just one week. Francisco Sagasti will now lead the country,
following a Congress-led ousting of one president and a five-day term-turned-resignation by the
second. Sagasti is seen as a consensus-builder, so citizens are hopeful, but the tumultuous
leadership changes over the past several years leave a lot of uncertainty, and,
frankly, apathy, at this point. If there’s a baby boom this spring, a shortage of condom manufacturing in March may
be the culprit. A Malaysian company, Karex Bhd, makes one in every five condoms globally, and
when the pandemic hit this year, facilities were forced to shut down resulting in at least
100 million fewer condoms worldwide. It ramped back up quickly, but the effects of a shortage
like this could be at least nine months away. It’s been a year for Africa’s richest woman,
Isabel dos Santos. She’s the eldest daughter of Angola’s former longtime leader Jose
Eduardo dos Santos, and in January was charged with embezzlement and laundering
more than $1 billion from her native country. Then, in October, her husband died in, reportedly,
a diving accident off the coast of Dubai. He was an avid art collector, and also tied up
in the scandal she faced, meaning it’s a tragic tale with lots of plot twists, that
doesn’t seem to have a final chapter yet. Another story about $1 billion revolves around
the United Kingdom’s investment in Mozambique. This year, a deal was inked to send UK
taxpayer-funded financial support to develop and export the African country’s gas reserves—one
of the largest financing projects on the continent ever, according to some reports—but citizens and
environmental groups are shouting “hypocrite” as the UK continues to claim it’s a global
leader in the fight against climate change. Speaking of oil in Africa, a floating storage and
offloading facility moored off the coast of Yemen continues to deteriorate and threatens
to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil into the Red Sea, which would be four
times the amount of the Exxon Valdez spill. The war in Yemen has prevented the United Nations
from doing anything to prevent a potential leak, but recently Houthi rebels—which control the
area where the vessel is stuck and the oil company that owns it—gave permission for world
leaders to move ahead with rehabilitation plans. The African country of Ghana may be a respite
for Black Americans seeking refuge from the United States’ ongoing racial injustice, and
Ghanian officials are actually recruiting members of the African diaspora. The government
set up a handful of enticements for transplants, including land deals, expatriate guides, and
quicker paths to citizenship, and all of this comes on the heels of a 45% increase in visitor
numbers from the United States last year. Math, science, and reading are, of course,
required subjects for children in school, and now, in one country, downward dog is too. In
March, Nepal became the first nation in the world to incorporate yoga into its mandatory curriculum.
Students in the Himalayan country won’t just practice the poses, but they’ll learn about the
history of yogic thought and Ayurvedic medicine. Children, or the idea of them at least, are
making headlines in Venezuela, where controversial Twitter-happy President Nicolas Maduro asked for
every woman in the country to have six children. The plea was met with immediate backlash because
the country is in a deep economic recession, and is unable to provide essential services
like food and healthcare for the millions of residents it already has. He, apparently,
views more children as part of the solution, though he offered little in the
way of specifics as to how. Ever heard of Voeltzkow’s chameleon? No? Well,
that’s OK, almost nobody has, since the elusive reptile hadn’t been seen in almost 100 years and
was actually placed on the extinction list. But, this year a team of researchers spotted it
on the northwest tip of Madagascar. There, the reptile is only thought to
live during the rainy season, making it a “mayfly of vertebrae.” This, of
course, makes it even more vulnerable to the deforestation that continues to threaten
their sheer existence, but its rediscovery gives scientists hope for other species
which were also thought to be extinct. More than 40% of North Korean men smoke, but a new
law that bans puffing down in public places might smolder that statistic. Citing health reasons,
tobacco is now prohibited in specific venues, such as political and ideological education
centers, theaters, cinemas, and medical and public health facilities. One person who might struggle
with this new law: Leader Kim Jong Un, who is a chain smoker and frequently photographed with
a cigarette in hand. But, the country is moving forward with the prohibition despite being unable
