Australia sending aid to wildfire towns as death toll rises - NBC News

PERTH, Australia — Australia deployed military ships and aircraft Wednesday to help communities ravaged by apocalyptic wildfires that have left at least 17 people dead nationwide and sent thousands of residents and holidaymakers fleeing to the shoreline.

Navy ships and military aircraft were bringing water, food and fuel to towns where supplies were depleted and roads were cut off by the fires. Authorities confirmed three bodies were found Wednesday at Lake Conjola on the south coast of New South Wales, bringing the death toll in the state to 15.

More than 175 homes have been destroyed in the region.

On Tuesday morning, 4,000 people in the coastal town of Mallacoota fled to the shore as winds pushed a fire toward their homes under a sky darkened by smoke and turned blood-red by flames. Stranded residents and vacationers slept in their cars, and gas stations and surf clubs transformed into evacuation areas. Dozens of homes burned before winds changed direction late Tuesday, sparing the rest of the town.

Victoria Emergency Commissioner Andrew Crisp told reporters the Australian Defence Force was moving naval assets to Mallacoota on a supply mission that would last two weeks and helicopters would also fly in more firefighters since roads were inaccessible.

Conditions cooled Wednesday, but the fire danger remained very high across the state, where four people are missing.

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“We have three months of hot weather to come. We do have a dynamic and a dangerous fire situation across the state,” Crisp said.

In the New South Wales town of Conjola Park, 89 properties were confirmed destroyed and cars were melted by Tuesday’s fires. More than 100 fires were still burning in the state Wednesday, though none were at an emergency level. Seven people have died this week, including a volunteer firefighter, a man found in a burnt-out car and a father and son who died in their house.

Firefighting crews took advantage of easing conditions on Wednesday to restore power to critical infrastructure and conduct some back burning, before conditions were expected to deteriorate Saturday as high temperatures and strong winds return.

"There is every potential that the conditions on Saturday will be as bad or worse than we saw yesterday," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said.

The early and devastating start to Australia’s summer wildfires has led authorities to rate this season the worst on record and reignited debate about whether Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative government has taken enough action on climate change. Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas, but Morrison rejected calls last month to downsize Australia’s lucrative coal industry.

Morrison won a surprise third term in May. Among his government’s pledges was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2030 — a modest figure compared to the center-left opposition Labor party’s pledge of 45 percent

The leader of the minor Australian Greens party, Richard Di Natale, demanded a royal commission, the nation’s highest form of inquiry, on the wildfire crisis.

“If he (Morrison) refuses to do so, we will be moving for a parliamentary commission of inquiry with royal commission-like powers as soon as parliament returns,” Di Natale said in a statement.

About 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land have burned nationwide over the past few months, with at least 17 people dead and more than 1,000 homes destroyed.

Some communities canceled New Year’s fireworks celebrations, but Sydney’s popular display over its iconic harbor controversially went ahead in front of more than a million revelers. The city was granted an exemption to a total fireworks ban in place there and elsewhere to prevent new wildfires.

Smoke from the wildfires meant Canberra, the nation’s capital, on Wednesday had air quality more than 21 times the hazardous rating to be reportedly the worst in the world.

The smoke has also wafted across the Tasman Sea and into New Zealand.

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2020-01-01 10:11:00Z
52780530786337

Iraqi militiamen hurl stones at U.S. Embassy, prepare for extended stay - Reuters.com

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqi militiamen and their supporters hurled stones at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for a second day on Wednesday and security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to drive them away.

The protests, led by Iranian-backed militias, mark a new turn in the shadow war between Washington and Tehran playing out across the Middle East.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who faces re-election in 2020, on Tuesday threatened to retaliate against Iran but said later he did not want to go to war.

The protests also cast uncertainty over the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Crowds had rallied on Tuesday to protest against deadly U.S. air strikes on militia bases, setting fires, throwing rocks and smashing surveillance cameras. They did not breach the huge embassy’s main compound, however.

Overnight, demonstrators pitched tents and camped outside the embassy walls. On Wednesday morning, they were bringing in food supplies, cooking equipment and mattresses, Reuters witnesses said, suggesting they intended to stay for a long time.

Senior Iraqi army officers had negotiated with those gathered outside the embassy in an attempt to convince them to leave but failed to do so. Washington is putting pressure on Iraqi leaders to ensure the security of its staff.

