Ton Sai Bay, the heart of Koh Phi Phi, Thailand, where shops, restaurants and bungalows were wiped out following the tsunami in December 2004. Photograph: GettyWe are into the last days of the first quarter of the 21st century. It hardly seems 25 years since the world held its breath on December 31st, 1999, expecting planes to fall out of the sky and the internet to crash, all due to the millennium bug. And in 2022 we had Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which affects us all. Some put that figure at 19.1-36 million, when related deaths are taken into account.

Source: The Irish Times December 29, 2025 00:49 UTC