The territory will ring in 2026 without spectacular and colorful explosions in the sky over its iconic Victoria Harbor after a massive fire in November that killed at least 161 people.

The city’s tourism board will instead host a music show Wednesday night featuring soft rock duo Air Supply and other singers in Central, a business district that also is home to the famous nightlife hub Lan Kwai Fong. The facades of eight landmarks will turn into giant countdown clocks presenting a three-minute light show at midnight.

Fireworks have long been part of the city’s celebrations for the New Year, Lunar New Year and National Day. The pyrotechnic displays against Hong Kong’s world-famous skyline of skyscrapers typically draw hundreds of thousands of people including many tourists to both sides of the promenade.
Hotels and restaurants likely affected

Rosanna Law, the territory’s secretary for culture, sports and tourism, acknowledged Tuesday that having no fireworks would affect some hotel and restaurant businesses.

Annie Wang, a tourist from Shanghai, said that although she had planned to watch the fireworks show, she understood the city’s decision because she found news of the blaze heart-wrenching.

“It’s quite regretful. But there’s no way around it after the fire,” said Wang, a university student.

Wang Miao, a teacher from the neighboring economic hub of Guangzhou, planned to join the official countdown activities in Central despite the absence of fireworks. She said it was a pity that she could not see pyrotechnics, but she could understand why.

“It doesn’t affect our experience in Hong Kong,” Wang said.

By early Wednesday evening, crowds of revelers had already gathered near the performance stage in Central, hoping to secure the best views of the musical performance.
Worst fire since the 1940s for Hong Kong

The financial hub’s worst blaze since 1948 broke out at Wang Fuk Court, in the northern suburban district of Tai Po, in late November. The apartment complex was undergoing a monthslong renovation project with buildings covered by bamboo scaffolding and green netting.

Authorities have pointed to the substandard netting and foam boards installed on windows as contributing factors in the fire’s rapid spread. Thousands of affected residents have moved to transitional homes, hotels and youth hostels, struggling to recover from the loss of lives and homes that took them years to buy. The casualties pained many residents across the city.

Past tragedies in Hong Kong have forced similar cancellations of fireworks. They include the 2013 National Day festivities following a vessel collision that killed 39 people on Oct. 1, 2012, and the 2018 Lunar New Year celebration after a bus crash that left 19 dead. During the 2019 anti-government protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple displays also were scrapped.

The origin of fireworks is believed to date to China in the second century B.C., when someone discovered bamboo stalks exploded with loud bangs when thrown into fire, creating the first natural “firecrackers,” according to the American Pyrotechnics Association, a U.S. trade group.

The Guinness World Records organization says the first accurately documented firework, the Chinese firecracker, was created by Li Tian, a monk from China’s Tang dynasty dating to around 618 to 907 C.E. Li discovered that putting gunpowder in enclosed hollow bamboo stems created loud explosions and bound crackers together to create the traditional New Year firecrackers to drive out evil spirits, Guinness said.

Kanis Leung, The Associated Press

#MOSCOW, December 31. National security advisers from Ukraine and the countries of the "coalition of the willing" will meet in Kiev on January 3 and a leaders’ meeting is planned to be held in France on January 6, Vladimir Zelensky said.

"[Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council secretary] Rustem Umerov has just reported that an agreement has been reached with national security advisers form the countries of the coalition of the willing to hold a meeting in the near future. We plan that it will take place in Ukraine on January 3. Shortly after, we will talk at the level of leaders - we need meetings. We plan to meet in France on January 6," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

He thanked US President Donald Trump for his readiness to take part in all effective formats. "Our teams spoke today and we discussed with Rustem further steps and priorities at talks," he added.

Trump received Zelensky on December 28 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. After more than two hours of bilateral talks, Zelensky said that the US and Ukrainian negotiating teams would meet next week to finalized all issues that had been discussed. He also said that Trump’s meeting with the Ukrainian delegation and European leaders was planned for January.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told TASS earlier that the major obstacle for peace in Ukraine is now the European Union. According to the top Russian diplomat, Brussels makes no secret of its plans to prepare for a war against Russia.

