Inflation, elections and war dominated 2024

Daily Briefing

By Judith Langowski, Edson Caldas and Kate Turton

Welcome to the year-end special edition of the Daily Briefing!

Below – after today's top news – you'll find a review of this year by Reuters Executive Editor Simon Robinson, examining how inflation influenced elections around the globe.

We also have a selection of articles recapping the past year and looking ahead at 2025, and we invite you to see 2024's news events through the eyes of Reuters photographers.

Thanks for spending this year with us. We hope you felt thoroughly informed about the world's political and economic developments with the help of our journalists around the world. Reuters Daily Briefing will be back on January 2.

If you have any questions, comments or feedback for the newsletter, write to dailybriefing@thomsonreuters.com.

Today's Top News

A South Korean court gave authorities approval to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol in a criminal investigation into his martial law decree, marking the first time that a sitting president of the country has faced arrest.
Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached the US Treasury Department's computer security guardrails this month and stole documents in what Treasury called a "major incident." China says it has always opposed all forms of hacker attacks. Greater China Bureau Chief Kevin Krolicki is on the Reuters World News podcast to discuss the hack.
Alleged abuses and psychological harm to Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and camps are in renewed focus amid stepped-up efforts in December by international mediators to secure a ceasefire. Meanwhile, as many aid workers and doctors say famine has taken hold in Gaza, the world's hunger monitor has struggled to access key data to determine whether conditions constitute a famine.
A state funeral for Jimmy Carter, the former US president who died at the age of 100, will be held at the Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 9.

Inflation, elections and war dominated 2024

By Simon Robinson

Inflation dropped in most economies around the world in 2024, but voters didn't care.

Angered by the hefty ramp-up in prices for everything from eggs to energy over the past few years, they punished incumbent parties at almost every opportunity. The pain of inflation lingers, and ruling parties took the blame in election after election.

In the United States, higher costs helped Trump win a second term as president four years after he was voted out of the White House and then falsely claimed election fraud.

The inflation-driven anti-incumbent sentiment also ushered in new governments in Britain and Botswana, Portugal and Panama. South Korean voters put the opposition into power in its parliament, a check on President Yoon Suk Yeol. In early December, the president imposed martial law, a move the National Assembly quickly reversed. Elections also shook up France and Germany, and Japan and India.

Read the full article here

Reviewing 2024 and looking ahead to 2025

The Olympic cauldron and the Arc de Triomphe after sunset during the Paris Olympics, July 29, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

Democracy looks bruised but not beaten as it heads into 2025. In a year in which countries representing almost half the world's population called voters to the polls, democracies endured violence and major scares, but also proved resilient.
In 2024, the world's central banks were finally able to start lowering interest rates after largely winning the battle against inflation without sparking a global recession. Stocks hit record highs in the US and Europe, and Forbes declared a "banner year for the mega-wealthy" as 141 new billionaires joined its list of the super-rich. Here is what this means for 2025.
US investors are preparing for a swathe of changes in 2025, from tariffs and deregulation to tax policy, that will ripple through markets as Donald Trump returns to the White House. Strategists expect these are the implications for stocks, bonds and currencies.
Major European energy companies doubled down on oil and gas in 2024 to focus on near-term profits, slowing down – and at times reversing – climate commitments in a shift that they are likely to stick with in 2025.
2025 will be a year of reckoning for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his country's arch foe Iran, writes Global Foreign Policy Editor Samia Nakhoul. Netanyahu is set to cement his strategic goals: tightening his military control over Gaza, thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions and capitalizing on the dismantling of Tehran's allies. Read the analysis here.
The Paris Olympics reinvigorated the Games after the pandemic, a desperately needed success for the IOC, which prepares for a new president in 2025. Meanwhile, women's sports made major gains in TV viewing and attendance, Scottie Scheffler took the golf world by storm, and India ended its cricket drought.

The year ahead for markets

What will 2025 have in store for markets? A new US president, a trade war and political upheaval in Europe's powerhouses are keeping investors on guard. ING's Carsten Brzeski tells Reuters why inflation will remain one of the key risks in the year ahead. Watch the video here.

The stories behind 2024's pictures

Wedding dresses for sale are displayed on mannequins outside a damaged shop in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

This year, Reuters photographers covered the attempted assassination of Trump, a devastating hurricane in North Carolina and floods in Brazil. They are documenting the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the dangers people face trying to migrate to the United States from Mexico, and captured this year's exceptional moments, like the appearance of Comet C/2023 A3 and the Paris Olympics.

Now, Reuters photographers tell the stories behind their pictures.

Read the article here

In memoriam

Quincy Jones, who worked with musicians ranging from Count Basie to Frank Sinatra and reshaped pop music with his collaborations with Michael Jackson. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

Here's a selection of photos of global figures from the worlds of showbusiness, politics, sports and art who died in 2024.

New Reuters newsletters

We launched several new newsletters this year and encourage you to sign up to them and keep following our global newsroom's coverage in 2025.

Reuters Politics US started as a weekly newsletter covering the presidential election and continues with insights on the transition to the Trump presidency, inauguration and beyond.

Reuters Econ World is a newsletter that complements the eponymous podcast. Each week, host Carmel Crimmins picks apart key concepts and ideas driving the biggest economic news around the world.

In Reuters India File, author Ira Dugal brings you weekly news from the Indian subcontinent, with a focus on markets and finance.

And in Reuters Week Ahead, Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni lets Reuters subscribers know each Monday what she and her colleagues are watching for in the upcoming week as well as the questions they are trying to answer. You can sign up for it with a Reuters subscription.

Thanks for reading us and a happy New Year!

Additional editorial support by Anisha De.

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