The new year starts with a Wednesday, then a Thursday, then a Friday, which some on social media jokingly say means 2025 starts with a “WTF.”
An Instagram post from a popular meme account called “todayyearsold” showed a screenshot of January 2025 on a calendar and circled the first three days of the year.
“Should we be worried about 2025 starting with a ‘WTF,’” the account wrote in a post that received more than 355,000 likes and more than 1,200 comments.
Many people pointed out that 2020 also started with a ‘WTF’ – an acronym for ‘what the f**k’ – and suggested this would be a bad omen.
“Urmmmm, last time we started the year it was 2020,” one person wrote.
Others said this is 2025, a response to last year’s various woes.
“It says ‘wtf was that’ referring to 2024 lol,” one person wrote.
“Maybe that’s 2025’s response to 2024,” wrote another.
Some were clearly not so superstitious about certain dates.
“Every damn week ends in WTF,” someone commented.
This joke that 2025 will start with ‘WTF’ sparked mixed reactions from social media users
While this is clearly a lighthearted joke, there is plenty of evidence that 2025 could be a tumultuous year.
Perhaps most alarming are the recent escalations in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The conflict has been brewing since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, and exploded into all-out war in February 2022 when Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine.
In recent weeks, US President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the green light to destroy targets in Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has given Ukraine the same permission for British missiles.
In response, Putin and his government have threatened nuclear war, causing many to fear the outbreak of World War III.
Close Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said NATO and the US are now at “full war” with Russia after the West crossed “all red lines.”
Another hotbed is in the Middle East, where dozens of armed conflicts threaten to plunge the world into a wider war.
Israel has been at war with Hamas since October 7, 2023, when the terrorist group and other Palestinian contingencies launched a surprise attack on the Jewish land.
A Ukrainian soldier fires a rifle during a training exercise at an unknown location in the Donetsk region
Mourners attend the funeral of a Ukrainian soldier on November 30, 2024 in Kiev, Ukraine
More than 1,200 people were killed, most of whom were innocent men, women and children. Hamas also took 254 hostages that day. About half of the 101 foreign and Israeli hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 injured in the nearly fourteen-month war in Gaza.
Although Israel and Hezbollah managed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire, there is no such agreement on the table between Israel and Hamas.
When he takes office in January, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to be a staunch ally of Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Just northeast of Israel lies Syria, which remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
Syria has been embroiled in civil war since March 2012, after the country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, viciously suppressed pro-democracy protests in his country during the Arab Spring.
The war is raging between the Syrian government and several rebel groups, some of which are backed by the United States.
More than 507,000 people have died during the war that lasted more than thirteen years. Of that number, 164,000 were civilians.
The outcome of the war is more uncertain than ever now that rebels have captured Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city.
Pictured: Destroyed buildings in the central Gaza Strip after Israeli airstrikes
An anti-government fighter stands near a Syrian regime tank that was abandoned along a road in the eastern part of Aleppo province on December 1, 2024. Syrian rebels took over Aleppo and expelled government forces
Economic uncertainty is brewing around the world thanks to newly elected President Donald Trump’s extensive tariff plans
There are also fears that massive changes will occur in the global economy thanks to technological advances and new policies.
With artificial intelligence becoming more powerful by the day, experts increasingly believe it will turn the entire job market upside down and make many jobs completely redundant.
Sam Altman, the man behind ChatGPT, has been blunt in his predictions that AI will revolutionize the job market and eliminate some types of jobs.
‘Many people working on AI act as if it is only a good thing; it will only be an addition; no one will ever be replaced,” he said last July.
“Jobs will definitely disappear, period,” the OpenAI CEO added.
In the more immediate term, Trump’s tariff plans – which are escalating in scope – have many around the world concerned that they will ignite a global trade war and raise prices for ordinary consumers.
New analysis suggests that if Trump implements all of his proposed tariffs, they will cost the average American $3,200 a year as foreign importers try to raise prices to compensate.
More than $1.3 trillion worth of goods were imported to America from the three countries last year, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
That means goods ranging from cars, gasoline, smartphones and appliances to pharmaceuticals and clothing could rise in price, experts warn.
Only time will tell what the fortunes of the world will be in 2025. And in just 31 days, there may be a clearer answer.