History UsefulNotes / TheNewTensRealLife

** Tunisia overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the dictator of Tunisia, in 2011, after mass protests incited by [[ForWantOfANail the public self-immolation of a fruit vendor]]. The country subsequently held its elections the same year. Tunisia was the only success story of The Arab Spring that it inspired, as the country has had a relatively clean democratic credentials in the years after.

** Across the political spectrum, the cold war in the Labour Party boiled over. Jeremy Corbyn's already fragile grip as Labour's leader was weakened even further after numerous MPs accused him of being hesitant to campaign for the "Remain" effort. A portion of the shadow cabinet resigned, trying to get Corbyn to resign. When it was clear he wouldn't, a leadership contest began, with Mr. Corbyn and Owen Smith as the candidates. Both are trying to appeal to the left of the party, with Smith supported by most of the MP's and Corbyn being supported by Momentum. There was also two legal battles, firstly to whether Corbyn would have to get nominations (as he was the incumbent, he didn't) and secondly whether the vote freeze for new members was fair. (It was originally ruled to be unfair but the Court of Appeals ruled it to be fair. It's unclear whether it'll go to a higher court)

* On March 15, 2019, white supremacist Brenton Tarrant attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people and wounding 49 during their prayer service. Tarrant had live-streamed the assault with Facebook Live, sparking disapproval that social media sites weren't doing enough to address hate speech. Afterwards, the New Zealand Parliament immediately passed a ban on semi-automatic rifles, followed a couple of months later by the "Christchurch Call to Action Summit", a multi-lateral summit to crack down on extremist violence propagated via social media.

* Another troublesome development is North Korea's increasing, even unbridled, enthusiasm at antagonizing South Korea, Japan and America. Kim Jong-un (the son and successor to the late Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011) is becoming rather notorious for his temper tantrums, including conducting nuclear operations, launching military satellites into space, threatening to attack the aforementioned three nations and ending the armistice that has kept both countries out of war since 1953, immediately taking tensions up to eleven. It's gotten to a point where ''even China'', North Korea's ''ally'', joined America in imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea. Kim Jong-un has since called for a restart of nuclear talks with no preconditions, although the United States and Japan are both suspicious. We'll see what happens.

* In 2019, the people of UsefulNotes/ElSalvador elected the 38-year-old Nayib Bukele -- the former Mayor of San Salvador -- to the Salvadoran presidency, being the first president not under either the right-wing (highly US-friendly) ARENA or the left-wing (slightly-less US-friendly) FMLN party since the end of the Salvadoran Civil War in 1992, being supported by a mélange of parties out of which only the centrist Christian Democrats had any recognition. His successful election was accredited to his aggressive use of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook and his self-promoted image of a millennial reformist that was going to punish the self-serving politicians of the "old guard" which he blamed for all the political corruption plaguing the nation. He quickly became known across the world for his charismatic but somewhat ego-centric personality and tendency to use social media to insult and attack political opponents and foreign left-wing heads of state. He also became known for his cozying up with such right-wing populists such as Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and then-US president Donald Trump, which many saw as him trying too hard to appease him politically to have on him on his good graces to get higher economic and military aid and an extension of Temporary Protected Status ('''TPS''') for Salvadorans immigrants in the United States to make himself look competent and active after his predecesor Salvador Ceren was accused of nearly-souring diplomatic relations with the US[[note]]due to his (un)official support of both Venezuela and Cuba and for breaking diplomatic ties with UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} in favor of mainland China without telling the US, which is very important as El Salvador is extremely dependent on the US as a fifth of its population relies on remittances from family members living there[[/note]] -- unlike his fellow presidents of UsefulNotes/{{Honduras}} and UsefulNotes/{{Guatemala}} -- who were more cautious when dealing with Trump following his anti-immigration and anti-refugee policies including twisting their arms into accepting a repatriation agreement that forced Central American nations to take would-be refugees wanting to flee to the United States even though they didn't have the facilities for such a task.

* On January 22nd, 2019, transgender individuals are officially banned from joining the U.S. military with a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling allowing Trump's transgender ban to go into effect (which officially took into effect starting April 2019). Trump's executive order would remain in place for the final two years of his term, and the decade. The Biden administration would later countermand this policy in 2021 with an executive order permitting transgender service members to serve. The order, announced on the very first day of Biden's term, created a deliberate contrast between the two administrations.

* The emergence of "Abenomics" in Japan has brought up a mixed response from the international community. While [[http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/japanese-reform-lessons-for-asia-s-ailing-giants-by-yuriko-koike some are convinced]] that current Prime Minister Abe's policies--which include aggressive (for Japan) stimulus, reducing or even eliminating expensive and inefficient agricultural subsidies[[note]]Which would be something of a "Nixon-in-China" moment, since Abe's LDP has historically been in the pocket of the agriculturalists[[/note]] and joining American President Obama's proposed "Trans-Pacific Partnership" free trade area--would put any lingering traces of the "Lost Decade" to rest[[note]]which, along with the aforementioned successful 2020 Olympics bid is within reasonable possibility[[/note]], others are concerned about his more controversial ([[BrokenBase and rather divisive]]) ideas about the country's constitution (i.e. the anti-war Article 9).

