BANGKOK — Bangkok’s governor said Monday that on-again-off-again plans to build a concrete promenade along the Chao Phraya River will likely be discontinued.
City Hall said it is still unable to find a contractor to build the boardwalks between the Rama VII Bridge to the Dusit district and Bang Phlat canal that were green-lit several months ago as bidding hasn’t been approved, adding that the government could backtrack on the plan due to widespread public disapproval as elections are approaching.
Gov. Aswin Kwanmuang said his administration is ready to return all funds already allocated for the project if the plan is dropped.
Aswin said all related agencies will decide in March whether the plan will move forward. He added that a recent public survey found about 70 percent of respondents disapproved of the construction.
“If people don’t agree and speak out against the project, City Hall won’t carry it out,” he said.
Yossapon Boonsom, a leading activist among those opposing the project, could not be reached as of publication time. His network filed a lawsuit against the government and City Hall in November over the promenade project that has been criticized for its potential environmental harm, poor aesthetics and lack of community consultation.
Photo: Lauren Ludwig via Jai Thep Festival / Facebook
CHIANG MAI — A London hip-hop duo and Norwegian DJ will headline an art and music festival in the north, according to an announcement today.
The Jai Thep Festival will return for a fourth year next month and run three days with a focus on art and a full musical lineupannounced Wednesday.
The highlights are Bangkok-based indie trio Yellow Fang, Norwegian folk-electronic DJ Crussen, who performed last month at the Wonderfruit Festival, and a rap and hip-hop duo from London called Too Many T’s.
Nearly 100 musical acts include up-and-coming rockers The Whitest Crow, who opened for Liam Gallagher last year, will also perform, as well as bluegrass-folk-reggae band Sanim Yok.
General tickets for three days are currently 2,200 baht and 900 baht for one day. They areavailable online. Ticket prices do not include a tent on the camping grounds.
The Jai Thep Festival will run Feb. 1-3 at the Lanna Rock Garden. It is located in Chiang Mai’s Hang Dong district, about 20 minutes from Chiang Mai city. Transportation will be available between the festival and several points in Chiang Mai, with more details announced at a later date.
Inspired by Glastonbury and Coachella, the Jai Thep Festival took place for the first time in 2016 as a one-day music and art festival. It expanded to a three-day event last year.
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali in a scene from 'Green Book.' Photo: Universal Pictures via Associated Press
If there is a big studio movie that’s more generally crowd-pleasing than ”Green Book ” this season, I have yet to find it. In this landscape of challenging, provocative, edgy films, Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali and, of all people, director Peter Farrelly have come along with a movie about friendship that goes down so easy that it’s almost suspect, as though it were flung out of 1996 and gifted to our weary 2018 brains.
Based on a true story, “Green Book” recounts a 1962 road trip when a Bronx bred Italian-American Frank Anthony Vallelonga, also known as Tony Lip (Mortensen), was hired to drive a renowned black pianist, Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), to all of his concert engagements across the Deep South.
The two men are obviously mismatched — what would anyone have to learn if they weren’t? Tony is a working-class bruiser and world class eater with a wife (Linda Cardellini), two sons, a limited vocabulary, institutional racism, but a generally good heart. Dr. Shirley is a wealthy, erudite dandy, a master of his art, a snob and a loner. He also knows he needs reliable protection on this journey to a segregated south, asks around and finds this Copacabana bouncer Tony Lip is the one for the job despite the prejudices.
The constructs will feel familiar and well-worn and surprises are few on this journey toward acceptance and friendship, but the pleasure of this film is in the larger than life characters created by the two leads and their perfectly askew chemistry. Mortensen is almost unrecognizable as Tony, packing extra pounds and an astute comedic sensibility. He knows just how far to push his caricature without making it cartoonish. When Dr. Shirley says to make sure that there’s a Steinway piano at every concert venue, Tony scribbles down “STAINWAY” on a sheet of paper. His doltishness is endearing, not annoying.