to convince its supreme leader to kick the habit. Political unrest looms over the Ivory Coast
after President Alassane Ouattara won, controversially, a third term in November. When
his planned successor suddenly died this summer, Ouattara reneged on his pledge to leave office, and even though he received 94% of the
vote, many, including the opposition, saw the process as unfair. It’s indicative of
a wider trend in African politics, which has seen third-term bids and constitutional
amendments increasing in recent years. The unearthing of four 8,000-year-old skeletons
in Cameroon is a groundbreaking find that’s providing new information about our current human
species. The DNA from these skeletons offers the first genetic material from West African humans,
painting a better picture of how ancient people split into four genetic groups, both physically
and geographically. Of the four populations, it’s been the West African genes that have
remained elusive to researchers—until now. Another big find was recently made by scientists,
this time in the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia, where a pinnacle of coral one third
of a mile long was discovered by researchers. While you might think that the world-famous
natural wonder would be thoroughly mapped out, this was actually the first major new element
of the reef to be discovered in over 120 years. Of course, the reef is shrinking by the year
due to the effects of climate-change and coral bleaching, so even the discovery of this
comparatively small section is great news. Niger is one of the world’s poorest
countries, but its location also makes it a key regional recipient of western aid
funding the fight against Islamic terrorism. That’s why an audit of its defense spending that
revealed a loss of $137 million over eight years raised more than eyebrows. Apparently the country
was overcharged in several instances—sometimes by nearly $20 million—for important
military equipment, and western countries that grant Niger money are questioning their
decisions, and potentially future giving. You don’t have to worry about the spread of
airborne viruses in Sri Lanka’s newest museum because it’s... underwater. Created by naval
officers off the southern tip of the island nation, the country’s first-ever
below-water museum is a collection of artifacts and sculptures installed 50
feet beneath the surface. The attraction is not only intended to draw tourists, but it
should lure fish and spur coral growth too. One of Burkina Faso’s largest gold mines was
shut down for almost a year after 39 employees were killed in an attack on their convoy.
Since then, the Canadian-owned Boungou mine has restarted with tightened security measures and
improved infrastructure. During the year hiatus, the mine’s owners actually changed from one
Canadian company to another for $735 million, which is notable because, even though agriculture
still accounts for 80% of the country’s economy, gold exports driven by foreign investments
continue to develop alternative economic sectors. And on the subject of West African unrest,
a military coup in Mali ousted the country’s president and prime minister in August,
following eight years of disrupted elections, government corruption, and Islamist insurgency.
Military colonels remain in power today. This further instability could send ripple
effects across the region because of Mali’s strategic location for Western countries
such as France and the United States, which have actively tried to prevent
increased tensions in the area. File this story under stranger than fiction,
because, well, it’s about nonfiction. Some 200 books, including first editions by Galileo and
Sir Isaac Newton, were found buried underneath a rural Romanian cottage, after a three-year search
that spanned 45 addresses and three countries. The $3.35 million worth of books were stolen
during a heist from a London warehouse in 2017. Looking to get away from it
all? For a cool $20 million, you can buy a 50,000-acre island off the coast of
Chile. Acquiring private islands is nothing new, but this one is making headlines
because environmentalists and the indigenous population are not happy that
this biodiversity hotspot has a price tag at all. Even though the island has been in
private hands for a century, they’re worried that new ownership could jeopardize its future
conservation and sets a dangerous precedent. In an effort to bolster its economy, Malawi became
the fifth African country to decriminalize medical marijuana. Almost 80% of the country’s
population is employed in agriculture, and it used to be a major producer of tobacco,
but, as global demand for tobacco declines, it’s looking for alternative revenue streams.
