2020s

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From top left, clockwise: a crowded temporary hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 became a global pandemic in 2020 and dominated the early part of the decade, as it was deemed an international public health emergency until 2023; a Ukrainian tank driving in the Donetsk region during the Russo-Ukrainian War; in 2024, Donald Trump is shot in an assassination attempt, before reclaiming the American presidency in non-consecutive terms; Palisades fire burning in January 2025. The decade saw a continued rise in global warming and severe heat waves; damage following an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City during the Gaza war and subsequent humanitarian aid crisis; logo of ChatGPT, the commercial engine of domestic AI usage. Artificial Intelligence boomed in the 2020s.

The 2020s (pronounced "twenty-twenties" or "two thousand [and] twenties"; shortened to "the '20s" and also known as "The Twenties") is the current decade that began on 1 January 2020, and will end on 31 December 2029.^[1][2]

The 2020s began with the COVID-19 pandemic. The first reports of the virus were published on 31 December 2019, though the first cases are said to have appeared nearly a month earlier.^[3] The pandemic led to a global economic recession, a sustained rise in global inflation, and a global supply chain crisis. The World Health Organization declared the virus a global state of emergency from March 2020 to May 2023.

Many anti-government demonstrations and revolts occurred in the early 2020s, including in Hong Kong, India, Israel, Colombia, Indonesia, France, Peru, Bangladesh, Armenia, and Thailand. Protests against certain local, state and national responses to COVID-19 took place, as well as protests, particularly in the United States, against racism and police brutality. There were many protests in Belarus, Eswatini, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, China, Russia, Venezuela, Serbia, and Turkey against various forms of governmental jurisdiction, corruption, and authoritarianism; along with citizen riots in the United States and Brazil attempting to overturn election results. Among democracies in 2024, its elections saw an 80% loss of incumbent support worldwide, including several significant losses.

Ongoing military conflicts include those in Myanmar, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza. The year 2021 saw the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, ending a nearly 20 years of war. The Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in a refugee crisis, disruptions to global trade, and an exacerbation of economic inflation. In 2023, a Hamas-led attack on Israel triggered an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory. The invasion has led to the displacement of nearly all Gaza residents, a humanitarian crisis, a famine, and a polio epidemic, sparking global protests against Israel. In 2024, a quick and renewed rebel offensive during the Syrian civil war led to the toppling of Bashar al-Assad and the fall of his regime. In 2025, Israel launched airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, triggering a brief direct conflict between the two. Smaller conflicts include the insurgency in the Maghreb, the Iraq insurgency, the conflict between India and Pakistan, and the Philippine and the Mexican drug wars.

With multiple extreme weather events and ecological crises continuing to escalate, several world leaders have called the 2020s the "decisive decade" for climate action.^[4][5] The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season became the most active on record, featuring 31 cyclones. In February 2023, a series of powerful earthquakes killed up to 62,000 people in Turkey and Syria; this event fell within the top five deadliest earthquakes of the 21st century. The years 2023 and 2024 both broke yearly global temperature records, with 2024 breaching 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.

Technology has continued to evolve in the 2020s. There were breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, with American companies, universities, and research labs pioneering advances in the field.^[6] Generative AI-based applications, such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, allow users to instantly generate sophisticated texts, images, art, and video. Other technological advances include the widespread use of teleconferencing, online learning, e-commerce and food delivery services to compensate for lockdowns ordered by governments around the world during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Streaming services, such as Disney+ and HBO Max, have increased in popularity during the decade, with cable television continuing to fall out of usage. Several popular social media applications, like Threads, BeReal, Clubhouse, Bluesky, Gettr, and Truth Social, launched, continuing advances in digital technology. 5G networks launched around the globe at the start of the decade and became prevalent in smartphones. Research into outer space further evolved in the 2020s, with the United States mainly leading space exploration, including with the James Webb Space Telescope, Ingenuity helicopter, and Artemis program.^[7][8] Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are being used for remote collaboration, meetings, and training. Contactless payments, including mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, have grown in popularity. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and NFTs, have also increased in popularity.

During this decade, the world population grew from 7.7 billion to over eight billion people. In 2023, India overtook China as the most populous country in the world.^[9][10]

The prominent wars of the decade include:

• 
  Montage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, part of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
• 
  US Marines with SP-MAGTF-CR-CC at an evacuation checkpoint at Kabul Airport on 21 August during the 2021 Fall of Kabul, at the end of the War in Afghanistan.
• 
  Highrise residential building ″Palestine Tower″^[25] in Gaza following an Israeli strike during the Gaza war.
• 
  Syrian rebels at Hama Air Base during the Syrian civil war.
• 
  Aerial view of Tehran suburbs following Israeli airstrikes during the Iran–Israel war.

• 
  Territorial control during Myanmar civil war (2021–present) as of the present.
• 
  A man passing by a destroyed T-72 tank in Idaga Hamus during Tigray war.
• 
  Sudanese refugee camp in Chad during Sudanese civil war (2023).
• 
  A tank with flowers in the muzzle in Rostov-on-Don during the Wagner Group rebellion against the Russian government.

Successful revolutions and otherwise major protests of the decade include, but are not limited to:

