New Year’s Eve 2019 – live: Revellers descend on London to welcome new decade, as Sydney fireworks display prompts fury amid wildfires – The Independent

New Year’s Eve 2019 – live: Revellers descend on London to welcome new decade, as Sydney fireworks display prompts fury amid wildfires - The Independent thumbnail

The realm is draw to model the tip of the year, and the last decade, as 2019 involves a shut – and while spectacular firework displays are expected to herald within the 2020s all the map in which thru the globe, some threaten to be overshadowed by ongoing occasions.

In Australia, Fresh 365 days’s Eve celebrations were marred by wildfires which fill threatened to trigger mass evacuations in inhabitants hubs including Victoria within the east of the nation.

Meanwhile Hong Kong has braced for new protests over Chinese language impression within the draw to interrupt festivities.

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2019-12-31T20: 32: 59.030Z

Harry and Meghan post 2019 recap


2019-12-31T20: 19: 29.206Z

Sadiq Khan promises ‘most efficient London fireworks ever’

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has promised the “most efficient fireworks London has ever viewed” to ring within the sleek decade.

Mr Khan said the capital will “accomplishing self belief” on the sphere stage thru a formidable demonstrate on the Fresh 365 days’s Eve celebrations.

Speaking within the metropolis centre earlier than the celebrations on Tuesday night time, Mr Khan told the PA info company: “Hand on coronary heart, these are going to be the very most attention-grabbing fireworks London has ever viewed.”

He added the “world” can be gazing the demonstrate and he hoped it would train London was a “international metropolis”.

He said: “Slightly or unfairly, of us all the map in which thru the sphere observed the Brexit referendum vote because the UK by some ability turning its again on the rest of the sphere, including Europe.

“The fear was, we would turn out to be insular, inward-having a seek, and what I am desirous to train is the reverse.

“Yes we are able to be leaving the EU, but very mighty as a metropolis we’re still a European international metropolis. We can proceed to be begin to of us’s change and tips.

“What tonight’s fireworks are about is demonstrating our self belief.

“And or no longer it’s in actuality most well-known that we train the sphere who can be gazing our fireworks that we’re a confident, international, outward-having a seek European metropolis.”

The theme of this year’s demonstrate will wait for the capital cyber web web hosting several key games within the Euro 2020 soccer match.

The pyrotechnics train will unbiased more than 12,000 fireworks, with the demonstrate being draw to a soundtrack “impressed by London and Europe”, in step with a spokeswoman for the mayor.

Immense Ben’s chimes will sound the delivery up of the demonstrate despite them being still this year while renovation work is executed.


2019-12-31T20: 04: 32.626Z

Dubai celebrates 2020 with huge fireworks demonstrate

With the advent of 8pm within the UK, 2020 has bought to Dubai – and with it the Burj Khalifa, the tallest structure on this planet. Per annum, it gets a firework demonstrate befitting its huge dimension, and this year hasn’t upset.

Chances are you’ll maybe presumably undercover agent live here:


2019-12-31T19: 39: 22.863Z

India hit by protests as Fresh 365 days arrives

Hundreds of Indians ushered within the Fresh 365 days by demonstrating in opposition to a citizenship legislation despite Top Minister Narendra Modi’s attempts to dampen protests which fill slump for practically three weeks.

The protests fill rocked India since 12 December, when the authorities passed legislation easing the kind for non-Muslim minorities from neighbouring Muslim-majority international locations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to attain Indian citizenship.

Blended with opposition to a proposed nationwide register of residents, many Indians danger the legislation will discriminate in opposition to minority Muslims and chip away at India’s secular constitution.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Nationwide Citizens’ Register (NRC), which were portion of the election manifesto of Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist celebration.

Protesters had planned no longer no longer up to three demonstrations in Fresh Delhi, the capital, including the house of Shaheen Bagh, where an awfully good deal of of residents fill blocked a chief toll road for 18 days.

Irshad Alam, a 25-year-former resident of Shaheen Bagh, stood with his one-year-former in his arm and his essential other by his side. He said he’d been taking part within the order every single day.

“It is freezing here,” he said, “Nonetheless we’re still here because we care about this scramble.”



2019-12-31T19: 37: 52.183Z

Hogmonay celebrations delivery up in Edinburgh

Hogmanay celebrations fill begun in Edinburgh, as crowds gathered to survey the Fresh 365 days’s Eve fireworks draw to illuminate the skies above the metropolis’s toll road celebration.

The streets of Edinburgh are filling up as Hogmanay revellers prepare to welcome within the delivery up of a sleek decade and expertise the UK’s very most attention-grabbing toll road celebration.