Enter, Malawi Gold, an already popular strain of recreational cannabis. The country’s dry climate
is actually conducive to growing marijuana, and as the herb’s popularity increases around the
world, Malawians plan to jump on the ganja train. Kazakhstan is known for a few
things: its oil and gas economy, its proximity to Russia and Mongolia,
and just generally for being a “stan,” but in Western culture it’s perhaps most
famous for one of its fictional natives: Borat Sagdiyev. Played by actor Sacha Baron
Cohen, the satirical character Borat pokes fun at Kazakhstan with the catchphrase “Very
nice!” but officials there realized those words have staying power, and recently officially
adopted them as their official tourism slogan. The African Ansell mole-rat, native to
Zambia, is near-blind, burrows underground, and this year, scientists discovered it
can sense magnetic fields with its eyes. Though the animal’s eyes are barely functional,
discerning between just light and dark, this new discovery gives more clues as to how
the creature travels and lives in an underground network up to 1.7 miles or 2.7 kilometers long,
and of course, it may help humans in our own scientific advances, as we learn more about
nature, and as we often do, try to mimic it. Government officials in Guatemala passed a
$12.2 billion budget that raised stipends for representatives’ meals while cutting funding for
human rights agencies, healthcare, and education, triggering residents to protest in the
streets and set the congressional building on fire. Their anger at the misplaced spending
comes on the heels of not only the pandemic, but two destructive hurricanes that
tore through the country this fall. It turns out, tragedy after tragedy
is when people need help the most. In July, Ecuador reported that more
than 300 Chinese fishing vessels were encroaching on its exclusive
fishing zones near the Galapagos, with the illegal fleets going as far as to turn
off their tracking devices to remain undetected. So the South American country joined coastal
neighbors Chile, Peru, and Colombia to file a joint statement—or rather, a light
threat—about protecting their waters from the increasing creep of foreign fishing,
and ultimately, China’s expanding presence. Overseas, some new research into the life of the
Netherlands’ most famous artist, Vincent Van Gogh, reveals that he didn’t suffer from schizophrenia
or syphilis, as some have theorized, but rather that the delirium leading up to his death may be
attributed to alcohol withdrawal. The artist was institutionalized twice—once after cutting off
his ear—and reported hallucinations both times. Researchers now believe these symptoms
were due to his lack of wine and absinthe, which he consumed in great amounts during the
most prolific, and final, years of his life. In somber news, Syria topped an unenviable
list in 2019, being named the deadliest place in the world for humanitarian workers. The
report on the subject, released this year, details that the number of people killed helping
the war-torn country rose sharply last year, with the majority of deaths stemming from aerial
strikes. Officials say the grim statistic will make it harder to recruit aid workers to
a place where they’re needed the most. One rodent that’s turning its species’ reputation
around is Magawa, a land-mine-sniffing rat in Cambodia. The 5-year-old African pouched rat has
discovered 39 land mines, 28 pieces of unexploded ordnance, and helped clear more than 1.5 million
square feet of land over the past four years, rightfully earning itself the gold medal from
the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals. That, unsurprisingly, makes it the first rat to receive
an award that is usually reserved for humans. After the tragic port explosion in Beirut, Senegal
moved quickly to avoid a similar catastrophe and removed 3,050 tons of ammonium nitrate from its
port. The substance was transported to Mali, where it was used to make bombs for mining operations.
Ammonium nitrate is commonly found in fertilizers and explosives, so ports around the world
which temporarily house the volatile compound, such as Senegal’s Dakar, made sure they weren’t
in the same vulnerable situation as Beirut, where the substance led to the accidental
explosion that killed 190 people. South African extractive economies
continue to make headlines, such as Chad, which recently asked UNESCO to postpone
the process for designating Lake Chad as a World Heritage Site. Why? Because Chad
wants to explore oil and gas development in the lake area—which directly opposes UNESCO’s
conservation goals for World Heritage Sites. It also came as a surprise to Cameroon, Niger,
and Nigeria, which cooperated on the two-year application process for the multinational
lake to gain this distinctive designation. More fish theft brings us to the coast of
Somalia, which stretches 2,000 miles or 3,200 kilometers and is the longest coastline
in Africa. That expanse makes it harder for the country to police its waters, where
poachers like a 192-vessel fleet from Iran are illegally fishing in the country’s exclusive
economic zone. The size of the Iranian operation, discovered this year, is a blow to Somalia,
where one in three residents face hunger, and it demonstrates the rising tensions
over the planet’s limited natural resources. One resource being exported out of Africa
that benefits from increased demand is a Zimbabwean film that became the country’s
first feature to make it to Netflix. The movie, “Cook Off,” is about a woman who enters a TV
cooking show, and it was made for just $8,000—an impressive feat given that it was produced in
2017 just before the country’s economy collapsed. This acquisition by the streaming giant gives
