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AP PHOTOS: The world says goodbye to an unsettling 2018

January 1, 2019 GMT

              A couple takes a selfie photo during the last sunset of the year in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Monday, Dec. 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
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A couple takes a selfie photo during the last sunset of the year in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Monday, Dec. 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
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A couple takes a selfie photo during the last sunset of the year in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Monday, Dec. 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)

Sheets of fiery color sizzle in the sky over the Sydney Opera House. Showers of confetti offer a softer alternative to revelry in the Philippines, noted for its raucous, even violent, celebrations. Thais lie in coffins in a ritual symbolizing death and rebirth. A new mother, still wearing her hospital cap, cradles her infant.

These are the faces of the new year , captured across the globe as we bid farewell to what many considered an unsettling 2018, a year filled with challenges to many of the world’s most basic institutions, including in the realms of politics, trade, alliances and religion.

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