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From the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada to the elections in Israel: five major events that will attract attention during 2026.
– Cosmonauts are approaching the moon –
2026 could be the year astronauts approach the moon again.
After several delays, NASA’s Artemis 2 mission, which has private partners such as SpaceX, is now scheduled for April at the latest.
It’s a key milestone before Americans can return to lunar soil, which Donald Trump wants to achieve by 2030, a time frame set by China to reach the milestone.
The Asian power continues to stand on its side. In 2026, its Chang’e 7 probe is scheduled to explore the satellite’s south pole, while tests of its manned Mengzhou spacecraft continue.
India also has big ambitions in space. After landing a robot on the Earth’s satellite in 2023, the ISRO agency plans to launch an astronaut into orbit on its own in 2027.
The moon, which involves testing vehicles, combinations and energy, has become a mandatory stop before a trip to Mars, the most ambitious goal.
– World Cup of football in three countries –
48 teams, 104 matches and three host countries: The 2026 World Cup, scheduled for the USA, Mexico and Canada, has been announced as an XXL tournament, four years after the triumph of Leo Messi’s Argentina in Qatar 2022.
The most popular competition on the planet will change its format. It will last for about six weeks (from June 11 to July 19, 2026) and will be held in 16 stadiums spread over almost 4,000 km, 11 of them in the United States.
A golden opportunity for Donald Trump to take advantage of his presidency. But also a political weapon, given the chaos unleashed by the Republican leader’s trade war and his restrictive immigration measures.
At the sports level, bets are divided between South American giants – Brazil, Argentina – and European favorites – Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, England.
– Gaza and the elections in Israel –
In the Middle East, pressure from the United States turned into a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas in October, after more than two years of war.
Trump’s peace plan for the Gaza Strip leaves many points unresolved, such as the future stages of the withdrawal of the Israeli army, reconstruction or the future governance of the Palestinian territory.
By officially endorsing Trump’s plan, the UN Security Council laid the groundwork for the deployment of international forces, something neither the Israeli government nor the Palestinian Islamist movement actually wants.
Hamas refuses to disarm on the terms set by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the age of 76, Netanyahu plans to run again in the elections, which will be held no later than November 2026.
An overwhelming majority of Israelis want the prime minister to take responsibility for the war, which began with a Hamas attack in October 2023, and a relative majority opposes him receiving a presidential pardon, which he formally requested in late November to avoid a corruption trial.
With only a relative and fragile majority, he could prove a tempting military option to fight Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon to retain the support of his far-right allies and try to achieve the total victory he promised the Israelis.
– Midterm elections in the United States –
After 2025, which was marked by Donald Trump’s storming return to the White House, the November 3, 2026 midterm elections are a defining moment for an already historic presidency in many ways.
In 36 states, new governors will be elected, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 out of 100 seats in the Senate will be restored.
The challenge for Republicans is to maintain their slim majority in Congress.
For their part, Democrats hope to flip the House and even the Senate if they get good results.
Re-winning Congress would allow them to end the Republican tycoon agenda, which would then be 80 years old.
Because even though Trump’s name isn’t on the ballot, this election will allow nearly 250 million Americans to take stock of the first half of his second term.
The number of the president himself will be an important topic in the campaign, but it may be overshadowed by the question of the cost of living in conditions of constant inflation.
These midterm elections will also serve as a platform to launch the careers of many candidates for the 2028 presidential election, the first without Donald Trump since 2012.
– Climate: Will the world react? –
2026 has every chance to remain warm on a historical scale. The past eleven years have been the warmest on record. The British Meteorological Institute predicts that there is an 80% chance that the 2024 record will be broken by 2029.
Will the nations respond? COP30 in Brazil just showed that climate multilateralism is not dead, despite the US boycott and geopolitical conflicts.
“2026 is set to be a renaissance year for international climate diplomacy,” says Rebecca Thiessen of the Climate Action Network. “COPs are not an end in themselves, but the culminating point of the international political agenda, which must be agreed urgently.”
With COP31 to be held in November 2026 in Antalya, Turkey, the world will be watching to see how many countries respond to Colombia’s invitation in April in Santa Marta for the first international conference to divest from fossil fuels.
Aleksandar Rankavich from the think tank The Common Initiative wonders “whether the Gen Z uprisings that have risen around the world will start fighting for the climate.”
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