2023 in review: World events as told through Tribune editorials

The Titan submersible saw a sad end. Ukraine stood tall a year after the Russian invasion of its territory. Britain crowned a new king who offered much familial fodder for the nation’s tabloids. The Saudis flexed their cultural muscles, golfed and opened their checkbooks. And, on Oct. 7, the world was shocked by the brutal acts of terrorism perpetrated in Israel by Hamas. Once again, war had erupted in one of the world’s most tumultuous regions.

Here is a look back at what the Tribune Editorial Board had to say about world events in 2023.

Jan. 12: Supporters of Brazil’s far-right ex-President Jair Bolsonaro have assaulted government buildings in Brasilia. The editorial board recognizes a template.

Donald Trump’s refusal to accede to the peaceful transfer of power, as well as his overt attempts to assemble a slate of fake electors and his actions to incite the insurrectionists on Jan. 6, established an ignominious precedent for Bolsonaro’s loyalists to follow.

The lesson for America is clear. The peril posed by the insurrection at the Capitol wasn’t just domestic. Countries around the world, particularly those in Latin America, are to varying degrees influenced by whatever example the U.S. sets. The Trump presidency thrived on the manufacture of misinformation. Bolsonaro, Trump-like enough to be nicknamed “the Trump of the Tropics,” governed in much the same way.

But just as Bolsonaro’s supporters took a cue from Jan. 6 insurrectionists, (Inacio Lula) da Silva’s government should take a cue from President Joe Biden’s top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, and prosecute Brazil’s insurrectionists to the fullest extent of the law.

May 5: Britain prepares for the coronation of King Charles III.

(Charles) has insisted that Saturday’s ceremony will reflect a multifaith nation, even if he is head of the Anglican church. He also, even at considerable cost to his own family relationships, has insisted that the new monarchy be more streamlined and cost-effective.

To a large extent, Charles has embraced the job of being the CEO of a declining business. He just has to extract what profit can be drawn for the good of the people and the planet, and avoid having to declare bankruptcy.

That will mean a new level of public humility, and requiring no pledges of allegiance either abroad or at home, but then he’s hardly an arrogant man. He’s well suited for the new job. And well prepared. Good health and good luck to him.

June 14: The White House says Beijing has been using Cuba as a spy base since 2019.

When President Donald Trump took over the White House, he undid President Barack Obama’s normalization of relations with Havana and reimposed tougher sanctions on Cuba. The hope that Cubans had for a move toward democratic ideals through the vehicle of commerce and dialogue with the U.S. disappeared.

A (Joe) Biden commitment to proactively returning to a policy of engagement with Havana would rekindle the aspirations of everyday Cubans for a better, freer life. It would discourage dangerous makeshift boat voyages to Florida by desperate Cuban migrants who find no cause for hope at home. And it would make Havana think twice about allowing Beijing to exploit Cuba’s proximity to the U.S. coastline.

June 23: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays a state visit to the White House.

(Narendra) Modi isn’t a dictator, but neither is he a paragon of democracy. He sidelines political opponents, as was the case with Rahul Gandhi, a major rival of Modi’s who was kicked out of parliament this spring after a court found him guilty of criminally defaming the Modi family name. He relies on internet shutdowns to tamp down protests, and according to a 2022 State Department report, oversees a government that violently cracks down on religious minorities, mostly Muslims and Christians.

And yet, Modi leads a country pivotal to U.S. global interests right now, as the Biden administration copes with the belligerence of Vladimir Putin and the long game of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Right now, India is more of a hindrance than a helper when it comes to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Putin has been able to cushion the blow of U.S.-led sanctions on the Kremlin’s energy sector thanks to India’s voracious appetite for Russian oil. New Delhi’s purchases, coupled with China’s sharp increase in Russian oil imports following the invasion, have helped the Kremlin keep cash flowing into its war machine.

Aug. 25: A jet has crashed near Kuzhenkino in the Tver region of Russia. It carried Yevgeny Prigozhin, the warlord who headed the Wagner Group of mercenaries.

Some might say that Prigozhin, hardly a choirboy, knew the risks when he had his troops march on Moscow in a coup attempt in June. He who lives by the sword, the saying goes, dies by the sword. Or, in this case, the Russian Federal Security Service, whose director reports directly to Putin.

Perhaps that explains the James Bond-like language some Western politicians previously used to describe the situation. “If I were he, I’d be careful what I ate. I’d keep my eye on my menu,” President Joe Biden joked about Prigozhin during a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki last month. Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on July 20, CIA Director William Burns accurately called Putin “the ultimate apostle of payback” and picked up his boss’s theme: “If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my food taster.”

That’s all good for headlines — but now let’s remember that reportedly there were 10 people, including a crew of three, on a jet that can be seen on video plummeting to the earth, as if from an explosion caused by a bomb.