more credibility to Zimbabwe’s film industry, and means that the production crew
and actors may finally get paid. A small band of chimpanzees in Guinea that
are known for their remarkable use of tools were thought to be near extinction until the
tribe’s last fertile female gave birth to a beacon of hope: another female. Deforestation and
isolation have led to the tribe’s demise—and this group is of particular interest to
researchers because they mimic human’s use of tools. But this bundle of joy has also created
momentum from the country’s residents to increase protections and forestation to ensure
there is a future for the chimpanzees. One of the world’s most wanted fugitives
was found this year in a small apartment on the outskirts of Paris. Félicien Kabuga was
arrested for his role in the Rwandan genocide, which killed 800,000 members of the
Tutsi ethnic minority, among others, in 1994. Kabuga will be tried in a UN tribunal
court next year, and this capture renews efforts to find others on the run who played
significant roles in the country’s darkest days. France and Benin also made the news in 2020,
with the former’s government fast-tracking a bill aimed at returning looted objects to the
Sub-Saharan country within a year. The move is part of a multi-year restitution effort between
European countries and their former colonies, and this law specifically returns 26 royal
artifacts that were stolen from the Abomey Palace during the 19th century. These
cultural repatriation efforts are ongoing, signaling an African drive to reclaim its cultural
identity after centuries of European pillaging. Efforts to protect sea turtles in Tunisia
are working, says new scientific research that shows nests on Kuriat Island have increased
from 11 to more than 40 since 1997. Turtles are a keystone species, meaning their disappearance
would disproportionately damage ecosystems, and their increased presence in this
area—despite threats from people, climate, and pollution—is good news for the reptiles,
and the workers striving to save them. Two Chinese bidders, with the
pseudonyms Super Duper and Hitman, bought a Belgian racing pigeon for a
record price of $1.9 million. Belgium is the world’s leading racing pigeon breeding
country and, thanks to a booming economy, the Chinese upper class have a lot of money
to spend even compared to a decade ago. So why not invest in something like a pigeon? The
bird will likely be bred with another genetically superior pigeon to create a super-bird that
will dominate in racing circles, and betting on those is just one area where the Chinese are
spending significant amounts of their yuan. Eleven months in Argentina sounds nice, but
for former Bolivian president Evo Morales, it was more of an exile. He
reentered Bolivia this November, after a 2019 campaign for a fourth presidential
term became marred by fraud allegations, leading him to flee the country. A caretaker
government has managed affairs since then, but when Morales’ former economic minister
recently assumed leadership, it paved the way for Morales to return—though it’s unclear what role
he’ll play in the country’s new reality. If it all sounds turbulent, it is. Latin American countries
continue to struggle with government instability and this is just one more on the list.
The financial situation in Cuba worsened this year when the United States placed
increased restrictions on the country, forcing the closure of 400 Western Union
offices and potentially cutting off a stream of remittances from abroad. The United States claims
the move came in response to the Cuban government purportedly siphoning a cut of the incoming
money, but officials there say the move was politically motivated. Cuban-American relations
have become more tenuous under Trump, but the new Biden administration is expected to reinstate
diplomatic relations, especially since Cuban refugee Alejandro Mayorkas has been nominated
to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Hopping one island over, Haiti’s local president
of FIFA—the governing body for soccer—has been shut out, and not in the winning way. Haitian
Football President Yves Jean-Bart was issued a lifetime ban from all football-related activities
after he was found guilty of sexually harassing and abusing female players, including minors.
He was also fined roughly $1.1 million. Many are lauding the punishment, saying abuse should
be rooted out of any industry, at any level. South Sudan is the world’s youngest country,
formed in 2011. Since then, it’s experienced almost a decade of civil war but earlier this year
feuding parties finally signed a unity agreement. Millions of people continue to flee the
country and suffer from extreme hunger, but the establishment of a ruling party offers
one step in the right direction toward stability. President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi died
suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 55. He leaves behind a legacy as an autocratic ruler
known for committing a variety of human rights abuses, and his death in June came just weeks
after the country had already elected a successor, which only happened because Nkurunziza did not
seek reelection. His death will have impacts on regional and global relationships, potentially
allowing for increased unity under new leadership. Despite the pandemic, the Dominican Republic
has hosted more than two dozen feature film and TV production shoots this year, which
poured $80 million into the local economy, smashing a previous annual record of $30
million in 2017. Producers track their local expenditures because part of the country’s
international incentive for filming there is a 25% rebate through a transferable tax credit.
