The US and China slipping further into a new kind of cold war that will go on to define this century, and force the rest of the world to decide where it stands.

Taiwan and Ukraine are both dangerous flashpoints where this cold conflict could turn hot.

And all this division is a tragedy for a world that needs to focus on common threats like climate change and the pandemic.

Here in Germany, the new government finds itself in the thick of things, chairing the G-7 and desperately trying to salvage the diplomatic route out of the crisis over Ukraine.

New chancellors usually get a 100-day grace period, but no such luck for Olaf Scholz in 2022.

The Omicron variant will already determine success or failure his very ability to govern.

Climate policy will be another such test.

Olaf Scholz will have to prove his claim that he can transform Germany to a green economy and create wealth at the same time.

All along, Scholz will also need to prevent fault lines within his governing coalition from becoming all-out cracks.

He and his Green foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, have already made very different statements on how understanding Germany should be of Russia or China, for instance.

Only if Scholz can afford a joint line in his coalition can Germany live up to those expectations within the European Union and beyond.

2022 is shaping up to be another year fraught with challenges for the European Union with geopolitical tensions rising, so a phrase you will be hearing frequently is "strategic autonomy".

"What is that?" you ask.

Well, here in Brussels, that term embodies Europe's desire to stand on its own two feet to produce more here instead of having to buy everything from China,

and to defend itself without having to rely on the United States and NATO.

That could include an EU army as well as efforts to ramp up production for products like semiconductors here in Europe.

Now, this push for autonomy is really the brainchild of the French president Emmanuel Macron; he wants Europe to dream bigger and assert itself globally.

But not everybody is on board⏤some think it's a useless pipe dream.

But France holds the first rotating presidency for the European Union in 2022, so Emmanuel Macron will be forging ahead.

2022 will indeed be a very crucial year for China, and that mainly has to do with two big events ahead.

The first one being the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will be held in February, and observers basically perceived this event as an accelerator of the already widening gap between the West and China.

While the Chinese government promotes the Beijing Winter Olympics as a milestone for a country that has become a world power,

the West mostly debates about a political boycott of the Games and also debates about the, uh, increasing human rights violations inside the country.

Then, in autumn, there will be the biggest political event of the year, the 20th Party Congress.

And during that event, Xi Jinping is expected to proclaim his third term in office, and that will make him the longest-serving Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

And if you look back, um, under Xi's rule over the last 10 years, he has transformed the country tremendously.

And so far, he doesn't show any signs of easing control.

Tensions between Taiwan and China continue to grow as President Xi Jinping refuses to rule out using military force to reunify with the Democratic Island.

Taiwan is going to implement new policies for military reservists starting from January 2022.

Reservists can be asked to train in consecutive years rather than every other year, and the training period will be extended from 7 days to 14 days.

Amid Beijing's threat, Taiwan has been fostering relations with EU countries. Delegations from France, Lithuania, and Slovakia visited the island in the past 12 months.

Taiwan opened a de facto embassy in Lithuania, prompting a furious reaction from Beijing. Lithuania will open its representative office in Taiwan in early 2022.

And domestically, Taiwan will hold local elections in November. It's the first national ballot since President Tsai Ingwen got reelected, and it is seen as a litmus test for the 2024 presidential fold.

It began with dances and tears of joy.

Biden supporters euphorically celebrated the announcement of the election results in November, 2020.

A year later, not much of that remains.

To this day, Trump supporters doubt the legitimacy of the election.

Over time, it is becoming clearer how close the US came to a coup d'etat on January 6th that would have prevented the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

We want Trump! We want Trump!

It is one of the pitfalls of the US electoral system that the president is already in campaign mode after just one year in office.

The midterm elections will determine on November 8th whether President Biden will lose his ability to govern.

It is quite likely that the majorities in both houses will go to the Republicans,

and they can, and they will, prevent anything the Democrats can claim as a success in the upcoming 2024 presidential campaign.

In the extremely radicalized United States, everything is now politicized.

In the fight against the Corona crisis, which has already claimed over 800,000 lives, political interests come before the common good.

The same is true of the climate crisis, which has hit the country with more extreme weather more frequently.

The biggest challenge facing America, however, is how secure its democratic institutions are. They are under attack at every level.

This year, the stage is set for whether one of the oldest democracies may slip into an autocratic system. It might sound inconceivable for many, but it is quite possible

The United Nations is predicting that nearly 300 million people in the world will need humanitarian aid in 2022.

More than half of that number are Africans.

Ethiopia, South Sudan, Nigeria, and the Sahara countries face a raft of challenges including war, terrorism, hunger, climate change, and the coronavirus pandemic.

Democracy is also eroding.

Human rights abuses are projected to increase as leaders in many African countries try to hold tightened power against the choices of their citizens.

Militaries in West Africa and the Horn of Africa have shown a desire for power. Mali, Chad, Guinea, and Sudan are countries to watch come 2022.

All of them have seen militaries taking up political responsibilities in their hands, leaving civilians in state of despair.

The pandemic is also expected to threaten the economy catch-up initiated in recent decades by African countries.

Big economic countries like South Africa and Nigeria will be affected, but stronger rebound is expected for countries like Ivory Coast, Morocco, Rwanda, and Kenya.

On a positive note, China is expected to deliver at least one billion vaccines.

Senegal had run the plan to start producing their own vaccines in 2022.