While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Jan 1, 2025
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Fireworks over Marina Bay during the New Year's celebrations on Dec 31.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
S’poreans ring in 2025 - and SG60 - with gratitude, pledges
Jubilant celebrations took place across more than 23 locations in Singapore, as the country rang in 2025 with fireworks, drone shows, and even a K-pop mass dance event.
While tens of thousands flocked to Marina Bay and the Kallang Basin to catch the fireworks display that lit up the skies every Dec 31st, many opted for locations closer to home, at 17 countdown celebrations in the heartlands organised to kick off the Republic’s diamond jubilee, dubbed SG60.
They included social media executive Stephanie Tay, 25, who has a tradition of attending countdown celebrations every year with her husband and son. This year, for the first time, they joined the one at Our Tampines Hub.
She was not disappointed - the Tampines countdown featured live music performances and a skating rink, though families donned rollerblades instead of ice skates and bubbles took the place of snow.
Europe’s Russian gas era ends as Ukraine transit stops
REUTERS
Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine are set to end on New Year’s Day, bringing down the curtain on Moscow’s long period of dominance of supply in the European gas market.
Russia’s oldest gas export route to Europe - a pipeline dating back to Soviet days - was set to shut at the end of 2024, as a five-year transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expires.
The European Union drastically reduced its dependency on Russian gas following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022 by seeking alternative gas sources.
Woman burned to death on New York subway identified
PHOTO: REUTERS
A woman who died after being set on fire on the New York City subway in December was identified as Debrina Kawam, 57, of Toms River, New Jersey, the New York medical examiner’s office said on Dec 31.
Kawam was identified through fingerprint analysis and her death from thermal and inhalation injuries was ruled a homicide, said Ms Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner.
Sebastian Zapeta, a 33-year-old Guatemalan citizen, was charged with murder and arson after allegedly lighting Kawam on fire and watching her burn to death at a subway station.
Contrite Macron says early election caused instability
AFP
French President Emmanuel Macron on Dec 31 said he recognised that his decision to call early parliamentary elections in June had created more political instability in the country, in a rare moment of contrition.
The speech caps a tumultuous 2024 for Mr Macron, who shocked the nation halfway through the year by calling early elections, a gamble that backfired when voters delivered a hung parliament with a big increase in far-right lawmakers, diluting Mr Macron’s power.
“Lucidity and humility force (me) to recognise that at this stage, this decision has produced more instability than peace, and I fully own up to that,” Mr Macron said, in a televised address ahead of New Year celebrations.
Xi says no one can stop China’s ‘reunification’ with Taiwan
via REUTERS
No one can stop China’s “reunification” with Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his New Year’s speech on Dec 31, laying down a clear warning to what Beijing regards as pro-independence forces within and outside of the island of 23 million people.
In the past year, Beijing has stepped up military pressure near Taiwan, sending warships and planes almost daily into the waters and air space around the island in what Taiwanese officials view as a creeping effort to “normalise” China’s military presence.
“The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification,” Mr Xi said, in a speech televised on China’s state broadcaster CCTV.