*** Since January 2019, there has been a presidential dispute between Nicolás Maduro and his moderate political opponent, Juan Guaidó; where the National Assembly of Venezuela claimed the election results were invalid and declared Juan as the acting president. As a result, various protests across the country has been calling for Maduro to step down from the office (which the protests has led to mass arrests and violence from Maduro's supporters and the police). This also resulted in various international governments and organizations backing different president candidates; with the United States, European Union, and right-wing Latin American governments (i.e. Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, etc.) backing Juan Guaidó while Russia, China, and various left-wing governments (i.e. Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, South Africa, Syria, etc.) backing Nicolás Maduro. After Donald Trump announced his support for Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela, Maduro responded by cutting all diplomatic ties with United States, expelling American diplomats in Venezuela, and withdrawing his diplomats in United States.

** The Argentine government of Cristina Fernández-Kirchner (who had succeeded her husband Néstor Kirchner in 2007) became infamous for its blatant manipulation of economic data as well for allegations of corruption (which included the burial of money in a church), which eventually led to the conviction of some of her allies. She was replaced by the conservative Mauricio Macri in 2015. While his economic policies became very unpopular (with the memories of the 2001 crisis still fresh), especially among the lower classes (which had benefited from the myriad of benefits enacted by the previous government), Senor Macri's party became the first since 1985 to beat the Peronist left in Congress during the 2017 mid-term election. However, the country has been hit particularly hard by the rise of the dollar during 2018, with the government being forced to seek an IMF rescue reminiscent of 2001, a controversial decision, especially among the left and the working classes. For the 2019 campaign, CFK became the running mate of former cabinet head-turned-nemesis Anibal Fernandez, eventually winning the October election.

** In Chile, Sebastian Pinera became the first right-wing President of that country since 1990 (and the first since 1958 to be elected), succeeding the leftist Michelle Bachelet. His government was marked by high growth, but also witnessed an astronomic rise on immigration (primarily from Haiti and other Caribbean countries) and a resurgent student movement, led by college students who had protested as high-schoolers in the 2006-07 "Penguin Revolution", some of whom eventually entered Congress in 2014, the year Senora Bachelet returned to the presidency, her second term marked by stagnant growth and allegations of nepotism, as her son and daughter-in-law had used the presidential connection to buy some land. Senor Pinera returned in 2018, with the center-left parties left divided by the rise of the Frente Amplio, a group of left-wing fringe movements. An increase on the Santiago subway fare in October 2019 led to a week-long state of emergency for most of the country after a wave of destruction of public and private property, including the subway. Some 20 people died either from military action or from being trapped inside torched buildings.

** Cuba and the U.S. have made various advances in their relationship, leading to the restoration of diplomatic relations in December 2014 (after being broke in 1960), but it is unsure if this will give way to democracy in the island (Raúl Castro announced that he would step down in 2018, ten years after replacing brother Fidel). Barack Obama became in 2016 the first U.S. president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928 to visit the island. 2016 was also the first (and so far, only) year the U.S. did not support its long-standing embargo on the island. More importantly, Fidel Castro died in November of that year, after outliving almost all other Cold War icons.
*** However, as of June 16th, 2017, Mr. Trump has announced to reverse several of Obama's Cuban policies, which includes upholding the embargo and imposing harsher travel and economic sanctions on the Cuban military wing that controls almost all of Cuba's tourist industry, thus effectively returning the Cuban-U.S. relations back to a level ''slightly'' above the Cold War ''status quo'' thus re-chilling diplomatic relations.
*** Raul Castro stepped out of office as scheduled on April 18, 2018, being replaced by Miguel Diaz Canel. This marked the end of 59 years of Castrista rule in the island (Senor Castro will remain in charge of the Communist Party and the armed forces until 2021).

* The first female president of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, was elected to office in 2012. Some were apprehensive of the fact that she is the daughter of South Korea's former dictator Park Chung-hee. By 2017, she faced corruption charges, and was convicted and impeached as a result. South Koreans have since elected a new president named Moon Jae-in (whose parents fled from North Korea during the Korean War), who plans to hopefully make peace agreements with North Korea. We can only await what happens.
* Another troublesome development is North Korea's increasing, even unbridled, enthusiasm at antagonizing South Korea, Japan and America. Kim Jong-un (the son and successor to the late Kim Jong-il) is becoming rather notorious for his temper tantrums, including conducting nuclear operations, launching military satellites into space, threatening to attack the aforementioned three nations and ending the armistice that has kept both countries out of war since 1953, immediately taking tensions up to eleven. It's gotten to a point where ''even China'', North Korea's ''ally'', joined America in imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea. Kim Jong-un has since called for a restart of nuclear talks with no preconditions, although the United States and Japan are both suspicious. We'll see what happens.

