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World bids goodbye to 2025 with fireworks and icy plunges

In snowy Kyiv and Moscow, both Ukrainians and Russians saw in the New Year, expressing hopes of peace after nearly four years of conflict.

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As Wednesday turned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging 2025 and expressed hopes for the New Year to come, Reuters reported.

Midnight arrived first on the islands closest to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, including Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tonga and New Zealand.

FIREWORKS LIGHT UP SYDNEY

In Australia, Sydney began 2026 with a spectacular fireworks display, as per tradition. Some 40,000 pyrotechnic effects stretched 7 km (over 4 miles) across buildings and barges in its harbour and featured a waterfall effect from the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

This year, it was held under an enhanced police presence, weeks after gunmen killed 15 people at a Jewish event in the city.

Organizers held a minute’s silence at 11 p.m. local time for the victims of the attack, with the Harbour Bridge lit up in white and a menorah – a symbol of Judaism – projected onto its pylons.

“After a tragic end to the year for our city, we hope that New Year’s Eve will provide an opportunity to come together and look with hope for a peaceful and happy 2026,” Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore said ahead of the event.

In Seoul, thousands gathered at the Bosingak bell pavilion, where a bronze bell was struck 33 times at midnight – a tradition rooted in Buddhist cosmology, symbolizing the 33 heavens. The chimes are believed to dispel misfortune and welcome peace and prosperity for the year ahead, read the report.

New Year's celebrations with fireworks display, in Sydney

DRUMS AT THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

An hour to the west, there were celebrations and a drum performance at the Juyong Pass, at the Great Wall of China just outside Beijing. Revellers wore headgear and waved boards emblazoned with “2026” and the symbol of a horse. February will mark the arrival of the Year of the Horse on the Chinese lunar calendar.

In Hong Kong, the annual New Year’s fireworks display was called off after the apartment complex blaze in November that killed 161 people. Instead, a light show with the theme of ‘New hopes, new beginnings’ transformed facades in the Central district.

In Croatia, celebrations got off to an early start. Since 2000, the town of Fuzine has held its countdown at noon, a tradition that has since spread across the country. Crowds cheered, toasted each other with champagne and danced to music – all in the middle of the day. Some brave souls in Santa hats took a plunge into the icy waters of Lake Bajer.

New Year's Eve celebrations in Jakarta

BRAZIL LOOKS TO BREAK RECORD

On Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro – locals welcomed in the New Year in warmer weather with a music and fireworks party known as “Reveillon.” Organizers were hoping to beat their 2024 Guinness World Record for the biggest New Year’s Eve celebration.

Elsewhere, preparations got under way for the more traditional midnight toast. In subzero temperatures in New York, organizers began putting up security barriers and stages ahead of the crowds that will flock to Times Square for the annual ball drop.

Greece’s ancient Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis had a quiet New Year. The mayor of Athens said silent, environmentally friendly fireworks were used, citing distress caused by loud displays to pets, animals and some people.

Rio de Janeiro celebrates New Year's Eve with fireworks

In snowy Kyiv and Moscow, both Ukrainians and Russians saw in the New Year, expressing hopes of peace after nearly four years of conflict, Reuters reported.

“I wish for the war to end, I think that this is the main and most important topic for our country,” said a woman in central Moscow who gave her name only as Larisa and said she had traveled from distant Altai Krai to see the Russian capital in the winter holidays with her family.

Many Ukrainians lamented that peace still seemed a distant prospect.

But wrapped up warm and visiting a Christmas tree set up in front of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, nine-year-old Olesia was more optimistic.

“I think there will be peace in the New Year,” she said.

Fireworks explode over the London Eye Ferris wheel to mark the New Year's celebrations, in London

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Netanyahu says US deal with Iran must dismantle nuclear infrastructure

Netanyahu said he is sceptical of a deal but it must include enriched material leaving Iran.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he told U.S. President Donald Trump last week that any U.S. deal with Iran must include the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, not just stopping the enrichment process, Reuters reported.

Speaking at the annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Netanyahu also said Israel still needs to “complete the job” of destroying all tunnels in Gaza. Israel, he said, has already dismantled 150 km (93 miles) of an estimated 500 km.

A second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran are slated for this week. Iran is pursuing a nuclear agreement with the U.S. that delivers economic benefits for both sides, an Iranian diplomat was reported as saying on Sunday.

Netanyahu said he is sceptical of a deal but it must include enriched material leaving Iran. “There shall be no enrichment capability – not stopping the enrichment process, but dismantling the equipment and the infrastructure that allows you to enrich in the first place,” he said.

Iran and the U.S. renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme and avert a new military confrontation. The U.S. has dispatched a second aircraft carrier to the region and is preparing for the possibility of a sustained military campaign if the talks do not succeed, U.S. officials have told Reuters.

Netanyahu also said that he aimed to end U.S. military aid to Israel within the next 10 years, after the current 10-year deal of receiving $3.8 billion a year – which is largely spent in the United States on equipment – ends in 2028.

Due to a thriving economy, “we can afford to phase out the financial component of the military aid that we’re receiving, and I propose a 10-year draw down to zero. Now, in the three years that remain in the present memorandum of understanding and another seven years draw it down to zero,” Netanyahu said.