The incident marked a sharp escalation of the proxy conflict between Washington and Tehran - both influential players in Iraq - while mass protests are challenging Iraq’s own political system nearly 17 years after the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The protests followed U.S. air strikes on Sunday on bases operated by the Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah inside Iraq which killed at least 25 fighters and wounded 55.

The strikes were retaliation for the killing of a U.S. civilian contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military

base, which Washington blamed on Kataib Hezbollah.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday y condemned the U.S. attacks.

“The Iranian government, nation and I strongly condemn the attacks,” Iranian state TV quoted Khamenei as saying.

Trump accused Iran of orchestrating the violence at the U.S. Embassy and said Tehran would be held responsible. Iran rejected the accusation.

Slideshow (5 Images)

More U.S. troops were being sent to the embassy, U.S. officials said. The 750 troops would initially be based out of Kuwait. The officials said that as many as 4,000 troops could be sent to the region in the coming days if needed.

More than 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq supporting local forces. The air strikes have galvanized calls inside Iraq to expel U.S. forces, not just from Iran-backed militias but also their political rivals.

Reporting by Thaier al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein, Editing by Angus MacSwan

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-01-01 09:27:00Z
52780524079410

North Korea indicates it could resume nuclear testing - CNN

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2020-01-01 09:06:15Z
52780525491349

Twin foreign policy crises greet Trump as election year dawns - CNN

The US showdown with Iran rocketed to dangerous new levels after protestors burst into the US embassy compound in Iraq as US strikes on Tehran-backed militia forces killed 25 people.

Kim Jong Un meanwhile warned North Korea would soon reveal a "new strategic weapon." If that is code for testing an intercontinental missile that could theoretically deliver a nuclear warhead to the US, his diplomatic "love affair" with Trump could soon dissolve in a dangerous new trans-Pacific standoff.

The developing challenges to the President raise the possibility that the controversial foreign policy choices that he made in the first three years of his administration could return to haunt him as he asks voters for a second term. At the very least, rising tensions will require a steady diplomatic hand and nuanced presidential leadership as he operates on a fine line of showing strength but stopping short of undue provocation.

The President's first concern is Iran. He is now warning the Islamic Republic that any new threats to Americans or attacks on US targets could trigger an even more serious escalation than the already robust US air raids.

"Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!" Trump wrote in a tweet on Tuesday. And, speaking with reporters later Tuesday as he entered a New Year's Eve gala at Mar-a-Lago, the President said he doesn't want war but that if it comes to conflict, Iran wouldn't last long.

"I don't think that would be a good idea for Iran," Trump said.

The administration rushed extra forces to protect the embassy, as a senior administration official told CNN the White House was "very concerned" about what might happen on Wednesday.

Yet Trump is already taking a risky victory lap on Twitter, comparing his leadership to the Obama administration after the storming of a US consulate in northeastern Libya in 2012, and presenting the results of heightened tensions with Iran as a desirable outcome.

"The Anti-Benghazi!" the President tweeted Tuesday evening. There are limited comparisons between the situations in Baghdad -- where the US embassy is one of the most heavily defended buildings in the world -- and the rudimentary compound used by the roving US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the attack, in the middle of a civil war in Libya.

In many ways, the attack on the US embassy in Baghdad -- which followed US strikes on the militia to avenge the death of a US contractor in the country -- is an almost inevitable consequence of the Trump administration's maximum pressure policy targeting Iran.

Critics have long warned that showy decisions related to Iran and North Korea apparently made to further Trump's own political prospects and not a more sober evaluation of US foreign policy goals could eventually backfire.

Trump's decision to ditch Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal -- with which Tehran was complying -- and to crank up sanctions has caused a debilitating economic crisis and humanitarian pain in Iran.

Washington says the nuclear deal was one of the worst agreements in history because it did not rein in Iran's missile program or curtail what the US regards as malicious activity and support for terrorism in its neighborhood. The assumption behind Trump's strategy is that Tehran's clerical regime will collapse or that the Iranians will return to the negotiating table to accept a far more punitive nuclear deal.

