20 Influential People to Watch in 2020

Vladimir Putin, who’s been president of Russia since 2012, exercises considerable influence on the world stage. He is very popular in his home country because he is trying to restore Russia to its past glory and the influence it enjoyed during the eras of the czars and the Soviet Union.

Outside of Russia, however, Putin’s push for greater influence has alarmed the international community. Under Putin, Russia has seized Crimea, and Russian troops are fighting in other parts of Ukraine. He forged an agreement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to expel Kurdish forces from northern Syria, as Russia has extended its regional influence in the Middle East. Russia under Putin has also been accused of meddling in America’s elections.

Ariana Grande has become one of the biggest pop stars in the world, and the Grammy Award-winning singer has used her fame and social media platform to advocate for causes such as LGBTQ rights.

Professionally, 2019 was a banner year for the Florida native. She regularly performed before sold-out crowds on her “Sweetener World Tour” that started in March and ends in late December. Three of her Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits were released in 2019, including her second chart-topper, “7 Rings.” Grande, along with Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey, is providing music for the soundtrack to the reboot of “Charlie’s Angels.”

With a personal worth of about $73 billion, the founder of Facebook continues to deal with critics who are chiding the social media platform for disseminating fake news in 2019. The Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook an agency record penalty of $5 billion for violating customers’ privacy in July.

Conservatives claim the social network is biased and have said Facebook’s audit that sought to address those accusations was a whitewash. For their part, liberals have said the audit legitimized conservative claims of bias. With the 2020 presidential election less than a year away, Facebook will be under the microscope for its news dissemination from all sides of the political spectrum.

Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, which has over 1 billion followers, continues to face the church’s ongoing controversy surrounding sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clerics, a problem that threatens the future legitimacy of the 2,000-year-old church. In February, the pontiff called a meeting of church leadership for a meeting about the issue. Francis has spoken out about getting to the root of the problem and the abuse of power.

The pope is busy shaping the papacy in his image by engaging in dialogue on issues such as migration, climate change, and the inclusion of gay Catholics, and is striving to bring lapsed Catholics back to the church. He’s extending his legacy by naming cardinals — today, more than half of the College of Cardinals have been appointed by Francis.

The leader of the world’s most populous nation, President Xi Jinping has led his nation’s rise to economic superpower status. Greatly admired at home and in many countries around the world, Xi has been a champion of massive infrastructure projects that will help boost China’s competitiveness in the future.

Xi has been locked in an ongoing battle with U.S. President Donald Trump over trade tariffs. China is looking to diversify its economy and become less reliant on the United States as a trading partner. Xi will likely continue to extend his influence since term limits for Chinese presidents and vice presidents were abolished in March 2018.

Xi has been criticized for China’s aggressive crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong. The protests were triggered in June by a bill that would permit extradition from Hong Kong to the mainland. Since then, Chinese military presence has more than doubled in Hong Kong.

The founder of Amazon is also the owner of the Washington Post as well as aerospace company Blue Origin. Forbes estimates Bezos’ net worth at $109.6 billion. In 2018, Amazon posted revenue of $230 billion and a net profit of $10 billion, more than tripling its $3 billion profit the prior year. The company has disrupted industries such as brick-and-mortar retail, grocery delivery, movie and television content, real estate, mobile phones, social media, and music streaming.

Amazon sought to expand its footprint from Washington state by making a highly publicized search for a second headquarters last year. The company’s attempt at establishing a second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, was rebuffed by political activists.

Within three years of buying the Washington Post in 2013, Bezos had doubled its web traffic and helped it become profitable. Earlier this year, Bezos’ Blue Origin aerospace company launched a reusable New Shepard rocket that made a soft landing.

Narendra Modi was first elected prime minister of India, the world’s largest democracy, in 2014 on a platform of improving the nation’s transportation infrastructure and opening up the country to direct foreign investment.

