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Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain.South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks strike midnight in Auckland, a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball drops in New York’s Times Square.The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from various floors of the 240-meter (787-foot) Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s North Island on Wednesday due to forecasts of rain and possible thunderstorms. Australia plans defiant celebration after country’s worst mass shooting Australia’s east coast welcomes 2026 two hours after New Zealand, but in Sydney, the country’s largest city, celebrations will be held under the pall of Australia’s worst mass shooting in almost 30 years. Two gunmen targeted a Hannukah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, killing 15 and wounding 40.A heavy police presence monitored the thousands who thronged to the downtown waterfront on Wednesday to watch a fireworks show centered on the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Many officers openly carried rapid-fire rifles, in a first for the annual event.An hour before midnight, the massacre victims will be commemorated with one minute of silence while images of a menorah are projected on the bridge pylons. The crowd has been invited to show their solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community by shining their phone torches across the harbor.New South Wales Premier Chris Minns urged Sydney residents not to stay away through fear, saying extremists would interpret smaller crowds at New Year’s Eve festivities as a victory.“We can’t be in a situation where this horrible, criminal, terrorist event changes the way we live in our beautiful city,” Minns told reporters on Wednesday.“We have to show defiance in the face of this terrible crime and say that we’re not going to be cowered by this kind of terrorism,” he added. Indonesia and Hong Kong hold subdued events In Indonesia, one of Australia’s nearest neighbors, cities scaled back New Year’s Eve festivities as a gesture of solidarity with communities devastated by catastrophic floods and landslides that struck parts of Sumatra island a month ago, claiming more than 1,100 lives.The capital, Jakarta, will not ring in 2026 with its usual fanfare, choosing instead subdued celebrations with a calm and reflective program centered on prayers for victims, city Gov. Pramono Anung said last week.Makassar Mayor Munafri Arifuddin urged residents of one of Indonesia’s largest cities to forgo parties altogether, calling for prayer and reflection instead. “Empathy and restraint are more meaningful than fireworks and crowds,” he said.Concerts and fireworks on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali have been canceled and replaced with a cultural arts event featuring 65 groups performing traditional dances.Hong Kong, too, will ring in 2026 without the usual spectacular and colorful explosions in the sky over its iconic Victoria Harbor, after a massive fire in November killed at least 161 people.The city’s tourism board will instead host a music show featuring soft rock duo Air Supply and other singers in Central, a business district. The facades of eight landmarks will turn into giant countdown clocks presenting a three-minute light show at midnight.Many parts of Asia welcome the new year by observing age-old traditions.In Japan, crowds will gather at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo for a bell striking at midnight. In the South Korean capital Seoul, a bell tolling and countdown ceremony will be held at the Bosingak Pavilion. China’s Xi renews threats against Taiwan Chinese President Xi Jinping in a New Year’s Eve address broadcast by state media hailed his country’s technological progress in areas such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors while renewing threats against Taiwan, which it claims as part of its sovereign territory.“We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a bond of blood and kinship,” he said. “The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable.” China this week launched large-scale military drills around the island. Berliners celebrate in snow Tourists and Berliners alike marked the end of 2025 by enjoying snowfall, taking selfies and making snowmen in front of the German capital’s cathedral and the iconic Brandenburg Gate. The famous Berlin TV Tower was nearly invisible thanks to the falling flakes and fog. Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report. Associated Press
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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. CEOs deal with many challenges, but apparently their overall health and fitness isnt among them. Some 93% of CEOs surveyed by corporate wellness platform Wellhub rate their overall well-being as excellent or good. In contrast, the same study, released earlier this year, finds that only 63% of employees are equally satisfied with their well-being. The wellness conundrum Wellness is complex, and its expensive, says Cesar Carvalho, founder and CEO of Wellhub, which offers fitness and wellness benefits to employers. Thanks to their status and income, Carvalho notes, CEOs generally have the wherewithal to focus on their health and fitness. You can push meetings around, cancel meetings, reschedule stuff, he says, noting that he is able to start his day