“We want to move with the United States from aid to partnership,” he said.

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Courts rule thousands of ICE detentions unlawful under Trump crackdown

Despite the rulings, ICE has continued holding people for prolonged periods, sometimes even after judges ordered their release.

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U.S. federal judges have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unlawfully detained immigrants under the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement, according to a review of court records by Reuters.

The rulings represent a broad legal rebuke of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Courts have repeatedly found that the administration abandoned a decades-old interpretation of federal law that allowed many immigrants already living in the U.S. to seek release on bond while their cases proceed.

Despite the rulings, ICE has continued holding people for prolonged periods, sometimes even after judges ordered their release.

Detention levels have surged to about 68,000 people, a roughly 75 percent increase from when Trump returned to office. The White House says it is acting within the law to fulfill the president’s mandate on immigration enforcement.

While a conservative federal appeals court in New Orleans recently sided with the administration in one case, most lower courts have rejected its position. In at least 4,421 cases, more than 400 federal judges ruled that ICE violated the law by denying detainees bond hearings or holding them without proper authority.

With limited alternatives, detained immigrants have filed over 20,200 lawsuits since Trump took office, seeking release from what they argue is unlawful detention. Judges in several states have found that the government failed to comply with court orders, leaving people jailed even after judges ruled in their favor.

Legal experts say the flood of cases has strained the Justice Department, forcing prosecutors to divert resources from criminal cases to defend immigration detentions.

While the Reuters analysis does not break down cases by nationality, Afghan immigrants have also been affected.

Advocacy groups and immigration lawyers have reported that some Afghans have been detained during routine ICE check-ins or traffic stops, despite having no criminal records and active immigration cases.

Like other detainees, Afghan nationals may be denied bond hearings under the administration’s stricter interpretation of detention laws, forcing them to file habeas petitions in federal court.

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Dubai’s DP World boss removed from post after pressure over Epstein

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Dubai port giant DP World said on Friday its chairman and chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem had resigned, an announcement that followed mounting pressure over his alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Bin Sulayem, one of the Middle East’s most prominent business figures, is among the highest-profile executives to face scrutiny and be removed from senior roles following the recent release of the Epstein files, Reuters reported.

Dubai’s ruler on Friday also issued a decree appointing a new chairman for Dubai’s Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, one of several roles previously held by Bin Sulayem.

Members of the U.S. Congress said Bin Sulayem’s name appeared in documents published by the U.S. Department of Justice, prompting renewed questions over his past interactions with Epstein, a convicted sex offender. Reuters was not able to independently verify the allegations in the files.

MOUNTING PRESSURE

Pressure had been building on the Emirati logistics firm after two organisations, the UK development finance agency and Canada’s second-largest pension fund, said this week they would suspend all new investment with DP World over Bin Sulayem’s alleged Epstein ties.

On Friday the UK agency, British International Investment, welcomed DP World’s decision and said it looked forward to continuing “our partnership to advance the development of key African trading ports”.

Canada’s La Caisse said in a statement that “the company took the appropriate measures”. It said it would “move quickly to work with DP World’s new leadership to continue our partnership on port projects around the world”.

DP World appointed Essa Kazim as chairman of its board of directors and Yuvraj Narayan as group chief executive officer, Dubai Media Office reported earlier.

Kazim currently serves as governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre, while Narayan, who joined DP World in 2004 and most recently served as deputy CEO, has held several senior roles in the company.

GLOBAL FALLOUT FROM EPSTEIN FILES

The resignation of Bin Sulayem follows the departure of other prominent figures in business and politics from top jobs across the globe as the fallout from the files expands.

Goldman Sachs (GS.N), opens new tab general counsel Kathy Ruemmler said she will resign this summer over the ties, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, while at least three members of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration stepped down after the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the U.S. threw the government into crisis.

The Epstein files, among millions published by the U.S. Department of Justice, suggest a close relationship with Bin Sulayem for more than a decade after Epstein’s conviction in 2008 on prostitution charges involving an underage girl.

The documents include emails and text messages that appear to show discussions between Epstein and Bin Sulayem about business, conversations about sex and plans to visit Epstein’s Caribbean island.

The documents show the late disgraced financier’s web of relationships with prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business. Being named in the files is not evidence of criminal activity.

Epstein was found dead in a New York jail cell where he was being held on sex-trafficking charges in August 2019. His death was ruled as suicide by hanging.

PROMINENT FIGURE IN BUSINESS HUB DUBAI

Bin Sulayem, a prominent figure in Dubai and the wider Middle East, was one of the names behind the emirate’s growth into the region’s business and tourism hub.

Some of his ventures included establishing Nakheel, the real estate developer behind Dubai’s famous palm-shaped islands, as well as contributing to the creation of commodities exchange DMCC.

A frequent speaker at the World Economic Forum and other global business gatherings, he most notably oversaw DP World’s transformation into one of the world’s largest port and logistics operators.

The company says it handles around 10% of global container traffic with operations spanning countries including Canada, Peru, India and Angola.

DP World also sponsors a leading professional golf tour in Europe and has been a logistics partner for McLaren’s Formula 1 racing team since 2023.

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