Fireworks illuminated skies over Paris, Rio and Sydney to celebrate the entry to 2024, while in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine, rockets and strikes marked the year’s earliest hours.
Much of the world’s population — now more than eight billion — is hoping to shake off high living costs and global tumult in 2024, which will bring elections concerning half the world’s population and the Paris Olympics.
But with the new year barely started there were already ominous signs: at the stroke of midnight in Gaza a barrage of rockets was fired towards Israel — a twisted reflection of the fireworks lighting up night skies elsewhere around the world.
In New York City, thousands of visitors lined up for a chance to see the annual dropping of a giant illuminated ball in Times Square.
Nearby stallholders hawked vuvuzelas and 2024-branded hats as police fanned out across central Manhattan, towing suspicious cars, closing roads and manning a ring of steel screening would-be revellers.
Hours earlier, more than a million partygoers had packed in around the harbour in Sydney, the self-proclaimed “New Year’s capital of the world,” to watch eight tonnes of fireworks.
Pyrotechnics also illuminated the skies in Auckland, Hong Kong, Manila and Jakarta while stunning fireworks displays reflected in the sleek glass walls of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
Nudist bathers wearing Santa hats waded into the mild waters of southern France, while revellers danced in the streets in Greece’s Thessaloniki.
About 2 million people gathered at Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach under light drizzle to watch 12 minutes of fireworks in one of the world’s most popular locations for New Year’s Eve.
