Australia is gearing up to celebrate its first restriction-free New Year’s Eve after two years of COVID disruptions, with more than a million revellers expected to flock to Sydney’s harbourfront and watch an elaborate fireworks display.

Sydney is one of the world’s first major cities to welcome in the New Year and draws huge TV audiences around the world, with a public countdown and fireworks display over its iconic Opera House.

“This New Year’s Eve we are saying Sydney is back as we kick off festivities around the world and bring in the New Year with a bang,” said Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney.

Lockdowns at the end of 2020 and a surge in Omicron cases at the end of 2021 led to crowd restrictions and reduced festivities. However, curbs on celebrations have been lifted this year after Australia, like many countries around the world, re-opened its borders and removed social distancing restrictions.

A rainbow of colour will light up Sydney Harbour, with 2,000 fireworks to be launched from the four sails of the Sydney Opera House and 7,000 fireworks from more positions on the Sydney Harbour Bridge than ever before.

For the first time in 12 years, fireworks will be launched from four building rooftops to frame the spectacular show, the organisers said.

Prior to the pandemic, over a million people would join the festivities on the ground in Sydney as a billion spectators tuned in from other parts of the world.

Paris will stage its first New Year fireworks since 2019, after the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled due to COVID. A 10-minute firework show is set to kick off at midnight, with 500,000 people expected to gather on the famous Champs-Elysees avenue to watch it.

Elsewhere, the mood was not so celebratory.

Malaysia’s government cancelled its New Year countdown and fireworks event at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur after flooding across the nation displaced tens of thousands of people and a landslide killed 31 people this month.

The country’s famous Petronas Twin Towers said it would pare down its celebration with no performances or fireworks.

In China, many people reflected online that a wave of COVID-19 infections since the country switched to living with the virus from a strict policy aimed at eradicating outbreaks had ruined the chances of a celebratory mood.

“This virus should just go and die, can not believe this year I can not even find a healthy friend that can go out with me and celebrate the passage into the New Year”, wrote one user based in eastern Shandong province.

Others expressed hope the New Year would herald China’s return to pre-pandemic life.

“I lived and worked under COVID throughout 2022… I hope 2023 is when everything can go back to what it was before 2020,” said one user based in the neighbouring province of Jiangsu.

Dozens of cities in Croatia, including the capital Zagreb, cancelled New Year fireworks after pet lovers warned about the damaging effects of noise and gases on animals and people, calling for more environmentally-aware celebrations.

The result is that the Adriatic town of Rovinj will replace fireworks with laser shows and Zagreb with confetti, visual effects and music. The port town of Rijeka will re-direct funds allocated for fireworks to animal care associations, the authorities said.

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The post Dnipropetrovsk region’s Nikopol district struck with heavy artillery appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

Electricians are working tirelessly on the front line of Ukraine’s battle against Russian missile and drone attacks.

IOC president Thomas Bach said Ukrainian athletes had the Olympic Movement’s full solidarity.

Iran’s Supreme Court has accepted a protester’s appeal against his death sentence for allegedly damaging public property during anti-government demonstrations, and sent his case back for review, the judiciary said on Saturday.

Noor Mohammadzadeh, 25, was arrested on Oct. 4, and sentenced to death two months later on the charge of “waging war against God” for allegedly trying to break a highway guardrail in Tehran and setting a rubbish bin on fire.

He rejected the accusations, saying he was forced to confess to his guilt and went on a hunger strike two weeks ago.

Iran has already executed two people involved in unrest that erupted in September after the death in custody of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.

Amnesty International has said Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 26 others in what the campaign group has said is a push to intimidate protesters.

Iranian authorities have blamed Iran’s foreign enemies and their agents for orchestrating the disturbances.

“The Supreme Court has accepted the appeal of Sahand Noor Mohammadzadeh, one of the accused in the recent riots. His case has been sent to the same branch of the Revolutionary Court for review,” the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said on Twitter.

Last week, the Supreme Court accepted the death sentence appeal of rapper Saman Seydi Yasin but confirmed the same sentence against protester Mohammad Qobadloo.

Earlier this month it suspended the death sentence of protester Mahan Sadrat, who had been charged with various alleged offences including stabbing a security officer and setting fire to a motorcycle.

Iran hanged two protesters earlier this month: Mohsen Shekari, 23, who was accused of blocking a main road in September and wounding a member of the paramilitary Basij force with a knife; and Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, who was accused of stabbing two Basij members to death.

Rahnavard was publicly hanged from a construction crane.

Rights group HRANA said that, as of Friday, 508 protesters had been killed, including 69 minors. It said 66 members of the security forces had also been killed. As many as 19,199 protesters are believed to have been arrested, it said.

Iranian officials have said that up to 300 people, including members of the security forces, had lost their lives in the unrest.

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Thunberg’s funny exchange is a reminder of the connection between machismo, misogyny and hostility to climate action

On 27 December, former kickboxer and professional misogynist and online entrepreneur Andrew Tate, 36, sent a boastfully hostile tweet to climate activist Greta Thunberg, 19, about his sports car collection. “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions,” he wrote. He was probably hoping to enhance his status by mocking her climate commitment. Instead, she burned the macho guy to a crisp in nine words.

Cars are routinely tokens of virility and status for men, and the image accompanying his tweet of him pumping gas into one of his vehicles, coupled with his claims about their “enormous emissions”, had unsolicited dick pic energy. Thunberg seemed aware of that when she replied: “yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com”.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses

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