Christmas is coming, the curtain is closing on another tumultuous year and pundits are busy with their prophecies for 2022. The future is a strange and uncharted land, but here are some of the best guesses at what next year may have in store:

Nothing's changing except the date, say prophets of doom. We're fighting fires on every front - Covid-19, climate change, authoritarianism - and in every case it's one steps forward, two steps back. The best way to forecast the future is to look at the present, they say - and the present is stormy and overcast.

This is the time of hope and resolution, optimists respond. The world has weathered the worst of an unprecedented pandemic; now we must set to work rebuilding a better world, they say, armed with promising medicines and technologies and a newfound sense of togetherness and purpose.

Variants - Viruses mutate very fast, meaning that new varieties can evolve in a short space of time. The more infectious omicron variant of Covid-19 is currently causing fears of a resurgence of the disease.

Inflation - The increase in cost of goods and services in an economy. It is normal for inflation to happen, but if it happens too fast then it can create serious problems.

HungaryA country in central Europe. Viktor Orban has been its prime minister since 2010. - Governed by Viktor Orban, who has cracked down on press freedom and civil liberties and assumed increasingly dictatorial powers. An alliance of parties threatens to finally remove him from power.

BrazilThe largest country in South America, home to 217 million people. - Governed by Jair Bolsonaro, a former military officer who has sparked outrage with his ultra-conservative views, his destruction of the Amazon and his vaccine-scepticism. He is trailing in the polls to former president Lula da Silva, a socialist.

Congress - China is a one-party state and decisions about how it is governed are made at gatherings of the Communist Party's high-ranking members, which happen once every five years. The current leader Xi Jinping is set to remain in power for now, but he may name a successor to take over after the next congress.

Taiwan - The Chinese government claims that this neighbouring island, which is a capitalist democracy rather than a one-party state, is rightfully part of China.

Cop26 - Cop summits gather the world under a United Nations framework to agree a shared approach to tackling climate change. This year's was particularly important because it was when countries had to commit to detailed plans for reducing reliance on fossil fuels, among other things.

Internet of things - When objects are connected via the internet, receiving and exchanging information in order to adapt to each other and the environment without human input.