Event	Date	Country	Events	Ref.
Dutch farmers' protests	1 October 2019 – present	The Netherlands	Demonstrations by Dutch farmers, characterised by the use of tractors to block roads, and occupy public spaces. The protests were triggered in October 2019 by a proposal in parliament to halve the country's livestock in an attempt to limit agricultural pollution. It was related to the Dutch nitrogen crisis. The farmers' protests combines action groups and an amalgamation of larger goals. Also, the party Farmer–Citizen Movement was founded, which has gained power in parliament.	[49][50]
Indonesia omnibus law protests	13 January – November 2020	Indonesia	Mass popular protests and riots against the deliberation and passage of the controversial Omnibus Law on Job Creation, which was passed on 5 October 2020. The wider policies of President Joko Widodo were also protested against, and resulted in the formation of the new Labour Party.	[51][52]
2020–2021 Belarusian protests	24 January 2020 – 25 March 2021	Belarus	Mass popular protests and riots against the Belarusian government and President Alexander Lukashenko. The largest anti-government protests in the history of Belarus, the demonstrations began in the lead-up to and during the 2020 presidential election, in which Lukashenko sought his sixth term in office.	[53][54]
George Floyd protests	26 May 2020 – 26 May 2021	United States	Protests and riots due to the murder of George Floyd spread throughout the United States with international protests in support. The stated goal was to end systemic racism and police brutality. Sporadic protests in response to racism and police brutality continued throughout the following years, while the street where Floyd was murdered is still under control by protesters.[citation needed]	[55][56]
2020–2021 Thai protests	July 2020 – November 2021	Thailand	Mass popular protests and riots against the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the dissolution of the Future Forward Party, changes to the constitution in 2017, and the country's political landscape. Resulted in the detention of leading figures.	[57][58]
2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest	9 August 2020 – 11 December 2021	India	Protests and riots against three farm acts that were passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020.	[59][60]
2020 Kyrgyz Revolution	5–15 October 2020	Kyrgyzstan	On 5 October, protests began in Kyrgyzstan in response to the annulled parliamentary election, which protesters felt were unfair with allegations of vote-rigging. A day later, the parliamentary elections were annulled. 6 days later, on 12 October, president Sooronbay Jeenbekov announced a state of emergency. On 15 October, Jeenbekov finally resigned, making way for Sadyr Japarov, who was nominated by parliament on 14 October to be acting prime minister, as also acting president. Following the protests, Japarov was elected president on 10 January 2021, on the same day a referendum was held on the Kyrgyz government system, in which the Kyrgyz voted for a reintroduction of the presidential system. The new constitution, passed by the Supreme Council was approved by voters in another referendum on 11 April 2021. Finally, on 28 November 2021, new parliamentary elections took place.	[61][62]
2020–2021 women's strike protests in Poland	22 October 2020 – 27 January 2021	Poland	Protest began on 22 October in response to a ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal of Julia Przyłębska, mainly consisting of judges who were appointed by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) in illegal way, which tightened the law on abortion making Poland the country with the most stringent abortion law in Europe (except Malta, Andorra and Vatican). The ruling made almost all cases of abortion illegal, including those cases in which the foetus had a severe and permanent disability, or an incurable and life-threatening disease. The protests were the biggest protest in Poland since 1989 (creation of III Rzeczpospolita), and were directed against the ruling party (PiS) and the Catholic Church, which had great influence on the government. As a result of the protests, the popularity of the ruling party fell by 10 percentage points, which was one of the main factors in the change of power in the parliamentary elections in 2023.	[63][64][65]
2020–21 United States election protests United States Capitol attack	4 November 2020 – 11 April 2021 6 January 2021	United States	Protests began in multiple cities in the United States following the 2020 United States presidential election between then-President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Vice President Joe Biden, held on 3 November 2020. On 6 January 2021, following the defeat of U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
2021 Brazilian protests	15 January – December 2021	Brazil	President Bolsonaro's government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic culminated in mass popular protests and riots, with protests occurring in both support and opposition to the government and resulted in a failed impeachment attempt of Bolsonaro.	[66][67][68]
Myanmar protests (2021–present)	2 February 2021 – present	Myanmar	Protests triggered after the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, during the ongoing internal conflict in Myanmar, and the Myanmar civil war.	[69][70]
2021–2023 Eswatini protests	20 June 2021 – Summer 2023	Eswatini	A series of protests in Eswatini against the monarchy and for democratization began as a peaceful protest on 20 June, then escalated after 25 June into violence and looting over the weekend as the government took a hardline stance against the demonstrations and prohibited the delivery of petitions.	[71]
2021–2022 Iranian protests Mahsa Amini protests	15 July 2021 – 15 September 2022 16 September 2022 – 2023	Iran	Throughout 2021 and 2022, crackdowns on the Iranian Democracy Movement, electricity blackouts, and economic conditions led to nationwide demonstrations, including protests over water scarcity as well as protests over food price hikes. The protests escalated rapidly in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by the "morality police" for not wearing a hijab. The movement has led to a large government crackdown, a death toll over 500, and international condemnation for the government's response while also fueling the ongoing anti-hijab movement in Iran and Iranian Democracy Movement.	[72][73]
Anti-lex TVN protests	10 September – 27 December 2021	Poland	On 7 August 2021, PiS MPs, which was then the ruling party, submitted a bill to the Sejm amending the "Broadcasting and the Cinematography Act" ("Ustawa o Radiofonii i Telewizji"), the aim of which was to revoke broadcasting licenses for stations with foreign capital exceeding 49%. This act severely affected the main opposition station TVN, which belonged to a Dutch holding company. On 11 August, the act was put to a vote. During the vote, the act did not pass, because one of PiS's coalition partner, Porozumienie, voted against it. After reading the vote that was unfavorable for PiS, Marshal of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek called a recess, during which Kukiz'15 MPs said that they had voted wrong, which resulted in a resumption of the vote during which the act passed. In connection with these events, there were mass anti-government protests. As a result, the act was vetoed by Andrzej Duda. An additional consequence was the expulsion of Porozumienie from the government coalition.	[74][75][76]
2022 Kazakh unrest	2–11 January 2022	Kazakhstan	Protests erupt in Kazakhstan on 2 January 2022 after a sudden sharp increase in liquefied gas prices following the lifting of a government-enforced price cap on 1 January.	[77]
Canada convoy protest	22 January – 23 February 2022	Canada	A series of protests and blockades in Canada against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, called the Freedom Convoy.	[78]
Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 anti-war protests in Russia	24 February 2022 – present	Russia	A series of protests and anti-war demonstrations held in Russia and worldwide against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia.	[79]
2022 Sri Lankan protests	15 March – 14 November 2022	Sri Lanka	Since 2019, Sri Lanka has been facing its worst economic crisis since its independence. The ongoing economic crisis culminated in mass popular protests and riots against the incumbent government and the Rajapaksa family, which eventually forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign in July. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe succeeded Rajapaksa as the President amidst the protests.	[80][81][82]
2022 Karakalpak protests	1–3 July 2022	Karakalpakstan	Spurred by a draft of a new version of the Constitution of Uzbekistan, in which the word "sovereign" was removed from the description of the status of Karakalpakstan, and the mention of the republic's right to secede from Uzbekistan was also removed. These were later withdrawn.	[83]
2022 Sierra Leone protests	10–12 August 2022	Sierra Leone	Thirty-one people, including 25 civilians and six police officers, died during violent protests and riots in the West African country of Sierra Leone. The protests were sparked by the nation's cost-of-living crisis.	[84]
2022–23 Brazilian election protests 2023 Brazilian Congress attack	31 October 2022 – 9 January 2023 8 January 2023	Brazil	The 2022 Brazilian election protests began shortly after the conclusion of the 2022 Brazilian general election's second round on 30 October, in which Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president. Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the outgoing incumbent president, started blocking roads and highways in the country. At least 23 Brazilian states, plus the Federal District, recorded roadblocks as of 1 November, adding up to at least 267 roadblocks according to data from Federal Highway Police (PRF). Dozens of Bolsonaro supporters storm the Three Powers Plaza in the capital Brasília, cause enormous damage. President Lula was not there, nor was Bolsonaro or members of Congress.	[85][86][87][88][89][90]
2022 COVID-19 protests in China	2 November – 5 December 2022	China	A series of protests against COVID-19 lockdowns began in mainland China on 15 November 2022. The protests began in response to measures taken by the Chinese government to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country, including implementing a zero-COVID policy. Discontentment towards the policy has grown since the beginning of the pandemic, which confined many people to their homes without work, leaving them unable to purchase daily necessities and subjecting them to harsh restrictions. Protests escalated on 24 November 2022 following a fire in an apartment building in Ürümqi which killed 10 people, with protesters blaming China's policies for the deaths.	[91][92]
Peruvian protests (2022–2023)	7 December 2022 – 24 March 2023	Peru	Protests erupted against the government of Dina Boluarte and the Congress of Peru called by supporters of the ousted president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, organized by social organizations and indigenous peoples who felt they experienced political disenfranchisement, specifically on the politically left-wing to far left. The government's authoritarian response was widely criticized, with further discontent following the Supreme Court's decision to declare protesting in Peru to be illegal.	[93][94][95][96][97]
2022–2024 Bangladesh protests Student–People's uprising	10 December 2022 – 5 August 2024 1 July – 5 August 2024	Bangladesh	A series of anti-government protests against the authoritarian government were initiated by the Bangladeshi opposition parties in December 2022, the protests continued spite of the government crackdowns. Though initially low-level, with instances of vandalism in late 2023, the movement gained momentum in 2024. Initially focused on restructuring discriminatory traditional and quota-based systems for government job recruitment, the movement expanded against what many perceive as an authoritarian government when hundreds of protestors and civilians, most of whom were students, were killed. The protests resulted in the resignation of prime minister Sheikh Hasina after 15 years of rule.	[98][99]
2023 Israeli judicial reform protests	7 January – 12 October 2023	Israel	Mass protests, strikes and civil disobedience campaigns occurred across the country in response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing government's plan to overhaul the Israeli Judiciary system, which have been criticized for removing the checks and balances on the government and giving it unrestrained power.	[100][101][102]
2023 French pension reform strikes	19 January – 8 June 2023	France	A series of civil unrest incidents occurred in France in response to a pension reform bill proposed by the Borne government, which would increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 years old. Strikes and protests have led to widespread disruption, including garbage piling up in the streets and public transport cancellations. In March, the government used Article 49.3 of the constitution to force the bill through the French Parliament, sparking more protests and two failed no confidence votes.	[103][104]
2023–2024 Georgian protests 2024 Georgian post-election protests	6–10 March 2023 28 October 2024 – present	Georgia	A series of street demonstrations taking place throughout Georgia over parliamentary backing of a proposed "Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence", which requires NGOs to register as "agents of foreign influence" if the funds they receive from abroad amount to more than 20% of their total revenue. Police have been reported as using water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protests, especially in the capital Tbilisi. The parliament retracted the bill as a result of protests on 10 March 2023. Protests against the 2024 Georgian parliamentary election results began in Georgia after the preliminary official results were announced. The demonstrators claimed that the elections, which saw the ruling Georgian Dream win a majority of seats, were fraudulent, and alternatively demanded a recount and a new election. Additional protests were held on 4 November near the parliament building, where the opposition parties unveiled their strategy to tackle the election results. The protests continued on 17 November, when the final results were certified by the Central Election Commission of Georgia. The scope of the protests was broadened on 28 November, when the government announced that it would postpone the EU negotiations process until 2028. The protests are also called "Georgian Maidan".	[105][106][107][108][109]
2023 Polish protests June 4 protests March of a Million Hearts	4 June – 1 October 2023 4 June 1 October 2023	Poland	Two big antigoverment demonstrations were held in Poland in 2023. The first major protest took place on 4 June under the name "March 4th June" ("Marsz 4 Czerwca"). It was organized by the main opposition party, Civic Coalition, mainly in opposition to the attempt to establish a State Commission to investigate Russian influence in the years 2007–2022 [pl], because this commission could ban people from holding public office without giving a reason, which was a thing aimed at Donald Tusk and the opposition by ruling Law and Justice. The march was organized on 4 June, the day commemorating the first partially free elections in Poland in 1989. The protest gathered between 300 000 and 500 000 people. The result of the protest was the submission of an amendment to the act by President Andrzej Duda, which was to soften the controversial provisions in the act. Additionally, thanks to the march, the opposition's popularity increased by about 5 percentage points. A second protest was held on 1 October under the name "March of a Million Hearts" ("Marsz Miliona Serc"), as a reminder of the first protest just before the parliamentary elections, that was held on 15th October. The protest was organised by democtatic opposition (Civic Coalition, Third Way and New Left), and gathered between 600 000 to 1 100 000 people. This protest was one of the main reasons for the opposition's victory in the parliamentary elections.	[110][111][112][113][114][115]
2023–2024 European Union farmers' protests 2024 French farmers' protests 2024 Polish farmers' protests 2023–2024 German farmers' protests	December 2023 – present	EU: France Poland Germany	Series of farmers' protests were held across the European Union mostly due to opposing EU green politics, and unregulated trade of agricultural products with non-European Union member states, such as Ukraine and the Mercosur bloc.	[116][117][118][119]
2024 Venezuelan protests	28 July 2024 – present	Venezuela	A series of protests erupted in response to the results of the 2024 presidential election, citing allegations of voter fraud and other irregularities during the election process. These events unfolded as part of the broader 2024 Venezuelan political crisis and occurred against the backdrop of the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. Demonstrations to uphold the results of the election, along with vigils for political prisoners, occurred worldwide after the July election. Spontaneous protests broke out immediately after the election, while later rallies were organized by the Venezuelan opposition. Maduro claimed the opposition was encouraging a coup and has charged demonstrators with terrorism, while initiating an unprecedented crackdown. Maduro's security forces have gone door-to-door seeking to arrest protesters, poll workers and members of the opposition in what Maduro has referred to as Operation Tun Tun, and armed bands of Maduro supporters known as colectivos have joined security forces in repressing dissent. As of 14 August 2024, at least 2,200 persons are reported to have been arrested, and 25 killed. Maduro has announced plans to continue to seek the arrest of dissenters, and to rehabilitate two prisons to house those detained.	[120][121][122]
2024 United Kingdom riots	30 July – 5 August 2024	United Kingdom	The far-right, anti-immigration protests and riots occurred, after a mass stabbing in Southport. The riots were fuelled by false claims circulated by far-right groups that the perpetrator of the attack was a Muslim and an asylum seeker, in addition to broader Islamophobic, racist, and anti-immigrant sentiments that had grown leading up to the protests, it was the largest incident of social unrest in England since 2011.	[123][124][125]
2024–2025 Southern European spring 2024–present Serbian anti-corruption protests 2024–2025 Romanian election annulment protests 2025 Turkish protests	October 2024 – present	EU: Bulgaria Greece Romania North Macedonia Serbia Turkey	A series of protest and riots against political corruption, retail boycotts, and various problems across Southern Europe.	[126][127][128][129]
Protests against the second presidency of Donald Trump 2025 "Hands Off" protests No Kings protests June 2025 Los Angeles protests	January 2025 – present	Worldwide	An ongoing series of protests against US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Trump administration, beginning on April 5. Participants, including the involvement of over 150 advocacy groups, protested Trump's worldwide implementation of "Liberation Day" Tariffs which subsequently lead to the stock market crash, several other endeavors causing economic decline, Musk's cuts to government agencies and the federal government, rollback of LGBT rights in the United States, mass deportations of immigrants and legal citizens, potential negative effects to social security, and cuts to healthcare and related research. Protestors additionally expressed concern in policies favoring billionaires, growing authoritarianism in the Trump administration, and a decline in democracy. These protests are described as the largest nationwide display of opposition to the second Trump administration across Trump's presidential terms, being held at nationwide and worldwide.	[130][131][132][133][134]

