That is it from me, Martin Belam. We will be closing this live blog shortly. Thank you for joining me to see in the new year, and again I wish you all the very best for a happy and more peaceful 2024.
Details of the archbishop of Canterbury’s new year message have been released, with Justin Welby asking people to “seek to make peace” in 2024.
In a message to be broadcast on New Year’s Day, the archbishop says:
Wars seem everywhere at the moment. Wars we know about, wars forgotten.
I’ve seen for myself the ongoing human cost of war. In Ukraine I went to Bucha where evidence of atrocities was found. I’ve meet Ukrainian refugees, most recently in Georgia and Romania: families having to start again in a new country.
I’ve met refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh after they left their homes because of conflict. And in Jerusalem last October I sat and listened to some of those traumatised by war, Palestinian and Israeli.
Jesus Christ tells us to stand with those suffering because of war, and to seek to make peace.
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has posted a short video clip of the celebrations in the UK’s capital, spelling out the messages that ran through the display.
He wrote:
From London to the world: a message of unity, love & hope. Our city is a place for everyone. You are free to be who you want and love who you want. Our NHS are the best of us. A greener, fairer, future is within our grasp.
From London to the world: a message of unity, love & hope. ❤️🙏🏾🌎
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) January 1, 2024
✊🏾 Our city is a place for everyone
✨️ You are free to be who you want & love who you want
💙 Our NHS are the best of us
🌎 A greener, fairer, future is within our grasp#LoveLondon #HappyNewYear pic.twitter.com/TXBd6AY1Mq
Before I wrap up the live blog for the evening – well, morning here now in the UK – here are a few more pictures of celebrations from around the world as 2024 begins.
Firework and drone displays are all very well, but you have to ask yourself, do enough new year celebrations involve carrying burning whisky barrels through the streets? The answer is that at least the Allendale Tar Barrels Parade in Northumberland keeps this tradition going.
Only men born locally are allowed to carry the barrels, and they do so in fancy dress. Apparently the tradition has been going for 160 years.
I don’t want to be disloyal to London, since it is my home town, but I do feel that Paris looks like it was the place to be this evening, as it ushered in a year in which the city will host the Summer Olympics and Paralympics. A French government minister has said 800,000 people attended.
However, if I could have been anywhere rather than spending the evening with you on the live blog, I would have gone to Edinburgh to watch Pulp.
In the UK, the BBC just appears to have just rickrolled the entire nation by cutting on BBC One straight from the fireworks in London to Risk Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up. Astonishing scenes.
Here is how things are looking in Edinburgh and in London. And Brussels for good measure, because we haven’t had any pictures from there yet.
Some of the first pictures of the London fireworks display have just started appearing on the news wires. So far the display has included a segment about the coronation of King Charles III, the anniversary of the NHS, and a really rather impressive set of drones making the shape of a child blowing dandelions seeds across the sky.
I’m enjoying a triple dose of fireworks personally, as I have the London display on my television, the Edinburgh display on my laptop, and some kids are letting off fireworks in the communal gardens outside my flat. The dog has taken it all very well so far.
Wherever you are, on behalf of myself and my colleagues, I’d like to wish you a happy new year, and one that is as kind to you, and as peaceful, as can be.
The UK greets 2024 with large firework displays in London and Edinburgh
The UK has greeted the new year with large firework displays in London, Edinburgh and across the country.
London’s mayor Sadiq Khan had promised that the capital would deliver a spectacular show with some “surprises”, while Edinburgh offered a concert headlined by Pulp with fireworks above Edinburgh’s famous castle.
Al Thomson, co-director of event organiser UniqueAssembly, told PA Media: “We’re in for one hell of a party now. Fifty thousand people in the streets of Edinburgh enjoying good music, good company, and one of the best fireworks displays in the world – there’s no better way to start the new year. This is just the perfect end to the year and the best way to celebrate 30 years of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay.”
One place that resumed its traditional celebrations was Scarborough. Last year the council cancelled its firework display to avoid frightening wandering Thor the walrus who was in the town’s harbour at the time.
The weather ruined plans elsewhere, however, with a winter wonderland event in Plymouth and a Devon town’s firework display among those to be pulled due to wet conditions.
By the way, if you want a nerdy fact to impress someone later this evening, you can tell them that it is 100 years since the very first time that the big bongs of Big Ben were broadcast by the BBC. They did it for the first time on New Year’s Eve in 1923.
Or maybe don’t.
