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Turning Points | Global Agenda

Events to Shake, or Gently Rattle, the World in 2018

During festivals in Catalonia, teams attempt to build and then dismantle human towers, or castells.Credit...Josep Lago/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

This is an article from Turning Points, a magazine that explores what critical moments from this year might mean for the year ahead.

RUSSIA, January — February: To see a frosty fairytale-like landscape, join an expedition to the “Pole of Cold.” Tour guides will lead you to Oymyakon, a Russian village that’s the coldest inhabited place on the Earth’s surface.

ENGLAND, Jan. 27 — April 15: This is a reunion you’ll want to attend. The Royal Academy of Arts is bringing together Charles I’s collection of art from the 15th to the 17th century, including works by Titian, Van Dyck, Rubens, Holbein and Mantegna. A quick refresher: Charles I’s authoritarian rule eventually led to his execution. Oh, if those paintings could talk.

PAKISTAN and UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, Jan. 7 — 21: Blind players from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Australia, South Africa and the West Indies use a hard plastic “audio ball” in the Blind Cricket World Cup for a game that has been around since the 1920s.

SOUTH KOREA, Feb. 9 — 25: Leave it to an Olympic city to set a record: Pyeongchang will be the first-ever Winter Games city to award over 100 gold medals. Among the new events: men’s and women’s mass-start speed skating and big-air snowboarding.

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To celebrate the summer solstice, thousands of canines are slaughtered and served up in a controversial dog meat festival in Yulin, China.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

CHINA, Feb. 16: In 2017, it was believed that there would be a fine of up to 100,000 renminbi, or about $14,500, for selling dog meat in the week before the Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival in June of 2017. Although animal-welfare advocates considered the temporary ban a victory, the meat was still available during the festival. Will dog meat sales continue in 2018, otherwise known as the Year of the Dog? Thousands of online petition signatories hope not.

RUSSIA, March: If President Vladimir V. Putin runs in the country’s next presidential election and is successful, he will become the longest serving Russian leader since Stalin. His most vocal critic, Aleksei Navalny, has promised to run for president, despite being disqualified by his five-year suspension sentence on charges of embezzlement.

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Art Basel in Hong Kong, which will be held in March 2018, is Asia’s biggest art fair.Credit...Art Basel

HONG KONG, March 29 — 31: Looking to make that perfect acquisition but can’t make it to Miami or Basel? Then head to Hong Kong, which seeks to become the capital of the Asian art market. Art Basel Hong Kong is Asia’s biggest art fair, where you’ll be sure to find something from one of the many emerging or powerhouse galleries.

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Participants in the Marathon des Sables run over 156 miles in the Sahara.Credit...Alexis Berg

MOROCCO, April 6 — 16: Running about 156 miles in the Sahara? Piece of meskouta (Moroccan cake)! Just don’t forget to bring some water. Participants in the Marathon des Sables drink 32,000 gallons of mineral water on average over the 10-day haul.

FRANCE, April 2: With HBO, Amazon, Netflix and others shelling out the big bucks for film-production-quality television, Cannes has its timing right to launch a new festival with an official selection of 10 unseen TV series. Vive la television!

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Remnants of the failed Fyre Festival in Great Exuma, the Bahamas, in May 2017. The festival is expected to return in 2018 in the United States.Credit...Scott McIntyre for The New York Times

UNITED STATES: You leave millennials stranded without adequate food or shelter on a Bahamian island, and 81 percent say they’d still go back. The now-infamous organizers of the Fyre Festival, which was marketed as a once-in-a-lifetime luxury experience featuring rock bands, celebrity chefs and V.I.P. accommodations, are giving it another go.

ITALY: May 26 — Nov. 25: The Italians get to host the world’s foremost art and architecture festivals every other year on an island that’s set to sink (whether by water or by tourism, is as yet unclear). The theme for this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale is “Freespace,” focused on the generosity, quality and humanity of architecture.

CATALONIA, June — November: The Catalonians have been taking castells (or human towers) to new heights since the early 1700s. Watch a child climb to the top of a nine-person tower and hold up four fingers to represent the four stripes of the Catalan flag. Unesco has added the spectacle to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

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The 2018 Tour de France will start a week later than originally planned to avoid too much overlap with the FIFA World Cup.Credit...Jeff Pachoud/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

FRANCE, July 7: Several mega-fans of the annual cycling race Tour de France were left “à bout de souffle” (“breathless”) when they learned about two big changes this year: Le Tour will start a week later than usual to avoid too much screen-time overlap with the FIFA World Cup, where the French team is among the favorites to win. And there will be fewer riders: eight instead of nine per team.

THE SUN, July 31 — Aug. 19: To infinity, and ... the sun! A NASA spacecraft will fly closer to our solar system’s most well-known star than any other spacecraft in history, thanks to a revolutionary new thermal protection system. A shield eight feet in diameter will protect the spacecraft against temperatures of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit by cooling it to a nice and chilly 320 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Pope Francis prays during a weekly general audience at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, in October.Credit...Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

IRELAND, Aug. 21 — 26: Besides being the most meme-able pope in history, Francis will also be the first pope to visit Ireland since Pope John Paul II’s historic visit in 1979. Francis is also expected to go to Northern Ireland, which John Paul II was unable to do because of the political turmoil during the Troubles.

POLAND, Aug. 21 — 26: What is art? At the biggest light festival in the northern Polish city of Torun, art is expressed in “situations.” Water and light situations, that is, which explore the different ways that light can interact aesthetically with water. Categories include “Pleasure vs. Danger” and “Global Vital Commodity vs. Natural Element of the Cosmos.”

INDONESIA, Aug. 18 — Sept. 2: The pancontinental Asian Games, also known as the “Asiad,” are recognized by the International Olympic Committee and feature sports like sepak takraw (kick volleyball) and the Chinese martial art of wushu.

WORLDWIDE, Oct. 16: There’s still over 10 years left to achieve the United Nations’ goal of ending global hunger by 2030, and World Food Day aims to raise awareness. It’s one of the most celebrated days of the United Nations calendar, with over 150 countries hosting marathons, marches, exhibitions and performances.

NORWAY, November — December: Who else has been rating technological advancements by how much they resemble “The Jetsons”? The Dutch company Pal-V will hand over the first keys to customers who bought its “roadable aircrafts.” Essentially flying cars, these gyrocopters have foldout wings that drivers can expand and detract on any runway.

JAPAN, December — February: While Americans have been devouring California rolls, the Japanese have adopted the colonel’s chicken. A 1974 marketing campaign known as “Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii!” (“Kentucky for Christmas!”) made the fast food chain KFC part of Japan’s holiday tradition. Several Japanese airlines have offered in-flight KFC from December through February, and to this day, KFC restaurants in Japan recommend ordering Christmas takeout weeks in advance.

THE MOON, late 2018: Prepare your Instagram feeds. SpaceX announced that it will take private citizens — who have already paid a significant deposit — to the moon on its crew-compatible Dragon 2 capsule.

CHINA: Designed to be the nation’s first digital book of “everything,” the Chinese Encyclopedia will feature more than 300,000 entries, each about 1,000 words long, making it twice as large as the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The project has been in the works since 2011, with more than 20,000 scholars from universities and research institutes taking part.

This is an article from Turning Points, a magazine that explores what critical moments from this year might mean for the year ahead.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

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