• 
  Protesters in Minneapolis where George Floyd was murdered and the unrest began on 26 May 2020.
• 
  Protest against abortion restriction in Bielsko-Biała, Poland
• 
  2021 Myanmar coup d'état culminated an ongoing protests, thousands of protesters participating in an anti-junta rally in Yangon in February 2021.
• 
  Protesters in Aktobe during a period of unrest in Kazakhstan, 4 January 2022.
• 
  Sri Lankans protesting in front of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, 13 April 2022.
• 
  Iranians protesting at Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran following the death of Mahsa Amini, 20 September 2022.
• 
  Protesters attack the Brazilian Congress to protest and attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 Brazilian election, 8 January 2023.
• 
  Pro-Western protesters and rioters during the anti-government protests in Tbilisi, Georgia
• 
  "March of a Million Hearts" in Warsaw, Poland
• 
  Tractors at Saint-Etienne-de-Fontbellon (France) during the EU farmers' protests.
• 
  Students launching the Bangla blockade during the Student–People's uprising, 6 July 2024.
• 
  Venezuelans taking to the streets to protest the 2024 presidential election results in Caracas, 3 August 2024.
• 
  A group of "Hands-Off" protestors on the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul, Minnesota since the George Floyd protests in 2020.
• 
  California National Guard and protestors during June 2025 Los Angeles protests.

Note: To be included, entries must be notable (have a stand-alone article) and described by a consensus of reliable sources as "terrorism."

The most prominent terrorist attacks committed against civilian populations during the decade include, but are not limited to:

Event	Date	Country	Deaths	Injuries	Ref.
Koshebe massacre	28 November 2020	Nigeria	110	6	[135]
2021 Kabul school bombing	8 May 2021	Afghanistan	90	240	[136]
2021 Kabul airport attack	26 August 2021	Afghanistan	183	200+	[137]
2022 Peshawar mosque attack	4 March 2022	Pakistan	64+	196+	[138]
2022 Somali Ministry of Education bombings	29 October 2022	Somalia	121+	300+	[139]
2023 Peshawar mosque bombing	30 January 2023	Pakistan	101	220+	[140]
Re'im music festival massacre	7 October 2023	Israel	364	Unknown	[141]
2024 Kerman bombings	3 January 2024	Iran	103	284	[142]
Crocus City Hall attack	22 March 2024	Russia	145	551	[143]
2024 Barsalogho attack	24 August 2024	Burkina Faso	600+	300+	[144]
2024 Magdeburg car attack	20 December 2024	Germany	5	200+	[145]
2025 New Orleans truck attack	1 January 2025	United States	14	59	[146]
2025 Pahalgam attack	22 April 2025	India	26	20	[147]

The controversial Project 2025 document promoting Trumpism referred to as the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement in the mid-2020s.

