World welcomes 2024, but wars cast a shadow in Pakistan, other countries

The landmark Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the world’s tallest building, is lit up in Dubai at midnight on new year's eve on January 1, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 01 January 2024
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World welcomes 2024, but wars cast a shadow in Pakistan, other countries

  • Ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza affecting New Year’s Eve celebrations
  • In Muslim-majority Pakistan, government has banned all NYE celebrations as act of solidarity with Palestinians

Revelers counted down to midnight on New Year’s Eve across the world’s continents, where fireworks and festive lights offered a hopeful start to 2024 for some, even as the globe’s ongoing conflicts have subdued celebrations and raised security concerns.
In Australia, more than 1 million people watched a pyrotechnic display centered around Sydney’s famous Opera House and harbor bridge — a number of spectators equivalent to one in five of the city’s residents.




Fireworks explode over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House (L) during New Year's Eve celebrations in Australia on January 1, 2024. (AFP) 

“It’s total madness,” said German tourist Janna Thomas, who waited in line since 7:30 a.m. to secure a prime waterfront location.
People also lined up early in New York City to nab a spot in Times Square for the midnight ball drop. Officials and party organizers said they’re prepared to keep tens of thousands of revelers safe in heart of Manhattan, as the city has seen near-daily protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.




Revellers gather in Times Square during the celebrations of the New Year's Eve in New York City on December 31, 2023. (REUTERS)

FIREWORKS LIGHT UP THE NIGHT
Stunning fireworks displays bloomed at iconic locations like the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, the sleek glass walls of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, in the United Arab Emirates, and accompanied a collective cheer filling the air in Nairobi, Kenya.




Fireworks explode over the city during New Year's celebrations in Nairobi, Kenya, on Dec. 31, 2023. (AP)

China celebrated relatively quietly, with most major cities banning fireworks over safety and pollution concerns. Still, people gathered and performers danced in colorful costumes in Beijing, while a crowd released wish balloons in Chongqing. During his New Year address, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country would focus on building momentum for economic recovery in 2024 and pledged China would “surely be reunified” with Taiwan.
In Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, the mood appeared upbeat as revelers gathered for a fireworks show at the bamboo-shaped Taipei 101 skyscraper, as well as at concerts and other events held throughout the city.




Taiwanese citizens celebrate the arrival of 2024 with fireworks at Taipei 101 Tower in Taipei on January 1, 2024. (REUTERS)

For India, thousands of revelers from the financial hub of Mumbai watched the sun set over the Arabian Sea. In New Delhi, fireworks raised concerns that the capital — already infamous for its poor air quality — would be blanketed by a toxic haze on the first morning of the new year.
Across Japan, people gathered at temples, such as the Tsukiji Temple in Tokyo, where visitors were given free hot milk and corn soup as they stood in line to strike a massive bell.
POPE HIGHLIGHTS THE HUMAN COST OF WAR
At the Vatican, Pope Francis recalled 2023 as a year marked by wartime suffering. During his traditional Sunday blessing from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, he offered prayers for “the tormented Ukrainian people and the Palestinian and Israeli populations, the Sudanese people and many others.”




Pope Francis waves to onlookers from his wheelchair at Saint Peter Square in The Vatican on December 31, 2023. (AFP)

“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,” the pontiff said.

GAZA AND UKRAINE WARS GRIND ON
In Russia, the country’s military actions in Ukraine have overshadowed end-of-year celebrations, with the usual fireworks and concert on Moscow’s Red Square canceled, as they were last year. Even without the festivities, people gathered in the square and some cheered and pointed their phones at a clock counting down the year’s final seconds.




People gather near Red Square in Moscow (left frame) and in front of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv (right) on New Year's eve, Dec. 31, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AP/Reuters)

After shelling in the Russian border city of Belgorod Saturday killed 24 people, some local authorities across Russia also canceled their usual firework displays, including in Vladivostok. Millions were expected to tune in to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s New Year’s prerecorded address, where he asserted no force that could divide Russians and stop the country’s development.
Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 35 people Sunday, hospital officials said, as fighting raged across the tiny enclave a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war will continue for “many more months,” resisting international calls for a cease-fire.




