- [Kento Bento] I'm Kento Bento!
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Asia, 2019.
This video will be different from normal,
because it won't just be about one event,
but 42 events in the near future,
all happening in Asia in 2019.
Now, of course, predicting such events is extremely difficult,
but we can always give our best estimates based on the information we currently have.
Before we start, if you're unsure of which countries are considered Asian,
according to the international community,
feel free to check out our video series on Asian borders.
We will start from January 2019.
India will launch the Chandrayaan-2 lunar exploration mission,
where, if successful, will become only the fourth country
to land a spacecraft on the moon.
They will, however, be the first to land near the lunar south pole, a territory yet to be explored.
Back on Earth, the Philippines will hold the 10th edition of the Mister World competition,
an international male beauty pageant.
This will be the biggest Mister World in history,
with more than 100 candidates from around the world
converging in Manila.
The defending champion, Rohit Khandelwal from India,
is actually the first Asian competitor
to have won Mister World back in 2016.
Baidu, a Chinese tech giant,
one of the largest internet companies in the world
and China's biggest online search provider,
will launch self-driving buses to the public
in various Chinese cities, like Shenzhen and Beijing.
Trials for this self-driving technology are currently being wrapped up,
with the company planning to also deliver at least 10 of the buses to Tokyo.
Baidu is basically seen as the Chinese equivalent to Google,
due to Google being blocked in China.
But come January, this will likely not be the case,
as Google has been quietly collaborating
with the Chinese government to launch a new censored version of their search engine,
codenamed Dragonfly.
Amnesty International has called this a dark day for internet freedom,
which could pave the way for other countries
like Russia, Turkey, and Iran
to implement their own control measures to censor content and opinion on Google in their countries.
This has lead to significant uproar, even from Google's own employees,
over 14,000 of which have signed a petition, raising moral and ethical issues.
On a lighter note, January may see the Indian YouTube channel T-Series
finally defeat Pewdiepie to become the most subscribed YouTube channel of all time,
making them the first Asian channel to top the YouTube rankings.
Though, of course, with anything on YouTube,
this is highly unpredictable.
And speaking of being unpredictable, around this time,
Kim Jong-Un is expected to visit Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow for the first time,
which would make Russia only the fourth country
the Supreme Leader has set foot in since taking power,
after China, South Korea, and of course Singapore,
where Kim Jong-Un and the US president Donald Trump
met back in June.
Not much information has yet come out for Kim and Trump's second meeting,
but it is planned for early 2019.
In about February, South Korean conglomerate Samsung
will release what they claim will be the first foldable smartphone,
the Samsung Galaxy X, where the fold will be on
the actual display screen, so it can be a tablet one moment
and a phone the next.
Now, towards the end of the month,
Thailand will hold their much-delayed general elections,
the first since the 2014 military coup.
In March, North Korea will hold their elections,
or rather, elections in quotation marks,
as so-called candidates are chosen by the state,
handpicked by Kim himself.
These candidates then run unopposed,
meaning it's fair to say, with 99.99% certainty,
that Kim Jong-Un will win reelection.
In April, Afghanistan and Indonesia will also hold their elections,
but unlike the hermit kingdom,
actual regime change will be far more likely.
Both elections have been overshadowed by
a divided political system
and threats of rising extremism,
which isn't so surprising in the case of Afghanistan,
where much of its territory is still controlled by the Taliban,
and it's really not much better in Indonesia,
with the flag burning,
protests,
and crackdowns on LGBT communities.
Now, I quickly wanna say special thanks
to our long-time patron and channel supporter Bruce,
currently living in Jakarta,
who helped provide information for that last point.
And speaking of this channel, this Asiany channel,
April will hopefully see Kento Bento reach half a million subscribers.
Why am I referring to myself in the third-person?
I do hope it will happen sooner,
but with videos getting demonetized and suppressed
like our very last video, which probably wasn't suggested to you,
who knows when that'll actually be.
Of course, if you wanna be a patron like Bruce
and help support this channel, which would be really appreciated,
please check out our Patreon page.
Also in April, Japanese Emperor Akihito
will abdicate his throne in favor of his eldest son,
Crown Prince Naruhito.
This event will mark the end of the Heisei Period,
the current era in Japan.
Abdication has not occurred in the country in over 200 years.
Now, the first Emerati astronaut from the UAE
will make his way to space,
followed shortly in May by Israel,
who will launch their first spacecraft to the moon,
which after India's south pole mission
will make them the fifth country to land a lunar craft.
And speaking of Israel, the 2019 Eurovision song contest
will be held in Tel Aviv.
Eurovision is a super popular international song competition
held primarily among countries in Europe,
which as such might seem odd to some that Israel,
a West Asian country, is hosting and participating.
But with Morocco and even Australia having joined in the past,
you can see eligibility is pretty loose.
May will also see Taiwan make history
as the first Asian state to legalize same sex marriage.
And about this time, India will hold their general elections,
which in their 70 plus years of independence,
will likely be the first election that seriously challenges their inclusive political culture.
Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be unseated.
In June, Japan will host their first G20 Summit of world leaders,
and in Sri Lanka, construction will begin on a new financial and commercial center.
This $1.4 billion port city in the Indian Ocean
will be built by China, under the Belt and Road Initiative,
meant to resemble other major urban centers
like Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai.
However, do not expect to see this leading financial hub any time soon,
as completion is slated for 2041.