#China flexes blockade capabilities near Taiwan on second day of military drills.


Taiwanese officials said some of China’s live rounds landed closer to the island than before.

The maneuvers increased tension around the Taiwan Strait as 2025 drew to a close, but the impact extended beyond military pressure into everyday life. Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration was notified that seven temporary “dangerous zones” had been set up around the strait. The schedules of Taiwan’s four international airports on Tuesday afternoon showed over 150 international and domestic flights had revised times, delays or cancellations.

Xinhua, China’s official news agency, posted a commentary late Monday saying the drills sent an unequivocal message: That Beijing is always ready to prevent anything that tries to split Taiwan from China. Each escalation, it said, would be met with stronger countermeasures.

“By currying favor with the United States through obsequious loyalty gestures and promoting arms purchases, the DPP is binding the entire island of Taiwan to its catastrophic secessionist chariot, disregarding public opinion,” it wrote, referring to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command sent destroyers, frigates, fighters and bombers to the waters to the north and south of the island to test its ability in sea-air coordination and blockading. Its ground forces carried out long-range, live-fire drills in the waters to the island’s north. They also organized live-fire training alongside simulated long-range joint strike with air, navy and missiles units, in the waters to Taiwan’s south, achieving what command spokesperson Li Xi called “desired effects.”

Hsieh Jih-sheng, deputy chief of the general staff for intelligence at the Taiwanese Defense Ministry, said some of the 27 rockets detected in the waters near Taiwan fell within its 24-nautical-mile (44-kilometer) line. “The landing points of rounds definitely were closer to Taiwan compared to the past,” he said. “This is a message it deliberately wants to convey.”
Aircraft, vessels and a Chinese balloon detected

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said Tuesday his territory would act responsibly by neither escalating conflict nor provoking disputes. He condemned the drills.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had detected 130 aircraft, including fighters and bombers, 14 military ships and eight other official ships around the island between 6 a.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday. Its forces kept monitoring and deployed aircraft, navy ships and coastal missile systems in response. Ninety of the Chinese aircraft crossed the median line of the strait. A Chinese military balloon was also spotted, it said.

The ministry later said it detected 71 aircraft, 13 military ships and 15 coastal guard and official vessels as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, in addition to four other warships in the western Pacific. A total of 941 flights were affected by the drills, it said.

“The military power is not necessarily the strongest, but the scale of the drills has become larger each time compared to the last,” Hsieh said. He accused Chinese forces of trying to influence public morale and undermine trust in the Taiwanese military and government.

China has vowed to seize the island, by force if necessary. Beijing sends warplanes and navy vessels toward the island on a near-daily basis.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said the drills served as a stern warning to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces and external forces, without naming any countries.

He criticized Lai ‘s administration for what it called pandering to external forces and pursuing independence, saying that was the root cause of disrupting the status quo in the strait and escalating tensions.

Last week, Beijing imposed sanctions against 20 defense-related U.S. companies and 10 executives, following a Washington announcement of large-scale arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion.

Under U.S. law, Washington is obligated to assist Taipei with its defense, a point that has become increasingly contentious with China over the years.
Beijing slams Japan

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that while he was not informed of the military exercise in advance, neither was he particularly worried about it. He touted his “great relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping and suggested he didn’t think Xi was going to attack Taiwan.

The Taiwan issue also heightened China-Japan tensions. Beijing has expressed anger at a statement by Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, saying its military could get involved if China takes action against the democratically ruled island. There remains widespread overall suspicion in China about Japan that goes back generations to when imperial Japan brutally took over parts of China in the years before World War II.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi slammed both Japan and Taiwan’s “pro-independence forces.”

“Japan, which launched the war of aggression against China, not only fails to deeply reflect on the numerous crimes it committed, but its current leaders also openly challenge China’s territorial sovereignty, the historical conclusions of World War II, and the post-war international order,” he said Tuesday during an event in Beijing. China, Wang added, “must be highly vigilant against the resurgence of Japanese militarism.”

