The world began ushering in 2022 on Friday after another tumultuous and pandemic-ridden year capped by new restrictions, soaring case numbers, and a slight glimmer of hope for better times ahead u.afp.com/wcUf
VIDEO: People crowd the Champs-Elysees in Paris on another Covid-stricken New Year's Eve, as celebratory fireworks were cancelled due to a surge in Covid cases
New Year: Asia.
- Police disperse a crowd celebrating in Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong area.
- People offer New Year prayers at Tokyo’s Kanda Myojin.
- Fireworks erupt over Bangkok’s Chao Praya.
- A lantern display marks the New Year in Yantai, China
New Year: Middle East.
A boy sells balloons labelled "2022" along the Shatt al-Arab waterway in Basra, Iraq.
Christmas and New Year decorations in the suburb of Shubra in Cairo, Egypt.
Fireworks erupt over the Ain Dubai in Dubai.
A man swings homemade fireworks in Gaza City
VIDEO: Big Ben rings in the New Year for Londoners once again.
Thousands of Londoners gathered to hear the sound of the newly renovated clock on Elizabeth Tower ring for the first time since New Year's Eve 2016/17
New Year: Europe
Fireworks erupt in the sky above the Kremlin in Moscow, outside the Colosseum in Rome and over the
Acropolis in Athens.
In Britain, drinkers gather in a near-deserted bar in Manchester
VIDEO: Brazil marks the New Year with fireworks displays on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach, attracting thousands of spectators
New Year: the Americas.
Confetti flies in the air in New York’s Times Square.
New Year's parade in Quito, Ecuador.
Fireworks go off on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the port of Valparaiso in Chile
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#UPDATE Romania's constitutional court on Thursday ordered a recount of votes cast in the first round of the presidential election, after a rival far-right contender filed a legal challenge ➡️ u.afp.com/597X
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"Well look he is, I mean he's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who's running a country, a Communist country, that's based on a form of government totally different than ours," Biden said at the end of a news conference when a reporter asked if he would still use the term to describe Xi
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"China does not seek spheres of influence, and will not fight a cold or hot war with any country," he told a gathering of business leaders in San Francisco