It is just possible that trying to impress people with nerdy facts like that is the reason that I’m here doing a live blog rather than out partying tonight myself.
If you are in the UK, you’ve just got time to charge your glasses as we are about ten minutes away from 2024.
Reuters reports that according to the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, over 800,000 people took to the Champs-Élysées boulevard to greet the new year in a mass Paris party with an Olympics theme.
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I did mention earlier that a lot of cities and nations compete with each other for the most spectacular display, and this wide-angle photograph of the fireworks in Bahrain shows how much effort has gone into them there.
Here are some more pictures of the celebrations around Europe for the new year.
It is a shameless plug, but hey, it is getting late and why not? If you’ve got five minutes to spare, there is still time to do this week’s Guardian Thursday quiz which is a regular feature of our website and is set by *checks notes* someone called Martin Belam.
One thing I have noticed over the years doing this job is that you don’t often get sent many pictures of new year celebrations from countries in Africa very quickly overnight. I have spotted this view of Nairobi in Kenya that has come through the news wires though.
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They’ve already enjoyed some fireworks above Edinburgh’s castle and they’ve also got Pulp to look forward to in concert – hence these Jarvis Cocker facemasks seen on the streets of Scotland’s capital tonight.
Paris lights up to welcome Olympic year as 2024 arrives across much of Europe
Here is the Arc de Triomphe lit up to welcome the Olympic year to Paris, as France, and indeed much of Europe, including Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Sweden and everywhere in between, enter the new year.
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Yesterday we had this list of 15 small ways you can improve your life by making small changes, and I read the bit headed “Don’t train for a marathon” and have taken that to heart as a small achievement I can make in 2024. I think the small print said something about having your focus on running a 5k instead but I’d stopped paying attention by then. There are some interesting and useful ideas in here though – I recommend it. If you are in bits of Europe on CET, you’ve got 15 minutes until 2024 to work out which ones you are going to try to put into action.
Read more here: 15 ways to change your life without trying all that hard
Over at the sport desk, they awarded Jenni Hermoso the Guardian Footballer of the Year award, and crowned Erling Haaland the best male footballer in the world for 2023, despite a dip in form and an injury which sees my fantasy football team Shambles United languishing very near the bottom of the Guardian’s staff FPL table.
What you really want right now, though, is this fantastic selection of videos from our amazing world of sport series that features a football goal scored in under four seconds, a 211-shot badminton rally (how?), and a Rubik’s Cube record.
Watch the videos here: The amazing world of sport 2023: highs, lows and a 211-shot rally
They always put on a good New Year’s Eve show in Athens.
I am of an age where most of the gigs I have already booked to see in 2024 are very much on the 80s and 90s nostalgia circuit, and if you are in London you may well bump into me watching Suede, the Manics, Depeche Mode, OMD and The The at some point next year.
Fortunately my colleagues Alexis Petridis and Andrew Clements are on hand to point you in the direction of some rather more contemporary things to look out for next year.
My personal shouts for new music would be Nadine Shah, Modern Woman, The New Eves and hopefully new material from Desperate Journalist. I sometimes wear a Desperate Journalist T-shirt to the Guardian office, and you can insert your own punchline there.
Read more here: The best pop and classical music to look out for in 2024
Here are some more of the New Year’s Eve images being sent to us over the news wires.
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It is just approaching midnight in Kyiv, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has issued a message on the Telegram app, writing:
Ukrainians are stronger than cold and darkness. Ukrainians are stronger than intrigues, lies, pain, despair and discord. Ukrainians are stronger than fear. Ukrainians are stronger than terror. Ukrainians are stronger than evil. Ukrainians are stronger than this war. Ukrainians are stronger together!
Earlier he published a joint message with his wife, Olena Zelenska, in which they said:
The Ukrainian new year is not only a time for greetings, but also for action. Not only for wishes, but also for doing everything possible to make them come true. We, the Ukrainians, understand better than anybody else that a better future does not come by itself, but only because we defend each of our tomorrows. Our new year will be what we make it. The new year’s miracle, but also the year-round miracle, is all of you: dedicated, responsible, caring, and effective.
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It looks busy in Paris, where crowds have gathered at the Champs-Elysées.
The onlookers are being treated to what looks like a rather complicated open air acrobatic performance.
Photograph: Benoît Tessier/Reuters
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No, this isn’t a picture of me after several hours of live blogging New Year’s Eve, this is in fact part of a procession in Laupen in Switzerland where “bells, brooms, pig bladders, and eerie masks are used to drive away evil spirits in a festive procession starting from Laupen Castle”.
