As the world prepares to say goodbye to 2024, Australians have noticed an ominous detail in the first days of January that could indicate what kind of new year awaits us.
Eagle-eyed social media users created a stir when they pointed out that the first three days of 2025 will fall on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Calendar sleuths stated that the first letter of each day spells out the widely used acronym WTF, an abbreviation for ‘what the f***’, which is commonly used in text messages and on social media sites to express shock or frustration. .
The last time the same sequence occurred to mark the first three days of the new year was in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread around the world.
While the social media remark might be considered harmless, Australians have endured a tough enough year in 2024 that an even tougher one next year won’t require a huge leap of imagination.
Millions of Australians are struggling with the cost of living crisis, while housing remains unaffordable in the country’s major capital cities.
The Reserve Bank left interest rates unchanged at 4.35 per cent during its last policy meeting of the year on December 11.
The decision marked the 10th time in a row that the RBA has decided not to reduce interest rates that are burdening millions of mortgage holders.
Instead, it left them on hold since the cash rate was set at 4.10 percent on October 4, 2023.
Several eagle-eyed social media users spotted that the first three days of January 2025 will be marked as Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (stock image pictured).
Digging deeper into the numbers, ACCC figures revealed that the price of a food basket in Australia increased by 24 per cent between March 2019 and June 2024.
While the latest figures from real estate website PropTrack show the median house value in Australia is $872,000.
According to a 2024 Demographia report, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide are among the top 10 most unaffordable cities in the world, with Hong Kong topping the list.
An ANZ Corelogic housing affordability report also showed Sydney house prices now cost 10 times the median wage.
Meanwhile, the world has also endured a tumultuous year as conflicts continue to rage in Europe and the Middle East.
Australians realized the ominous detail as the world prepares to say goodbye to 2024 (pictured, Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks show)
The war between Russia and Ukraine will enter its third year in February 2025.
The conflict has killed nearly 12,000 civilians, including 622 children, according to the latest figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
U.S. officials say nearly 500,000 troops in Russia and Ukraine have died since the war began.
The harrowing war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas also continues despite efforts by mediators to enact a ceasefire.
The latest figures from the United Nations reveal that 45,000 civilians in Gaza have died after Israel began the deadly conflict in response to devastating attacks launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The harrowing Middle East war between Israel and Hamas also continues despite efforts by mediators to enact a ceasefire (pictured, smoke billows from a building in southern Gaza
Former US President Donald Trump (pictured) was re-elected to the White House in November and his presidency could bring more uncertainty to a world ravaged by armed conflict.
Two major changes that will affect the world in 2025 are the growing race of artificial intelligence, which will revolutionize the way society operates.
And the second is the change in who will lead the free world.
US voters re-elected Donald Trump after the former president achieved a landslide victory against Joe Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, in the US elections in November.
Trump’s victory could mean that the United States recalibrates its domestic priorities and also its relations with many other countries.
It remains to be seen whether that serves to stabilize or create uncertainty in global political and economic systems.