Modi has championed Hindu culture, which some criticized as exclusionary toward Muslims, especially in the province of Kashmir, which has a Muslim majority. In early December, Indian lawmakers passed a change to the nation’s citizenship law to include religion as a criterion for nationality to make it easier for refugees of certain faiths from neighboring countries who are being persecuted to gain citizenship. The measure is seen by many as divisive because is does not include Muslims. India is home to 200 million Muslims.

India has also been chided for its poor treatment of women and been tainted by recent stories about women who have been gang-raped and murdered. Modi has spoken about the mistreatment of women, but critics have said the country has not acted strongly enough to stop the violence.

The massive protests in the former British colony began in March 2019, when the Hong Kong government proposed a bill that would permit extraditions to mainland China. In response, the people of Hong Kong demonstrated in the streets. A protest in June drew as many as 2 million people. Despite a violent reaction from Hong Kong police, who used batons, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and water cannons on the demonstrators, the protests continued.

The demonstrations succeeded in getting the extradition bill withdrawn, but the protesters have expanded their movement in a call for more changes, including ensuring the ability to choose their own leaders.

In the fluid race for the Democratic presidential nomination, 78-year-old candidate Bernie Sanders is holding his own. The self-styled socialist senator from Vermont has cut into front-runner Joe Biden’s lead in the latest YouGov poll..

This year, Sanders picked up endorsements from freshman congresswomen Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, as well as of the 600,000-member coalition Center for Popular Democracy Action and the 150,000-member and largest union of registered nurses National Nurses United. Sanders has raised more than $73 million in his quest for the presidency, more than any other Democratic candidate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Sanders made an improbable challenge to Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, getting more than 43% of the national Democratic primary vote.

Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest soccer players of all time. In 2018, the Portuguese soccer star became the first player to win the UEFA Champions League five times. He’s also played on Portugal’s World Cup team four times and scored seven goals in the four tournaments. Ronaldo joined Italian soccer club Juventus in 2018 in a deal that will pay him $64 million a year over four years. After the deal was announced, Juventus sold 520,000 Juventus jerseys with his name on them in 24 hours.

Ronaldo’s Wikipedia page received more than 11 million views over the last 12 months. The 34-year-old’s acclaim extends to social media, where he has nearly 400 million followers.

Ronaldo has also lent his stature to the campaign to combat racism in soccer, titled Stand Up Speak Up, that was launched following a spate of racist incidents at soccer matches across Europe. Last year, Ronaldo went on Instagram to speak in defense of Kalidou Koulibaly after racist chants were aimed at the Napoli defender during a match at Inter Milan.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi is the first woman to have served as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Currently she is helming the effort to impeach President Donald Trump. To do this, Pelosi has had to rely on her leadership and political skills to pull together the disparate parts of the Democratic Party to advance the process while at the same time attempting to convince members of the opposition Republican Party of the misdeeds of President Trump.

In a demonstration of bipartisanship, Pelosi and the House of Representatives are expected later this month to support a trade deal with Mexico and Canada that was backed by the president.

Eilish has been called the voice of Generation Z, those born in the mid-to-late 1990s, embodying teen angst and apathy. The Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter, who turns 18 in late December, was named Billboard 2019 Woman of the Year earlier this month. Eilish has already posted two top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the chart-topper “Bad Guy.” Her debut album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,” went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Eilish is generating a lot of interest on Wikipedia, and her site has had almost 20 million page views over the last 12 months. She has They’ll also add that she has 44.9 million followers on Instagram, and that Lana Del Rey and Dave Grohl are fans.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, has been a vocal advocate for social justice, universal health care, and environmental causes. Earlier this year, she led the opposition to the tax incentives used to induce e-commerce giant Amazon to build a second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, which is in her district. The social-media savvy legislator reveled in an I-told-you-so moment on Twitter in early December after Amazon agreed to lease 335,000 square feet in the Hudson Yards district of Manhattan without government tax incentives.