I guess it helps pass the time.
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It has been many a long year since I personally last ventured into the centre of London for the New Year’s Eve fireworks display, but it looks like plenty of people have braved the weather there so far tonight.
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There is a big security operation going in Berlin this evening, with an expected 4,500 police officers on the streets. Associated Press report that police in the German capital have issued a ban on the traditional use of firecrackers for several streets across the city.
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One of the advantages of having both the Guardian and the Observer output on the one website is that sometimes you get a second chance at something. If you didn’t do too well on the Guardian quiz of the year I linked to earlier, why not try your hand at this one from the Observer?
Do the quiz set by Séamas O’Reilly and Dara O’Reilly here: The Observer big 2023 quiz of the year
It has just gone midnight in Moscow. As he usually does, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has broadcast a video message, which is shown in each different Russian time zone at midnight. Observers have noted that this year it made no specific mention of the war in Ukraine or “special military operation”, as Russian authorities have insisted on calling it.
In the address, though, Putin did say:
Today I would like to address our military personnel, everyone who is at a combat post, at the forefront of the fight for truth and justice. You are our heroes, our hearts are with you. We are proud of you, we admire your courage, knowing that now you feel the love of your closest, dearest, dearest people, the sincere support of millions of Russian citizens, the support of the entire people. We have proven more than once that we can solve the most difficult problems and will never give up, because there is no force that can separate us.
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It does seem that wherever you are in the world, setting things on fire so they shoot up into the sky is very much the done thing tonight – whether it is large scale, small scale or even handheld.
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I wouldn’t say that my dog Willow has entirely thrown herself into the party spirit this evening, but if your pet has, do send me a photo – martin.belam@theguardian.com.
While we are looking ahead to the new year, Peter Bradshaw has produced this list of films to look forward to in 2024, of which Poor Things, The End We Start From and Copa 71 have all caught my eye.
Read Peter Bradshaw’s recommendations here: The films to look forward to in 2024
Anne Billson had a great piece about Emma Stone in Poor Things the other day, and if you are feeling reflective or worried about catching up with something you missed in the cinema, then our 50 best films of 2023 in the UK is also available.
Personally my favourite things I saw at the cinema this year included Emma Seligman’s Bottoms, the glorious revival of The Red Shoes for its 75th anniversary, and I had a lot of time for Sissy, Sick of Myself and Close.
People are already waiting at the barricades in Times Square in New York for the celebrations at midnight, which are just over eight hours away for the east coast of the US.
Meanwhile in Bondi Beach in Sydney people have already slept off their celebrations and headed to the beach. Not sure about the headgear on display here to be honest.
Not everyone around the world will be able to spend New Year’s Eve with their loved ones. In Israel today the Knesset was lit up in yellow in a show of support for hostages still being held in Gaza after they were seized and abducted on 7 October.
Streets in Jerusalem are still covered in posters showing the faces of those who authorities say are still being held captive inside the Gaza Strip.
And in Tel Aviv earlier today students gave a dance performance in tribute to one of the people believed to be a hostage of Hamas.
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I am very aware that while I am trying to keep things mostly lighthearted on this blog this evening, that it has not been a happy 2023 and will not be a happy 2024 for a lot of people on the planet.
Regular visitors to the Guardian website might recognise my name as someone who is frequently doing the live blog coverage of conflicts and disasters around the world.
Knowing that I would be doing tonight’s coverage, I was struck earlier this week by a photoset of Palestinian artist Menna Allah Hamouda running a facepainting session in the beseiged Gaza Strip to try to give the children stuck there at least a glimpse of new year celebrations.
For a somewhat sobering look at what 2024 might hold politically, several of my colleagues contributed to this piece, which outlines some of the key moments and ways that global conflicts may develop over the next 12 months.
Read more here: The world in 2024 – Guardian writers on what to look out for
Palestinian artist Menna Allah Hamouda. Photograph: APAImages/REX/Shutterstock
You do get some absolutely spectacular photographs over the news wires on New Year’s Eve, and these span several countries and time zones.
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It has just gone midnight in the United Arab Emirates, where there are often competing spectacular displays. Dubai’s usually centres on the landmark Burj Khalifa, and this year is no different.
I am yet to realise my ambition to write for the Fortean Times as pocket money during my retirement, but this month’s edition of the magazine about strange phenomena and experiences has a feature on the Enfield Poltergeist that leans into my interviews with the two teams behind two plays about the case which have been on the stage in the UK.
