New Year's Eve: celebrations across the globe as world welcomes ...

6 days ago

The Guardian

Share on XTweet

New Years Eve celebrations across the globe as world welcomes

Revellers around the world ring in the new year with parties, celebrations and fireworks

France’s president Emmanuel Macron has given a traditional New Year’s Eve address to the nation on television.

In it, Macron recalled that during 2024 France had hosted not only the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but also held events marking the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings, and the reopening of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral.

However, France’s president conceded that his decision to call early parliamentary elections in June 2024 created more political instability in the country.

Macron said: “The dissolution caused more divisions in the Assembly than solutions for the French people.

“If I decided to dissolve, it was to give you back your voice, to regain clarity and avoid the threat of immobility. But lucidity and humility demand we acknowledge that at this time this has produced more instability than serenity, and I take full responsibility for that.”

Pour 2025, je nous souhaite d’être unis, déterminés et fraternels. pic.twitter.com/LMLVR8pdlK

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 31, 2024"}}">

Pour 2025, je nous souhaite d’être unis, déterminés et fraternels. pic.twitter.com/LMLVR8pdlK
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 31, 2024

I am not one to judge, after all I am the person working on New Year’s Eve doing the live blog, but if you are reading this then over the next couple of hours I was going to – as well as bring you lots of pictures of fireworks – make some suggestions of ways to help your evening pass with some fun and jollity.

And quizzes are a great way.

So here is my first quiz suggestion of the evening, why not try Séamas O’Reilly & Dara O’Reilly’s quiz on how much news you remember from 2024?

It’s quiz time: how well do you remember 2024?

It has just turned midnight in Pakistan. Earlier in Karachi, as is traditional, much was made of the final sunset of 2024 in the country, with people posing for photos against the background of the dipping sun. It always makes for a very photogenic scene.

Nepal has also seen in the new year, but 15 minutes earlier than neighbouring India. Nepal is one of only three places in the world with a timezone offset from GMT by the rather distinctive figure of 45 minutes. The Chatham Islands and Eucla are the others.

This is, I think, the fourth time I’ve done a New Year’s Eve live blog for the Guardian, and you inevitably find yourself interested in why that should be.

It takes about half hour for the sun to cross the whole of Nepal, and the country effectively straddles two timezones. So since 1986 the country has used Nepal Standard Time, which centres a meridian around the mountain of Gaurishankar, and offsets it at UTC+05:45, which makes more sense with the sun’s position at noon than picking a timezone either side.

It has just turned midnight in India, and here are some photos of the people celebrating the arrival of 2025 in Mumbai.

If you are in the UK, then the Met Office has weather warnings in place across parts of Scotland, Wales and the north of England for snow, rain and wind. None of which suggests it would be a great night to go out to try to spot the northern lights, but the Met Office has suggested they might be visible.

PA Media reports that people in the east of Scotland, north-east England and Northern Ireland could be treated to sightings of the natural phenomenon. It quotes Met Office spokesperson Grahame Madge saying:

Although the solar conditions are set fair to see the northern lights, unfortunately the meteorological conditions are not that helpful.

Scotland should provide the best chances but with unsettled conditions dominating it will be hard to get a guaranteed view.

Perhaps the best areas may be those along the eastern coast of Scotland.

Heavy rain and high winds are set to cause disruption in much of the country, with a widespread cancellation of New Year’s Eve events. You can find the latest weather warnings for the UK here.

Public firework displays and celebrations in Edinburgh, Blackpool, Newcastle, the Isle of Wight, and Ripon have already been called off.

Hello, it is Martin Belam here in London taking over the live blog. I will be with you for the next few hours. If you want to get in touch you can email me at martin.belam@theguardian.com. I’d love to hear from people who have unusual plans for the evening, and to see pictures of your pets dressed up for new year. I also promise lots of still images of fireworks, and of course coverage of what world leaders have to say as the clock strikes midnight across the next few timezones.

And it’s officially 2025 in Taiwan, as well as Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Happy new year to our readers in the Philippines, where the clock has just struck midnight.

I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be covering the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s some photos of the celebrations in Manila …

There will be more muted celebrations in Puerto Rico, as nearly all of the US territory is without power after an underground power line failed.

A blackout hit early on Tuesday, leaving more than 1.3 million people in the dark.

Officials said it could take up to two days to restore power.

The outage hit at dawn, plunging the island into an eerie silence as electrical appliances and air conditioners shut down before those who could afford generators turned them on.

“It had to be on the 31st of December!” exclaimed one man, who only gave his name as Manuel to Associated Press, as he stood outside a grocery store in the capital of San Juan, grumbling about the outage that coincided with his birthday. “There is no happiness.”

Nearly 90% of 1.47 million clients across Puerto Rico were left in the dark, according to Luma Energy, a private company that oversees electricity transmission and distribution.

Here’s some initial photographs of the new year being rung in, literally, in the Japanese capital Tokyo less than an hour ago.

In the next 15 minutes Beijing, Hong Kong, Manila, and Singapore will be among those celebrating the new year.