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since 1949, when the Communist Party rose to power in Beijing following a civil war. Defeated Nationalist Party forces fled to Taiwan, which later transitioned from martial law to multiparty democracy.

Stoking the tensions, China’s Eastern Theater Command posted a series of online images and videos carrying provocative language throughout the exercises. It posted a video of live rounds being fired from ships and a ground-based launcher on Tuesday.

Chen Wen-chin, chairman of the Keelung District Fishermen’s Association in Taiwan, said the group started radio broadcasting every hour from Monday to inform fishermen about where China’s exercises took place, urging them to avoid danger.

“The Chinese military exercises have prevented fishermen from fishing, which is their livelihood,” Chen said. “The inability to fish has had a significant impact on them and caused economic losses.”

Johnson Lai And Kanis Leung, The Associated Press

Leung reported from Hong Kong. Associated Press journalists Taijing Wu in Taiwan and Simina Mistreanu in Beijing contributed to this report.

#Russia’s nuclear-capable Oreshnik missiles have entered active service, #Moscow says.


The ministry released a video showing combat vehicles that are part of the mobile intermediate range ballistic missile system driving across a forest as part of combat training. The ministry’s announcement followed a statement from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who said earlier this month that the Oreshnik had arrived in the country. Lukashenko said that up to 10 such missile systems will be stationed in Belarus.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that the Oreshnik would enter combat duty before the year’s end. He made the statement at a meeting with top Russian military officers, where he warned that Moscow will seek to extend its gains in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies reject the Kremlin’s demands in peace talks.

The announcement comes at a critical time for Russia-Ukraine peace talks. U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort Sunday and insisted that Kyiv and Moscow were “closer than ever before” to a peace settlement.

However, Moscow and Kyiv remain deeply divided on key issues, including whose forces withdraw from where in Ukraine and the fate of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 biggest in the world. Trump noted that the monthslong U.S.-led negotiations could still collapse.

Putin has sought to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength as Ukrainian forces strain to keep back the bigger Russian army.

Russia first tested a conventionally armed version of the Oreshnik — Russian for hazelnut tree — to strike a Ukrainian factory in November 2024. Putin has bragged that Oreshnik’s multiple warheads plunge at speeds of up to Mach 10 and can’t be intercepted, and that several of them used in a conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack.

The Russian leader has warned the West that Russia could use the Oreshnik next against allies of Kyiv that allowed it to strike inside Russia with their longer-range missiles.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the Oreshnik has a range of up to 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles).

Russian state media boasted that it would take the missile only 11 minutes to reach an air base in Poland and 17 minutes to reach NATO headquarters in Brussels. There’s no way to know whether it’s carrying a nuclear or a conventional warhead before it hits the target.

Intermediate-range missiles can fly between 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles). Such weapons were banned under a Soviet-era treaty that Washington and Moscow abandoned in 2019.

Russia previously has deployed tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of its Belarus, whose territory it used to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Lukashenko has said that his country has several dozen Russian tactical nuclear weapons.

While signing a security pact with Lukashenko in December 2024, Putin said that even with Russia controlling the Oreshniks, Moscow would allow Minsk to select the targets. He noted that if the missiles are used against targets closer to Belarus, they could carry a significantly heavier payload.

In 2024, the Kremlin released a revised nuclear doctrine, noting that any nation’s conventional attack on Russia that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country. The threat was clearly aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

The revised Russian doctrine also placed Belarus under the Russian nuclear umbrella.

Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades. His government has been repeatedly sanctioned by the West for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory for the invasion of Ukraine. Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has said that the deployment of Oreshnik to Belarus deepens the country’s military and political dependence on Russia.

The Associated Press

#Zelensky will have to hide for rest of life, Medvedev predicts "The stinking Kiev bastard is trying to derail the settlement of the conflict", Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman said.


#MOSCOW, December 30. Vladimir Zelensky will have to hide for the rest of his life following Ukraine's drone attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said.

