As the year draws to a close, a remarkable initiative involving “superheroes” clad in unique costumes brings unexpected joy — not only to the sick children but also, perhaps even more deeply, to their parents.

On December 28, 2023, a group of siblings embarked on their annual New Year’s trip to South America, choosing Cartagena as their destination. During their stay, they were moved by a strong desire to give back to the local community. Motivated by this, they organized a charity donation drive for the neighborhood of Barrio La María. Despite Cartagena's popularity as a tourist destination, the needs of its local residents often go overlooked.

On December 28, 2023, a group of siblings embarked on their annual New Year’s trip to South America, choosing Cartagena as their destination. During their stay, they were moved by a strong desire to give back to the local community. Motivated by this, they organized a charity donation drive for the neighborhood of Barrio La María. Despite Cartagena's popularity as a tourist destination, the needs of its local residents often go overlooked.

Asian shares have retreated after U.S. stocks edged back from their record heights.

What over 25 people thought was a great job opportunity for the New Year turned into an unplanned situation that they are calling a scam.

Franz Welser-Möst will retire as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in June 2027, ending a 25-season tenure that will be the longest in the ensemble’s history.

Asian shares are mostly higher after Wall Street drifted to a mixed close.

The 14-year-old killed one day into the New Year is someone his grandmother said she will always cherish.

Millions of people have resolved to lose weight in the New Year, and for some that may include trying a weight loss drug.

Just before the New Year began, a 16-year-old was killed in a shooting in Mandarin. Then, the shooting death of a 14-year-old in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood marked Jacksonville’s first homicide of the year.

Asian stocks are lower, tracking a weak start to 2024 on Wall Street as Japan's markets reopened.

Many people vow to exercise more and eat healthier in 2024, but are you looking at your mental health too?

NYE Forecast, Chilly Start to the New Year

Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II has announced that she plans to abdicate after 52 years and hand over the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik.

It’s nothing new. Many people look to the New Year as an opportunity to start fresh and set resolutions.

The Austrian government says that it is giving the country’s world-famous Vienna Boys Choir 800,000 euros ($884,000) to help it out of severe financial difficulties.

From now until the New Year is your best chance to get the best deal on a new car.

The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen more than 2.5 million passengers each day during the Christmas and New Year holiday season.

Ten years ago, Ukrainians took to the streets to protest a decision by their Moscow-friendly president to move the country away from the European Union and toward Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed to boost military spending by more than a third by 2030 to face evolving threats.

It’s the New Year and everyone is trying to get healthier. VegeCooking is here to share their top ten tips to help you and your family get healthier, and they’ll demonstrate how to make a simple, healthy and tasty snack from their free mini-cookbook; Top 10, Kid-tested Recipes!

If getting healthy was your new year’s resolution, it’s important to make sure you’re also paying special attention to your gut health.

As the New Year s starting, we typically took at resolutions to kick start some of our goals. But this year, instead of creating resolutions, science suggests that it is better to create Meaning.

Germany’s biggest police union has called for concerted action to prevent a repeat of the violence toward officers, firefighters and medical personnel seen in Berlin and other cities during the New Year’s celebrations.

Congratulations to first-time parents Brianna and Michael and the rest of Ezra’s family.

Fireworks will ring in the start of the New Year, but firing guns in the air should not. Celebratory gunfire in Florida is illegal and police advise leaving firearms out of New Year’s festivities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s New Year’s address to the nation usually is rather anodyne and backed with a soothing view of a snowy Kremlin.

In typical fashion, Jacksonville is ringing in the New Year with its annual fireworks show downtown on Saturday night.

Some people eat grapes before midnight, make a list of things they want to improve on for the next year, or kiss their loved ones when the ball drops.

News4JAX has compiled a list of the places planning to light up the sky on Saturday night.

French President Emmanuel Macron says people spreading fake news online should be held accountable and possibly brought to justice.

Russian officials are sounding the alarm about a looming surge of coronavirus infections due to the highly contagious omicron variant.

The Serbian Orthodox Church says the Patriarch, Porfirije, has tested positive for COVID-19.

