Cities around world welcome 2026 with fireworks

 

 

 

FROM Sydney to Paris to New York City, crowds rang in the New Year with exuberant celebrations filled with thunderous fireworks or light shows, while others took a more subdued approach. As the clock struck midnight in Japan, temple bells rang, and some climbed mountains to see the year’s first sunrise, while a light show with somersaulting jet skis twinkled in Dubai. The countdown to 2026 was projected onto the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, while in Moscow, people celebrated in the snow.

 

In New York City’s Times Square, revellers braved frigid temperatures to celebrate with the famed New Year’s Eve ball drop. In Rio de Janeiro, revellers packed more than 4 kilometres (2 1/2 miles) of the city’s Copacabana Beach for concerts anda12-minute fireworks show, despite high tides that had both organisers and tourists worried and large waves that rocked barges carrying fireworks. Other events were more subdued.

 

Hong Kong held limited celebrations following a recent fire at an apartment complex that killed161people. Australia saluted the new year with defiance less than a month after its worst massn shooting in almost 30years. Crowds bundled up against the chilly temperatures cheered and embraced as the New Year’s Eve ball, covered in more than 5,000 crystals, descended down apole and confetti fell all around them in Times Square.

 

Revellers wearing tall celebratory hats and light-up necklaces had waited for hours to see the 12,350-pound (5,602-kilogram) ball drop. The festivities also included Tones and I performing John Lennon’s “Imagine.” A heavy police presence monitored crowds watching fireworks in Sydney. Many officers openly carried rapid-fire rifles, a first for the event, after two gunmen targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec.

 

14, killing 15.An hour before midnight, victims were commemorated with a minute of silence, and the crowd was invited to show solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community. And in Gaza, Palestinians said they hope the new year brings an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.