Fireworks illuminated skies over Paris, Rio and Sydney to celebrate the entry to 2024, while in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine, rockets and strikes marked the year’s earliest hours.

Denmark’s popular Queen Margrethe II, Europe’s longest-serving monarch, said Sunday that she would abdicate on January 14 and pass the baton to her son Crown Prince Frederik.

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed on Sunday that 2024 will be a year of French pride and hope, marked by the Paris Olympic Games and the re-opening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, in his traditional New Year’s Eve address from the Élysée Palace in the French capital.

From a devastating earthquake in Syria and Turkey to a march on Moscow and the war against Hamas in Gaza, 2023 was full of dramatic moments, from the heartfelt to the heartbreaking. FRANCE 24 takes a look back at 12 key events that defined the year in news. 

Thousands of protesters gathered Saturday in Belgrade in the biggest of a series of rallies against alleged electoral fraud.

More than a dozen people were killed by Ukrainian strikes on the Russian provincial capital of Belgorod, Russia’s emergencies ministry said Saturday, with the Russian defence ministry vowing the strike “will not go unpunished”.