New Year's Eve live: World ushers in 2025

All 50 US states have now entered 2025 — and with them, the vast majority of the world. 

Clocks ticked over to midnight a few moments ago in Hawaii, with social media users on the Pacific island already sharing images of fireworks-based celebrations. 

With this, we shall conclude our New Year's Eve updates and wish you and yours all the very best for 2025.

San Francisco's skyline was lit up by the city's annual firework show on the US West Coast. 

But in the westernmost state of the US, it is still 2024, just.

Hawaii's clocks will tick over to midnight at the top of the coming hour. 

That's still not (quite) the end of the festivities.  

The islands of American Samoa and Niue in the South Pacific follow another hour later. Strictly speaking, two more US territories, Baker Island and Howland Island follow an hour after that — but both are uninhabited.

Germany will hold new federal elections in February 2025. But regardless of who leads the next government, foreign policy will remain challenging.

Read here to find out more.

Here's a look at how people in Kolkata, India, rang in the new year:

Much of Puerto Rico plunged into darkness on New Year's Eve after a major power outage hit the US island territory. 

Luma Energy, which manages the Caribbean Island's power transmission, said the "island-wide blackout" began on Tuesday at 5:30 a.m. local time (0930 UTC). 

The power company said that preliminary findings indicate a fault in an underground cable as the reason behind the blackout. But a probe to determine the cause of the power cut was still underway.

Jose Perez, director of external affairs at Luma, said in a statement to the AFP news agency that the fault "caused a cascade effect" leading to the outage. 

"We have already begun the restoration process for some customers, and the entire process will take 24 to 48 hours," Luma said. 

The company later said that electricity had been restored for some critical facilities, including a medical center and hospital in the capital, San Juan. 

Luma's emergency response dashboard showed that services had been restored to about 69% of the affected customers by 3:00 a.m. (0700 UTC) Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden was briefed on the blackout, the White House said. 

Donald Trump returns to the White House in the new year while Germany holds a crucial election. 

Here's a look at the year ahead. 
 

The year 2024 was busy and transformative for much of Africa. DW recaps the year that shaped the continent.

From wars to elections — DW takes a look at some of the most defining moments of 2024:

Rio De Janeiro hosted Brazil’s main New Year’s Eve celebration on the famous Copacabana Beach. 

Barges shot off 12 straight minutes of fireworks as thousands of tourists on cruise ships witnessed the jamboree. 

Brazilian music greats Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethania and Ivete Sangalo held concerts. The country's biggest pop star, Anitta, was slated to take the stage after the fireworks. 

Tens of thousands of people in New York's Times Square cheered as they were showered with confetti marking the arrival of New Year's Day at midnight.

As the sparkling purple ball dropped heralding the coming of 2025, people in the New York City square and up and down the US East Coast hugged and kissed, exchanging hope and optimism for the year ahead.

A man drove into two New Zealand police officers as they patrolled on foot during the early hours of New Year's Day.

One officer was killed, and another seriously injured another, the country's police chief said.

A 32-year-old man was arrested and charged over the incident shortly after it happened at around 02:00 local time (14:00 CET).

The attack happened in a downtown area of the South Island city of Nelson, close to the street where the city's New Year's Eve celebrations had concluded around an hour prior. 

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said the female officer killed was Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming, who had been on the force for 38 years.

Chambers condemned the "senseless act of an individual who appears to have been determined to cause harm," although he did not suggest a motive.

The suspect will appear in court on Friday.

US President-elect Donald Trump is attending a New Year's Eve Party at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

The black-tie gala was attended by billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, Senator Ted Cruz, and other supporters.

Trump also thought 2025 would be a "great year" and "we're going to do fantastically well as a country."

"There's a whole light over the whole world, not just our country. They're a lot of happy people," Trump said of recent weeks.

Asked about his resolutions for the new year, Trump said, "I just want everybody to be happy, healthy and well."

Trump later took the stage to briefly address the crowd ringing in the new year at Mar-a-Lago and promised "to do a great job as your president."

In a New Year's message, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said 2025 brings "new hope and determination to deliver."

"From economic strength to security, defense and global partnerships, my team and I are ready to roll up our sleeves to work for stronger Europe, at home and abroad," she promised on social media. 

DW's Bernd Riegert wrote the new EU leadership in Brussels will have a lot on its plate in 2025. It will need to confront the challenges without a strong Franco-German alliance.

Read more: What lies ahead for the EU in 2025?