# 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.
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. The pandemic led to a global economic recession, a sustained rise in global inflation for the first time since the 1970s, and a global supply chain crisis.
Several anti-government demonstrations and revolts occurred in the late 2010s and early 2020s, including a continuation of those in Hong Kong against extradition legislation; protests against certain local, state and national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; others around the world, particularly in the United States, against racism and police brutality; one in India against agriculture and farming acts; one in Israel against judicial reforms; another in Indonesia against the omnibus law on jobs; protests and strikes in France against pension reform; political crises in Peru, Bangladesh, Armenia, and Thailand; and many in Belarus, Eswatini, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, China, Russia, and Venezuela against various forms of governmental jurisdiction, corruption and authoritarianism; along with citizen riots in Japan, the United States, and Brazil in an attempt to overturn election results. The world population grew to over 8 billion people, and in 2023, India overtook China as the most populous country in the world.
Ongoing military conflicts include the Myanmar civil war, the Ethiopian civil conflict, the Kivu conflict, the Mali War, the Yemeni civil war, the Somali Civil War, Sudanese civil war, the Syrian civil war, the Russo-Ukrainian War, and the Gaza war. The year 2021 saw the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, ending nearly 20 years of war in Afghanistan. The Russian invasion of Ukraine became the largest conventional military offensive in Europe since World War II, resulting in a refugee crisis, disruptions to global trade, and an exacerbation of economic inflation. In 2023, a Hamas-led attack marked the first invasion of Israel since 1948, triggering an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory. The invasion has led to the displacement of nearly all 2.3 million 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 the Assad regime. Smaller conflicts include the insurgency in the Maghreb, the Iraq insurgency, the Philippine and the Mexican drug wars.
With multiple extreme weather events magnifying in the 2020s, several world leaders have called it the "decisive decade" for climate action as ecological crises continue to escalate. 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.
There were significant improvements in the complexity of artificial intelligence, with American companies, universities, and research labs pioneering advances in the field. Generative AI-based applications such as ChatGPT and DALL-E have accumulated over billions of users, and allow users to instantly generate complex texts, images, art, and video, comparable to the sophistication of human work. Other technological advances have also been made, impacting many, such as the widespread use of teleconferencing, online learning, streaming services, 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. Recent social media applications on the Internet like Threads, BeReal, Clubhouse, Bluesky, Gettr, and Truth Social launched, and introduced recent types of social media, like both audio-based and short-form content, further progressing in digital technology. Art forms, such as NFTs, also emerged as well. 5G networks have launched around the globe at the start of the decade as well, and became prevalent in smartphones. Research into outer space greatly accelerated in the 2020s, with the United States mainly dominating space exploration, including the James Webb Space Telescope, Ingenuity helicopter, Lunar Gateway, and Artemis program. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are being used for remote collaboration, meetings, and training. For example, VR can be used to create virtual meeting spaces where people can interact with each other as if they were in the same room. AR can be used to overlay digital information on top of the real world, making it easier for people to collaborate on projects. Contactless payments and mobile wallets have become more widespread, offering convenient and secure payment options. The pandemic also accelerated the adoption of contactless payments, as people became more concerned about the spread of germs. Mobile wallets, which had their roots in the previous decade, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, have also become more popular, as they offer a convenient and secure way to pay for goods and services. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have also increased in popularity as well.

## Politics and wars
### Major conflicts

The prominent wars of the decade include:

#### International wars

| Name | Start date | End date | Description |
| Israeli-Palestinian conflict 2021 Palestine–Israel crisis October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel Gaza war | Late 19th or early 20th century 6 May 2021 7 October 2023 | Ongoing 21 May 2021 Ongoing | The Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which began in the late 19th or early 20th century, erupted into 11 days of open violence in May 2021 after the attempted eviction of Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli settlers and an Israeli police raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque, with leading militant group Hamas launching over 4,000 rockets into Israel. The subsequent unrest caused extensive damage primarily, but not entirely, to Palestinians. The outbreak ended on 19 May. On 7 October 2023, Hamas and other Gazan militant groups conducted an armed attack on Israel, killing 797 civilians and taking 251 hostages back into Gaza. The subsequent war between Israel and Hamas has resulted in more than 50,000 casualties as of 2024, more than all the preceding decades of the conflict combined. The war has become a major point of discussion across the world. |
| Kurdish–Turkish conflict | 27 November 1978 | Ongoing | Numerous Kurdish groups, including the Kurdistan Workers' Party (the PKK) have fought for an independent Kurdistan incorporating parts of Turkey. In 2020, Turkey launched an insurgency in Iraqi Kurdistan. After a rebel offensive overthrew the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey renewed its offensive against Kurdish-held territories in Northern Syria. |
| Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Second Nagorno-Karabakh War 2023 offensive | February 1988 27 September 2020 19 September 2023 | 1 January 2024 10 November 2020 20 September 2023 | The region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been disputed between the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the breakaway state, the Republic of Artsakh. Following the first war's ceasefire cross-border skirmishes persisted including in July 2020, when a series of border skirmishes left at least 15 dead. A second war broke out later that year and ended after another ceasefire. A border crisis and blockade ensued until a 2023 offensive into the region by Azerbaijan. Artsakh dissolved on 1 January 2024, ending the conflict. |
| War on terror War in Afghanistan Iraq conflict | 11 September 2001 7 October 2001 20 March 2003 | Ongoing 30 August 2021 Ongoing | Motivated by the 9/11 attacks, the United States and other governments started a large scale effort to eliminate terrorism. With support from NATO, the United States invaded Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and overthrew the government; however, U.S. forces remained in the country to stabilise the situation. Two years later, on the pretext that the government of Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, the United States and a coalition of partners invaded Iraq and overthrew Hussein's regime, after which the U.S. occupied the country, officially leaving in 2011. However, insurgencies remained active in both countries, long after the invasions. |
| Kivu conflict | 2 June 2004 | Ongoing | The Kivu conflict began in 2004 in the eastern Congo as an armed conflict between the military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the Hutu Power group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has broadly consisted of three phases, the third of which is an ongoing conflict. |
| Syrian civil war Turkish occupation of northern Syria | 15 March 2011 | Ongoing | In March 2011, popular discontent with the rule of Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by the government's security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the insurgency had escalated into a full-blown civil war until the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, following major offensives led by the Syrian opposition. During the civil war, Turkey invaded parts of northern Syria in order to combat the Islamic State, Syrian Democratic Forces, and the PKK. |
| Russo-Ukrainian War 2022 Russian invasion | 20 February 2014 24 February 2022 | Ongoing Ongoing | Hostilities between the Ukrainian government and Russia-backed separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine have been ongoing since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. In 2021 and early 2022, tensions escalated between the two countries due to a build up of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. Russia launched a full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. |
| War against ISIS | 13 June 2014 | Ongoing | In late-2013, a terrorist organisation called ISIS began making rapid advances and territorial gains in Iraq and Syria. It captured Mosul in June and made Raqqa its capital. Various international coalitions were formed to help fight the militants. By December 2017, ISIS had lost much of its former territory. |
| Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen | 26 March 2015 | Ongoing | During the Yemeni civil war, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries part of a coalition invaded parts of Yemen in order to depose the Houthi-controlled government. |
* 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″ in Gaza following an Israeli strike during the Israel–Hamas war.
* Syrian rebels at Hama Air Base during the Syrian civil war.

#### Civil wars

| Name | Start date | End date | Description |
| Myanmar conflict Myanmar civil war | 2 April 1948 7 September 2021 | Ongoing Ongoing | Myanmar's long-running insurgencies escalated significantly into a major civil war in 2021 following the 2021 military coup and the subsequent brutal crackdown on the anti-coup protests. |
| War in Darfur | 26 February 2003 | 31 August 2020 | A peace agreement was signed on 31 August 2020 between the Sudanese authorities and several rebel factions to end armed hostilities. |
| Mexican drug war | 11 December 2006 | Ongoing | Following a rise in criminal violence as a result of drug trafficking in the country, Mexican President Felipe Calderón declared a war on drugs in December 2006. Since the start of the war, the death toll from drug violence had sharply increased. Arrests of key cartel leaders led to increasing violence as cartels fought for control of trafficking routes into the United States. |
| Somali civil war 2023 Las Anod conflict | 31 January 2009 6 February 2023 | Ongoing Ongoing | In 2009, Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant group, began waging an insurgency against the newly formed Transitional Federal Government. In 2011, the federal government captured Mogadishu and subsequently retook several towns across the country. Since then, the government has attempted to clean out the remaining Al-Shabaab strongholds with help from AMISOM soldiers. |
| Mali War | 16 January 2012 | Ongoing | In January 2012, a rebellion by Tuaregs in Northern Mali began. After Malian president Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted in a coup d'état, Tuaregs captured Northern Mali, and declared it to be the independent state of Azawad. However, shortly afterward, various Islamist groups took over Northern Mali from the Tuaregs and imposed sharia law on the region. |
| South Sudanese Civil War | 15 December 2013 | 22 February 2020 | On 22 February 2020, rivals Kiir and Machar struck a unity deal and formed a coalition government, after an estimated 400,000 deaths and more than 4 million people displaced by the war. |
| Libyan civil war | 16 May 2014 | 23 October 2020 | Following the factional violence that engulfed Libya after the fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi, a second civil war broke out among rival factions seeking control of the territory and oil of Libya. The conflict at the beginning was mostly between the House of Representatives (HoR) government that was controversially elected in 2014, also known as the "Tobruk government"; and the rival General National Congress (GNC) government, also called the "National Salvation Government", based in the capital Tripoli, established after Operation Odyssey Dawn and the failed military coup. |
| Yemeni civil war | 16 September 2014 | Ongoing | Preceded by a decade-long Houthi insurgency, the Yemeni Civil War began between two factions: the then-incumbent Yemeni government, led by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, and the Houthi militia, along with their supporters and allies. Both claim to constitute the Yemeni government. |
| Philippine drug war | 30 June 2016 | Ongoing | Following a rise in political and criminal violence as a result of drug trafficking in the country, the Philippines has been engaged in a drug war and escalating terrorism since Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was inaugurated on 30 June 2016. It had caused more than 5,000 deaths and over 150,000 arrests by the beginning of the decade. |
| Iraqi insurgency | 9 December 2017 | Ongoing | A part of the larger Iraqi conflict that has been waged since 2003, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has been engaged in an insurgency against the Iraqi government and CJTF-OIR since the loss of territorial control in the Iraqi Civil War in 2017. |
| Ethiopian civil conflict Tigray War War in Amhara | 2 April 2018 3 November 2020 9 April 2023 | Ongoing 3 November 2022 Ongoing | After years of increased tensions between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments, a full-scale war broke out in November 2020, that has killed an estimated 300,000–500,000 people as of March 2022. On 2 November, both the Ethiopian government and TPLF formally agreed to a cessation of hostilities and systematic, verifiable disarmament though Tigrayan authorities allege that Ethiopia continued to launch attacks after the peace deal was signed |
| Sudanese civil war | 15 April 2023 | Ongoing | In April 2023, clashes broke out in western Sudan between rival factions of the military government of Sudan. The conflict began with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launching attacks on key government sites. As of 23 April 2023, both RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and Sudan's de facto leader and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have claimed control over several key government sites, including the general military headquarters, the Presidential Palace, Khartoum International Airport, Burhan's official residence, and the SNBC headquarters. |
| Wagner Group rebellion | 23 June 2023 | 24 June 2023 | On 23 June 2023, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led a "March for Justice" against the Russian government for a supposed attack on his men by the military. A day later however, as his convoy was encroaching on Moscow, Prigozhin called off the rebellion in exchange for amnesty and other unknown reasons. |
* Territorial control during Myanmar civil war (2021–present) as of early 2022.
* 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.