That’s attractive to American filmmakers, like M. Night Shyamalan who took advantage of
it this year, because they can spend 25% of wages in the Dominican Republic and maintain
tax incentive status in the United States. A deer stealing their rifle isn’t something
that hunters would think they’d have to worry about when out stalking, but that’s what
happened to one in the Czech Republic when his dog startled the deer, which ran toward
him and looped his rifle with an antler. The deer was seen a mile away, with
the gun still in tow. Reportedly it wasn’t loaded, but had it been, a deer claiming
self-defense might have worked in this case. Also filed under bizarre sightings is a tiny
child floating on an inflatable unicorn in the Meditteranean Sea. The 3-year-old girl was swept
into the water while playing on a beach in Greece, but rescued shortly after by a passing ferryboat.
She was delivered back to her family safely, and, yes, the unicorn made it too. When Brazilian Maya Gabeira surfed a 73.5-foot
or 22.4 meter wave off the coast of Portugal in February, she didn’t just ride the biggest wave
ever for a woman—it was the largest wave surfed by anyone, period, during the 2019-2020 season. She
is the first woman in professional surfing to top all men in terms of wave size in a season, but
with another female surfer earning spot number two on the big-wave list this year, it’s
clear she may not hold the title for long. The title for the highest smoking rate in
the world goes to Jordan, where a shocking 80% of the male population says they use
smoke or use nicotine products daily. This was a status previously held by Indonesia, and
bucks the global trend of declining tobacco use. Multinational tobacco companies are still allowed
to hold a large amount of influence in Jordan, from funding school programs to being
featured on the prime minister’s social media, and this widespread interference
is likely what’s increasing use. Rapper Cardi B may have overstepped her
political boundaries when she posted an advertisement supporting Armenia to her 76
million Instagram followers. Like all wars, the conflict between Azerbaijan
and Armenia has been a tragic one, that ended with Armenia’s defeat and a pact
between the two countries over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which will remain
with Azerbaijan. But Cardi B was only trying to help a real estate agent friend when she made the
post, and has since apologized amid the backlash. Unstaffed grocery stores accessed by logging
in with BankID, the national identification app operated by Sweden’s banks, seems like something
only Sweden could pull off in remote areas, which is why they’re probably the ones doing
it. Amid a drastic decline in food markets across the country, mostly in rural areas, the
company Livfs has installed almost 20 small, container stores that are fully stocked
with meat, vegetables, dairy, and desserts. Customers simply swipe an app to enter and
pay for groceries, no store clerk needed. Israeli flights traveling to and from the
United Arab Emirates can now cross through Saudi Arabian airspace, marking the first time
that commercial jets on this route can pass over the kingdom’s territory. The announcement cuts
travel time between the two countries in half, to three and a half hours, and signals normalizing
relations, both diplomatically and economically. According to reports, the decision to open the
airspace came at the request of the UAE. It became the third Arab country to acknowledge relations
with Israel, behind Egypt and Jordan, and the development signals some progress in an otherwise
unstable region—though Saudi Arabia was quick to note that opening airspace didn’t change its
country’s stance on the Israel-Palestine issue. Despite having previously faced murder
charges, Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, aka “The Tiger,” was still named police chief
in 2012 in Honduras. So it may not come as a surprise that he didn’t uphold the tenets of the
job, and is now charged with conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States… but the plot
thickens. He wasn’t smuggling cocaine for just anyone, but doing the dirty work for
the Honduran president and his brother, the latter of which was convicted for
drug trafficking in New York last year. In Hungary, a scientist accidentally
created a new fish hybrid in a lab, dubbed the sturddlefish. The combination of
Russian sturgeon, whose eggs make premium caviar, and American paddlefish, a filter feeder
found in less than half of the United States, is an unlikely one that would probably never
have occurred without human intervention—based on geography alone. And while there’s no real
practical purpose to the awkward-looking creature, it does demonstrate that species’ genetics are
sometimes more similar than previously thought. Also in the neighborhood is the proposed
Baltic-Black Sea waterway, a 1,240-mile, 2,000 kilometer inland shipping route that would
cut through Poland, Ukraine, and some of the most ecologically rich parts of Belarus. Oh, and
it would involve dredging up land inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone, which could potentially
expose millions of people to latent nuclear waste. Proponents say it would spur an economic boon
for the region, while opponents argue it will destroy the “Amazon of Europe.” It may end up
happening piecemeal, with Ukraine and Belarus committing—and already starting in some cases—to
dredging up parts of their tributary rivers. Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries in east Asia and many residents cross into Russia for
higher-paying jobs and higher education. The Russian-speaking population in this country
has dwindled 10-fold in four decades, but there’s new interest in teaching children
their neighbor’s language, marked by officials’ announcement that they would build five more
Russian-speaking schools—with a capacity for 1,200 students in each—in addition to the 10 that
have been constructed in just the past two years. A musician in Austria is pulling
a different sort of string: that of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 250-year-old
violin. The musician took a leap when he asked the foundation that owns the violin if he could
borrow it to play and record the violin concertos on the exact instrument Mozart
composed them on between 1773 and 1775. The answer was yes, and he performed
them in October to small, live audiences. A group of United Nations officials
signed a letter to four countries protesting the development of a
massive mine in Papua New Guinea, citing grave concerns both for the environment
and human rights. If built, the mine would be the largest in the nation’s history, and
potentially produce $1.5 billion of gold, copper, and silver annually for 30 years.