If you want an idea of what you might want to look out for on stage next year, whether it involves ghosts or not, then you need go no further than this list by my colleagues Arifa Akbar, Lyndsey Winship and Brian Logan.
Read more here: The best theatre, dance and comedy tickets to book in 2024
Some New Year’s Eve fireworks cancelled as heavy rain and high winds buffet UK
Inclement weather has caused several New Year’s Eve firework displays to be cancelled, as heavy rain and high winds threatened to dampen the party spirit of thousands of revellers.
In the south-west of England, a winter wonderland event in Plymouth and a Devon town’s firework display were among those to be pulled due to the wet conditions on Sunday, and the Met Office warned that exposed coasts and hills on the southern coast of England and in south Wales would continue to be battered by strong winds.
Organisers of Plymouth’s winter wonderland said they had taken the “very difficult decision” to cancel its plans for New Year’s Eve because of severe gales.
“As much as we are very disappointed and frustrated, your safety comes first, as well as ours, and we can’t possibly take the risk,” they said, while confirming those who had bought tickets will be fully refunded. Meanwhile, Barnstaple, in Devon, cancelled its annual fireworks because of the “horrendous” weather, Devon Live reported.
An early evening firework display, often attended by families and children, was also scrapped because of the weather, it was reported.
Read more of Tom Ambrose’s report here: New Year’s Eve fireworks cancelled as heavy rain and high winds buffet UK
Macron: 2024 will be a year of French 'pride' and 'hope'
President Emmanuel Macron vowed this evening that 2024 will be the year of French pride and hope, marked by the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games and Paralympics, and the re-opening of Notre Dame Cathedral after the devastating 2019 fire.
“Only once in a century does one host Olympic and Paralympic Games, only once in a millennium does one rebuild a cathedral,” Reuters reports Macron said. “2024, a year of determination, choices, recovery, pride. In fact, a year of hope.”
He spoke in a televised address ahead of New Year celebrations during which about 90,000 police and 5,000 soldiers will be deployed to ensure security and address what the government called a “very high” terrorist threat.
France will continue to “re-arm” itself when it comes to security matters, but also boost public education and social cohesion, Macron said.
Midnight is still just under 90 minutes away in Istanbul, but there are already some great pictures coming through of people gathered there – some more enthusiastically than others by the looks of things.
It still baffles me that video games remain treated like the third wheel of the entertainment industry by much of the media, given that pretty much everybody with access to them has been playing electronic games for the best part of five decades, but there you go. But if you wonder what you might be playing during 2024, look no further …
Read more here: The best games to look forward to in 2024
By the way, my favourite game last year (outside the blockbuster title of Baldur’s Gate III and still not quite having finished Red Dead Redemption II because I can’t face the ending) was Dredge – which Keza described as “a clever, compelling fishing adventure game with an eldritch twist”. It is a one-player game but doing it together kept me and my 10 and 14-year-old kids obsessively entertained for long periods this year.
Dredge also made it on to our list of games you may have missed in 2023.
Associated Press reports that in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, the mood appeared upbeat as people gathered for a fireworks show at the bamboo-shaped Taipei 101 skyscraper, as well as at concerts and other events held throughout the city.
They may have been less enthused to find out that in his new year address, Chinese president Xi Jinping today said “China will surely be reunified, and all Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose.”
New Year’s Eve is a time of both looking forward, and of looking backward, so before it slips off into the distance, why not test your knowledge on what you can remember from 2023 with our news quiz? Probably best attempted earlier in the evening rather than later.
Do the quiz set by Will Dean: Barbie, Beatles and Bankman-Fried: how well do you remember 2023?
It has just gone midnight in Pakistan, where any celebrations of the new year have been muted. Earlier this week the caretaker prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, said that because of the situation in the Gaza Strip, the government had “completely banned all kinds of events regarding the new year celebrations”.
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Once you get through tonight – especially if like me you are at home and have the TV on – there is the small matter of wondering what 2024 has in store for you to watch. If you’d like a peruse of our suggestions, then Stuart Heritage and Kate Abbott have got you covered with our guide to the 50 must-see TV shows for 2024.
Oh and yes, if you are wondering, I will be having Eve of the Daleks on in the background later this evening. I only gave it three stars when I reviewed it at the time, which seems a bit harsh, as it has now firmly become a regular part of my New Year’s Eve routine.
