Four Stories to Watch for (the Rest of) 2021
Covid will dominate the headlines, but so could Russia, North Korea and a malaria vaccine.
Science: the story of 2021.
Photographer: Adrienne Surprenant/Bloomberg
The standard “Stories to Watch in the Year Ahead” feature typically arrives in early January, or even late December, but this year has been special. It was obvious that the first few months of 2021 would be dominated by Covid, the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election and President Joe Biden’s first 100 days. With those issues now largely in the rearview mirror, if not completely gone, early May seems like a good time for my own version of which stories will matter most in 2021. Here are four, none of which is currently prominent in the news.
A possible Chinese move against Taiwan has received a lot of attention, but a Russian union with Belarus could be a greater danger. Belarus might even agree to such a proposition, so it would be hard for NATO or the U.S. to decry it as a coercive invasion. Yet such a Russian expansion could upend political stability in Europe.