2015: The Year In Review

From terrorism in communities around the world to gun violence here at home, and the migrant crisis to Black Lives Matter - these are just some of the many stories that dominated the news this year.

Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent with CNN and host of "Amanpour.", and Ray Suarez, host of Al Jazeera's "Inside Story," joined Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson to discuss the biggest stories of the year.

Amanpour and Suarez agreed that Syria was the most newsworthy global topic this year. Suarez described the country as a "magnetic north that makes all these other stories line up around it," adding that Greece's economic woes, Boko Haram's "havoc" in Nigeria, and still others are connected to the "mini-World War" centered around the Middle Eastern country.

"I think the Obama administration came in thinking that the Middle East didn't need as much attention as U.S. presidents had given it in the past, only to be confronted by the constant reality, which is that the Middle East needs U.S. attention front and center, all the time," Amanpour said.

Later in the show, the two journalists focused on national news, where their top story was the "re-eruption of race-based conversation in the U.S. that's tense, that's angry, that's defensive, that really wants to engage around the unfinished business of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and economic inequality," Suarez said.

Amanpour added that it "coincides with a rise in the same kind of divisive, sort of xenophobic, extremist debate that is also going on in Europe."

Other events - like gun violence and the legalization of same-sex marriage - were uniquely American, the two agreed, although they said the ripple effects of the latter were felt throughout the world.

"The United States is a trailblazer on every issue, just about," Amanpour said, "and this is a major social, political and human rights issue that has been duly noted around the world."