** While the student protesters may have not have been given the warmest reception from the hard-right, they did seem to finally break the stalemate on gun politics that has persisted since Columbine. According to search trends and news analytics, public interest in the topic of gun control, which normally dies down after a shooting in less than a week, remained steady throughout the rest of February. Support for stricter gun laws surged in the aftermath at a level far exceeding the bump following other mass shootings, reaching their highest levels since ''1993''. Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association, the gun rights group largely seen as the main obstacle preventing all legislation regulating gun ownership from passing, saw their favorability rating plunge to historic lows with a plurality of Americans seeing them unfavorably for the first time, and their sponsors (such as Visa, Best Western, and Delta) severed ties with them in droves after a progressive news blog reported on them and pressure mounted on the companies. Popular stores like Dick's stopped selling guns and Republican politicians, like Brian Mast of a district near Parkland, became more open to some gun control proposals. Gun-control groups like Everytown and Giffords saw their membership spike. And as for the protests themselves? There were two mass school walkouts with nearly 3,000 schools and one million students participating. The March For Our Lives main event, meanwhile, was reported to be the third-largest protest in U.S. history, behind only the two Women's Marches (with the March 14 walkout said to potentially be in fourth). While Emma Gonzalez's pledge of the Parkland shooting being "the last mass shooting" hasn't come true (there was another mass shooting at a high school in Texas three months later), there is growing evidence that the movement will have implications at the ballot box in November, as 2018 became the first time ever that gun control was a major campaign issue for Democrats. And it did, as gun control supporters won big in suburban areas who previously were indifferent to this issue[[note]]the one exception, ironically enough, was in Florida itself, where GOP-friendly demographic trends in other areas of the state helped them kick a veteran Democrat out of the Senate and hold on to its governorship[[/note]].

* On October 22, 2018, various bomb packages were sent to several critics of President Trump: including Creator/{{CNN}}, various Democratic politicians (Joe Biden, Cory Booker, UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton, Kamala Harris, Eric Holder, UsefulNotes/BarackObama, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Maxine Waters), liberal investors George Soros and Tom Steyer, actor Creator/RobertDeNiro, former CIA Director John O. Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. The suspect of the bombings, Cesar Altieri Sayoc Jr., was arrested for the attempted bombings and was well-known on Facebook and Twitter for his strong support of Donald Trump and making various threats against critics of Donald Trump (along with his white supremacist views, according to his former boss at a pizzeria, and a violent criminal history). While no one was injured in these bombing attempts (since many of the bombs never detonated) and the attacks were condemned by the Trump administration, President Trump has faced criticism for partisan and violent rhetoric in his rallies that encouraged acts of terrorism against news organizations and political opponents.

** After the Weinstein scandal, award-winning actor Creator/KevinSpacey was accused of attempted rape against fellow actor Anthony Rapp in 1986, when Mr. Rapp was 14. Mr. Spacey's choice to come out as gay immediately after his accusation drew the condemnation of LGBT groups, which fear that this will bolster homophobia. After other actors accused him as well, the actor was also banned from Netflix, which immediately announced the end of ''House of Cards''[[note]]This had actually been decided for months, but it wasn't supposed to be announced until the final season premiered[[/note]].

* The transition of Caitlyn Jenner and her appearance on the June 2015 cover of ''Literature/VanityFair'' brought transgender issues and acceptance to the very forefront of American public discourse. Transphobia has also become as much of a social taboo among the left and younger people as homophobia did in the late 1990s and 2000s. At the same time, conservatives began pushing for "bathroom bills" (an effective ban on uni-sex bathrooms) and "religious freedom" laws similar to Indiana's and discrimination against LGBT+ individuals is still present in American society at large. President Trump has also proposed to ban transgender people from serving in the military (which the Supreme Court allowed the ban to take effect on January 22, 2019), the Dept. of Justice ruled that the Civil Rights law does not cover sexual identity, and a proposal by the administration to create a legal definition in federal civil rights law that birth sex is unchangeable (which led to the hashtag #[=WontBeErased=] in social media). On the other side of the globe, India and Pakistan have managed to push legislation that recognize third-gender identity (known as "hijra") as a protected status and pass various civil right laws protecting transgender individuals, despite India and Pakistan being traditionally more socially conservative than United States.[[note]]For example, homosexuality remains a crime in Pakistan as per British colonial law while India has recently overturned their anti-sodomy law in 2018[[/note]]