Despite some of the most intense anti-government demonstrations in decades, many analysts believe that there is no sign the regime is falling. In fact, there is more evidence that Trump's hardline approach is causing Iran to become more belligerent in its own region -- quite the opposite of the US goal.

"While the Trump Administration has touted its maximum pressure campaign against Iran, the results so far have been more threats against international commerce, emboldened and more violent proxy attacks across the Middle East, and now, the death of an American citizen in Iraq," New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said.

In response to the US policy, shaped by administration hardliners like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Iran has also resumed nuclear activity, even starting up centrifuges in an underground facility dismantled under the Obama-era deal.

Trump's personal prestige on the line in Iraq

The White House says that it doesn't want war and hopes that the fallout from the air strikes will soon cool and the crisis will pass. But if it does not, it may face the most dangerous US-Iran crisis in many years.

That's because the prestige of Trump and the Iranians is now deeply invested in this showdown and uncertainty about erratic decision making on both sides could lead to miscalculations.

And given the hardline position of the Trump administration towards Iran, it does not seem like there is any face-saving option that could quickly limit an escalation once it starts.

The situation tugs Trump between two dueling instincts in his political soul. He loves to look tough -- and live up to his own perceptions of a ruthless commander in chief.

But the President is also loath to be drawn into foreign entanglements -- one of his few inviolable principles and one that takes on more importance as he runs for reelection.

In June, Trump blinked at the prospect of military action against Iran at the last minute after Tehran's forces shot down a US drone and attacked oil tankers.

Iran may be betting that Trump will do the same again, but such a move might lead to a miscalculation if the President goes against type and could cause reprisals between the enemies that could spin out of control.

The protests at the US embassy in Baghdad raise a troubling historical parallel other than Benghazi. The storming of the US embassy by revolutionaries in Tehran and a subsequent hostage siege helped doom then-President Jimmy Carter to a single term in the 1980 election.

The political lesson from that historic humiliation is not hard to read, and it may play into Trump's thinking on Iran in the run-up to November's presidential election.

Still, Trump is hugely unpredictable. As the days pass after the recent upsurge in tensions the President may not draw conventional political lessons.

The embassy protests are a reminder from Iran of the huge vulnerability of US troops and diplomats in a nation where they have little leverage and where Tehran appears to be winning the battle for influence over the US -- nearly 17 years after its invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

In such circumstances, given his hostility to the idea of large-scale troop garrisons in the Middle East, it's not impossible Trump could suddenly decide to yank all Americans home.

Such an option would open the President to accusations that he surrendered to Iran -- though he'd be liable to spin it as a victory because it would be yet another campaign promise kept.

Iran leaned into the confrontation on Tuesday seeking to use it to solidify its advantage over Washington in Iraq.

"How and on what basis do you expect the Iraqi people to remain silent on all these crimes?" Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a statement.

End of the love affair?

North Korea's return to belligerence appears to reflect frustration that three face-to-face meetings between Trump and Kim, one of the world's most reviled tyrants, have not yielded any easing of US sanctions.

But the President has much to lose if his opening to the North dissolves, since his claims to have stopped Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests is a centerpiece of his reelection argument.

Trump's diplomacy has made no progress towards denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, despite concessions he offered in meeting Kim and halting US-South Korea military exercises.

In this, Trump has had about as much success as his immediate predecessors in defusing a conflict that has festered in a bitter standoff ever since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Given the personal prestige Trump has sunk into his groundbreaking summits with Kim, it's difficult to predict how the US President might react if North Korea launches a provocative test.

A return to the President's previous "fire and fury" rhetoric cannot be ruled out. Yet Trump has little to gain politically from an election-year showdown with Kim that exposes his wider foreign policy as a failure and revives fears of hostilities across the 38th parallel that could put tens of thousands of US troops and millions of South Korean civilians at risk.

At a meeting of ruling party officials, Kim said Tuesday that if the US "persists in its hostile policy towards the DPRK, there will never the denuclearization on the Korean peninsula." He also announced that "the world will witness a new strategic weapon" in the near future, and in an indication that North Korea could soon resume nuclear weapon testing, said his country should no longer feel bound by its self-imposed halt on nuclear weapons and long range missile testing.

But Pompeo said on Fox News on Tuesday evening that he had seen reports of the threat but was "hopeful" that Kim "will make the right decision."

