Australia Fire Updates: Bracing for an Even Worse Weekend - The New York Times

SYDNEY, Australia — Already besieged by one of the worst wildfire seasons in Australian history, evacuees and those staying put on Friday braced for conditions to grow even more dire.

Across Australia’s southeast, supermarket shelves emptied, gas stations closed and roads became clogged with traffic as skies turned a hellish red or a smoke-choked white. Firefighters were overwhelmed by more than 100 raging blazes and families were forced to make perilous stay-or-go decisions.

The toll so far includes 18 deaths, more than 1,000 homes destroyed and thousands of animals killed. On Friday, experts and government officials offered a grim warning: The upcoming weekend is likely to be the most dangerous yet.

Predictions for Saturday

Early Friday, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service dramatically expanded its estimate of the amount of land at risk from spreading fires, including “ember attacks,” in which burning wood fragments are carried by wind. The weekend is expected to bring high winds and temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 38 Celsius.

New South Wales, the state that includes Sydney, declared a state of emergency in its southeastern region on Thursday. Residents and tourists across a broad swath of the southeast were advised to flee.

Rescue by sea

The Royal Australian Navy began rescuing people trapped in Mallacoota, a seaside town in Victoria, after fires cut off its land-based escape routes. The Department of Defense said on Friday afternoon that 57 people had departed on one of its ships, and about 900 would leave throughout the day.

About 4,000 people, including about 3,000 tourists, were trapped in the town, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Some people would be unable to board the ships because it required using ropes to get on board, ABC reported. Those who made it onto a ship will take a 17-hour voyage to get to Melbourne.

‘It feels like it’s not real’

People staying behind on the south coast were preparing for the worst, after days of dwindling resources.

Clarinda Campbell, 37, said she and her two children had been without power and had barely slept since Tuesday, when fires swept through the area. They fled to a property owned by her parents in Surf Beach, where phone reception was out in all but a few spots. Water and food sources were running low, with no way to store them, and there was no garbage disposal service. Radio was the main source of information, and shops were accepting only cash.

But the community rallied together, she said. On Friday, a neighbor brought fresh bread, which is now a luxury.

“It has been very touching,” Ms. Campbell said. “In the crisis you see the best and the worst.”

On Friday, the family fueled up their cars in case a getaway was necessary.

Without the use of phones, they had to make contingency plans. Ms. Campbell said she was nervously waiting for Saturday, when her husband, who had stayed behind in the town of Broulee to defend their home, was supposed to run to a nearby hilltop with a sliver of cellular reception, to let her know if he was safe.

But with the possibility of fires blocking escape routes, she was trying to reach her husband on Friday to persuade him to leave.

“It feels like it’s not real,” she said. “I’ve gone to sleep every night and woken up every morning hoping that it was just a bad dream.”

Bernard Kreet, a caterer in Catalina, said he was hosting two families who had been evacuated from other towns, thinking that Catalina would probably avoid the worst. While his partner had left for the next town north, Mr. Kreet opted to stay behind.

“It’s so hard to get out of town, it’s chaos down here,” he said.

Catalina has run out of rice and fuel is low, he said. Power was out from Tuesday to Thursday.

When fire swept close to the area on Tuesday, he huddled with about 300 others at a Catalina golf club, waiting to hear if it would come their way.

“The feeling in that room, of 300 people just frightened — it was heavy,” he said. “There will be so many people with PTSD after this. So many people are just so anxious.”

Isabella Kwai reported from Sydney, and Daniel Victor from Hong Kong.

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2020-01-03 06:30:00Z
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Iran's military leaders: We're not afraid of war with the US - New York Post

Top military leaders in Iran blustered Thursday that the Islamic Republic is not cowed by threats from President Trump over the siege of the US Embassy in Baghdad and would “break” American forces if war erupts.

“We are not leading the country to war, but we are not afraid of any war and we tell America to speak correctly with the Iranian nation. We have the power to break them several times over and are not worried,” said Revolutionary Guards Commander Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, Reuters reported, citing an Iranian news agency.

Iran’s Army chief, Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, said his forces are ready to confront the “enemy.”

“Our armed forces … monitor all moves, and if anyone makes the slightest mistake, they will decisively react, and if the situation heats up, we will show our abilities to the enemy,” state media quoted Mousavi.

