Happy New Year from all at The Independent. Thank you for following the live coverage of our New Year’s celebrations across the globe Shock as Queen of Denmark uses New Year’s Eve speech to announce abdication Sydney welcomes in 2024 with New Year's fireworks display over Harbour

UK ring in 2024 as London declares itself ‘a place for everyone’ Thousands gather in Times Square for New Year ball drop The march of midnight from time zone to time zone brought the new year first to places like Australia, where more than 1 million people watched a pyrotechnic display centred around Sydney’s famous Opera House and harbour bridge - a number of spectators equivalent to one in five of the city’s residents. Organisers finished checks on the pyrotechnics with more than 10,000 fireworks shooting up into the night’s sky after the Big Ben countdown. Tickets for the event in London sold out and official viewing areas were full. The UK earlier welcomed 2024 with a bang as tens of thousands packed the streets of London and Edinburgh to watch the cities’ world-famous New Year’s Eve fireworks displays. It came amid jubilant scenes in the US as tens of thousands of beaming people in New York’s Times Square, were showered with confetti and hugs and kisses after watching the descent of the colourful ball marking the birth of 2024. In Neukölln, a number of arrests were made after people attempted to make Molotov cocktails, which police say they confiscated. The crowd fired at police with pyrotechnics when they tried to check them for fireworks, according to the outlet. One of the incidents occurred near Alexanderplatz where around 500 people were letting off fireworks at each other before police dispersed the group at the landmark Neptune Fountain, reported DW. Berlin police detained over 300 people on New Year’s Eve after at least 14 on-duty officers were injured as people shot fireworks at each other and police throughout the city.

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