### Revolutions and major protests

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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| Anti lex TVN protests | 10 September 2021 – 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 2023 Israeli judicial reform protests | 7 January 2023 – 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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". | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | >"Venezuela opposition leader Machado vows to make Maduro 'yield' on election 'fraud'". France 24. 28 August 2024. Archived from the original on 3 October 2024. Retrieved 2 December 2024.</ref> |
* 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.
* "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.

### Terrorist attacks

Note: To be included, entries must be notable (have a stand-alone article) and described by a consensus of reliable sources as "terrorism". They also must have 100 or more fatalities reported.
The most prominent terrorist attacks committed against civilian populations during the decade include, but are not limited to:
| Event | Date | Country | Deaths | Injuries |
| Koshebe massacre | 28 November 2020 | Nigeria | 110 | 6 |
| 2021 Kabul school bombing | 8 May 2021 | Afghanistan | 90 | 240 |
| 2021 Kabul airport attack | 26 August 2021 | Afghanistan | 183 | 200+ |
| 2022 Peshawar mosque attack | 4 March 2022 | Pakistan | 64+ | 196+ |
| 2022 Somali Ministry of Education bombings | 29 October 2022 | Somalia | 121+ | 300+ |
| 2023 Peshawar mosque bombing | 30 January 2023 | Pakistan | 101 | 220+ |
| Re'im music festival massacre | 7 October 2023 | Israel | 364 | Unknown |
| 2024 Kerman bombings | 3 January 2024 | Iran | 103 | 284 |
| Crocus City Hall attack | 22 March 2024 | Russia | 145 | 551 |
| 2024 Barsalogho attack | 24 August 2024 | Burkina Faso | 600+ | 300+ |
| 2024 Magdeburg car attack | 20 December 2024 | Germany | 5 | 200+ |

### Political trends
#### Electoral trends

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.
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 conservatism, neoliberalism, social conservatism, and anti-communist policies).
2024 was the biggest election year in history, and a number of countries announced snap elections, for example in Portugal and Senegal in March (parliamentary elections in November), the United Kingdom and France in July, Sri Lanka in September (parliamentary elections in November), Japan in October, Iceland and Ireland in November. 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.

#### Deaths

Sitting leaders that died in office:
In 2020: Sultan Qaboos bin Said, Pierre Nkurunziza and Sheik Sabah al-Sabah.
In 2021: Idriss Déby, John Magufuli, and Jovenel Moïse.
In 2022: Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Elizabeth II.
In 2023: Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
In 2024: Hage Geingob, Ebrahim Raisi, and Nguyễn Phú Trọng.
In 2025: Didier Guillaume.
Former world leaders who died:
In 2020: Hosni Mubarak, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, John Turner, Daniel arap Moi, Pranab Mukherjee, Amadou Toumani Touré, Jerry Rawlings, Mamadou Tandja, Tabaré Vázquez, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Pierre Buyoya, John Cremona, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, Kuniwo Nakamura, Litokwa Tomeing, Moussa Traoré, Pascal Lissouba, Branko Kostić, Lee Teng-hui, Benjamin Mkapa, Miloš Jakeš, Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero, Abdul Halim Khaddam, Joachim Yhombi-Opango, Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo, Mike Moore, and Janez Stanovnik.
In 2021: Gustavo Noboa, Ali Mahdi Muhammad, Moudud Ahmed, Didier Ratsiraka, Bonfoh Abass, Mamnoon Hussain, Arturo Armando Molina, Hissène Habré, Jorge Sampaio, Abdelkader Bensalah, Kenneth Kaunda, Anerood Jugnauth, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Enrique Bolaños, Roh Tae-woo, Chun Doo-hwan, Benigno Aquino III, Carlos Menem, F. W. de Klerk, James Fitz-Allen Mitchell, Norodom Ranariddh, Kinza Clodumar, Karolos Papoulias, Yevhen Marchuk and Yukhym Zvyahilsky.
In 2022: Toshiki Kaifu, Ernest Shonekan, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Christos Sartzetakis, Amos Sawyer, Rupiah Banda, Karl Offmann, Shahabuddin Ahmed, Ayaz Mutallibov, Dušan Čkrebić, Mwai Kibaki, Leonid Kravchuk, Ciriaco De Mita, Stanislav Shushkevich, Romeo Morri, Bujar Nishani, Evaristo Carvalho, Jacob Nena, Shinzo Abe, José Eduardo dos Santos, Luis Echeverría, Francisco Morales Bermúdez, Fidel V. Ramos, Mikhail Gorbachev, Balakh Sher Mazari, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Jiang Zemin, Adolfas Šleževičius, Edgar Savisaar and Pope Benedict XVI.
In 2023: Abdelsalam Majali, Constantine II of Greece, Álvaro Colom, Sherif Ismail, Pervez Musharraf, Lubomír Štrougal, Ivan Silayev, Sergey Tereshchenko, Hans Modrow, Ahmed Qurei, Gérard Latortue, Pōhiva Tuʻiʻonetoa, Pascoal Mocumbi, Sir Rabbie Namaliu, Mudar Badran, Nikica Valentić, Rifat Rastoder, Silvio Berlusconi, Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, Sir Tapley Seaton, Milan Milutinović, Arnaldo Forlani, Rachid Sfar, Jean-Jacques Honorat, Surat Huseynov, Henri Konan Bédié, Mircea Snegur, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, Giorgio Napolitano, Marouf al-Bakhit, László Sólyom, Martti Ahtisaari, Bill Hayden, Li Keqiang, Henri Lopes, Antoni Martí, Rahim Huseynov, Faustin Twagiramungu, Paulin Obame-Nguema and Sir Michael Hardie Boys.
In 2024: Basdeo Panday, Dries van Agt, John Bruton, Sebastián Piñera, Edward Lowassa, Anfinn Kallsberg, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Brian Mulroney, Agbéyomé Kodjo, Mahammed Dionne, Josip Manolić, Gediminas Kirkilas, Ro Jai-bong, Kwassi Klutse, Brigitte Bierlein, Fernando José de França Dias Van-Dúnem, Jadallah Azzuz at-Talhi, Stojan Andov, Mohamed Osman Jawari, Javier Valle Riestra, Jógvan Sundstein, Ismail Haniyeh, Zaid Rifai, Salim Al-Huss, Alberto Fujimori, Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Sir Daniel Williams, A. Q. M. Badruddoza Chowdhury, Alex Salmond, Gerasim Khugayev, Hama Amadou, Alphonse Poaty-Souchlaty, Vadim Brovtsev, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud, Serge Vohor, Phelekezela Mphoko, Don Martina, Dési Bouterse, Manmohan Singh, Jimmy Carter, Jamshid bin Abdullah of Zanzibar and Arnold Rüütel.
In 2025: Costas Simitis, Henny Eman, Walter Martos, Rosny Smarth, Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat, Mauricio Funes, Julius Chan, Carlos Ferrero, Horst Köhler, Sid Ahmed Ghozali, Sam Nujoma, Thanin Kraivichien, David Vunagi and Francis Billy Hilly.

### Prominent political events
#### Coups

Coups d'état against ruling governments during the decade include:
| Event | Date | Country |
| 2020 Malian coup d'état | 18 August 2020 | Mali |
| 2021 Myanmar coup d'état | 1 February 2021 | Myanmar |
| 2021 Malian coup d'état | 24 May 2021 | Mali |
| 2021 Tunisian self-coup | 25 July 2021 | Tunisia |
| 2021 Guinean coup d'état | 5 September 2021 | Guinea |
| 2021 Sudan coup d'état | 25 October 2021 | Sudan |
| January 2022 Burkina Faso coup d'état | 23 January 2022 | Burkina Faso |
| 2022 Ukrainian coup d'état attempt | January – February 2022 | Ukraine |
| September 2022 Burkina Faso coup d'état | 30 September 2022 | Burkina Faso |
| 2022 German coup d'état plot | 7 December 2022 | Germany |
| 2022 Peruvian self-coup attempt | 7 December 2022 | Peru |
| 2022 Brazilian coup plot | 15 December 2022 | Brazil |
| 2023 Nigerien coup d'état | 26 July 2023 | Niger |
| 2023 Gabonese coup d'état | 30 August 2023 | Gabon |
| 2024 Democratic Republic of the Congo coup attempt | 19 May 2024 | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| 2024 Bolivian coup attempt | 26 June 2024 | Bolivia |
| 2024 South Korean martial law crisis | 3 December 2024 | South Korea |

#### Africa

| Event | Country | Date | Description |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |

#### Americas

| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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, 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. 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. | [169][167][170][171][172][173][174] [175][176][177][178][168][179][180] [181][182][183][184][185][186][187][188] |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 2021 Canadian federal election | Canada | 20 September 2021 | Incumbent prime minister Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party, is re-elected in Canada's federal election, continuing as a minority government. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. Trump became the first president since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to be elected to non-consecutive terms. | |
| 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. | |
| 2024–2025 Canadian political crisis | Canada | 16 December 2024 – 6 January 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. Although no specific reason was given for the resignation, it was widely interpreted as a response to the loss of confidence of his own Liberal Party, low public approval ratings, and growing polls for the Conservatives leading to the federal election. Many MP's cited concerns about reckless spending and an inadequate response on Trudeau's part to the threat of the annexation of Canada to the United States and economic pressures proposed by incoming U.S. president Donald Trump. | |
| 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election and Canadian federal election | Canada | 9 March 2025 – present | A prelude to the federal election began with former Governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney won a landslide victory in the Liberal Party leader election with over 85%. This margin of victory would even surpass outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's 2013 margin in vote share, points, and ridings. He became Prime Minister five days later, succeed Trudeau after nine years of premiership, and is expected to lead the party into the federal election. | |
* 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. This makes Trump both the 45th (2017–2021) and the 47th President (2025–2029). He is the second president elected to non-consecutive terms (following Grover Cleveland, who served as the 22nd (1885–1889) and 24th President (1893–1897)).
* Donald Trump, who survived an attempted assassination twice in Pennsylvania and Florida between July and September 2024. The image shows Donald Trump paying respect to Corey Comperatore's firefighter uniform; he lost his life in the first 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.

#### Asia

| Event | Country | Date | Description |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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). |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 2022–2023 Pakistan political unrest | Pakistan | 3 April 2022 – 14 August 2023 | The events began with a constitutional crisis in April 2022 after a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan was dismissed by the deputy speaker, citing foreign interference by the United States. The Supreme Court ruled this action unconstitutional and parliament reconvened and passed the motion, making Khan 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. |
| 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. |
| 2024 Japanese general election | Japan | 27 October 2024 | 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 dissolution of the Diet was held eight days after the prime minister's inauguration and 26 days before the voting day, both the shortest since the end of World War II. Voter turnout was 53.84%, around two percentage points down from 2021 and the third lowest in the postwar era, while the ruling LDP-Komeito coalition lost their majority for the first time since 2009. |
| 2024–2025 South Korean political crisis | South Korea | 3 December 2024 – present | 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. 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. |

#### Europe

| Event | Country | Date | Description |
| Brexit | United Kingdom | 31 January 2020 | The United Kingdom and Gibraltar formally withdrew from the European Union at 11PM (GMT). |
| Eighth NATO enlargement | North Macedonia | 27 March 2020 | North Macedonia became a member state of NATO after the 2018 Prespa Agreement. |
| 2021–present Bulgarian political crisis | Bulgaria | 4 April 2021 – present | A series of unstable governments and a gridlock resulted in six elections occurring over three years. |
| 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." |
| 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. |
| July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis | United Kingdom | 5–7 July 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 a leadership election called to decide the next leader of the Conservative Party. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Golden Jubilee of Margrethe II | Denmark | 2022 | Queen Margrethe II celebrated her Golden Jubilee, which marked the 50th anniversary of her accession. |
| October 2022 United Kingdom government crisis | United Kingdom | 14–20 October 2022 | Only six weeks into her premiership, conservative MPs in the United Kingdom cited a loss in public confidence in Prime Minister Liz Truss's ministry following her September mini-budget. This culminated in Truss announcing her resignation on 20 October and a leadership election was called to decide the next leader of the Conservative Party. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Ninth NATO enlargement | Finland | 4 April 2023 | Finland applied to join NATO in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and was formally accepted the following year. This ended Finland's position as a neutral state that had existed since the Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948. |
| 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. |
| Golden Jubilee of Carl XVI Gustaf | Sweden | 15 September 2023 | King Carl XVI Gustaf celebrated his Golden Jubilee, which marked the 50th anniversary of his accession. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Abdication of Margrethe II | 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. |
| Tenth NATO enlargement | Sweden | 7 March 2024 | Sweden applied to join NATO with Finland in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and was formally accepted after about two years later. This ended Swedish neutrality that had existed more than two centuries, and also made Sweden the final Nordic country to join the alliance. |
| 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. |
| 2024 German government crisis and 2025 federal election | Germany | 6 November 2024 – 23 February 2025 | Chancellor of Germany 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 alliance became the largest bloc in the Bundestag with 28.5% of votes, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieved its best result in any German election with 20.8%, and the governing centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Greens lost over nine percentage points and suffered its worst result since 1887 with just 16.4%, also declined from 15% to 12%. |
| 2025 London Summit on Ukraine | United Kingdom | 2 March 2025 | was 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. |
* Finnish and Swedish ambassadors submit their applications to join NATO to 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.

