I t almost feels like it’s now become the norm for, at the end of each year the world to sigh collectively – “what a year that’s been.”

Whether the world is genuinely becoming a more terrible place, or whether we feel increasingly jaded by bad news stories given the relentless onslaught of information is up for debate.

But what does seem clear is that there are those news events which have the power to seemingly unite the world, thanks to their sheer strangeness, or uniqueness – the sense that this is something the like of which planet Earth has never seen before.

Often it’s the element of human tragedy that makes these stories so compelling, and, in the best cases, the ability for those involved to overcome some struggle.

The last decade has witnessed several defining movements - from the Arab Spring, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, rising populism and a reinvigorated focus on the climate crisis. But some individual stories have also had the power to elicit what feels like a global response.

Here are some of the wildest, most tragic, and most endearing stories of the last decade – the times when it felt impossible not to follow the story.

1. Iceland volcano, 2010

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano billowing smoke and ash in April 2010 (Getty)

No sooner had the decade begun than Eyjafjallajökull erupted – prompting travel chaos, an apocalyptic atmosphere and a pronunciation challenge for non-Icelandic newsreaders everywhere.

Having laid dormant since 1823, the eruption, in the south of Iceland, saw ash shoot 30,000 feet into the air, creating a dark cloud that quite literally hung over Europe and caused the widest disruption to air travel since WWII.

Over a period of six days, hundreds of locals were evacuated and tens of thousands of flights were cancelled.