** While Britain had been a relatively safe place in both economic[[note]]The reason Britain wasn't as hit by the Great Recession had to do with the fact it did not grow as much as the U.S. and Germany and it didn't have the bloated deficits of the Mediterranean countries.[[/note]] and social terms during the decade (except for two major terror attacks and a race riot in 2011), even becoming the "cultural mecca of the world" and recovering (to an extent) the international relevance it had lost after the Black Wednesday crisis of 1992[[note]]When the UK pulled out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, a forerunner of the Euro currency, in order to prevent a run on sterling.[[/note]], the aftermath of the Brexit vote radically changed this climate: During the summer, there were claims of a wave of "hate crimes", while terrorist acts became shockingly common, the gravest being a vehicular massacre near the Houses of Parliament, followed by a suicide bombing at Manchester (during an Music/ArianaGrande concert) and another vehicular attack at the Tower of London and the Haymarket (and later a bombing in a London tube car). Concerns regarding the British economy surged after many firms announced their departure for Frankfurt among other cities on the Continent, while mounting costs forced the May ministry to cut spending, most notoriously in care for the elderly. This feeling of a sudden national decline hit the Tories hard, Mrs. May's gamble backfiring in the most humiliating way, failing to win a majority, only hanging on to power with a deal with the Euro-skeptic Irish Democratic Unionist Party, while Labour won far more seats than expected (most surprisingly upscale constituencies such as Kensington) and Mr. Corbyn became more accepted as party leader. The pro-European Liberal Democrats also saw an upsurge in contrast to the collapse of the UKIP and the SNP.

* At the same time, the ex-CIA worker Edward Snowden revealed that the once-secret NSA (National Security Agency, uncovered by Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning in 2010) [[BigBrotherIsWatching monitoring and collecting citizens' (including politicians') phone calls, emails, web searches and general social media information]], in violation of domestic law. In fact, even prominent figures in foreign nations (such as Brazil's President) have undergone similar sets of unwarranted surveillance. The trial of Manning didn't gain prominence until Obama defended the NSA, causing a big uproar since the President became nationally known for his opposition to Bush-era surveillance programs. This has caused divisions in both the Republican and Democratic parties, with both parties' conservatives claiming that the NSA has prevented terrorist attacks, while the progressive and libertarian sectors of the Democrat and Republican parties openly criticizing it.[[note]]As a side note, sales of Orwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' rose exponentially just because of the scandal.[[/note]] While his actions have controversy (he was eventually branded a traitor for seeking refuge in Russia, even though it's not known if he actually tried to hand them critical information), it also brought about a larger debate about Internet surveillance and intelligence on both the national and global stage ([[BrokenBase and it's best to]] [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment leave it at that]]).

** Further muddying the waters of discussion of the 2016 Democratic Primary is the issue of "superdelegates" that were put in play for the primary. These were delegates who could cast votes however they wished in the primary, in addition to the ones won in the state caucuses. But an overwhelming majority of these sided with Clinton at the start of the primary (for reference, before the first caucus even began, Hillary Clinton had more than ''one thousand'' delegate votes, all from the superdelegates). This led to further claims (and more than a few conspiracy theories) that the primary had been rigged in Hillary's favor --[[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment and we shall leave it at that.]]

* A series of wildfires swept through California in 2017 which, combined, burned about 1.3 million acres of land, or about 5,000 square kilometers. The largest one, the Thomas Fire, became the single largest wildfire in California's recorded history and spread, nearly unstoppable, for weeks. The Lilac Fire in San Diego, meanwhile, was notable for burning at a frightening speed, at up to one acre per second (or about 1 square kilometer every 4 minutes). Though the destruction was immense, including the demise of one major winery and numerous businesses and residences, the firefighters were able to save everybody except two, though one of them, sadly, was their own. What resulted, on the social side, were an increased awareness of the devastation that wildfires can cause in California[[note]]due to a combination of a large amount of dry brush, a semi-arid to arid climate, strong Santa Ana winds, and California's ongoing persistent drought[[/note]], and a renewed discussion on climate change, namely if this drought is the cause of it or not, though for [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment various reasons]], they won't be discussed here. One direct impact, certainly, was a change in fire insurance, namely that many areas were now no longer covered by them at all due to them being high-risk, creating a heated debate that has persisted long after the fires went out. Things went FromBadToWorse, though, as heavy rains early into 2018 caused mudslides in the burn areas that killed 18 people.[[note]]This is because the vegetation on the mountains had roots that would anchor the soil in place. The fires burnt away this vegetation, turning the mountains essentially into mounds of loose, unstable soil.[[/note]]

** However, a redacted report later revealed various details of his investigation which left a lot of ambiguity to the investigation. The Mueller report revealed that there is sufficient evidence that the Russian government tried to interfere with the 2016 election to get Donald Trump elected. At the same time, Mueller wasn't able to conclude that Trump commited a crime because he wasn't able to gather sufficient evidence that Trump and his associates willingly coordinated with the Russian government to get himself elected, but it did not exonerate Trump on obstruction and questioned Trump's innocence. The report also revealed several attempts by the Trump administration to interfere with the investigation and links between Trump's close associates and the Russian government, but the special counsel was not able to charge Donald Trump with a crime, citing an Office of Legal Counsel guideline in the Department of Justice that a special counsel cannot indict a sitting President for a crime and the responsibility should be handled by Congress with a footnote referring to impeachment (Mueller later reinforced this, saying that a president can be charged for a crime after leaving office). This produced a divide within the Democratic Party: several senior members of the Democratic Party such as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were more cautious on the idea of impeaching Donald Trump and noted the potential political backlash on impeachment[[note]]Although their stance is mostly pragmatic, as Nancy Pelosi stated that she's open for an impeachment inquiry, but opposed the idea of impeaching Donald Trump when the Republicans, who are [[UndyingLoyalty staunchly loyal]] to Donald Trump, have control of the Senate[[/note]]; while several junior members of the Democratic House of Representatives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib and several Democratic presidential candidates such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders called for impeachment, citing Trump's wrongdoings according to the Mueller report. The Republican Party, however, were mostly unified on the issue of impeachment and the report, stating that the report did not have enough evidence to warrant an impeachment inquiry and the report cleared Trump from any wrongdoings [[note]]Michigan House Representative Justin Amash is noted to be the ''only'' Republican congressman in his party to call for an impeachment inquiry on Donald Trump; he would later change his political affiliation to an independent after his dissatifaction with both political parties[[/note]]. The Mueller report and calls of impeachment is probably the [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment most divisive issue]] in modern U.S. politics.
* In September 2019, a political scandal broke out with the Trump administration when a whistleblower complaint revealed that Donald Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine in order to obtain a ''quid pro quo'' cooperation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in order for the Ukrainian government investigating his Democratic political opponents (more specifically, Joe Biden and his son Hunter); and enlisted his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Attorney General Bill Barr to pressure the Ukrainian government. This led the Democrats in the House of Representatives to open up an impeachment inquiry on Donald Trump, during which various military officials and diplomats confirmed several of the whistleblower's complaints. The Republican party strongly opposed the impeachment inquiry while defending president Trump's actions with Ukraine. Due to the political polarization of the scandal, [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment this is as far as we can say in this matter]].

* The emergence of "Abenomics" in Japan has brought up a mixed response from the international community. While [[http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/japanese-reform-lessons-for-asia-s-ailing-giants-by-yuriko-koike some are convinced]] that current Prime Minister Abe's policies--which include aggressive (for Japan) stimulus, reducing or even eliminating expensive and inefficient agricultural subsidies[[note]]Which would be something of a "Nixon-in-China" moment, since Abe's LDP has historically been in the pocket of the agriculturalists[[/note]] and joining American President Obama's proposed "Trans-Pacific Partnership" free trade area--would put any lingering traces of the "Lost Decade" to rest[[note]]which, along with the aforementioned successful 2020 Olympics bid is within reasonable possibility[[/note]], others are concerned about his more controversial ([[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment and rather divisive]]) ideas about the country's constitution (i.e. the anti-war Article 9).

This section covers the real life events such as politics, society, and current events that occurred [[TheNewTens in the past decade]]. Due to these events covering controversial subjects, [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease no real life related tropes]] and Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment applies here. For pop culture that occurred during this decade, go to [[UsefulNotes/TheNewTens the Useful Notes page for The New Tens]].

* In West Africa, there has been concern of Salafist[[note]]a strict fundamentalist brand of Sunni Islam[[/note]] insurgency , particularly with groups like Boko Haram in northern Nigeria and Ansar Dine in Mali. The latter organisation effectively seized control of the vast northern part of the country until early 2013, when armies from Mali, France, and other African nations drove the Islamists out of the major cities of northern Mali.

** Once the movement to overthrow Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych took off in February after several peaceful protests were massacred by police, the story became international news. Attempts at compromise and negotiation have floundered with neither side willing to back down. Soon after the Crimea invasion the two most pro-Russian Eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk were invaded too, with the new Kyiv government answering with the armed response. While initially sluggish, the war picked up steam, with the Ukrainian government, at first unable to dislodge the Russian-backed terrorists with their then-inadequately funded and trained ground forces, eventually reformed the army enough with the help of NATO and volunteers at home to retake about two thirds of the breakaway provinces, although titular cities of Donetsk and Luhansk still remain under terrorist control. Refugees are already numbering in the hundreds of thousands, and there were also paramilitary clashes in the cities of Odesa and Kharkiv in the neighbouring provinces, which has led to several deaths of suspiciously pro-russian insurgents.

** Once the movement to overthrow Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych took off in February after several peaceful protests were massacred by police, the story became international news. Attempts at compromise and negotiation have floundered with neither side willing to back down. Soon after the Crimea invasion the two most pro-Russian Eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk were invaded too, with the new Kyiv government answering with the armed response. While initially sluggish, the war picked up steam, with the Ukrainian government, at first unable to dislodge the the Russian-backed terrorists with their then-inadequately funded and trained ground forces, eventually reformed the army enough with the help of NATO and volunteers at home to retake about two thirds of the breakaway provinces, although titular cities of Donetsk and Luhansk still remain under terrorist control. Refugees are already numbering in the hundreds of thousands, and there were also paramilitary clashes in the cities of Odesa and Kharkiv in the neighbouring provinces, which has led to several deaths of suspiciously pro-russian insurgents.

