Can 2024 Bring Hope to a World at War?

AFP/APP

New York:  Fireworks lit up the skies over Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney as millions around the world welcomed 2024, while the new year began under the shadow of war, with rockets and airstrikes reported over Israel, Gaza and Ukraine.

For much of the world’s population, now exceeding eight billion, the arrival of 2024 offered a moment to look beyond soaring living costs, conflict and political uncertainty.

The year ahead is expected to be politically significant, with elections involving billions of people across the globe, while the Paris Olympics will provide a rare opportunity for international celebration.

In New York, thousands of people gathered in Times Square to watch the traditional midnight ball drop. Vendors sold colourful hats and noisemakers as heavily deployed police secured the area, closed roads and screened crowds.

Earlier, more than a million revellers gathered around Sydney Harbour, where around eight tonnes of fireworks transformed the night sky.

Celebrations also swept across Auckland, Hong Kong, Manila and Jakarta, while crowds in Greece’s Thessaloniki danced in the streets.

In southern France, some New Year revellers took advantage of mild weather to enter the sea wearing Santa hats.

A year marked by war

For many, however, the celebrations were muted.

The year 2023 ended with the devastating conflict between Israel and Hamas dominating headlines. Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel was followed by a massive Israeli military campaign and siege of Gaza.

The United Nations estimated that nearly two million Palestinians had been displaced, representing about 85 per cent of Gaza’s pre-war population.

In Gaza City, entire neighbourhoods had been reduced to rubble, leaving residents with little reason or opportunity to celebrate the arrival of a new year.

“It was a black year full of tragedies,” 37-year-old Abed Akkawi told AFP from a UN shelter in Rafah after fleeing Gaza City with his family.

He expressed hope that the conflict would end and residents would eventually be able to return and rebuild their homes, even if that meant living in tents among the ruins.

In Tel Aviv, 24-year-old Ran Stahl chose to work at a wine bar rather than celebrate New Year’s Eve. A friend of his was killed at a music festival during the October 7 attack.

“The minute I start dancing, the sadness and mourning come back,” he said.

Ukraine’s war enters another year

In Russia, the continuing war in Ukraine also dampened the mood for many.

Moscow resident Zoya Karpova, 55, said she hoped the new year would bring an end to the war and a return to normal life.

President Vladimir Putin, however, struck a defiant tone in his New Year’s Eve address, declaring that Russia would not retreat.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also delivered a determined message after almost two years of war.

He said Ukrainian pilots were learning to operate F-16 fighter jets supplied by Western allies and predicted they would appear in Ukrainian skies in 2024.

Zelensky also pointed to plans to expand Ukraine’s domestic weapons production, including the manufacture of at least one million drones.

In Rome, Pope Francis used his New Year’s message to remember victims of conflicts around the world, including those affected by fighting in Sudan and Myanmar.

He urged those benefiting from wars to listen to their consciences and consider the human cost of armed conflicts.

A year of elections

Beyond the battlefields, 2024 was set to become a major year for global politics.

Elections were scheduled in countries and regions representing more than four billion people, including India, Russia, Britain, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Venezuela and the European Union.

But the US presidential election was expected to attract the greatest international attention.

Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump appeared headed for a rematch of their bitterly contested 2020 election.

Biden entered the new year highlighting what he described as the resilience of the US economy and declaring that Americans had recovered from the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Yet questions remained over his age and whether he could withstand another demanding four-year term at the White House.

Trump faced a different set of challenges. The former president was facing multiple criminal prosecutions, making 2024 a potentially decisive year that could determine whether he returned to the Oval Office or faced the possibility of imprisonment.

From Barbenheimer to AI

The previous year was not defined solely by conflict and politics.

The global phenomenon dubbed “Barbenheimer” became a major box-office success, while rapidly advancing artificial intelligence tools began reshaping the way people work, communicate and create.

India overtook China as the world’s most populous country and achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first nation to land an unmanned spacecraft near the Moon’s south pole.

Scientists also achieved the world’s first whole-eye transplant.

But 2023 was simultaneously recorded as the hottest year since global records began in 1880, with climate-related disasters striking communities across several continents.

The year also saw the deaths of major cultural figures, including rock legend Tina Turner, Friends actor Matthew Perry, musician Shane MacGowan and acclaimed novelist Cormac McCarthy.

A year of uncertainty

As fireworks faded and 2024 began, the world’s celebrations reflected a striking contradiction.

For some, the new year represented hope, renewal and a chance to leave behind years of pandemic disruption and economic hardship.

For others, particularly those living amid war, displacement and political instability, the calendar offered little immediate relief.

The year ahead promised elections that could reshape global politics, technological advances that could transform everyday life and sporting spectacles such as the Paris Olympics.

But alongside those events remained a more difficult question: could 2024 become a year of rebuilding and peace, or would the conflicts and crises of the previous year continue to define the global landscape?