Best pictures of the decade Show all 72 1 /72 Best pictures of the decade Best pictures of the decade January - 2013 Protesters flee from tear gas fired by riot police during clashes after protesters removed a concrete barrier at Qasr al-Aini Street near Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt on 24 January Reuters Best pictures of the decade January - 2015 Amid tight security, members of the public arrive to pay their respects at the funeral of Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Bernard 'Tignous' Verlhac at Pere Lachaise Cemetery on January 15 in Paris, France. The cartoonist was killed in the terrorist attack on satirical newspaper a week before Getty Best pictures of the decade January - 2015 A tug boat pushing against the car carrier Hoegh Osaka after she became stranded on Bramble Bank, in the Solent between Southampton and the Isle of Wight on 5 January PA Best pictures of the decade January - 2016 Members of the media and public gather by a mural of David Bowie in Brixton on 11 January. The British music and fashion icon died earlier that day at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer Getty Best pictures of the decade January - 2017 Kandy Freeman participating in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City on 14 January Reuters Best pictures of the decade January - 2019 Anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray, left, and a pro-Brexit protester argue as they demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster in London on 8 January Getty Best pictures of the decade February - 2010 A snowboarder flies through the Olympic Rings during the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics at BC Place on 12 February in Canada Getty Best pictures of the decade February - 2014 Anti-government protesters clash with police in Independence square, despite a truce agreed between the Ukrainian president and opposition leaders on 20 February in Kiev Getty Best pictures of the decade February - 2015 Cats crowd the harbour on Aoshima Island in the Ehime prefecture in southern Japan on 25 February, Reuters Best pictures of the decade February - 2016 Jackeline, 26, holds her four-months-old son who was born with microcephaly, in front of their house in Olinda, Brazil in 11 February Reuters Best pictures of the decade February - 2018 People being brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after a shooting at the school that killed 17 people and injured multiple others on 14 February in Parkland, Florida Getty Best pictures of the decade February - 2019 Fatima Ibrahim Hadi, 12, who is malnourished and weighs just 10kg, sits on a bed at a clinic in Aslam, in the northwestern province of Hajjah, Yemen on 17 February Reuters Best pictures of the decade March - 2011 A wave approaches Miyako City from the Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck the area in Miyako, Japan on 11 March Reuters Best pictures of the decade March - 2012 Sergeant Jon Van Zyl of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment standing in front of two Mastiff vehicles and beneath Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest lights in the clear Helmand desert sky, during a busy week of operations for British forces in Afghanistan on 22 March PA Best pictures of the decade March - 2016 Venezuela's Maryoly Gamez pulls Uruguay's Victoria Rios hair during their rugby sevens match at a test event for the Rio Olympics on 6 March in Brazil Getty Best pictures of the decade March - 2017 A woman lies injured after an attack on Westminster Bridge in London on 22 March Reuters Best pictures of the decade March - 2017 A man carries his daughterfrom an Islamic State controlled part of Mosul towards Iraqi special forces soldiers during a battle on 4 March Reuters Best pictures of the decade March - 2018 A child sleeps in a bag in the village of Beit Sawa, eastern Ghouta, Syria on 15 March Reuters Best pictures of the decade April - 2010 The Northern Lights above the ash plume of a volcano in Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland on 22 April Reuters Best pictures of the decade April - 2011 A rebel fighter celebrates as his comrades fire a rocket barrage toward the positions of troops loyal to Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi on 14 April, west of Ajdabiyah, Libya Getty Best pictures of the decade April - 2014 A lighting test being carried out on 'The Kelpies', at the entrance to the North Sea at the Forth and Clyde canal in Falkirk ahead of their official opening on ​8 April. Designed by sculptor Andy Scott, they were constructed of structural steel with a stainless steel outer skin and stand up to 30 metres tall, weighing over 300 tonnes PA Best pictures of the decade April - 2017 Migrants try to stay afloat after falling off their rubber dinghy during a rescue operation by NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station ship in the central Mediterranean international waters on 14 April. Fifteen nautical miles off the coast of Zawiya in Libya Reuters Best pictures of the decade April - 2017 Residents view the first iceberg of the season as it passes the South Shore, also known as "Iceberg Alley", near Ferryland, Newfoundland, Canada on 16 April Reuters Best pictures of the decade April - 2019 Smoke and flames rise during a fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in central Paris on 15 April. The flames and smoke plumed from the spire and roof of the gothic cathedral, visited by millions of people a year, where renovations were underway AFP via Getty Best pictures of the decade May - 2010 Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg, Conservative Party leader David Cameron and Labour Party leader and Prime Minister Gordon Brown attend the VE Day 65th anniversary tributes at the Cenotaph in Whitehall on 8 May Getty Best pictures of the decade May - 2015 Rihanna arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala benefit in honour of the museums exhibit 'China: Through the Looking Glass' on 4 May in New York ​ AFP via Getty Best pictures of the decade May - 2016 Activists burn an effigy of Philippine President Benigno Aquino during the Labor Day Protest in Manila on 1 May. Thousands of workers and activists marched on the Philippine streets to protest the government's migrant labour policy and demand higher wages AFP via Getty Best pictures of the decade May - 2017 Refugees and migrants wait to be rescued from a small wooden boat by crew members from the Migrant Offshore Aid Station Phoenix vessel on 18 May off Lampedusa, Italy Getty Best pictures of the decade May - 2018 Meghan Markle walks down the aisle in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on her way to marry Prince Harry on 19 May Getty Best pictures of the decade May - 2018 People play golf as an ash plume rises in the distance from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island on 15 May Getty Best pictures of the decade June - 2010 A brown pelican coated in heavy oil wallows in the surf on 4 June on East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident came ashore in large volumes across southern Louisiana coastal areas Getty Best pictures of the decade June - 2011 Riot police walk in the street as a couple kiss on 15 June in Vancouver. The Canadian city broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals Getty Best pictures of the decade June - 2016 Paralympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius walks across the courtroom without his prosthetic legs during the third day of the re-sentencing hearing for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, at Pretoria High Court in South Africa on 15 June Reuters Best pictures of the decade June - 2017 A huge fire engulfs the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road in the early hours of the morning on 14 June. The West London fire claimed 72 lives Getty Best pictures of the decade June - 2018 A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border on 12 June, in McAllen, Texas Getty Best pictures of the decade June - 2018 Megan Rapinoe celebrates scoring United State's first goal in their quarter final match against at Parc des Princes, Paris on 28 June Reuters Best pictures of the decade July- 2010 Hanif Leylabi protests against the UK Government's ban on gay and bisexual men giving blood, ahead of the Glasgow's Pride festival in Scotland on 14 July PA Best pictures of the decade July- 2013 Fans cheer and take photographs of Andy Murray as he poses with the men's singles trophy following his victory against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon on 7 July Getty Best pictures of the decade July- 2015 A boy plays on a merry-go-round on a hill top in Kabul, Afghanistan on 20 July Reuters Best pictures of the decade July- 2016 Lone activist Leshia Evans stands her ground while offering her hands for arrest as she is charged by riot police during a protest against police brutality outside the Baton Rouge Police Department in Louisiana, US on 9 July. A 28-year-old nurse and mother of one, travelled to protest against the shooting of Alton Sterling. A 37-year-old black man and father of five, who was shot at close range by two white police officers. The shooting, captured on a multitude of cell phone videos, aggravated the unrest coursing through the United States in previous years over the use of excessive force by police, particularly against black men Reuters Best pictures of the decade July- 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reacts to the cries of three-month-old Kellen Campbell, right, while holding six-month-old Evelyn Keane, after his speech at the University of Colorado on 29 July Getty Best pictures of the decade July- 2018 A lone tree stands near a water trough in a drought-effected paddock located on the outskirts of Walgett, in New South Wales, Australia on 20 July Reuters Best pictures of the decade August - 2010 A man and a boy, displaced by floods, walk through flood waters on 22 August, in the village of Baseera, Pakistan. The country's agricultural heartland was devastated, with officials saying as many as 20 million people effected. The UN has described the disaster as unprecedented, with over a third of the country under water Getty Best pictures of the decade August - 2011 A fire raging through a building in Tottenham, north London, on 7, August, after trouble flared when members of the community took to the streets demanding "justice", after Mark Duggan, 29, was shot dead by police PA Best pictures of the decade August - 2014 Omu Fahnbulleh stands over her husband Ibrahim after he staggered and fell, knocking hims unconscious in an Ebola ward on 15 August, in Liberia. The Ebola epidemic, at that time, had already killed more than 1,000 people in four West African countries Getty Best pictures of the decade August - 2016 Usain Bolt smiles at the camera on his way to winning the men's 100m semi-final at the Rio Olympic Games on 14 August, in Brazil Getty Best pictures of the decade August - 2016 Omran Daqneesh, five, sits alone in the back of the ambulance after he got injured during air strikes targeting the Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo in Syria, on 17 August Aleppo Media Centre Best pictures of the decade August - 2019 A child during a rainstorm at the Nayapara refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on 21 August Getty Best pictures of the decade September - 2011 A plane flies through the "Tribute in Lights" marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in lower Manhattan, New York on 10 September Reuters Best pictures of the decade September - 2015 A police officer stands next to a migrant child's dead body (Aylan Shenu) off the shores in Bodrum, southern Turkey, 2 on September, after a boat carrying refugees sank while reaching the Greek island of Kos AFP via Getty Best pictures of the decade September - 2016 A demonstrator looks at a riot policeman during a protest marking the country's 1973 military coup in Santiago, Chile on 11 September Reuters Best pictures of the decade September - 2017 A Rohingya refugee boy desperate for aid cries as he climbs on a truck distributing aid for a local NGO near the Balukali refugee camp on 20 September, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh Getty Best pictures of the decade September - 2018 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for a family photo during the European Union leaders informal summit in Salzburg, Austria on 20 September Reuters Best pictures of the decade September - 2019 Orangutans gather as smoke covers Salat Island, which is used by Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, as a pre-release island for orangutans, in Indonesia on 15 September Reuters Best pictures of the decade October - 2011 A caravan burning at Dale Farm in Essex where supporters clashed with bailiffs and riot police at the UK's largest illegal travellers' site as a planned eviction finally got under way on 9 October PA Best pictures of the decade October - 2012 Taxis sit in a flooded lot after Hurricane Sandy hit Hoboken in New Jersey on 30 October Getty Best pictures of the decade October - 2014 A demonstrator protesting the killings of 18-year-olds Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri Police officer and Vonderrit Myers Jr by an off duty St Louis police officer gets help after being maced by police on 12 October, in St Louis Getty Best pictures of the decade October - 2016 A green sea turtle swims as 2,300 athletes await the start signal of a 140.6-mile journey at the Ironman World Championship triathlon on 8 October, in Kailua Kona, Hawaii Ironman/Getty Best pictures of the decade October - 2016 A boy pauses on his bike as he passes an oil field that was set on fire by retreating Isis fighters ahead of the Mosul offensive, on 21 October, in Qayyarah, Iraq Getty Best pictures of the decade October - 2018 A migrant, part of a group intercepted off the coast in the Mediterranean Sea, stands in a queue after arriving on a rescue boat at the port of Motril, southern Spain on 2 October Reuters Best pictures of the decade 2010 A demonstrator kicking the windows of Millbank Tower, in Westminster during a student/teacher protest on 10 November, against university funding cuts and Government plans to charge up to 9,000 per year in fees from 2012 PA Best pictures of the decade 2013 A man fans flames on a fire Tanauan on 19 November, in Leyte. Typhoon Haiyan ripped through the Philippines leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless Getty Best pictures of the decade 2018 Maria Meza, a 40-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, runs away from tear gas with her five-year-old twin daughters in front of the border wall between the US and Mexico, in Tijuana on 25 November Reuters Best pictures of the decade 2018 Saleh Hassan al-Faqeh holds the hand of his four-month-old daughter, Hajar, who died at the malnutrition ward of al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen on 15 November Reuters Best pictures of the decade 2019 Police in riot gear move through a cloud of smoke as they detain a protester at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on 18 November AP Best pictures of the decade 2019 Flames from a backfire consume a hillside as firefighters battle the Maria Fire in Santa Paula, California 1 November AP Best pictures of the decade 2012 Lynn and Christopher McDonnell, the parents of seven-year-old Grace McDonnell, grieve near Sandy Hook Elementary after learning their daughter was one of 20 school children and six adults killed after a gunman opened fire inside the school in Newtown, US on 14 December Reuters Best pictures of the decade 2013 Turkish riot police officers take cover as Kurdish protesters shoot fireworks at them during clashes in central Istanbul on 7 December AFP via Getty Best pictures of the decade 2015 Volunteers walk on a pile of life jackets left behind by refugees and migrants who arrived to the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on 3 December AFP via Getty Best pictures of the decade 2017 Snow covering the landscape over the Brecon Beacons, Wales on 9 December PA Best pictures of the decade 2017 Leaves cover the face of 11-month-old Rohingya refugee Abdul Aziz, after his body was brought back to the family shelter, at the Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, a few hours after he died on 4 December. Aziz, whose family fled Myanmar, died at a local clinic after suffering from high fever and severe cough for ten days, his mother said Reuters Best pictures of the decade 2018 Anti Brexit protesters use illuminated signs as they demonstrate with placards outside the Houses of Parliament on 10 December Getty

Simon Calder, our veteran travel writer, was forced to travel home on a container ship after finding himself stranded in Norway. He shares his memories of the Eyjafjallajökull episode.