Performances from Idlewild, Rudimental and Marc Almond will take recount on levels for the length of the metropolis centre, while DJ Sign Ronson will bring within the sleek year, constructing a sleek soundtrack earlier than the clock striking 12.

Approximately 100,000 guests are expected to again the match, in step with organisers who billed the Hogmanay celebrations because the UK’s very most attention-grabbing Fresh 365 days’s Eve toll road celebration.

TV stars Ant and Dec took to the stage in Princes Avenue Gardens early on Tuesday night time as crowds gathered, playing song and introducing the main firework demonstrate of the night time.

Avenue theatre, circus acts and musical performances also took recount up all the map in which thru more than a dozen streets, including the metropolis’s main throughfare Princes Avenue and its adjacent gardens, while ceilidhs danced their system into the night time within the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.

There had been criticism of the match’s organisation, amid uncertainty spherical how many passes residents had been allowed, with Underbelly – which also runs the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – accused of constructing “pointless confusion” by the council chief.



2019-12-31T19: 37: 14.640Z

Macron asks for a ‘robust relationship’ with post-Brexit Britain in Fresh 365 days’s take care of

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he wished a sturdy relationship with post-Brexit Britain.

Speaking in his former televised Fresh 365 days’s eve take care of to the nation, Macron said: “The UK’s departure from the European Union is a take a look at for our nation. I will strive to carry a sturdy relationship between our two countries.”

He also said he would push thru an overhaul of the pension machine, after weeks of nationwide strikes by change unions.

Within the identical speech, he said he expected his authorities to rapid earn a compromise with unions on the reform, but with out departing from the suggestions laid out by ministers.

Unions are attempting to force the frail investment banker to abandon his overhaul of France’s pension machine with nationwide strikes since 5 December which fill crippled public transport.


2019-12-31T18: 51: 48.713Z

Somber celebrations in Samoa

In Samoa, Fresh 365 days’s Eve was more somber than frequent. While fireworks erupted within the tedious of night time from Mount Vaea, overlooking the capital, Apia, the tip of the year was a time of sadness and remembrance.

A measles epidemic in unhurried 2019 claimed 81 lives, largely kids beneath 5.

Extra than 5,600 measles conditions had been recorded within the nation of true beneath 200,000. With the epidemic now contained, the Samoa Observer newspaper named as its Person of the 365 days effectively being workers who fought the outbreak.​


2019-12-31T17: 32: 53.353Z

Waitress left ‘pleased Fresh 365 days’ $2020 tip

The restaurant bill was $23. Nonetheless the tip at a little-town restaurant in Michigan was mighty better: $2,020.

“Things luxuriate in this don’t occur to of us luxuriate in me,” server Danielle Franzoni told The Alpena Info.

Franzoni, 31, bought the tip while working Sunday at Pronounce Bay River Restaurant in Alpena. The bank card receipt said “Cheerful Fresh 365 days. 2020 Tip Area.”

Franzoni, a single mom, might perhaps presumably now not mediate the volume, but her supervisor assured her the tip was reputable.

She said she was living in a homeless shelter a year within the past. Franzoni plans to make exercise of the cash to reinstate her driver’s license and invent savings.

“They ship out no longer know nothing about my yarn. They ship out no longer know where I’ve attain from. They ship out no longer know the map laborious or no longer it’s been,” Franzoni said of the couple who left the tip. “They’re in actuality true doing this out of the kindness of their coronary heart.”

Franzoni later went to a restaurant and left a $20.20 tip.

“That was my pay-it-forward,” she said, smiling. “I could perhaps presumably now not carry out the an awfully good deal of one.”​


2019-12-31T17: 32: 52.046Z

Waitress left ‘pleased Fresh 365 days’ $2020 tip

The restaurant bill was $23. Nonetheless the tip at a little-town restaurant in Michigan was mighty better: $2,020.

“Things luxuriate in this don’t occur to of us luxuriate in me,” server Danielle Franzoni told The Alpena Info.

Franzoni, 31, bought the tip while working Sunday at Pronounce Bay River Restaurant in Alpena. The bank card receipt said “Cheerful Fresh 365 days. 2020 Tip Area.”

Franzoni, a single mom, might perhaps presumably now not mediate the volume, but her supervisor assured her the tip was reputable.

She said she was living in a homeless shelter a year within the past. Franzoni plans to make exercise of the cash to reinstate her driver’s license and invent savings.

“They ship out no longer know nothing about my yarn. They ship out no longer know where I’ve attain from. They ship out no longer know the map laborious or no longer it’s been,” Franzoni said of the couple who left the tip. “They’re in actuality true doing this out of the kindness of their coronary heart.”

