This is a list of the main events that will take place in the coming period. There are several surprises.

The end of conflicts?

Various conflicts are currently developing in the world. New developments towards peace are expected. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has escalated and at the close of the Biden Administration, the Kremlin has once again bared its teeth by signaling that it has a nuclear arsenal ready for use. On the other hand, in the Middle East conflict between Israel and Hamas, there is hope that an agreement can be reached for the release of hostages and an end to hostilities.
 

Venezuela's new government

Nicolás Maduro and Edmundo González are disputing political legitimacy in Venezuela. The new president of that country is due to be sworn in on January 10. However, after a controversial election in which the opposition and many political leaders of the world denounced fraud by the Chavista regime, the future of that nation is in suspense.

30 years of the World Trade Organization (WTO)

On January 1, 1995, the world reached an agreement to create the WTO, an organization that proposes clear rules for free trade in the world. It will be a good moment to reflect on where the planet is heading in terms of exchange of goods and services, with a tariff war in the making due to the electoral promises of the new Trump Administration.

Elections in Ecuador

The country in the center of the world is about to go to the polls again, after Daniel Noboa won the extraordinary elections of 2023, which were called to prevent the impeachment by the Congress of the then president Guillermo Lasso. Ecuador is immersed in a wave of violence by criminal gangs.

80 years since the end of World War II

On September 2, 1945, Japan officially surrendered in the largest armed conflict in living memory: the Second World War ended, leaving some 55 million people dead in different parts of the world in a confrontation that lasted six years, from 1939 to 1945.

Trump 2.0

On January 20, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as 47th president of the United States, 11 weeks after his convincing win in the election against Democrat Kamala Harris.

The Republican's swearing-in ceremony in front of the US Capitol in Washington comes four years after the attack on the seat of US democracy by Trump supporters, who did not accept he lost the 2020 election.

Trumps' return, at the age of 78,  comes despite four indictments and a criminal conviction and after a campaign that also included two failed assassination attempts on him.

With a list including vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and Elon Musk co-heading a department of government efficiency, there is concern at what his second term could mean for the United States, and the world.

He has vowed to Make America Great Again, retreating from multilateralism in favour of power politics.

In late December the president-elect pledged to "stop the transgender lunacy" on day one of his presidency, and to immediately begin "the largest deportation operation in American history" of illegal migrants.

Climate

Could 2025 be the year when our greenhouse gas emissions stop their steady climb around the world?

Researchers are pointing to signs from the world's biggest polluter China, responsible for 30 percent of global emissions, where fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions are projected to tick up only marginally this year.

Glen Peters, of the Global Carbon Project, says overall CO2 emitted by burning coal, oil and gas across the world could peak in the next few years.

This carbon pollution is the main driver of increasingly dangerous climate change.

But even if there is a peak, Ignacio Arroniz Velasco, of the E3G think tank, said countries cannot afford to "relax", and should then quickly decrease their emissions to aim for carbon neutrality.

Football frenzy

In 2025 the question of football overkill and player burnout will likely dominate amid a supercharged calendar.

There is the expanded 32-club Club World Cup awaiting players in the summer, when usually they would have had time to recover from national leagues.

And this coming after a particularly busy season that sees a much-anticipated extended Champions League -- the leading European club competition -- in a new format.

All this is part of a trend in football to ramp up the number of high-profile matches -- the next World Cup in 2026 will welcome a whopping 16 more countries, resulting in 104 games rather than 64.

The spectre of Saudi Arabia will also loom large as the host of the 2034 World Cup pumps more money into the game, with potentially transformative consequences.

Other controversies likely to cause sparks include the continued use of VAR technology, currently locked in a love-hate relationship with players, fans and pundits.

Oasis and BTS comebacks

On the one side, the grisly bad boys of Britpop, on the other the fresh-faced darlings of K-Pop.

Both Oasis and BTS are set to return in 2025, much to the delight of their fans, after stints off the stage for very different reasons.

Led by the Gallagher brothers Liam and Noel, Oasis will return after a high-profile bust-up in 2009 -- one of many -- led to a 15-year split.

The band behind "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova", songs that achieved anthem-like status in the 1990s, go on a world tour kicking off in Britain and Ireland then heading to North and South America.

In the initial scramble to buy tickets from official sites, many fans who missed out sought alternative sources -- leading to a landslide of ticket scams.

It will be a very different vibe in South Korea, where wildly popular K-Pop boy band BTS promises to reunite in June after its seven members finish their mandatory military service.

It is the comeback millions of fans and an entire multibillion dollar industry has been waiting for.

Experts say the megastars' return to performance and public life could lift South Korea's cultural exports juggernaut even higher.

Kumbh Mela

The largest gathering of humanity on the planet will take place from January 13 to late February when 400 million are expected to attend a spectacular Hindu festival on India's sacred riverbanks.

Held every three years, rotating between four different holy places, the Kumbh Mela takes place at the site where the holy Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers meet.

Classified by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, the mega-festival will involve a makeshift city in the northern city of Prayagraj. The last time the festival took place there, in 2013, it drew 120 million people. 36 people died in a stampede.

Hindus believe that taking a dip in Sangam, the confluence of the rivers, will cleanse them of their sins and help them attain "moksha", setting them free from the cycle of birth and death.

With information from AFP