Crowds will marvel at fireworks and toast champagne to greet 2025 on Tuesday, waving goodbye to a year that brought Olympic glory, a dramatic Donald Trump return and turmoil in the Middle East and Ukraine.
It is all but certain that 2024 will go down as the hottest year on record, with climate-fuelled disasters wreaking havoc from the plains of Europe to the Kathmandu Valley.
As New Year’s Eve parties kicked into gear along Australia’s picturesque Sydney Harbour on Tuesday afternoon, many revellers were relieved to see the past 12 months in the rearview mirror.
“It would be nice for the world if it all sort of fixed itself, sorted itself out,” insurance worker Stuart Edwards, 32, told AFP.
