Outlets from media to think tanks to governments have
published their annual prognostications for the year ahead. From sports, to
culture, to economics, to global politics, here I present a calendar of events,
as well as predictions for the next 365 days.
Sports
The 2018 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in
Pyeonchang, South Korea. The international multi-sport event will take place
from February 9 to 25, and the country of 51.25 million sees this as their
first time hosting the Winter Olympics, and their second Olympic Games.
The World Cup 2018 will be held in Russia. This once-in-four-years
football event will take place from June 14 to July 15 and is said to be the
first World Cup to be held in Europe since 2006.
Economy
The global economy in 2017 was for the most part about steady
growth, and the year 2018 sees this trend continuing to 3.6 percent for 2018
compared to 3.5 percent the previous year. In fact the major economies of the
world have had their growth forecasts revised from 2016: the International
Monetary Fund collectively described them as ‘positive surprises.’
Goldman
Sachs predicts a generally ‘strong expansion in the world economy’ at 4.0%
real GDP growth in 2018. It further added that the “strength is broad-based
across advanced economies (US, Japan, Euro area), except for the UK with a much
slower growth.
As for emerging economies, Goldman Sachs are positive about the
economies of India and Russia, while China “appears to be slowing modestly.”
The annual World Economic Forum, a gathering of the world’s
biggest economic leaders, top CEOs, and millionaires and billionaires, will be
held on January 23 to 26 in Davos, Switzerland. It is said that this year’s
edition will be the first
time in two decades an Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will be
visiting this ski resort.
Politics
Russia’s incumbent president, Vladimir Putin, will once
again run for presidential elections in April this year. The 65-year-old leader
is expected to lead the polls once again, but as an independent candidate after
leaving United Russia, a political party he has been associated with since
2001.
In the United Kingdom, another Royal Wedding is stirring up
moods and spirits. This one’s a bit special as the bride-to-be, Meghan Markle,
to be married to Prince Harry, is an American. When she becomes Royal on May
19, 2018, the former TV actress says she will focus on humanitarian work.
The United States will once again be busy at the polls as
the midterm elections takes place on November 6. This midterm election is
expected to shakeup the House of Representatives and the Senate as Democrats
rally their way to Capitol Hill (and to opposed and worsen the presidency of Republican
Donald Trump). Although in the minority right now, the Democrat’s win is not as
far-fetched as it sounds since Conservative Trump has quickly become one of the
most-hated presidents in US history.
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia’s move to lessen conservatism
will start with allowing women to be issued driving licenses starting June.
Women will now be allowed to attend sporting events (although segregated
through designated ‘family sections’), as well as the return of movie theaters
to the kingdom since the 1980s by March this year. Also important is Riyadh’s
plans to offer its first tourist visas in 2018.
The Palestine issue will be a pivotal topic in Middle East
politics especially after the United States and Israel angered the world with
the announcement that Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel (and with it
the relocation of US embassies to the city) back in December. Trump was quick
to lash out those who opposed the decision (where a UN
vote saw 128 to 9 votes against the Trump declaration) by threatening to withdraw
billions of dollars of US aid to countries that opposed him.
Science
Outer space and the Moon is expected to be in the headlines
in this Year of the Dog as private companies try their hands on economizing the
last frontier. Elon Musk, the American business magnate who owns Tesla Inc.
among other big ventures, announced his outer space company SpaceX will send
two (unidentified) space tourists on a trip around the Moon in 2018. If successful,
this leisure trip will be the first time humans have ventured beyond low-Earth
orbit since 1972.
British billionaire Richard Branson has announced his
company Virgin Galactic is on track to begin commercial passenger spaceflights
before the end of 2018. This prodigious plan will be accomplished by Virgin
Galactic’s air-launched suborbital spaceplane SpaceShipTwo, allowing extremely
well-paying passengers to experience a few minutes of microgravity and divine
views of the Earth below.
Another space-faring company, Moon Express, announced that it
is “definitely” going to land a spacecraft to the Moon in 2018. Moon Express is
owned by Indian-American entrepreneur Naveen Jain. His company (so is SpaceX,
and other space venture companies) is a participant to the Google Lunar X-Prize, an international prize
space competition which challenges private funded spaceflight contestants to “be
the first to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon, travel 500 meters, and
transmit back high-definition video and images.” The $20 million reward will and
should be awarded at the contest’s conclusion on March 2018.