And Ali, so memorable and heart-wrenching in “Moonlight,” puts his own stamp on a character who feels alienated from his own race and those he’s performing for. Although a considerably more staid role than Tony, Ali also manages to have his own fun with Dr. Shirley’s seemingly incurable snobbery, wincing at Tony’s lack of decorum, or care.
In fact, this film allows everyone to play against their Hollywood-prescribed “type,” from the actors to the director, who is perhaps the most surprising revelation of them all.
The Farrelly name conjures up a very specific kind of movie: The big, bawdy comedy that he and his brother made their own and, later, failed to keep fresh. If anything, the charm and success of “Green Book” makes a heck of a case for giving directors more room to work outside of the genres or styles that they became famous for.
There is certainly a more serious story to be told out of this road trip, and about Dr. Shirley’s extraordinary life. “Green Book,” taken from the title of the guide Tony has to use to find the establishments and hotels where people of color are welcome at throughout the South, scratches at the surface of the horrors and indignities Dr. Shirley faced while being a “guest of honor.” Those range from being asked to use an outdoor toilet to being denied the right to dine in the place he’s about to perform. This film chooses a different route, and is in turn funny, heart-warming, illuminating and a joy to watch.
“Green Book,” a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “thematic content, language including racial epithets, smoking, some violence and suggestive material.” Running time: 130 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
The feel-good road-trip drama was named the best film of the year, and its star Mortensen best actor by the National Board of Review in one of the first in a parade of awards season honors.
BANGKOK — Disaster officials were holding emergency meetings Wednesday to prepare for a newly upgraded tropical storm that is bearing down on the south of Thailand.
The storm, now called Pabuk and moving west at 10kph from the South China Sea into the Gulf of Thailand with gusts of up to 65kph, is likely to be the most devastating one to hit the region since 1962, a meteorologist said today. It’s set to make landfall Thursday at the southern tip of Thailand and then careen all the way north, according to Seree Supratid of the Climate Change and Disaster Center at Rangsit University.
“It will sweep up the whole south beginning from Narathiwat and Pattani. On Friday, it will move up to Songkhla, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Surat Thani. Then on Saturday, it will go to Chumphon and [Prachuap Khiri Khan],” he said.
Although Pabuk is less powerful than Typhoon Gay, which devastated Chumphon and Prachuap in 1989, Seree said it could cause more damage than a tropical storm that ravaged 12 southern provinces in 1962.
“The direction is different. This one will sweep through wider areas,” he said. “The damage could be greater than Harriet. Rainfall is expected to be up to 200 millimeters per day.”
More than 900 people died when Harriet cut straight across Nakhon Si Thammarat through Krabi, Phuket and Phang Nga. It went out to the Andaman Sea the following day.
On Tuesday, the state petrochemical company PTT announced it had evacuated some staff from a drilling platform off the coast of Songkhla and suspended other offshore operations.
Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park welcomes Christmas and New Year with special festive menus that are sure to heighten the season’s joy, as well as hamper selections packed with delicious goodies to entice and to wish your loved ones well, available throughout the festive season from now until January 31, 2019.
To welcome the coming festive joy, Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park is presenting an extensive selection of delicious goodies and festive menus that are the heart of Christmas and New Year celebration. Enjoy the hassle-free festive season where you don’t need to toil away in the kitchen to cook up the perfect Christmas feast as Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park is serving Christmas lunch and dinner for your convenience and enjoyment.
Whether it’s a celebration for your loved ones, families or friends, your Christmas feast is made perfect with the selection of two sets. One is the traditional turkey set at THB 6,900 ++ with 6-kilogram roasted bird served with casserole, green beans, mashed sweet potato, gravy and cranberry sauce. Another is the prime beef set, THB 9,160 ++, with 120-day aged Australian grain-fed prime ribs served alongside red wine gravy, German-style potato salad and Japanese pumpkin. Each set is sealed in insulated bag to keep the food warm and fresh until they arrive at your dinner table.