The displays of bravado are in response to Trump’s remarks on Tuesday blaming Iran for orchestrating the assault on the US diplomatic compound in Baghdad and promising to hold the regime accountable.

“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,” the president wrote on Twitter as Iranian-backed militias tried to storm the embassy.

Speaking later Tuesday before a New Year’s Eve celebration at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump said he preferred peace instead of war when asked if Washington and Tehran were barreling toward a conflict.

“I don’t think that would be a good idea for Iran. It wouldn’t last very long. Do I want to? No. I want to have peace. I like peace. And Iran should want peace more than anybody. So I don’t see that happening,” he said.

The attack on the embassy was in response to the US military carrying out airstrikes against five bases of the Iranian-support militia Kataib Hezbollah in Syria and Iraq over the weekend that killed 25 fighters.

The US blamed the group of killing an American contractor and wounding four service members in a rocket attack on a military base in Iraq last Friday.

The siege ended Wednesday after the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of mainly Shiite-aligned militias, called on the protesters to disperse, saying the Iraqi government had “heard their message.”

The Defense Department immediately deployed a detachment of US Marines and two helicopter gunships to bolster forces at the embassy and put thousands more troops on ready to respond to the violence in Baghdad.

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2020-01-02 14:05:00Z
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State of emergency declared in Australia as fires rage on - CBS This Morning

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2020-01-02 12:35:41Z
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New images of destruction inside US embassy in Baghdad - CNN

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2020-01-02 12:28:47Z
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New South Wales declares a 7-day state of emergency as Australia's deadly bushfires rage - CNN

State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Thursday that the emergency declaration would come into effect Friday morning as weather conditions are expected to deteriorate significantly on Saturday, raising the fire danger even further.

This is the third time NSW has declared a state of emergency in as many months -- the last two times, in November and December, were also for seven days, and granted extraordinary powers to the Rural Fire Service.

Berejiklian said residents could also be subject to forced evacuations, road closures and any other means necessary to keep people safe.

"We want to make sure we are taking every single precaution to be prepared for what could be a horrible day on Saturday," she said.

Thousands of people were already fleeing the state's south coast on Thursday, with the Rural Fire Service setting up a "tourist leave zone" from the town of Batemans Bay down to the Victoria border. All visitors were urged to evacuate before Saturday, when temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), dry conditions and ferocious winds are expected to heighten the risk of further blazes.

"These will be dangerous conditions," the fire service warned. "Do not be in this area on Saturday."

Thousands are evacuating from the coast

Similar hot, windy weather on Tuesday led to massive fires spreading out of control. Seven people died from the fires within 24 hours. Conditions improved slightly on Thursday -- creating a small window of opportunity for people to evacuate before the situation worsens again Saturday.

Tens of thousands of people are estimated to be in the south coast region, home to seaside towns that swell in population during summer.

Residents on Thursday were heeding the warning. Hundreds if not thousands of cars were backed up in small towns south of Nowra, on the southern coast, according to police. Roads away from the tourist area were packed with long lines of cars waiting to leave, and one major road heading south beyond Nowra was closed due to a fire that jumped the highway.

Some people had been waiting in line for hours and were getting frustrated, with little indication of when the road will open.

Nowra resident Trevor Garland was one of those trying to head south -- his 16-year-old daughter was stranded in the NSW town Sussex Inlet, where she was visiting a friend.

"The big picture is one road in, one road out," he told CNN on Thursday. "I'm going to wait here all night if I have to."

Rob O'Neill had been waiting for six hours at the roadblock. He was also trying to head south to find his children, aged 4 and 5, who are staying with their grandparents. He said he hadn't been able to contact them since Monday, and the fire line had moved as close as several hundred feet from the grandparents' house.

"We want to get them out before Saturday comes. Predictions are pretty bad for Saturday," he said. "Not knowing is pretty scary -- we don't know how they're going."

Authorities are working to clear the backlog and reach the cut-off areas. In neighboring Victoria state, there are 24 such isolated communities, according to Premier Daniel Andrews -- including the town of Mallacoota, where thousands of residents fled their homes to seek refuge at the beach on Monday.