“Disruption is a daily hazard in air travel, but this was a whole new scale: the skies of northern Europe completely closed to passenger aviation for almost a week because of fears that dust could damage aircraft engines and endanger travellers.

I calculate that eight million passengers, booked on over 50,000 flights, found their flights cancelled.

I was one of them: I was skiing in Norway when I saw a headline on the front of the Dagbladet newspaper reading: “Vulkan-Aske fra Island STOPPER fly Norge.”

You didn’t need to speak Norwegian to realise that air travel was beginning to unravel.

I had flown to Oslo as an airline passenger on SAS, but travelled back as freight on a container ship. By the time the vessel arrived in Immingham, it was clear that this was the worst crisis in European aviation since the dark days following 9/11.

The following days were characterised by stories of desperate travellers, growing frustration at what was increasingly seen as a gross overreaction, and various airlines failing to respect their obligations under European air passengers’ rights rules.”

2. Chilean mine cavers, 2010

Thirty-three miners were trapped for 10 weeks in an ordeal that captivated the world (Getty)

In the first but by no means the last enthralling cave disaster of the decade, 33 men became trapped for a staggering 69 days after a collapse at the copper and gold mine in which they worked.

A true testament to the strength of the human spirit, the miners sent videos to the surface via a mini-camera, and were said

Their eventual rescue, after two months, involved Nasa, and was watched by over a billion people worldwide, according to Chile’s state broadcaster - but it did take 23 hours.

Mexican film-maker Patricia Riggen directed the 2016 film, The 33, and tells The Independent why the story spoke to her.

“The idea of brotherhood was what drove me to tell this story. That is why I find these 33 men admirable.

“And the world united in that moment to make this true miracle of humanity and technology and chance happen. It was the fact that they kept it together under the worst circumstances ever imagined, and helped each other, that they were able to stay alive.

“And above ground people did the same, uniting forces, bringing everyone together: government, technology, resources, the love of the families, and the faith that they were still alive.

“I love telling stories about the human spirit. About the best we have in ourselves. About humanity, which for me is the ability to rise to the circumstances and reach beyond ourselves for a greater good— to help a loved one, or a complete stranger. This is what makes life truly worth living. It’s what makes us humans. The Chilean miner’s story is one that we can all be proud of as humans.”

3. Fukushima, 2011

Entire city of Otsuchi was laid to waste in the tsunami that triggered the Fukushima meltdown (Getty)

Its modern image created largely in the shadow of the devastating twin atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan found itself victim to another nuclear crisis - this one triggered by the 9.0-magnitude Tohoku earthquake.

That tremor and subsequent tsunami killed over 15,000 people and triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant - displacing hundreds of thousands of people. This was a modern-day Chernobyl, in the internet era. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) which operated the plant, spent months denying a meltdown had occurred, and public mistrust remains high. In September of this year, the Japanese government announced it might have to soon release one million tonnes of contaminated water into the sea.

In November 2011, eight months after the accident, journalists were, for the first time, allowed to visit the site.

Writing for The New York Times, Martin Fackler wrote that:

“About three dozen journalists sat on two buses. We wore protective suits, double gloves, double layers of clear plastic booties over shoes, hair covers, respirator masks, and carried radiation detectors. As we drove to the Fukushima plant, we passed through a police checkpoint, and saw three towns – Naraha, Tomioka, Okuma – empty of all inhabitants. Among the abandoned homes was a flower shop with plants, withered and dead, still on display.

At the base of the reactor buildings, there were crumpled trucks, contorted metal girders and frames of buildings, a huge storage tank dented and bent, and pipes twisted by the forces of nature. The damage reached up to the second storey, attesting to the tsunami's 14-metre size. A four metre-high sea wall has been built with rocks in black nets. Tepco said it was a makeshift defence against another tsunami. The reading here was 300ms.

The nuclear crisis minister, Goshi Hosono, came to address the men here. “Every time I come back, I feel conditions have improved,” he said. “This is due to your hard work.” He said he is aiming for a cold shutdown by the end of the year. All good news, then? Not quite. There are still 30 years of work after that, he said, referring to the dismantling of the reactors.”

4. Killing of Osama bin Laden, 2011

Obama, cabinet members and security officials watched from the White House situation room (Getty)

In what would become a defining moment of Barack Obama’s presidency, and after 10 years in hiding, Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was located to a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Killed and buried at sea, the circumstances of his death were a foreshadow of the 2019 killing of Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - likely also to become one of Donald Trump’s key legacies.

Sohaib Athar, a software expert, had recently moved to Abbottabad, in the eastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, and inadvertently live-tweeted witnessing the May 2011 raid on bin Laden’s compound, conducted by Seal Team Six.

He tells The Independent he has no regrets about tweeting that night.

“I was mostly amused - not by the raid of course, that was serious stuff - but by the irony of moving from Lahore to Abbottabad for some peace and quiet and landing in the middle of an international incident.

“I don’t regret tweeting that night - it gave me a fresh perspective on how the multiple sides of a story are perceived by people from different parts of the world, and how easy it is for all sides involved to force a certain narrative on the world by a deliberate choice of words and cherry-picking.

“I live in Islamabad now, but still have a tiny home in Abbottabad, and my coffee shop is still operational, so I visit every few months.

“The media coverage that the incident received, and is still receiving, enforced an image of Pakistan that is reinforced at every 'anniversary'. Pakistan is a mostly normal country if events are not sensationalised disproportionately. Abbottabad moved on a couple of weeks after the incident, the rest of the world still calls it news.”

5. Haiti earthquake, 2010

Over a million people were displaced in the 7.0 magnitude earthquake (Getty)

On 12 January, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti, on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

Already suffering from decades of political and economic turmoil - 70 per cent of the population was living under the poverty line at the time - the devastating tremor killed a quarter of a million people, and left a further 1.5 million living in makeshift camps.

Naromie Marline Joseph Fatal, a psychological support worker with MSF in Haiti, tells The Independent about that day, and the months and years that followed.

“I experienced the earthquake the same way that everyone else did, I was helpless. I thought that an atomic bomb had gone off, the noise was so loud.

“I saw buildings and trees collapsing, one after another… and the hospital, a five-storey building, was trembling. I couldn’t go anywhere - I lay down on the floor and clenched my fists. God, help me!, I prayed.

“In the days that followed, tractors picked up bodies as if they were rubbish. Four years later I spoke to a psychologist myself, to chase those images away.

“After the earthquake… psychological support was needed on a massive scale. The level of need was huge – there were bereaved parents, depressed people, the shock of the deaths.

“I began working full time with MSF, as they were the only organisation who were taking care of people with psychiatric needs. It needs to be said that what happened pushed people who were already fragile over the edge.

“It was an event that touched all of humanity, 300,000 dead is unthinkable. International aid and media attention were particularly strong over the five years following the earthquake.

“We’ve heard a lot of talk about reconstruction. Me, I haven’t seen it yet. We’re still waiting.

6. Flight MH370, 2014

(Getty (Getty)

When Malaysia Airlines flight 370 went missing on 8 March, 2014, the world was transfixed. Immediately as it became clear the flight was nowhere to be found, Twitter was awash with wild theories, and overnight, we all became aviation experts.

For those who had seen Lost, the story seemed eerily familiar - so I’m told. Had the plane actually disappeared?

But despite the best efforts of Malaysian authorities to insist the plane would be found, and all 227 passengers and 12 crew were still alive, it was soon clear this was either a tragic accident or mass murder.