Reigning “Jeopardy!”.

Baptist Health delivers its first baby of 2022 shortly after midnight.

Florida broke another record on Thursday after the state reported 75,962 cases.

Flight cancellations surged again on the last day of 2021, with airlines blaming it on crew shortages related to the spike in COVID-19 infections.

Patchy fog under overcast skies will start the day.  A warm afternoon with near record highs today.  Inland showers possible, near and along I-75 and west of Ware county in southeast Georgia.  Cloudy, smoke-filled skies tonight as we ring in the New Year.

As New Year approaches, we typically took at resolutions to kick start some of our goals.  But this year, instead of creating resolutions, science suggests that it is better to create Meaning.

More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average.

Warm end to the old year, a wet start to the New Year.  Partly cloudy to mostly sunny and warmer.  Temperatures will trend above normal through Saturday.  Increasing rain chances to follow.

Joe Biden will spend his first Christmas as president at the White House with family and is giving up his New Year’s tradition of sun and St. Croix for the chill of Delaware this year.

One of the largest Christmas light displays in the Jacksonville area is back.

Aliyev marked the Nowruz holiday by lighting a ceremonial fire outside Shusha, a culturally revered city that Azerbaijan took from Armenian forces in last autumn's war. Shusha, a center of Azeri culture for centuries, came under Armenian control in 1992 in fighting over the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region. (Vugar Amrullaev, Azerbaijani Presidential Press Office via AP)MOSCOW – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev marked the Nowruz holiday Saturday by lighting a ceremonial fire outside Shusha, a culturally revered city that Azerbaijan took from Armenian forces in last autumn’s war. Shusha, a center of Azeri culture for centuries, came under Armenian control in 1992 in fighting over the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region. “Today we are celebrating Nowruz in our ancient city Shusha, the cultural capital of Azerbaijan.

(Stephane Mahe/Pool Photo via AP)BREST – French President Emmanuel Macron hoped on Tuesday that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will show a greater military commitment to fight against Islamic extremists in several theaters of conflict and especially in the Middle East. Macron stressed that France has maintained its efforts to fight against the Islamic State group in the region. About 900 French troops are currently taking part in the U.S.-led international coalition. In his speech, Macron also suggested he is considering a partial troop pullout in Africa’s Sahel region, an “adjustment” he presented as a consequence of successes achieved by French forces last year and an expected greater involvement of other European countries. The deployment of about 5,100 troops in five West African countries represent France’s largest military operation abroad.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks during an on-line New Year press conference with local and foreign journalists at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. (Jeon Heon-kyun/Pool Photo via AP)SEOUL – South Korea’s president on Monday urged the incoming Biden administration to build upon the achievements and learn from the failures of President Donald Trump’s diplomatic engagement with North Korea. Biden has accused Trump of chasing the spectacle of summits rather than meaningful curbs on the North’s nuclear capabilities. And while Moon acknowledged that Biden is likely to try a different approach than Trump, he stressed that Biden could still learn from Trump’s successes and failures in dealing with North Korea. “The start of the Biden administration provides a new opportunity to start over talks between North Korea and the United States and also between South and North Korea,” which have stalled amid the stalemate in nuclear negotiations, Moon said.

FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2020 file photo German Chancellor Angela Merkel poses for photographs after the television recording of her annual New Year's speech at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers U.S. President Donald Trump's eviction from Twitter by the company “problematic,” her spokesman said Monday. Twitter permanently suspended Trump from the microblogging platform on Friday, citing a “risk of further incitement of violence” in the wake of the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the outgoing president. “Seen from this angle, the chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the U.S. president have now been permanently blocked.”Facebook on Thursday suspended Trump’s account through Jan. 20, the day of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, and possibly indefinitely. Merkel herself does not have a Twitter account, although Seibert does and many German government ministers do.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Today was sunny and a little chilly, only topping out in the low 60s. Tonight turns chilly under clear skies with temperatures sinking down into the upper 30s and low 40s. We wake up around 40° on Tuesday and warm up into the cool mid 60s under sunny skies. Wednesday expect more of the same, waking up around 40° and warming up only to around 60° under sunny skies. The cold front behind the showers will chill us down into the upper 30s overnight and upper 50s and low 60s for the afternoon for the weekend with sunny skies.