As most of the world joined the New Year's Eve revelry, Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip line up for water at a  makeshift tent camp in the Muwasi area on Dec. 31, 2023. (AP)

Skyscrapers in Tel Aviv were lit up in yellow to call for the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza for more than 80 days.
“While you are counting down until the new year, our time and our lives stopped,” said Moran Betzer Tayar, the aunt of Yagev Buchshtab, a 34 year old hostage.
In the Gaza Strip, displaced Palestinians huddled around fires in a makeshift refugee camp.
“From the intensity of the pain we live, we do not feel that there is a new year,” said Kamal Al-Zeinaty, who has lost multiple family members in the conflict. “All the days are the same.”




Iraqis gather to celebrate the New Year around a Christmas tree in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023. (AP)

In Iraq, a Christmas tree was decorated with Palestinian flags and symbolic bodies in funeral shrouds, placed beside a liberty monument in central Baghdad. Many Christians in Iraq have canceled this year’s festivities in solidarity with Gaza, and have chosen to limit their celebrations to prayers and rituals.
“We hope that the new year, 2024 will be a year of goodness, prosperity, and joy,” said Ahmed Ali, a Baghdad resident.
In Muslim-majority Pakistan, the government has banned all New Year’s Eve celebrations in solidarity with the Palestinians.
GLOBAL TENSIONS SPUR SECURITY VIGILANCE
New York Mayor Eric Adams said there were “no specific threats” to his city’s annual New Year’s Eve bash. Police said they would expand the security perimeter around the party, creating a “buffer zone” that would allow them to head off potential demonstrations. During last year’s party, a machete-wielding man attacked three police officers a few blocks from Times Square.
Security was also heightened across European cities on Sunday.




Revelers watch as fireworks explode in the sky over the River Main in Frankfurt, Germany, on Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023. (dpa via AP)

German authorities said they had detained three more people in connection with a reported threat of a New Year’s Eve attack by Islamic extremists on the world-famous Cologne Cathedral.
In Berlin, some 4,500 police officers are expected to keep order and avoid riots like a year ago. Police in the German capital issued a ban on the traditional use of fire crackers for several streets across the city. They also banned a pro-Palestinian protest in the Neukoelln neighborhood of the city, which has seen several pro-Palestinian riots.
In Paris, over 1.5 million people are expected to attend celebrations on the Champs-Elysees, with around 90,000 law enforcement officers would be deployed nationwide, top officials said. Celebrations in the French capital will center on the 2024




Fireworks illuminate the sky over the Arc de Triomphe during the New Year's celebrations on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris, France, on January 1, 2024. (REUTERS)

Paris Olympic Games, including DJ sets, fireworks and video projections on the Arc de Triomphe.
In a New Year’s message, French President Emmanuel Macron predicted that the 2024 European Parliament elections will be crucial to Ukraine’s future and the fate of democracy across Europe.


Somalia climate shocks and aid cuts create perfect storm

Updated 15 sec ago
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Somalia climate shocks and aid cuts create perfect storm

  • After his home in the Somali capital was battered by torrential rains, Mohamed Abdukadir Teesto worries about his future at a time when local and foreign aid is vanishing
MOGADISHU: After his home in the Somali capital was battered by torrential rains, Mohamed Abdukadir Teesto worries about his future at a time when local and foreign aid is vanishing.
The Horn of Africa nation is among the most vulnerable to climate change, according to the United Nations, and in the last five years has experienced both the worst drought in 40 years and once-in-a-century flooding.
The more severe weather compounds the insecurity many Somalis face after decades of violent insurgency and political instability.
“We have cleaned our house using our bare hands,” Teesto, 43, told AFP, saying neither international agencies nor the government had offered any assistance.
“Some families who had their houses destroyed are still displaced and cannot come back,” he said. “If it rains again, we will have the same situation.”
Teesto is among around 24,000 people in the Banadir region, which includes Mogadishu, impacted by flooding this month that killed at least 17.
Humanitarian work in Somalia was already under-funded before the halt of aid programs under the US Agency for International Development (USAID), made by President Donald Trump upon his return to the White House.
The UN says its humanitarian needs for the year — estimated at $1.4 billion — are only 12 percent funded so far.
“This can get very, very bad, very quickly,” said Sara Cuevas Gallardo, spokesperson for the World Food Programme, which handles roughly 90 percent of food security assistance in Somalia.
“We don’t know if we have the capacity,” she said.
This month, CARE International said Somalia had 1.8 million severely malnourished children under five, with 479,000 at risk of dying without urgent help.
Cuevas Gallardo said Somalia could see a return to the situation in 2020-2023 when it was on the brink of famine.
The difference being that now “we don’t have the funds to actually act when we have to,” she said.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) has repeatedly warned about the link between climate change and conflict.
Recent attacks are stoking fears of a resurgence by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab, adding to the displacement and vulnerability caused by weather problems.
Globally, the main driver of hunger is conflict, Cuevas Gallardo said.
“If it’s mixed with the uncertainty of climate shocks in Somalia, then it just equals more food needs, more hunger, more people on the move, and us being unable to respond to that uncertainty as well.”
The WFP is not alone in its warnings.
British charity Save the Children said last week that funding shortfalls would force it to shut more than a quarter of the health and nutrition facilities it runs in Somalia in the coming weeks.
They include every single one in the central city of Baidoa.
It shared the story of Fatima and her one-year-old son, who fled their village after successive droughts damaged crops and killed their livestock.
“If we were not able to get medicines and nutrition support here, we would have no other option but to see our children dying in front of us,” Save the Children quoted the 25-year-old as saying.
The charity said that the current period always sees an uptick in malnourishment but this year it expects an 11-percent increase in malnutrition, leaving remaining facilities “stretched to breaking point.”
At a clinic in Baidoa, doctor Mustafa Mohammed said they have already seen a surge in patients and that closure would be grave.
“There is nowhere else for these children to go.”

