As the world prepares to say goodbye to 2024, Australians have noticed an ominous detail about the opening days of January that could indicate what kind of new year awaits us.
Sharp-eyed social media users caused a stir when they pointed out that the first three days of 2025 will fall on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
The calendar sleuths explained that the first letter of each day is the commonly used acronym WTF, short for “what the f***,” which is often used in text messages and on social media sites to express shock or frustration.
The last time the same series took place to mark the first three days of the new year was 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic started spreading around the world.
While the social media observation may be considered harmless, Australians have had a year of 2024 that has been so tough that an even tougher year next year doesn’t require too much imagination.
Millions of Aussies are struggling with the cost of living crisis, while housing remains unaffordable in the country’s major capitals.
The Reserve Bank left interest rates unchanged at 4.35 percent at its last monetary policy meeting of the year on December 11.
The decision marked the tenth consecutive time that the RBA has decided not to cut interest rates, which weigh on millions of mortgage holders.
Instead, it has put them on hold since the cash rate was set at 4.10 percent on October 4, 2023.
Several sharp-eyed social media users spotted in the first three days of January in 2025 will be highlighted on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (image in photo)
Looking deeper into the figures, figures from the ACCC show that the price of a shopping basket in Australia increased by 24 per cent between March 2019 and June 2024.
While the latest figures from property website PropTrack show the average home value in Australia is $872,000.
According to a 2024 Demographia report, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide are among the 10 most unaffordable cities in the world, with Hong Kong topping the list.
An ANZ Corelogic Housing Affordability Report also found that house prices in Sydney now cost ten times the average salary.
Meanwhile, the world has also endured a tumultuous year, as conflicts in Europe and the Middle East continued to rage.
Aussies picked up on this ominous detail as the world prepares to say goodbye to 2024 (photo of Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks)
The war between Russia and Ukraine will enter its third year in February 2025.
Nearly 12,000 civilians have been killed in the conflict, including 622 children, according to the latest figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
US officials say a total of nearly 500,000 soldiers have been killed in Russia and Ukraine since the war began.
The harrowing war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas also continues despite mediators’ attempts to broker a ceasefire.
The latest figures from the United Nations show that 45,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza after Israel launched the deadly conflict in response to devastating attacks launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The harrowing war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas also continues despite the efforts of mediators to broker a ceasefire (photo smoke rising 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 create more uncertainty in a world gripped by armed conflict
Two major changes that will impact the world in 2025 are the increasing artificial intelligence race, which will revolutionize the way society functions.
And the second is the shift in who will lead the free world.
Voters in the United States have re-elected Donald Trump after the former president won a landslide victory over Joe Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris in the November US elections.
Trump’s victory could mean that the US will recalibrate its domestic priorities as well as relations with many other countries.
Whether this helps stabilize or create uncertainty in global political and economic systems remains to be seen.