The world, already with

8,000 million inhabitants, has welcomed the beginning of the year 2023 with enthusiasm and leaves behind 12 months marked by the war in Ukraine, inflation and a heart-stopping World Cup

that exalted the Argentina of Lionel Messi.

2023 stands out with the great challenge of the

return of the coronavirus pandemic in China

and with the hope that the return to power in Brazil, on Sunday, of the leftist

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

will allow to stop the deforestation of the Amazon, after years of Jair Bolsonaro, who promoted mining activities in the largest tropical jungle on the planet.

To know more

Direct Witness.

New Year in the largest ice city in the world, in China

  • Drafting: LUCAS DE LA CALHarbin

New Year in the largest ice city in the world, in China

For a part of Humanity, these first days will be above all mourning and

funeral preparations, after the death on Thursday of the Brazilian soccer star Pelé and of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

, who died this Saturday in the Vatican.

Sydney, Australia, was one of the first big cities to ring in 2023, reclaiming its crown as the "New Year's Eve capital of the world."

The country reopened its borders and crowds watched a spectacle of more than 100,000 fireworks in Sydney Harbour.

Celebrations have taken place in all corners of the planet.

goodbye to 2022

For some, 2022 will remain as

the year of the online word game Wordle

,

of Will Smith's slap to Chris Rock

at the Oscars, of the World Cup raised by Messi or of Joan Manuel Serrat's last concert.

It also meant the goodbye of Pelé and Benedict XVI, as well as

Queen Elizabeth II, the Cuban singer Pablo Milanés, the Spanish writer Javier Marías and the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

But 2022 will probably be remembered first of all for the return to war in Europe

.

More than 300 days after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, some 7,000 civilians were killed and more than 10,000 injured, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In addition, some 16 million Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes.

Return of covid?

After two half-gas end of the year due to the pandemic, vaccines have allowed a return to a certain normality in most of the world.

However,

China, where the virus was first detected, is facing a new wave

, after the abrupt lifting at the beginning of the month of the strong restrictions in force since 2020.

The virus is spreading rapidly among a population that until now has hardly been in contact with the disease and has overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums.

This situation has led many countries to require anticovid tests from travelers arriving from China, for fear of the appearance of new variants

.

In Latin America, Lula culminates the opening in 2022 of a new cycle of leftist governments, with 'rookies' like

Gustavo Petro

, in Colombia, and

Gabriel Boric

, in Chile, learning to deal with the complexities of power.

After a turbulent end of the year marked by the removal of President

Pedro Castillo

, the protests in Peru calling for the resignation of the current government of

Dina Boluarte

and leaving 22 dead and more than 600 injured could be reactivated in January.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more