There are also pastries and baked goods to go with the Christmas celebration. The all-time favorite log cakes come in varieties of chocolate truffle, mango and coconut, raspberry and white chocolate as well as ginger bread and baked prune mousse. Traditional cakes and puddings can also be had, such as the classic plum pudding, English-style spiced fruitcake with candied figs and pear, French-style ginger bread cake, cinnamon pie with fruits, stollen with rum and pecan pie, panettone with candied lemon and resins. Other goodies include ginger bread, sweets, cookies and assorted chocolate to complete your festive feast.
During the season of joy, Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park also offers a selection of gift hamper to express well-wishing to your loved ones. The limited festive hamper is packed to the brim with festive goodies such as Christmas cakes, jam, fine teas, ginger bread, Christmas cookies, candy canes and dried fruits, available at THB 6,268++ and is an ideal gift for families, friends and colleagues.
For a alternative option, Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park has a healthy festive hamper to gift away during Christmas and New Year. The hamper includes dried fruits, honey, caramel candies, chocolate coated mango, herbal tea and many more at THB 2,168++. You can also customize your festive hamper with festive items on our list. Our staff with artistic eyes will make sure your hamper is put together nicely and beautifully to appeal to the gift receivers.
Festive menus and finely selected hampers are available at Siam Tea Room, lobby level, at Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park from November 25, 2018 to January 31, 2019 from 07.00-23.00 hrs. For advanced order and more information, please
The largest hotel in Bangkok and the first Marriott Marquis hotel in Asia Pacific, Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park is a new landmark in heart of the Thai capital. The hotel offers extensive facilities, including more than 1,388 rooms and suites, over 5,000m² of function space across 37 venues, two swimming pools, the Quan Spa and a collection of restaurants and bars. Centrally located on Sukhumvit Road, in Bangkok’s vibrant business and entertainment district, the hotel is the perfect choice for all travelers to this pulsating city.
This June 26, 2018 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows lava flows from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. Photo: DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via AP
From Russian war games to lava flows on Hawaii to raging fires in California, images gathered from high above Earth by satellites in 2018 delivered a unique perspective on humanity, geopolitics, and the forces of nature that have upended lives and landscape.
Here’s a look at eight of the most striking news images captured by satellite imagery company DigitalGlobe — and photos made by Associated Press photographers who were on the ground:
BACK TO DANANG
In a message to China, the American aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson docked at Danang bay in Vietnam on March 5. In the first visit to a Vietnamese port by a US Navy aircraft carrier since the Vietnam War, the Vinson and its crew of more than 6,000 sent a signal from the two countries to China, which has stepped up its challenges to U.S. supremacy in the region. From space, the message was clear in the dozens of fighter jets on deck.
This March 6, 2018 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows The USS Carl Vinson off the coast of Danang, Vietnam. Photo: DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via Associated Press
MARCH FOR OUR LIVES
When survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, called for action, hundreds of thousands marched in cities across America on March 24. The “March for Our Lives” rallies demonstrated a new level of activism for the majority of Americans who want stricter gun control laws. The satellites showed the scale of the activism in the biggest of the demonstrations at the nation’s capital.
This March 24, 2018 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows crowds at the “March for Our Lives” demonstration in Washington. Photo: DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via Associated Press
LAVA AND ASH
The eruption of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii on May 3 wrecked more than 700 homes while captivating the world with its destructive force. Using infrared technology, a satellite captured the range of heat from a river of lava in vivid colors on May 13. At a safe distance from the eruption, life — even golf — went on in Hawaii.
FILE – In this Monday, May 21, 2018 file photo, Doug Ralston plays golf in Volcano, Hawaii, as a huge ash plume rises from the summit of Kiluaea volcano. Lava pouring into the sea sets off a chemical reaction that creates giant clouds of acid and fine glass. Photo: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press
KERALA UNDER WATER
Storms in August battered the southern Indian state of Kerala. The flooding killed hundreds and left hundreds of thousands homeless. A satellite image on Aug. 22 revealed how the landscape had been turned into a temporary lake, while AP journalists on the ground captured the human toll, including a man in a canoe with his dog and rowing past a tree from which a bicycle hung above the flood waters.
