New Year’s Eve revellers toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday, waving goodbye to 12 months packed with Trump tariffs, a Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine.
It was one of the warmest years on record, with stifling heat stoking wildfires in Europe, droughts in Africa and deadly rains across Southeast Asia.
There was a sombre tinge to party preparations in Australia’s harbour city of Sydney, the self-proclaimed “New Year’s capital of the world”.
Barely two weeks have passed since a father and son allegedly opened fire at a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in almost 30 years.
Parties will pause for a minute’s silence at 11:00 pm (1200 GMT) as the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge is bathed in white light to symbolise peace.
“It has been a difficult year for so many people,” said Steph Grant, a 32-year-old Sydney resident.
“Here’s hoping the world looks like a brighter place in 2026,” said Grant, who works in advertising.
Hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected to line Sydney’s foreshore as nine tonnes of fireworks explode on the stroke of midnight.
Security will be tighter than usual, with squads of heavily armed police patrolling the crowds.
Sydney kicks off a chain of celebrations stretching from glitzy New York to the Hogmanay festival on the chilly streets of Scotland.
More than two million people are expected to pack Brazil’s lively Copacabana Beach for what authorities have billed as the world’s biggest New Year’s Eve party.
### Truce and tariffs
Labubu dolls became a worldwide craze in 2025, thieves plundered the Louvre in a daring heist, and K-pop heartthrobs BTS made their long-awaited return.
The world lost pioneering zoologist Jane Goodall, the Vatican chose a new pope, and the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk laid bare America’s deep political divisions.
Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, launching a tariff blitz that sent global markets into meltdown.
The US president used his Truth Social platform to lash out at his sliding approval ratings ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“The polls are rigged,” he wrote, without providing evidence.
“Our Country is ‘hotter’ than ever before. Isn’t it nice to have a STRONG BORDER, No Inflation, a powerful Military, and great Economy??? Happy New Year!”
But many expect tough times to continue in 2026.
“The economic situation is also very dire, and I’m afraid I’ll be left without income,” said Ines Rodriguez, 50, a merchant in Mexico City.
After two years of war that left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins, US pressure helped secure a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October.
But with each side already accusing the other of flagrant violations, no one is sure how long the break in hostilities will hold.
Hamas militants stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed more than 70,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory — a figure the UN deems credible.
World leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, began exchanging New Year greetings.
Both countries have made much of their presidents’ supposedly close friendship, and Putin was an honoured guest at a spectacular Chinese military parade in September.
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