The Winter Olympics\u00a0opened on the 6th\u00a0of February\u00a0across Milan and Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo\u00a0with 92 nations competing in a range of sports.\u00a0This includes alpine skiing, figure skating, snowboarding,\u00a0speed\u00a0skating,\u00a0and more.\u00a0One game that has been gaining popularity is curling. Making its Olympics debut in 1924 as a demonstration sport but not becoming an official Olympic sport\u00a0until 1998, it is now one of the\u00a0Winter Games\u2019 most unexpectedly popular events. Some people call it chess on ice for its strategic\u00a0gameplay. It is also part of a large mystery in physics which is too big to explain here but can be found in\u00a0Cleo Abram video, \u2018Why This Olympic Sport Bothers Physicists\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nBulgaria started the year with a\u00a0significant change, adopting the Euro on the 1st<\/sup>\u00a0of January and becoming the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0member of the Eurozone. Replacing the Bulgarian Lev, the Euro\u00a0now aims for increased economic stability, easier\u00a0travel\u00a0and trade.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parts of the southwest in Spain, especially the region of Andalusia experienced record-breaking rainfall and consequential flooding at the start of the year. A series of Atlantic storms led by Storm Leonardo resulted in unprecedented downpours of more than 500 mm of rain in 24 hours in some places. <\/p>\n\n\n On the other hand, Japan experienced extraordinary weather conditions in their snow season this January and early February. They had one of the most intense snow events in decades with 15 prefectures reaching snow depths of over 2m in many places and some remote valleys with more than 4m. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\u00a083rd<\/sup>\u00a0Golden\u00a0Globes\u00a0took place on the 11th<\/sup>\u00a0of January\u00a0in Beverly Hills, California, celebrating film and television achievements.\u00a0One Battle After Another\u00a0<\/em>won multiple awards including Best Flim, Director and Screenplay.\u00a0Hamnet\u00a0<\/em>won Best Film in the Drama category. Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet won Best Actor\u00a0for his role in\u00a0Marty Supreme<\/em>. For the first time,\u00a0a Best Podcast\u00a0Golden Globe was given out\u00a0\u2013 to Amy Poehler\u2019s\u00a0Good Hang<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n This year\u2019s Grammy Awards occurred on the 1st<\/sup> of February in Los Angeles, recognising a multitude of music. Bad Bunny won Album of the Year for Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos<\/em>. Billie Eilish won Song of the Year for Wildflower. Olivia Dean won Best New Artist, celebrating her breakthrough year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the sports world, there are many new events happening. The Winter Paralympics are scheduled\u00a0to\u00a0begin on the 6th<\/sup>\u00a0of March\u00a0in Italy with 665 athletes from around 50 countries competing. The FIFA World Cup is being hosted by Canada,\u00a0Mexico\u00a0and the United States this year, starting on the 11th<\/sup>\u00a0of July. This\u00a0year\u00a0will be the largest tournament ever, with 48\u00a0teams\u00a0playing 104 matches all together over the span of\u00a0five weeks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n Several blockbuster movies will be\u00a0released\u00a0throughout this year, with several franchises continuing as well as new projects. Some of these include\u00a0The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Supergirl, The Odyssey, Spiderman: Brand New Day, Toy Story 5, Project Hail Mary, Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping\u00a0<\/em>and more.\u00a0Probably the\u00a0biggest moment in cinema this year will be the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0of December when both\u00a0Avengers: Doomsday\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Dune: Messiah\u00a0<\/em>release. Many, after RDJ and Chalamet coined the term, are calling this event Avengers\u00a0Dunesday\u00a0and the next Barbenheimer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n There are also many celestial events coming up. On the 28th<\/sup> of February, the planetary parade will occur with six planets (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) appearing aligned in the sky. On August 12th<\/sup>, there will be a total solar eclipse visible from parts of Europe and a total lunar eclipse on the 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> of March visible from the Americas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking of space, 2026 also marks the year of the Artemis II\u00a0project that will be the first crewed journey around the Moon in more than 50 years. Aiming to return humans to the Moon, it hopes to\u00a0build a sustained presence there for future exploration,\u00a0including eventual missions to Mars. This will be launched on the 7th<\/sup>\u00a0of March and last around\u00a010 days\u00a0as it orbits around the moon and returns to Earth. This will be the farthest\u00a0any humans\u00a0have travelled into space.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n 2026 is the 250th<\/sup> anniversary of the U.S. since it\u2019s Declaration of Independence in 1776. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also the centennial anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s birth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Starting this year on a positive note, 2026 is a happy number. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You first square its digits: 2\u00b2 + 0\u00b2 + 2\u00b2 + 6\u00b2 = 44. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You then repeat this with the new number: 4\u00b2 + 4\u00b2 = 32. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Repeating this calculation twice more gives you 13 and then 10. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The last step gives you the number 1. Because the calculations end in 1, 2026 is classified as a happy number. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Already in the second month, the year 2026 has leapt into action. With global events from major sports to the film industry to space exploration, 2026 is shaping up to be a year full of memorable moments. Yet before we look ahead, what has happened so far? Recap The Winter Olympics\u00a0opened on the 6th\u00a0of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[98,96,97],"class_list":["post-1424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyondschool","tag-culture-science","tag-world-events","tag-year-in-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1424"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1433,"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions\/1433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newington.nsw.edu.au\/student-magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/04\/IM-2.jpg\")
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