Australia welcomes the New Year with spectacular fireworks “Many are ashamed to ask for help”: Poverty in the US.

Australia was one of the first countries in the world to welcome the New Year with a spectacular fireworks display in Sydney on Sunday. More than a million people celebrated, especially around the harbor of the Australian metropolis.

The harbor bridge and the opera house, the city’s landmarks, were bathed in light and color at midnight. Eight tons of fireworks were shot off.

The spectacular fireworks will shine a light on 2024, which will bring elections for about half of humanity and the Summer Olympics in Paris.

The past year was marked by crises and wars: the Ukraine war, the Gaza war, the refugee crisis, the climate crisis and inflation. 2023 was the hottest year since records began in 1880, with global warming causing disasters such as floods, droughts and forest fires. Not only in Ukraine, Israel and the Gaza Strip, many people hope that the new year will be better, more peaceful and more violence-free for them.

In Rome, Pope Francis prayed for the victims of wars and conflicts. He recalled the suffering of Israelis, Palestinians, Ukrainians and Sudanese, as well as that of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

After his Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square, he said the question arises “how many lives have been torn apart by armed conflict, how many deaths” and “how much destruction, how much suffering, how much poverty” there has been. “Those who have an interest in these conflicts, listen to the voice of conscience,” the pope urged. (sda/afp)