RIO DE JANEIRO: The world’s eight billion people inaugurated on Saturday 2023bidding farewell to a turbulent 12 months marked by war in Europe, stinging price hikes, Lionel Messi’s World Cup glory and the death of queen elizabethPelé and former Pope Benedict.
Many were ready to put aside tight budgets and an increasingly forgotten but not gone virus, and embrace a party vibe on New Year‘s Eve after a few years of pandemic.
In Rio de Janeiro, throngs of people filled the city’s Copacabana Beach – up to two million were expected – for music and fireworks, without the coronavirus safety measures of recent years .
The festivities came just hours before Brazil inaugurated new president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday, following his slim victory in October polls.
After incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro’s widely criticized pandemic policies, Copacabana partier Ana Carolina Rodrigues – dressed in the traditional evening white – says she hopes 2023 brings a new government that is “more concerned about people’s health” .
Across the Atlantic, Parisians – and a “normal” number of tourists, comparable to 2018 or 2019, according to officials – took the opportunity to gather shoulder to shoulder for a fireworks display on the Champs-Elysées.
Police said around a million people showed up for the celebration, where children in pushchairs and revelers with champagne were also visible.
“We are here for the atmosphere, to have a good time and be together,” explains Ilyes Hachelef, a 19-year-old student. “And it’s beautiful!”
Hours earlier, Sydney became one of the first major cities to ring in 2023, resuming its claim as the ‘New Year’s capital of the world’ after two years of muted coronavirus lockdowns and festivities with fireworks on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
For some, 2022 has been a year of the Wordle, the Great Resignation, a new Taylor Swift album, an Oscar slap and billionaire meltdowns.
It also saw the deaths of Queen Elizabeth II, Brazilian soccer icon Pelé, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jiang Zemin and Shinzo Abe. Former Pope Benedict XVI also died on New Year’s Eve.
The world’s population surpassed the historic milestone of eight billion people in November.
But 2022 will probably be remembered for the return of armed conflict in Europe, a continent that has been the crucible of two world wars.
“It was our year. The year of Ukraine,” said the president Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday, referring to his country’s year-long war effort.
More than 300 days into Russia’s failed invasion of Ukraine, around 7,000 civilians have been killed and another 10,000 injured, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Around 16 million Ukrainians have fled their homes.
For those who remain, a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. will be put in place amid periodic blackouts and barrages of Russian missiles.
The latest Russian strikes on Ukraine on Saturday claimed at least one more life and injured several others, Ukrainian officials said, while an explosion was heard in Kyiv just after the New Year.
“We don’t know for sure what the new year 2023 will bring us,” Zelensky said, promising the Ukrainians would keep fighting and wishing for a “victory” in the new year.
In Kyiv, filmmaker Yaroslav Mutenko, 23, was defiant after a shell hit the four-star Alfavito hotel near his apartment, insisting the blast would not stop him from celebrating.
“Our enemies, the Russians, can destroy our calm but they cannot destroy our spirit,” he said.
There seemed to be a dulled appetite for big celebrations in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Moscow has canceled its traditional fireworks display, as Putin said in a New Year’s address that ‘moral and historical correctness’ is on Russia’s side as the country faces international condemnation of the war .
Meanwhile, London was welcoming crowds to its official New Year’s Eve fireworks display for the first time since the pandemic.
One place that didn’t join in the pyrotechnics was the English seaside town of Scarborough, which canceled its display so as not to disturb “Thor” the walrus, which recently appeared in the harbour.
Councilman Steve Siddons said the town was disappointed, “but the welfare of the walruses must come first.”
In New York, crowds braved freezing rain to await the famous ball drop in Times Square, a tradition that dates back to 1907.
“We’re going to wait about eight hours, I think,” said Mexican tourist Fabiola Cepeda. “It’s worth it, definitely.”
The Middle East region welcomed 2023 with a traditional fireworks display from the world’s tallest building, the 830-meter (2,723-foot) Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Laser lights added to the spectacle of the landmark, which carried messages such as “Hugging again”, an apparent reference to the end of Covid restrictions.
However, China is starting 2023 battling a rise in Covid infections.
But the New Year celebrations still went according to plan, even as hospitals in the world’s most populous country were overwhelmed by an explosion of cases following the decision to lift strict ‘zero-Covid’ rules.
In Beijing, revelers flocked to clubs, concert halls and bars, while downtown Shanghai saw young people in masks celebrating in the streets near the iconic Bund waterfront, according to videos on the social networks.