Franzoni later went to a restaurant and left a $20.20 tip.

“That was my pay-it-forward,” she said, smiling. “I could perhaps presumably now not carry out the an awfully good deal of one.”​


2019-12-31T17: 32: 43.416Z

Waitress left ‘pleased Fresh 365 days’ $2020 tip

The restaurant bill was $23. Nonetheless the tip at a little-town restaurant in Michigan was mighty better: $2,020.

“Things luxuriate in this don’t occur to of us luxuriate in me,” server Danielle Franzoni told The Alpena Info.

Franzoni, 31, bought the tip while working Sunday at Pronounce Bay River Restaurant in Alpena. The bank card receipt said “Cheerful Fresh 365 days. 2020 Tip Area.”

Franzoni, a single mom, might perhaps presumably now not mediate the volume, but her supervisor assured her the tip was reputable.

She said she was living in a homeless shelter a year within the past. Franzoni plans to make exercise of the cash to reinstate her driver’s license and invent savings.

“They ship out no longer know nothing about my yarn. They ship out no longer know where I’ve attain from. They ship out no longer know the map laborious or no longer it’s been,” Franzoni said of the couple who left the tip. “They’re in actuality true doing this out of the kindness of their coronary heart.”

Franzoni later went to a restaurant and left a $20.20 tip.

“That was my pay-it-forward,” she said, smiling. “I could perhaps presumably now not carry out the an awfully good deal of one.”​


2019-12-31T16: 49: 56.526Z

Hong Kong welcomes within the sleek year with unrest

Hundreds of Hong Kong revellers welcomed in 2020 on neon-lit promenades along the picturesque Victoria Harbour, breaking into knowledgeable-democracy chants because the clocks struck heart of the night after more than half a year of usually violent unrest.

Protesters rapid blocked Nathan Avenue, a key artery main thru Kowloon to the harbour, after forming human chains all the map in which thru the Chinese language-dominated metropolis and marching thru shopping outlets, urging of us now to now not renounce the fight for democracy in 2020.

The protesters fled when police came to sure the toll road of umbrellas, toll road furnishings and debris and a three-metre-sizable skeleton of a metal Christmas tree. Plenty of arrests had been made.

Authorities had cancelled the everyday sleek year fireworks for the main time in a decade, citing security concerns. A “Symphony of Lights” took recount as a substitute, interesting projections on the metropolis’s tallest skyscrapers after the countdown to heart of the night.

There were little-scale pyrotechnics on waterfront rooftops, however the grandiose fireworks launched from vessels within the centre of the harbour, broadcast all the map in which thru the sphere each year, had been absent.

The carnival ambiance on the harbour was interrupted as parts of the crew of hundreds gazing the train started chanting order slogans, corresponding to “Liberate Hong Kong! Revolution of our times” and “5 demands, no longer one much less.”

The latter refers again to the targets of the anti-authorities scramble, which include stylish suffrage and an unbiased inquiry into alleged police brutality.

The protesters are mad at what they undercover agent as creeping Beijing impression within the metropolis which was guaranteed wide-ranging autonomy when it returned from British to Chinese language rule in 1997. Beijing denies interference and blames the West for fomenting the unrest.



2019-12-31T16: 46: 10.086Z

Warren warns ‘democracy hangs within the balance’ in Fresh 365 days’s Eve speech

Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren sought to reenergize her White Home campaign in a Fresh 365 days’s Eve speech on Tuesday, warning that “democracy hangs within the balance” five weeks sooner than nominating contests delivery up in early February.

In her dwelling recount of Massachusetts on the main anniversary of her campaign begin, Warren said President Donald Trump would “strive to cheat his system thru but every other election” if he is no longer eliminated from recount of business after his impeachment by the Democratic-managed U.S. Home of Representatives.

“Within the past 12 months, the president has turn out to be bolder with his lies and more brazen in his legislation-breaking,” said Warren, who as a U.S. senator will vote on whether to convict Trump of improperly pressuring Ukraine for political favors. “Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress fill became into fawning, spineless defenders of his crimes.”

The slump for the Democratic nomination remains fluid because the calendar turns to 2020, with 15 Democrats still within the working and a majority of voters telling pollsters that they fill got but to decide on on a final preference. The nominating contests in Iowa and Fresh Hampshire in early February can be serious assessments of candidates’ viability.

Warren’s take care of took recount at a church in downtown Boston is named a gathering recount for innovative colonists within the 1770s.

“We’re a nation that fights again,” she said. “Fighting again is an act of patriotism.”