This Aug. 22, 2018 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows flooded fields and villages in Kerala, India. Photo: DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via Associated Press
RUSSIAN SHOW OF MIGHT
In September, Russia put on its biggest show of force since the height of the Cold War. Russian officials said the military exercises in Siberia and the Far East, involved 300,000 Russian troops, 1,000 aircraft and 36,000 tanks. But for Western analysts the biggest message was the participation of Chinese troops in joint military exercises. Digital Globe satellites captured some of the drama as parachutes dropped military equipment on Sept. 15.
This Sept. 13, 2018 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows an airborne paradrop during the Vostok military exercises in the Eastern Siberia area of Russia. Photo: DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via Associated Press
NORTH CAROLINA DROWNING
In mid-September, Hurricane Florence dumped over 30 inches (0.76 meters) of rain in parts of eastern North Carolina. More than a dozen people were killed in the storm and floods. The view from space reveals the inundation.
This Sept 20, 2018 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows roads, farms and homes flooded from Hurricane Florence, northeast of Wallace, North Carolina. Photo: DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via Associated Press
A CITY SWATH, LIQUIFIED
A massive earthquake wiped out whole neighborhoods of the Indonesian city of Palau on Sept. 28 when 430 hectares (1.7 square miles) of land were liquefied into deadly mudslides. It was clear from above how vast the destruction was and from the ground how complete.
This Oct. 1, 2018 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia after tsunami struck the area. Photo: DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via Associated PressFILE – In this Oct. 6, 2018 file photo, a soldier stands near a toppled mosque as recovery efforts continue at the earthquake-hit Balaroa neighborhood in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo: Aaron Favila / Associated Press
PARADISE IN FLAMES
The deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century sparked off in Northern California in November killing dozens and causing billions of dollars of damage. The satellites showed the complete destruction of the town of Paradise, CA, where 27,000 people had lived. An AP photo at ground-level showed the toll of the destruction.
FILE – In this Friday, Nov. 16, 2018 file photo, a firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire in Paradise, California. Photo: John Locher / Associated Press
BANGKOK — Southern Thailand is expected to be hit directly by a tropical storm for the first time in 56 years later this week, officials said Tuesday.
The Meteorological Department said the tropical depression Thirtysix will affect the south Wednesday to Saturday after reaching the Gulf of Thailand tomorrow. The Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute said it’s likely to strengthen into a tropical storm as it crosses over the mainland and into the Andaman Sea starting Thursday.
According to the institute, the South was last directly hit by this same type of tropical storm in 1962 when Harriet made landfall at Laem Talumphuk in Nakhon Si Thammarat before going on to devastate 12 provinces and kill more than 900 people.
In 1989 the upper south was hit by the much more powerful Typhoon Gay, which killed more than 400 people after it swept through Chumphon and Prachuap Khiri Khan with gusts of up to 185kph.
The storm might cause sea waves to reach over 5 meters, and all disaster agencies have been advised to prepare.
Forecasters at the UN’s Global Disaster Alerting and Coordinating System said the tropical depression already became a tropical storm this morning and winds will peak at 83kph on Thursday.
The storm is expected to affect up to 5.3 million people in Thailand and Myanmar.
Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that although Thirtysix would become the first tropical storm to hit southern Thailand since Harriet in 1962, a more powerful typhoon made landfall in 1989.
In this undated image from video distributed on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, by North Korean broadcaster KRT, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech in North Korea. Photo: KRT via Associated Press
TOKYO — Looking almost banker-like in a business suit and sitting in an upholstered leather armchair, Kim Jong Un gave his annual televised New Year’s address on Tuesday.
The North Korean leader’s big curtain-raiser for 2019 comes after a couple of very tumultuous years. In 2017, his rapid-fire missile tests brought him to the brink with President Donald Trump and 2018 saw his sudden rise on the world stage with hints of detente, summits with China and South Korea and an unprecedented meeting with Trump in Singapore.
