Welcome to the World Next Week's special year-end episode, The World Next Year.

I'm Bob McMahon.

And I'm Carla Ann Robbins.

Joining us for this special episode is Stephen Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe

for the New York Times. Steve is reported from more than 120 countries and has been

Bureau Chief. I have to take a breath before I go through this list. London, Bangkok,

Moscow, Paris, Jerusalem, Berlin, Brussels, Prague, and Belgrade, as well as serving

as the Times' chief diplomatic correspondent in Washington.

He's also a really dear friend, a long-time colleague, and we've logged quite a few miles

together over the years.

Steve, thanks so much for doing this and welcome to the world next week.

Thanks, Carla and Bob. It's a pleasure. Well, Carla and Steve, 2024, which is quickly waning,

as we know, is the year of elections. Something like 80 or so elections took place this year.

And that includes the U.S. presidential election, of course. And so in this

special episode, we are going to discuss what has happened in this momentous year, as well as

chew over the big issues for 2025. Steve, let's start with what you think are going to be

the big stories in the coming year. I know you're just back from the Middle East. You email me

from the Abu Dhabi Airport. That's probably the coolest place. You email me from the Abu Dhabi Airport.

That's probably the coolest place. Someone emailed me from this year. Although, I've been in the

Abu Dhabi Airport. It's probably actually not that cool.

No, it's not. It's air-conditioned.

That's good. So why don't we start there? I don't mean in Abu Dhabi. Let's start in the Middle East. In the last few months,

...