#### Oceania

| Event | Country | Date | Description |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |

### World leaders
## Assassinations and attempts

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
| Date | Description |
| 3 January 2020 | Qasem Soleimani, Iranian general, and leader in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, is killed in an airstrike conducted by the United States near Baghdad International Airport. |
| 27 November 2020 | Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a senior official in the nuclear program in Iran, is killed in an ambush against his motorcade in Absard. |
| 22 February 2021 | Luca Attanasio, Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is killed by gunmen while traveling in North Kivu. |
| 20 April 2021 | Idriss Déby, 6th President of Chad, is killed while commanding forces against rebels during the Insurgency in Northern Chad, and is succeeded by transitional president and military general, Mahamat Kaka. |
| 6 May 2021 | Mohamed Nasheed, Speaker of the Maldivian People's Majlis, is wounded in an explosion alleged by Maldivian authorities to have been conducted by religious extremists. |
| 7 July 2021 | Jovenel Moïse, 43rd President of Haiti, is killed by gunmen at his private residence. First Lady Martine Moïse is severely wounded. |
| 15 October 2021 | David Amess, British Conservative Party MP, is killed by an Islamic terrorist during a constituency surgery. |
| 7 November 2021 | Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Prime Minister of Iraq, survives a drone attack that injures six in his security detail. |
| 3 February 2022 | Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, 2nd Caliph of the Islamic State, is killed in Atme during a counter-terrorism raid by U.S. special forces in north-western Syria. |
| 8 June 2022 | Brett Kavanaugh, a United States Supreme Court Justice, is the target of an assassination plot in which the alleged assassin was motivated by a leaked Supreme Court decision that was poised to overrule Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed abortion as a right. |
| 8 July 2022 | Shinzo Abe, former prime minister of Japan, is killed while giving a campaign speech by a former navy sailor who held a grudge against the South Korean-based Unification Church. |
| 31 July 2022 | Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the Salafi-jihadist group al-Qaeda, is killed by a drone strike conducted by the US-based CIA in Kabul, Afghanistan. |
| 12 August 2022 | Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born British-American novelist, is stabbed multiple times as he is about to give a public lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, United States. Rushdie has been the subject of a fatwā written by Supreme Leader of Iran Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death since 1989. |
| 1 September 2022 | Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, former vice president and former president of Argentina, survives an attempt on her life after the assailant's weapon malfunctions. |
| 15 October 2022 | Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, 3rd Caliph of the Islamic State, is killed by wearing and detonating a suicide vest during battle against Free Syrian Army rebels in the city of Jasim in Daraa Governorate, Syria. He is succeeded by Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi. |
| 28 October 2022 | Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is the target of a failed assassination attempt when a man armed with a hammer breaks into her residence. He instead assaults her husband, causing serious injuries as she was not home at the time of the attempt. |
| 3 November 2022 | Imran Khan, former prime minister of Pakistan, is shot in the leg while traveling in a convoy in Wazirabad amid anti-government protests. |
| 3 May 2023 | Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, is alleged to have been the target of an unsuccessful drone attack on the Kremlin according to Russian authorities. Ukraine, which is at war with Russia, denied responsibility for the attack. |
| 9 August 2023 | Fernando Villavicencio, Ecuadorian politician and candidate for President of Ecuador, is shot to death following a campaign event in Quito. |
| 23 August 2023 | Key figures in the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, including its founder and leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, are killed in a plane crash widely believed to have been an assassination carried out by the Russian government after an attempted rebellion by Prigozhin earlier in the summer. |
| 2 January 2024 | South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is stabbed in the neck during a visit to Busan. |
| 3 March 2024 | A convoy carrying Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, in the city of Odesa are targeted by a Russian missile strike that kills at least five people with at least one missile reportedly missing them by 150 meters. |
| 15 May 2024 | Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia is shot while meeting with supporters at an event in Handlová. |
| 13 July 2024 | Donald Trump, former president of the United States, is shot at a presidential campaign rally he held near Butler, Pennsylvania. |
| 31 July 2024 | Ismail Haniyeh, Palestinian political leader of Hamas, is assassinated in Tehran in an attack widely believed to have been conducted by Israel. |
| 15 September 2024 | Donald Trump, former President of the United States and Republican Party nominee in the 2024 United States presidential election, is the subject of a second assassination attempt at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, after nearly being killed in Butler, Pennsylvania two months prior. |
| 27 September 2024 | Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, is killed in an airstrike by the Israeli Air Force in Beirut. |
| 16 October 2024 | Yahya Sinwar, Palestinian political leader of Hamas, is killed in Rafah in a military operation conducted by Israel, two months after the assassination of his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh. |
| 4 December 2024 | Brian Thompson, American businessman and CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is shot and killed outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan, New York City. |
| 16 December 2024 | Igor Kirillov, Russian NBC Protection Troops commander Lieutenant-General, is assassinated by a scooter bombing in Moscow. |
| 18 March 2025 | Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the President of Somalia, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by the militant group Al-Shabaab at his presidential palace in Mogadishu. |

## Disasters
### Non-natural disasters
#### Aviation

| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |

#### General

| 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. 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. 220 deaths were confirmed, more than 110 people were missing and at least 7,000 were reported injured. Beirut governor Marwan Abboud estimated that up to 300,000 people were left homeless by the explosions and there was $10–15 billion USD in property damage. |
| Surfside condominium collapse | 24 June 2021 | United States | A 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, partially collapsed. As of 22 July 2021, a total of 98 people are confirmed to have died, while 11 were injured. One person was rescued from the rubble, and about 35 people were rescued on 24 June from the uncollapsed portion of the building, which was demolished 11 days later as a safety precaution due to the approach of Hurricane Elsa. On 7 July, authorities announced that the objective of the search was transitioning from rescue to recovery and that the missing victims are presumed dead. |
| 2022 Yerevan explosion | 14 August 2022 | Armenia | A large explosion took place in the Surmalu shopping centre in the Armenian capital of Yerevan. It caused widespread destruction and fire, leaving dozens of dead and injured. The explosion killed 16 people and injured 63, with nine missing as of 20 August. |
| 2023 Tempi train crash | 28 February 2023 | Greece | Two trains collide near the south of the Tempe Valley in Greece killing at least 57 people. It is the deadliest rail disaster in Greek history. As a result, Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned, while various protests took place across the country. |
| Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam | 6 June 2023 | Ukraine | Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled region of Kherson is destroyed, threatening the region with devastating floodwaters. |
| Derna dam collapses | 10 – 11 September 2023 | Libya | The Derna dam collapses were the catastrophic failures of two dams in Derna, Libya on the night of 10–11 September 2023, in the aftermath of Storm Daniel. The dam collapses released an estimated 30 million m$^3$ (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. |

### Natural disasters
#### Earthquakes and tsunamis

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, Cuba | A 7.7M$_w$  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. |
| 2020 Aegean Sea earthquake | 30 October 2020 | Greece Turkey | A 7.0 M$_w$  earthquake occurred about 14 km (8.7 mi) northeast of the Greek island of Samos, causing 119 deaths. |
| 2021 West Sulawesi earthquake | 15 January 2021 | Indonesia | A 6.2 M$_w$  earthquake struck the Indonesian province of West Sulawesi, killing a minimum of 105 people. |
| 2021 Haiti earthquake | 14 August 2021 | Haiti | A 7.2 M$_w$  earthquake struck Haiti on 14 August 2021, resulting in at least 2,207 deaths. |
| June 2022 Afghanistan earthquake | 22 June 2022 | Afghanistan Pakistan | A 6.2 M$_w$  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. |
| 2022 West Java earthquake | 21 November 2022 | Indonesia | A 5.6 M$_w$  earthquake struck Indonesia in West Java, near Cianjur, killing 335–635 people, despite its moderate magnitude. |
| 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake | 6 February 2023 | Turkey Syria | A 7.8 M$_w$  earthquake struck the Border Region of Turkey and Syria, killing more than 60,000 people and injuring more than 180,000 people. It is also one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in Turkey since the 1999 İzmit earthquake. |
| 2023 Marrakesh-Safi earthquake | 8 September 2023 | Morocco | A 6.8 M$_{ww}$ – 6.9 M$_w$  earthquake struck the Marrakesh-Safi region of Morocco. 2,960 people killed and 5,674 injured. |
| 2023 Herat earthquakes | 7–15 October 2023 | Afghanistan | Four 6.3 M$_{ww}$ 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. |
| 2024 Noto earthquake | 1 January 2024 | Japan | A 7.5 M$_w$ (7.6 M$_{JMA}$) earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula of Japan, killing at least 202 people and injuring at least 665 others. |
| 2024 Hualien earthquake | 3 April 2024 | Taiwan | A 7.4 M$_w$ earthquake struck 18 km (11 mi) south-southwest of Hualien City, Taiwan, leaving 10 dead and 1,011 injured. |
| An earthquake-damaged building in Antakya, Turkey in February 2023 | The Imi N'Tala village was heavily destroyed by the Marrakesh-Safi earthquake in September 2023. | Aftermath of the earthquake at Wajima morning market in January 2024. |