What’s ahead in 2019? Here are four big takeaways.
1. IT’S STILL ABOUT THE ECONOMY
About two-thirds of the entire speech was devoted to the economy.
Kim last year jettisoned his signature slogan of “simultaneous tracks” — developing nuclear weapons and the economy at the same time — in favor of claiming to focus everything on the economy, which is now the national buzz phrase.
Kim hasn’t given up on his nuclear weapons, he just says he has perfected the arsenal enough to shift the focus of “socialist construction” elsewhere. Kim also didn’t commit to anything in the speech like the kind of major, structural economic changes that might generate sustainable growth, but which could also undermine his own power.
Even so, he does appear to genuinely want to boost the standard of living of his nation and to grow the country’s economy. He underscored that desire by calling for an increased electricity supply and pointed to the possibility of developing nuclear power, along with the need for modernization and innovation across the board.
Despite repeated mentions during the speech of the North’s cherished principle of “Juche,” or self-reliance, Kim understands his country’s economic realities. He is openly seeking more foreign investment and trade.
And he’s hoping to enlist Seoul’s help in that endeavor.
2. KIM WANTS THE KOREAS TO BE TAKING THE LEAD
Though the attention was on his relationship with Trump, Kim’s biggest moves in 2018 were toward South Korea.
Kim’s pitch has been that it is high time Pyongyang and Seoul were leaders in determining their own fate, which is also a shot at the role of the United States on the peninsula.
Kim’s speech was broadcast simultaneously in South Korea.
Addressing both nations at once, he called on all Koreans to — in his decidedly North Korean manner — to “uphold the slogan “Let’s usher in a heyday of peace, prosperity and reunification of the Korean Peninsula by thoroughly implementing the historic North-South declarations!”
Those declarations include a good deal of joint efforts to help Kim with his economic goals, including the renovation and reconnection of the North’s railways to the South. He said he would support the reopening of an industrial park that relies on South Korean capital investments and a tourism zone on the North’s Mount Kumgang, or Diamond Mountain.
Such efforts can’t go very far until sanctions are lifted. Seoul is a lot more willing to forge ahead than Washington.
Pyongyang is also seeking an end to joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, while Washington is pushing the South to pay more of the cost of keeping its troops there.
The growing Washington-Seoul discord is an added bonus for Kim.
Expect him to keep pushing those buttons.
3. THE NUKES AREN’T GOING ANYWHERE ANYTIME SOON
In the most tantalizing sentence of the speech, Kim hinted at a possible cap on nuclear weapons production if the U.S. takes equivalent steps, whatever that might mean.
He also stood by his commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which, contrary to some wishful thinking in Washington and Seoul, does not mean the unilateral denuclearization of North Korea.
Both areas need to be further clarified in negotiations.
Kim’s calculus has never been to throw away his nuclear arsenal and hope for the best from a newly friendly and supportive administration in Washington. It has from the start been an effort to play the nuclear hand to its greatest advantage.
Kim sees nuclear weapons as a valuable deterrent to a U.S. military strike. Unless that threat is eliminated, he won’t give them up. He also believes his weapons put him in a position of strength from which he can make demands and extract concessions.
The North has been pretty clear about these points. But Kim spelled them out once again.
His message to Trump: Start addressing his concerns about security and sanctions relief soon or he will have no choice but to try a different, less friendly approach. And he is warning that he will be able to make a case to China, Russia and possibly even Seoul that if things fall Washington will be the one to blame.
4. KIM WANTS TO BE SEEN AS HIS OWN MAN
This year’s 30-minute speech was an exercise in making Kim look worldly, firmly in charge and comfortable in his own skin — as opposed to the caricatures of him that are so popular in the West.
Though not a stirring public speaker, Kim confidently delivered the pre-recorded address in a study with dark-wood paneling and the national and ruling party flags.