Meanwhile, in Wuhan, where Covid-19 first emerged, large crowds set off festive balloons in a central square as the clock struck midnight.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told the country in a televised New Year’s address that despite the epidemic, “the light of hope is right in front of us.”
Many were ready to put aside tight budgets and an increasingly forgotten but not gone virus, and embrace a party vibe on New Year‘s Eve after a few years of pandemic.
In Rio de Janeiro, throngs of people filled the city’s Copacabana Beach – up to two million were expected – for music and fireworks, without the coronavirus safety measures of recent years .
The festivities came just hours before Brazil inaugurated new president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday, following his slim victory in October polls.
After incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro’s widely criticized pandemic policies, Copacabana partier Ana Carolina Rodrigues – dressed in the traditional evening white – says she hopes 2023 brings a new government that is “more concerned about people’s health” .
Across the Atlantic, Parisians – and a “normal” number of tourists, comparable to 2018 or 2019, according to officials – took the opportunity to gather shoulder to shoulder for a fireworks display on the Champs-Elysées.
Police said around a million people showed up for the celebration, where children in pushchairs and revelers with champagne were also visible.
“We are here for the atmosphere, to have a good time and be together,” explains Ilyes Hachelef, a 19-year-old student. “And it’s beautiful!”
Hours earlier, Sydney became one of the first major cities to ring in 2023, resuming its claim as the ‘New Year’s capital of the world’ after two years of muted coronavirus lockdowns and festivities with fireworks on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
For some, 2022 has been a year of the Wordle, the Great Resignation, a new Taylor Swift album, an Oscar slap and billionaire meltdowns.
It also saw the deaths of Queen Elizabeth II, Brazilian soccer icon Pelé, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jiang Zemin and Shinzo Abe. Former Pope Benedict XVI also died on New Year’s Eve.
The world’s population surpassed the historic milestone of eight billion people in November.
But 2022 will probably be remembered for the return of armed conflict in Europe, a continent that has been the crucible of two world wars.
“It was our year. The year of Ukraine,” said the president Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday, referring to his country’s year-long war effort.
More than 300 days into Russia’s failed invasion of Ukraine, around 7,000 civilians have been killed and another 10,000 injured, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Around 16 million Ukrainians have fled their homes.
For those who remain, a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. will be put in place amid periodic blackouts and barrages of Russian missiles.
The latest Russian strikes on Ukraine on Saturday claimed at least one more life and injured several others, Ukrainian officials said, while an explosion was heard in Kyiv just after the New Year.
“We don’t know for sure what the new year 2023 will bring us,” Zelensky said, promising the Ukrainians would keep fighting and wishing for a “victory” in the new year.
In Kyiv, filmmaker Yaroslav Mutenko, 23, was defiant after a shell hit the four-star Alfavito hotel near his apartment, insisting the blast would not stop him from celebrating.
“Our enemies, the Russians, can destroy our calm but they cannot destroy our spirit,” he said.
There seemed to be a dulled appetite for big celebrations in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Moscow has canceled its traditional fireworks display, as Putin said in a New Year’s address that ‘moral and historical correctness’ is on Russia’s side as the country faces international condemnation of the war .
Meanwhile, London was welcoming crowds to its official New Year’s Eve fireworks display for the first time since the pandemic.
One place that didn’t join in the pyrotechnics was the English seaside town of Scarborough, which canceled its display so as not to disturb “Thor” the walrus, which recently appeared in the harbour.
Councilman Steve Siddons said the town was disappointed, “but the welfare of the walruses must come first.”
In New York, crowds braved freezing rain to await the famous ball drop in Times Square, a tradition that dates back to 1907.
“We’re going to wait about eight hours, I think,” said Mexican tourist Fabiola Cepeda. “It’s worth it, definitely.”
The Middle East region welcomed 2023 with a traditional fireworks display from the world’s tallest building, the 830-meter (2,723-foot) Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Laser lights added to the spectacle of the landmark, which carried messages such as “Hugging again”, an apparent reference to the end of Covid restrictions.
However, China is starting 2023 battling a rise in Covid infections.
But the New Year celebrations still went according to plan, even as hospitals in the world’s most populous country were overwhelmed by an explosion of cases following the decision to lift strict ‘zero-Covid’ rules.
In Beijing, revelers flocked to clubs, concert halls and bars, while downtown Shanghai saw young people in masks celebrating in the streets near the iconic Bund waterfront, according to videos on the social networks.
Meanwhile, in Wuhan, where Covid-19 first emerged, large crowds set off festive balloons in a central square as the clock struck midnight.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told the country in a televised New Year’s address that despite the epidemic, “the light of hope is right in front of us.”
