2024: World ushers in New Year with fireworks and concern over global peace

The world welcomed 2024 with a mix of celebration and somber reflection. 

Sydney sparkled under a shower of silver and gold fireworks commemorating the 50th anniversary of its iconic Opera House, while the mood in Gaza remained bleak, with residents more concerned with survival. 

More than a million partygoers had packed in around the harbor in Sydney, the self-proclaimed "New Year's capital of the world," to watch eight tons of fireworks.

Pyrotechnics also illuminated the skies in Auckland, Hong Kong, Manila and Jakarta, while revelers danced in the streets in Greece and bathed in the nude in southern France.

On Rio's Copacabana beach, the 12-minute three-dimensional firework show was accompanied by a live orchestra.

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In Europe, Denmark's Queen Margrethe II announced her abdication after over half a century on the throne.

Much of the world's population - now more than eight billion - is hoping to shake off high living costs and global tumult in 2024.

Here's how places and people around the world bid farewell to 2023 and welcomed the New Year.

In Australia, Sydney hailed 2024 with a dazzling fireworks display featuring silver and gold pyrotechnics to mark the 50th anniversary of its famous Opera House.

Little hope in Gaza

People in Gaza had little hope that 2024 will bring much relief after 12 weeks of Israel's war. 

In Rafah on Gaza's border with Egypt, which has become the biggest focal point for Palestinians fleeing other parts of the enclave, people were preoccupied with trying to find shelter, food and water rather than with thinking about the New Year.

"In 2024 I wish to go back to the wreckage of my home, pitch a tent and live there," said Abu Abdullah al-Agha, a middle-aged Palestinian man whose house in Khan Younis was destroyed and who lost a young niece and nephew in an Israeli air strike.

Denmark's 83-year-old Queen Margrethe II used her annual New Year's speech to announce that she will abdicate on January 14 after 52 years on the throne and will be succeeded by her eldest son, Crown Prince Frederik. 

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing an election in March, made only passing reference in his New Year address to his country's offensive in Ukraine, hailing his soldiers as heroes but mostly emphasizing unity and shared determination.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a New Year address said Ukraine had become stronger in overcoming serious difficulties as the conflict against Russia is almost two years old.

​​'The year of French pride'

French President Emmanuel Macron in a televised address ahead of New Year celebrations said 2024 would be "the year of our French pride" marked by the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games and the reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral after a devastating fire. 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in his traditional year-end address that 2023 held "so much suffering and bloodshed," but promised "we in Germany will get through this."

Police detained three more suspects in an alleged plot to attack Germany's famed Cologne Cathedral on New Year's Eve. The alleged attackers had planned to use a car to attack the 800-year-old Gothic cathedral, Cologne police said.

In the UK, London ushered in the New Year with the bongs of its famous Big Ben bell, fireworks and a display of news highlights that featured King Charles's coronation.

In New York, tens of thousands of revelers gathered in Manhattan's Times Square to watch the lighted ball drop at midnight, after scheduled performances by musicians including Megan Thee Stallion and LL Cool J.

A dazzling fireworks spectacle lit up Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach where almost two million people gathered to welcome in the New Year.

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