2019 has been a year full of tumult and uncertainties. In the U.S., the sitting president, Donald Trump, was impeached by the House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress. Across the waters in the UK, Brexit, after dragging on for a year, is still in limbo. Meanwhile, protests in France have almost become the new norm after French President Emmanuel Macron launched a controversial pension reform.

In the Middle East, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was declared dead, but peace has not been restored in the region. 

Amid confrontations, there are still events that offer hope. The first image of a black hole was captured and a historic meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and People's Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Un on denuclearization was held in Hanoi. As countries around the world brace for 2020, CGTN takes you back to some of the important international events that gripped the world in 2019, whose far-reaching influences may spill over to the upcoming year.