He was flanked by big portraits of his charismatic grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung, and his father, the late leader Kim Jong Il, who was famously speech-averse and never spoke like this on New Year’s.
That lineage is as important as ever.
But the images beamed to the nation and to the world Tuesday of Kim delivering the speech were engineered to have a freshness to them that is uniquely his — and to leave the impression that Kim Jong Un is his own man, a modern, respectable leader who belongs on the world stage.
He may very well be sharing that stage next with Trump, for their second summit.
A reveler on Tuesday celebrates as confetti falls during a New Year's celebration in New York's Times Square. Photo: Adam Hunger / Associated Press
Fireworks, concerts, spiritual services and political addresses abounded to mark the transition to 2019 as revelers around the globe bid farewell Monday to a year filled with challenges to many of the world’s most basic institutions, including in the realms of politics, trade, alliances and religion.
A look at the world is ushering in 2019:
New York
A drenching rain couldn’t keep crowds from packing Times Square for the traditional crystal ball drop and a string of star performances.
Christina Aguilera pumped up the crowd, performing in a snow-white dress and coat while partygoers danced in their rain ponchos.
Bebe Rexha sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” just before the midnight ball drop.
The celebration took place under tight security. Partygoers were checked for weapons and then herded into pens, ringed by metal barricades, where they waited for the stroke of midnight.
Joey and Claudia Flores, of California, on Tuesday kiss as confetti falls during a New Year’s celebration in New York’s Times Square. Photo: Adam Hunger / Associated Press
But the weather forced police to scrap plans to fly a drone to help keep watch over the crowd.
Revelers paid up to $10 for plastic ponchos trying to stay dry. Umbrellas were banned for security reasons.
Rio de Janeiro
More than 2 million people celebrated the new year on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.
A 14-minute fireworks display ushered Brazil into 2019 only hours before far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro will be sworn in as president.
Many Brazilians were on the road to the capital of Brasilia on Monday night to watch the former army captain’s inauguration Tuesday afternoon.
The last evening of 2018 in Rio was 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius), and many Brazilians took a dip in the water and made their offerings to Yemanja, a sea goddess in the Afro-Brazilian Candomble faith.
London
Britons ushered in the new year with the familiar chimes of Big Ben, even though the world famous clock has been disconnected for more than a year because of a conservation project.
Fireworks on Tuesday explode over the London Eye during the New Year’s eve celebrations after midnight in London. Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth / Associated Press
Parliament announced last week that the clock’s massive bell would sound to mark the new year with the help of a specially built electric mechanism to power the hammer, which weighs about 440 pounds (200 kilograms). The clock mechanism, which has kept time since 1859, has been dismantled as part of the renovation work.
New Year’s Eve without Big Ben would be positively un-British. The comforting chimes are used by TV and radio stations throughout Britain to herald the moment of transition from the old to the new year.
Paris
Parisians and tourists gathered on the Champs-Elysees to celebrate New Year’s Eve under heavy security.
Anti-government protesters from the yellow vest movement have issued calls on social media for “festive” demonstrations on the famous avenue.
Paris police set up a security perimeter in the area, with bag searches, a ban on alcohol and traffic restrictions. The Interior Ministry said Sunday that the heavy security measures are needed because of a “high terrorist threat” and concerns about “non-declared protests.”
President Emmanuel Macron gave his traditional New Year address to briefly lay out his priorities for 2019, as some protesters angry over high taxes and his pro-business policies plan to continue their demonstrations in coming weeks.
Ahead of midnight, a light show with the theme of brotherhood took place on the Arc de Triomphe monument at the top of the Champs-Elysees.
Berlin
Tens of thousands of people celebrated the start of 2019 at Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate.
The annual New Year’s celebrations took place amid tight security, with about 1,300 officers deployed throughout the heart of the German capital and revelers banned from taking fireworks, bottles or large bags into the fenced-off party zone.
By midnight, Berlin police reported fewer incidents than in previous years.
