New Year鈥檚 Eve fireworks light up the sky over the Sydney Opera House (front) and Harbour Bridge during the fireworks display in Sydney on January 1, 2023. AFP FILE PHOTO
SYDNEY 鈥� Jubilant crowds will bid farewell to the hottest year on record Sunday, closing a turbulent 12 months marked by clever chatbots, climate crises and wrenching wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
The world鈥檚 population 鈥� now over eight billion 鈥� will see out the old and usher in the new, with many hoping to shake the weight of high living costs and global tumult.
In Sydney, the self-proclaimed 鈥淣ew Year鈥檚 capital of the world鈥�, more than a million partygoers are expected to pack the city鈥檚 foreshore, despite uncharacteristically dank weather.
The city鈥檚 eight tonnes of fireworks will light the fuse on 2024, a year that will bring elections concerning half the world鈥檚 population and a summer Olympiad celebrated in Paris.
The last 12 months brought 鈥淏arbiegeddon鈥� 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鈥檚 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-fueled disasters striking from Australia to the Horn of Africa and the Amazon basin.
Fans bade adieu to 鈥淨ueen of Rock 鈥榥鈥� Roll鈥� Tina Turner, 鈥淔riends鈥� actor Matthew Perry, hell-raising Anglo-Irish songsmith Shane MacGowan and master dystopian novelist Cormac McCarthy.
Perhaps more than anything, 2023 will be remembered for Israel鈥檚 ferocious reprisals after Hamas鈥檚 October 7 attack on southern Israel.
Rebuilding
The United Nations estimates that almost two million Gaza residents have been displaced since Israel鈥檚 siege began 鈥� about 85 percent of the peacetime population.
With once-bustling Gaza City neighborhoods reduced to rubble, there were few places left to mark the new year 鈥� and fewer loved ones to celebrate with.
鈥淚t was a black year full of tragedies,鈥� said Abed Akkawi, who fled the city with his wife and three children.
The 37-year-old, now living in a UN shelter in Rafah, southern Gaza, said the war had obliterated his house and killed his brother.
But still, he clings to modest hopes for 2024.
鈥淕od willing this war will end, the new year will be a better one, and we will be able to return to our homes and rebuild them, or even live in a tent on the rubble,鈥� he told AFP.
In Ukraine, where Russia鈥檚 invasion grinds towards its second anniversary, there was defiance and hope in the face of a renewed assault from Moscow.
鈥淰ictory! We are waiting for it and believe that Ukraine will win,鈥� said Tetiana Shostka as air raid sirens blared in Kyiv.
鈥淲e will have everything we want if Ukraine is free, without Russia,鈥� the 42-year-old added.
Some in Vladimir Putin鈥檚 Russia are also weary of the conflict.
鈥淚n the new year I would like the war to end, a new president, and a return to normal life,鈥� said 55-year-old theatre decorator and Moscow resident Zoya Karpova.
Putin is already his country鈥檚 longest-tenured leader since Joseph Stalin and his name will again be on the ballot paper when Russians vote in March.
Few expect the vote to be fully free or fair, or for the former KGB man to return to the shadows.
To the polls
Russia鈥檚 is just one of several pivotal elections scheduled, with 2024 looming as the year of the ballots.
In all, the political fate of more than four billion people will be decided in contests that will shape Britain, the European Union, 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 poll 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, who faces prosecution on several counts.
Voters could yet decide whether the bombastic self-proclaimed billionaire goes to the Oval Office or to jail.