Migration, mega-fines and Barbie: records set in 2023
AFP looks at 10 standout numbers:
The number of people around the world displaced by conflict or humanitarian crises was already at a record high before the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, adding to the misery.
By the end of September, 114 million people had been driven from their homes by wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo and a humanitarian crisis in Taliban-run Afghanistan, among other factors, according to UN refugee agency the UNHCR.
They have since been joined by at least 1.7 million Gazans.
One heat record after another tumbled in 2023, which is on course to be the hottest year on record, according to the European Union's climate monitor Copernicus.
The northern hemisphere had its hottest summer ever and temperature records were also smashed in the southern winter, with the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires experiencing its warmest August 1 on record at 30 degrees Celsius.
Defending champions South Africa won a nail-biting final 12-11 against New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup, to claim a record fourth title and seal the growing role of rugby — once the sport of the white minority under apartheid — as a unifying force in multiracial South Africa.
«People who are not from South Africa don't understand what it means for our country. It is not just about the game.
Our country goes through such a lot,» captain Siya Kolisi said.
India overtook China to become the world's most populous country in mid-2023, accounting for nearly 1.43 billion of Earth's eight billion humans, according to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
After peaking in 2022 at 1.426 billion, China's population has started to fall for the first time in six decades. By 2100 its population