And Trump, walking into the gala Tuesday night, remained optimistic about the future of diplomacy with the hermit nation, despite Kim's new bellicose rhetoric. The President, touting his relationship with Kim and downplaying North Korea's threatened "Christmas gift," said he believes Kim is a "man of his word."

"I hope his Christmas present is a beautiful vase," Trump said.

CNN's Kevin Liptak, Nicole Gaouette, Jeremy Diamond, Pamela Brown, Devan Cole, Larry Register and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this story.

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2020-01-01 08:50:00Z
52780524079410

Twin foreign policy crises greet Trump as election year dawns - CNN

The US showdown with Iran rocketed to dangerous new levels after protestors burst into the US embassy compound in Iraq as US strikes on Tehran-backed militia forces killed 25 people.

Kim Jong Un meanwhile warned North Korea would soon reveal a "new strategic weapon." If that is code for testing an intercontinental missile that could theoretically deliver a nuclear warhead to the US, his diplomatic "love affair" with Trump could soon dissolve in a dangerous new trans-Pacific standoff.

The developing challenges to the President raise the possibility that the controversial foreign policy choices that he made in the first three years of his administration could return to haunt him as he asks voters for a second term. At the very least, rising tensions will require a steady diplomatic hand and nuanced presidential leadership as he operates on a fine line of showing strength but stopping short of undue provocation.

The President's first concern is Iran. He is now warning the Islamic Republic that any new threats to Americans or attacks on US targets could trigger an even more serious escalation than the already robust US air raids.

"Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!" Trump wrote in a tweet on Tuesday. And, speaking with reporters later Tuesday as he entered a New Year's Eve gala at Mar-a-Lago, the President said he doesn't want war but that if it comes to conflict, Iran wouldn't last long.

"I don't think that would be a good idea for Iran," Trump said.

The administration rushed extra forces to protect the embassy, as a senior administration official told CNN the White House was "very concerned" about what might happen on Wednesday.

Yet Trump is already taking a risky victory lap on Twitter, comparing his leadership to the Obama administration after the storming of a US consulate in northeastern Libya in 2012, and presenting the results of heightened tensions with Iran as a desirable outcome.

"The Anti-Benghazi!" the President tweeted Tuesday evening. There are limited comparisons between the situations in Baghdad -- where the US embassy is one of the most heavily defended buildings in the world -- and the rudimentary compound used by the roving US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the attack, in the middle of a civil war in Libya.

In many ways, the attack on the US embassy in Baghdad -- which followed US strikes on the militia to avenge the death of a US contractor in the country -- is an almost inevitable consequence of the Trump administration's maximum pressure policy targeting Iran.

Critics have long warned that showy decisions related to Iran and North Korea apparently made to further Trump's own political prospects and not a more sober evaluation of US foreign policy goals could eventually backfire.

Trump's decision to ditch Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal -- with which Tehran was complying -- and to crank up sanctions has caused a debilitating economic crisis and humanitarian pain in Iran.

Washington says the nuclear deal was one of the worst agreements in history because it did not rein in Iran's missile program or curtail what the US regards as malicious activity and support for terrorism in its neighborhood. The assumption behind Trump's strategy is that Tehran's clerical regime will collapse or that the Iranians will return to the negotiating table to accept a far more punitive nuclear deal.

Despite some of the most intense anti-government demonstrations in decades, many analysts believe that there is no sign the regime is falling. In fact, there is more evidence that Trump's hardline approach is causing Iran to become more belligerent in its own region -- quite the opposite of the US goal.

"While the Trump Administration has touted its maximum pressure campaign against Iran, the results so far have been more threats against international commerce, emboldened and more violent proxy attacks across the Middle East, and now, the death of an American citizen in Iraq," New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said.

In response to the US policy, shaped by administration hardliners like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Iran has also resumed nuclear activity, even starting up centrifuges in an underground facility dismantled under the Obama-era deal.

Trump's personal prestige on the line in Iraq

The White House says that it doesn't want war and hopes that the fallout from the air strikes will soon cool and the crisis will pass. But if it does not, it may face the most dangerous US-Iran crisis in many years.

That's because the prestige of Trump and the Iranians is now deeply invested in this showdown and uncertainty about erratic decision making on both sides could lead to miscalculations.

