The late Bulgarian mystic and alleged clairvoyant Baba Vanga, known for her predictions that have come true decades after being made, reportedly foresaw five significant events for the year 2024. As the new year gets underway, experts and observers are taking a closer look at Vanga's prophecies to determine how closely unfolding world events may align with what she envisioned.

Vanga, who lost her eyesight as a young girl and was believed by followers to have developed extra-sensory perception abilities, made numerous predictions between 1950 until her death in 1996 at the age of 85. Many of her forecasts covered political and environmental changes as well as disasters spanning many years into the future. Prophecies that appeared to come true include the 2004 Tsunami in Southeast Asia, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Her purported predictions for 2024 included:

1. A rise in natural disasters and abrupt weather events causing massive loss of life. Referring to increasing impacts from climate change, Vanga warned of more frequent and intense hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires raging across populated regions worldwide. She also pinpointed a major quake occurring in the Pacific Rim.

As of early 2024, the first signs of her projection are playing out. A record number of hurricanes pummeled Central America and the southern U.S. in fall 2023, flooding taking lives in Pakistan the same season. Unusually strong winter storms are also striking Europe and western Russia. Scientists continue emphasizing that such extremes fit projections for a warming planet and will likely intensify further.

2. A significant global economic crisis with consequences felt globally. The seer foresaw mounting government debts, geopolitical and trade tensions between superpowers, as well as a power shift from Western nations to China and others challenging the long-standing economic order.

Early in 2024, China replaced the U.S. as the EU's top trading partner. Economic indicators point to a possible recession later in the year as soaring inflation cripples consumers and interest rate hikes aim to cool prices. Supply chain snarls, the pandemic fallout, and Russia's war in Ukraine have combined to destabilize world markets so far. Many analysts warn of a looming debt bomb in overleveraged countries as well.

3. A breakthrough discovery paving the way for a cure against cancer. She foresaw that medical researchers would find an effective way to defeat the disease, permitting cancer patients to be successfully treated. Meanwhile, important progress would also arise regarding illnesses like Alzheimer's disease.

In late 2023, scientists revealed that a new cancer drug in trials shrank tumors in 97% of patients with advanced rectal cancer, raising hopes for a game-changing therapy. Scores of other studies are investigating immunotherapies, gene therapies, and approaches like screening and earlier detection to curb cancer's death toll. For Alzheimer's, encouraging tests of novel antibody drugs meant to clear amyloid plaque from the brain emerged from pharma labs in recent months as well. However, specialists say cures remain distant goals still requiring further validation.

4. Quantum computing gaining unprecedented power and influence. Vanga envisioned the accelerating rise of quantum and artificial intelligence, with these advanced systems achieving capabilities far beyond today's fastest supercomputers. She suggested quantum machines would profoundly impact sectors like finance, security, transportation, and healthcare through vastly expanded processing prowess.

As 2024 commenced, commercial quantum systems from IBM, Rigetti, and other firms boasted processing speeds and capabilities handily beating classical cloud computers. Applications in areas like drug discovery, weather and climate modeling, and optimization were emerging. However, most experts concur that quantum advantages will gradually accumulate over the next 5–10 years, not abruptly appear in 2024 alone. They agree Vanga highlighted technology's long-term implications reasonably well before its infancy stage.

5. Oil replaced as the world's dominant energy source. In Vanga's view, renewable power generation leveraging the sun, wind, tides, geothermal activity and more would displace petroleum extraction as the planet's primary industry. This transition aligned with the mounting threat of climate change accelerating a global shift to greener options.

Indeed, renewable energy capacity and investment set new records worldwide in 2023 per the International Energy Agency. Solar photovoltaics and electric vehicles particularly experienced breakout growth while oil demand finally plateaued prior to the pandemic. Several nations and corporations now target net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner, requiring complete substitutions of fossil fuel infrastructure over the coming decades in line with the seer's vision. However, oil interests remain giant corporations and political forces unlikely to fade before 2024's close.

Assessing Baba Vanga's accuracy to date, publications like The Mirror, The Guardian, and India Times estimate her predictions to have been approximately 85% correct based on events since the 1950s. Her uncanny successes include foretelling natural calamities and incidents later corroborated, while some forecasts like a collision between spheres were less defined. For 2024, scrutiny will continue on whether realities unfold in consistence with her premonitions regarding escalating natural disasters, economic upheaval, medical progress, and energy industry transformation. With a full year remaining, only time will tell how precisely world conditions will align with what the mystic saw coming over 25 years prior. Her predictions, even those unresolved, still fascinate people worldwide for their specificity about potential futures.