A navy vessel will make multiple trips in Mallacoota on Friday to transport up to 800 residents and tourists to an unspecified safe location, Andrews said Thursday. Air evacuations could also happen once dense smoke begins to move away from the area.

Scenes from the ground show military personnel in trucks and rubber dinghies, rescuing stranded residents and shrouded in yellow haze.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday that the federal government was also sending resources when requested by states, including additional funding and military support from the Australian Defence Force. He warned that many areas were difficult for emergency personnel to safely access, and urged residents to remain calm and patient.

Climate change and the fire crisis

The Australian fires have been burning for months now, and aren't likely to stop anytime soon -- Australia is still in the early months of summer, and temperatures typically peak in January and February. "The fire season still has a long time to run," Morrison said in a news conference.

A total of 17 people have died across the country so far, with the most damage concentrated in NSW. Across the state, nearly 1,300 homes have been destroyed and another 442 damaged, according to the Rural Fire Service. Fires have consumed entire towns and ripped through bushland; the strong winds frequently change directions, which fan the flames and carry embers far distances.

The changing winds are forecast to continue from Friday into Saturday, hampering firefighting efforts and causing uncontained fires to spread, according to CNN meteorologists. Meanwhile, air quality will continue to deteriorate in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne, large urban hubs smothered in thick smoke and haze. Conditions aren't expected to improve until Monday, when rain could bring some relief.

Australia typically has a fire season during the dry, hot summer -- but this year's weather conditions are more extreme, leading to more devastating blazes. The country is gripped by one of the worst droughts in decades, and a heatwave broke nationwide records in December.

Experts say climate change has worsened the scale and impact of the fires, and many have accused the Morrison administration of not doing enough to address the climate crisis. In December, a woman dumped the remnants of her fire-ravaged home in front of the Australian parliament, accusing Morrison and lawmakers of failing to act.

Morrison faced heat from those living in the middle of the bushfire danger zone Thursday on what was supposed to be a visit with victims.

One woman said she would only shake his hand in order to get more money for the Rural Fire Service while another group yelled out "you're an idiot" and "piss off" as he walked away from them while on a stop in the town of Cobargo.

Morrison said Thursday his government aimed to "meet and beat our emissions reduction targets" -- but added that it would stick to "sensible" policies that "don't move toward either extreme."

"The suggestion that there is a single policy, whether it be climate or otherwise, (that) can provide a complete insurance policy on fires in Australia -- well, I don't think any Australian has ever understood that was the case in this country," he said.

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2020-01-02 11:54:00Z
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Iran-Backed Militia Withdraws After U.S. Embassy Attack in Iraq - Bloomberg Politics

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2020-01-02 07:54:33Z
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Taiwan’s Top Military Official and 7 Others Die in Helicopter Crash - The New York Times

Eight people including the chief of Taiwan’s armed forces were killed Thursday after the military helicopter carrying them crashed on a mountainside during a routine trip, Taiwan’s military said.

The Black Hawk helicopter was carrying 13 people, including Shen Yi-ming, an air force general who served as the chief of general staff of Taiwan’s armed forces. The helicopter left Songshan Airport in Taipei, the capital, shortly before 8 a.m. to fly to Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan for an inspection, the military said.

The last contact with the helicopter was at 8:07 a.m. The military has not yet said what may have caused the crash in a mountainous district southeast of Taipei.

A military spokesman said Thursday morning that rescuers were struggling at the time to reach the crash site. The 13 people on board included three crew members and 10 military officials.

Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president, called it “a sad day,” with “several excellent military leaders and colleagues killed in an accident in the line of duty.”

She wrote on Facebook that General Shen was an “excellent and well-qualified chief who was also beloved by all.”

Taiwan is in the final stretch of its presidential race, with Ms. Tsai holding a lead over Han Kuo-yu, the candidate from the main opposition party, the Kuomintang.

Taiwan has long been a potential flash point for military conflict. China claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to prevent it from pursuing formal independence.

The United States sells military equipment for Taiwan’s defense, including Black Hawk helicopters. The Obama administration approved the sale of 60 Black Hawks to Taiwan in 2010 as part of a $6.4 billion arms deal. China, in response, temporarily severed some military ties with the United States.

Amber Wang contributed research.

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2020-01-02 07:29:00Z
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