And given the hardline position of the Trump administration towards Iran, it does not seem like there is any face-saving option that could quickly limit an escalation once it starts.

The situation tugs Trump between two dueling instincts in his political soul. He loves to look tough -- and live up to his own perceptions of a ruthless commander in chief.

But the President is also loath to be drawn into foreign entanglements -- one of his few inviolable principles and one that takes on more importance as he runs for reelection.

In June, Trump blinked at the prospect of military action against Iran at the last minute after Tehran's forces shot down a US drone and attacked oil tankers.

Iran may be betting that Trump will do the same again, but such a move might lead to a miscalculation if the President goes against type and could cause reprisals between the enemies that could spin out of control.

The protests at the US embassy in Baghdad raise a troubling historical parallel other than Benghazi. The storming of the US embassy by revolutionaries in Tehran and a subsequent hostage siege helped doom then-President Jimmy Carter to a single term in the 1980 election.

The political lesson from that historic humiliation is not hard to read, and it may play into Trump's thinking on Iran in the run-up to November's presidential election.

Still, Trump is hugely unpredictable. As the days pass after the recent upsurge in tensions the President may not draw conventional political lessons.

The embassy protests are a reminder from Iran of the huge vulnerability of US troops and diplomats in a nation where they have little leverage and where Tehran appears to be winning the battle for influence over the US -- nearly 17 years after its invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

In such circumstances, given his hostility to the idea of large-scale troop garrisons in the Middle East, it's not impossible Trump could suddenly decide to yank all Americans home.

Such an option would open the President to accusations that he surrendered to Iran -- though he'd be liable to spin it as a victory because it would be yet another campaign promise kept.

Iran leaned into the confrontation on Tuesday seeking to use it to solidify its advantage over Washington in Iraq.

"How and on what basis do you expect the Iraqi people to remain silent on all these crimes?" Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a statement.

End of the love affair?

North Korea's return to belligerence appears to reflect frustration that three face-to-face meetings between Trump and Kim, one of the world's most reviled tyrants, have not yielded any easing of US sanctions.

But the President has much to lose if his opening to the North dissolves, since his claims to have stopped Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests is a centerpiece of his reelection argument.

Trump's diplomacy has made no progress towards denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, despite concessions he offered in meeting Kim and halting US-South Korea military exercises.

In this, Trump has had about as much success as his immediate predecessors in defusing a conflict that has festered in a bitter standoff ever since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Given the personal prestige Trump has sunk into his groundbreaking summits with Kim, it's difficult to predict how the US President might react if North Korea launches a provocative test.

A return to the President's previous "fire and fury" rhetoric cannot be ruled out. Yet Trump has little to gain politically from an election-year showdown with Kim that exposes his wider foreign policy as a failure and revives fears of hostilities across the 38th parallel that could put tens of thousands of US troops and millions of South Korean civilians at risk.

At a meeting of ruling party officials, Kim said Tuesday that if the US "persists in its hostile policy towards the DPRK, there will never the denuclearization on the Korean peninsula." He also announced that "the world will witness a new strategic weapon" in the near future, and in an indication that North Korea could soon resume nuclear weapon testing, said his country should no longer feel bound by its self-imposed halt on nuclear weapons and long range missile testing.

But Pompeo said on Fox News on Tuesday evening that he had seen reports of the threat but was "hopeful" that Kim "will make the right decision."

And Trump, walking into the gala Tuesday night, remained optimistic about the future of diplomacy with the hermit nation, despite Kim's new bellicose rhetoric. The President, touting his relationship with Kim and downplaying North Korea's threatened "Christmas gift," said he believes Kim is a "man of his word."

"I hope his Christmas present is a beautiful vase," Trump said.

CNN's Kevin Liptak, Nicole Gaouette, Jeremy Diamond, Pamela Brown, Devan Cole, Larry Register and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this story.

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2020-01-01 08:19:00Z
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Australia bushfires have scorched 12M acres and killed at least 2 people. There's no end in sight - USA TODAY

Jorge L. Ortiz USA TODAY

Published 12:29 AM EST Jan 1, 2020

After much debate and consternation, the world-renowned fireworks show over Sydney Harbor delighted the estimated 1 million in attendance as Australia greeted a new year.

Now back to worrying about the bushfires.

