COUNTRIES AROUND THE world have begun ushering in 2024 and bidding farewell to a turbulent 12 months marked by conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, climate crises and clever chatbots.
The world’s population – now over eight billion – will see out the old and usher in the new, with many hoping to shake the weight of high living costs and global tumult.
This year’s New Year’s Eve celebrations are being overshadowed by the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, which have cast a pall over festivities and heightened tensions across parts of the world.
Many cities are deploying extra security and some places have cancelled New Year’s Eve events altogether.
Auckland was one of the first major cities to ring in 2024, with a crowd of thousands cheering a fireworks display sprouting from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, and a light show.
Light rain throughout the day had cleared as forecast by midnight over the city of 1.7 million people before the countdown began on an illuminated digital display near the top of the 1,076ft communications and observation tower.
Two hours later in neighbouring Australia, the Sydney Harbour Bridge would become the focal point of a renowned midnight fireworks display and light show viewed annually by around 425 million people worldwide, according to city authorities.
Sydneysiders gathered through the day at prominent sites, defying uncharacteristically dank weather, and they were not disappointed when the Harbour Bridge and other landmarks were garlanded in light and colour by eight tonnes of fireworks.
More than a million partygoers packed the harbour foreshore in the self-proclaimed “New Year’s capital of the world”, with city officials and police warning that all vantage points were full.
State government authorities said that more police than ever have been deployed throughout Sydney to ensure safety. Many revellers have been camping at the best vantage points since this morning.
In New York’s Times Square, officials and party organisers said they are prepared to welcome crowds of revellers and ensure their safety.
At a security briefing on Friday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said there are “no specific threats” to the annual New Year’s Eve bash, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the heart of midtown Manhattan.
The celebrity-filled event will include live performances from Flo Rida, Megan Thee Stallion and LL Cool J, as well as televised appearances from Cardi B and others.
Organisers said in-person attendance is expected to return to pre-Covid levels, even as foot traffic around Times Square remains down slightly since the pandemic.
Amid near-daily protests in New York sparked by the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, police said they would expand the security perimeter around the party, creating a “buffer zone” which will allow them to head off potential demonstrations.
“We will be out here with our canines, on horseback, our helicopters, our boats,” Adams said.
Officials will also monitor protests with drones, he added. “But as we saw last year, after having no specific threats, we get a threat.”
During last year’s New Year’s Eve party, a man armed with a machete attacked three police officers a few blocks from Times Square.
Security will also be heightened across France today, with 90,000 law enforcement officers set to be deployed, domestic intelligence chief Celine Berthon said on Friday.
Of those, 6,000 will be in Paris, where French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said more than 1.5 million people are expected to attend celebrations on the Champs-Elysees.
Speaking at a news conference, Darmanin cited a “very high terrorist threat” because, in part, of “what is happening in Israel and Palestine”.
The minister said that police for the first time will be able to use drones as part of security work and that tens of thousands of firefighters and 5,000 soldiers will also be deployed.
New Year’s Eve celebrations in the French capital will centre on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, including DJ sets, fireworks and video projections on the Arc de Triomphe, highlighting “changes in the city and faces of the Games”, according to the press service of the City of Paris.
Other planned events include “the largest Mexican wave ever performed” and a “giant karaoke”.
Local authorities have instituted a ban on the sale of alcohol on and around the Champs Elysees on New Year’s Eve, and the public will not be able to access the area with glass bottles and flasks.
In Rome, Pope Francis prayed for the victims of conflicts around the globe, citing Ukrainians, Palestinians and Israelis, the people of Sudan and the “martyred Rohingya” of Myanmar.
“At the end of a year, have the courage to ask how many lives have been torn apart in armed conflicts, how many deaths?” the 87-year-old pontiff said after his Angelus prayer in St Peter’s Square.
“And how much destruction, how much suffering, how much poverty? Those who have an interest in these conflicts, listen to the voice of conscience.”
In Russia, the country’s military actions in Ukraine have overshadowed end-of-year celebrations, with the usual fireworks and concert on Moscow’s Red Square cancelled, as last year.
After shelling in the centre of the Russian border city of Belgorod on Saturday killed 24 people, some local authorities across Russia also cancelled their usual firework displays, including in Vladivostok.
In Muslim-majority Pakistan, the government has banned all New Year’s Eve celebrations as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians.
In an overnight televised message, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar urged Pakistanis to “show solidarity with the oppressed people of Gaza” by beginning the new year with simplicity.
He said Muslims across the world are saddened over Israel’s attacks on Gaza which have resulted in the killings of thousands of innocent people.
The last 12 months brought “Barbenheimer” at the box office, a proliferation of human-seeming artificial intelligence tools and a world-first whole-eye transplant.
India outgrew China as the world’s most populous country, and then became the first nation to land a rocket on the dark side of the moon.
It was also the hottest year since records began in 1880, with a spate of climate-fuelled disasters striking from Australia to the Horn of Africa and the Amazon basin.
Fans bade adieu to “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” Tina Turner, “Friends” actor Matthew Perry and master dystopian novelist Cormac McCarthy.
Aslan lead singer Christy Dignam, The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan and legendary singer Sinéad O’Connor were among the famous Irish faces we lost in 2023.
In 2024, the political fate of more than four billion people will be decided in contests that will shape Britain, the EU, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Venezuela and a host of other nations.
But one election promises global consequences.
In the United States, Democrat Joe Biden, aged 81, and Republican Donald Trump, aged 77, appear set to rerun their divisive 2020 presidential race in November.
As the incumbent, Biden has at times appeared to show his advancing age and even his supporters worry about the toll of another bruising four years in office.
But if there are worries about what a second Biden administration would look like, there are at least as many concerns about a return of Trump.
He faces prosecution on several counts and 2024 could determine whether the bombastic self-proclaimed billionaire goes to the Oval Office or to jail.
With reporting from © AFP 2023
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