Again, Simon Calder reflects on this truly mysterious event.

“Before 8 March 2014, aviation had a long history of planes disappearing mysteriously. But none was on the scale of MH370.

The Malaysia Airlines jet had taken off from Kuala Lumpur on a routine flight to Beijing. The first the world knew that anything was wrong what when air-traffic controllers in Vietnam were unable to make contact with the Boeing 777. After some fictitious reports that it had landed in southern China with technical problems, MH370 was declared missing and presumed to have crashed in the South China Sea.

The manifest showed there was 239 people on board (though some say there may have been at least one more, hiding in an under-floor bay before perpetrating an act of mass murder).

For a week, rescuers conducted a fruitless search in the waters between Malaysia and Vietnam. Then, at a dramatic press conference in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, announced that the aircraft had remained aloft for hours after it disappeared. An analysis of automated signals by Inmarsat revealed the 777 must have flown along one of two arcs: northwest across southern China towards the Caspian Sea, or south across the Indian Ocean to an area west of Australia.

The authorities concluded that the former was impossible without the plane being spotted, and Australia took control of the search operation. From an air force base north of Perth, reconnaissance flights begin of the presumed crash area. Plans were made for an unprecedented, and ultimately unsuccessful, sweep of the ocean floor. Fragments of the aircraft started washing up on Indian Ocean beaches – though analysis of the species of barnacles that had grown up on the aircraft’s “flaperon” failed to help locate the wreckage.

One person very close to the saga believes the plane will be found in the southern Indian Ocean once undersea drone technology makes it feasible to deploy 100 or more unmanned devices to plumb the depths for signs of former life.

