World greets 2025 after a year of Olympics, Middle East turmoil, and Trump's return

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 revelers were relieved to see the past 12 months in the rearview mirror.

"Obviously there's a lot of war and disruption going on in various places," insurance worker Stuart Edwards, 32, told AFP as early crowds swelled on Sydney's waterfront.

"It would be nice for the world if it all sort of fixed itself, sorted itself out."

The self-proclaimed "New Year's capital of the world" will spray nine tonnes of fireworks from its famed Opera House and Harbour Bridge at midnight.

More than a million spectators are expected to pack the city's foreshore to catch a glimpse of the pyrotechnics.

"Just to see all the beautiful colors and enjoy being in this situation with so many people in wonderful Australia," said 71-year-old retired nurse Ruth Rowse.

Taylor Swift brought the curtain down on her Eras tour this year, pygmy hippo Moo Deng went viral, and 16-year-old football prodigy Lamine Yamal helped Spain conquer the Euros.

The Paris Olympics united the world for a brief few weeks in July and August.

Athletes swam in the Seine, raced in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower, and rode horses across the manicured lawns outside the Palace of Versailles.

Election upheaval 

It was a global year of elections, with countless millions going to the polls across more than 60 countries.

Vladimir Putin prevailed in a Russian ballot widely dismissed as a sham, while a student uprising in Bangladesh toppled the reigning prime minister.

However, no vote was as closely watched as the November 5 contest that will soon see Donald Trump back in the White House.

From Mexico to the Middle East, Trump's looming return as "commander-in-chief" is already making waves.

The president-elect has threatened to pile economic pain on China and boasted of his ability to halt the Ukraine war within "24 hours."

Hope and trepidation 

Turmoil rippled across the Middle East as Bashar al-Assad fled Syria, Israel marched into southern Lebanon, and doctored electronics exploded in a wave of assassinations targeting Hezbollah.

Civilians grew weary of the grinding war in Gaza, where dwindling stocks of food, shelter, and medicine made a humanitarian crisis even bleaker.

"The year 2024 was the most difficult year," Wafaa Hajjaj told AFP from Deir el-Balah, where masses of displaced residents now cram into crowded tents.

"I lost many loved ones, including my father and close friends, starting from the beginning of the year," she said.

"May security and safety return, and may the war finally come to an end."

There was hope and trepidation as the new year approached in Syria, which is still reeling after Islamist rebels toppled longtime ruler Assad.

"We were hesitant to go out this year because of the security situation, but we decided to overcome our fears and not change our habits," lawyer Maram Ayoub, 34, told AFP from the capital, Damascus.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine inches towards its grim three-year anniversary in February.

Outgunned on its eastern flank, Ukraine must now contend with a Trump administration seemingly intent on winding back crucial military aid.

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

AFP