SYDNEY: New Year’s Eve revellers toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday, waving goodbye to a year packed with President Donald Trump’s tariffs, a fragile Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine, concluding one of the warmest years on record.

In 2025, stifling heat stoked wildfires in Europe, droughts in Africa and deadly rains across Southeast Asia.

Celebrations in Sydney, the self-proclaimed “New Year’s capital of the world”, carried a sombre tinge. Barely two weeks have passed since a father and son allegedly opened fire on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people.

Parties paused for a minute of silence at 11pm as the Sydney Harbour Bridge was bathed in white light.

“Right now, the joy that we usually feel at the start of a new year is tempered by the sadness of the old,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the foreshore as nine tons of fireworks eventually exploded over the Harbour. Security was tighter than usual, with heavily armed police patrolling the crowds.

Celebrations rippled globally, starting in Pacific nations like Kiribati and New Zealand. More than 2 million people were expected at Brazil’s Copacabana Beach, while Hong Kong cancelled its display to pay homage to 161 victims of a housing estate fire.

The transition follows a year of cultural shifts and loss. Labubu dolls became a craze, thieves plundered the Louvre and K-pop stars BTS returned.

The world also lost zoologist Jane Goodall, the Vatican chose a new pope and the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk laid bare deep US divisions.

Politically, Trump returned to the White House in January, launching a tariff blitz that rattled markets.

In the Middle East, US pressure secured a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October. The war has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine grinds toward a four-year anniversary without a truce.

The coming months promise the Winter Olympics in Italy and the largest football World Cup in history across North America. Additionally, NASA’s Artemis II mission intends to circle the moon, though investors face questions over whether the artificial intelligence boom has become a market bubble.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2026