January 1: United States
After months of disagreements along the party lines between the Republicans and Democrats, the United States Congress passes the American Taxpayer Relief Act, averting the so-called “fiscal cliff”, a scheduled tax rise, drastic cuts in public spending, and a possible new recession. The compromise deal extends the 2001 Bush tax cuts for Americans earning less than $400,000. The spending cuts decision has been deferred for two months.
March 1: United States
The United States President Barack Obama signs an order putting sequestration cuts into effect. Sequestration is a series of automatic, across-the-board cuts to government agencies. The cuts were originally enacted by the Budget Control Act of 2011, when Congress and the White House debated about how to cut the US deficit, and initially was set to begin on January 1. However, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 moved this date to March1 by which Republicans, who insisted on significant spending cuts, and Democrats, who wanted to raise taxes, failed to reach an agreement. The spending reductions will amount to more than $85 billion each year from 2013 through 2021, with about half the cuts coming from the defense budget. The critics of sequester warn that it will slow both the U.S. and global economies.
March 7: United States
The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves new sanctions against North Korea in response to its third nuclear test last month. The sanctions freeze assets and ban travel on some individuals and companies connected with North Korea’s military. (March 11): The United States and South Korea begin joint annual military exercises that involve more than 13,000 troops. (March 26): Angered by the new sanctions and the U.S.-South Korean military drills, North Korea threatens the U.S. territory with a pre-emptive nuclear attack and strikes of U.S. military bases in Japan. At the same time, it carries out large military exercises. (March 30): North Korea announces that it is entering into “a state of war” with South Korea.
April 18: United States
Two bombs placed in pressure cookers and hidden in two backpacks explode at the finishing line of the Boston marathon killing three people and injuring dozens. Two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechens and Islamic extremists who lived in the United States since the early 1990s, are responsible for the bombings.
April 30: United States
United States President Barack Obama promises a new push to close the controversial detention and interrogation facility in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba that has been in operation for 11 years. During his presidential campaign in 2008, Obama promised to close the prison within a year. The new focus on the facility comes amid a hunger strike by more than a 100 detainees out of the 166 detainees still remaining in the prison. They are protesting their indefinite detention.
May 29: United States
Pakistani Taliban’s top leader, Waliur Rehman, and six other militants are killed in northwestern Pakistan in a U.S. missile drone strike. Rehman was responsible for attacks and bombings on coalition forces in Afghanistan. Pakistani authorities condemn the drone attack as a violation of their sovereignty.
June 25: United States
The United States Supreme Court strikes down Section 4 of the Voting Act of 1965, ruling that its preclearance formula is unconstitutional. The Court argues that the formula needed at the time the Act was enacted is no longer necessary and the Congress needs to pass a new formula. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting discrimination by imposing any voting qualifications. Specifically, Congress intended the Act to outlaw the practice of requiring literacy tests for registering to vote, a principal means by which Southern states had prevented African Americans from voting. Critics of the voting law argue that the times have changed and the Southern states should not be punished for the past. Supporters of the provision, however, say that recent efforts to change elections laws in some parts of the U.S., such as voter identification requirement, show that the Voting Act is still needed.
June 26: United States
The American state of Texas executes the 500th prisoner since 1982, when the capital punishment in Texas was reinstated. The polls have shown that the majority of people in Texas support the death penalty despite the growing disapproval of it across the world.
July 3: United States
Four missile attacks shot by a U.S. drone targeting a terrorist compound in Pakistan’s northwestern region of Waziristan kill at least 17 people. Pakistan objects the drone attacks, accusing the U.S. of violating its sovereignty and killing many civilians in the process. Since 2004, the drone attacks killed about 3,500 people, with almost 900 of them civilians.
July 16: Mexico
Mexican army captures Miguel Morales, the brutal leader of the world’s most infamous drug cartels, the Zetas. During his arrest, Morales was in a possession of several guns and $2 million in cash. The Zetas is Mexico’s largest drug cartel geographically. Its revenue comes both from drug trafficking and other criminal activities. They are known for their brutal tactics, including beheadings.
July 18: United States
The U.S. city of Detroit files for bankruptcy, becoming the largest city in the United States to ever do so. It was once a booming city known for its automobile industry, but decades of decline and corruption forced a quarter of a million residents out of the city. Detroit is now in a debt of $18 billion with tens of thousands of abandoned properties, collapsed public services, and rising crime.
October 1: United States
The largest overhaul of the United States’ healthcare system since the 1960s, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, takes effect. The intention of the law is to extend healthcare coverage to all uninsured Americans and slow the skyrocketing cost of the U.S. healthcare. The law makes purchasing healthcare insurance mandatory, providing simultaneously subsidies for those with low income. It also requires businesses with more than 50 employees to provide healthcare for their workers. The law bans insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions and allows children to remain on their parents’ policies until the age of 26. The law was passed in 2010, with all Republicans fervently opposing it and challenging its constitutionality. In 2012, however, the Supreme Court declared the law constitutional.
October 1: United States
Due to strong disagreements between the Democrats and Republicans over federal spending, the United States Congress fails to pass a new budget causing a partial shutdown of the government, the first one in 17 years. The central issue is the country’s new healthcare law, with Republicans attempting to defund it, which would cause a delay in its implementation. About 700,000 government employees deemed as “non-essential” are told to stay home. Most national parks, museums, federal buildings and services are shut down. (October 17): After many negotiations, the Congress passes a temporary deal that ends the government shutdown and extends the country’s debt ceiling until the beginning of February. The cost of this government shutdown for the economy is estimated to be in hundreds of millions of dollars.
October 5: United States
The United States Army Delta commandos apprehend one of the most wanted al-Qaeda leaders, Abu Anas al-Liby, in a special counter-terrorism operation in Libya. Al-Liby is suspected of being a mastermind behind bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
October 30: United States
Pakistan provides statistics showing that only 67 civilians have been killed in U.S. drone attacks since 2008, a figure much lower than the one provided by independent organizations estimating several hundreds killed. The report also says that in that period of time there were 317 U.S. drone strikes, which killed more than 2,000 militants.
November 21: United States
Senate Democrats vote to curb the filibuster rule (the move known as the nuclear option) in response to the Republicans’ incessant blocking of the President’s nominations of executive and lower-level judicial positions. Under the new rule, the Senate will require just a simple majority to approve such nominations.
November 23: United States
China establishes the air identification zone (ADIZ) over the East Asia Sea zone, which covers areas also claimed by Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. It includes the Senkaku islands under Japanese control, but also claimed by the above countries. With the new zone, China demands that planes transiting the zone must file flight plans. The United States and Japan condemn the move, saying it destabilizes the region.