February – The Beginning of the Ukraine War
The first big occurrence of the year was undoubtably the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine. On the 24th of February (or ‘two days past ‘twosday” as some call it), after a rather intense escalation at the Russia-Ukraine border, Russian forces, distinctly marked with their ‘Z’ symbols, crossed into the country – with expectations of them quickly taking the country. Surprisingly (or perhaps not), Russia was unable to take much of Ukraine, and even today have barely made any real ground – with President Zelensky being regarded as a sort of modern-day Churchill. But even with Ukraine seemingly safe from total Russian occupation, the conflict is not without its casualties. Many Ukrainian citizens and soldiers have been killed by the invading Russian forces, with some of the earliest known atrocities being that of ‘Snake Island’ where all the inhabitants of the island were killed. Alongside these casualties several of Russia’s own forces have died, some of which were being conscripted forcefully. The invasion is costing Russia $82 billion and will cost Ukraine $350 billion to rebuild and decontaminate, and with both sides seemingly not backing down or finding a compromise, the conflict could continue way into this year, with lasting implications for the whole world.
July – Record breaking temperatures
Whilst summer often has connotations of a hot and sunny climate, 2022 took this to hyperbolic levels. The first warning of the heat extremity came on the 8th of July with the first red warning from the Met Office, and it was declared a national emergency by the 15th. By the 19th the heat wave reached a new national record of the highest recorded temperature being at 40.3*C. That’s not to say that the temperatures were localised just to the UK. During the heatwaves an estimated 20,800 hectares of forest were burnt in France from the extreme heat, and 11,000 deaths were linked to the heatwave. Similar to the UK, Belgium – also on the 19th – recorded temperatures of over 40*C. Keeping cool became paramount in this time, with experts recommending solutions such as opening all your windows and closing all your blinds during the day to keep down the heat indoors. Bodies of water were exploited, and one 16-year old died in an accident whilst relaxing in a local river in Taplow. The temperatures have acted as a large wake up call over the effects of climate change in western countries, and only time will tell what these high temperatures forebode – and if similar temperatures will be recorded this year.
August – The first exam results since the Covid pandemic
2022 was the first year in which public exams took place after the two ‘COVID-years’ of grounded GCSEs and A levels. After such unprecedented spells of disruption, changes had to be made to the traditional structure of the exams. Exams came with the new added bonus of ‘advanced information’ – topics that would or wouldn’t appear on exams. We had some curveballs thrown at us of course – in the land of GCSEs anyway – from questions including topics apparently not on the exam according the advanced information’s infinite wisdom, to a virtually impossible maths question that had undergraduates scratching their heads and let’s not forget Ashville’s sports-center-come-exam-hall’s own attempt at sabotage with the output of a quite incredible, off-puttingly, shrill alarm for a chunk of one exam session. But after all that, results did actually prove the British youth to have risen to the challenge. As Ofqual puts it: “Overall GCSE results are higher than in 2019 (the last year of public exams before COVID)… and outcomes at grade 4 (the pass mark) and above are 73.0% compared with 67.0% in 2019”. And us Ashvillians didn’t do all too terrible ourselves, with a quite respectable percentage of 9s to be 16% and 0.8 per grade for GCSE and over half of the Upper Sixth achieving A*-A. All that extra revision that came from the dropping of topics, thanks to the mostly correct advanced information, must have paid off in some respect then. It may have been daunting walking into the Soothill to open that intimidatingly formal letter that may or may not stamp out the embers of dreams with one fell-swoop, but for so many of us in 2022, it actually turned out to be not that bad. Surprising really, when you think of the quite ridiculous nature of the sheer volume of this last year’s problems.
September – The Death of Queen Elizabeth II
At 6:30pm on Thursday 8th September 2022, news headlines both stunned and silenced the nation, as they announced the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at 96 years old, who died peacefully in Balmoral, her summer residence in Aberdeenshire. Her legacy will live far beyond news headlines, as she saw in 15 UK Prime Ministers, met 13 US Presidents and served 70 years on the throne. From World War 2 to Brexit (and everything in between), Her Majesty remained Britain’s rock through its peaks and plummets. Most of the country haven’t known life without her, and no matter what catastrophe struck in our modern world, the Queen always seemed to remain composed, steadfast and selfless. It was the comfort blanket that she provided in most people’s lives that sparked the intense mourning our country (and the world) went into: our nation entered a 10 day period of mourning; 250,000 queued (some for over 30 hours) to pay their respects to the Queen lying in state in Westminster Hall; and 28 million viewers in the UK watched her funeral. At Ashville a special service was held with readings and hymns to mark the moment. As Britain’s longest serving monarch, it’s safe to say that she was both the spirit and the soul of our nation and she will be greatly missed, but, in the Queen’s own words “grief is the price we pay for love”.
November – The US Mid-terms
The US midterms have a 2-year offset from presidential election and take place in November. In the election the population can vote for Senate and house representatives. There are 2 Senate representatives from each state making 100 seats in total though most elections only 33 are up for grabs. There are 435 house representatives with the number from each state being based on population. State governors are also elected during this round of voting though their place lasts for 4 years rather than 2. Overall, the Democrats did better than expected in comparison to the Republicans. Normally the party that does not have a member as president does well in these elections. Both parties in general did equally well due to varying public opinions on important matters such as abortion rights and gun control laws. The president’s approval ratings will have also played a part in these results. One of the keys stand out moments in the elections was the large near 20-point victory of Ron DeSantis over Charlie Crist. This was a large win for DeSantis in Florida which is traditionally a highly competitive swing state. This victory shows DeSantis’ popularity in Florida and was a moment that could have a bearing on future presidential elections with Donald Trump also putting himself back in the frame…