From Sydney to Paris, the world entered 2024 under fireworks

Published on : 01/01/2024 – 07:33

5 mins

In Sydney, Bangkok, Paris, Rio… the major world capitals celebrated the transition to 2024 with dazzling fireworks.

• In New York, the traditional descent of the Times Square crystal ball

In New York, thousands of onlookers awaited the traditional descent of the crystal ball in Times Square, all lit up, and merchants sold vuvuzelas and hats stamped 2024 for their night of December 31.

Police, deployed in downtown Manhattan, towed suspicious cars, closed roads and set up a steel barrier to filter out the crowds.

In a television appearance before the New York celebrations, Democratic President Joe Biden expressed optimism for the US economy, recalled his taste for chocolate chip ice cream, praised his country’s resilience and announced the “return” of the American people.

• Sydney, “New Year’s capital of the world”

Hours earlier, in Sydney, self-proclaimed “New Year’s Eve capital of the world”, more than a million revelers invaded the harbor foreshore, with municipal authorities and police warning that all vantage points were occupied.

The population gathered at all the city’s emblematic sites, despite an unusually humid climate, to admire Sydney Bay, the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House under the multicolored fireworks.

• Fireworks over Dubai skyscrapers

Pyrotechnics also lit up the skies of Auckland, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Manila and even Dubai.

• An entry into the Olympic year in Paris

More than a million people gathered on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. A fireworks display above the Arc de Triomphe at midnight was the high point of the celebration, placed under the sign of the Olympic Games with numerous activities evoking the sporting event that the city will host next summer .

• In Thessaloniki, Greece, celebrate with meat skewers

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.

• Pop, funk and samba in Rio de Janeiro

In Rio de Janeiro, thousands of people celebrated the New Year on Copacabana beach with fireworks and music with a symphony orchestra and performances by local pop, funk and samba stars .

• In Tel Aviv, festivities under rocket fire

Bars and restaurants on one of the busiest streets in Tel Aviv, Israel, were celebrating the New Year when sirens sounded, announcing rockets fired from the Gaza Strip at the city and its surroundings as well. than in southern Israel.

The attack on southern Israel took place at midnight local (10 p.m. GMT) and that on Tel Aviv at 12:01 a.m. (10:01 p.m. GMT), according to AFP journalists.

• In Ukraine and Russia, festivities despite the war

In the streets of kyiv, as in Moscow, as the Russian invasion approaches its second anniversary, onlookers also celebrated the New Year festivities.