after getting his kids on their school bus. But, he notes, CEOs take for granted that other people also have that same flexibility, which may explain another CEO-employee well-being gap: Nearly all C-level executives surveyed by Deloitte believe employees credit leadership with prioritizing worker well-being. However, survey data shows that less than two-thirds of employees believe executives care about it, and fewer than six in 10 say their company embeds well-being into company culture. The problems this disconnect creates are huge, Carvalho says. Employees will leave companies if they feel management doesnt care about their health, for example. On the flip side, companies that prioritize employee health and fitness tend to outperform the broader market. Wellness in the new year Not surprisingly, Carvalho thinks the new year is an opportune time for executives to make wellness affordable and accessible for employees, calling the Monday after New Years Dayin this case, January 5the Black Friday of wellness. He says that companies launching wellness benefits in January see adoption at rates five times higher than companies introducing such benefits at other points in the year. Beyond offering benefits, including reimbursing classes, therapy, and gym memberships, CEOs can play a role in closing the executive-employee wellness gap by creating a culture where employees feel comfortable talking about their well-being. That means sharing aspects of their own wellness journey, too. When CEOs share their examples and their stories, theyre showing [employees] that well-being is not a perk; its a business imperative, Carvalho says. What will your company’s wellness plan look like in 2026? How is your company encouraging employee wellness? Please share some of your best perks and practices at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. I hope to feature some of the most compelling examples in a future newsletter. Read more: wellness at work These three strategies alleviate hourly worker burnout Gen Z workers are depressed and need support The most innovative companies in wellness and personal care
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The year 2025 was one in which political and government design broke through to the mainstream. That’s thanks in large part to the new U.S. president, who fancies himself something of a designer-in-chief. “I consider myself an important designer,” President Donald Trump said an October White House dinner to raise money for his planned ballroom. Of outside designers, he said, “boy, the things they can recommend are horrible.” That doesn’t mean political design in 2025 was all Trump. Though his administration and allies used design to help push his agenda, protesters, politicians, and other political actors also developed a new visual language this year for a new political era. Here are six defining political design trends of 2025. [Source Photo: Jackpine Dynamic Branding] 1. Nationalism is on the rise, and worn on the sleeve Trump took office promising to expand U.S. territory, and that sentiment showed up early this year in merchandise. Trump’s campaign store sold a $43 mock-up of his “Gulf of America Day, 2025” executive order while his joint fundraising committees sold “Gulf of America!” and “Make Greenland Great Again” tees. [Image: courtesy Dada Projects] Up north, Canadians responded to Trump’s trade war and threats to make the country a 51st state with national pride of their own. The premier of Ontario wore a “Canada Is Not for Sale” hat and Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney leaned into patriotism for the visual identity and messaging of his winning 2025 campaign. Trump’s tariffs have also inspired a new generation of nation-of-origin “Made In” labels from Canada and Denmark. 2. Trump anti-design is now MAGA McBling Trump’s second-term administration brand is more intentional and designed to look more distinct. Trump updated his official portrait for his second term not once, but twice. (The newest iteration doesn’t use a U.S. flag in the backdrop, as is standard for public official portraits.) [Illustration: FC] His administration also changed its typefaces. Merriweather, the serif font of his first term that the January 6 committee used during its investigation into the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, is out. Instrument, a tall, open-source serif that’s on-trend among tech and consumer brands that use the font to look modern yet retro, is in. One of its designers, Jordan Egstad, told Bloomberg, “Using a freely available and open-source font to promote exclusionary policies is deeply ironic.” The administration’s brand was most memorably executed in the high-low staging of his speech at the McDonald’s Impact Summit in November. The slogan “The Golden Age” appeared in large, yellow Instrument Serif type at the top of a blue backdrop which was placed directly behind the president. The backdrop also featured a repeat pattern of yellow McDonald’s arches. The ultimate visual effect was a brand mash-up created by combining the official serif of the state with the logo of a giant multinational corporationand it put our McBling era reality star president very much in his element. [Source Images: Mathias Weil/Adobe Stock, Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images] At the White House, Trump has also used a script font common on wedding invitations (which could in theory read as “fancy” to the untrained eye) to label the exterior facade of the Oval Office and “The Presidential Walk of Fame,” a presidential portrait exhibit designed as partisan ragebait. 