Unprecedented temperatures, climate crisis or the beginning of the era of global panic, Artificial Intelligence in people’s daily lives, unprecedented numbers of displaced people and wars with no end in sight in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine.

The world’s population – which now exceeds eight billion – is preparing to celebrate the coming of the new year, with hopes that it will bring a reduction in the high cost of living and an end to wars.

In Sydney, the self-proclaimed “New Year’s Eve capital of the world”, more than a million people are expected to celebrate on the city’s waterfront, despite unusually cold and wet conditions.

Eight tonnes of fireworks will be used to brilliantly celebrate 2024 which, for half the world’s population, will be a crucial election year. It will also be the year of the Olympic Games, which will be held this summer in Paris.

In 2023, the world experienced “Barbie Mania”, began to familiarize themselves with Artificial Intelligence tools, and in the year that passes, the first transplant of an entire eye took place.

India became the country with the largest population, dethroning China. This was also the first country to land a spacecraft in the unexplored region of the Moon’s South Pole.

The outgoing year was also the year in which the average global surface temperature reached record highs, with climate disasters affecting numerous regions of the planet from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa to the Amazon basin.

But most of all, 2023 will be marked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 – and Israel’s merciless retaliation.

Hopes in the ruins of wars

The United Nations estimates that nearly two million residents of the Gaza Strip – about 85% of the population – have been displaced since the war began.

In the deserted Gaza City, there are few places left to celebrate the New Year.

“It was a dark year full of tragedies,” says Abed Akawi, who fled the city with his wife and three children.

The 37-year-old man, who now lives in a UN camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, lost his brother but says he is hopeful for 2024. “With the help of Allah, this war will is over, the new year will be better and we can go back to our homes and rebuild them, or we will just live in a tent in the ruins,” he told AFP.

In Ukraine, where the Russian invasion is approaching its second anniversary, trial and hope prevail despite a new wave of Russian attacks.

“Win! We are waiting for it and we believe that Ukraine will win,” says Tetiana Shostka as sirens sound warning of an airstrike in Kiev. “We will have what we want when Ukraine is freed by driving out Russia,” the 42-year-old said.

Critical elections

Some in Vladimir Putin’s Russia are tired of war. “In the new year, I would like the war to end, a new president and a return to normal life,” says Zoya Karpona, a 55-year-old stage designer who lives in Moscow.

Putin, the longest-serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin, will run for president again in March’s election. Few believe that the election is completely free and fair, and few expect the Russian president to lose the election.

In addition to the Russian elections, over four billion people in the world will be called to the polls, notably in the UK, European Union elections, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Venezuela and of course the US , where Democrat Joe Biden, 81, and Republican Donald Trump, 77, are expected to face off again next November.

Many of the supporters of the current US president are concerned about his advanced age and the consequences of a new presidential term.

As for Trump, who faces numerous charges and at least three of his trials are expected to begin in 2024 before the presidential election, there is nothing stopping him from campaigning.