The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Show all 50 1 /50 The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Dr Christine Blasey Ford, psychology professor In September 2018, psychology professor Dr Christine Blasey Ford publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of having sexually assaulted her in the 1980s, when she was 15 years old. He denied the allegations, but it caused an uproar in American politics, culminating in Dr Ford and Kavanaugh both testifying before the Supreme Court. Dr Ford was widely hailed for coming forward, and in 2019 was featured in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world list. In the Time entry, US senator Kamala Harris, said Dr Ford shone a spotlight on the ‘way we treat survivors of sexual violence’. But her testimony did not stop stop Kavanaugh being elected to the Supreme Court. On the day he was elected groups of women protested in Washington, with many dressed as characters from Margaret Atwood’s book ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Nancy Pelosi, politician and speaker of the US House of Representatives In September 2019, eight months after becoming the first woman to hold the position of Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Democratic politician Nancy Pelosi initiated a formal impeachment inquiry against US president Donald Trump. The inquiry was launched following reports that Trump had attempted to pressure the president of Ukraine into investigating the son of former US vice president Joe Biden. ‘The president has admitted to asking the president of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically,’ Pelosi said as she announced the inquiry. ‘The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable facts of betrayal of his oath of office and betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.’ Pelosi concluded her speech with a vehement statement: ‘No one is above the law.’ AFP via Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Serena Williams, tennis player and fashion designer Throughout her 24-year tennis career, Serena Williams’ sporting achievements have completely redefined the sport, resulting in her winning 23 Grand Slam singles tournaments and being named the world number one on eight separate occasions. In April 2017, it was revealed that Williams was 20 weeks pregnant. It was quickly calculated that she therefore won the Australian Open – without dropping a single set – while pregnant. In 2018 Williams sparked a debate about sexism on the tennis court after she called out an umpire for penalising her behaviour, including smashing her racket on the ground. Billie Jean King wrote of the event: “When a woman is emotional she’s ‘hysterical’ and she’s penalised for it,” King wrote on Twitter. “When a man does the same he’s ‘outspoken’ and there are no repercussions. Thank you, Serena Williams, for calling out this double standard.” Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Rose McGowan, actor and activist Rose McGowan gained prominence in the 1990s and early Noughties for her performances in films including The Doom Generation and Scream and her role in supernatural series Charmed. In October 2017, the actor was one of several women to accuse disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. To this day, McGowan has continued to speak out against Weinstein, writing about the alleged assault in her 2018 memoir Brave and becoming one of the leading figures of the #MeToo movement. In December 2017, Time magazine named its Person of the Year the ‘Silence Breakers’, those whose voices ‘launched a movement’ against sexual harassment and assault. McGowan was one of the individuals featured, alongside Ashley Judd, Alyssa Milano, Selma Blair and many others. AFP via Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Teresa Shook, co-founder of the Women’s March After the election of Donald Trump as President in 2016, women across the United States organised small, grass roots marches, in a bid to speak out against much of the anti-female rhetoric used during Trump’s election campaign. Teresa Shook, a retired lawyer from Indiana was one of the women who took to Facebook to ask her female friends to join her. Shook’s march was one of several similar events circulated on the social media platform. On 21 January 2017, the day after Trump’s inauguration, women’s marches across various cities in the USA made it the largest single-day protest in the history of the nation. Multiple other women’s marches were held simultaneously around the world. The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Gina Miller, business owner and campaigner In June 2016, Business owner Gina Miller lead a successful legal challenge against the UK government. Miller argued that MPs should be able to vote on whether or not to invoke Article 50, that would allow the UK to begin the process to leave the EU. In August 2019, Miller took on the government in court yet again when she and several others argued that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament had been unlawful. ‘Whilst prorogation is an acceptable UK constitutional practice, no prime minister in modern history has attempted to use it in such a brazen manner,’ Miller wrote on a fundraising website at the time. On 24 September 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the prorogation had been unlawful. REUTERS The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Alyssa Milano, actor and activist At 9.21pm on 15 October 2017, Charmed star Alyssa Milano shared a tweet that would relaunch one of the most impactful social movements of recent years. The actor asked her followers to respond to her tweet writing ‘me too’ if they had ever experienced sexual harassment or assault. ‘Me too. Suggested by a friend. ‘If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too.’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem,’ she stated in her tweet, which garnered more than 50,000 likes, more than 20,000 retweets and more than 60,000 responses. Milano’s tweet propelled a movement originally started by activist Tarana Burke in 2006, back into the mainstream. In December 2017, Burke explained that the movement was originally created ‘to support survivors of sexual violence, in particular black and brown girls’. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Michelle Obama, lawyer, writer and former US first lady As first lady of the US from 2009 to 2017, Michelle Obama inspired countless people with her motivational work promoting women’s issues, raising awareness of poverty and encouraging members of the public to lead healthy lives. Despite many calls for her to run as president in the future, in March 2019 Obama said she is ‘not interested in politics’, adding that her goal is ‘to be able to reach as many people as possible’. ‘I think you can do that better outside of politics. But I will do everything I can to emphasise the importance of voting,’ said Obama, whose memoir Becoming became the best-selling book in the US in 2018. Since leaving the White House, Obama has opened up about her struggle to conceive and a miscarriage, before having daughters Sasha and Malia. She has also launched a project called ‘Let Girls Learn’, helping teenage girls around the world attain a quality education. EPA The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Gina Martin, anti-upskirting campaigner In 2017, freelance writer Gina Martin was at a music festival when a man took a photograph up her skirt with his phone without her consent. Martin immediately took action, informing the police what had occurred. Her case was closed shortly thereafter. Martin was determined to ensure that no case of upskirting be left unpunished again. The writer shared her story on social media, started a petition to have her case reopened and campaigned for upskirting to become a criminal offence. The ‘Upskirting Bill’ received Royal Assent on 12 February 2019 and came into effect on 12 April. ‘There’s a lot of work still to do. A change in law is a huge thing, it sets a precedent but it doesn’t change people’s opinions,’ Martin said. ‘We still see ‘smaller’ sexual assaults as not such a problem but it’s a massive issue.’ AFP/Getty The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, US politician and congresswoman In June 2018, bartender Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez burst onto the political scene when she defeated Democratic politician Joseph Crowley to serve as Representative of New York’s 14th congressional district, in what was regarded as one of the largest upsets to occur during the midterm elections. Five months later, AOC reigned supreme yet again when she beat Republican opponent Anthony Pappas to become the youngest Congresswoman in US history, at 29 years old. The Democratic politician is considered by many to represent the ‘future’ of American politics, having described climate change as ‘the single biggest threat worldwide’, stated her desire for ICE to be abolished, promoted universal healthcare and supported the LGBT+ community. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex Prior to her relationship with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle was best-known for starring in US legal drama Suits. Meghan used her platform as a celebrity to campaign for important causes, most notably in 2015 when she delivered an empowering speech about gender equality at the UN Women Conference. Meghan and Prince Harry married in May 2018 in Windsor. The duchess has taken on her role within the royal family with an evident sense of duty, speaking publicly about gender equality, mental health and supporting an initiative that provides support and training for women who are unemployed. ‘It is said that girls with dreams become women with vision. May we empower each other to carry out such vision – because it isn't enough to simply talk about equality. One must believe it,’ Meghan said during her UN speech. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Greta Thunberg, environmental activist Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg has become a force to be reckoned with on the world stage, inspiring an environmental movement that has spanned the globe. The journey of the 2019 Time magazine ‘Person of the Year’ had humble beginnings. At 15-years-old Thunberg began standing outside the Swedish parliament holding a sign that read: ‘School strike for the climate.’ After images of Thunberg began circulating online, other students decided to follow suit, resulting in the conception of the Fridays for Future school climate strike campaign which saw 1.4 million children take part around the world. Millions of people have since taken part in marches calling on greater focus to be placed on the climate crisis. In September 2019, Thunberg expressed her rage at world leaders during the UN climate change summit, stating: ‘How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.’ Getty The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author In 2014 Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie published her critically-acclaimed essay We Should All Be Feminists. The literary work, which was adapted from her 2012 TEDx talk of the same name, discussed feminism and the problems of toxic masculinity. Adichie says in the text: ‘We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise you will threaten the man.' Adichie’s words became deeply ingrained in feminist discourse, being sampled in mainstream music such as Beyoncé’s 2013 song ‘Flawless’, and quoted on Dior t-shirts, which were widely criticised after being sold for around £500. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project In 2012, writer Laura Bates founded the Everyday Sexism Project with the aim of raising awareness of the microaggressions and discriminations women face on a daily basis. ‘When I started the Everyday Sexism Project almost a decade ago, feminism still felt like a dirty word and sexism was considered a thing of the past,’ said Bates. Around the third anniversary of the website, in April 2015, Everyday Sexism had already reached 100,000 entries. The early success of the project led to Bates writing four books on the topic, including Everyday Sexism, published in 2014, and Misogynation, published in 2019. Bates was also awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2015 Birthday Honours for services to gender equality. ‘Inequality, discrimination and abuse was impacting on women's lives every single day, yet it seemed like an invisible problem. When you tried to talk about it, you were dismissed or laughed at. That feels like it has finally changed,’ Bates said in 2019. The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Simone Biles, gymnast With four Olympic gold medals under her belt, the title of the World Championships’ most decorated gymnast and two moves named after her, Simone Biles has completely redefined her sport. Viral videos of her best routines also gained her notoriety outside of sporting fans. In January 2018, Biles publicly came forward to accuse former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar of sexual assault. Bile’s testimony, along with many others, was successful in convicting Nassar, who was sentenced to prison for 175 years. At the ESPY Awards, which were held in July 2018, more than 140 survivors of Nassar’s abuse, including Biles, were honoured with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. A month later, Biles wore a teal leotard at the USA Gymnastics National Championship to raise awareness of sexual assault. ‘[The colour] is for the survivors,’ the gymnast told AP News. ‘I stand with all of them and I think it’s kind of special to unite.’ Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Jo Cox, Labour politician In June 2016, Labour politician Jo Cox, who served as a Member of Parliament for Batley and Spen, was murdered by right-wing extremist Thomas Mair while she was out canvassing in her constituency. Mair is currently serving a life sentence for her murder. Following Ms Cox’s death, her 2015 maiden speech in Parliament, in which she said “we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us”, was widely cited as the narrative to combat growing divisions over the EU referendum. Ms Cox’s husband, Brendan Cox, has since spoken widely about the impact of Brexit on the UK and particularly the language used by Boris Johnson when he said the best way to honour Cox’s memory was to “get Brexit done”. Mr Cox said he “felt sick” at her name being used. AFP via Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Hillary Clinton, politician, writer and former US presidential candidate In 2016 Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated in a presidential election. Despite winning the popular vote by nearly three million ballots, Clinton lost to Republican candidate Donald Trump. Following her loss, Clinton delivered an empowering concession speech.