Revellers around the globe are bidding farewell to a decade that will be remembered for the rise of social media, the Arab Spring, the #MeToo movement and, of course, President Donald Trump.
Sydney ushered in the new in the New Year with a huge fireworks display, kicking off celebrations for billions around the world and ringing in the new decade.A look at how the world is celebrating the arrival of 2020:
Tens of thousands of revelers in Indonesia's capital of Jakarta were soaked by torrential rain as they waited for New Year's Eve fireworks. Festive events along coastal areas near the Sunda Strait were dampened by a possible eruption of Anak Krakatau, an island volcano that erupted in 2018 just ahead of Christmas Day, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 430 people.
The country's volcanology agency warned locals and tourists to stay 1.3 miles from the volcano's crater following an eruption Tuesday that blasted ash and debris up to 6,560 feet into the air.
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong held hands and formed human chains across the city on Tuesday. They carried their months-long movement and its demands into 2020 with midnight countdown rallies and a massive march planned for New Year's Day.
The financial hub has been battered by more than six months of unrest that has seen peaceful marches attended by millions as well as violent confrontations in which police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets — and protesters responding with flurries of petrol bombs.
As the final day of the year drew to a close, police used water cannons to disperse small crowds of protesters gathering in the city's Mong Kok district while in nearby Prince Edward neighborhood officers arrested several protesters staging a candlelight vigil.
Earlier, thousands of people linked arms in human chains that stretched for miles along busy shopping streets and through local neighborhoods. They chanted slogans, sang "Glory to Hong Kong" — a symbolic protest anthem — and held up posters calling for people to fight for democracy in 2020.
Millions of people have begun ringing in the New Year - and fresh decade - with fireworks, dancing and champagne, but Australia's celebrations were overshadowed by deadly wildfires while protests dampened the festive mood in Hong Kong and India.
New Zealanders were among the first to welcome 2020 on Wednesday, with fireworks lighting up the sky over the capital, Auckland
Large crowds thronged Sydney harbour to watch Australia's famous New Year's Eve fireworks, even as smoke from wildfires turned the evening sky in nearby towns blood red.
Many towns along the country's eastern coast cancelled their fireworks as thousands of people swarmed to beaches to escape the fires.
Hong Kong's government also cancelled its popular New Year's Eve fireworks in Victoria Harbour due to security concerns as protesters staged more rallies against what they see as an erosion of democracy in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
Thousands of people in India also planned to greet the New Year with protests, angered by a citizenship law they say will discriminate against Muslims and chip away at the country's secular constitution.
Australia in flames
Sydney pressed ahead with its fireworks display despite some calls to cancel the celebrations in solidarity with fire-hit areas in New South Wales (NSW), of which Sydney is the capital.
"Tonight we expect a million people around the harbour and a billion people around the world to watch Sydney's New Year's Eve celebrations, which is Australia's biggest public event," City of Sydney Mayor Clover Moore told reporters.
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