APTOPIX Vatican Pope New Year's Eve
Pope Leo XIV waves after a moment of prayer in front of the nativity scene that adorns St.Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025.
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From Sydney to Paris to New York City, crowds have rung in the new year with exuberant celebrations filled with thunderous fireworks, while others have taken a more subdued approach. A countdown to midnight was projected onto the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and Russians celebrated in snowy Moscow. A light show with somersaulting jet skis twinkled in Dubai and in Japan, temple bells rang. Events were more subdued in Hong Kong, Australia and Indonesia after recent mass shootings or disasters. There was disaster in the Swiss resort town of Crans-Montana, where a fire at a bar in the early hours of the new year was presumed to have killed dozens of people.