"The stinking Kiev bastard is trying to derail the settlement of the conflict. He wants war. Well, now at least he’ll have to stay in hiding for the rest of his worthless life," he wrote on the X social media platform.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Monday that on the night of December 28-29, Ukraine had launched a terrorist attack on the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Novgorod Region, launching 91 unmanned aerial vehicles. All drones were destroyed by air defenses; there were no reports of casualties or damage, Lavrov noted.

According to Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov, Putin had pointed out in a phone call with US leader Donald Trump that the attack had taken place "in fact, right after" US-Ukraine talks in Florida, and warned that the terrorist actions would not remain unanswered.

#Trump told reporters later that he was "angry" about the attack and added that such moves could not facilitate peace talks.

Trump indicates the U.S. ‘hit’ a facility that he tied to alleged drug boats

#Hamas says its longtime spokesman was killed following an Israeli strike in August

#Mexican authorities said on Sunday that at least 13 people were killed after an Interoceanic Train carrying 250 people derailed in the southern state of Oaxaca.

North Korea test-fires long-range cruise missiles: state media, Leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the drill -- staged Sunday over the Yellow Sea to the west of the Korean peninsula -- and called for “unlimited and sustained” development of his nuclear weapons forces, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

The goal of the exercise was to review the “counter-offensive response posture and combat capability of long-range missile sub-units,” KCNA said.

The missiles flew for more than two hours, KCNA said.

State media shared photos of the missiles being fired and hitting a target.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired Sunday at 8 am (2300 GMT Saturday) from the Sunan area near the capital Pyongyang.

The North Korean leader vowed that Pyongyang “would as ever devote all their efforts to the unlimited and sustained development of the state nuclear combat force,” KCNA said.

North Korea last staged a ballistic missile test in early November, around a week after US President Donald Trump -- on a tour of the region -- expressed interest in meeting with Kim.

Pyongyang did not respond to the offer.

At that time Trump had just approved South Korean plans to build a nuclear-powered submarine.

Last week Pyongyang showed off a nuclear submarine of its own.

Photos published by KCNA showed Kim walking alongside a purportedly 8,700-tonne submarine at an indoor assembly site, surrounded by officials and his daughter Kim Ju Ae.

Pyongyang would view Seoul developing nuclear subs as “an offensive act severely violating its security and maritime sovereignty”, Kim said, according to KCNA.

North Korea has also significantly increased missile testing in recent years.

Analysts say this drive is aimed at improving precision strike capabilities, challenging the United States as well as South Korea, and testing weapons before potentially exporting them to Russia.

Since Kim’s 2019 summit with Trump collapsed over the scope of denuclearisation and sanctions relief, Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state.

Kim has also been emboldened by deepening ties with Russia, securing critical support from Moscow after sending thousands of troops to fight alongside its forces.

#Trump reports a ‘very productive call’ with Putin before engaging with #Zelenskyy in Florida.

Trump said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir #Putin on Sunday in advance of the meeting. “I just had a good and very productive telephone call with President Putin,” he posted on Truth Social. The Kremlin confirmed the call without giving details.

Trump and Zelenskyy will meet at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, where the U.S. president is spending the holidays. Zelenskyy, who arrived in Miami in the morning, said the two planned to discuss security and economic agreements in their early afternoon meeting. He said he will raise “territorial issues” as Moscow and Kyiv remain fiercely at odds over the fate of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

In overnight developments, three guided aerial bombs launched by Russia struck private homes in the eastern city of Sloviansk, according to the head of the local military administration, Vadym Lakh. Three people were injured and one man died, Lakh said in a post on the Telegram messenger app.

The strike came the day after Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with ballistic missiles and drones on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding 27, a day before planned talks between the leaders of Ukraine and the United States, Ukrainian authorities said. Explosions boomed across Kyiv as the attack began in the early morning and continued for hours.

In advance of his meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy said Sunday that he spoke on the phone with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, filling him in “on the situation on the frontline and on the consequences of Russian strikes.” He posted on X: “Thank you, Keir, for the constant coordination!” Zelenskyy’s office said he will speak by phone with allies after the meeting with Trump.