Nepal is one of those countries whose time zone is offset by 15 minutes rather than being on the hour or half hour, so they entered the new year 15 minutes before India did, and are already half an hour into 2024. It is almost like time travel on this blog. Earlier today there was a parade in Kathmandu by the indigenous Gurung community as part of the Tamu Lhoshar festival.
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Tributes have been paid today because, as well as being New Year’s Eve, it is also the first anniversary of the death of Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Francis praised his love and wisdom, while Benedict’s former private secretary expressed hope he might one day be declared a saint.
Benedict, the first pope to retire in six centuries, died last 31 December at the age of 95 in the Vatican monastery where he spent 10 years as a pope emeritus. He is buried in the grottoes underneath St Peter’s Basilica.
Associated Press reports that speaking at the end of his weekly noon blessing, Francis said the faithful feel “so much love, so much gratitude, so much admiration” for Benedict. He praised the “love and wisdom” with which Benedict guided the church and asked for a round of applause from the pilgrims and tourists gathered in St Peter’s Square.
The pope also commented on the suffering of people experiencing conflict around the world, offering prayers for “the tormented Ukrainian people and the Palestinian and Israeli populations, the Sudanese people and many others”, and saying: “At the end of the year, we will have the courage to ask ourselves how many human lives have been shattered by armed conflict, how many dead and how much destruction, how much suffering, how much poverty. Whoever has interest in these conflicts, listen to the voice of conscience.”
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It has just gone midnight in India, and here are some of the pictures sent earlier over the news wires of people celebrating there.
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Hong Kong is also a city that always puts on a spectacular show to welcome the new year, and this year is no exception, with a laser show over Victoria harbour.
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Met Office warns wind and rain could spoil New Year's Eve celebrations in UK
I should point out at this moment that if, like me, you are in the UK, there are some weather warnings in place that may affect your plans for the evening. Revellers have been urged to pack a rain jacket for the countdown to 2024.
PA Media reports that the Met Office has said exposed coasts and hills on the southern coast of England and in south Wales will continue to be battered by strong winds
The meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said showers in these areas would start to “band up”, becoming more frequent:
There’s potential for 10-20mm widely, and 30-40mm in some areas over the 12-hour period. It has been quite wet so the ground is already saturated. We could see some difficult driving conditions for those who are out and about for New Year’s Eve. Some bus and train services could be affected.
For most other parts of the UK, the rain will be less persistent but the threat of showers during the countdown to the new year remains.
Scattered, blustery showers are expected to develop across the country, possibly thundery along southern coasts, but some brighter spells are possible between showers.
“Elsewhere tonight it will be showery, so it’s worth taking a rain jacket with you,” Vautrey added.
The driest and brightest weather will be across parts of mainland northern Scotland.
For those foolhardy enough to be planning a New Year’s Day swim, sea surface temperatures around the UK were unlikely to rise above 10C, the Met Office said.
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I should imagine if you are a major urban centre in Australia, it must be annoying how Sydney grabs the global spotlight during New Year’s Eve celebrations. But it does have a spectacular backdrop for it …
That doesn’t mean that people aren’t out in force elsewhere in Australia to celebrate the new year. Here is a view of the scenes this evening in Melbourne.
The national monument in Indonesia has been carrying a new year message for 2024.
And it looks like the centre of town in Jakarta has been busy with celebrations, too.
By contrast this image shows some deserted streets in Tokyo in Japan. Like elsewhere, a lot of people take the opportunity at new year to visit their home town.
Earlier in Tokyo these Shinto priests at the Meiji Shrine were preparing for new year celebrations, with as many as 3 million people expected to visit in the next few days.
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Welcome …
Hello. Welcome to our live coverage of New Year’s Eve celebrations from around the world as 2024 begins. Well, begins for some of us. I am in London, but Kiritimati has already been enjoying the new year for eight hours, and Sydney has been lit up with the two traditional epic fireworks display – one at midnight, and a family-friendly one at 9pm so you can get younger kids tucked up in bed early.
Over the next few hours we will bring you some of the best photographs from around the world, messages of goodwill from world leaders, and hopefully a little bit of fun, too.
News may also happen – I did not have Queen Margrethe II of Denmark announces surprise abdication live on TV on my list of things to bring you this evening, but here we all are.
Do let me know what you are up to on New Year’s Eve, especially if it is something unusual or you have made a ridiculous new year’s resolution – you can email me at martin.belam@theguardian.com – and I always want to see pictures of your animal companions celebrating with you.
And of course, our picture editors have already selected some of the best fireworks images from Australia.
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