#### Tropical cyclones

| 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. |
| Hurricane Laura | 20–29 August 2020 | United States, CARICOM, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten | Hurricane Laura was a deadly and destructive Category 4 hurricane that, along with 1856's Last Island and 2021's Ida, was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana, based on maximum wind strength. "Laura" first hit the Lesser Antilles as a tropical storm, striking Puerto Rico, then moved across the island of Hispaniola, killing 31 people in Haiti and nine in the Dominican Republic. "Laura" caused widespread devastation along most of its track: Tropical-storm-force winds passed over nearly all of the Antilles islands; hurricane-force and tropical-storm-force winds struck parts of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas; and much of the storm's track was affected by flooding rain and storm surge. Damage is estimated at more than $19.1 billion, and at least 81 people were killed, including 30 in Louisiana and 10 in Texas alone, making "Laura" the 16th costliest hurricane ever. With estimated agricultural losses of $1.6 billion, "Laura" caused more agricultural damage in Louisiana than Hurricanes Katrina and Rita combined. |
| Tropical Storm Linfa | 6–12 October 2020 | Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand | Tropical Storm Linfa was a weak, short-lived, but deadly and destructive tropical cyclone. It was the 12th wettest tropical cyclone on record and the second of nine consecutive tropical cyclones to strike Vietnam in 2020, barely a month after the less damaging Tropical Storm Noul. "Linfa" brought record-breaking rainfall totals to much of the Indochinese peninsula. 112 people died in Vietnam, and 24 are missing. Another 25 people died in Cambodia, and Laos had one death and three missing. |
| Typhoon Vamco (Ulysses) | 8–15 November 2020 | Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia | 102 people were killed, and the typhoon contributed to the 2020 Central Vietnam Floods. Damages totaled up to US$440.8 million. |
| Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota | 31 October – 18 November 2020 | Nicaragua, Honduras | A total of 278+ people were killed during both Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota in Nicaragua and Honduras. Damages totaled up to US$9.3 billion from both hurricanes. |
| Cyclone Seroja | 3–12 April 2021 | Indonesia, East Timor, Australia | Severe tropical cyclone Seroja was the third deadliest tropical cyclone in the Australian region, after Cyclone Mahina in 1899 and the Flores Cyclone in 1973. Seroja caused flooding and landslides on a historic scale in parts of southern Indonesia and East Timor, and later made landfall in the Mid West region of Western Australia – the first cyclone to make landfall since Cyclone Elaine in 1999. At least 272 people were killed by the storm, including 183 in Indonesia, 42 in East Timor and one in Australia. At least 72 people from Indonesia and 30 from East Timor are missing. |
| Cyclone Tauktae | 14–19 May 2021 | India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives | This category-4 cyclone hit the western coast of India. 174 total fatalities recorded (all countries). Damages totaled up to US$2.12 billion. Other countries affected were Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives. |
| Hurricane Ida | 26 August – 4 September 2021 | United States, Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Canada | 107 people were killed by "Ida", of which 87 people were killed in the United States and 20 people were killed in Venezuela. The damage amounted to up to $50 billion. |
| Typhoon Rai (Odette) | 12–22 December 2021 | Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Micronesia, Palau, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Taiwan | Typhoon Rai, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Odette, was the second most severe typhoon in Philippine history after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Rai was a strong, rare tropical cyclone that struck the Philippines in December 2021. Rai was the first category 5 super typhoon since Nock-ten in 2016 to develop in December, and the third category 5 super typhoon recorded in the South China Sea, following Pamela in 1954 and Rammasun in 2014. Several southern provinces in the Philippines were inundated and devastated by the typhoon. A total of 410 people died + 80 missing, of which a full 409 died in the Philippines and only 1 died in Vietnam. The damage amounts to up to $720 million. |
| Tropical Storm Ana | 20–25 January 2022 | Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Mauritius, South Africa Zambia, Zimbabwe | Moderate Tropical Storm Ana was a deadly tropical cyclone that struck the African nations of Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique + others and was the third deadliest tropical cyclone of 2022. It resulted in 142 deaths, with Madagascar being the hardest hit with 58 deaths due to flooding caused by "Ana", Malawi with 37 deaths + 22 missing, and Mozambique with 20 deaths. |
| Cyclone Batsirai | 24 January – 11 February 2022 | Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion | Intense Tropical Cyclone Batsirai was a deadly tropical cyclone that hit Madagascar hard in February 2022 and was the strongest tropical cyclone to hit Madagascar since Cyclone Enawo in 2017. It hit the country two weeks after Tropical Storm Ana brought deadly flooding to the island nation in late January. The storm also caused damage in Mauritius and Réunion, but the damage was relatively minor. 123 deaths – 121 in Madagascar and 2 in Mauritius – were reported as a result of Batsirai. Batsirai brought severe damage that significantly affected power supply and communications in the affected areas. Entire towns were devastated, and thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed. At least 112,000 people were displaced and 124,000 homes damaged by Batsirai. The same areas were hit by an even stronger Cyclone Freddy less than a year later. |
| Tropical Storm Megi (Agaton) | 8–12 April 2022 | Philippines | Tropical Storm Megi, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Agaton, was a weak but deadly tropical cyclone that struck the Philippines in April 2022. Heavy rains and storms led to the sinking of two ships. Large landslides pushed mud over villages in Leyte, burying about 210 homes. The Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported 214 dead, 132 missing, and 8 injured. |
| Hurricane Ian | 23 September – 2 October 2022 | Cuba, United States | 157 people killed with 16 unaccounted for across both the United States and Cuba. The entire nation of Cuba lost power and millions lost power in the United States. The NOAA estimated total damage to be US$113 billion. |
| Tropical Storm Nalgae (Paeng) | 26 October – 3 November 2022 | Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, China | Severe Tropical Storm Nalgae, known in the Philippines as Severe Tropical Storm Paeng, was a very large and deadly tropical cyclone that wreaked havoc in the Philippines and later hit Hong Kong and Macau. 160 people were killed, 141 others were wounded, and 29 people are still missing as a result of the landslides and flooding caused by Nalgae in the Philippines. Meanwhile, there was only 1 person injured in Hong Kong. |
| Cyclone Freddy | 4 February – 15 March 2023 | Eswatini, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe | Cyclone Freddy was the longest-lasting tropical cyclone in history, surpassing the previous record set by Hurricane John in 1994. In total, more than 1,434 people died + 556 went missing, with Malawi worst hit with 1,216 dead + 537 missing, followed by Mozambique with 198 dead, Madagascar with 17 dead + 3 missing, Zimbabwe with 2 dead, and Mauritius with 1 dead + 16 missing. Overall, "Freddy" was the second deadliest tropical cyclone in the southwestern Indian Ocean and third deadliest in the Southern Hemisphere. |
| Cyclone Mocha | 9–15 May 2023 | Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, China | Cyclone Mocha was a powerful and deadly tropical cyclone that caused between 152 and 463 deaths and widespread destruction, primarily in Myanmar and Bangladesh. |
| Storm Daniel | 4–12 September 2023 | Libya, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, Israel | Storm Daniel, also known as Cyclone Daniel, was the deadliest and costliest Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone in recorded history. "Storm Daniel" resulted in Thousands of Deaths, most notably in the Libyan city of Derna, where torrential rains caused two dams near the city of Derna to fail. |
| Hurricane Helene | 24-29 September 2024 | Mexico, Honduras, Cayman Islands, Cuba, United States | Hurricane Helene was a deadly and destructive tropical cyclone which devastated parts of the southeastern United States, causing at least 219 deaths and US$78.7 billion in damage. |
| Hurricane Milton | 5–12 October 2024 | Mexico, Cuba, United States, The Bahamas | Hurricane Milton was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone which became the second-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded over the Gulf of Mexico, behind only Hurricane Rita in 2005. Total damage was estimated to be US$34.3 billion. |

#### Tornadoes

| Event | Date | Country | Description |
| 2021 South Moravia tornado | 24 June 2021 | Czech Republic | A small but significant tornado outbreak swept across the Czech Republic on 24 June, resulting in the strongest ever documented tornado in modern Czech history and the deadliest European tornado since 2001. |
| Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021 | 10—11 December 2021 | United States | Tornado activity swept the southern and midwestern United States in the evening of 10 December through the following morning. Arkansas, Missouri, and Kentucky suffered extensive damage. |

#### Floods, avalanches, and mudslides

Note: This section reports only floods with 200 or more deaths and avalanches and landslides involving 30 or more deaths.
| Event | Date | Country | Description |
| 2020 Neelum Valley avalanche | January 2020 | Pakistan | At least 74 people were killed and several others injured in the Neelum Valley in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, after a series of avalanches triggered by heavy snowfall destroyed and buried 84 homes and 17 shops, while dozens of other buildings were damaged. |
| 2020 Van avalanches | 4–5 February 2020 | Turkey | Two avalanches in Turkey's eastern Van Province resulted in 41 deaths and 84 injuries. |
| 2020 East Africa floods | March – May 2020 | Kenya, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Djibouti, Burundi, Tanzania | Severe flooding in 9 African countries caused more than 450 deaths and affected more than 700,000 people, mainly in Kenya and Rwanda. |
| 2020 Nepal floods | June – September 2020 | Nepal | The rainy season and associated flooding, which has killed more than 400 people, has been described by some in Nepal as the deadliest in recent memory. |
| 2021 European floods | 12–25 July 2021 | Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, United Kingdom | Heavy flooding, particularly in river basins of western and central Europe, killed some 243 people and left €10 billion in damage. |
| 2021 Henan floods | 17–31 July 2021 | China | Following the highest-ever recorded rainfall in Zhengzhou, Henan Province in China, between 300 and 400 deaths along with over 800,000 people having to evacuate. |
| 2021 Maharashtra floods | 22 July 2021 – August 2021 | India | Over 250 deaths were reported in the Indian state of Maharashtra after heavy rainfall in the area. |
| 2022 Petrópolis floods | 15 February 2022 | Brazil | Intense rainfall led to mudslides and flooding on 15 February, that destroyed parts of the city of Petrópolis in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro and killed more than 230 people. |
| 2022 KwaZulu-Natal floods | 8–21 April 2022 | South Africa | Flooding in the province of KwaZuku-Natal in South Africa leads to over 400 deaths. |
| 2022 Afghanistan floods | 5 May 2022 – August 2022 | Afghanistan | Several provinces of Afghanistan were affected by severe flooding beginning in May, which claimed more than 600 lives. |
| 2022 India-Bangladesh floods | 23 May 2022 – present | India, Bangladesh | Deadly floods have been hitting northeastern India and Bangladesh since May 2022, killing more than 250 people and affecting 9 million people in both countries. |
| 2022 Pakistan floods | 14 June 2022 – October 2022 | Pakistan | Floods in Pakistan have killed more than 1,000 people since June. |
| 2022 Nigeria floods | May – October 2022 | Nigeria | With more than 600 dead, the 2022 floods were the worst in the country since the floods in 2012. |
| 2023 Africa floods | March 2023 – present | Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda | Since March, more than 776 people have died in severe floods in several African countries. The worst hit were the Democratic Republic of Congo, with over 440 dead + over 2,500 missing, and Rwanda, with at least 135 dead. |
| 2024 Spanish floods | 29 October – 3 November 2024 | Spain | A cold drop causes torrential rains in eastern Spain, causing flooding in the Valencian Community, Castilla-La Mancha, and Andalusia. Over a year of precipitation amounts was dropped over Spain, causing 219 deaths with 93 people still missing and widespread substantial damage to buildings and streets. |
| CNS video report of the floods depicting Henan Province, China | Aftermath of the Spanish floods at Sedaví, Horta Sud in October 2024. |

#### Volcanic eruptions

| Event | Date | Country | Description |
| 2020–2022 Taal Volcano eruptions | January 2020; July 2021; November 2021; March 2022 | Philippines | On 12 January the Taal Volcano in the Philippines erupted at VEI 4 intensity, bringing intense ashfall to the surrounding areas and killing at least 3 people. |
| 2021 Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption | 19 September 2021 – 13 December 2021 | Spain | On 19 September the Cumbre Vieja volcano located in the La Palma island erupted. |
| 2021 Semeru eruption | 4 December 2021 | Indonesia | The collapse of an unstable lava dome on the summit of Semeru due to heavy rainfall triggered large pyroclastic flows, killing 48, injuring over 100 and leaving 23 missing. |
| 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption and tsunami | 15 January 2022 | Tonga | The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano in the South Pacific erupted violently on 15 January, causing tsunamis to hit Hawaii, Japan and Tonga's largest island, Tongatapu, and sent waves flooding into Nukuʻalofa. Tonga finally disqualified in the FIFA World Cup. It was the largest volcanic eruption of the 21st century. |