Having suffered decline in the years after the Great Recession, the centre-left politics and the 1990s political model (like progressivism, liberalism, social democracy, and third way policies) experienced a resurgence across Europe and the Anglosphere in the early 2020s, with New Statesman suggesting various causes, including natural shifts in the electoral cycle and conservatives' unpopularity among university graduates and voters under the age of 40.^[148]

The 2020 United States election saw the election of Kamala Harris as Vice President was widely regarded as a historic milestone, as the first woman, African American, and Asian American to hold the office, reflecting broader trends toward increased diversity and representation in American politics, culture and society.

Following the election of Donald Trump in the 2024 United States presidential election, the mid-2020s saw the resurgence of right-wing populism and the 1980s political model (like Trumpist ideologies of conservatism, social conservatism, and anti-communist policies).^[149][150]

2024 and 2025 were the biggest electoral years in history, and a number of countries announced snap elections, such as Portugal, Senegal, the United Kingdom, France, Sri Lanka, Japan, Iceland, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Romania, South Korea, and the Netherlands.^[151][152] This is the first time this has ever happened since 1905 (when data was first recorded) and the first time in the history of democracy, as universal suffrage began in 1894.^[153]

Sitting leaders that died such as Qaboos bin Said of Oman, Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, Amadou Gon Coulibaly of the Ivory Coast, Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah of Kuwait, Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain, John Magufuli of Tanzania, Idriss Déby of Chad, Jovenel Moïse of Haiti, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait, Hage Geingob of Namibia, Ebrahim Raisi of Iran, Nguyễn Phú Trọng of Vietnam, Didier Guillaume of Monaco and Pope Francis.

Former world leaders who died such as Hosni Mubarak, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, John Turner, Daniel arap Moi, Pranab Mukherjee, Lee Teng-hui, Jorge Sampaio, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Tabaré Vázquez, Roh Tae-woo, Chun Doo-hwan, Benigno Aquino III, Carlos Menem, Kenneth Kaunda, F. W. de Klerk, Karolos Papoulias, Toshiki Kaifu, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Mwai Kibaki, Shinzo Abe, José Eduardo dos Santos, Luis Echeverría, Francisco Morales Bermúdez, Fidel V. Ramos, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jiang Zemin, Pope Benedict XVI, Constantine II of Greece, Pervez Musharraf, Silvio Berlusconi, Mircea Snegur, Giorgio Napolitano, Bill Hayden, Li Keqiang, Dries van Agt, Sebastián Piñera, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Brian Mulroney, Ismail Haniyeh, Alex Salmond, Manmohan Singh, Jimmy Carter, Arnold Rüütel, Costas Simitis, Horst Köhler, Thanin Kraivichien, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, José Mujica, Trần Đức Lương, Alfredo Palacio, Edgar Lungu, Suchinda Kraprayoon, Bujar Bukoshi, Violeta Chamorro, Kailash Purryag, Mabandla Dlamini and Muhammadu Buhari.

Coups d'état against ruling governments during the decade include:

Event	Date	Country	Ref.
2020 Malian coup d'état	18 August 2020	Mali	[154]
2021 Myanmar coup d'état	1 February 2021	Myanmar	[155][156]
2021 Malian coup d'état	24 May 2021	Mali	[157][158]
2021 Tunisian self-coup	25 July 2021	Tunisia	[159]
2021 Guinean coup d'état	5 September 2021	Guinea	[160]
2021 Sudan coup d'état	25 October 2021	Sudan	[161]
January 2022 Burkina Faso coup d'état	23 January 2022	Burkina Faso	[162]
2022 Ukrainian coup d'état attempt	January – February 2022	Ukraine	[163]
September 2022 Burkina Faso coup d'état	30 September 2022	Burkina Faso	[164][165]
2022 German coup d'état plot	7 December 2022	Germany	[166]
2022 Peruvian self-coup attempt	7 December 2022	Peru	[167][168][169]
2022 Brazilian coup plot	15 December 2022	Brazil	[170]
2023 Nigerien coup d'état	26 July 2023	Niger	[171]
2023 Gabonese coup d'état	30 August 2023	Gabon	[172]
2024 Democratic Republic of the Congo coup attempt	19 May 2024	Democratic Republic of the Congo	[173]
2024 Bolivian coup attempt	26 June 2024	Bolivia	[174]
2024 South Korean martial law crisis	3 December 2024	South Korea	[175]

Event	Country	Date	Description	References
Western Saharan clashes (2020–present)	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Morocco	8 November 2020 – ongoing	Following protests in the border town of Guerguerat in the disputed Western Sahara region, the Moroccan armed forces captured the town to ensure traffic could resume through the area. Since then, fighting and bombardments across the Moroccan Berm have taken place, with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic declaring war against Morocco. It is the largest escalation in the conflict since the end of the Western Sahara War in 1991.	[176]
2021–2022 Somali political crisis	Somalia	8 February 2021 – 10 January 2022	President of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed stayed in power past the end of his term and postponed elections scheduled for 2021. Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble then called for the president to immediately step down. The president later dismissed Roble for alleged corruption. Protests were reported across the country in favor and opposed to the president. A deal to hold elections in May 2022 was reached in January which resulted in the incumbent president losing his bid for reelection.	[177]
Nigerien crisis (2023–2024)	Niger ECOWAS	26 July 2023 – 24 February 2024	The 2023 Nigerien coup d'état led to a severe diplomatic crisis between the putschists in Niger and the member states of ECOWAS.