‘I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but some day, someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now. And to all the little girl whose are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams,’ she said. Since the election, Clinton has focused her work on efforts on women’s rights, including writing a book with her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, called ‘Gutsy Women: favourite stories of courage and resilience’. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Dr Savita Halappanavar In 2012, dentist Dr Savita Halappanavar, who lived in Ireland, was 17 weeks pregnant when she and her husband Praveen discovered she was likely to suffer a miscarriage. When they requested that she undergo an abortion, they were told it wasn’t allowed ‘under Irish law’, unless there was evidence her life was at risk. A week after first being examined in a hospital for back pain, Dr Halappanavar died from cardiac arrest caused by a septic miscarriage. Her death spurred the movement in Ireland to repeal the eighth amendment, a law that banned abortion in almost all circumstances, stating that a pregnant woman and a foetus have an ‘equal right to life’. In May 2018, Ireland voted in a national referendum to legalise abortion, with 66.4 per cent of those who took part voting ‘yes’. AFP via Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Malala Yousafzai, female education activist As a young girl growing up in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai was determined to spread the message that girls deserve to receive an education, despite the Taliban banning girls from attending school. In 2012, when she was 15 years old and writing an online diary for the BBC about life under Taliban rule, Yousafzai was shot in the head by a gunman when she was on her way to school. The attempt on Yousafzai’s life sent ripples across the world. Following her recovery, the teenager continued to act as an advocate for human rights causes, co-founded non-profit organisation the Malala Fund and authored a best-selling book titled I Am Malala. When she was 17 years old, she became the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which she was awarded alongside Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi. ‘If you don't raise your voice, it is unlikely anyone will hear you,’ Yousafzai said during her Nobel Peace Prize speech. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Emma González, activist and gun control campaigner On 14 February 2018, 17 people were shot dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida when a former student opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle on the school. It was the deadliest high school shooting in US history. A group of survivors from the school founded a group called Never Again MSD, using the hashtags #NeverAgain and #EnoughIsEnough to spread the message that stricter gun control was required. Three days after the attack, Never Again MSD co-founder Emma González delivered a powerful speech at a gun control rally, in which she called on the crowd to state ‘We call BS’, with regards to the lack of action being taken to ban assault weapons in America. The speech also became famous for the long period of silence (six minutes, 20 seconds) taken by González, at the beginning of her speech, to indicate the length of time the shooter was active in the school for. AFP via Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Emma Watson, actor and activist Emma Watson became a household name for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films but in the last decade she has become synonymous with her campaigning on gender inequality and work with the UN. In 2014, Watson helped to launch a UN initiative called HeForShe, a solidarity movement that aims to encourage all – specifically boys and men – to fight gender inequality. At the HeForShe launch in September 2014, Watson delivered a powerful speech about feminism, which has been viewed millions of times. She said: ‘The more I spoke about feminism, the more I realised that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.’ Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Lucy-Anne Holmes, author, actor and ‘No More Page 3’ campaigner For decades, The Sun newspaper featured images of topless women on page 3. The feature was widely criticised for being outdated and objectifying women, but continued. That was until, actor and author Lucy-Anne Holmes launched an online petition in 2012, requesting then-editor, Dominic Mohan, to reconsider the feature. The petition gained traction in the months that followed, eventually leading to The Sun closing down its Page 3 feature in its Irish edition in August 2013 and in its UK edition two years later. ‘Page 3 was a controversial topic that took sexism to a new level by introducing people to topless models for decades before being eliminated,’ the No More Page 3 campaign states. Rex Features The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Queen Elizabeth II On 9 September 2015 (at the age of 89 years and 141 days), Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning female monarch in world history. Since her ascension to the throne in 1952, the 93-year-old has been the figurehead of both the British monarchy and the global Commonwealth. In 2012, the same year that London hosted the Olympic Games, the royal celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, marking her 60th anniversary as Queen. The event featured a pageant of 1,000 boats from around the Commonwealth nations down the River Thames, in addition to a four-day bank holiday weekend in honour of the occasion. Since 2016 the Queen has been the subject of Netflix’s drama The Crown, which shows a partially-fictionalised, overview of her life. In November 2019, Olivia Colman, who plays the monarch in the third series, described the Queen as the “ultimate feminist” Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Angela Merkel, German chancellor Having served as chancellor of Germany for the past 14 years and as leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party from 2000 to 2018, Angela Merkel has been named Forbes’ most powerful woman in the world for nine consecutive years. In 2015, Merkel was named Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’. The publication described the politician as ‘the de facto leader of the European Union’, praising her for the way in which she maintained open borders in Germany when many other European countries were closing their doors to the influx of refugees from Syria and other conflict zones in northern Africa. Germany reportedly took one million refugees during the 12-month period. Merkel stepped down as leader of the CDU party in December 2018, describing her tenure as an ‘honour’. She will continue serving as German chancellor until the end of the parliamentary term in 2021. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Mari Copeny, activist Activist Mari Copeny, also known as ‘Little Miss Flint’, has been involved in activism work since she was eight years old, namely through her efforts to raise awareness of the water crisis in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. In 2016, a letter penned by Copeny to the then-US president Barack Obama prompted him to pay her a visit, eventually leading to a declaration of a state of emergency concerning the contamination of Flint’s water. Copeny went on to attend the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. as a youth ambassador, and in April 2017 spoke out against US president Donald Trump during a ‘Stand Up to Trump’ rally, which took place in front of the White House. ‘Anyone can change the world no matter how small you are,’ the activist said in September 2017. Getty Images for Shorty Awards The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Amika George, period poverty campaigner In March 2017, 17-year-old Amika George read an article about the number of British girls skipping school due to their periods that made her feel ‘sickened’. George launched the #FreePeriods campaign to raise awareness of period poverty and the stigma that surrounds menstruation. In March 2019, then-chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond announced that the government would pay for free menstrual products to be provided in all secondary schools and colleges. ‘Periods should not be holding any girl back, and her potential as an individual should never be undermined because of them,’ George wrote for The Independent. ‘Every child deserves the education they are entitled to, unencumbered by their sex or by their families’ income.’ Rex Features The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, journalists In October 2017, New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor published an investigation that sparked global outrage and launched a fight against sexual abuse that would define an era. In their investigative article, Twohey and Kantor revealed several allegations of sexual harassment made against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Two months later, more than 80 women had come forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault. The list featured celebrities including Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd, Asia Argento, Mira Sorvino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Cara Delevingne, Kate Beckinsale, Lena Headey, Lupita Nyong’o and Salma Hayek. "I think this country is having – well, it goes beyond the United States at this point – is having a real reckoning," Twohey told CBS News in December 2017. The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Julia Gillard, former prime minister of Australia From 2010 to 2013, Australian politician Julia Gillard became Australia’s first ever female prime minister. She was leader of the Australian Labour Party, and had previously served as a deputy prime minister from 2007 to 2010. In 2012, Gillard delivered an unforgettable speech in parliament, which became known as ‘The Misogyny Speech’. The politician spoke about alleged incidents of sexism she had experienced during her time in office, directly addressing the leader of the opposition Tony Abbott as she uttered the words: ‘If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn’t need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror’. Gillard’s speech accumulated more than three million views on Australia’s ABC News YouTube channel and prompted Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary to alter its definition for the word ‘misogyny’. She also oversaw the Australian senate reaching a 50/50 split between men and women, for the first time in its history. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Caroline Criado-Perez, activist and journalist Activist and journalist Caroline Criado-Perez has worked tirelessly over the years to raise the profile of important social campaigns, being named the Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year in 2013. That same year, it was announced that Winston Churchill would replace Elizabeth Fry on the £5 note, a decision that would leave the Queen the only woman on a British bank note. Following a petition launched by Criado-Perez that gained 35,000 signatures, the Bank of England later announced that Jane Austen would replace Churchill on the £10 note. Criado-Perez also led a successful campaign to have a statue of a woman erected in Parliament Square, with the depiction of suffragist Millicent Fawcett unveiled in April 2018. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Phoebe Waller-Bridge, writer, producer and actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s career started in 2009 with her acting debut at the Soho Theatre in London, followed by a handful of brief sitcom appearances. But by the end of the decade she has become a household name following the success of her one-woman-show Fleabag, taken from the Edinburgh fringe festival to a multi-series comedy on BBC Three. Further success followed with Killing Eve, a drama written by Waller-Bridge, starring actors Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh. For her work on the script, Waller-Bridge won Emmy Awards for best leading comedy actress, best comedy series and best comedy writing. In April 2019, it was announced that the actor, producer and writer had been brought on board to help with the script of the upcoming 25th James Bond film. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Waller-Bridge said it had been a ‘joy’ to work on the project. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Caitlin Moran, author, journalist and broadcaster In the last decade journalist and author Caitlin Moran has been instrumental in the so-called rising of the fourth wave of feminism, following the third wave in the early 1990s. The publication of Moran’s 2011 feminist book How To Be A Woman and her 2014 semi-autobiographical novel How To Build A Girl were both part of the wider movement which saw the internet, and particularly social media, being used as vehicles for organisation and raising awareness of women’s issues. In her 2016 book Moranifesto, Moran features a moving letter addressed to the teenage girls who attend her book signings. ‘You were not born scared and self-loathing and overwhelmed. Things have been done – which means things can be undone,’ she writes. ‘It is hard work. But you are not scared of hard work, compared with everything else you have dealt with. Because what you must do right now, and for the rest of your life, is learn how to build a girl. You.’ Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Rihanna, singer, fashion designer and businesswoman As a singer, Rihanna has rocked the world with hits including ‘Pon de Replay’, ‘Umbrella’ and ‘Rude Boy’. As a fashion designer and business owner, the 31-year-old has broken down barriers, championed inclusivity and achieved phenomenal levels of success. In May 2019, the Barbadian musician became the first woman, and first woman of colour, to launch a fashion brand under luxury fashion group LVMH, when she introduced her eponymous fashion brand Fenty. Her cosmetics brand, Fenty Beauty, was named one of Time magazine’s best inventions in 2017, and her lingerie brand, Savage X Fenty, has received universal praise for its representation of different body shapes and sizes. ‘I wanted every woman on the stage with different energies, different races, body types, different stages in their womanhood, culture,’ Rihanna told Elle magazine of her September 2018 Savage X Fenty NYFW show. AFP via Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Beyoncé, singer, songwriter, actor and businesswoman Beyoncé has been rightfully perceived as pop royalty since the Noughties, both as a member of Destiny’s Child and as a solo artist, throughout the past decade, her star has risen even higher than anyone could have anticipated. In addition to being an 20-time Grammy Award winner, changing the music game with the release of her visual album Lemonade and performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show twice, in 2017 Beyoncé made history at Coachella, becoming the first black woman to headline the music festival. Her choice to sample Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘How To Be A Feminist’ on her song, ‘Flawless’, was praised for introducing feminist literature to the mainstream and making it accessible to younger fans. She has also been open about motherhood and balancing her career with her family responsibilities. She also admitted to having miscarriages before the birth of her daughter Blue Ivy in 2012. Getty Images for Coachella The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Yalitza Aparicio, actor Yalitza Aparicio made her film debut in Alfonso Cuarón’s 2018 film Roma, in which she portrayed an indigenous maid working in Mexico City. Aparicio became the first Indigenous American woman and the second Mexican woman to be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance, where she lost to The Favourite’s Olivia Colman. In April 2019, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. Cuarón wrote a heartfelt dedication to Aparicio for the publication, stating that she is ‘incredibly grounded in truth and not easily swept away by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood’. ‘She focuses on being a force of change and empowerment for indigenous women, embracing the symbolic value of what she has done and carrying that responsibility with dignity and grace,’ the director said. Getty Images for Vanity Fair The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Megan Rapinoe, footballer American footballer Megan Rapinoe emerged on the world stage following the Fifa Women's World Cup in 2019, winning gold in the final against the Netherlands with her teammates. She has received several awards in recognition of her talent, including being named the 2019 Best Fifa Women’s Player and the winner of the revered Ballon d’Or Féminin prize. ‘As I’ve grown older I’ve really got to understand how powerful one voice can be, my voice can be, or the team’s voice can be. So to hold that back or not to use that just seems selfish in a way,’ she told the Guardian in January 2019. Rapinoe has also been leading her team in filing a lawsuit against the US Soccer organisation, seeking equal pay with their male counterparts. AFP via Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Laverne Cox, actor and LGBT+ advocate Laverne Cox became a household name in the entertainment industry in 2013, when she first emerged on the scene in hit Netflix prison television series Orange Is The New Black. She became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an acting Emmy Award and the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine. Cox has continually used her growing platform to advocate for important societal issues, predominantly in support of the LGBT+ community. In 2014, the actor spoke about her identity as a trans woman in an interview conducted with Dame. ‘My womanhood is something that I’ve had to claim,’ she said. ‘I think transwomen, and transpeople in general, show everyone that you can define what it means to be a man or woman on your own terms.’ Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, astronauts In October 2019, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir inspired a generation of young girls to look up to the stars and dream when they took part in history’s first ever all-female spacewalk. The fact that the first all-female spacewalk had been due to take place seven months prior but was delayed because NASA had only one suitably-sized space suit (the rest were all too big, having been designed to fit men), made their accomplishment even more sweet. The spacewalk was the fourth conducted by Ms Koch, and the first for Ms Meir, who became the 15th woman to venture out of the International Space Station and into the vacuum. ‘[It was] something that allowed us to be our best, to bring our best to that day and to recognise that we have a gift and an opportunity to potentially inspire the future,’ Ms Koch said following the spacewalk. EPA The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Phoebe Philo, fashion designer Phoebe Philo began her career as a design assistant to Stella McCartney at Chloé, and later became the French luxury fashion house’s creative director from 2001 to 2006, before taking on the same role at French fashion label Céline for a decade from 2008. She was named British Designer of the Year twice by the British Fashion Council. McCartney penned a tribute to Philo in 2014, when the latter was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of the year. ‘She celebrates the simple and champions the quality and reality of a woman’s wardrobe,’ McCartney wrote. Philo’s aesthetic at Celine also became synonymous with the rise of the normcore trend and contemporary elegance. In a 2014 interview Philo said she was not a “fan” of women being “sexualised through clothes” and instead promoted women feeling comfortable, powerful and strong. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Katie Bouman, computer scientist Katie Bouman, a 29-year-old computer scientist earned plaudits worldwide for helping develop the algorithm that created the first-ever image of a black hole in April 2019. The remarkable photo, showing a halo of dust and gas 500 million trillion km from Earth, was only possible because of the algorithm created by Bouman when she was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. YouTube/Ted The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Sinéad Burke, writer, broadcaster and activist When she was 16 years old, Irish writer, activist and broadcaster Sinéad Burke decided to call out the fashion industry in a blog, pointing out how excluded she felt as someone with achondroplasia, a condition that affects bone development, predominantly in the arms and legs. Burke has gone on to inspire countless individuals, co-founding the Inclusive Fashion and Design Collective (IFDC), becoming an ambassador for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and being appointed a Council of State in Ireland in April 2019. The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Munroe Bergdorf, model and activist Munroe Bergdorf has become one of the most prominent British LGBT+ activists in recent years, having accumulated more than 60,000 followers on Twitter and 170,000 followers on Instagram. In August 2017, it was announced she had been hired to appear in a L’Oreal campaign, the first transgender model to do so. However, she was dropped from the campaign shortly afterwards due to comments she made on social media about racism that the brand said was ‘at odds’ with their values. Following the incident, beauty brand Illamasqua employed Bergdorf to be the face of a beauty campaign, saying that she embodies ‘diversity and individuality’ and is ‘not scared to be truly herself’. ‘Be that person to help someone else fly when their wings feel heavy,’ she said while receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton in July 2019. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Gwyneth Paltrow, actor and Goop CEO In October 2017, Gwyneth Paltrow came forward to allege that Harvey Weinstein had sexually harassed her. In September 2019, following the publication of She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, it emerged that Paltrow had been a key figure in the initial investigation into Weinstein’s alleged misconduct, being ‘one of the first’ people to pass information to The New York Times journalists. ‘She [Paltrow] did play a much more active role than anybody’s ever known. But it was hair-raising for her, because Harvey Weinstein had been such an important influence,’ Kantor told ABC’s Today show. Twohey added that ‘people will be surprised’ to discover that Paltrow was one of the first accusers to call them ‘and that she was determined to help this investigation’. Getty Images for goop The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Tanni Grey-Thompson, paralympian and gold medal winner Paralympian Tanni Grey Thompson, who was born with spina bifida and is a wheelchair user, won 11 gold medals and held over 30 world records during her sporting career. After she retired from the sporting world in February 2007, she moved into charity work and TV presenting. In March 2010 she was made a life peer and was introduced in the House of Lords on 29 March the same year. In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4. In 2019 Grey Thompson supported Clare Balding when she criticised a BBC 2 list of 20th century icons, which didn’t feature a single woman on the shortlist. In a blog post, she said: “This is where feminism comes in - not to tear down men, but to raise up the stories of women doing incredible things’. In November she also spoke about the discrimination she faced from doctors and members of the public when announcing her pregnancy. Getty Images for Laureus The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Reni Eddo-Lodge, journalist and author British journalist and author Reni Eddo-Lodge primarily focuses on feminism and exposing structural racism in her writing. In April 2014, Eddo-Lodge was a judge in the BBC Woman’s Hour Power list, for her discussions around intersectionality in fourth-wave feminism. In 2017, Eddo-Lodge completed her debut book, Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race, which won the Jhalak Prize in March 2018 and was widely praised by critics. In January 2018, Eddo-Lodge was chosen as one of seven prominent women to be photographed for British Vogue, to mark the centenary of British women being given the vote. AFP via Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, has served as the First Minister of Scotland since November 2014. She is the first woman to hold the position, and the first to lead her party. Sturgeon has been an instrumental figure in leading the bid for Scottish Independence in the referendum and has campaigned widely on women’s rights and gender equality, describing herself as a feminist, saying feminism is “not a choice, it is common sense”. She hailed Scottish feminist economist, Alisa McKay, as one of her inspirations. Forbes magazine ranked Sturgeon as the 50th most powerful woman in the world in 2016 and 2nd in the United Kingdom. In 2015, BBC Radio 4’s Woman's Hour deemed Sturgeon to be the most powerful and influential woman in the United Kingdom. In 2016 Sturgeon was praised for sharing that she had miscarried five years previously. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow Stella Creasy is a British Labour politician and MP for the London constituency of Walthamstow since the 2010 general election, having been elected from an all-female shortlist in the seat. Creasy has been outspoken on issues including the, successful, No More Page 3 campaign, to stop The Sun newspaper from publishing pictures of topless models. She also supports the decriminilisation of the sex industry, and argues misogyny shoud be made a hate crime. Creasy organised an amendment to the 2017 Queen’s Speech, calling for the government to allocate funding for women forced to travel from Northern Ireland to England to have an abortion, which gained cross-party support. Later she was a vocal supporter of making abortion laws equal across the whole of the UK. Creasy, who has appeared in the House of Commons with her baby, said: “Feminism isn’t about women, it’s about power,” in a speech in 2018. Getty Images The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Margaret Atwood, author The work of Canadian author Margaret Atwood, 80, was introduced to a new generation of women in the 2010s, as her 1985 patriarchy-smashing book The Handmaid’s Tale, about a dystopian society in which fertile women are made slaves for infertile couples, was serialised for Channel 4. The show, starring Elizabeth Moss, won 30 awards, including Emmy for best drama. In 2018, Atwood faced a backlash on social media after voicing concerns over the #MeToo movement and calling for due process in the case of a former university professor accused of sexual misconduct. In 2019 Atwood launched the sequel book, The Testaments to critical acclaim, winning her the Booker Prize in 2019, alongside author Bernardine Evaristo, for her book Girl, Woman, Other. Getty Images for Tory Burch Foun The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Chanel Miller, sexual assault campaigner Chanel Miller was first known in the public consciousness as Emily Doe, after anonymously coming forward to share that she was sexually assaulted on the campus of Stanford University in 2015. The victim impact statement she wrote and read at the perpetrator’s hearing, went viral after being published online, being read by over 11 million people worldwide. In September 2019 Miller relinquished her anonymity and published the now best-selling memoir Know My Name. She is credited with sparking national discussion in the United States about the treatment of assault cases and victims by college campuses. In 2016, before her name was published, Glamour named Miller as woman of the year and in 2019 she was listed as one of the 100 most influential people of the year. Getty Images for Glamour The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 adia Murad, human right's activist Nadia Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist, who lives in Germany as a refugee, after being kidnapped from her hometown by the Islamic State for three months in 2014. Six of Murad’s brothers and step-brothers were killed during the kidnap. Since leaving Iraq Murad has campaigned extensively to help communities damaged by the fighting, particularly women and children who are being trafficked by the insurgents. She was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for her work, making her the first Iraqi and Yazidi to have done so. In 2019 Murad’s campaign was thrown into the spotlight after a video of her meeting Donald Trump in the Oval Office went viral. In the video, the President is seen asking Murad what happened to her, where she has to repeat that her family are dead after he asks “where are they [your family] now?,” and pleads with him to help. He also asks why they gave her the Nobel Peace Prize. AFP via Getty The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Sally Rooney, author Sally Rooney is an Irish author. The 27-year-old’s debut novel, Conversations with Friends, was published in 2017. Followed by Normal People in 2018, both of which won critical acclaim. In July 2018, Normal People was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. In November 2018 the book won ‘Irish Novel Of The Year’ at the Irish Book Awards, and in January 2019 it was long-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Rooney has been described by critics as the “voice of a generation”, including in a widely-circulated think piece that credited Rooney as part of the “making of a millennial woman”. Rooney has been outspoken about her views on feminism. In an interview with Esquire, she said: “She could write a feminist fantasy novel where gender dynamics don’t exist but in the real world, women are abused by men.” Getty Images

