What to expect in 2024: predictions for the new year

As 2023 is comes to an end, it is that time of year where we look at how our year went and look forward to starting fresh when those new year's bells ring. We make our resolutions and on a personal level vow to make 2024 our best year ever! But there is only so much we can control....what can we expect from 2024 in regards to politics, economy, etc?

If we are to believe the multiple analyses provided by many newspapers, it looks like we should buckle up and brace ourselves; many experts are predicting that 2024 will be a turbulent year. From the American presidential elections to economic battles with China to the various wars rocking our planet, it certainly doesn't come as a surprise! Join us as we take a look at some interesting predictions for 2024.

The whole world will be watching the race leading up to the presidential elections in 2024. If the courts do not prevent it, it is a significant possibility that Donald Trump will return to the White House. And this would have consequences for the entire world. Trump does not seem very willing to finance Ukraine's war against his friend Putin, and he has never been in favor of respecting the basic democratic consensus.

The New York Times writes in an article about 2024 as "a very tense year for democracy." Trump could win, Putin will surely entrench himself in power with the elections to be held in March, and the victories of Milei, Meloni and other far right-wing leaders during 2023 changed the traditional balances of international politics.

There may be one exception in an international panorama with the right on the rise. The date is still unknown, but there was already an announcement by the current Conservative government indicating 2024 as the year of elections in the United Kingdom. All polls give an overwhelming victory to a Labor Party that turned to moderation after Jeremy Corbyn's time. (Pictured: Labor leader Keir Starmer).

Zelensky's announced counteroffensive in the Ukrainian war was a fiasco. The conflict seems frozen, condemned to drag on, and this hurts the Ukrainian side the most. Zelensky announced that he needs 500,000 more soldiers to continue fighting but, according to various accounts, his people are tired.

For the first time since the war began, Zelensky faces internal criticism. Could this lead to a favorable scenario for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine? Anything is possible.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine deserves special mention, which has intensified and which, in 2024, according to all analysts, not only does not seem to be on track to be resolved but may worsen.

After a 2023 in which economists predicted a harsh crisis (due to war, radical climate change, geostrategic instability, inflation...) that never came, experts now prefer to make a less drastic and kinder forecast: there may be a slowdown but not a deep recession.

Image: Timelab/Unsplash

The Economist titled one of its articles: 'Economists had a dreadful 2023' since they were incorrect in their apocalyptic predictions. The Wall Street Journal, already in October 2023, pointed out that the recession experts announced had not arrived, although there was still a 50% chance of it happening. What about in 2024?

Image: Philip Strong / Unsplash

In 2024, according to a series of interviews with experts carried out by CNBC, economists believe that the economic good times (tourism boom, low unemployment, etc.) will end. However, given what has been seen, they are betting on a "soft landing" or, at most, "a mild recession." While these experts are mainly talking about the United States, it is, more or less, the same forecast in many other places in the developed world.

The climate crisis continues, and the planet's temperature continues to rise. According to CNN, NASA predicts an even hotter 2024 than 2023, due, above all, to the El Niño phenomenon, a cyclical warming of the waters of the Pacific that has already been noticed but has yet to reach its peak, which we will suffer through in the coming months.

Another phenomenon that will grow is mass migrations due to political instability and a climate crisis that causes conflicts, famines, etc.

It is obvious that 2024 will be the year in which we will surely see if artificial intelligence is consolidated as an element of the future and in what way.

Image: Mojahid Mottakin / Unsplash

In fact, in the list of medical advances for 2024 made by Nature, there are several in which Artificial Intelligence is involved. For example, a revolutionary system for early detection of breast cancer. But there is more.

Image: Julia Coblitz / Unsplash

Nature believes there is a high possibility of finally achieving the HIV vaccine in 2024. In addition, it includes in the list of imminent medical advances the use of stem cells against Parkinson's disease or immunotherapy for melanoma.

Image: Mufid Majnun / Unsplash

And as for fun, we will have the Paris Olympic Games in July and August 2024. Global entertainment and quite an event.

But, as the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, which paralyzed the world and changed us forever, clearly demonstrated, nothing is written in stone, and the future can bring us absolutely unexpected events (both beautiful and terrible). Good luck, and may everything go well!

Image: Javier Allegue Barros / Unsplash