Philippine president calls for all Cabinet secretaries to resign after election setbacks

Updated 22 May 2025
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Philippine president calls for all Cabinet secretaries to resign after election setbacks

  • At least 21 Cabinet secretaries either immediately submitted their resignations or expressed their readiness to do so
  • Ferdinand Marcos Jr.: ‘This is not about personalities – it’s about performance, alignment and urgency’

MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. asked all of his Cabinet secretaries to submit resignations on Thursday in a “bold reset” of his administration following last week’s mid-term elections, which saw more opposition candidates win crucial Senate seats.
Marcos, the 67-year-old son of a late Philippine dictator overthrown in 1986, won the presidency in the deeply divided Southeast Asian country by a landslide in 2022 in a stunning political comeback as he made a steadfast call for national unity. But his equally popular vice presidential running mate, Sara Duterte, later broke from him in a falling out that has sparked intense political discord.
With support from treaty ally the United States and other friendly countries, Marcos emerged as the most vocal critic of China ‘s growing aggression in the disputed South China Sea while contending with an array of longstanding domestic issues, including inflation — and delayed fulfillment of a campaign promise to bring down the price of rice — as well as many reports of kidnappings and other crimes.
“This is not business as usual,” Marcos was cited as saying in a government statement. “The people have spoken and they expect results — not politics, not excuses. We hear them and we will act.”
Marcos called for the “courtesy resignation of all Cabinet secretaries in a decisive move to recalibrate his administration following the results of the recent elections,” the government statement said.
“The request for courtesy resignations is aimed at giving the president the elbow room to evaluate the performance of each department and determine who will continue to serve in line with his administration’s recalibrated priorities,” the government said.
At least 21 Cabinet secretaries led by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin either immediately submitted their resignations or expressed their readiness to do so.
“This is not about personalities — it’s about performance, alignment and urgency,” Marcos said. “Those who have delivered and continue to deliver will be recognized. But we cannot afford to be complacent. The time for comfort zones is over.”
Government services will remain uninterrupted during the transition, the government said, adding that “with this bold reset, the Marcos administration signals a new phase — sharper, faster and fully focused on the people’s most pressing needs.”
Five out of the 12 Senate seats contested in the mid-term elections were won by allies of Sara Duterte or her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been arrested and detained by the International Criminal Court in The Hague in the Netherlands. The elder Duterte, a staunch critic of Marcos, was accused of committing crimes against humanity over a brutal anti-drugs crackdown he launched that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead.
Marcos-endorsed senatorial candidates won five Senate seats while two other seats were unexpectedly won by two liberal democrats associated with the late former President Benigno Aquino III, whose family has long been at odds with the Marcoses.
Voting for half of the 24-member Senate is crucial because the government body will hold an impeachment trial for Sara Duterte in July over an array of criminal allegations, including corruption and a public threat to assassinate Marcos, his wife and House Speaker Martin Romualdez. She made those threats in an online news conference in November but later issued a vague denial that she wanted the president killed.
Sara Duterte is facing a separate criminal complaint for her threats against the Marcoses and Romualdez.
Most of the seats in the House were won by candidates allied with Marcos and his cousin, Romualdez, in the May 12 elections, which many saw as a preview to the presidential elections scheduled for 2028.


Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held

Updated 22 May 2025
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Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held

  • Staff members were shot ‘at close range’ while attending a Jewish event at the museum
  • US President Donald Trump condemns the ‘horrible’ killings

Two Israeli embassy staff were killed in a shooting outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night, and a suspect is in custody, according to officials and media reports.

WASHINGTON: A man and a woman were shot and killed in the area of 3rd and F streets in Northwest which is near the museum, an FBI field office and the US attorney’s office, according to the reports.

Washington police chief Pamela Smith said a single suspect who was seen pacing outside the museum before the event was in custody. The suspect chanted “Free Palestine, Free Palestine,” in custody, she said.

Tal Naim Cohen, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, said two of its staff members were shot “at close range” while attending a Jewish event at the museum.

The Israeli embassy did not immediately respond to questions about the shooter, the victims or the motive for the attack.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed two Israeli embassy staff members were killed.

“We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share,” Noem wrote in a post on X.

“We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.”

Trump condemns ‘horrible D.C. killings’ based on ‘antisemitism’

US President Donald Trump condemned on Thursday the “horrible” killings of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.

“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” he posted on his Truth Social platform.

“Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said he and his team had been briefed on the shooting.

“While we’re working with [Metropolitan Police Department] to respond and learn more, in the immediate, please pray for the victims and their families,” he wrote on X.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called the shooting “a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.”

“Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line,” Danon said in a post on X. “We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi and US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro were on the scene of the shooting.

The Metropolitan Police Department declined to comment, saying a press conference would be held shortly.


State Department refugee office to assume USAID’s disaster aid role, says cable

Updated 22 May 2025
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State Department refugee office to assume USAID’s disaster aid role, says cable

  • US overseas missions told to consult with the bureau, called PRM, on foreign disaster declarations
  • Trump’s dismantling of USAID has seen thousands of contractors fired and billions of dollars in programs canceled

WASHINGTON: The State Department office that handles refugee issues and works to cut illegal migration will lead the US response to overseas disasters, according to excerpts from an internal department cable, a role for which experts say it lacks the knowhow and personnel.
The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, known as PRM, is assuming that function from the US Agency for International Development, the main US foreign aid agency that the Trump administration has been dismantling, say the excerpts reviewed by Reuters.
USAID’s gutting — largely overseen by billionaire Elon Musk as part of US President Donald Trump’s drive to shrink the federal government — has already led to what many experts called the administration’s late and inadequate response to a serious earthquake in Myanmar on March 25.
The excerpts come from a cable known as an ALDAC, which stands for “All Diplomatic and Consular Posts,” sent this week to US embassies and other diplomatic posts worldwide.
Reuters could not learn the precise date of the ALDAC.
Under the new arrangement, all US overseas missions should consult with PRM on foreign disaster declarations, said the cable.
“With approval from PRM based on established criteria for international disaster assistance, up to $100,000 can be issued to support the initial response,” it continued. “Additional resources may be forthcoming based on established humanitarian need” in consultation with other State Department offices.
The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed on condition of anonymity the authenticity of the excerpts.
Only 20 experts out of the roughly 525 who did the work at USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance and its Office of US Foreign Disaster Relief are being hired by PRM, the source said.
But, the source continued, the number is far from adequate and the PRM leadership has “no concept of how to” mount responses to major overseas disasters.
“They do not understand disaster response,” said the source.
“It’s a joke. It’s ridiculous,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former director of the Office of US Foreign Disaster Relief who serves as president of Refugees International, an advocacy organization. “PRM is not an operational entity. They do important stuff but this is not what they do.”
In past years, the US has regularly deployed some of the world’s most skilled rescue workers quickly to save lives in response to tsunamis, earthquakes and other disasters.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has rejected criticism of the administration response to the earthquake in Myanmar. He said it was a difficult place to work, the military junta does not like the US and it was unfair that the US has provided most international humanitarian aid.
Konyndyk warned that with the approaching Caribbean hurricane season the US can no longer mobilize the world-leading Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DARTs) it once could to help with serious disasters on this side of the globe.
“The mechanics of how DARTs work cannot be replicated in PRM,” Konyndyk said. “They are just trying to create a Potemkin DART.”
The Trump administration’s dismantlement of USAID has seen thousands of contractors fired, most of the 10,000 staff placed on administrative leave and facing termination, and billions of dollars in life-saving programs for tens of millions of people canceled. One cable excerpt said that in the event of an overseas disaster, PRM may call on what’s left of USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance to mobilize the remnants of its staff “to provide the most efficient and effective response.”