Event	Country	Date	Description	References
First impeachment of Donald Trump	United States	24 September 2019 – 5 February 2020	Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 6, of the U.S. Constitution, President Donald Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on 18 December 2019 by the United States House of Representatives. The United States Senate trial began on 16 January 2020 and ended on 5 February 2020, concluding with an acquittal on both charges.	[178]
2020 Salvadoran political crisis	El Salvador	9 February 2020	During a political crisis, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele sent forty soldiers of the Salvadoran Army into the Legislative Assembly building in an effort to coerce politicians to approve a loan request of $109 million from the United States for Bukele's security plan for the country. The event has been condemned by foreign governments, the political opposition, and human rights organizations and is considered the first major political crisis in the country since the conclusion of the Salvadoran Civil War in 1992 and has been referred to as a coup attempt.	[179]
2020 United States presidential election and subsequent events	United States	3 November 2020 – 13 February 2021	The 59th United States presidential election was held on 3 November 2020. Democrat and former Vice-president Joe Biden defeated Republican and then-incumbent President Donald Trump, with the Electoral College formally declaring Biden the winner on 14 December 2020. Trump refused to concede, and filed lawsuits challenging the results in several states,[180] though most of the legal challenges were either dismissed or dropped, with judges citing lack of evidence to suggest voter fraud occurred. Trump had also unsuccessfully attempted to undo the election results by forcing government officials to stop Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia from certifying Biden as the winner, and urging his supporters to "walk" to the United States Capitol to demand Trump be declared the winner of the election.[181] This was one of the reasons for the decision of a group of his supporters to gather in Washington, D.C., on 6 January 2021 and break into the Capitol building during a Joint session of Congress. The January 6 United States Capitol attack disrupted Congress while certifying the election, forcing both chambers to undergo lockdown lasting for four hours. On the same day, Trump coerced then-incumbent Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results to which Pence refused. During the attack, Trump tweeted directly to his supporters falsely claiming Congress was attempting to assist in stealing the election. Twitter responded by suspending Trump's account permanently following Trump's tweet. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat all also suspended Trump from using their platforms worrying his posts may incite additional violence to the Capitol attacks. In relation to this, Trump was impeached for the second time by the House of Representatives and became the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. Meanwhile, Joe Biden was sworn in as the United States President on 20 January 2021. The Senate impeachment trial ended on 13 February 2021, one month after its start, resulting in Trump being found not guilty of inciting the attack on the Capitol. On 1 August 2023, a grand jury indicted Trump in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on four charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructing an official proceeding related to the certification of the election results on 6 January 2021, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.	[182][180][183][184][185][186][187] [188][189][190][191][181][192][193] [194][195][196][197][198][199][200][201]
8th Congress of the Communist Party	Cuba	16–19 April 2021	At the 8th Congress of the Communist Party, Raúl Castro officially resigned as the First Secretary, the most powerful position in Cuba. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel is officially named First Secretary of the Communist Party following the resignation of Raúl Castro. He is the first person not of the Castro family to hold the top position since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.	[202][203]
2021 Salvadoran political crisis	El Salvador	1 May 2021	The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador voted to remove several judges from the Supreme Court and remove the Attorney General, both of which had been vocal opponents to the presidency of Nayib Bukele.	[204]
2021 Media Reporting on Canadian Indian Residential School Cemeteries	Canada	28 May 2021 –	The New York Times broke the story on a Canadian Indian Residential School Cemeteries announcement, incorrectly reporting a discovery of "mass graves" of Indigenous children at a former school site. Further purported "discoveries" would follow throughout the summer. The reporting sparked international attention and national reckoning, and would help "spawn a new holiday, Truth and Reconciliation Day, prompt an official visit by Pope Francis, and result in Canadian flags being kept at half-mast for a record-breaking five consecutive months.”	[205][206][207][208][209]
2021 Canadian federal election	Canada	20 September 2021	Prime minister Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party, is re-elected in Canada's federal election, continuing as a minority government.	[210]
Barbados's transition to a republic	Barbados	30 November 2021	Barbados became the newest republic in the world on 30 November 2021, its 55th Independence Day, when the already elected, previous Governor-General of Barbados, Sandra Mason, was sworn into office as the first president of the Caribbean country. This ended Queen Elizabeth II's 55-year tenure as monarch of an independent Barbados, prior to her death in a following year.	[211]
2022 Colombian presidential election	Colombia	19 June 2022	Former 19th of April Movement guerrilla fighter and incumbent Senator Gustavo Petro defeats businessman and former mayor of Bucaramanga, Rodolfo Hernández Suárez, in the second round of the presidential election and becomes the first left-wing President in Colombian history.	[212][213][214]
2022 Brazilian general election	Brazil	3–30 October 2022	Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeats the incumbent president of Jair Bolsonaro in the second round of the presidential election; he becomes the first elected to three terms and the oldest president in Brazilian history.	[215][216][217][218]
2024 Mexican general election	Mexico	2 June 2024	Claudia Sheinbaum of the ruling Morena party becomes the first woman to be elected president in Mexican history.
2024 Venezuelan presidential election and political crisis	Venezuela	28 July 2024	Presidential elections were held on 28 July 2024 to choose a president for a six-year term beginning on 10 January 2025. The election was politically contentious, with international monitors calling it neither free nor fair, citing the incumbent Maduro administration having controlled most institutions and repressed the political opposition before, during, and after the election. Widely viewed as having won the election, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia fled to asylum in Spain amid repression of dissent and a national and international political crisis that resulted when Venezuelan electoral authorities announced—without presenting any evidence—that Nicolás Maduro won. Maduro ran for a third consecutive term, while González represented the Unitary Platform (Spanish: Plataforma Unitaria Democrática; PUD), the main opposition political alliance. In June 2023, the Venezuelan government had barred leading candidate María Corina Machado from participating. This move was regarded by the opposition as a violation of political human rights and was condemned by international bodies such as the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union, and Human Rights Watch, as well as numerous countries. Academics, news outlets and the opposition provided "strong evidence" to suggest that González won the election by a wide margin with the opposition releasing copies of official tally sheets collected by poll watchers from a majority of polling centers showing a landslide victory for González. The government-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) announced falsified results claiming a narrow Maduro victory on 29 July; vote tallies were not provided. The CNE's results were rejected by the Carter Center and by the OAS, and the United Nations declared that there was "no precedent in contemporary democratic elections" for announcing a winner without providing tabulated results. Analyses by media sources found the CNE results statistically improbable and lacking in credibility. Protests occurred across the country and internationally, as the Maduro administration initiated Operation Tun Tun, a crackdown on dissent. Some world leaders rejected the CNE's claimed results and recognized González as the election winner, while some other countries, including Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and Cuba recognized Maduro as the winner. Maduro did not cede power, and instead asked the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), composed of justices loyal to Maduro, to audit and approve the results. On 22 August 2024, as anticipated, the TSJ described the CNE's statement of Maduro winning the election as "validated". The supreme court ruling was rejected by the United States, the European Union and ten Latin American countries. An arrest warrant was issued on 2 September 2024 for González for the alleged crimes of "usurpation of functions, falsification of public documents, instigation to disobey the law, conspiracy and association." After seeking asylum in the Spanish Embassy in Caracas, González left for Spain on 7 September 2024.	[219][220][221]
2024 United States presidential election	United States	5 November 2024	The 60th United States presidential election was held on 5 November 2024. Democrat and former Vice-president Joe Biden initially planned to run against Republican and former President Donald Trump, in a rematch of the 2020 United States presidential election. In the aftermath of a much-criticised debate performance against Trump in June 2024, and far behind Trump in the polls, Biden was pressured to drop out of the race. Vice President Kamala Harris took his place as the Democratic nominee, bypassing the usual primary process. Polling narrowed in the months leading up to election day, with the race too close to call across swing states and the country at large. Trump emerged the clear winner on election night, winning the popular vote and a clear majority of electoral college votes. Harris refused to concede on election night after it had become clear Trump had won the electoral college and popular vote. However, the following day, she conceded and acknowledged that Trump had won the election. This was the second of two elections won by Trump, the first being in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, preceding his defeat by Biden in 2020.	[222][223][224][225][226]
Death and state funeral of Jimmy Carter	United States	29 December 2024	The 39th president of the United States died at the age of 100 years and 89 days. Carter was the longest-lived U.S. president in history and the first president to reach the age of 100.	[227][228][229][230][231]
2024–2025 Canadian political crisis and federal election	Canada	16 December 2024 – 28 April 2025	A political crisis emerged in Canada after Chrystia Freeland, the minister of finance and deputy prime minister, resigned from Cabinet on 16 December 2024. Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, announced his resignation on 6 January 2025. Former Governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney won twice in the Liberal Party leadership election and the federal election. He became Prime Minister five days later, succeeded Trudeau after nine years of premiership. Despite threats from US President Donald Trump, he was re-elected in the federal election, defeating his Conservative opponent Pierre Poilievre.	[232][233] [234][235][236]

• 
  On 6 January 2021, the U.S. Capitol attack occurred two weeks before Joe Biden was sworn into office. The event resulted in the Second impeachment of Donald Trump and a group of televised public hearings.
• 
  The 2020s saw the U.S. presidency alternate from Donald Trump to Joe Biden in 2020, followed by Trump's successful re-election in 2024; both the oldest presidents served during the decade. Trump is the second president elected to nonconsecutive terms (following Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892).
• 
  Donald Trump, who survived an attempted assassination in Pennsylvania in July 2024. This image shows Donald Trump paying respect to Corey Comperatore's firefighter uniform; he lost his life in the assassination attempt.
• 
  María Corina Machado and Edmundo González along with his wife, addressing supporters in Caracas following the 2024 presidential election results. Incumbent Nicolás Maduro secured a third term in an election widely criticized as neither free or fair, given the Maduro administration having controlled most institutions and repressed the political opposition before and during the election.
• 
  Former US president Jimmy Carter lay in repose at the U.S. Capitol, Washington D.C. He was the longest-lived U.S. president in history and the first president to reach the age of 100.
• 
  Mark Carney became Prime Minister of Canada, after he won a landslide victory at the 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election and re-elected at the federal election, since Justin Trudeau resigned after nine years of premiership.

