From quiet quitting to moist lettuce: The phrases that outlined 2022

By AFP

PARIS: Armageddon

With the battle in Ukraine and more and more strident threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin, the spectre of nuclear warfare is stalking the globe for the primary time in a long time.

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis” in 1962, US President Joe Biden mentioned in October.

Experts warned of probably the most harmful scenario they will bear in mind, with fears not restricted to Russia: North Korean nuclear sabre-rattling has reached new heights, with the world bracing for a primary nuclear check since 2017.

London Bridge

At 6:30 pm on September 8, Buckingham Palace introduced that Queen Elizabeth II had died, bringing to an finish the longest reign in British historical past and sending shockwaves around the globe.

For 10 days, Britons paid respects to the one monarch most had identified, following a fastidiously choreographed sequence of ceremonies.

The programme of occasions, famously codenamed “London Bridge”, set out in minute element each facet of the protocol — all the way down to BBC presenters sporting black ties.

In the occasion, she died in Scotland, that means particular provisions got here into power — Operation Unicorn.

Loss and harm

World leaders and negotiators descended on the Egyptian Red Sea port of Sharm el-Sheikh for the newest United Nations summit (COP27) on tackling local weather change.

After a fractious summit, extensively seen as poorly organised, a deal was clinched on a fund for “loss and damage” to assist weak international locations address the devastating impacts of local weather change.

Behind the institutional-sounding identify lies destruction for tens of millions within the creating world.

The summit was hailed as historic however many voiced anger over an absence of ambition on slicing greenhouse gasoline emissions.

Woman. Life. Freedom

The chant screamed by protesters in Iran following the demise of Mahsa Amini, a younger lady arrested by the Tehran morality police.

Protesters have burned posters of supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and ladies have appeared in public with out headscarves, in scenes scarcely possible earlier than the rebellion.

The demonstrations have lasted greater than three months and seem to pose an existential problem to the 43-year rule of the clerical regime.

Blue tick

The tiny blue tick (it is truly white on a blue background), which certifies customers on Twitter, turned a logo of the chaos engulfing the social media platform within the wake of its $44 billion takeover by Elon Musk.

The mercurial Tesla boss introduced that anybody wanting the coveted blue tick must stump up eight {dollars}, solely to scrap the plan hours later — after which reintroduce a extra difficult system a number of weeks afterwards.

Nearly two months on from the takeover, Twitter’s future stays up within the air, with hundreds of employees laid off, advertisers leaving, and Musk himself vowing to step down as CEO as quickly as he finds somebody “foolish” sufficient to take over, after a web-based ballot discovered a majority wished him gone.

Roe v. Wade

In an historic ruling, the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v. Wade” choice that enshrined a lady’s proper to an abortion.

The Supreme Court dominated that particular person states might limit or ban the process — a choice seized upon by a number of right-leaning states.

Protests erupted immediately in Washington and elsewhere, exhibiting how divisive the subject stays within the United States.

The overturning of “Roe v. Wade” turned a essential battle within the US mid-terms, through which candidates in favour of abortion rights gained a number of victories.

Quiet quitting

One of the “words of the year” in Britain and Australia, the phrase refers to doing the naked minimal at work, both as a protest in opposition to your employer or to enhance your work-life stability.

The pattern, which has sparked debate about overwork, particularly within the United States, seems to have surfaced first in a TikTok submit in July.

“You’re not outright quitting your job but you’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond,” mentioned the submit which went viral, drawing practically a half-million likes.

Wet lettuce

As Liz Truss approached the top of her chaotic and short-lived tenure as British prime minister, the Economist weekly mused that her efficient interval in workplace had been “roughly the shelf-life of a lettuce”.

The tabloid Daily Star leapt on the thought, launching a dwell net cam that includes the mentioned vegetable — full with googly eyes — subsequent to an image of the hapless Truss.

Her premiership lasted simply 44 days and featured a mini-budget that collapsed the markets and generated extraordinary political upheaval. In the top, the lettuce gained.

Tomato soup

Environmental protesters in search of to attract consideration to the function of fossil gasoline consumption within the local weather disaster hurled tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” portray at London’s National Gallery in October, touching off a sequence of comparable stunts.

Since then, activists have smothered mashed potato on Claude Monet and glued themselves to works by Andy Warhol, Francisco Goya and Johannes Vermeer.

For some, the campaigners are heroes bravely drawing consideration to the local weather emergency. For others, the assaults are counterproductive and lose power by turning into commonplace.

 A4

Protests erupted in China, initially over Covid restrictions however later widening to broader political grievances, posing the best menace to the Beijing authorities since 1989.

The demonstrations turned identified in some quarters because the “A4” protests as protesters held up clean A4-sized sheets of white paper in an indication of solidarity and a nod to the shortage of free speech in China.

