World Steps Into 2023 after Turbulent Year

Confetti flies around the countdown clock during the first public New Year's event since the coronavirus pandemic, at Times Square, in Manhattan, New York, January 1, 2023. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

The world's eight billion people Saturday ushered in 2023, bidding farewell to a turbulent 12 months marked by war in Europe, stinging price rises, Lionel Messi's World Cup glory and the deaths of Queen Elizabeth, Pele and former pope Benedict.

Many were ready to set aside pinched budgets and a virus that is increasingly forgotten but not gone, and embrace a party atmosphere on New Year's Eve after a few pandemic-dampened years.