Sydney:
Joyful crowds bid farewell to the hottest year on record Sunday, concluding a turbulent 12 months marked by clever chatbots, the climate crisis and deadly wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
The world’s population – now more than eight billion – will be leaving behind the old and ushering in the new, with many expected to recover from the burden of high living costs and global upheaval.
In Sydney, the self-proclaimed “New Year’s Capital of the World”, more than a million partygoers packed the harborside, with city officials and police warning that all vantage points were full.
Defying the uncharacteristically damp weather, Sydneysiders gathered at key sites throughout the day, and were not disappointed when the Harbor Bridge and other landmarks were decorated with lights and colorful garlands set off by eight tonnes of fireworks.
Sydney’s spectacular show ushered in 2024, a year that will see elections for half the world’s population and the Summer Olympics in Paris.
The past 12 months saw the box office hit “Barbigeddon”, the proliferation of human-seeming artificial intelligence devices, and the world’s first total eye transplant.
Fireworks lit up the sky above the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Sydney Opera House as New Year’s Eve celebrations began around the world. Photo: AFP
India overtook China as the world’s most populous country, and then became the first country to land a rocket on the dark side of the Moon.
It was also the hottest year since records began in 1880, sparking a spate of climate-fueled disasters from Australia to the Horn of Africa and the Amazon Basin.
Fans said goodbye to “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” Tina Turner, “Friends” actor Matthew Perry, Anglo-Irish songwriter Shane MacGowan and master dystopian novelist Cormac McCarthy.
reconstruction
Perhaps more than anything, 2023 will be remembered for the war in the Middle East – for Hamas’s brutal October 7 raid on southern Israel and Israel’s brutal retaliation.
The United Nations estimates that some 2 million Gazans have been displaced since the Israeli siege began – about 85 percent of the peacetime population.
A woman and child injured in an Israeli bombardment of a hospital in Gaza on December 30, 2023. Photo: AFP
Once-bustling neighborhoods of Gaza City were reduced to rubble, with few places left to celebrate the New Year – and very few loved ones left to celebrate.
“It was a dark year full of tragedies,” said Abed Akkawi, who fled the city with his wife and three children.
The 37-year-old man, now living in a UN shelter in Rafah, southern Gaza, said the war destroyed his home and killed his brother.
Also read: Netanyahu says Israel must take control of Gaza border with Egypt, war to last for months
“God willing, this war will end, the New Year will be better and we will be able to return to our homes and rebuild them, or even live in tents on the debris,” he said. AFP,
There was also hope in Ukraine, where Russia’s invasion is approaching its second anniversary, and there is defiance in the face of Moscow’s new offensive.
“Victory! We are waiting for it and believe that Ukraine will win,” said Tetiana Shostka, 42, as air raid sirens blared in Kiev.
Even in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, some people are tired of the conflict.
People take shelter in a metro station after a Russian missile attack in Kiev on December 29, 2023. Photo: AFP
“In the New Year, all I would like is for the war to end, for a new president to come and for normal life to return,” said Zoya Karpova, a 55-year-old theater decorator and Moscow resident.
In Rome, Pope Francis prayed for the victims of conflicts around the world, 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 were lost in armed conflicts, how many deaths occurred?” the 87-year-old pope said after his Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square.
“And how much destruction, how much suffering, how much poverty? Those who are interested in these conflicts, let them listen to the voice of conscience.”
Putin is already Russia’s longest-serving leader since Joseph Stalin and will be on the ballot again when Russians vote in March, though few expect the vote to be entirely free or fair.
to poll
Russia is facing one of several important elections in 2024.
This is one of many decisive elections taking place in Russia, with 2024 shaping up to be the year of the ballot. Photo: AFP
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 many other countries.
But an election promises global consequences.
In the United States, Democrat Joe Biden, aged 81, and Republican Donald Trump, aged 77, are set to rerun their divisive 2020 presidential race in November.
As an incumbent, Biden has at times appeared to be showing his advancing age and even his supporters worry that his four years in office will get worse.
In the United States, Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump are set to rerun their divisive 2020 presidential election race in November. Photo: AFP
But if there are concerns about what a second Biden administration will look like, there are at least as many concerns about Trump’s return.
He faces prosecution in several cases and 2024 could determine whether the flamboyant self-proclaimed billionaire goes to the Oval Office or goes to jail.