* If the 2016 general election could be defined by one word, it would be '''mudslinging''': Both [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump Trump]] and [[UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton Clinton]] attacked mutually at every possible turn (the real estate mogul said the former Secretary of State should be in jail instead of the Oval Office, and the NY Senator claiming that Trump didn't have the temper to guide the nation), giving voters a bad perception of both, something exacerbated with the profusion of heavily-fictionalized news aimed to defame either candidate, if not outright libel[[note]]Clinton never had an affair with Yoko Ono, and there's no proof conservatives have lower [=IQs=][[/note]]. The campaign trail was also marked by the candidates' ''faux pas'': Trump got entangled in tweetstorms against the the parents of a fallen Muslim-American soldier after they appeared at the DNC, and later with Venezuelan beauty queen Alicia Machado after Clinton mentioned her in the first debate (Trump having apparently humiliated her Hispanic roots during his days running the "Miss Universe" pageant), as well as suspicions about his business ties given his reluctance to show his tax returns ([[spoiler:He actually avoided paying them for around 18 years after recording huge losses in 1995]]) and the leaking of a raunchy "hot mic" recording made in 2005 that led to a temporal estrangement between him and the GOP, which saw its Congress majority jeopardized after the incident, which seemed like it would end Trump's chances for good. Meanwhile, Clinton was dogged by an FBI investigation into her use of an unauthorized private email server, as well by some [=WikiLeaks=] revelations that she had "two positions" on matters: One to tell the public and one for private matters, fueling long-held suspicions that she was untrustworthy. This was also coupled by the investigation itself, which many critics attacked as being a "sweetheart" investigation because many of the actors were granted immunity without providing much in return, data was allowed to be destroyed, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch having a secret meeting with Bill Clinton, who was also under investigation, during the investigation. There were later concerns about her fitness for the office after "blacking out" at a 9/11 memorial ceremony, a few days after she called Trump supporters "a basket of deplorables".

* In Thailand, a boys soccer team and their coach were trapped in the Tham Luang cave due to flooding from the monsoon. The soccer team went missing for a few days on June 2018 before a British team of divers found them in the cave. The rescue operation has gotten a lot of international attention due to the situation of monsoon flooding that made the rescue attempt difficult (which led to a death of a Thai Navy SEAL rescuer) and 3 of the 12 boys and the coach were [[TheStateless stateless]]. [[note]]The 3 stateless boys were refugees fleeing from violence in a province in Myanmar while the coach belonged to an ethnic group where the Thailand government doesn't consider to be citizens[[/note]]. The rescue operation was also considered a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}, as the boys and the coach made it out of the cave alive due to [[TheDeterminator their sheer willpower]] and the fact the Thailand government considered granting the 3 stateless boys and the coach full citizenship for their ordeal.

** While Mr. Trump did promise to repeal Obama's healthcare bill and to cut spending, [[UpToEleven his proposals turned out to be too extreme]], [[EveryoneHasStandards even for the staunchest conservatives]], with his plan to decimate Medicare and Social Security (which would severely hurt the working class, ironically Trump's main base of support) to increase military spending and finance his much-coveted wall. Despite these criticisms, though, Trump is still very acclaimed by a dedicated group of conservatives and economic libertarians.

** Spain's grassroots protest movement, called Los Indignados[[note]]"The Outraged Ones"[[/note]] began on May 15th, 2011, when thousands of mostly-young Spaniards camped out in Puerta del Sol, Madrid's central square. A movement that was repeated all over the country in protest to the budget cuts and the insanely high levels of unemployment[[note]]25% of the working population and over 50% for young people. ''At the time''. By November 2013, [[UpToEleven it rose to 27% and 58% respectively]], and it still doesn't show signs of going down any time soon.[[/note]]. This inspired sit-in protests all over Europe and even the Occupy Wall Street movement itself. Partly thanks to many Spaniard expatriates living in the US that repeated the protest from Spain, thus catching the eye of many unsatisfied young Americans. The movement was then organised as a political party called Podemos, which cut into the base held by the social-democratic PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). Meanwhile the right-wing PP (Popular Party, leading party since 2011) found a rival of its own in the liberal Ciudadanos movement. The result? The four organizations cannibalised each other ''twice'', leaving Spain with no government between late 2015 and October 2016, when the Socialists decided to withdraw their intentions of forming a government, giving the PP free rein to hold onto office.

* Another troublesome development is North Korea's increasing, even unbridled, enthusiasm at antagonizing South Korea, Japan and America. Kim Jong-un (the son and successor to the late Kim Jong-il) is becoming rather notorious for his temper tantrums, including conducting nuclear operations, launching military satellites into space, threatening to attack the aforementioned three nations and ending the armistice that has kept both countries out of war since 1953, immediately taking tensions UpToEleven. It's gotten to a point where ''even China'', North Korea's ''ally'', joined America in imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea. Kim Jong-un has since called for a restart of nuclear talks with no preconditions, although the United States and Japan are both suspicious. We'll see what happens.

* On January 22nd, 2019, transgender individuals are officially banned from joining the U.S. military with a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling allowing Trump's transgender ban to go into effect (which officially took into effect starting April 2019). This effectively kills any hope of transgender rights in the United States with a conservative Supreme Court.

