Singers from Chinese-speaking world shine at 2025 Spring Festival Gala

In a vibrant display of festive spirit and cultural diversity, several talented singers from across the Chinese-speaking world graced the stage of the 2025 Spring Festival Gala, an annual televised celebration hosted by China Media Group (CMG) on Tuesday evening.

The gala, themed "Year of the Snake, Keep Your Spirit Awake," was broadcast live on Tuesday, featuring a host of traditional cultural performances and high-tech innovations during the more than four-hour-long variety show.

The annual gala, also known as "Chunwan", was first broadcast in 1983 and is seen as a major cultural symbol for Spring Festival celebrations in China.

Recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's most-watched annual TV program, the hours-long television extravaganza attracts over a billion views every year.

The 2025 Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, falls on Wednesday this year, ushering in the Year of the Snake.

Singers from Chinese-speaking world shine at 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Singers from Chinese-speaking world shine at 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Singers from Chinese-speaking world shine at 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Singers from Chinese-speaking world shine at 2025 Spring Festival Gala

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight