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LAST UPDATE | 31 Dec 2024
COUNTRIES AROUND THE world have begun ushering in 2025, with Australia marking the new year in spectacular style with a fireworks display on Sydney Harbour.
More than a million people were expected at the harbour for the traditional midnight display, where pop star Robbie Williams led a singalong and nine tonnes of fireworks sprayed from the city’s famed Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
Indigenous ceremonies and performances also took place to acknowledge the land’s first people.
An hour earlier, at 11am Irish time, Auckland became the first major city in the world to welcome 2025.
Thousands of revellers counted down to the new year and cheered colourful fireworks launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, the Sky Tower, as part of a spectacular light show.
Many also climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point, as well as a light display recognising Auckland’s Indigenous tribes. It follows a year marked by protests over Māori rights in the nation of five million.
Countries in the South Pacific Ocean are the first to ring in the New Year, with midnight in New Zealand striking a full 18 hours before the ball drop in Times Square in New York.
Other cities around the world have also started celebrating the New Year with celebrations highlighting local cultures and traditions after a year roiled by ongoing conflict and political instability.
Much of Japan has shut down ahead of the nation’s biggest holiday, as temples and homes underwent a thorough cleaning, including swatting floor mats called “tatami” with big sticks.
The upcoming Year of the Snake in the Asian zodiac is heralded as one of rebirth – alluding to the reptile’s shedding skin.
Stores in Japan, which observes the zodiac cycle from 1 January, have been selling tiny figures of smiling snakes and other snake-themed products. Other places in Asia will start marking the Year of the Snake later, with the Lunar New Year.
Heavy snowfall in Japan also meant some passengers at Hokkaido’s main airport may see in 2025 in the departure lounge.
“It was great to see snow, but I didn’t think I would be trapped here,” one man told local broadcaster HTB as flights were scrapped.
“I might have to stay at the airport tonight.”
In South Korea, celebrations were cut back or cancelled as the country observes a period of national mourning following the crash on Sunday of a Jeju Air flight at Muan that killed 179 people.
Elsewhere, Chinese state media covered an exchange of new year’s greetings between leader Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin in a reminder of growing closeness between two leaders who face tensions with the West.
Xi told Putin that their countries would “always move forward hand-in-hand”, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China has maintained ties and robust trade with Russia since the latter invaded Ukraine in 2022, helping to offset western sanctions and attempts to isolate Putin.
Meanwhile, a blackout hit nearly all of Puerto Rico early on Tuesday as the US territory prepared to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
More than 1.2 million out of 1.47 million customers were without power, according to Luma Energy, a private company that oversees electricity transmission and distribution on the island.
It was not immediately clear what caused the widespread outage or when power would be restored.
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Any good news today ?
@Liam Collins: a found a 10er in a pair of jeans
@eoin carroll: any more details on this.did hear rumours on twitter but lot of fake news out there
@eoin carroll: is he in the game
@eoin carroll: is he on the game
@Liam Collins: There was rumours that it was a 50 and 5g changed it into a 10 but I can confirm that I wouldn’t have a 50 coming home from the pub
@eoin carroll: what is this “Pub” you talk about
@eoin carroll: Wearing the tracksuits for a month now i take it?
Jesus, I cant believe some of the comments here. Countless numbers of people will die because of this and apparently its a big joke!
@Fr. Fintan Stack: thank you for being practically the only person to empathise with Ethiopians. This is horrendous for them. It’s such a lovely country with the warmest, most welcoming people. A slight change in weather (too much or too little rain) can have devastating consequences. Mostly they worry they won’t get enough rain but now, cruelly, getting more than normal rain has caused the locust swarms which will destroy their food chain. It’s heartbreaking.
The usual journal experts will be along any minute now to blame the HSE and government for this as well
@jackamy: well locust and ffg.. The comparisons write themselves.
@jackamy: this would not of happened under a sinn fein government
@King B: I can think of others too!
@jackamy: What has the HSE got to say about this?
Just kidding.
I would say the story should say 5 times the area of Addis Ababa instead of comparing it to Moscow.
@Liam Collins: why don’t all the SF head out to Ethiopia to solve the problem. They could eat the locusts instead of wasting their nonexistent talents here.
@jackamy: dont be stupid Jack, it was 5G that did this
No no.. this is defo 5G’s doing
@Brendan Geoghegan: i get the reaction to 5g has been OTT to say the least but there is a valid conversation to be had to be honest… Dismissing it as a joke will only add fuel to the Gemma O Dohertys of society https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/topics/cellphones/index.html
They should eat the locusts. They won’t be hungry then.
Alright god, we get it, you hate us.
Locust are edible and kosher if ya need them to be. Think of them as flying prawns.
@Roy Donovan: They thought so but then realised this type of locusts has toxic fluids inside
@Seriousnojoke: l have no proof whatsoever but it is most likely the toxic fluids are from the pesticides the crops they eat are sprayed in. If I am correct the people are ingesting those chemicals anyway.
@Niall Bourke: No, it’s not mentioned in the recent research that it’s from pesticides. This type of locusts grows much larger than the normal ones to an extent that it starts to produce toxic fluids inside which makes them inedible for ducks or other birds.
@Seriousnojoke: just like SF
@Seriousnojoke: does cooking neutralise the toxins?
@Smiley: No. Some are heat stable to over 200 C
@Seriousnojoke: sent the locusts to China. They will eat anything. ( Hmm locust curry yum yum)
Plagues and locusts it is the end of times.
@MyBrokenKnees: so how come all the other times there were plagues and locusts in history, nothing ended?
@Alan Currie: hundreds of thousands died, over and over for centuries. We only became aware of it when explorers documented these events in recent times.
Should have closed the borders earlier
Nature speaks loud and clear this year!!
I read a few weeks ago that China were after exporting millions of ducks to Africa to fight the locust problem. Apparently one duck can eat thousands a day.
@Mairtin Antaine O Conaill: that was just an order for frozen duck for a takeaway in Addis Ababa
@Dean Anderson: Locust Kung Po… lovely.
@Mairtin Antaine O Conaill: That was just a theory… ducks couldn’t live in the desert. so China sent pesticide and supplies instead..
@Mairtin Antaine O Conaill: So long as they don’t send bats.
Some of the comments here are truly sickening.. people are dying and they make a joke about it. Some people are are disgusting horrible excuses of humanity.
Here’s a mad idea you know all those planes just sitting on Civilian and Military bases why not fly a few hundred of them around the clock until the swarm is destroyed . It’s not like crop dusters was invented yesterday
@Airwave81: at a guess I’d say you couldn’t use commercial passenger airliners as crop dusters.
@Airwave81: intake pipes smothered by locusts – goodnight
plagues and locusts swarms. the apocalypse is coming. lets blame FG for that too.
And we only have to deal with vultures
Locusts can be fried and eaten. They sell fried locusts, grasshoppers, silkwoms, scorpions and spiders in markets in Vietnam and Cambodia. So this swarm could be their food source.
have your say