The clock has struck midnight in parts of the Americas, including some of Brazil, Argentina, part of Chila, French Guiana and Bermuda.
Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada have also started the new year, and on the hour, so will Venezuela, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Aruba, Guyana.
Key events
Some different ways to ring in the new year across the globe:
There’s a bit of rain in New York but that hasn’t dampened spirits for revellers in Times Square waiting for the ball to drop.
The fireworks and ball drop in Times Square, New York, will take place in just over an hour.
The clock has struck midnight in parts of the Americas, including some of Brazil, Argentina, part of Chila, French Guiana and Bermuda.
Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada have also started the new year, and on the hour, so will Venezuela, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Aruba, Guyana.
Here are pictures from celebrations in Germany, Brazil, India and Colombia:
New Year’s Eve revellers in Australia have largely been praised for their behaviour at the country’s biggest fireworks shows, while officers were kept busy with outbursts of trouble around local fireworks.
More than a million people swarmed the main vantage points around Sydney harbour and hundreds of thousands of Melbourne partygoers were treated to a fireworks and laser spectacular.
Police in both cities said the vast majority of partygoers enjoyed the night safely, although officers were kept busy with violence away from the main celebration areas:
“There are warnings of gales. Wintry showers, rain later, moderate or good. The familiar rhythms and cadences of these misty, magical phrases have now been familiar to British islanders for a whole century. They are communicated to us at strange, twilit times, every weekday at 12.48am and 5.20am, with an extra gust of early-evening drama at 5.54pm at weekends”.
Here is our story on 100 years of the Shipping Forecast, by Jude Rogers:
Rome’s traditional New Year’s Eve festivities have an additional draw: the start of Pope Francis’ Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration projected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.
On Tuesday, Francis will celebrate a vespers at St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by Mass on Wednesday, when he is expected to again appeal for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Jan. 1 is a day of obligation for Catholics, marking the Solemnity of Mary.
The BBC is celebrating 100 years of a suprisingly soothing weather forecast for sailors in British waters that has inspired musicians and poets and become an immovable fixture on UK radio, AFP reports.
The Shipping Forecast, providing predictions by the Met Office on expected wind speeds, sea state, weather and visibility, began as a vital service to sailors and sea captains who may be in peril at sea.
Modern seafarers can now rely on sophisticated forecasting technology but the calm, rhythmic delivery of the forecast by one of BBC Radio 4’s silky-voiced continuity announcers has turned the forecast into something of a beloved British institution.
Radio 4 controller Mohit Bakaya described the Shipping Forecast as a “cherished ritual” and “one of our national treasures”.
He said the centenary would be marked with a day-long series of programmes on Wednesday.
The service was set up in 1867 in response to a storm off north Wales eight years earlier that led to the death of 800 people and the loss of 133 ships, according to the Met Office.
It was initially transmitted by telegraph before being first broadcast on radio on 1 January 1924 and taken over by the BBC in October 1925.
Sea areas around the British Isles with mysterious names such as “Viking”, “Dogger”, “Sole”, “Lundy” and “Fastnet” are covered in the forecast which is peppered with phrases such as “rain at times, moderate or good”, “becoming cyclonic” and “falling slowly”.
The poetic sounding names of coastal weather stations such as “Tiree”, “Ronaldsway and “Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic” also feature, adding to its appeal.
Here are some more photographs of celebrations (and naps) from around the world – Brazil, China, Portugal and the US:
NPR producer Martin Patience has posted a photograph of the fireworks in Damascus, Syria earlier this evening:
The world’s largest time capsule is due to be opened this year. Put together in 1977, it contains 5,000 items, “ranging from small items such as books to large objects such as automobiles.”
It was made by a small-town Nebraska store owner named Harold Keith Davisson, who chose the items with his grandchildren in mind.
It will be opened on 4 July 2025.
Here is a video of New Year’s celebrations around the world so far:
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