Event	Country	Date	Description	Reference
2019–2021 Persian Gulf crisis	Iran United States	5 May 2019	The Persian Gulf region saw tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran escalate in mid-2019. The crisis saw oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz sabotaged and seized, drone shootdowns, and efforts by the U.S. and United Kingdom to pursue military patrols to protect shipping in the gulf, known as the International Maritime Security Construct. On 31 December 2019 tensions reached a breaking point as Iranian-backed Shiite militia stormed into the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, leading to the targeted killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike on 3 January 2020.	[237][238][239]
2020–2022 Malaysian political crisis	Malaysia	22 February 2020 – 24 November 2022	Political infighting and party switching within Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional led to the inability to form a stable majority government. After the collapse of 2 successive governments and a snap general election held, the Anwar Ibrahim cabinet was formed, the first unity government in the history of Malaysia.	[240]
2020–2021 China–India skirmishes	China India	5 May 2020 – 20 January 2021	Since 5 May 2020, Chinese and Indian troops have engaged in aggressive melee, face-offs, and skirmishes at locations along the Sino-Indian border, including near the disputed Pangong Lake in Ladakh and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and near the border between Sikkim and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Additional clashes also took place at locations in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).	[241]
2021 Kyrgyz-Tajik clashes	Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan	28 April – 1 May and 9 July 2021	A 3-day border conflict with clashes occurred in late April 2021 between the two Central Asian countries Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The reason why the fighting broke out is disputed, but it is due either to an old water dispute or to local people's dissatisfaction with the installation of surveillance cameras near the border. After 3 days of intense clashes, that left more than 50 people dead and also more than 40,000 displaced civilians, the two countries agreed on a ceasefire. After the ceasefire, however, there was a fatal incident on 9 July.	[242]
2021 Israel–Palestine crisis	Israel Palestine	6–21 May 2021	Clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem lead to eleven days of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.	[243]
2021 Taliban offensive	Afghanistan	1 May – 15 August 2021	Beginning on 1 May 2021, the Taliban and allied militant groups made a final offensive against the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and its allies, coinciding with the withdrawal of most United States and allied troops from Afghanistan. It resulted in the de facto takeover of the country and the reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, ending the twenty-year-long War in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021.	[244]
2021–2022 Iraqi political crisis	Iraq	5 November 2021 – 28 October 2022	The parliamentary election in October 2021 resulted in deadlock as members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq were unable to form a stable government or elect a new president. Ended in the election of Abdul Latif Rashid as president and Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani as prime minister.	[245]
2022 Kyrgyz-Tajik clashes	Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan	27 January – 20 September 2022	The sporadic fighting between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which had started in 2021, began again in late January 2022 and the bloody clashes resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries on 27 January, 10 March, 3 June and 14 June. In September, the fighting escalated and the 6 days of fighting between 14 and 20 September, which resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries, finally ended on 20 September when the two countries signed a peace deal.	[246]
2022–2024 Pakistan political unrest	Pakistan	3 April 2022 – 24 November 2024	The events began with a constitutional crisis in April 2022 after a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan was dismissed by the deputy speaker, made the first Prime Minister of Pakistan to be removed from office by a vote of no confidence. Khan would call for general elections to be held, but soon after he was the target of an assassination attempt and two arrests. Nationwide protests in support of Khan erupted after his arrests, culminating in the May 9 riots and a crackdown by the government. The events were a major event in the lead up to the 2024 general election.	[247][248][249]
2024 Varzaqan helicopter crash	Iran	19 May 2024	An Iranian Air Force helicopter crashed near the village of Uzi, East Azerbaijan, Iran, killing President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi along with other political officials.	[250][251][252]
2024 Japanese general election and 2025 Japanese House of Councillors election	Japan	27 October 2024–20 July 2025	The Liberal Democratic Party, led by prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, after the resignation of Fumio Kishida as party leader due to his low approval rating amid the party-wide slush fund corruption scandal and several troubled events, the "Summer of Discontent" that led to the election. Resulted both ruling LDP-Komeito coalition lost their majority for the first time since the2007 and 2009.	[253][254][255][256][257]
2024–2025 South Korean political crisis and presidential election	South Korea	3 December 2024 – 4 June 2025	Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, declared martial law during a televised address which triggered to a political crisis. The impeachment occurred against president by the National Assembly following the impeachment motion raised against him on 14 December 2024, making the second president to be impeached since Park Geun-hye in 2016. Later Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was impeached two weeks later and replaced by Deputy Prime minister Choi Sang-mok, later he was reinstated three months later. South Korean government organizations and the Interpol prompted the agency to file an arrest warrant for Yoon on 30 December and on 15 January 2025 became the first sitting president arrested, later triggered into a snap presidential election following the removal of an impeached president and Lee Jae Myung elected as president over Kim Moon-soo.	[258][259][260][261][262]
Arrest of Rodrigo Duterte	Philippines	11 March 2025	Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the PNP (CIDG), Interpol, and PCTC, under an ICC warrant charging him with crimes against humanity related to the Philippine drug war as the "act of terrorism". Duterte arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Metro Manila on 11 March after attending a political rally in Hong Kong and transferred to the Hague for a face trial. He is the first leader from Asia to face trial before the ICC.	[263][264][265][266]
2025 India–Pakistan crisis	India Pakistan	23 April 2025 –	India and Pakistan fell into a military and diplomatic crisis began after the 2025 Pahalgam attack, a terrorist attack in the Baisaran Valley of Jammu and Kashmir by The Resistance Front (TRF), which killed 26 people. A direct conflict broke out on 7 May 2025, after India launched missile strikes on Pakistan, codenamed Operation Sindoor.	[267][268][269][270]

• 
  Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan was arrested twice during the political unrest, and PTI-led independents were lost the 2024 election.
• 
  Shigeru Ishiba is elected as Prime Minister of Japan by the National Diet, succeed Fumio Kishida and reelected in October 2024 following the election.
• 
  Protests erupted during the 2024–2025 South Korean political crisis on 3 December 2024.
• 
  Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by several organizations under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant charging him with crimes against humanity and abuse of power related to the Philippine drug war and declaration of martial law are the "act of terrorism".
• 
  Lee Jae-myung becomes President of South Korea following the victory at the snap election since 2017.
• 
  Anti-government protests disrupted the Expo 2025 in Osaka since the assassination of Shinzo Abe three years earlier, part of the Raging Years movement.