PARIS: Armageddon

With the battle in Ukraine and more and more strident threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin, the spectre of nuclear warfare is stalking the globe for the primary time in a long time.

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis” in 1962, US President Joe Biden mentioned in October.

Experts warned of probably the most harmful scenario they will bear in mind, with fears not restricted to Russia: North Korean nuclear sabre-rattling has reached new heights, with the world bracing for a primary nuclear check since 2017.

London Bridge

At 6:30 pm on September 8, Buckingham Palace introduced that Queen Elizabeth II had died, bringing to an finish the longest reign in British historical past and sending shockwaves around the globe.

For 10 days, Britons paid respects to the one monarch most had identified, following a fastidiously choreographed sequence of ceremonies.

The programme of occasions, famously codenamed “London Bridge”, set out in minute element each facet of the protocol — all the way down to BBC presenters sporting black ties.

In the occasion, she died in Scotland, that means particular provisions got here into power — Operation Unicorn.

Loss and harm

World leaders and negotiators descended on the Egyptian Red Sea port of Sharm el-Sheikh for the newest United Nations summit (COP27) on tackling local weather change.

After a fractious summit, extensively seen as poorly organised, a deal was clinched on a fund for “loss and damage” to assist weak international locations address the devastating impacts of local weather change.

Behind the institutional-sounding identify lies destruction for tens of millions within the creating world.

The summit was hailed as historic however many voiced anger over an absence of ambition on slicing greenhouse gasoline emissions.

Woman. Life. Freedom

The chant screamed by protesters in Iran following the demise of Mahsa Amini, a younger lady arrested by the Tehran morality police.

Protesters have burned posters of supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and ladies have appeared in public with out headscarves, in scenes scarcely possible earlier than the rebellion.

The demonstrations have lasted greater than three months and seem to pose an existential problem to the 43-year rule of the clerical regime.

Blue tick

The tiny blue tick (it is truly white on a blue background), which certifies customers on Twitter, turned a logo of the chaos engulfing the social media platform within the wake of its $44 billion takeover by Elon Musk.

The mercurial Tesla boss introduced that anybody wanting the coveted blue tick must stump up eight {dollars}, solely to scrap the plan hours later — after which reintroduce a extra difficult system a number of weeks afterwards.

Nearly two months on from the takeover, Twitter’s future stays up within the air, with hundreds of employees laid off, advertisers leaving, and Musk himself vowing to step down as CEO as quickly as he finds somebody “foolish” sufficient to take over, after a web-based ballot discovered a majority wished him gone.

Roe v. Wade

In an historic ruling, the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v. Wade” choice that enshrined a lady’s proper to an abortion.

The Supreme Court dominated that particular person states might limit or ban the process — a choice seized upon by a number of right-leaning states.

Protests erupted immediately in Washington and elsewhere, exhibiting how divisive the subject stays within the United States.

The overturning of “Roe v. Wade” turned a essential battle within the US mid-terms, through which candidates in favour of abortion rights gained a number of victories.

Quiet quitting

One of the “words of the year” in Britain and Australia, the phrase refers to doing the naked minimal at work, both as a protest in opposition to your employer or to enhance your work-life stability.

The pattern, which has sparked debate about overwork, particularly within the United States, seems to have surfaced first in a TikTok submit in July.

“You’re not outright quitting your job but you’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond,” mentioned the submit which went viral, drawing practically a half-million likes.

Wet lettuce

As Liz Truss approached the top of her chaotic and short-lived tenure as British prime minister, the Economist weekly mused that her efficient interval in workplace had been “roughly the shelf-life of a lettuce”.

The tabloid Daily Star leapt on the thought, launching a dwell net cam that includes the mentioned vegetable — full with googly eyes — subsequent to an image of the hapless Truss.

Her premiership lasted simply 44 days and featured a mini-budget that collapsed the markets and generated extraordinary political upheaval. In the top, the lettuce gained.

Tomato soup

Environmental protesters in search of to attract consideration to the function of fossil gasoline consumption within the local weather disaster hurled tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” portray at London’s National Gallery in October, touching off a sequence of comparable stunts.

Since then, activists have smothered mashed potato on Claude Monet and glued themselves to works by Andy Warhol, Francisco Goya and Johannes Vermeer.

For some, the campaigners are heroes bravely drawing consideration to the local weather emergency. For others, the assaults are counterproductive and lose power by turning into commonplace.

 A4

Protests erupted in China, initially over Covid restrictions however later widening to broader political grievances, posing the best menace to the Beijing authorities since 1989.

The demonstrations turned identified in some quarters because the “A4” protests as protesters held up clean A4-sized sheets of white paper in an indication of solidarity and a nod to the shortage of free speech in China.