planes. would. explain. this is a v.w. news live from london it is hello 2020 in new zealand of the kiwis welcome and the news media you can see here the country's biggest fireworks display and all claim to be lighting up the city's sky tower. shut while new zealand celebrates its thousands are trapped on beaches came to australia as wildfires close and the blazes are causing off the state fruits forcing people to flee to the shoreline and hope the press source is also struggling to keep the firestorms after

a while the fires claimed 2 more lives. plus some carlos ghosn is gone the full month boss flees japan where he face trial for financial misconduct he says he is escaping persecution. time and he keeps becoming like you so much for joining us shall abrasions to welcome in the new year and the new decade have started with a new zealand one of the very 1st countries to ring in 2020. you can see here. new zealand's biggest fireworks display in all clearly thousands of people gathering to watch that and for the last time the city's iconic sky tower was also lit up by a laser. and and. now and then our neighboring australia will also stop welcoming

in the new media in sydney has said it will hold its usual firework display to mark the start of the new decade but it is a controversial decision given the devastating bushfires that are currently sweeping the country now fears all growing for residents and tourists trapped by raging fires in several australian coastal towns people have sought shelter on the waterfront and are preparing for possible evacuation by sea it is an unprecedented situation across the country and the area's was defected australia's 2 most populous states in the south east new south wales and victoria and the town of moloch just over that is where full 1000 people have fled the fire to the beach the blazes have claimed 2 more victims a father and a son trying to protect their home and several of the people are still missing.

stranded by the seaside. tourists and locals being held hostage by raging wildfire in the town. to leave. the beach. to come. across the region have made the difficult decision to stay behind but. then now on their own.

temperatures on tuesday. in some places the places are so intense the thick smoke turned day to night and aerial reconnaissance and water bombing have to be hold it the fires are causing dry lightning storms that themselves are starting fires. when fawaz arkwright in there on with them have a super hot columns that go up to the unfolding 15 kilometers in the air it's not saif then there is obviously the good the very common sense issue of not being out of the city so much my son much so much impact in terms of moving around australia has been battling huge bushfires for several months mostly on the eastern coast on tuesday almost $300.00 fires were registered and the places have consumed

more than 40000 square kilometers of land. more on this bushfire as of joined now by journalist raja may not in sydney raja cites the joining us thousands of australians stranded on beaches to escape these fires do they have enough food and water are they getting any help at all. well it's difficult to say the least i think food supply is going to have to be flown in and a water supply is 2 years these people are totally cut off at the moment it's really been a horrid day in australia fires raged from east gets lead up to the south coast of new south wales the fire line is stretched an estimated 500 kilometers it's the day started almost really enough in the mela cooter down and victoria a small country town which is inhabited by a lot of tourists at this time of year in the middle of summer they will work on a brick to stand by sirens sounding an alarm people work to up

a black guy even at 8 o'clock in the morning but sky those who turn to a deep rig and there's the bushfires headed towards town full 1000 people fled to the beach to the scape what they feared was going to be a of a fiery end but fortunately at the very last minute the wind changed direction and . the town escaped the flames although a few properties were destroyed in the process but even so those $4000.00 people were cut off by the fires and still can't get out because the roads in and out of the town closed but bus service people are apparently stranded it's hope that they will be rescued either by army helicopters or by the navy but it could take some days to to organize to organize paul people are still missing it victoria there are grave fears for their safety and as the winds picked up the fun marched on to new sound of the world's consuming does the small property is in its block and again

many people fled to the beach in the same way they've done. the fear of being consumed by the flames now people likened it to nothing short of armageddon as a wall of flames as well as high as 100 metres swept along the road season for voters said they'd seen nothing like it in their career right yet in the tragic news. projects roger if i can just ask you i mean the pictures we're seeing are devastating can you talk to me about how this is impacting the traditional new year's eve celebrations in australia because of course has been a huge controversy about the ideas of celebration with fireworks while homes burning well that's from quote reuter i mean look the flow works are definitely going at it but certainly the very somber mood there are really mixed feelings about whether the final work should be held in the 1st place at a time of national crisis flags are flying at half mast on the sydney harbor bridge in order of the flood of fires or who die ideas today but the events of the past

