Donald Trump elected as President of United States:
On November 8, 2016, Trump and Pence were elected president and vice president of the United States. The victory was considered an upset after much of exit polls had heavily favoured his opponent Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump is the fifth presidential candidate in U.S. history to win the election but lose the popular vote. While much of his comments during the presidential campaign were controversial, it gave Trump an extensive coverage and helped him gain mileage among his vote base. Much of Trump’s campaign involved policies concerning immigration, arms and foreign affairs that proved popular with the majority of the white male population. Trump’s wife Ivanka was also accused of plagiarizing Michelle Obama’s speech during Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Audio tapes of Trump regarding sexual assault and accusations of the same from countless women threatened to derail his chances but Hillary Clinton’s email controversy gave the businessman a much needed shot in the arm towards the end of the campaign
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff impeached:
2016 saw Dilma Rousseff impeached as the president of Brazil in August. Lava Jato or operation car wash, an investigation carried out by the Federal Police of Brazil uncovered a multibillion-dollar kickback and bribery scandal involving state-run oil company Petrobras, also Latin America’s biggest company.
Contracts of the company was inflated to fund political parties that formed a coalition, namely the Workers party, the Democratic Movement party of Brazil (PMDB) and the Progressive party. While Dilma Rousseff herself wasn’t directly involved in taking bribes, she was found accused of having fudged government accounts to paint a better picture.
Demonetisation:
For the Indian ‘aam aadmi’, the biggest shocker of the year was the Centre’s demonetisation of two high value currencies of Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 which accounted for nearly 86 per cent of the total Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notes in circulation in the country. It was so not because it was exceptionally revolutionary, but more for pressing an economically fallacious logic that corruption is abolished if these two denominations are no longer legal tender. And with now, as replies to a widely reported RTI query reveals, the RBI Board had approved the Centre’s decision to withdraw the above two denomination currency notes at 5-30 p.m. on November 8, barely three hours before Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi went on national television to announce the momentous decision. “Was the process adequately planned?” is the query raised by many. The unmistakable imagery since November 10 has been people waiting in long queues before banks either to deposit their old notes or struggling to withdraw the little limits allowed by the government. For all the votaries of the Centre’s decision, that pain persists as 2017 rings in. A miserably self-imposed demand contraction in the economy, amid a ‘famine’ for lower denomination notes, has only worsened the people’s plight unless RBI remonetises the banking system quickly.
ISIS-Boko haram:
ISIS took credit for majority of the terror attacks in 2016. The Karrada bombing in July, in Baghdad, was the biggest attack with 292 causalities. A car filled with explosives blew up outside a shopping centre. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. The sharaban twin bombing in January, that saw 100 people die and the Baghdad car bombing were other major attacks in Iraq, all claimed by ISIS. 2016 also witnessed a string of attacks around Europe. A lorry ran into the crowd on Bastille day in Nice, France killing 83 people and injuring 434. ISIS claimed the driver, who was gunned down by the police, to be one of their own. The most recent terror attack was in Germany, in December, where a truck was hijacked and driven into a Christmas market killing 12 people.
Brexit:
Britain decided to leave the European Union, an partnership between 28 European countries, after 52% of those participating in the referendum voted leave. The referendum was held on June 23 with 71.28 percent of the population participating. On a country basis, Scotland and Northern Ireland had voted to remain in the European Union but England and Wales voted for leaving. Immigration proved a key factor in influencing the decision making of the people. While EU allows a free movement of people with its partner countries to both work and live, Britain voted against the idea. David Cameron resigned on the day of the referendum and Theresa May, the former home secretary took over. Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson were key figures in influencing the public to vote for Brexit.
Brexit had a poor impact on economy with the pound hitting a 30 year low. Britain also lost its AAA rating which will in turn increase the cost of government borrowing. UK is expected to start the actual process by March 2017 which could see it exit EU by 2019.