Event	Country	Date	Description	References
Brexit	United Kingdom	31 January 2020	The United Kingdom and Gibraltar formally withdrew from the European Union at 11PM (GMT).	[271]
Eighth NATO enlargement	North Macedonia	27 March 2020	North Macedonia became a member state of NATO after the 2018 Prespa Agreement.	[272]
2021–2025 Bulgarian political crisis	Bulgaria	4 April 2021 – 16 January 2025	A series of unstable governments and a gridlock resulted in seven elections occurring over four years.	[273][274][275]
Belarus–European Union border crisis	Belarus European Union	7 July 2021 – ongoing	A migrant crisis and humanitarian disaster involving an influx of coordinated groups of immigrants, primarily from Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia via their borders with Belarus. The crisis was triggered by the severe deterioration in Belarus–European Union relations following the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests, the Ryanair Flight 4978 incident and subsequent sanctions on Belarus, as well as the attempted forced repatriation of Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya from the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko deliberately had immigrants from the Middle East flown into Belarus in order to "flood Europe with migrants and drugs."	[276][277]
Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II	United Kingdom	6 February 2022	Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, which marked the 70th anniversary of her accession.	[278]
2022 United Kingdom government crisis	United Kingdom	5 July – 25 October 2022	Two government crises occurred between July and October 2022: Several officials resigned from their positions in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's second ministry, culminating in Johnson announcing his resignation on 7 July and two leadership elections after new Prime Minister Liz Truss lost in public confidence following her September mini-budget. Chancellor Rishi Sunak became prime minister three months after the crisis.	[279][280][281]
Death of Mikhail Gorbachev	Russia	30 August 2022	A Russian and Soviet politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev died at the age of 91.	[282]
Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II and accession of Charles III	United Kingdom	8 September 2022	Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, the longest-living and longest-reigning British monarch, reigning since 6 February 1952, died at the age of 96. Her son Charles acceded to the throne as King Charles III immediately, after serving as heir apparent for 70 years, the longest in British history.	[283][284]
2022 Italian general election	Italy	25 September 2022	The right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy won an absolute majority in both houses. On 22 October, Meloni was appointed prime minister, becoming the first woman to hold the office.	[285][286]
Golden Jubilee of Margrethe II	Denmark	2022	Queen Margrethe II celebrated her Golden Jubilee, which marked the 50th anniversary of her accession.	[287]
Death and funeral of Pope Benedict XVI	Vatican City	31 December 2022	Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2013 as the first Pope to do so in 600 years, dies at the age of 95.	[288]
2023 Montenegrin presidential election	Montenegro	2 April 2023	Europe Now! candidate Jakov Milatović wins the 2nd round of the presidential election against incumbent president Milo Đukanović of the DPS. Đukanović, who had ruled the country almost continuously since 1991 either as president or prime minister, thus lost power for the first time after more than 32 years. Milatović's victory was also the first time that the DPS lost a presidential election since 1990.	[289]
Ninth and tenth NATO enlargements	Finland Sweden	4 April 2023 – 7 March 2024	Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and was formally accepted the following year. This ended This ended neutrality that had existed more than two centuries, both Nordic countries to join the alliance.	[290][291]
Coronation of Charles III and Camilla	United Kingdom	6 May 2023	The coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, took place on 6 May. Charles III acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022, following the death of his mother, Elizabeth II. This was the first coronation of a British monarch since Elizabeth II was crowned 70 years earlier in 1953.	[292]
2023 Polish parliamentary election	Poland	15 October 2023	The United Right secured the highest number of seats in the election, but failed to achieve a majority in the Sejm. Meanwhile, the opposition, headed by Donald Tusk, successfully garnered a parliamentary majority. This represents a shift in the Sejm's majority for the first time in eight years in Poland.	[293]
2023–2024 French government and political crises	France	11 December 2023 – present	In December 2023, the Borne government faced a governability and credibility crisis. It was caused mainly by the difficult passage of the 2023 immigration and asylum bill, resulted the short-lived Attal government formed for eight months. The 2024 French legislative election organized and held in June 2024, which resulted in a hung parliament with the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) leading a plurality of seats but it was dismissed, the Barnier government formed three months later consists of Ensemble and The Republicans until its motion of no-confidence and the appointment of the Bayrou government occurred in December 2024.	[294][295][296][297]
Abdication of Margrethe II and accession of Frederik X	Denmark	14 January 2024	In the first voluntary abdication of a Danish monarch since that of King Eric III in 1146, Queen Margrethe II abdicated the throne and was succeeded by her elder son, King Frederik X, bringing an end to her 52-year reign.	[298]
2024 European Parliament election	European Union	6–9 June 2024	European People's Party led by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen win the most seats in the European Parliament.	[299]
2024 German government crisis and 2025 federal election	Germany	6 November 2024 – 23 February 2025	Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the dismissal of the then-finance minister Christian Lindner, and leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), from his cabinet due to the ongoing economic crisis. The government crisis led to a snap election being called for February 2025. The conservative CDU/CSU won over the far-right Alternative for Germany and Friedrich Merz became Chancellor after the government formation.	[300][301][302][303][304]
2024 and 2025 Romanian presidential elections	Romania	24 November 2024 – 18 May 2025	A series of two presidential elections held in Romania, began with the annulation of the first election following the result of a controversial first round with nationalist candidate Călin Georgescu achieving a relative majority of votes. The second election began in February 2025, with the arrest and rejection of Georgescu as the candidate after Ilie Bolojan became acting president for three months until the election. The centrist candidate Nicusor Dan won the election over nationalist George Simion.	[305][306][307][308]
2025 London Summit on Ukraine	United Kingdom	2 March 2025	A meeting of international leaders in London on 2 March 2025, called by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to draft a peace plan for the Russian invasion of Ukraine to take to the United States. The summit followed the meeting of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington on 28 February 2025 with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.	[309][310][311][312][313]
Death and funeral of Pope Francis and the 2025 papal conclave	Vatican City	21 April – 8 May 2025	Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 in his residence in Domus Sanctae Marthae after 12 years of papacy, and just following the 20th anniversary of the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II. His death triggered a papal interregnum and a nine-day period of mourning. The pope's funeral, by tradition, takes place within four to six days of the pope's death; he was buried at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. His successor Pope Leo XIV was elected as pontiff in the 2025 papal conclave two weeks later; he became the first pope from the United States and the second from the Americas.	[314][315][316][317][318][319]

• 
  Finnish and Swedish ambassadors submit their applications to join NATO to then-secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
• 
  Crowds at Buckingham Palace following the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, shortly after the Platinum Jubilee celebration which marked the 70th anniversary of her accession.
• 
  Crowds at St. Peter's Square following the death and funeral of Pope Benedict XVI.
• 
  King Charles III and Queen Camilla on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following their coronation in 2023.
• 
  NATO leaders and participants at the 2025 London Summit on Ukraine.
• 
  Crowds at Domus Sanctae Marthae following the death and funeral of Pope Francis after 12 years of papacy, marked the 20th anniversary of death and funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

Event	Country	Date	Description	References
2021 Samoan constitutional crisis	Samoa	22 May – 23 July 2021	Following a general election, the results were in stasis while incumbent prime minister Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi refused to step down. The Supreme Court of Samoa decided the matter, and the FAST party and its leader Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa was declared the winner.	[320]
2021 Solomon Islands unrest	Solomon Islands	24–27 November 2021	A period of unrest began due to a variety of factors, notably the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the decision to retract diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and instead recognize China.	[321]
2022 Kiribati constitutional crisis	Kiribati	May – October 2022	A crisis began when High Court Judge David Lambourne was suspended in May 2022 and Chief Justice Bill Hastings was suspended on 30 June 2022, both over allegations of misconduct. In October 2022, the President Taneti Maamau appointed Attorney General Tetiro Semilota as Acting Chief Justice.	[322][323]
2022 Fijian general election	Fiji	14 December 2022	16-year incumbent prime minister Frank Bainimarama of the FijiFirst party was unable to form a government after winning a plurality of seats. Former prime minister and leader of the 1987 military coups Sitiveni Rabuka of the newly established People's Alliance returned to the position.	[324]

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:

