AS 2025 COMES TO A CLOSE

This is Day 3 of our Ritz-Carlton cruise.  Happy New Year!

Lunch yesterday was in the Beach House.  Salad and soup with Bloody Mary and beer.

Lamb chops and salmon.

Shaved ice.

Ended with a cappuccino.

Maybe they have this every afternoon, but there was an incredible late afternoon snack:  caviar, raw oysters, pasta and hamburger,

All that with a New Zealand Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc and Nikka vodka.  Then came "drinks" of Gazpacho and Vichyssoise.  Never these before as cocktails.

Dinner was in the fanciest restaurant  on the ship, Azur.  I was still filled from the caviar snack, so only had soup, salad and mushrooms, with an Australian Shiraz and German Riesling.

Glass of Sauternes at the end.

This was New Year's Eve, but we just went to sleep and skipped all the festivities.  Only walked 2330 steps.

During the COVID Pandemic, my Thursday postings were devoted to this disease, as compiled by Worldometers.  As this is the final day of 2025, I thought I'd go back to review the current status of the World, and will start with COVID-19.

• Total cases:  704,753,890
• Total deaths:  7,010,681, however, countries underreported, and the total deaths could have been as high as 36 million.
• Weekly trends:
• Cases worldwide the past 7 days:  45,737
• #1    Russia  19,954
• #2    USA  15,599
• #3    Australia  4,992
• #21  Montenegro  3
• No other country reported cases.
• Deaths the past 7 days:  363
• #1    USA  173
• #2    Russia  69
• #7    Romania  3
• No other country reported deaths.
• According to Google AI.
• The World Health Organization ended the pandemic on 11May2023.
• However, new subvariants continue to circulate globally, causing periodic spikes
• COVID is expected to remain the population permanently, similar to the seasonal flu.
• Want more info?  Read Wikipedia.

• About our World.
• World population, 8.27 billion
• Births this year 130.5 million
• Deaths this year  61.5 million
• Seasonal flu deaths this year, almost half a million
• Deaths by HIV/AIDS, 1.7 million
• Abortions this year  45.4 million
• Deaths caused by smoking this year, almost 5 million.
• Deaths caused by alcohol this year, about 2.5 million.
• Suicides this year, a little more than one million.
• Road traffic accident fatalities this year, 1.35 million.
• Net population growth this year  69 million
• Largest countries in billions.
• #  1  India  1.463 
• #  2  China  1.4116
• #  3  USA  0.347
• #  9  Russia 0.144
• Publish a book this year?  You are one of almost 3 million.  A new book every 10 seconds.
• Internet users today, just about 7 billion.
• Blog posts written today, a bit more than 8.5 million.
• Google searches today, a bit more than 8.5 billion.
• People who died of hunger today, a little more than 20,000.
• Undernourished people in the world, almost 900 million. 
• Obese people in the world, 905 million.
• Overweight people in the world, 1.8 billion.
• People with no access to safe drinking water source, 749 million.
• Predicted days to the end of oil, in around 37 years.
• Predicted days to the end of natural gas, around 152 years.
• Predicted day to the end of coal, around 400 years.
• GDP in 2025.
• #1    USA, $30.62 trillion.
• #2    China, $19.4 trillion.
• #3    Germany, $5.01 trillion.
• #4    Japan, $4.28 trillion.
• #10  Canada, $2.28 trillion. 
• GDP/capita in 2025.
• #1      Monaco  $256,581
• #2      Liechtenstein  $231,713
• #3      Luxembourg  $146,818
• #9      Singapore  $94,481
• #11    USA  $89,599
• #52    Japan  $34,981

Regarding the two wars, according to Google AI:

"Final Stage" Rhetoric: Both the U.S. and the Kremlin have recently characterized negotiations as being at a "final stage," though key issues like the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and specific withdrawal lines remain unresolved.   Here is President Donald Trump's assessment of the peace deal.  

As of January 1, 2026, the Gaza Strip remains in a state of deep instability following over two years of devastating conflict between Israel and Hamas. While a formal ceasefire agreement was implemented on October 10, 2025, hostilities and significant humanitarian suffering continue.

The hottest thing around today?  Labubu dolls.

• A series featuring zoomorphic elves with exaggerated facial expressions.  The central figure is Labubu, a monster with sharp teeth, large ears and a scruffy appearance.

• 
  Produced and sold exclusively by China-base retailer PopMart.
• Created by Hong Kong illustrator Kasing Lung.
• He was born in 1972 in Hong Kong,but raised in Ultrecht, Netherlands, but settled in Antwerp, Belgium.  
• Was introduced in 2015 in Lung's story series, The Monsters, influenced by Nordic  folklore.

• 
  By 2025, the brand has released over 300 different figures, ranging in cost from $14 for a tiny vinyl figure to $170,000 for a 4 foot tall mint-green Labubu.
• Sold in a blind box, meaning you don't know what you will be getting, leading to obsessive collecting.

• 
  Pop Mart CEO Wang Ning, was only worth $1.8 billion in 2024.  Now is worth $21.1 billion, and at 38 is the youngest Chinese billionaire in the top ten.
• Some stories.
• The UK paused selling these dolls in May of this year to prevent multiple reports of customers fighting over them.
• Russia thought about banning them for the frightening appearance might harm children's mental health.
• Iraq banned the sale for the dolls caused behavioral problems in children.

• 
  Very popular in Thailand, sparking belief about the image bringing wealthand good fortune.  Thus, you can find Buddhist amulets and sacred tattoos.
• Has become a political tool in Singapore.
• New York magazine's Liza Corsillo wrote that the toy's appeal is fueled by a hard-to-explain cuteness:  kind of ugly, but huggable, with a devilish grin.
• Counterfeit accessories are also popular.
• Want more details?  Read this.

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