New year celebrations begin as 2026 kicks off in part of Kiribati

The island of Kiritimati is welcoming in the new year - the first place in the world do so.

It's part of the Pacific Ocean nation Kiribati, located south of Hawaii and north east of Australia. It is made up of several atolls - ring-shaped coral reefs - and spans almost 4,000km from east to west.

Kiribati - pronounced Kiribass - became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979. Home to the South Pacific's largest marine reserve, many of the atolls are inhabited; most of them are very low-lying and at risk from rising sea levels as a result of global warming.

The archipelago has a population of about 116,000. Despite being almost directly south of Hawaii, Kiribati celebrates New Year a whole day earlier.