Farewell 2022! : the world is preparing to pass in 2023

For many, New Year’s Day will be a time to drive away the memories of COVID-19, as the virus fades away, but does not fade away.

Untie his purse, too, and put aside months of sobriety forced by the pandemic and inflation records all around the globe.

In Australia, Sydney will be one of the first major cities to ring the bell in 2023, reclaiming its title of new year’s eve capital of the world after two years of closure and festivities stifled by the Omicron variant.

Australia’s borders have since reopened and more than a million people are expected in Sydney Harbor to witness the launch of more than 100,000 pyrotechnic devices. City officials estimate nearly half a billion viewers will watch the show online or on TV.

By midday, hundreds of people were already occupying the best places to watch the show. It was a pretty good year for us, getting rid of [de la COVID]that’s greatcommented David Hugh-Paterson, 52, installed in front of the Sydney Opera House amid the growing crowds who protected themselves from the summer showers under umbrellas.

” If we can get everyone to join the party and approach the coming year with renewed optimism and joy, then we will have succeeded. »

What to decide with the feeling left by 2022, who saw disappear Queen Elizabeth II, Pelé, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jiang Zemin and Shinzo Abe.

This year also rhymed with the Big resignationa phenomenon of massive departure of employees from their jobs after the pandemic, with a slap at the Oscars ceremony and the ruin of billionaires, carried away by cryptocurrency crush.

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock as he presented onstage at the Oscars.

Photo: Reuters/BRIAN SNYDER

Ukraine holds its breath

But above all, it will forever be associated with the return of war in Europe with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on a continent already bruised by two world wars.

In more than 300 days, nearly 7,000 civilians have been killed and 10,000 injured, according to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Sixteen million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes. For those who remain, daily life is punctuated by power cuts, Russian bombardments and a curfew.

Young people attending a literature course at the Irpin library use their phones or flashlights to light up during a power cut.

Photo: dpa via getty images / GENYA SAVILOV

Everyone goes through this conflict in their own way: a silent prayer, a celebration, in a common surge of resistance.

Further east, Vladimir Putin’s Russia is not in the mood for fun. Moscow has canceled its traditional pyrotechnic shows after the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, asked residents how they would like to mark the start of the new year.

A peaceful sky above our headsthat’s the only wish of Muscovites like Irina Shapovalova, 51, a daycare worker.

The national broadcaster VGTRK nevertheless promised a New Year’s Eve atmosphere, despite the changes in the country and in the world.

But this year, the show will be without the usual artists or the star presenter Maxim Galkin, who went into exile after denouncing the war in Ukraine and since considered a foreign agent.

China in uncertainty

Always to the east, at the end of the continent, COVID has made a resounding comeback in Chinawhile vaccination allows the rest of the world to return to a semblance of normal life.

In China, only patients who died of respiratory failure caused by the virus and tested positive are considered victims of COVID-19.

Photo: Getty Images / AFP / NOEL CELIS

Beijing suddenly abandoned its policy of zero covid at the beginning of the month, a reversal immediately followed by an explosion in the number of contaminations. Hospitals, like crematoriums, may be overwhelmed, but rallies are planned everywhere for the transition to 2023.

However, Shanghai authorities announced that no activities would take place on the city’s famous waterfront.