On Tuesday, the world greeted 2025 with a ferocious crowd of people biding their goodbyes to the previous year that saw the Olympics come to an end, a serious Donald Trump return, and conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine.
It is all but sure that 2024 will be remembered as the hottest year on record, with climate-driven catastrophe wreaking havoc from the plains of Europe to the Kathmandu Valley.
New Time Specific
” You always have to look at the positive side of things despite the fact that it has been a more complex time,” says one author. So it’s good to finish the year around”, said Florence Coret in Paris, where a policeman source said that more than one million visitors were expected for the night’s holidays.
In Britain, thousands of people lined the banks of London’s River Thames for a fire feast, though poor weather saw events cancelled in different cities, including Edinburgh’s Hogmanay city group.
Pro-European Georgians however celebrated the start of the year by staging pro-Russian demonstrations for the first time in a month.
Serb students staged a protest in Belgrade and two other cities in November to demand justice for the fatal accident that claimed 15 lives when a train station ceiling collapsed.
Before that, Asia jumped aboard champagne corks and kicked off New Year’s Eve parties by lighting up Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour with a magnificent pyrotechnics show.
Watching Taiwan’s tallest building explode in a spectacular fireworks display drew a crowd to the Taipei streets.
And Sydney– the self-proclaimed” New Year’s capital of the world”– sprayed nine kilograms of fireworks from its legendary Opera House and Harbour Bridge to begin the week’s goodnight.
Taylor Swift, Moo Deng, a dwarf crocodile, and Lamine Yamal, a teenage football prodigy, helped Spain win the Euros in 2024, and she led the charge of her Eras tour.
For a brief period of time in July and August, the earth was unified at the Paris Olympics.
Athletes ran in the Seine, crossed the darkness of the Eiffel Tower, and rode horses across the trimmed lawns outside the Palace of Versailles.
Election tumult-
It was a worldwide season of elections, with many millions going to the surveys across more than 60 locations.
Vladimir Putin won a Russian election that was commonly disregarded as a hoax, while a student revolt toppled Bangladesh’s current prime minister.
No voting, however, was as carefully watched as the November 5 election, which will likely result in Trump’s resumption of office.
The newly elected US president-elect vowed to inflict financial problems on China and hailed his ability to put an end to the Ukraine war in” 24 time.”
John Mahama may take the oath of office on January 7th in Ghana, which is also under consideration.
Kwesi Antwi, a 26-year-old graduate from Accra, told AFP in the money that the quiet transition following the election gave me hope that things might turn out better for people like me.
– Rejoicing and optimism
As Bashar al-Assad fled Syria, Israel marched into southern Lebanon, and doctored technology exploded in a flood of Jewish executions aimed at Hezbollah, a flood of chaos erupted across the Middle East.
Residents grew weary of the tense conflict in Gaza, where a humanitarian crises became even more dire as a result of diminishing supplies of food, shelter, and medication.
Wafaa Hajjaj, who lives in Deir el-Balah and has a lot of uprooted residents, told AFP:” May security and safety finally come to an end, and may the combat finally come to an end.”
As Syria experienced its first year of civil war after 13 years, Umayyad Square in Damascus hummed to the throngs of people waving “revolution” colors as men scours the city’s streets.
” Then I have a lot of hope. But all we want then is serenity”, taxi drivers Qassem al-Qassem, 34, told AFP.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine feet towards its three-year celebration in February.
Ukraine is then forced to deal with a Trump presidency that appears to be trying to wind up vital military assistance because it is outgunned on its eastern side.
However, Volodymyr Zelesnky, the president, does not acknowledge that “peace will not be given to us as a surprise, but we will do anything to prevent Russia and end the war,” in his new time address.
Many people in Sudan expressed their desire for peace as the country entered its second season of conflict between the military Rapid Support Forces and the regular army.
” We hope to return to our homes this time, safe and sound, and just to be able to notice our families once more,” Fatma Mohamed told AFP in Port Sudan.
More than 12 million people have been displaced, while millions more have been subjected to widespread famine, while tens of thousands have been killed in the conflict.
– Retorts, sports, festivals-
There is plenty to look forward to in 2025 with the onset of AI advancements and a slowing rate of inflation.
K-pop megastars BTS and Oasis will produce a long-awaited reunion, while military-era poor boys Oasis and Oasis will make a comeback.
In an already crowded calendar, sports fans may find a revamped 32-team Club World Cup being hosted by the United States.
Around 400 million pilgrims are anticipated to visit the world’s largest gathering of people on the planet, the magnificent Kumbh Mela event on India’s sacred rivers, and about 400 million people are expected there.
The UK climate services has already predicted scorching global temperatures for 2025, which would make it one of the hottest years ever recorded.
On the share before, Wall Street and Europe’s major indicators rang out the year with good increases, as investors ‘ eyes turned to the effect Trump’s policies will have on the world market.
