Donald Trump raises his arm with blood on his face during a campaign rally after shots were fired. Photo / Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post
While 2024 has been a big year of news in New Zealand, plenty also happened worldwide over the last 12 months.
From wars and extreme-weather events to new pandemic threats and cancer coming to Buckingham Palace, we’ve seen it all over the last 12 months.
But 2024 was truly the year of the election.
Over 60 countries went to the polls this year, including India, Russia, Mexico, France, and the UK - meaning more people voted in one year than at any other point in human history.
The biggest election of the year, and the one that made the most headlines, was the US election.
The road to November’s election was more intense than most, with an assassination attempt against Donald Trump as well as Joe Biden stepping down and making way for Kamala Harris, the first black and South Asian woman to be nominated by a major party.
Ahead of Americans heading to the polls, The Front Page spoke to Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan - who was in Pennsylvania the day before the election - about what he’d seen and heard on the ground from voters.
He said it seemed like a lot of Americans had made their minds up already.
“I think one of the main things is just how widespread the view that Joe Biden didn’t win the last election is.
“On the Democrat side, uh, it’s interesting to see consensus around the failure to get on top of illegal immigration into the country. Kamala Harris was in charge of the border, so it was a massive liability to her, but she is now promising to get tougher on it,” he said.
Donald Trump’s re-election sparked fears of a global trade war and rising costs after he promised on the campaign trail that he’d impose tariffs on numerous countries and products coming into the US.
In October, in an interview at the Economic Club of Chicago, Trump said “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff” and “it needs a public relations firm”.
It’s something that has pricked the ears of nations worldwide as well as New Zealand, given the US is one of our biggest trading partners.
To discuss what his election means for New Zealand, The Front Page spoke with NZUS Council executive director Fiona Cooper shortly after the election.
She said the devil will be in the detail and it’s too soon to know exactly how it’ll affect NZ exports.
“It’s clear there will be implications for New Zealand and it’s something that we’re really focused on.
“We’re in the same boat as all of the US trading partners. This is something that’s going to affect everybody and it’s going to be top of mind for all the countries that partner with the US,” she said.
Political conflict was rife throughout 2024.
France has seen four Prime Ministers this year, as President Emmanuel Macron struggles to gain control of an increasingly divided country.
In South Korea, President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached this month after temporarily imposing martial law.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, rebels took over Syria as dictator President Bashar al-Assad, and his family fled, bringing hope that over a decade of conflict will finally come to an end.
For those in Ukraine and Gaza, hope is all they have right now.
The conflicts in both countries have shown no sign of ending this year, with the world now waiting to see how Trump and his Cabinet will handle both.
In February, two years after the conflict in Ukraine began, The Front Page spoke with independent journalist Tom Mutch from Kyiv about the state of the conflict.
And in April, we touched base with Unicef aid worker Tess Ingram, about what it’s like on the ground in Gaza – including the threats to their lives as they try to help the most vulnerable.
Back in February, the deaths of Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies sent shockwaves across Australia that were felt here in New Zealand.
The two went missing on February 19, and police launched a missing person investigation two days later after bloodied clothes and personal items were found in a skip.
A former celebrity blogger turned police officer, Beau Lamarre-Condon, eventually handed himself in to the police.
His case is before the courts and he is yet to enter a plea.
In early March, The Front Page spoke to ABC News reporter Isaac Nowruzzi, who had been on the scene at Bungonia, where Baird and Davies’ bodies were eventually found.
In April, Sydney was in for another shock, when 40-year-old Joel Cauchi walked into Westfield Bondi Junction armed with a knife.
His stabbing rampage killed six people and injured a further 12 before he was shot dead by a police officer.
Sydney-based ABC News reporter Penny Timms joined The Front Page at the time to discuss the incident.
Sticking to Australia, our closest neighbour has seen a disturbing rise in the number of women being killed by an intimate partner.
Thousands have taken to the streets across Australia to rally against gender-based violence and protests were picked up by women around the world, including in New Zealand.
In May, we spoke with Australian journalist Sherele Moody, who founded the Australian Femicide Watch and the Red Heart Campaign.
At the time of recording, 35 women had been killed in Australia via domestic violence or associate violence - people who knew the women outside of familial relationships.
As of the publishing of this article, that number has risen to 97.
Listen to the full episode to hear highlights from these conversations about world news from 2024.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The blockage was disrupting traffic headed for the Wellington Cup at Trentham Racecourse.