Year 2022: Deaths in the News

written by 10217 Lee Si Ah

Numerous incidents occur in many parts of the world every year. Particularly, international issues attract the attention of the world. 2022 is the year that remarkably many international political events were talked about. Some of the top deaths of this year are Queen Elizabeth’s death, Shinzō Abe’s assassination and the Russia-Ukraine war. 

                                 

Death of Queen Elizabeth 

The monarch of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth, died on September 8th, 2022. The Queen, the longest-serving monarch for 70 years, died peacefully at 96 years old in Balmoral Castle, Scotland. The cause of the Queen’s death was old age. 

After the Queen died, Charles, her son, became the King of the United Kingdom.

Many people in the U.K. expressed their sorrow. Also, many presidents from other countries expressed condolences for the Queen’s death. For example, Joe Biden, the president of the United States, had raised the British flag in the White House and any public places. 

Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, said, “We will remember the Queen as a friend of France and a friendly queen who left an impression on the U.K..”

After the Queen’s death, there will be a lot of changes in the U.K. For example, the national anthem will change “the Queen” into “the King.” Also, the British banknote design will change the Queen’s portrait into King Charles’s. It will cost a lot of money and time to convert all the money in the U.K. into money with the new design.

                    

Assassination of Shinzō Abe

On July 8th, 2022, Shinzō Abe, former prime minister of Japan, was shot dead in Japan. While Abe was standing on a podium in Nara Prefecture, he was shot in the neck and chest by Tetsuya Yamagami and collapsed. Abe was immediately taken to a hospital, but he died. 

Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested without any resistance. He stated that his initial goal was to disperse the Unification Church and kill high-ranking officials of the church. But he changed it to kill Abe, an influential person sympathetic to the church. Yamagami learned how to make a gun from YouTube and used it for assassination.

The War between Russia and Ukraine

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022. According to Russia, the main cause of the invasion of Russia was to stop Ukraine’s accession to NATO. Putin claimed that Ukraine is also a part of Russia, so Ukraine’s accession to NATO will threaten Russia. Therefore, he proclaimed that it was not a war but a special military operation. 

Despite his real goal and most people’s expectation that Russia would win the war and collapse the Ukraine government quickly, Ukraine has been resisting desperately even still now. 

Since the liberal democratic nations in the West started to support Ukraine actively, the operation became extended. Along with the U.S., the U.K, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and other countries also applied weapons and supplies on a large scale for the victory of Ukraine.