 


The Ambush Office: Trump’s Oval becomes test of nerve for world leaders

Updated 22 May 2025
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The Ambush Office: Trump’s Oval becomes test of nerve for world leaders

  • Trump has turned what were staid diplomatic “photo sprays” into punishing, hour-long tests of nerve in the heart of the US presidency

WASHINGTON: For world leaders an invitation to the Oval Office used to be a coveted prize. Under Donald Trump it’s become a ticket to a brutal political ambush.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa became the latest victim in a long line that started with Trump’s notorious row with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in February.
Trump has turned what were staid diplomatic “photo sprays” under his predecessor Joe Biden into punishing, hour-long tests of nerve in the heart of the US presidency, played out on live television.

The sight has become all too familiar — a world leader perched nervously on the edge of their gold-upholstered chair in front of the famed fireplace, waiting to see what happens.
Will the 78-year-old Republican lay on the charm? Will he show off the new gold-plated decor he has been proudly installing in the Oval? Will he challenge his guest on tariffs or trade or US military assistance?
Or will he simply tear into them?
Nobody knows before they get there. All they know is that when the cameras are allowed into the most exclusive room in the White House, they will be treading the most perilous of political tightropes.
And the hot, confined space of the Oval Office adds to the pressure-cooker environment as the unpredictable billionaire seeks to wrongfoot his guests and gain the upper hand.

Trump set the benchmark when he hosted Zelensky on February 28.
Tensions over Trump’s sudden pivot toward Russia spilled into the open as a red-faced US president berated the Ukrainian leader and accused him of being ungrateful for US military aid against Russia.

US President Donald Trump berating Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Oval Office in Washington on February 28, 2025. (AFP)

Many wondered if it was a deliberate ambush — especially as Vice President JD Vance appeared to step in to trigger the row.
Whether or not it was on purpose, the goal in foreign capitals ever since has been to “avoid a Zelensky.”
But Ramaphosa’s visit to the Oval on Wednesday was the closest yet to a repeat — and this time it was clearly planned.
Ramaphosa arrived with top South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in tow, hoping to take the edge off the golf-mad Trump’s unfounded claims of a “genocide” against white South African farmers.
But his face was a picture of bemusement when after a question on the issue, Trump suddenly said to aides and said: “Turn the lights down, and just put this on.”
A video of South African politicians chanting “kill the farmer” began to play on a screen set up at the side of the room. A stunned Ramaphosa looked at the screen, then at Trump, and then back at the screen.
Yet unlike Zelensky, who argued back with an increasingly enraged Trump, the South African president largely stayed calm as he argued his case.
Nor was he asked to leave the White House as Zelensky was, causing the Ukrainian to miss lunch.

Other leaders have also done their homework. Some have emerged mostly unscathed, or even with some credit.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, despite some nervous body language, stood his ground against Trump’s calls for his country to become the 51st US state and insisted that his country was “never for sale.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won over Trump with a letter from King Charles III, while French President Emmanuel Macron kept up his touch-feely bromance with the US president.
Trump’s ideological allies have often fared even better. El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele had a major Oval Office love-fest after agreeing to take migrants at a mega-prison in the Central American country.
But even some close allies have been wrongfooted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a warm welcome as the first foreign guest of Trump’s second term, but it was a different story when he returned in April.

During their second meeting at the Oval Office on April on April 7, 2025, US President Donald Trump surprised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he announced that Washington was starting direct talks with Iran. (AFP)

Cameras in the Oval Office caught his stunned face when Trump announced that Washington was starting direct talks with Iran.
For Trump, though, it’s all part of a presidency that he increasingly treats like a reality show.
Trump himself quipped after the Zelensky meeting that it was “going to be great television,” and one of his advisers was just as explicit after the Ramaphosa meeting.
“This is literally being watched globally right now,” Jason Miller said on X, along with a picture of the encounter on multiple screens. “Ratings GOLD!“