The island nation of Kiribati in Oceania has become the first country in the world to enter the new year of 2025, UNN reports.
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The country - pronounced Kiribas - consists of 33 atolls and occupies a vast territory in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, stretching almost 4000 km from east to west and more than 2000 km from north to south, the BBC notes.
It's been 20 years since they changed the time zone on the international date line, which led to an unusual New Year's Eve celebration in Kiribati on 1994, December 30.
Another unconventional result, as noted, was that the country was 26 hours ahead of neighboring Baker Island (an uninhabited territory of the United States), despite being almost 2,200 kilometers closer to the Western Hemisphere.