The 41st Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival officially opened Sunday with a spectacular fireworks display and drone show in the northeastern Chinese city known as the "city of ice".
Coinciding with the upcoming 2025 Asian Winter Games, also known as the 9th Asian Winter Games, this year's festival shares the same theme as the sports event, "Shared Dreams of Ice and Snow, United Asia."
The opening ceremony centered around the 9th Asian Winter Games. The mascots of the Games, Siberian tigers "Binbin" and "Nini", along with figure skaters and ice acrobats, presented the six major events and 11 sub-events of the Asian Winter Games to the audience.
In addition, the theme song of the sports event, "Light Up Asia," was officially released at the opening ceremony. Aligning with the overarching theme of "Shared Dreams of Ice and Snow, United Asia," the song showcase the dynamic vitality of ice and snow sports while vividly depicting the vision of building an Asian Community with a Shared Future.
This year, the Harbin Ice-Snow World, where the festival is being held, has expanded to an astonishing scale of 1 million square meters, with approximately 300,000 cubic meters of ice and snow having been crafted into miniature versions of landmark buildings and sculptures.
The annual ice and snow festival, founded in 1985, has become a name card of Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province, and a major contributor to its booming winter tourism.
41st Harbin Int'l Ice and Snow Festival kicks off
Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez said on Sunday that the country is at a critical stage and must achieve national unity, emphasizing that maintaining internal cohesion is of utmost importance.
In a televised address, Rodriguez called on the public to continue trusting the government under the current highly complex political circumstances.
Her statement comes in the wake of a January 3 military operation conducted by the United States, during which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were taken into custody and flown out of the country.
The operation resulted in at least 100 fatalities.
Rodriguez, who was sworn in as acting president two days later on January 5, framed her appeal for unity against this backdrop of external intervention.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Freddy Nanez denounced the U.S. actions as a "war crime of the 21st century" when speaking at an international cultural event on Sunday.
Nanez condemned not only the January 3 airstrikes but also the associated cyber and electromagnetic attacks.
He accused the United States of violating international law through the forced removal of President Maduro and his wife, while attacks on civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities, represent a flagrant breach of humanitarian norms.
He reiterated that the stigmatization and military attacks against Venezuela are driven by economic interests, particularly the desire to control its abundant natural resources.
Venezuelan acting president calls for national unity amid complex situation
Venezuelan acting president calls for national unity amid complex situation
