Portrait of the year: Subpostmasters scandal, Rishi in the rain and Syrian rebels topple regime

January

After an ITV drama, the government suddenly proposed to do something about the unjust prosecution of sub-postmasters. Junior doctors went on strike. There was a surge in scabies. The King went to hospital and was later found to have cancer. The Princess of Wales was in hospital with what turned out to be cancer. Five migrants died boarding a boat for England off Wimereux. In Beirut, Israel killed the deputy head of Hamas. Israel said that it expected war in Gaza to continue throughout the year. The United States, with token British support, struck sites in Yemen to deter Houthi attacks on shipping. Russia mounted the biggest missile bombardment of its war against Ukraine. China’s population fell by 2.08 million to 1.41 billion.

February

Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein became the First Minister of Northern Ireland. Lee Anderson MP lost the Conservative whip. Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader jailed in 2021, died aged 47 in a penal colony inside the Arctic Circle. Witchcraft charges against the Seychelles opposition leader, Patrick Herminie, were dropped. Cocoa prices reached a new high of $5,874 a ton. The number of babies born in Japan fell to a new low.

March

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Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, standing at a lectern in Downing Street, said: ‘It is beyond horrifying that last night the Rochdale by-election returned a candidate who denies the horror of what happened on 7 October.’ Vaughan Gething became First Minister of Wales, saying: ‘I have the honour of becoming the first black leader in any European country.’ Sir Jeffrey Donaldson resigned as leader of the Democratic Unionist party after being charged with historical sexual offences.