Perhaps all could be said to have been weaved from Prigozhin cloth, but most likely at least the pilots and flight attendant were just trying to make a living and survive in what clearly is one of the most brutal societies in living memory.

Aug. 29: British neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, 33, has been convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others while they were under her care.

What are the lessons here on this side of the Atlantic?

For one, effective medical teamwork requires looking out for malevolent colleagues. However rare they may be, the Shipman and Letby cases prove they do exist. For another, family members deserve, and should always demand, full disclosure about what happened to their loved ones who die while medical professionals are present. While death is sometimes shrouded in the unknown, that truth must not be allowed to prevent families being sure they are comfortable that what transpired was inevitable. And, for a third, medical directors and other hospital administrators must cultivate open door policies so that whistleblowers are willing to come forward with any misgivings.

Much of that requires often harried medical professionals to build in more redundancies, as well as peer checks and balances. Nobody wants to be under the constant scrutiny of their peers, but these were life-or-death matters, and a normal human reluctance to consider the worst, enabled the loss of innocent life and unspeakable anguish.

Sept. 12: The European Union’s ban on Apple’s lightning chargers has paid off. They’re to be nixed. The editorial board celebrates.

We were glad to see Tuesday that the cords, outrageous and dysfunctional Apple profit-padders, are headed for the recycling bin, replaced by the industry standard USB-C charging cable. Of course, that’s assuming you upgrade your iPhone to the latest model.

Apple’s hand was forced by European Union regulators, invested in the societal benefits of creating a single connective standard for all mobile devices, including phones, tablets and cameras. Acting in October of last year, the European Parliament required the common charging port for new phones from autumn 2024, with laptop compatibility required in 2026.

Apple fought back against the decision, claiming its proprietary rights, but Cupertino lost the battle with Brussels, although savvy observers subsequently have noted that Apple may well make lemonade out of a lemonlike decision for them, given that there will be people out there who upgrade their phones just to avoid the Lightning curse.

Sept. 19: Quoting Shakespeare, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has taken to social media to poke Chinese President Xi Jinping over the sudden disappearance of Defense Minister Li Shangfu.

There have been a few months of quiet. But now America’s famously undiplomatic diplomat is back poking at the bear and blowing the dust of such long-cherished weapons as sarcasm and biting humor, qualities that the U.S. State Department generally puts at the bottom of its very long list of ambassadorial attributes.

We suspected it would be thus when Democratic progressives managed to get President Joe Biden, a longtime Emanuel fan, to turn him down for his desired gig as secretary of transportation (a position for which he was eminently qualified) and assign him to shake hands in a metaphorical Siberia, of function if not of location. Progressives were fine with that, they said at the time, thinking Emanuel would quietly disappear into the salad courses of fancy dinners.

Wrong. (We told you it wouldn’t work out that way.)

And good for him.

Oct. 8: The previous day, the terrorist group Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israeli civilians.

Oct. 7, 2023, is a day destined for multigenerational infamy in Israel.

On this Saturday, rockets and gunfire bore down and ordinary people were either murdered or snatched from their homes in the middle of a religious holiday, when most were praying or relaxing.

Aside from infiltrating scores of communities by land, sea and air in a massive operation on Israeli soil, the Palestinian Hamas militant group also uploaded hundreds of videos, now a potent weapon of war.

Many of them appeared to contain shocking footage of older Israelis led away from their lives, terror on their faces, or even of the bodies of younger Israeli women, shot and then their corpses desecrated for propaganda. A music festival near the Gaza Strip became a killing field, as attackers from the Hamas militant group with automatic weapons went “tree by tree,” one young Israeli told the BBC, shooting anyone they could find. All easily watchable on your phone.

As numb as so many are to violence and cruelty, a weekend with some 600 dead in Israel, according to the Israeli government, still was a terrifying reminder of how cruel and barbaric the human race can be. Americans were likely among that number, it emerged Sunday. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority said that more than 300 on the Gaza Strip had been killed by Israeli airstrikes launched in retaliation for the breaching of its borders.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke immediately of war. And war is clearly what lies ahead.

Nov. 27: Hamas has released some hostages in a swap for Palestinian prisoners. Released hostages included family members of Israelis who visited the Tribune Editorial Board earlier in the month.

The Nov. 2 meeting was not only harrowing but illuminative of the spot in which these loving family members found themselves. None of them wanted to be seen as critical of the Israeli government. They made that clear.

But the unspoken truth of moments like these is that a nation’s military or political agenda inevitably deviates from what matters the most to someone with a family member in harm’s way. The plea from the other side of the table was simple: Bring home the people we love, alive and well. That above all else.

These and other family members moved heaven and earth to make that happen.

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