#### Droughts, heat waves, and wildfires

| Event | Date | Region | Description |
| 2018–2021 Southern African drought | October 2018 – October 2021 | South Africa | An ongoing period of drought began in the country of South Africa in late October 2018 and continued into early 2021, negatively affecting food security in the region. |
| 2019–20 Australian bushfire season | June 2019 – May 2020 | Australia | Unusually intense bushfires in Australia continued into 2020, having started in September 2019. |
| 2020 Western U.S. Wildfires | March – December 2020 | United States | Record-breaking wildfires began in several Western American states. |
| 2020 Argentine wildfires (Delta del Paraná) | July 2020 – October 2020 | Argentina | Sudden wildfires started in Córdoba and extended into several Northern provinces. |
| 2021 Russian heatwave | May – June 2021 | Russia | Parts of Russia and eastern Europe were hit by a record-breaking heat wave in May and June 2021, with temperatures in the Arctic Circle above 30 °C and the highest temperatures recorded in Moscow and St. Petersburg. |
| 2021 Western North America heat wave | June – July 2021 | Canada, United States | Extreme temperatures caused by a prolonged heat dome over western Canada and the western United States killed over 613 people including over 480 people in British Columbia alone. The village of Lytton, British Columbia, which recorded the highest temperatures in Canada, was destroyed by a large wildfire as over 200 other ones devastated wide areas of the province. Wildfires in parts of the western coastal states of the US such as Washington, Oregon and California were also greatly worsened by the heatwave. |
| 2021 Turkey wildfires | July – August 2021 | Turkey | Over a hundred wildfires began in the Mediterranean Region of the forest in Turkey, the worst in the country for at least a decade. The wildfires started in Manavgat, Antalya on 28 July 2021, with the temperature around 37 °C (99 °F). |
| 2020–2023 North American drought | August 2020 – Ongoing | United States, Canada, Mexico | Drought developed in the Western, Midwestern and Northeastern United States in the summer of 2020. Over the course of 2021, conditions improved in the Northeast but worsened in the Western US. As of June 2021, 97% of the region was facing abnormally dry conditions. By August 2021, parts of the upper Midwestern US were experiencing some of the worst drought spells since the 1980s. Drought also affected a wide area of Mexico as of 2021, as well as the prairies of Canada. |
| 2022 European heat waves | June – September 2022 | European Union, United Kingdom, Andorra, Norway, Switzerland | From mid-June through most of the summer, heat waves affected most of Europe, with western and central Europe the worst hit. Temperatures in excess of 40 °C (104 °F) were recorded in places, breaking records. Over 24,000 deaths were attributed to the event, most in France, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Portugal. The heat waves contributed to wildfires and drought also seen in Europe. |
| 2022 European and Mediterranean wildfires | May – September 2022 | European Union, Albania, Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom | Wildfires across Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean region. |
| 2022 European drought | July – September 2022 | European Union, Serbia, United Kingdom | Europe's worst drought year in 500 years. A report from the Global Drought Observatory confirmed this. |
| 2023 Canadian wildfires | 1 March 2023 – November 2023 | Canada | The 2023 wildfire season is the worst wildfire season in Canada's modern history |
| 2023 Hawaii wildfires | 8 – 11 August 2023 | United States | Wind-driven fires caused widespread damage on the island of Maui, and killed at least 111 people in the town of Lāhainā. |
| 2023 Greece wildfires | 17 July – 9 September 2023 | Greece | Over 80 fires in Greece led to the deaths of at least 28 and the evacuation of 20,000 people. |
| 2025 Southern California wildfires | 7 January 2025 – 31 January 2025 | United States | Wildfires have affected the Los Angeles metropolitan area and surrounding regions. |
| Ōfunato wildfire | 26 February 2025 – present | Japan | Wildfires have affected Iwate prefecture and surrounding regions. |

#### Pollution

| Event | Date | Country | Description |
| 2022 Oder environmental disaster | July – August 2022 | Poland, Germany | A mass fish kill occurs in the river Oder in Poland and Germany attributed to an algal bloom. |

#### Other natural events

Beginning in 2019 until 2022, a huge swarm of desert locusts threatened to engulf massive portions of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

## Economics
### Events
#### 2020

* The Brexit withdrawal agreement went into effect at the end of January 2020 with the UK completing its economic withdrawal from the EU at the end of that year.
* The United States, Mexico, and Canada signed the USMCA agreement, which came into effect on 1 July 2020.

#### 2021

* The African Continental Free Trade Area, encompassing 54 of the African Union states comes into effect on 1 January 2021.
* Ever Given, a large container ship, runs aground in the Suez Canal for a week causing massive disruption of global trade.
* El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, after the Legislative Assembly votes 62–84 to pass a bill submitted by President Nayib Bukele classifying the cryptocurrency as such.

#### 2022

* The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the largest free trade area in the world, comes into effect for Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam on 1 January 2022.
* Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on 27 October 2022

#### 2023

* Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen Area, becoming the 20th member state of the Eurozone and the 27th member of the Schengen Area on 1 January 2023.
* Swiss investment bank UBS Group AG agrees to buy Credit Suisse for CHF 3 billion (US$3.2 billion) on 19 March 2023 in an all-stock deal brokered by the government of Switzerland and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority.

### Trade

The World Trade Organization reported that trade growth had stagnated and that trade restrictions were increasing as the decade began. The sectors most affected by import restrictions were mineral and fuel oils (17.7%), machinery and mechanical appliances (13%), electrical machinery and parts (11.7%), and precious metals (6%). Regional trade agreements were also found to be increasing.

### Stock markets
#### Crashes

| Event | Date | Country | Ref. |
| 2020 stock market crash | 20 February 2020 – 7 April 2020 | Global | |

## Cybersecurity and hacking

| Event | Date | Description |
| 2020 Twitter account hijacking | 15 July 2020 | Multiple high-profile Twitter accounts, each with millions of followers, were compromised in a cyberattack to promote a bitcoin scam. |
| 2020 United States federal government data breach | 13 December 2020 | |
| Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack | 6 May 2021 | Colonial Pipeline in Texas suffers debilitating ransomware cyberattack by Russian online group DarkSide causing substantial shortages in the southeastern USA. |
| Log4Shell | 24 November 2021 | Log4Shell, a software vulnerability, was disclosed. It had affected hundreds of millions of devices through Java's open source Log4j. |
| 2022 Costa Rican cyberattack | 17 April 2022 | Conti and Hive, among several other ransomware groups, attacked numerous public institutions around the world until shuttered by law enforcement, in May 2022 and January 2023, respectively. |

## Health
### Epidemics/Outbreaks

| Event | Date | Infections and deaths | Description |
| 2022–2023 mpox outbreak | 6 May 2022 – 11 May 2023 | 86,494 confirmed cases and 280 deaths in 109 countries and territories reported by 26 March 2023. | First international outbreak cluster detected on 6 May 2022 in London, UK. Declared a public health emergency of international concern by WHO from 23 July 2022 to 11 May 2023. |

### Pandemics

| Event | Date | Infections and deaths | Description |
| COVID-19 pandemic | 2019 – 2023 | 678.1 million+ confirmed cases and 6.7 million+ deaths with more than 240 countries and territories reported by 16 February 2023. | First confirmed case detected in on 17 November 2019 in Wuhan, China. Declared a public health emergency of international concern by WHO from 30 January 2020 to 5 May 2023. |
| HIV/AIDS | 1981 – present | 37.9 million people living with HIV (end of 2018), 24.5 million people accessing antiretroviral therapy (end of June 2019), 32.0 million deaths from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic (end 2018). | |

## Science and technology
### Space
#### 2020

* Space company SpaceX sent two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on 30 May 2020, marking the first time a private company completed a crewed orbital spaceflight mission.
* NASA launched the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter drone on 30 July 2020 as part of their Mars 2020 mission to search for signs of ancient life on Mars. On 19 April 2021, the Ingenuity helicopter drone performed the first powered controlled flight by an aircraft on a planet other than Earth.
* The Royal Astronomical Society announced the detection of phosphine gas in Venus' atmosphere on 14 September 2020, which is known to be a strong predictor for the presence of microbial life.

#### 2021

* China sends Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo to assemble and then occupy and work aboard the Tiangong space station.
* Following the formal releases of three videos of UFOs (also known as UAPs) in 2020, a report on the subject by the United States Intelligence Community would be published on 25 June 2021 with the report concluding that UFOs existed. This would be the first time a government would officially confirm the existence of UFOs, though no conclusion was made on what these phenomena were, extraterrestrial or otherwise.
* On 11 July 2021, Virgin Galactic became the first spaceflight company to independently launch a paying civilian into outer space using the 50-mile high definition of outer space, having flown Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson above the 50 mile mark, enabling him and the rest of the crew to experience approximately 3 minutes of weightlessness above Earth's atmosphere.
* In July 2021, Blue Origin became the first spaceflight company to launch a fully automated spacecraft with civilian passengers into space, carrying its founder Jeff Bezos and three others. Two of the flight's crew members, Dutch student Oliver Daemen (age 18) and American aviator Wally Funk (age 82), became both the youngest and oldest people respectively to go to space (Funk's record was beaten nearly 3 month's later when actor William Shatner entered space onboard Blue Origin NS-18, at the age of 90).
* The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on 25 December 2021, 12:20 UTC using an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana.

#### 2022

* The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully made contact with Dimorphos, in a test operated by NASA to test potential planetary defense to near-Earth objects.
* NASA successfully launched Artemis 1, an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission, after several months of delays.

#### 2023

* SpaceX attempted an orbital flight of Starship. Around 4 minutes into the flight, the rocket suffered a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," but the flight was still considered a success as it had successfully cleared the launch pad.
* On 18 July, Voyager 2 overtook Pioneer 10 as the second farthest spacecraft from the Sun at the distance 133.92 AU (nearly 12,45 billion miles) from the Sun.
* On 19 August, Luna 25, Russia's first lunar spacecraft since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, crashes into the lunar south pole after a failed orbital maneuver.
* On 23 August, Chandrayaan-3 successfully touches down in the lunar south pole region making India the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon, and the first to do so near the lunar south pole.
* On 9 December, Halley's Comet reached the farthest and slowest point in its orbit from the Sun when it was traveling at 0.91 km/s (2,000 mph) with respect to the Sun.

#### 2024

* On January 19, JAXA successfully landed the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon on the lunar surface, making Japan the 5th country to make a soft landing on the Moon.
* On March 14, SpaceX successfully launched Starship from Starbase, Texas at 8:25 a.m. CT and attempting to splashdown in the Indian Ocean which failed but they were able to get to 65 km and enter part of the Earth's atmosphere.
* On 7 October, the Hera spacecraft was launched successfully. It will arrive at the asteroid Didymos in 2026 after Mars flyby, where it will study the effects of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test.
* On 13 October, SpaceX achieves the first successful return and capture of a Super Heavy booster from Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever to fly.
* On 14 October, NASA launched the Europa Clipper on 14 October 2024, which will study the Jovian moon Europa while in orbit around Jupiter.

### Artificial intelligence

* DeepMind solves the protein folding problem to 90 percent accuracy, a 50-year-old grand challenge, at CASP14 in 2020.
* Text-to-image AI art systems such as DALL-E (1, 2, and 3) and Stable Diffusion are capable of generating highly detailed and realistic images from text prompts.
* Large language models, like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Meta's Llama became widely adopted in during 2023 and 2024.

### Communications and electronics

* 5G became increasingly widespread by 2020.
* By 2020, 3D printing had reached decent quality and affordable pricing which allowed many people to own 3D printers.
* 8K resolution and 4K resolution becomes prevalent in consumer electronics.

### Software and electronic platforms

* Support for Adobe Flash Player ended on 31 December 2020.
* Windows 11 is released on 5 October 2021, succeeding Windows 10.
* Support for Internet Explorer on Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) ended on 15 June 2022.
* ESU support for Windows 7 and extended support for Windows 8.1 and Windows RT ended on 10 January 2023. Some versions of Windows 10, such as Windows 10 2106 LTSB are already out of mainstream support, some versions are out of all support, and others soon on, i.e. October 14, 2025, while some Enterprise versions will be supported longer.