** May's penchant for [[HeadInTheSandManagement appeasing]], [[UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain never a good policy]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII if history can tell]], not only made an awful mix with her Thatcher-like "steely" disposition, making her look more like a UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath-esque stubborn non-entity, but also gave her few if any allies inside her own party (her standing with the moderates being shattered [[NeverLiveItDown by the "Brexit means Brexit" speech]], while hard-liners later felt betrayed by her concessions towards the Brussels), barely surviving a censure motion ''and'' a confidence vote (which nevertheless gave the Parliament full control of Brexit, delaying the deadline to October, also causing a flood of resignations), after which her much-changed cabinet attempted a last-ditch agreement with Labour in order to face the EU. The government ended up [[EpicFail conceding in every single issue except for]] ''[[EpicFail the one]]'' [[EpicFail Labour had wanted to talk about in the very first place]] (averting a no-deal Brexit). Predictably, Labour stormed out and threatened with ''another'' confidence vote. After the Tories ended up in '''''fifth place''''' in the European elections (the lowest ever for an incumbent government), and the government about to be toppled anyways by the imminent confidence vote, May decided to step down as Conservative leader. The ensuing leadership battle had Boris Johnson beating Jeremy Hunt, becoming PM on 23 July.

* '''France''' had seen an increasingly divided and unsatisfied populace over the past few years as people have shifted to populists on both the far-left and far-right, especially made evident by the strong presence of the right-wing Front Nationale under Marine le Pen in election polls and becoming the country's third largest political party. President Francois Hollande was rocked by a worsening economic situation and an infidelity scandal that left him mired as [[HumiliationConga the least popular European head of state]] (his approval rate hovering under 20% since late 2013, and under 10% since early 2014, and not more than 5% after the terrorist outbreak (see below)), being constantly pressured to resign.

** In 2016, Monsieur Hollande became the first President of the Fifth Republic to choose not to run for re-election in the 2017 race. The ensuing elections became one of the most contentious and messy in French history, with the two main parties (the Socialists and the Republicans) picking unexpected candidates: The former chose hardliner Bernoit Hamon over moderate minister Manuel Valls, while the Gaullist Francois Fillon won over former President Nicholas Sarkozy. But neither got much attention (Hamon was considered a 'lost cause' while Fillon was affected by a nepotism scandal), the focus instead going to le Pen, capitalizing on the successes of Brexit and Trump; as well as two men who bolted from the PS with two very different views: Emmanuel Macron, a libertarian socialist and Jean-Luc Melenchon, an Euro-skeptic close to the Communists. By Election Day, there was a three-way tie with Madame le Pen and Monsieur Melenchon representing the "Old France", Monsieurs Macron and (to a lesser extent, fourth-place candidate) Fillon campaigning for a "New France". Macron won the first round by a larger margin than expected (although very small, 23.8 to 21.4) against le Pen, whose attempt to garner support from a terrorist attack days earlier backfired on her (the slain policeman turned out to be a progressive campaigner), narrowly beating Fillon (who had a ''much'' better showing than forecast) out of the runoff (he had around 20%), while Melenchon (who had seen his poll numbers surge) came out fourth with 19% (and Hamon? He got 6% if you want to know, ''even worse'' than expected). Macron handily beat le Pen in the run-off, while his recently-founded "En Marche" movement swept the parliamentary elections. Monsieur Macron's efforts have concentrated on reforming the country's infamous labour regulations, jealously guarded by the trade unions.

** Islamic State was defeated as an effective fighting force in Iraq in 2017. The country then enjoyed [[HopeSpot two years of relative peace]]. However, trouble began to brew again afterwards, this time taking place in the south. The Iranian-supported Shia militias, which became celebrities after their successful operation against the Islamic State, were integrated into Iraq's military and political scene and proposed more and more laws that would bring the country closer to the hands of Iran. As a result, Iraq found itself in a hard place, having to maintain the fragile balance between the United States and Iran, both its allies but are archenemies of each other. When economic conditions deteriorated, thousands of people began demonstrating in major cities of the south, including Baghdad, demanding the entire political scene, which they consider hopeless corrupt, to step down. Many of these protesters are Shias who nevertheless detest Iran's increasing influence in the country. The militias responded with brutal crackdown, killing hundreds of people and sparking fears of an all-out war. Iraq has been without a prime minister since December 2019; since Adil Abdul Mahdi's resignation, nobody has enough political support to succeed him. Ironically, while the south is volatile, the north is quiet, with Sunni Iraqis and Kurds doing business as usual. This is partly explained by war fatigue; after decades of being an international pariah, most Iraqi Sunnis are simply too ''tired'' to [[StoppedCaring care for politics anymore]].

** However, the quick fulfillment of donations for repairing the Notre Dame drew the ire of the "yellow jackets" and became targeted.