3. Serifs are insimply because they’ve become another political pawn While there’s no such thing as a Republican fonteven Trump’s campaign logos used sans-serif typefacesTrump’s administration seems somewhat partial to serif typefaces, or fonts with the small feet on their letterforms. [Illustration: FC] The State Department said this month it was switching fonts to the serif Times New Roman, a typeface developed for print newspapers that it previously used, rather than Calibri, a typeface developed for digital screen reading. Calibri was made State’s default font during then-President Joe Biden’s administration because it’s easier to read, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio characterized it as wasteful and like a diversity initiative, turning typography into yet another battle in the culture wars. 4. Government design gets a new focal point: the President Trump is working to put his stamp on government literally by having his name and likeness installed on buildings, which may be illegal. Lettering with Trump’s name has already gone up at the U.S. Institute of Peace and Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. [Photos: Alex Kent/Bloomberg/Getty Images, Mehmet Eser/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images, Harold Mendoza/Unsplash] Trump’s image also appeared on the facades of multiple federal buildings, including the department of Labor, Department of Agriculture, and Health and Human Services, at a reported taxpayer cost of $50,000. His face is also on annual passes for the National Park Service (NPS), which experienced budget cuts under his administration. And though he opposed legislation signed into law by former President Joe Biden that funded an Amtrak project in Washington state, Trump’s name went up on signage at the work site anyway. [Source Images: Mathias Weil/Adobe Stock, Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images] Even though U.S. law prohibits a president from appearing on U.S. currency until two years after their death, Trump allies are also pushing to put his face on a coin next year, and some believe there’s a loophole. The new National Design Studio (NDS) headed by Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia has also worked on projects like “Trump Card” immigration visas and “Trump Accounts,” or tax-deferred savings accounts for kids. 5. Protesters adopt a more urgent, and diffuse, design language Trump’s second term lacked a big opening protest a la the 2017 Women’s March, but demonstrations against Trump and his administration in 2025 soon developed their own visual language. Early protests focused their criticism on Elon Musk after Trump tasked him with running the short-lived DOGE, while No Kings protests brought the Revolutionary War aesthetic to the left after being popular on the right since the Obama-era Tea Party. [Photo: Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images] In Portland, protesters dressed up in inflatable animal costumes to play up the nonviolent nature of their demonstrations while in Boston, protesters used historic buildings to project vintage type to tie their protest against Trump to American history. For the first Sun Day, a day of climate action in September, the designers of the logo left it half unfinished so participants can engage in the act of finishing it themselves. In 2025, pussyhats and “protest is the new brunch” signs feel like ancient history, and protesters have turned to more urgent messages to stand against Trump’s expansion of presidential power. Protest signs at some Tesla dealerships before Musk left DOGE used the image of him saluting at Trump’s inauguration against him, and “No Kings” protests challenged opposition to the administration into some of the largest single-day protests in U.S. history with a logo of a crown with an X through it. Brunch can wait. 6. Zohran signals a new era of Democratic design: colorfully optimistic Not since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 campaign for a New York U.S. House seat has a political brand captured the public imagination like New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s. [Images: Zohran for NYC] The ubiquitous “Zohran for New York” logo and visual identity didn’t use any blue, the standard color in Democratic Party design, and the quirky letterform of its bespoke typography matched the warm tone of his in-person moments and social video strategy. Hand-drawn by designer Aneesh Bhoopathy and inspired by lettering from city signage and Bollywood movie posters, the logo felt authentic and New York, and it captured the excitement of Mamdani’s come-from-behind campaign. This wasn’t a campaign designed to look like politics as usual, and Mamdani used type creatively to reinforce his campaign message, like “freeze the rent.” Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo responded to Mamdani’s surprise Democratic primary win by rebranding to a logo and message that emphasized his experience, but New Yorkers who recalled his time as governor didn’t want more. As Democrats look to Election Day 2026, the Mamdani brand and communications strategy is an example of how to campaign in a new landscape in part shaped by the biggest political design trends of 2025.
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