### Technology

* The BBC reports that for the "first time someone who has had a complete cut to their spinal cord has been able to walk freely... because of an electrical implant that has been surgically attached to his spine".
* Sales of electric vehicles have grown significantly and this is expected to continue through the decade.
* NFTs as a form of digital art emerged in the 2020s, with NFTs such as Everydays: the First 5000 Days. The NFT market experienced rapid growth during 2020, with its value tripling to US$250 million In the first three months of 2021, more than US$200 million were spent on NFTs, and in the early months of 2021, interest in NFTs increased after a number of high-profile sales and art auctions.

## Society
### Social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Medical experts advised, and local authorities often mandated stay-at-home orders to prevent gatherings of any size. Such gatherings could be replaced by teleconferencing, or in some cases with unconventional attempts to maintain social distancing with activities such as a balcony sing-along for a concert, or a "birthday parade" for a birthday party. Replacements for gatherings were seen as significant to mental health during the crisis. Social isolation among alcohol users also adopted a trend towards Kalsarikänni or "pantsdrunking", a Finnish antisocial drinking culture.
Low-income individuals were more likely to contract the coronavirus and to die from it. In both New York City and Barcelona, low-income neighborhoods were disproportionately hit by coronavirus cases. Hypotheses for why this was the case included that poorer families were more likely to live in crowded housing and work in jobs deemed essential during the crisis, such as supermarkets and elder care. In the United States, millions of low-income people may lack access to health care due to being uninsured or underinsured. Millions of Americans lost their health insurance after losing their jobs. Many low-income workers in service jobs became unemployed.
The coronavirus pandemic was followed by a concern for a potential spike in suicides, exacerbated by social isolation due to quarantine and social-distancing guidelines, fear, and unemployment and financial factors. Many countries reported an increase in domestic violence and intimate partner violence attributed to lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial insecurity, stress, and uncertainty led to increased aggression at home, with abusers able to control large amounts of their victims' daily life. Midlife crisis is a major concern in domestic violence, social implications and suicides for middle-aged adults amid the pandemic. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a domestic violence and midlife crisis "ceasefire".

### Population

* The population of Egypt reached 100 million in February 2020.
* The world population reached 8 billion in November 2022.
* Population growth, life expectancy and birth rates declined globally in the early 2020s, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
* India surpassed China and became the most-populous country in April 2023.

### Race

The murder of George Floyd led to civil unrest and protests across the United States and internationally in 2020.

### Gender

24.3% of all national parliamentarians were women as of February 2019. 11 women were serving as head of state and 12 as head of government in June 2019. 20.7% of government ministers were women as of January 2019. There are wide regional variations in the average percentages of women parliamentarians. As of February 2019, these were: Nordic countries, 42.5%; Americas, 30.6%; Europe excluding Nordic countries, 27.2; sub-Saharan Africa, 23.9; Asia, 19.8%; Arab States, 19%; and the Pacific, 16.3%. Rwanda has the highest number of women parliamentarians worldwide, 61.3% of seats in the lower house. About 26% of elected local parliamentarians are women.
Many states swore in their first female leaders during the 2020s, including Presidents Katerina Sakellaropoulou (Greece), Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Sandra Mason (Barbados), Xiomara Castro (Honduras), Katalin Novák (Hungary), Dina Boluarte (Peru), Nataša Pirc Musar (Slovenia), Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova (North Macedonia) and Prime Ministers Rose Christiane Raponda (Gabon), Victoire Tomegah Dogbé (Togo), Kaja Kallas (Estonia), Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa (Samoa), Robinah Nabbanja (Uganda), Najla Bouden (Tunisia), Magdalena Andersson (Sweden), Giorgia Meloni (Italy), Judith Suminwa (DRC), and Chairwoman Borjana Krišto (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

### Environmentalism

* Team Seas is an international collaborative fundraiser founded by YouTubers Mark Rober and MrBeast on 29 October 2021, as a follow-up to Team Trees. The fundraiser's aim was to raise US$30 million to remove 30 million pounds of trash from the ocean by the end of the year. They also partnered with the Ocean Cleanup and the Ocean Conservancy.
* Members of the United Nations agree on a legal framework for the High Seas Treaty on 4 March 2023, which aims to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.

### LGBT rights

* A law allowing third gender option on driver licenses took effect in New Hampshire.
* Switzerland banned discrimination based on sexuality due to a referendum, putting into effect a law previously introduced in 2018, that was subsequently blocked by the government that requested a referendum to be held on the matter first.
* In Northern Ireland, the first same-sex marriage took place after legalizing legislation took effect in January 2020.
* In Costa Rica, same-sex marriage and joint adoption by same-sex couples became legal on 26 May 2020.
* The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that job discrimination against workers for their sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal.
* The Equality Act passed the United States House of Representatives on 25 February 2021.
* In Argentina, nonbinary ID cards with an "X" gender marker started to be issued by the Ministry of the Interior.
* The U.S State Department issued its first ever passport with an "X" gender marker in October 2021, intended to support nonbinary people.
* Same-sex marriage became legal in Switzerland after a 2021 referendum, enforced beginning in July 2022.
* In Chile, same-sex marriage and joint adoption by same-sex couples became legal on 10 March 2022.
* Same-sex marriage became legal in Slovenia on 8 July 2022 after the Constitutional Court of Slovenia ruled that the ban on same-sex marriages violated the national constitution.
* Same-sex marriage became legal in Cuba on 27 September 2022 after the Cuban Family Code referendum passed.
* On 1 January 2024, same-sex marriage became legal in Estonia.

## Global goals and issues

Development in global goals and issues – including goals or progress related to the largest causes of human death – during the decade, according to reports that systematically track, quantify or review associated progress.

### As of 2022

* Progress of the Paris Agreement or global climate change mitigation goals
** The United in Science 2022 report by the WMO, summarizes latest climate science-related updates and assesses recent climate change mitigation progress as "going in the wrong direction".
** A report by the World Resources Institute assesses the state of nationally determined contributions (NDCs), finding they need to be strengthened by about six times for alignment with what may be enough to reach the Paris Agreement's 1.5 °C goal. The UNFCCC's NDC synthesis report suggests that based on the latest NDCs the carbon budget for a 50% likelihood of limiting warming to 1.5 °C would be used up by around 2032.
** A Lancet Countdown report publishes data of indicators that show "countries and companies continue to make choices that threaten the health and survival of people in every part of the world". It calls for an immediate, health-centred response at a critical juncture of recovery from crises.
** The WMO reports atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all reached record highs, with methane concentrations showing a record jump in 2021. The WMO Secretary-General concludes that "we are heading in the wrong direction", with time "running out".
** Climate Action Tracker systematically assesses the state of progress of actions of climate goals in an overview, finding that none of the indicators is on track to reach their 2030 targets, with insufficient speed for six indicators, and well below the required pace for 21, five heading in the wrong direction, and data being insufficient to evaluate the remaining eight.
** The UNEP's Emissions Gap Report finds that no credible "pathway" to the 1.5 °C climate goal is in place. Similarly, a UNFCCC synthesis about "long-term low-emission development strategies" warns that many net-zero targets "remain uncertain and postpone into the future critical action that needs to take place now".
* Deforestation mitigation goals
** An annual report by the World Resources Institute shows that tropical regions lost 9.3 million acres of primary old-growth forest in 2021, a decline of 11% from 2020, and about equal to both 2018 and 2019.
** The Forest Declaration Assessment finds that a drop of only 6.3% in deforestation in 2021 is "leaving the world off track from its goals of ending forest loss by 2030".
* Public health goals
** The UN's "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World" report finds that the number of people affected by hunger globally rose by 46 million to 828 million in 2021. 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, an increase of 112 million from 2019.
** A WHO report indicates collective progress toward a 15% relative reduction in population levels of physical inactivity by 2030 is insufficient and that about 500 million people will develop heart disease, obesity, diabetes or other diseases if they don't increase their physical activity.
* Global budgets and government spending
** The OECD and IEA report that global public subsidies for fossil fuels almost doubled from 2020 to $700bn in 2021.
* General well-being
** The Club of Rome, authors of the 1972 The Limits to Growth, and research institutes like the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research publish the "Earth for All" report, concluding that to increase the wellbeing of humanity, addressing rising inequality is key to mitigating related issues such as climate change with many current policies disproportionately burdening lower income groups.
* Sustainable Development Goals (other than the above or in general)
** The only UN report that monitors global progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development indicates the agenda is in "grave danger".
* GDP-alternative progress or sustainable development indices
** Human Development Index (HDI): the Human Development Report 2021-22 concludes that for the first time, the global HDI value declined for a second year, with living standards declining in 90% of countries.

## Popular culture

* The ninth generation of video game consoles, like PlayStation 5 (pictured) and Xbox Series X, were both released in 2020. Games for PlayStation 5 such as FC 24, The Matrix Awakens, and Overwatch 2 used HyperMotion and Unreal Engine 5 to display more realistic graphics. Grand Theft Auto VI will release for ninth generation consoles in 2025.
* The video-sharing site TikTok became a major influence on pop culture and the music industry in the early 2020s. Short-form videos have increased in viewership through TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts during the decade. TikTok was temporarily banned in the United States in 2025, due to national security concerns.
* During COVID-19 and the streaming wars, multiple TV shows and films released on internet streaming services instead of theaters. Squid Game was a global success as a result of the streaming wars that began in the early 2020s, involving many new streaming services. Services such as Apple TV+, Max, and Paramount+ were popular. Pictured above is the cast of Apple TV+'s Ted Lasso.
* AirPods have dominated the wireless headphone market in the early 2020s. Pictured are the base and "Pro" model of AirPods respectively. AirPods allow users to be several feet away from their device via Bluetooth, a technology not seen in wired earbuds of previous decades.
* Flashy multi-colored clothing became a trend in the early 2020s, as did baggier clothing such as hoodies, modeled here by musician Billie Eilish. The 2020s revived and built upon Y2K fashion trends.
* In the 2020s, multiple online food delivery services such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates, Grubhub, and Just Eat Takeaway became popular, becoming popular during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Food delivery robots also became popular in the 2020s, and were finally to the point they could be used to deliver food around larger areas such as college campuses.
* Canadian singer the Weeknd was the first artist of the decade to achieve a Billboard number-one single of the year (for the year 2020) with his hit single "Blinding Lights", which was also performed during the Super Bowl LV in 2021.
* Olivia Rodrigo released singles like "Deja Vu" and "Good 4 U", and her debut studio album, Sour, in 2021. Sour was met with critical and commercial success, winning various accolades including three Grammy Awards.
* The use of cryptocurrency became more mainstream in the 2020s, Crypto such as Bitcoin and others were notable. The Staples Center was even renamed Crypto.com Arena in 2021. NFTs as a form of digital art emerged in the 2020s, with NFTs such as Everydays: the First 5000 Days.
* 5G was introduced in smartphones during the early part of the decade, with the Samsung Galaxy Flip and iPhone 13 smartphones having 5G capabilities. Foldable smartphones also became more popular, although concern grew about the durability of foldable smartphones, as some foldable smartphones have become crinkled / will crease over time. As well, some foldable smartphones break more easily.
* Advancements in AI have been rapid and fast-paced in the 2020s. Generative AIs has become mainstream during the decade, with synthetic media in the form of Text-to-image models, DeepSeek, ChatGPT, and Audio deepfakes. AI techniques have now been used in music, including the Beatles' last song "Now and Then" (2023). Additionally, AI has been used for video creation, such as with Sora.
* The Fourth Industrial Revolution in the 2020s is referred to as industrial change with emerging technologies such as AI, gene editing, and advanced robotics that blur the lines between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. Automation also continues to take over human jobs. Above is a photo of a Tesla Bot, which Tesla, Inc. hopes to begin selling by 2027.
* Clubhouse, an app launched in 2020, has gained popularity in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and had 600,000 registered users by December 2020. The main feature is that users can communicate in audio chat rooms that accommodate groups of thousands of people.
* Renewable energy sources such as electric vehicles as well as solar- and wind-powered devices to combat global warming became popular during the 2020s. Scooter-sharing systems have become common in the street scene of the 2020s (especially in downtown areas), with Lime becoming popular.
* The early 2020s started with a rise in videoconferencing due to the pandemic, while many educational institutions and workplaces shifted to distance learning and remote work during and after the pandemic. Large-scale video conferencing became a reality and more common during the 2020s.
* Popular Japanese media franchises such as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, Oshi no Ko, Frieren, Attack on Titan, Spy × Family, Dr. Stone, One Piece, Blue Lock, and Mashle reaching large international audiences and fans used for crossover works during the Reiwa era.
* Summer Olympic Games of the 2020s include Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028, as well as Tokyo 2020 in 2021 (the first ever Olympic games to be delayed, taking place in 2021 instead of 2020). Winter Olympic Games of the decade included the controversial Beijing in 2022, as well as Milan-Cortina in 2026.
* The 2020s was a more profitable era for movies based on video games. The Super Mario Bros. Movie released in 2023 and surpassed $1 billion, and Nintendo plans to open a group of international theme parks called Super Nintendo World and a Nintendo Museum between 2021 and 2025.
* Apple Vision Pro, which was released in 2024, marks an advancement in spatial computing and mixed reality headsets. The device intends to merge physical and digital environments, overlaying computer graphics on each individual user's real world environments.
* During the 2020s, the idea of brain implants existed in an early, limited form. The company Neuralink and a research group demonstrated the ability for a monkey to move a computer cursor with neural signals, typing coherent sentences.
* Cloud computing has surged in popularity following and during the global pandemic of 2020. Cloud computing allows for data to be stored in data centers and looked up on any device, rather than the photos, notes, etc. of a device being restricted to just that device.
* The Sustainable Development Goals promotes seventeen interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future". Pictured above is a diagram listing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which are intended to be completed by the end of the 2020s.
* Social media rebranding occurred during the 2020s, with Facebook, Inc. and Twitter changed its name to Meta Platforms and X (though many people continue to call it Twitter). New social platforms such as Threads and Bluesky also launched.
* A new EU law, which came into force in 2024, obliges plastic bottles to have caps attached to reduce plastic waste caused by the lid.