And around July, the world's first air taxi trials
will be completed in Singapore.
Taking a page out of The Jetsons, Volocopter, a German aviation company
backed up by tech giants Intel
and automotive firm Daimler,
will attempt to transform mobility and logistics in Singapore
with their flying cars based on drone technology.
The aim is to mitigate traffic congestion
by opening up the first commercial air taxi routes
within the next three to five years.
Congestion is also also great on the two bridges
linking Singapore, an island nation,
to the Asian mainland, which is why, around this time,
there are also plans to start construction on a third Singapore-Malaysia bridge.
And speaking of Southeast Asian countries,
in August, all 10 countries in ASEAN,
that's Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia,
Laos, Myanmar, and Brunei, will, for the first time,
hold maritime exercises with the US.
Having the US and all the other ASEAN countries involved
would be the biggest display of combined force
against China in modern time.
China and the US both wield considerable influence in the region,
and with many ASEAN countries currently being at odds
with the PRC over claims to the South China Sea,
it will certainly be interesting to see how China reacts.
Though, come September, China will be busy hosting the FIBA World Cup,
a major international basketball competition
with a similar tournament structure to the FIFA World Cup,
but it'll in fact be Japan who'll really have their hands full in September,
because they will be hosting the first ever Rugby World Cup in Asia.
What makes this event particularly challenging
will be the threat of natural disaster.
The event is held in one of Japan's peak months for chaotic weather conditions,
which have left organizers worried at
the possibility of a sudden complete broadcasting blackout.
September, just a year before,
saw the worst storm in 25 years wreak havoc
across parts of western Japan, leaving a trail of death and destruction.
Turkey will attempt to minimize shipping traffic in its region
by starting construction on the Kanal Istanbul,
an artificial sea-level waterway
that will connect the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
It will bisect Turkey over around here,
which would result in the formation of a new island
between the continents of Asia and Europe.
The 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China will happen in October
which is also when they will open a new record-setting airport,
the Beijing-Daxing International Airport,
which will become the busiest airport in the world,
expected to serve 100 million plus passengers a year,
beating the current record-holder,
Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta.
October will also be the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Ghandi's birth,
which will coincide with India's grand plan to finish building 111 million toilets across the nation.
Yes, that's 111 million toilets,
the greatest toilet building spree in human history.
This will be a huge step towards a better, cleaner India,
as hundreds of thousands of Indians
actually die annually from unsafe water and sanitation,
primarily due to open, unclean toilets.
In November, in preparation for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games,
Japan will finally complete construction on the new National Stadium in Tokyo,
intended to be the main stadium of the upcoming Olympics.
Now, by this time, if state sources prove to be accurate,
Russia will have sent humanoid robots into space.
No, not as cargo, but as actual crew members.
This would be a world's first.
Their repertoire will include human-like actions
like push-ups, fist bumping, and shooting guns.
And that might not be the only first,
because Russia is also planning to send
paying tourists to the International Space Station,
or the ISS, where they would be able to go on
commercial space walks.
They would even be allowed to film videos, which means, in the very near future,
vlogging in space, or splogging, might just be a thing.
Now, while Russia may be sending tourists into space,
they won't be sending anyone from NASA,
because their obligation to deliver US astronauts
to and from the International Space Station ends in November.
NASA has relied on Russia to get to the ISS
since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011,
which means that they'll have to now find another way,
and well, they have, because NASA will be paying
Elon Musk's SpaceX and Boeing $6.8 billion
to fly them to the ISS, a first for privately-owned companies.
And speaking of Elon Musk, Tesla, the automotive company based in California,
will open factories in Shanghai, China.
It's the first time Tesla will be manufacturing outside of the US,
and while other companies are trying to move production outside of China,
due to the ongoing China-US trade war,
Tesla will be doubling down as they attempt
to get a stronger foothold in the Chinese market.
By this time, India may open its first Apple Store,
with planned locations in New Delhi,
Bengaluru, and Mumbai, with many other companies
also trying to expand into the Indian market in 2019,
including Ikea, Xiaomi, Spotify, MasterCard,
Uniqlo, and, once again, Tesla.
With India having one of the largest populations in the world, this isn't surprising.
By the end of 2019, that population will be near 1.39 billion people,
which would be 30% of Asia's entire population, at over 4.62 billion.
And with all these people, I guess it's only fair
Asia get its own international song competition,
which is why in December, Eurovision Asia will be launched,
intended to be very similar in concept to the European version.
Now, as for why it's not called Asiavision,
well, that's due to legal reasons.
Now, Hong Kong and Singapore have made bids
to host the very first event,
but it was ultimately Australia that ended up being selected,
which seems a pretty weird choice for the first Eurovision Asia competition,
but there were extenuating circumstances.
Throughout 2019, Chinese telecom giant Huawei
will consolidate its lead over Apple in smartphone sales,
solidifying its global status and making them second only to Samsung.
Note that's eight Asian companies in the top 10.
This is especially impressive of Huawei,
given their products are effectively banned in the US,
due to being perceived as a national cybersecurity threat.
Washington has accused the company of being a potential facilitator
for Chinese spying and cyber-theft.
And on this note, 2019 will also see rogue nations like North Korea
increase their cybercrime activities worldwide,
with damages exceeding well over $2 trillion.
And with one third of cybercrime in general coming from Asia
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(dramatic music)