Thousands of people attend a music concert to celebrate New Year's in the Mbare suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe, early Friday, Jan 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)MUTARE – In response to rising COVID-19 numbers, Zimbabwe has reintroduced a night curfew, banned public gatherings, and indefinitely suspended the opening of schools. “We are being overwhelmed and overrun,” Information Minister Nick Mangwana warned, saying the country's hospitals are rapidly reaching capacity with COVID-19 patients. Zimbabwe recorded 1,342 cases and 29 deaths in the past week, “the highest number recorded so far,” Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said, announcing the strict measures. Funerals are now limited to 30 people while other gatherings such as weddings and church services are banned for 30 days.

Trace testing has linked the new Melbourne coronavirus cluster to the New South Wales outbreak. The newest occurred at midnight Friday when Victoria closed its border to New South Wales, prompting traffic bottlenecks as people raced to beat the closure. Once in Victoria, COVID-19 testing sites saw long queues as travelers lined up for mandatory testing. South Korea reported 824 new cases, raising the national tally to 62,593 with 942 deaths. — Thai authorities are planning to launch two levels of restrictions of activities for highly controlled areas where coronavirus cases are on the rise.

This story first appeared in our Weather Insider newsletter. We’ve seen more freezes so far this winter than we had ALL of last winter and we’re only about a third of the way through the season. Little did we know that was just the beginning a of season of few freezes. For the rest of winter we only saw low temperatures below 32° on two other days in January. So we’ve gotten below freezing seven times so far this year, compared to only three freezes for the entire season last year- what does that mean for the rest of the season?

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Born at 12:02 a.m. on New Year’s Day, Kasani Finley was one of the first Jacksonville babies welcomed into 2021 at UF Health. Happy New Year!” UF Health wrote on Facebook. Anna and Vladimir Orgunov’s family also got a little bigger as they kicked off 2021. Their little boy born at Baptist Health was among the first babies born at a Jacksonville-area hospital this year. “His due date was December 31st so he was right on time,” Anna Orgunov, Roman’s mother, said.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, intensive care units in several parts of Texas were full or nearly full. India and Brazil trail behind the U.S. in coronavirus cases at over 10 million and 7 million, respectively. ___MILAN, Italy — Italy added another 462 virus deaths on Friday for a known pandemic death toll of 74,621, the highest in Europe. ___BANGKOK — The Thai capital is shutting down venues including schools and entertainment parks as coronavirus cases continue to spread. China on Friday reported a total of 19 new virus cases, including 10 that were brought from outside the country.

The benchmark S&P 500 index finished with a gain of 16.3% for the year, or a total return of about 18.4%, including dividends. And the S&P 500 rose or fell by at least 1% on twice as many days in 2020 than it did, on average, since 1950. The electric car maker jumped 743.4% in 2020 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. All told, the S&P 500 set 33 record highs in 2020. The S&P 500 rose 24.03 points, or 0.6%, to 3,756.07, an all-time high.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, whose job includes the role of state fire marshal, cautioned Floridians to follow fire-safety guidelines ahead of the first New Year’s holiday with a law bolstering the availability of fireworks. Ron DeSantis signed a measure (SB 140) that allows people 18 and older to buy fireworks to use on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and Independence Day. Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, called the state’s prior fireworks rules “one of the craziest laws we have on the books.” The old fireworks law prohibited explosives, such as firecrackers, torpedoes and roman candles, while allowing relatively innocuous devices such as sparklers. “You’re basically perjuring yourself every time you purchase fireworks, because you’re signing a paper that most people, I would say everyone, doesn’t use for that purpose,” Rodriguez said in February. The new law eliminated the need for people to declare why they are buying fireworks if they use the fireworks during the three holidays listed in the bill.

FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2020, file photo, an employee tolls the closing bell during a ceremony of the last trading day at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo. Major Asian bourses were closed for the New Year's holidays Thursday, Dec. 31, while the handful that remained open was mixed. (JPX via AP)Major Asian bourses were closed for the New Year's holidays Thursday while the handful that remained open was mixed. Trading was closed in Tokyo and South Korea. The Tokyo exchange marked the end of trading for the year Wednesday, with the Nikkei falling 0.5%, and trading will not reopen until Monday next week.

Thailand generally has been viewed as successful in combating the coronavirus, due partly to its well-regarded public health infrastructure and people’s adherence to mask-wearing and other protocols. But cases have jumped significantly since an outbreak was detected last week among migrants from Myanmar working at a seafood market in Samut Sakhon province. Samut Sakhon Gov. Weerasak Wijitsaengsri tested positive for the virus after meeting Sunday with senior health officials including Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. Samut Sakhon was put under lockdown on Dec. 19, followed by Samut Songkhram and Samut Prakarn.

Asian shares were mixed Wednesday after a lackluster day on Wall Street, as the boost from President Donald Trumps signing of the coronavirus relief package faded. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)Asian shares were mixed Wednesday after a lackluster day on Wall Street, as the boost from President Donald Trump’s signing of the coronavirus relief package faded. It is still on track to end the month 7.7% higher, more than twice as much as the S&P 500. The S&P 500 fell 8.32 points to 3,727.04. With two days of trading left in 2020, the S&P 500 is up 15.4% this year, while the Nasdaq is up 43.2%.

Hata was the son of late Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata, who headed an opposition-led government in 1994. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government has been reluctant to impose tougher restrictions that would further damage the pandemic-hit economy. South Korea on Monday registered 808 new coronavirus cases, raising its national caseload to 57,680 with 819 deaths. Sri Lanka has confirmed 41,053 coronavirus cases, including 191 fatalities. The government also announced 5,854 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the country's total to 719,219 confirmed cases, including 21,452 deaths.

“Each New Year, many of us set goals for ourselves, not realizing that our pets can also benefit from a challenge. Maintain a Healthy Diet : A healthy diet is key to your pets’ fitness and happiness. Like humans, pets cannot out-exercise a poor diet. Update Your Pets’ Tags : Make sure your pets have updated information on their tags. The information on these tags is critical for reuniting pets and their owners, should they become separated from you.

NEW YORK – Jennifer Lopez will help bring in the New Year with a headlining performance in New York’s Time Square for “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2021." Other performers include Cyndi Lauper, Billy Porter and Jimmie Allen. Lauper and Porter collaborated on the Broadway musical “Kinky Boots" and they will join forces for a special performance during the TV special, which will air on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern. “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2021" will run until 2 a.m. Eastern on Jan. 1. Seacrest is returning to host the event for a 16th year, and he will be joined by Porter and Lucy Hale in New York.

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – Fernandina Beach is pulling the plug on Christmas and New Year’s community celebrations in 2020 due to COVID-19. Tuesday night, city commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of canceling all of the city’s special events through the end of the year. Those events include the Christmas parade, the New Year’s Eve fireworks and the popular New Years Eve Shrimp Drop. The decision comes after the commission’s vote at its previous meeting to cancel the city’s Christmas tree lighting. “We were hoping for that foot traffic, being right here in Downtown Fernandina,” she said.

NEW YORK, NY – You can ring in the New Year with Post Malone: The rap-pop star will perform at “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2020” in New York City on Dec. 31. Dick Clark Productions announced Tuesday that K-pop group BTS, country singer Sam Hunt and singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette — joined by the cast of Broadway’s “Jagged Little Pill” — will also perform at the event, which will air live from Times Square on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern. The annual New Year’s Eve affair will include celebrations from multiple cities. Performers from Hollywood include Green Day, Paula Abdul, Dan + Shay, Dua Lipa, Megan Thee Stallion, Salt-N-Pepa and Ciara, who will host the event. Usher, Sheryl Crow and “Pose” star Billy Porter — who will host — will perform in New Orleans.