Investigators have evaluated many explanations to explain the disappearance, but all of them have deep flaws. The least unlikely is that the aircraft’s commander, Captain Zaharie Shah, intentionally hijacked his own aircraft in order either to take his own life and kill everyone on board, or to land or ditch the plane and survive.

Could a passenger or member of cabin crew hijacked the plane? Was MH370 hijacked remotely in a sophisticated act of cyberterrorism. Could a stowaway concealed in the avionics bay by the flight deck have seized control, either in a suicidal mission or with the intention of landing at a remote island?

Only when divers assess the wreckage will a narrative start to emerge – and even then, the grieving relatives may never know the full story of how and why their loved ones died.

A disappearing plane; the destruction four months later of another Malaysia Airlines 777 by a Russian-built anti-aircraft missile over Ukraine; and the two Boeing 737 Max disasters, in which computer software overpowered the pilots – while aviation became ever safer between 2010 and 2019, anxious passengers may not feel that way.”

7. Thai cave boys, 2018

It would be remiss not to mention the second inspiring cave rescue of the decade - the Thai teenage football team who went missing for 18 days when their coach took them on a post-training adventure. Heavy rains soon led rapidly rising waters soon blocked off their entrance into the Tham Luang Nang Non cave, and again the world was transfixed, first in fear - no contact was made for the first week, until the boys sent a note - and then in optimism, when an international band of cave divers, entrepreneurs and NAVY seals worked on various plans of action.

One Thai NAVY Seal died during the efforts, and while two British divers were instrumental in ultimately retrieving the boys, an international team worked together to secure their route out.

Ben Reymenants, a Belgian cave diver based in Thailand, was involved in the initial search and rescue operation.

“First minute I was like, wow, this is stunning, it’s a really beautiful cave, in a not so happy situation – and then I saw the water, which resembled a Colorado river, brown mud and the high force coming out of the cave and my initial thought was – there’s no way. This will never work,” he reflected in a documentary, 13 Lost – the Amazing Cave Rescue.

With a 30-year-old hand-drawn map his only assistance, Ben soon found out that no one had ever dived the cave before.

“I quickly found out why - it was really dangerous conditions, current, lack of visibility, entanglement, more restrictions, not very human friendly.

“I had very little hope for the kids.

Children tend to survive longer than adults in extreme exposure conditions, as long as they don’t panic… I wanted to keep an open mind, but I didn’t want to turn it into a suicide mission.

Before the diving even begun, “that’s when all my hopes sank. It was like a giant cup of cappuccino you’ve just stirred around… this deadpool pulling you in. High pressure on you, physically, mentally as well, because they’re all looking at you like they’re you’re going to save the kids.”