### Fashion

The fashion of the early 2020s was characterized by a variety of styles and influences from different eras. During this period, the trend towards individuality and self-expression in clothing continued. Young Millennials & Generation Z has witnessed a notable resurgence of fashion styles from the late 1980s and 2000s in the fashion industry. A prominent example of this is the revival of trends such as crop tops, baggy jeans, and elements from the Y2K aesthetic.
Sustainable fashion practices gained significance, with an increased awareness of environmentally friendly materials and production processes. Influences from social media culture were also unmistakable, as influencers and celebrities exerted a strong influence on fashion trends. The popularity of online platforms like Instagram and TikTok contributed to the rapid spread of trends, while simultaneously allowing niche styles and subcultures to flourish.
Popular brands in the Anglosphere (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States) during this era include Adidas, Fila, Nike, New Balance, Globe International, Vans, Hurley, Kappa, Tommy Hilfiger, Asics, Ellesse, Ralph Lauren, Forever 21, Playboy, and The North Face.

### Film

The COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted film releases especially early in the decade, resulting in a drastic drop in box office revenue as well as many films postponing their release or shifting it to a streaming services. Avatar: The Way of Water is the highest-grossing film of the decade so far, and currently the third-highest-grossing film of all time. Other financially successful films at the box office include Top Gun: Maverick, No Time to Die, Jurassic World Dominion, and Oppenheimer. Superhero films mostly continued to do well financially, with Spider-Man: No Way Home being the second-highest-grossing of the decade. Other successful superhero films include The Batman as well as most of Marvel Studios' "Multiverse Saga of the MCU". However, DC Studios' "DC Universe" films began to generally underperform at the box office.
Nintendo and Mattel made their own big-budget theatrical releases, resulting in the massive successes of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Barbie (which includes the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon). These films became the highest-grossing films of 2023 internationally.
The release of Disney's Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2 in theaters makes it the highest grossing R-rated film and the animated film of all time. These films became the highest-grossing films of 2024 internationally.
Ne Zha 2 became the highest-grossing animated film of all time, marking the first time a non-American, non-English-language animated film achieved this milestone. The film also claimed the title of the highest-grossing film in China and the highest-grossing foreign language film since the COVID-19 pandemic recovery.
In 2021, following the aftermath of the pandemic, American cinema chain AMC Theatres released a movie theatre commercial with actress Nicole Kidman, which quickly went viral and gained a huge following for Kidman's performance and jumpsuit, campy tone and quotable dialogue, as well as spawning countless parodies and tributes.
Critically successful films nominated for awards include Nomadland, CODA, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Hundreds of Beavers, Licorice Pizza, The Fabelmans, Killers of the Flower Moon, Past Lives, Elvis, Belfast, The Power of the Dog, Poor Things, Anora, The Substance, RRR, The Brutalist, Oppenheimer, and Anatomy of a Fall.
Several successful and popular horror films include the X trilogy, Barbarian, and M3GAN.
Critically successful animated films include Wolfwalkers, Migration, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Transformers One, The Sea Beast, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Turning Red, Nimona, Soul, Robot Dreams, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Encanto, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Memoir of a Snail, Flow, Flee, Ne Zha 2, Once Upon a Studio, Chicken for Linda!, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, and The Wild Robot.
Critically successful independent films include Triangle of Sadness, Titane, Alcarràs, Another Round, Drive My Car, Dahomey, Perfect Days, Nomadland, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, I'm Still Here, Emilia Pérez, The Apprentice, Happening, Horizon: An American Saga, Parallel Mothers, Poor Things, Benedetta, Bones and All, Anatomy of a Fall, Undine, Crimes of the Future, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Dreams (Sex Love), Anora, The French Dispatch, The Power of the Dog, Quo Vadis, Aida?, The Substance, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Queer, The Room Next Door, and On the Adamant.
Film legacy reboots regained popularity as many were released on streaming services and in theaters. Some of these film remakes, reboots and returns to older franchises include: Clerks III, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Top Gun: Maverick, West Side Story, Mean Girls, He's All That, A Christmas Story Christmas, Scream, The Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, All Quiet on the Western Front, Nosferatu, Wicked, Good Burger 2, Wonka, Matilda the Musical, Mufasa: The Lion King, Snow White, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Coming 2 America, The Color Purple, Superman, How to Train Your Dragon, 28 Years Later, Dune, Gladiator II, and Moana.

### Television

The 2020s started off with streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Binge, Max, Showtime, Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Disney+. Additional streaming services such as Discovery+, Paramount+, and Peacock were released as well. Ad-supported streaming televisions such as Pluto TV and YouTube TV also became more popular.
Billions of people watched the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II in 2022 and the 2024 Summer Olympics coverage in Paris speculated to be the most watched special television events in history.

#### Animated

Adult-oriented animated programming also continued a sharp upturn in popularity with ongoing controversial cartoons like South Park (1997–present), Family Guy (1999–2002, 2005–present) and Futurama (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2023–present) along with the longtime running cartoon The Simpsons (1989–present).
New and critically acclaimed teen and adult animated shows like Midnight Gospel, Harley Quinn, Hazbin Hotel, Primal, Adventure Time, Love, Death & Robots, Invincible, Arcane, and Smiling Friends launched in the 2020s, along with other animated shows such as Hilda, Bluey, Craig of the Creek, Amphibia, Star Wars: Visions, and The Owl House.
Japanese anime continued to rise in global popularity and appeal during the decade due its wide distribution on movie theaters and streaming services, with works such as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Blue Lock, BanG Dream!, Baki, Kengan Ashura, Komi Can't Communicate, Dr. Stone, Dragon Ball Daima, Dorohedoro, Ishura, My Happy Marriage, The Quintessential Quintuplets, Re:Zero, Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Golden Kamuy, My Deer Friend Nokotan, The Dangers in My Heart, Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku, Call of the Night, Kingdom, Mushoku Tensei, Mashle, Shy, Spy × Family, Oshi no Ko, The Eminence in Shadow, Frieren, TenSura, Tower of God, Kaiju No. 8, Dandadan, Lycoris Recoil, Blue Archive, Mission: Yozakura Family, Sakamoto Days, Solo Leveling, Shangri-La Frontier, Tokyo Revengers, Ranking of Kings, Overlord, Bocchi the Rock!, Vinland Saga, My Dress Up Darling, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, Uma Musume Pretty Derby, The Apothecary Diaries, Pluto, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, KonoSuba, Delicious in Dungeon, Attack on Titan, and One Piece reaching large international audiences.
Anime films dominated in the 2020s, such as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, The First Slam Dunk, Suzume, Case Closed (Detective Conan), Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, One Piece Film: Red, and The Boy and the Heron are the highest-grossing anime films of all time.

#### Live-action

A variety of shows on streaming services such as Squid Game, Alice in Borderland, Severance, Never Have I Ever, Tulsa King, Ted Lasso, Beef, The Boys, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Only Murders in the Building, Wednesday, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Euphoria, Abbott Elementary, The Bear, The Witcher, The White Lotus, Hacks, The Diplomat, Yellowstone, The Last of Us, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Succession, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Tiger King gained popularity. Many different shows on many different competing streaming services resulted in what has been called the "streaming wars" of the early 2020s. Miniseries also gained popularity such as The Queen's Gambit, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Daisy Jones & the Six, Beef, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Mrs. America, Mare of Easttown, and Pam & Tommy.
Also released in the 2020s, the reality game show The Traitors achieved popularity and became a global success.
TV show reboots also became increasingly popular, with Frasier, That '90s Show, Shōgun, One Piece, and Friends: The Reunion appearing on streaming. Matthew Perry died in 2023, following Friends: The Reunion. Other TV remakes, reboots and returns from older series include: Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Father, House of the Dragon, iCarly, The Baby-Sitters Club, and The Wonder Years. Also TV shows based on films include: American Gigolo, The Penguin, the Star Wars TV shows and specials (The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Andor), Peacemaker, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Knuckles, the Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ shows and specials, and Ted.

### Music

By 2020, TikTok, an online video service, had become extremely popular as a music platform on social media. Users on streaming platforms such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer, Amazon Music, and Apple Music have increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Festivals such as Coachella were cancelled because of the virus. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the touring business.
Pop, hip-hop, C-pop, J-pop, K-pop, R&B, nu-disco, and synth-pop all dominated the early part of the decade, with the most popular artists being Ariana Grande, Cai Xukun, Lizzo, Lil Ghost, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa, Ice Spice, Jack Harlow, the Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, J.Sheon, Chappell Roan, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Bad Bunny, Adele, Morgan Wallen, Beyoncé, the Kid Laroi, and more. The early 20s also saw the one-off return of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones with a new song and album, respectively, which topped out the charts immediately upon release.