But that money would mostly go to Chinese investors in the Australian-registered mining
company, and the real costs could come in the form of a catastrophic environmental disaster
on the Sepik River, where it would be located. More than 43 million Tweets amplifying
positive news coverage of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić were linked to
his Serbian Progressive party, and Twitter subsequently blocked 8,500 accounts
for attempts to undermine public conversation. The tweets were making his governing
look better than it actually was, and this isn’t just happening in Serbia.
The tech company blocked some additional 13,000 accounts in countries like Egypt, Honduras,
and Saudi Arabia for doing the same thing. Serbia is the 98th largest country in the
world, meaning we’re halfway to 195. Therefore, that’s where we’ll end part one, and part two
will be going up on Thursday, December 31st. While you wait for that, though, I have something
else, new and rather exciting for you to watch. Tomorrow, on Nebula, we release the first
episode of, “Sam from Wendover Presents: A Very Good Trivia Show, Presented by Sam
from Wendover.” You see, we were going to film something for our last Nebula original of the
year on-location, like we normally do, but then, you know, everything got in the way--can’t break
our no C-word rule now. Therefore, we decided to do something completely different--a trivia show,
filmed remotely with three fantastic contestants: Brian from Real Engineering, Dave from City
Beautiful, and Jordan Harrod. They competed in seven games, some of which were pretty normal,
and others of which were pretty… out there. This was all hosted by me, and I even go on-camera,
so get mentally prepared for that. Of course, the only place to watch this is on Nebula, as their
business model makes bigger projects like this financially possible, and there’s quite literally
never been a better time to sign up. That’s because our sponsor, CuriosityStream, is having
its biggest ever sale, 41% off, meaning it works out to less than $1 a month, and by signing up at
CuriosityStream.com/Wendover, any subscription is bundled with a Nebula subscription for the exact
same price. That’s two whole streaming sites, with thousands of top-quality documentaries and
non-fiction shows from bigger names, in the case of CuriosityStream, and tons of bigger-budget
projects from your favorite educational-ish creators, in the case of Nebula, for less than the
cost of a bus fare per month. While you wait for our original to come out, you could, for example,
watch something quite similar to this video: it’s where CuriosityStream rounds up the top science
stories of 2020 in an hour-long special, which is quite good. This sale will end very soon, so make
sure to sign up at CuriosityStream.com/Wendover, and you’ll be supporting this, and countless
other independent channels, while you’re at it.
Question about Bangladesh GDP vs India. India's GDP is roughly 10x higher than Bangladesh in 2019. So if they contracted 10% and Bangladesh increased 4%... That's still not in the right ball park. Maybe he meant gdp per capita?
Oh well. Thought it was a great video overall, and I can't wait to see more of stuff like this.
I think I would love a HAI version of this.
12:27 just pissed off about 10,425,000 people
Part 2
Why didn’t he cover Taiwan
Does anyone know the song in the background at the very beginning of the video?
I did not expect the USA to be the 3rd most populated country