Warren remains a top Democratic candidate in nationwide thought polls but observed her standing mosey since early autumn after a months-prolonged surge that rapid vaulted her to front-runner living.


2019-12-31T16: 31: 37.870Z

Indonesian celebrations marred by torrential rains and menace of volcanic eruptions

Tens of hundreds of revelers in Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta had been soaked by torrential rains as they waited for Fresh 365 days’s Eve fireworks. 2020 will attain in Indonesia at 5pm UK time.

Festive occasions along coastal areas shut to the Sunda Strait had been dampened by a doubtless better eruption of Anak Krakatau, an island volcano that erupted last year true earlier than Christmas Day, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 430 of us.

The nation’s volcanology company has warned locals and tourists to conclude 2 kilometers (1.3 miles) from the volcano’s crater following an eruption Tuesday that blasted ash and debris up to 2,000 meters (6,560 toes) into the air.​


2019-12-31T16: 27: 55.003Z

First of UK’s straight civil partnerships infamous on Fresh 365 days’s Eve

A heterosexual couple who had been among the main to enter into a civil partnership fill hailed the legislation change for young of us that “don’t fill to transfer up the aisle within the occasion that they save no longer must”.

Ann “Pee-Wee” Chamings and her accomplice John Eccles tied the knot in a civil ceremony on Fresh 365 days’s Eve, marking the main day such unions became a correct different for mixed-intercourse couples.

The East Sussex pair had been among of us who took the fight for reverse-intercourse civil partnerships to the Royal Courts of Justice in London, pushing for a transformation within the legislation.

Ms Chamings said the ceremony at Hastings Town Corridor, witnessed by their two kids, was “true supreme” for the couple, who first met in 1975 and were collectively for 43 years.

“Completely pleased that we managed to salvage to this point, or no longer it’s no longer that I don’t reflect in marriage, I reflect marriage is horny for some of us, but it has connotations of patriarchal and non secular associations that in actuality didn’t swimsuit us,” she said.


2019-12-31T16: 10: 45.563Z

International locations all the map in which thru Asia transfer into 2020

With the advent of 4pm UK time, or no longer it’s no longer true China and Hong Kong which fill entered 2020. The timezone is the sphere’s most populated, given it’s shared correct all the map in which thru China.

International locations all the map in which thru Asia and Australasia are in actuality within the Fresh 365 days: the jap portion of Mongolia, Brunei, Indonesia, portion of Russia, Western Australia and loads different cities and countries true switched over to the sleek year.


2019-12-31T16: 05: 49.320Z

Protests in Hong Kong proceed

As the sunshine train begins in Hong Kong, protests proceed and activists chronicle being sprayed with toxic liquid. (Chances are you’ll maybe presumably undercover agent the sunshine train within the post below.)


2019-12-31T15: 58: 56.540Z

Hong Kong light demonstrate begins

The legit live feed from Hong Kong – which might be lit up by a light train when heart of the night arrives in just a few minutes – is here. No longer actually that will give mighty protection to the expected protests… Nonetheless this might maybe presumably be a spectacular light train.


2019-12-31T15: 52: 06.886Z

China and Hong Kong draw to celebrate Fresh 365 days amid tension

Both China and Hong Kong are draw to ring within the sleek year following a speech from Beijing’s Xi Jinping urging amassed within the semi-independent metropolis recount.

Hong Kong activists, who fill protested in opposition to China’s have an eye on within the draw for an awfully good deal of the year, fill maintained protests for the length of the day – hoisting neon indicators that read “free HK” while vowing to “persist” in 2020.

It comes after Xi Jinping known as for a “harmonious and salvage atmosphere” within the draw as portion of his Fresh 365 days’s take care of.

He asaid: “The likelihood in Hong Kong has been each person’s field over the past few months.

 

“And not using a harmonious and salvage atmosphere, how can there be a house where of us can live and work happily? 

 

“We sincerely hope for the very most attention-grabbing for Hong Kong and Hong Kong compatriots.”

 

A affluent and salvage Hong Kong is the aspiration of Hong Kong compatriots, as effectively because the expectation of the of us of the motherland, he added


2019-12-31T15: 44: 18.460Z

The save we’re going, we don’t desire roads

Tokyo has true infamous Fresh 365 days’s – but a lucky few within the metropolis who fill determined to lag again in time might perhaps presumably no longer fill to again a total year for a secondary celebration.

Flight tracker carrier Flightradar has came upon a airplane that departed presently after heart of the night – and is attributable to land in Los Angeles in time for 2019.


2019-12-31T15: 20: 55.000Z

Fireworks in Melbourne, Australia

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