### Video games

The ninth generation of consoles began in 2020. The industry remains dominated by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft with the release of the Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5, while the Nintendo Switch continues to be popular from the previous decade. Technological advancements in consoles included support for real-time ray tracing graphics and output for 4K or even 8K resolution. Physical media continued to be replaced by online distribution of games, with the Xbox Series S and the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition lacking an optical drive. The Steam Deck was released in 2022 as Valve's attempt to bring PC-level gaming to a Nintendo Switch-style handheld format.
During the decade PC gaming would continue growing rapidly with the console gaming market remaining more stagnant. The growing majority of video game developers would also primarily focus on developing their projects for PC.
Critically successful games such as Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarök, Baldur's Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong, Astro Bot, and The Last of Us Part II were released and won multiple best game of the year awards, signaling a shift towards narrative-driven and single-played focused gaming compared with the end of the 2010s where popularity of multiplayer gaming dominated. Nonetheless, widely successful multiplayer games includes Call of Duty: Warzone, Fall Guys, Fate/Grand Order, Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, It Takes Two, Minecraft, Roblox, Dead by Daylight, Overwatch 2, League of Legends, and Valorant. The detective-party game Among Us surged in popularity in 2020 and became a global sensation, largely attributed in to global stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nintendo continued to successfully produce games for the Nintendo Switch, with Animal Crossing: New Horizons selling over 40 million copies, and making it the second-best-selling game on the console. The Nintendo Switch's sales remained strong in the 2020s due in part to games such as Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Bowser's Fury, Metroid Dread, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Nintendo Switch Sports, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Splatoon 3, Bayonetta 3, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Princess Peach: Showtime!. The Nintendo Switch's best-selling game Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has received additional tracks with the "Booster Course Pass", releasing across 2022 and 2023, while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate received a second DLC pass from 2020 to 2021, including characters such as Steve from Minecraft and Sora from Kingdom Hearts.
High-budget remakes of video games became much more widespread in the 2020s, with notable examples including Resident Evil 3 and 4, Final Fantasy VII Remake and its sequels, Live A Live, The Last of Us Part I, Dead Space, Super Mario RPG, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, and Silent Hill 2 being notable examples of older games that received full graphical and modernized remakes.
Indie video games that gained popularity during the decade include, Death Come True, World's End Club, Touhou Project, Mouthwashing, Stray, Kero Blaster, Omori, Tunic, Human: Fall Flat, Balatro, Buckshot Roulette, Binding of Isaac: Repentance and Repentance+, Before Your Eyes, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, Wildermyth, Helltaker, Hades, Dave the Diver, Dredge, Doki Doki Literature Club, Celeste, Alien Hominid Returns, Oxenfree, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, Inscryption, Pizza Tower, Manor Lords, MiSide, Skul: The Hero Slayer, Poppy Playtime, Untitled Goose Game, Satisfactory, Among Us, Animal Well, Outer Wilds, Ultrakill, Unpacking, Vampire Survivors, Valheim, Mullet MadJack, Spelunky 2, UFO 50, and Phasmophobia.
Video game film and television adaptations became more financially and critically successful compared with previous decades. Film releases include The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Sonic the Hedgehog, Five Nights at Freddy's, A Minecraft Movie, and Uncharted; as well as the video game-themed Tetris, Ready Player Two, and Free Guy. Television adaptations include Arcane: League of Legends, Carmen Sandiego, Castlevania, Castlevania: Nocturne, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, The Cuphead Show!, Dota: Dragon's Blood, Dragon Age: Absolution, Sonic Prime, The Last of Us, and The Witcher; in addition with the table-top game adaptation The Legend of Vox Machina.

### Architecture

There is a revival in expressionist architecture. The SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome were completed in September 2020 and August 2024, there are a components of Hollywood Park, a master-planned neighborhood in development in Inglewood, California. The venue serves as a home to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Rams, and the Chargers. Both they hosted Super Bowl LVI in February 2022 and the 2026 NBA All-Star Game in February 2026. The stadium and arena is also set to host the opening and closing ceremonies, aquatic events (swimming and diving), and basketball events for the 2028 Summer Olympics, which will be hosted in Los Angeles, California, United States.
The development in Port Melbourne, Victoria of the West Gate Tunnel continued from 2020, which is designed to provide an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, it is expected to be completed in 2025.
The Unity Tower in Kraków was finally completed on 30 September 2020. The construction of the building originally started in 1975, but stopped permanently in 1981 because of economic constraints and political unrest at the time. Due to the unfinished building's resemblance to a skeleton, it was nicknamed after Skeletor, the arch-villain in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which was popular in Poland at the time construction began.
* In 2021, Renzo Piano completes the COVID-19-delayed Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California.
* In 2023, Vici Properties finishes construction of the Sphere, the largest sphere in the world in Las Vegas, Nevada.

### Sports
#### 2020

* The COVID-19 pandemic leads to the cancellation or rescheduling of numerous sporting events globally:
The 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo were postponed to July–August 2021. This was the first Olympic Games to be postponed rather than cancelled in history since World War II.
The 2020 T20 Cricket World Cup, originally scheduled to take place in Australia, was rescheduled to occur in India in 2021. It was then rescheduled to occur in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, mainly in the former. Australia won its first title in the event.
Sporting leagues such as the North American NHL, MLB, and NBA, and the English Premier League adapt their seasons and championship play around COVID-19 by placing players in "bubbles" and televising games played in empty arenas and stadiums.

#### 2021

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31–9 in Super Bowl LV to win their second title in the National Football League (NFL); Tom Brady won Super Bowl MVP for his performance.
* Due to cross-border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Hockey League (NHL) realigns its team divisions, with all seven Canadian teams competing in their own division for the first time. Tampa Bay Lightning win the second of back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals and third championship overall, defeating the Montreal Canadiens.
* The Atlanta Braves won their first World Series since 1995.
* With the easing of COVID restrictions in the UK, the 2021 Wimbledon Championships are held with full attendances. Novak Djokovic wins the men's singles title, his 20th Grand Slam win equaling Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's record.
* Canada won their 27th ice hockey World title in 2021 IIHF World Championships, after defeating the reigning champion Finland in the final in overtime.
* Hideki Matsuyama wins the Masters, becoming the first-ever Japanese golfer to win a major golfing championship.
* The Milwaukee Bucks won their first NBA championship in 50 years and their second title overall, with Giannis Antetokounmpo named Finals MVP.
* Italy won UEFA Euro 2020 by defeating England 3–2 on penalties.
* Argentina wins the 2021 Copa América by defeating Brazil 1–0.
* The United States wins the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup by defeating Mexico 1–0.
* The 2020 Summer Olympics take place in Tokyo, Japan, being the country's fourth time hosting the games. The United States wins the most gold and overall medals, with China coming in second and host Japan coming in third.
* Max Verstappen narrowly wins the 2021 Formula One World Championship over Lewis Hamilton in a final race showdown at the Yas Marina Circuit.
* After 25 years of career, Valentino Rossi retire from MotoGP.
* Australia won the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup held in United Arab Emirates and Oman.

#### 2022

* Senegal won the 2021 AFCON by defeating Egypt 4–2 on penalties.
* The Los Angeles Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23–20 in Super Bowl LVI to win their second title in the NFL; Cooper Kupp won Super Bowl MVP for his performance.
* The 2022 Winter Olympics take place in Beijing, China, becoming the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympic Games. Norway wins the most gold and overall medals, with Germany coming in second and the United States coming in third.
* The Kansas Jayhawks beat the North Carolina Tar Heels 72–69 in the 2022 NCAA Division I to win their fourth title; Ochai Agbaji won MVP for his performance.
* Finland won their first ever ice hockey Olympic gold medal in 2022 Winter Olympics and 4th ice hockey World title in 2022 IIHF World Championships in same year.
* The Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals in a best-of-seven series winning their 7th title. Guard Stephen Curry was awarded the Finals MVP. That same season, Curry set the NBA record for career three-pointers made, surpassing Ray Allen.
* The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in a best-of-seven series during the 2021–22 NHL season, four games to two and winning their third Stanley Cup.
* Argentina won 2022 FIBA AmeriCup by defeating Brazil 75–73.
* Australia won 2022 FIBA Asia Cup by defeating Lebanon 75–73.
* Spain won EuroBasket 2022 by defeating France 88–76.
* Kalle Rovanperä broke the late Colin McRae's record of becoming the youngest ever Rally World Champion after winning in 2022 Rally New Zealand.
* Max Verstappen won the 2022 Formula One World Championship at over Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc at the Suzuka Circuit.
* Argentina won 2022 FIFA World Cup by defeating France 4–2 on penalties, with Lionel Messi winning the Golden Ball and Kylian Mbappé winning the Golden Boot.
* England won the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup which was held in Australia.

#### 2023

* LeBron James, playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, scored his 38,388th career point in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the all-time leading scorer in NBA history.
* The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38–35 in Super Bowl LVII. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was awarded both NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP, the first player to win both in the same season since 1999.
* Japan defeated the United States in the 2023 World Baseball Classic championship by a score of 3–2, winning their 3rd title in the event. Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani was named the MVP of the tournament.
* The WWE and UFC announced they would merge to form a new company, majority owned by Endeavor, the parent company of UFC's owner. The deal values the newly combined company at over $21 billion: UFC being worth $12.1 billion and WWE valued at $9.3 billion. Endeavor shareholders will own 51% while WWE shareholders get 49%.
* The Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA Finals and Nikola Jokić won the Finals MVP award.
* Spain won 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time by defeating England 1–0, with Aitana Bonmatí winning the Golden Ball and Hinata Miyazawa winning the Golden Boot.
* Germany won 2023 FIBA World Cup by defeating Serbia 83–77.
* Kalle Rovanperä won the second World Rally Champion of his career, coming second place in the 2023 Central European Rally.
* South Africa won the 2023 Rugby World Cup by defeating New Zealand in the finals. In doing so, South Africa became the second team to win back-to-back World Cups and the first team to win back-to-back World Cups away from home.
* Australia won the 2023 Cricket World Cup by defeating India in the finals.
* Max Verstappen won the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship with a record 19 Grand Prix wins out of 22, the most dominant season in F1 history.

#### 2024

* The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII, the first back-to-back Super Bowl champions since the New England Patriots 20 years prior.
* The Boston Celtics won the 2024 NBA Finals, led by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. This marked the franchise's 18th championship, the most in NBA history with the most recorded wins of any NBA team.
* The Florida Panthers won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history after a Game 7 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals. Additionally, the Oilers became the first team since 1945 to force a Game 7 while trailing 3–0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, and Connor McDavid became the first player since 2003 to win the Conn Smythe Trophy without winning the Stanley Cup.
* India won the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup by defeating South Africa in the final.
* Spain won UEFA Euro 2024 by defeating England in the final.
* The 2024 Summer Olympics takes place in Paris, France, being the country's third time hosting the games since 1900 and 1924. The United States wins the most gold and overall medals, with China coming in second and Japan coming in third.
* Max Verstappen won the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship with a record 9 Grand Prix wins out of 24, he became the first driver to win a title driving for a third-placed team in the World Constructors' Championship since Nelson Piquet in 1983.
* Shohei Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season and was unanimously named the 2024 National League MVP, and he won the 2024 World Series in his first MLB postseason appearance.

### Food

Food delivery apps such as DoorDash, Instacart, Menulog, Uber Eats, Grubhub and Just Eat Takeaway flourished due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Indoor dining was also closed in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and upon re-opening the usage of QR codes and other technologies in the restaurant industry increased compared to the 2010s in order to comply with pandemic restrictions.
Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, online grocery shopping has substantially grown and in the first few months of the pandemic, online grocery shopping increased by 300%. Before the pandemic occurred, food shopping activity accounted for 9% of the market, now 63 percent of consumers worldwide have purchased more groceries online after the outbreak than they did before they were socially isolated.

### Literature

Books published throughout the decade include The Vanishing Half, Leave the World Behind, Transcendent Kingdom, I'm Glad My Mom Died, All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia by Simon Garfield, The Glass Hotel, Memorial and The City We Became. Recent releases on this decade include How to Prevent the Next Pandemic by Bill Gates, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange, Wikipedia @ 20 by Joseph M. Reagle Jr. and Jackie Koerner, It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders, and The Candy House.
Over a year after Friends: The Reunion, and the year before his death, Matthew Perry released Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (which had a foreword written by Lisa Kudrow). The book became a New York Times best-seller.
Japanese manga would continue dominating the comic book industry throughout the decade.