Event	Date	Country	Description
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752	8 January 2020	Iran	Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down shortly after take-off from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport, Tehran, by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who claimed to have mistaken it for a cruise missile. All 176 people on board were killed.[357]
Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303	22 May 2020	Pakistan	Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crashed into a neighborhood in Karachi while attempting to land, killing 97 of the 99 people on board plus 1 person on the ground.[358]
Sriwijaya Air Flight 182	9 January 2021	Indonesia	Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, killing all 62 people on board.[359][360]
China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735	21 March 2022	China	China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashed into the ground near Wuzhou mid-flight, killing all 132 people on board.[361][362]
Yeti Airlines Flight 691	15 January 2023	Nepal	Yeti Airlines Flight 691 crashed into a gorge while attempting to land in Pokhara, killing all 72 people on board.[363]
Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283	9 August 2024	Brazil	Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashed in a residential area near Vinhedo, São Paulo, killing all 62 people on board.[364]
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243	25 December 2024	Kazakhstan	Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crashed while attempting an emergency landing near Aqtau International Airport, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.[365]
Jeju Air Flight 2216	29 December 2024	South Korea	Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashed into a fence while attempting to land at Muan International Airport, killing 179 of the 181 people on board.[366]
American Eagle Flight 5342	29 January 2025	United States	American Eagle Flight 5342 collides with a Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk mid-air while approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing all 67 people on board both aircraft.[367]
Air India Flight 171	12 June 2025	India	Air India Flight 171 crashes shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad Airport, killing 241 of the 242 people on board plus 28 people on the ground.[368]

Event	Date	Country	Description
2020 Beirut explosion	4 August 2020	Lebanon	A massive explosion occurred in the port of Beirut. The blast was so loud that it was even reported to be heard in Cyprus, which is approximately 240 km from the location of the explosion.[369] The windows of major buildings in a 6-mile radius were shattered and roads were filled with debris. According to initial findings, it was estimated that a warehouse with 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded, which was confiscated by the Lebanese government from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus and then stored in the port without proper safety measures for six years.[370] 220 deaths were confirmed, more than 110 people were missing and at least 7,000 were reported injured.[371] Beirut governor Marwan Abboud estimated that up to 300,000 people were left homeless by the explosions and there was $10–15 billion USD in property damage.
Surfside condominium collapse	24 June 2021	United States	A 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, partially collapsed. As of 22 July 2021, a total of 98 people are confirmed to have died, while 11 were injured.[372] One person was rescued from the rubble, and about 35 people were rescued on 24 June from the uncollapsed portion of the building, which was demolished 11 days later as a safety precaution due to the approach of Hurricane Elsa. On 7 July, authorities announced that the objective of the search was transitioning from rescue to recovery and that the missing victims are presumed dead.
2022 Yerevan explosion	14 August 2022	Armenia	A large explosion took place in the Surmalu shopping centre in the Armenian capital of Yerevan. It caused widespread destruction and fire, leaving dozens of dead and injured.[373] The explosion killed 16 people and injured 63, with nine missing as of 20 August.[374][375]
2023 Tempi train crash	28 February 2023	Greece	Two trains collide near the south of the Tempe Valley in Greece killing at least 57 people. It is the deadliest rail disaster in Greek history. As a result, Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned, while various protests took place across the country.[376]
Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam	6 June 2023	Ukraine	Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled region of Kherson is destroyed, threatening the region with devastating floodwaters.[377][378]
Titan Submersible Implosion	18 June 2023	Canada	A submersible by Ocean Gate, carrying five occupants, notably, Shahzada Dawood, Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Stockton Rush, imploded, after an expedition to explore the Titanic's ruins. The incident was widely reported in the news and caused multiple investigations and one lawsuit. Ocean Gate suspended all its commercial operations after the implosion.[379][380][381]
Derna dam collapses	10 – 11 September 2023	Libya	The Derna dam collapses were the catastrophic failures of two dams in Derna, Libya on the night of 10–11 September 2023, in the aftermath of Storm Daniel. The dam collapses released an estimated 30 million m3 (39 million cu yd) of water, causing flooding downstream as the Wadi Derna overflowed its banks. The floods partially destroyed the city of Derna. Estimates for the number of casualties range from 5,300 to 20,000 people. The event was the second-deadliest dam failure in history, after the 1975 Banqiao Dam failure in China.[382][383][384][385]

Note: This table is a chronological list of earthquakes reported with 7.5M_w  or greater or that have reported at least 100 fatalities.

Event	Date	Country	Description
2020 Caribbean earthquake	28 January 2020	CARICOM	A 7.7Mw  struck in the Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and Cuba at 14:10 local time on 28 January 2020. The earthquake was also felt in the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Dominican Republic, and the Cayman Islands. No damages were reported. A small (12.2 cm) tsunami was reported in the Cayman Islands.[386][387]
2020 Aegean Sea earthquake	30 October 2020	Greece Turkey	A 7.0 Mw  earthquake occurred about 14 km (8.7 mi) northeast of the Greek island of Samos, causing 119 deaths.[388]
2021 West Sulawesi earthquake	15 January 2021	Indonesia	A 6.2 Mw  earthquake struck the Indonesian province of West Sulawesi, killing a minimum of 105 people.[389]
2021 Haiti earthquake	14 August 2021	Haiti	A 7.2 Mw  earthquake struck Haiti on 14 August 2021, resulting in at least 2,207 deaths.[390]
June 2022 Afghanistan earthquake	22 June 2022	Afghanistan Pakistan	A 6.2 Mw  earthquake struck southeastern Afghanistan, killing at least 1,163 people, with 1,150 in Afghanistan and 13 in Pakistan. The earthquake was so deadly because it hit a densely populated area with buildings too weak to resist earthquakes.[391]
2022 West Java earthquake	21 November 2022	Indonesia	A 5.6 Mw  earthquake struck Indonesia in West Java, near Cianjur, killing 335–635 people, despite its moderate magnitude.[392]
2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake	6 February 2023	Syria Turkey	A 7.8 Mw  earthquake struck the Border Region of Turkey and Syria, killing more than 60,000 people and injuring more than 180,000 people.[393][394] It is also one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in Turkey since the 1999 İzmit earthquake.[395]
2023 Marrakesh-Safi earthquake	8 September 2023	Morocco	A 6.8 Mww – 6.9 Mw  earthquake struck the Marrakesh-Safi region of Morocco. 2,960 people killed and 5,674 injured.[396]
2023 Herat earthquakes	7–15 October 2023	Afghanistan	Four 6.3 Mww earthquakes struck Herat Province in western Afghanistan between 7–15 October 2023, killing 1,489 people and injuring 1,853 others, while 485 remain missing.[397]
2024 Noto earthquake	1 January 2024	Japan	A 7.5 Mw (7.6 MJMA) earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula of Japan, killing at least 202 people and injuring at least 665 others.[398]
2024 Hualien earthquake	3 April 2024	Taiwan	A 7.4 Mw earthquake struck 18 km (11 mi) south-southwest of Hualien City, Taiwan, leaving 10 dead and 1,011 injured.[399]
2025 Myanmar earthquake	28 March 2025	Myanmar Thailand	A 7.7 Mw earthquake struck Sagaing Region of Myanmar, with an epicenter close to Mandalay and in neighboring Thailand, leaving more than 5,700 deaths, 630 missing, and 12,300 injured, it became one of the worst earthquakes in Southeast Asia since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.[400]
2025 Istanbul earthquake	23 April 2025	Turkey	A 6.4 Mw earthquake struck the Marmara region including Istanbul, at least 360 injuries and moderate damage was recorded. It was the biggest one to strike the North Anatolian Fault since the 1999 Düzce earthquake, and the most powerful in the Sea of Marmara region since the 1999 İzmit earthquake.[401]

Event	Date	Country	Description
Cyclone Amphan	16–21 May 2020	Bangladesh Bhutan India Sri Lanka Myanmar	128 people were killed and millions made homeless in the strongest storm in two decades. Damage was estimated at US$13.2 billion.[402]
Hurricane Laura	20–29 August 2020	United States Haiti