A devastating fire season that has seen more than 12 million acres burn nationwide over a matter of months hit another crisis point Tuesday when residents and vacationers in a seaside town were trapped in apocalyptic conditions, and at least two people were killed as the eastern parts of Australia’s two most populous states continued to get torched.

The weather forecast offers only a little respite from the conditions that have fueled a surge in blazes amid what has been the country’s worst fire season in memory.

According to AccuWeather, there will be a letup Thursday in the heat and gusty winds that caused the fires to spread across New South Wales and Victoria, but those same factors will return Friday and into Saturday. It’s not until Sunday that widespread rain will arrive in the area for the first time in several weeks.

Tragic:Thousands of koalas feared dead as wildfires ravage Australia

New South Wales state Rural Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons wasn't overly optimistic.

“What we really need is meaningful rain,’’ he said, “and we haven’t got anything in the forecast at the moment that says we’re going to get drought-breaking or fire-quenching rainfall.”

The tinder-dry conditions prompted the cancellation of fireworks shows across the nation, and Sydney Mayor Clover Moore was pressed to follow suit as the leader of the largest city in a state, New South Wales, where almost 100 fires are burning. In the town of Conjola Park alone, 50 properties were confirmed destroyed and cars were melted by Tuesday’s blazes.

Moore declined, saying the New Year’s Eve celebration would “give hope to people at a terrible time.’’

She also pointed out the event had been months in the making and generates more than $90 million in revenue, drawing visitors from near and far. Sydney was granted an exemption to a total fireworks ban in place there and elsewhere to prevent new wildfires.

The Australian tourist industry may take a hit nonetheless after an estimated 4,000 people had to seek refuge on a beach in the southeastern town of Mallacoota, Victoria, about 300 miles east of Melbourne, as winds pushed a wildfire toward houses. The smoke-filled sky shrouded the town in darkness before turning a shade of bright red.

Many people escaped on boats as crews battled the blaze, eventually getting a break when the winds changed direction late in the day, though by then dozens of homes had burned down.

WATCH: Incredible footage of Australia wildfires shows danger firefighters face

Stranded residents and vacationers slept in cars, while gas stations and surf clubs transformed into evacuation areas.

Victoria Emergency Commissioner Andrew Crisp told reporters the Australian Defense Force was moving naval assets to Mallacoota on a supply mission that would last two weeks and helicopters would also fly in more firefighters because roads were inaccessible.

There were grave fears for four missing people. “We can’t confirm their whereabouts,” Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters.

Australia’s fire season, which began earlier than usual after an uncommonly dry and warm winter, has already claimed 13 lives and resulted in more than 1,000 homes getting destroyed.

In the nation's capital of Canberra, smoke from the wildfires led to the worst air quality in the world Wednesday, with a rating more than 21 times above the hazardous level.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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2020-01-01 05:29:55Z
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Protesters chanting ‘Death to America’ break into U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad - The Washington Post

Hundreds of supporters of an Iranian-backed militia surrounded the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Dec. 31, trapping diplomats inside in response to U.S. airstrikes on Dec. 29 that killed or wounded scores of militia fighters.

BAGHDAD — Hundreds of angry supporters of an Iranian-backed militia shouting “Death to America” broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, trapping diplomats inside in response to U.S. airstrikes that killed or wounded scores of militia fighters.

Tensions eased somewhat later in the day after Iraqi security forces intevenened, erecting a steel barrier at the smashed gate into the compound’s reception area and forcing the protesters to leave the compound. However, protesters periodically threw molotov cocktails over the compound’s walls and tried to tear down their barbed wire, as guards inside fired stun grenades at them.

President Trump responded angrily Tuesday to the protesters’ actions, charging that Iran was behind a deadly militia attack that led to the airstrikes and blaming Tehran for the embassy siege.

“Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many,” Trump tweeted from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!”

A spokesman for the Kataib Hezbollah militia said the demonstrators intend to besiege the embassy until the facility shuts down and U.S. diplomats leave Iraq.

But the angry demonstrators defied appeals delivered over loudspeakers by the group’s leaders not to enter the embassy compound and smashed their way into one of the facility’s reception areas, breaking down fortified doors and bulletproof glass and setting fire to the room.