Fireworks on Tuesday light the sky above the Quadriga at the Brandenburg Gate shortly after midnight in Berlin, Germany. Photo: Michael Sohn / Associated Press
Vatican City
Pope Francis has rounded out the most problematic year of his papacy by presiding over a vespers service and praying before the Vatican’s giant sand sculpture Nativity scene.
During his homily Monday, Francis lamented how many people spent 2018 living on the edge of dignity, homeless or forced into modern forms of slavery.
Pope Francis on Monday kisses a statue of Baby Jesus as he celebrates a new year’s eve vespers Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Photo: Andrew Medichini / Associated Press
Accompanied by his chief alms-giver, Francis then walked out into St. Peter’s Square, where he greeted pilgrims and prayed before the Nativity scene, carved out of 720 tons of packed sand.
On Tuesday, Francis will celebrate Mass to mark the start of a new year and officially leave behind 2018, which saw a new eruption of the clergy sex abuse scandal.
United Arab Emirates
Fireworks crackled at Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, as hundreds of thousands of spectators gathered downtown to watch the spectacular display.
The fireworks replaced last year’s somewhat anticlimactic LED lightshow that ran down the facade of the 828-meter-tall (2,716-foot-tall) tower.
Cafes and restaurants with a view of the Burj Khalifa charge a premium for their locale on New Year’s Eve. Casual sandwich chain Pret a Manger, for example, charged $817 for a table of four. That price gets you hot and cold drinks and some canapes. For burgers near the action, fast food chain Five Guys charged $408 per person for unlimited burgers, hotdogs, fries, milkshakes and soda.
Elsewhere in the United Arab Emirates, the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah attempted to set a new Guinness World Record with the longest straight-line display of fireworks reaching 7.35 miles (11.83 kilometers).
Thailand
A worshipper on Monday prays as she takes her turn lying in a coffin at the Takien temple in suburban Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Sakchai lalit / Associated Press
While many celebrate New Year’s Eve with fireworks, hundreds of Thais traveled to Takien Temple in a suburb of Bangkok to lie inside coffins for traditional funeral rituals.
Participants believe the ceremony — symbolizing death and rebirth — helps rid them of bad luck and allows them to be born again for a fresh start in the new year.
They held flowers and incense in their hands as monks covered them with pink sheets and chanted prayers for the dead.
“It wasn’t scary or anything. It is our belief that it will help us get rid of bad luck and bring good fortune to our life,” said Busaba Yookong, who came to the temple with her family.
Philippines
Dozens of people have been injured ahead of New Year’s Eve, when many across the Philippines set off powerful firecrackers in one of Asia’s most violent celebrations despite a government scare campaign and threats of arrests.
The Department of Health said it has recorded more than 50 firecracker injuries in the past 10 days. That is expected to increase as Filipinos usher in 2019.
Filipinos on Monday night cheer during a New Year countdown at the Eastwood Shopping Mall in suburban Quezon city northeast of Manila, Philippines. Photo: Bullit Marquez / Associated Press
Officials have urged centralized fireworks displays to discourage wild and sometimes fatal merrymaking.
The tradition stems from a Chinese-influenced belief that noise drives away evil and misfortune.
Earlier Monday, suspected Muslim militants remotely detonated a bomb near the entrance of a mall in Cotabato as people did last-minute shopping ahead of celebrations. Officials said at least two people were killed and nearly 30 wounded.
China
New Year’s Eve isn’t celebrated widely in mainland China, where the lunar New Year in February is a more important holiday. But countdown events were held in major cities, and some of the faithful headed to Buddhist temples for bell-ringing and prayers.
Beijing held a gala with VIP guests at the main site of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The event looked ahead to the 2022 Winter Games, which also will be held in the Chinese capital.
Performers on Tuesday take selfies at the end of a countdown to the new year event in Beijing, China. Photo: Ng Han Guan / Associated Press
Outdoor revelers in Beijing had to brave temperatures well below freezing.
Additional police were deployed in parts of Shanghai, where a New Year’s Eve stampede in 2014 killed 36 people.
