The world’s population – which now exceeds eight billion – is preparing to begin the new year, with hopes of putting an end to the high cost of living and global conflict.
In Sydney, the self-proclaimed “New Year’s Eve capital of the world”, more than a million revelers packed the harbor foreshore, with city authorities and police warning that all vantage points were occupied.
People gathered at iconic sites across the city, defying unusually wet weather, and were not disappointed when the Harbor Bridge and other landmarks were lit up and colored by eight tons of fireworks . Pyrotechnics also lit up the skies of Auckland, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Manila.
Nudist beachgoers wearing Santa hats waded in the fresh waters of the Mediterranean in southern France, while revelers ate meat skewers and danced in the streets during traditional end-of-year celebrations in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Over the past 12 months, the world has been overcome by the pink wave of “Barbie mania”, experienced an unprecedented proliferation of artificial intelligence tools and the world’s first entire eye transplant.
Climate disasters
India has become the most populous country in the world, taking the title from China. It was also the first country to land a spacecraft in the unexplored South Pole region of the Moon.
The year 2023 was also the hottest year since records began in 1880, with a series of climate disasters hitting the planet, from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa to the Amazon basin.
But above all, 2023 will be marked by the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7 – and by Israel’s relentless reprisals. The United Nations estimates that nearly two million Gaza residents have been displaced since the start of the siege imposed by Israel, or around 85% of the population.
In Gaza City, reduced to a state of ruins, there are few places left to celebrate the New Year. “It was a dark year full of tragedy,” said Abed Akkawi, who fled the city with his wife and three children.
This 37-year-old man, who now lives in a United Nations camp in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, says he lost his brother but he clings to meager hopes for 2024.
The end of the war
“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 just live in a tent on the rubble,” he told AFP. In Ukraine, where the Russian invasion is approaching its second anniversary, defiance and hope dominate despite a new Russian attack.
“Victory! We are waiting for it and believe that Ukraine will win,” says Tetiana Shostka, 42, as sirens announcing an air raid sound in kyiv. “We will have everything we want if Ukraine is free, without Russia.”
Some in Vladimir Putin’s Russia are tired of the conflict. “In the new year, I would like the war to end, there to be a new president and a return to normal life,” says Zoya Karpova, a 55-year-old theater designer and resident of Moscow.
But Vladimir Putin himself remained defiant during his New Year’s Eve speech, vowing that Russia “will never back down” and praising front-line troops.
He is already Russia’s longest-serving leader since Joseph Stalin and will be in contention again in March’s elections, although few expect them to be completely free and fair.
In Rome, Pope Francis prayed for victims of conflicts around the world, citing Ukrainians, Palestinians and Israelis, the people of Sudan and the “Rohingya martyrs” in Burma.
“At the end of the year, have the courage to ask yourself how many lives have been torn apart in armed conflicts, how many deaths,” declared the sovereign pontiff, aged 87, after the Angelus prayer on St. Peter’s Square.
Important elections
“And how much destruction, how much suffering, how many poor people? Let those who have an interest in these conflicts listen to the voice of their conscience.” Putin is the longest-serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin and his name will once again appear on the ballot in March’s elections. Few believe in the vote being completely free and fair, or expect him to lose.
In addition to the Russian elections, more than four billion people in total will be called to the polls, notably in the United Kingdom, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Venezuela and of course the States -United, where Democrat Joe Biden, 81, and Republican Donald Trump, 77, intend to face each other again next November.
Outgoing president, Mr. Biden has at times shown signs of advanced age and even some of his supporters worry about the consequences of another term. As for Donald Trump, facing several indictments and at least three of whose trials are supposed to begin in 2024 before the presidential election, nothing immediately prevents him from campaigning.