A U.S. airstrike on Dec. 29 killed or wounded scores of members of an Iran-backed militia that forms part of Iraq’s security forces. Baghdad says it will have ‘dangerous consequences.’

American guards inside the embassy fired tear gas to keep the militia supporters at bay. U.S. troops could be seen nearby and on rooftops, their weapons drawn, but they did not open fire. Embassy civil defense workers just inside the gates attempted to put out the fires with water hoses.

The protesters also smashed security cameras, set two guardrooms ablaze and burned tires. They made a bonfire out of a pile of papers and military MREs (meals ready to eat) found in the reception area, where guards normally search visitors. Kataib Hezbollah flags were draped over the barbed wire protecting the embassy’s high walls.

The embassy’s sirens wailed continually as dense black smoke billowed into the air.

Thaier Al-Sudani

Reuters

Hashd al-Shaabi fighters set fire on the U.S. Embassy wall in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Inside the embassy, U.S. diplomats and embassy staffers were huddled in a fortified safe room, according to two reached by a messaging app. They declined to give details but added that they felt secure.

By early afternoon, tensions had eased somewhat after an Iraqi army commander showed up and ordered Iraqi security forces, who had initially made no attempt to intervene, to prevent the demonstrators going farther inside the facility. The security forces formed an impromptu buffer between the demonstrators and the American guards inside.

Shortly after that, acting Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi appealed for calm and urged the demonstrators to refrain from entering the compound. He said in a statement that it is the government’s responsibility to protect foreign embassies.

The embassy compound lies inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, which is normally off limits to ordinary people. But earlier in the morning, thousands of people walked unimpeded into the zone to join the demonstrations, as many Iraqi security forces simply mingled with the crowd.

Their chants of “Death to America” carried echoes of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when Iranian students seized control of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and detained American diplomats and other personnel there for 444 days.

Ahmad Al-Rubaye

AFP/Getty Images

U.S. soldiers watch from inside the U.S. embassy as Iraqi protesters surround thebuilding in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Many were wearing militia uniforms and carried flags signifying their allegiance to the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia, which had vowed to retaliate for the U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 militia members.

Among the crowd were some of Iran’s most powerful allies in Iraq, including Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organization; Qais al-Khazali, who heads the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia and was once imprisoned by the U.S. military; and Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, who spent years in prison in Kuwait for bombing the U.S. Embassy there.

The demonstrators daubed graffiti on the embassy walls signifying their allegiance to Iran: the names of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and powerful Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani. Other slogans simply read: “America get out.”

Some protesters began erecting tents nearby, indicating that they intend to remain for the long haul. Jaafar al-Husseini, a Kataib Hezbollah spokesman, said the group plans to encamp outside the embassy until it closes and all U.S. diplomats and troops leave Iraq.

Khalid Mohammed

AP

Protesters destroy a vehicle inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday.

U.S. Embassy officials did not respond to requests for comment, and it was not immediately clear how many U.S. diplomats or troops are trapped inside the compound, the largest U.S. diplomatic facility in the world. Opened with much fanfare over a decade ago as a symbol of American influence in Iraq, on Tuesday it seemed as much a symbol vulnerability of the United States in an Iraq in which it now has few friends.

The demonstration comes amid an outpouring of rage in Iraq directed against the United States for carrying out airstrikes Sunday against Kataib Hezbollah bases near the Iraqi-Syrian border. The strikes were in response to the death of an American contractor in a rocket attack last Friday on a base housing U.S. troops in Kirkuk. The United States blamed the rocket attack on the Iranian-backed group.

U.S. officials said the airstrikes were “defensive” and aimed at deterring further rocket attacks against U.S. personnel by Iranian allies in Iraq.

But in Iraq they have been widely denounced as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and of the rules governing the presence of the approximately 5,000 U.S. troops based there to help in the fight against the Islamic State.

U.S. airstrikes launched Dec. 29 against an Iran-backed militia group in Iraq and Syria left dozens dead or wounded.

Sly reported from Beirut.

Read more

U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria target Iranian-backed militia, Pentagon says

U.S. airstrikes on Iranian-backed militia draw condemnation, retaliation threats in Iraq

Iraq’s military is spreading fake news about protests

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https://news.google.com/__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?oc=5

2019-12-31 14:20:00Z
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