* The transition of Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce) and her appearance on the June 2015 cover of ''Literature/VanityFair'' brought transgender issues and acceptance to the very forefront of American public discourse. Transphobia has also become as much of a social taboo among the left and younger people as homophobia did in the late 1990s and 2000s. At the same time, conservatives began pushing for "bathroom bills" (an effective ban on uni-sex bathrooms) and "religious freedom" laws similar to Indiana's and discrimination against LGBT+ individuals is still present in American society at large. President Trump has also proposed to ban transgender people from serving in the military (which the Supreme Court allowed the ban to take effect on January 22, 2019), the Dept. of Justice ruled that the Civil Rights law does not cover sexual identity, and a proposal by the administration to create a legal definition in federal civil rights law that birth sex is unchangeable (which led to the hashtag #[=WontBeErased=] in social media). On the other side of the globe, India and Pakistan have managed to push legislation that recognize third-gender identity (known as "hijra") as a protected status and pass various civil right laws protecting transgender individuals, despite India and Pakistan being traditionally more socially conservative than United States.[[note]]For example, homosexuality remains a crime in Pakistan as per British colonial law while India has recently overturned their anti-sodomy law in 2018[[/note]]

* After a year-long battle with brain cancer, U.S. Senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate John [=McCain=] died on August 25, 2018 (4 days before his 82nd birthday). In his last requests, he'd excluded President Trump, who'd insulted his military service during the 2016 election season, from attending his funeral, and invited former Presidents UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and UsefulNotes/BarackObama, [[DefeatMeansFriendship both former opponents]], to speak at his funeral, instead. [=McCain=]'s passing seemed to mark an EndOfAnAge as he was among the last prominent Republicans prior to the rise of the Tea Party at the start of this decade.

* On January 18th, 2019, dubbed "[[RashomonStyle Rashomon at the Lincoln Memorial]]", Covington Catholic High School, an all-male high school located in the outer Cincinnati suburbs in Kentucky, was caught in a controversy when a short video clip showed a group of students attending a ''March for Life'' rally in Washington D.C. supposedly taunting and mocking a Native American Omaha elder and Vietnam War-era veteran, Nathan Philips, who was attending the Indigenous Peoples' March. The video shows the high school students wearing Trump's "Make America Great Again" hats with one of the students, Nick Sandmann, making a smirking face in front of Nathan Philips. The students in this incident were condemned for their racist behavior[[note]]noting Trump's history of racist attacks on prospective 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren, who claims to have Native American heritage[[/note]] which led to the high school and several other Catholic institutions in the Northern Kentucky region locking their social media accounts as a result of the incident. However, a longer video was later released, revealing that there was a verbal altercation between the high school students and a group of Black Hebrew Israelites (who also insulted the Native Americans), and that Nathan Phillips allegedly approached the students to try and defuse the situation (Phillips claims that he was drumming and chanting a song that was supposed to calm down the bad situation). Regardless, the video led to conservatives, including Trump himself, going to social media to defend the students, but liberals still insisted the students deserved to be condemned due to their supposed disrespect to the Native American elder who was supposedly trying to defuse an altercation. Videos alleging the students harassed several women appeared a few days later and casting doubt on the students’ innocence, though the woman who made those allegations also made racist and homophobic tweets in the past. People have also shed light on other past Covington Catholic controversies, such as a then-recent graduate's involvement in a rape or several students [[MistakenForRacist acting like they were in blackface]] during a "black-out" basketball game in November 2011 against a black player, who was later identifed as Charlie Rogers of George Rogers Clark High School, as well as former students alleging they suffered severe bullying that never got disciplinary actions from the teachers and faculty. Phillips's military history has also been called into question due to vague statements he made in past interviews, in which he referred to himself as a "Vietnam-era veteran" or a "Vietnam-times veteran" (meaning that he served during the Vietnam War, but never went to Vietnam), and the revelation that he went AWOL three times and received a regular discharge from the Marine Reserves (as opposed to an honorable discharge). Phillips was also revealed to have a criminal past, as well as him making similar complaints against a couple of Eastern Michigan University students in April 2015. Soon after the controversy broke, Nick Sandmann in particular sued many media outlets for defamatory reporting, Nathan Philips himself, and many left-leaning Twitter personalities for their behavior towards him and other Covington kids. Sandmann's case against the Washington Post was initially dismissed in July, but was reopened in October, and settled for an undisclosed amount on July 24, 2020. On January 7, 2020, CNN settled with Sandmann for an undisclosed amount.

** The Harvey Weinstein scandal was met with the #[=MeToo=] movement, which addressed the prevalence of sexual abuse and sexual harassment in modern society, particularly against women [[note]]This hashtag is OlderThanTheyThink, as it was originally popularized by activist Tamara Burke in 2006 to address sexual abuse among black women before actress Alyssa Milano revived it in the wake of the Weinstein scandal[[/note]]. The movement was the final nail that [[DiscreditedTrope killed off]] the notion [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming that the victims of sexual abuse were either just asking for it or doing it as "power play"]] (although attitudes have been changing in that direction for year prior). The hashtag has also brought a lot of international recognition in various places around the world where violence against women are relatively common such as Africa, Middle East, Afghanistan, India, and Russia, which the #[=MeToo=] further expand into the issue of misogyny in society that encourages sexual violence against women. Many women in various social platforms shared their stories of sexual abuse on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, some of which are abuse and harassment that occurred ''decades'' ago.