NewsBite

New Year

This Month

The Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks show is estimated to be worth many millions of dollars to the economy.

Pub baron welcomes deal to save Sydney’s New Year’s Eve

Pub baron Craig Laundy says commonsense has prevailed to end a rail strike threat to Sydney’s annual harbour fireworks worth $280 million to the economy.

  • Neve Brissenden and Luke Costin
Many thousands of people use Sydney trains to get to and from the city’s New Year’s Eve fireworks show.

Sydney’s New Year fireworks may be axed over train strike

NSW’s police commissioner says she fears for the safety of people who will gather on Sydney Harbour if they can’t use the rail network because of industrial action.

  • Updated
  • Luke Costin
Tom Holland, left, and Dominic Sandbrook, hosts of The Rest is History podcast.

The podcast all of federal parliament is obsessed with

Australia’s political leaders have ambitious reading and streaming plans for the summer break, but one audio program is winning bipartisan support.

  • Tom McIlroy

September

The BCA dinner is It is also the opportunity for the Prime Minister to take on the big economic reform challenges, such as tax reform and boosting productivity called for by Bill Kelty.

Kelty condemns Labor failure on economic growth

Trailblazing former union leader Bill Kelty says the Albanese government has no plan for economic growth and no appetite for the big reforms to secure Australia’s future.

  • Jennifer Hewett

April

Gold is trading near a record of $US2343 per troy ounce, valuing Beijing’s stockpile at $US170.4 billion.

China’s gold buying spree raises fears for Taiwan

China has now been buying gold steadily since October 2022, marking its longest build-up of the precious metal since at least 2000.

  • Melissa Lawford
Advertisement

January

The most expensive tuna sold at this year’s first auction displayed outside Toyosu Market in Tokyo.

Tokyo’s top tuna for the New Year sells for $1.2m

The giant tuna was over three times the amount offered last year in the sale at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market, and the fourth highest since records started in 1999.

  • Mia Glass
Tell people that it’s the world that needs fixing, and they will keep coming back, because the world always does.

Why my ‘self-help journey’ drove me to rage

The public wants to be told that nothing is their fault: that the answer is not self-improvement, but world-help.

  • Jessa Crispin
Fireworks light up the sky over Munich, Germany.

World revels, but wars cast shadow over New Year festivities

Midnight advanced from one time zone to the next starting with Oceania, then the rest of Asia and the Middle East, followed by Europe, Africa and the Americas. 

  • Thomas Beaumont
Xi Jinping: “Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

Xi says China’s ‘reunification’ with Taiwan is inevitable

China has been ramping up military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over democratically governed Taiwan.

  • Updated
  • Ben Blanchard
The Bureau of Meteorology was monitoring the weather in south-east Queensland on the first day of 2024, with flash flooding and storms possible.

Queensland braces for more ‘wild’ weather, heatwave to hit WA

Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt has warned that Queensland’s ‘wild weather’ is not about to end. 

  • Gus McCubbing

December 2023

Bring on the new year, Australia welcomes 2024

Crowds reached maximum capacity across Australia’s capital cities and regional towns as the nation gears up to ring in the new year.

  • Samantha Lock, Maeve Bannister and Rachael Ward
Lines outside the national library and on top of the domain as people wait to enter the Macquarie chair area in Sydney.

Giant hail, thunderstorms forecast for New Year’s Eve

Emergency crews will be on standby on New Year’s Eve with heavy rain, thunderstorms and giant hail forecast for parts of northern NSW and Queensland.

  • Maeve Bannister and Rachael Ward
It is still possible to make a reservation or buy a ticket to ensure a front-row seat to Sydney’s iconic New Year’s fireworks.

The hottest tickets for NYE (if you’re quick)

If you don’t have plans for New Year’s Eve, here is a list of some of the most exclusive tickets and reservations still available.

  • Sally Patten
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Leaders give their Christmas messages of thanks

Anthony Albanese has wished all Australians a Merry Christmas while paying tribute to those who are giving up their day to help others.

  • Kaaren Morrissey and Dominic Giannini

January 2023

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill called for a ceasefire.

Biden says Putin trying to find ‘oxygen’ with truce proposal

The Kremlin said Vladimir Putin had ordered a ceasefire after a call for a Christmas truce by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

  • Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland
Advertisement
Partygoers did not have much to celebrate after a scammer sold tickets for a yacht party that did not exist.

Scammer likely pocketed nearly $20k with fake NYE yacht party

More than 100 people paid a scammer $130 for a New Year Eve’s party in South Australia on a yacht that didn’t exist.

  • Gus McCubbing
Local residents carry their belongings as they leave their home ruined in Russian rocket attack in Zaporizhzhya.

Russian drones attack critical infrastructure around Kyiv

Ukrainians cheered from balconies as their air defences blasted Russian missiles and drones out of the sky in the first hours of the New Year, which Moscow ushered in by attacking civilian targets across Ukraine.

  • Pavel Polityuk and Herbert Villarraga
Elon Musk was forced to sell billions of dollars in Tesla shares to help fund his acquisition of Twitter.

Chief Twit Elon Musk must regain his wits

The multi-billionaire’s erratic leadership of the social media group has not been comforting. For now, the enterprise value of Twitter may be less than the $US13 billion of debt it carries.

  • The Lex Column

December 2022

Your guide for what to do on New Year’s Eve

There are plenty of bookings available at some of the best restaurants, bars and clubs around the country to enjoy the sights and sounds of New Year’s Eve.

  • Gus McCubbing
Sydney’s New Year’s Eve celebrations typically draw more than one million spectators to the harbour.

Got $20k? These are the most exclusive NYE tickets still available

Making last-minute plans for New Year’s Eve? The top picks left in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane include a luxury hotel with unbeatable fireworks views.

  • Gus McCubbing

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/new-year-hpe