The Year of the Snake dawns: How the world welcomed 2025

Chinese state media covered an exchange of New Year’s greetings between leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a reminder of growing closeness between two leaders who face tensions with the West.

Xi told Putin that their countries will “always move forward hand in hand,” the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.

China’s leader in his annual pre-recorded New Year’s Eve address said the country had “deepened solidarity and cooperation with the global South” while praising the “responsible” role it has played with “the world in turmoil.”

He also addressed Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing. “We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same family. No one can ever sever the bond of kinship between us,” Xi said.

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London was due to ring in the New Year with a pyrotechnic display along the River Thames and a parade through the city centre, but a storm was bringing bitter weather to other parts of the United Kingdom.

Festivities in Edinburgh, Scotland – including the city’s famous Hogmanay Street party – were already cancelled.

In New York City, the organisation managing Times Square tested its famous ball drop ahead of a tradition dating back to 1907. This year’s celebration were due to include musical performances by TLC, Jonas Brothers, Rita Ora, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

Celebrations will echo around the globe as the New Year arrives in different time zones, with American Samoa among the last to welcome 2025 a full 24 hours after New Zealand.