few days will clearly cast a very dark shadow or overlook the slow work or celebration over which are being held in windy conditions and an extremely subdued mood all right roger may not in sydney thank you so very much for bringing us up to date. now he was one of the most talked about business personalities in 2019 and now he's back in the spotlight the ousted nisson chief coddles has escaped japan where he was under house arrest the auto tycoon apparently jumped bail on a private plane said he was not fleeing justice but instead seeking to know to avoid injustice and persecution ago who is of lebanese origin was arrested in japan about a year ago on charges of financial misconduct and he's expected to face trial in april and he's denied the charges of hiding income and breach of trust japan does not have an extradition treaty with lebanon and so it's unclear what steps japan

might now take. and one contends from dealing business is here to tell us more welcome moneypenny are now gone says he's been persecuted by japanese government officials what evidence does he have to bat up well. let's put it this way he isn't the only one to criticize the japanese judicial system in particular the so-called hostage system which is something we didn't really know about much about before this case came about but now it's in the international a spotlight because this is to focus on integration with the aim to get a confession and in order to get out the prosecutors police in japan seem to have all the time in the world even for minor offenses that take shoplifting they can keep a shop lifter in detention for 23 days and into reggae them there is unthinkable here and that drew a lot of international criticism having said that even his defense lawyer is going

to famous lawyer seems to have a bit of sympathy with him but he does point out that escaping japan is not pot of the current. bail conditions and we have a sound bite let's just listen in to that. course it's unacceptable since it's a violation of his bail conditions in the eyes of japanese law. in terms of whether i understand the desire to take such an action. that's another issue that we can i put him through to grow the moral. and i personally find this last bit of his statement particularly interesting whether he understands it you know that he did it is another issue because he was fighting of course for columns go and write as his defense attorney and i mean things like the way he was arrested the way he was kept in detention the fact that he was kept separate from

his wife he could only see or speak to her and with the special commission he had very little internet access so all of that was quite questionable and came under a lot of criticism ok so he's gone but how did he escape and why why let him why how how is the interesting part i mean i think this is something that will still be doing some guessing for a while what we know that he flew on a private plane via turkey that he landed in lebanon and we now also know that he entered lebanon with his french passport he had 3 passports he was born in brazil and he held french still holds french and lebanese citizenship his lawyer however the one that we just heard also insisted that he still has all the 3 passports that were confiscated when going was under put under house arrest so obviously he must have had more than one french passport and i was told that that is actually possible interesting why lebanon well his wife is lebanese and he has the passport and as you mentioned earlier there is no extradition treaty between japan and

lebanon so he seems quite safe right now into an extraordinary story what is likely to happen next before one everybody's waiting for tokyo to react what they'll do next and of course today the new year's celebrations under way they have been quiet so we're still waiting to hear what they're planning to do about the escape and let's not forget my colleagues go down was a major tycoon a very impressive figure in the business world his arrest in november 28th in came as a major blow to him but also to the business world and he still faces 4 charges including enriching himself through payments to a dealership in the middle east now he's in lebanon in beirut out of reach for now and he says that he's happy. be there because he can finally communicate freely with the media and he plans to do so starting next week so i think we can get prepared for a lot of interesting press conferences and i'm still waiting for this hollywood block prostitute to cover that story more details on the great escape so they. want

to get to insight so much and we will of course have more for you on that story and obviously it's coming up thanks so much. now german chancellor angela merkel is calling on the nation to be courageous and confident in missing the challenges of the new decade and the annual new year's eve address to be released later today michael also stresses the needs tackle climate change. it's the end of the year and the end of the decade the world is getting even more complicated but german chancellor angela merkel doesn't paint a bleak picture even if she clearly points to a pressing issue the keyword cloyd it. is a global warming is real it threatens us it is caused by human activity as are the crises that arise out of global warming so we must do all that is humanly possible to combat this challenge to humanity there is still time no it's definitely a miracle says the recently agreed climate protection laws

a step in the right direction even if young environmental activists say the law doesn't go far enough but merkel says the government must consider all citizens and that by talking with steve you are guided by the values of freedom solidarity and respect for the dignity of every single person as well as the principles of the social market economy and these values will also remain our compass in the next decade. merkel says it's the state's duty to defend these values against anti-semitism hate and violence and this also applies to refugees and migration merkel stresses that solutions are needed within the european framework where in their minds of the only within the community of the european union can we assert our values and interests and secure peace freedom and prosperity europe must strengthen its voice in the world therefore will also stand up for this in the coming year during the german e.u. council presidency for example by holding a summit of all member states with china and

a meeting with the african states. and so chancellor merkel concludes the year. pragmatically with concrete plans for the future employed there is still much work left for her to do. and you can watch the address in full later today on up next shift our tech shares finale thanks so much for watching. 50 years of religions for peace. many different things are working together toward a common goal.