World greets 2025 after sweltering year of Olympics, turmoil and Trump

Dear AFP, the world greets 2025 on Wednesday, January first at 12:00 a.m.

As New Year's Eve parties kicked into gear along Australia's picturesque Sydney Harbour on Tuesday afternoon, many revelers were relieved to see the past 12 months in the rearview mirror.

They've been saying that every year since about 2016. The idea that things will suddenly change - for better or worse - because the calendar flips one day is absurd.

On the streets of Kyiv, teacher Kateryna Chemeryz wanted "peace to finally be obtained for Ukraine" and for "people to stop dying".

Surely that will happen once Moscow's core national interests are met, to paraphrase someone quoted today.

"looming"?? what an absurd thing to say

Four years with no world leader, an America that sticks its head in the sand while chewing off its own limbs, where autocrats get to expand their empires with impunity. A time of madness for the world. Hope we can survive until America gets a sane leader again, who can repair Trumps damage.

A horrible four years is upon the world. God help us all.

A very happy, healthy, and joyous 2025 to everyone. Cheers.