In Hong Kong, festive lights on skyscrapers provided the backdrop for a fireworks, music and light show over Victoria Harbor on a chilly evening.
Kiribati
The Pacific island nation of Kiribati was the first in the world to welcome the new year, greeting 2019 with muted celebrations after spending 2018 on the front line of the battle against climate change.
Kiribati is made up of low-lying atolls along the equator which intersect three time zones, the first of which sees the new year 14 hours before midnight in London.
Much of the nation’s land mass, occupied by 110,000 people, is endangered by rising seas that have inundated coastal villages. The rising oceans have turned fresh water sources brackish, imperiling communities and raising doubts the nation will exist at the next New Year.
Former President Anote Tong said the only future for Kiribati may be mass migration.
The new year was welcomed in the capital, Tarawa, with church services and mostly quiet private celebrations.
Australia
An estimated million people crowded Sydney Harbor as Australia’s largest city rang in the new year with a spectacular, soul-tinged fireworks celebration.
One of the most complex displays in Australia’s history included gold, purple and silver fireworks pulsating to the tune of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” made famous by Aretha Franklin, who died in August. The show used 8.5 tons of fireworks and featured more than 100,000 pyrotechnic effects.
Earlier, a thunderstorm drenched tens of thousands of people as they gathered for the traditional display, creating a show of its own with dozens of lightning strikes.
In Melbourne, 14 tons of fireworks deployed on the ground and on roofs of 22 buildings produced special effects including flying dragons. In Brisbane, people watched as fireworks exploded from five barges moored on the Brisbane River.
South Korea
After an eventful year that saw three inter-Korean summits and the easing of tensions over North Korea’s nuclear program, South Koreans entered 2019 with hopes that the hard-won detente will expand into a stable peace.
Thousands of South Koreans filled the streets of the capital, Seoul, for a traditional bell-tolling ceremony near City Hall. Dignitaries picked to ring the old Bosingak bell at midnight included famous surgeon Lee Guk-jong, who successfully operated on a North Korean soldier who escaped to South Korea in 2017 in a hail of bullets fired by his comrades.
A “peace bell” was tolled at Imjingak, a pavilion near the border with North Korea.
Las Vegas
No place does flashy like Las Vegas. It will ring in 2019 with fireworks shot from casino-resorts and superstar performances from Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Gwen Stefani and others.
Celebratory midnight toasts will be anchored by an 8-minute firework show on the Las Vegas Strip. The pyrotechnics will be choreographed to a soundtrack that includes Frank Sinatra’s “Luck Be a Lady,” Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” and Dion’s version of “I Drove All Night”.
New Year’s Eve is worth more than $400 million to Vegas.
Security is a high priority for police on the Las Vegas Strip, where a gunman in 2017 opened fire on a country music festival, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds of others.
Police, including rooftop snipers and plainclothes and uniformed officers, will be out in full force along with federal agents. Authorities are also restricting revelers from bringing backpacks, ice chests, strollers and glass items to the street celebrations.
BANGKOK — Goodbye 2018. Last night the capital city showed how hungry it was for 2019.
Vibrant New Year’s celebrations kicked off at venues around the city. Buddhists crossed into 2019 chanting prayers at the Temple of the Golden Mount, while thousands cheered impressive fireworks erupting at major shopping malls CentralWorld and Iconsiam.
This year, recently openedIconsiambecame a grand landmark to ring in the new year with its countdown event under the theme of The River of Prosperity.
Atop mountains such as best-known Phu Kradueng, tourists caught the first glorious sunrise of the new year.
At dawn today, people nationwide made merit by releasing animals and offering food to Buddhist monks.
Tourists see the first sunrise of 2019 on Phu KraduengTourists watch the sun rise on New Year’s Day at Doi Ta Pung in Chumphon province.People on New Year’s Eve chant prayers at Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai province.Local people in Songkhla province offered food to monks on New Year’s Day.Buddhists chanted on New Year’s Eve at Wat Saket aka “Temple of the Golden Mount” in Bangkok.
