In Australia, Hong Kong and India ... fires and protests cloud over New Year celebrations

Fires and protests overshadowed New Year celebrations in Australia, India and Hong Kong, and this did not prevent hundreds of thousands from taking to the streets and fireworks.

In Australia, more than a million people gathered in Sydney to welcome the New Year and watch fireworks despite fires raging in the most populated state of New South Wales.

These annual events were held in Sydney - the state center of New South Wales - despite strong winds, and despite the smoke of fires burning for months, the color of the night sky in coastal towns near to ruby ​​red.

While the authorities insisted on holding the celebrations in Sydney, despite some people calling for their cancellation and allocating their funds to the areas affected by the fires, many towns on the east coast of the country canceled fireworks activities with thousands of people flocking to the beaches to escape the fires.

Four Australian states have witnessed constant fires since last October under record temperatures, and have so far killed 12 people and destroyed areas of Belgium's size of 30,000 km.

New Zealand, two hours ahead of Australia, was one of the first regions to celebrate the New Year, and fireworks lit the night sky over Auckland.

In the Hong Kong administrative region of China, which has been witnessing for many months pro-democracy demonstrations, the authorities canceled the fireworks display in Victoria Harbor for security reasons, and the police closed the streets in several areas.

While many celebrated the New Year, there were demonstrations calling for continued protests, and police intervened to disperse the demonstrators with water cannons and arrested some of them.

The protests erupted over a bill allowing the extradition of wanted persons to the Chinese authorities, and the situation did not calm despite the local government withdrawing the project.

In India, opponents of the new nationality law in 2020 received more demonstrations in the capital, New Delhi, and in Mumbai and other cities.

Since the Indian parliament adopted the new nationality law in which its critics see discrimination against Muslims and undermine the country's secular constitution, there have been massive demonstrations in which hundreds of thousands of Indian states have participated, and the Indian police have responded to the protesters, killing more than twenty people.