From Sydney to Paris, via Tbilisi and Damascus, the world welcomed the year 2025 on Wednesday night with fireworks and celebrations, bidding farewell to a year that witnessed dramatic events such as the re-election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, Bashar al-Assad’s flight from Syria, and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
It seems certain that 2024 will be recorded as the hottest year ever, at a time when disasters fueled by climate change will cause severe damage in areas extending from the plains of Europe to the Kathmandu Valley.
Sydney, which calls itself the “New Year's Capital of the World,” welcomed the New Year by launching 9 tons of fireworks from the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge at midnight.
In Asia, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Taipei welcomed the New Year with fireworks.
Paris sparkles
In Paris, 5 months after the euphoria of the Olympic Games, the French capital was once again decorated with lights in preparation for welcoming the new year.
More than a million people gathered on the famous Champs-Elysées Avenue, which was closed to cars and its sides were decorated with dozens of sparkling trees.
For weeks in July and August, the world's eyes were focused on the Paris Olympics, where athletes swam in the Seine, raced under the Eiffel Tower and rode horses outside the Palace of Versailles.
Election year
2024 was an election year par excellence, as millions went to polling stations in more than 60 countries.
Vladimir Putin won a new term in the Russian elections, while a student uprising in Bangladesh toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
But none of the polls received the degree of follow-up enjoyed by the US elections on November 5, after which Donald Trump will soon return to the White House.
Trump's return to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in the United States is sending tremors from Mexico all the way to the Middle East.
The president-elect threatened to exacerbate economic pressure on China and bragged that he could stop the Ukraine war “within 24 hours.”
Hope and fear
In the Middle East, the rule of the Assad family, which lasted for more than half a century, ended with the flight of President Bashar al-Assad from Syria, and celebrations prevailed throughout the country in the last month of the year.
In Damascus, hundreds of Syrians were welcomed in Umayyad Square to the sound of firecrackers and revolutionary songs in the year 2025, with “hope” that the first year they have witnessed in 5 decades without the rule of the Assad family will bring them a better tomorrow.
In 2024, Israel carried out a military operation in Lebanon against Hezbollah, targeting thousands of its members by detonating the communications devices they were carrying and assassinating many of its leaders, the most prominent of whom was its Secretary-General in an Israeli raid in September.
In parallel, the war continued in the Gaza Strip, where the suffering of civilians worsened as food and medicine stocks declined.
In Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that in 2025 his country will have to continue fighting “in the field” to achieve gains that it will later be able to invest “at the negotiating table.”
In Tbilisi, tens of thousands of pro-European Union demonstrators gathered in front of the Georgian Parliament to celebrate the New Year, continuing their month-long protest movement against the government's decision to suspend the start of the country's accession negotiations to the European Union.
“2024 was the year of our unity, and 2025 will be the year of our victory,” outgoing President Salome Zurabishvili told demonstrators who set up a long festive table on the capital's main street.
Football and festivals
The year 2025 promises a lot with advances in artificial intelligence and expectations of a slowdown in inflation.
Football fans will have a date with the Club World Cup, which is hosted by the United States and includes 32 teams.
About 400 million pilgrims are expected to participate in the Kumbh Mela festival on the banks of the rivers of India, which is described as the largest human gathering in the world.
The British Meteorological Service expected record high global temperatures for the year 2025, which indicates that next year may be among the hottest ever.
