this is the news live from berlin as new york reigns in and you dick. things up the same small town square crystal ball has dropped off a brand new thousands of prevalence of gathered to welcome in the 20 twentieth's is to east coast of america joins the pot celebrations also taking place from paul clinton will bring new images from around the world also on the part of. the

dreaded sock counting the cost of the bush fires that have swept through coastal towns 3 lives have been lost and hundreds of ponds destroyed both already so now trying to get supplies to communities cut off by the fought. and i think of the medical calls for germans to be tried just and confident in confronting the challenges of the new decade a new dress chancellor also stresses the need to tackle climate change. i'm anthony held welcome to the program and i just cities across the globe have been putting on spectacular shows to welcome in the new year and the new decade in berlin thousands gathered at the brandenburg gate to say or to 2019 and hello to 2020 is a look at some of the best of the new year's celebrations from all over the world.

i have the final countdown of the decade and the 1st few seconds of the 2026 thousands of berliners welcomed the new year at the iconic brandenburg gate which fireworks accompanied by bass have been some 9 symphony have. i 12 hours earlier oakland new zealand was the 1st major city to see in the new year with pyrotechnics erupting from the city's sky tower and over the water. in australia the fireworks from sydney's harbor bridge went ahead despite calls for the show to be cancelled because of the devastating bushfires the country is experiencing i in hong kong the traditional fireworks display was replaced with

a toned down light show this year with authorities citing security concerns following months of pro-democracy protests. in the north koreans were treated to a televised spectacle from the capital yangon thousands of people had gathered in kim il sung square to usher in the new year i ended by the world's tallest building to bash khalifa was the center of a display featuring fountains projections and fireworks from the 800 meter tower. london's big bend rung in the new year in the british capital the familiar chimes were accompanied by an elaborate pyrotechnic display from the london eye lighting up the river thames and the thousands of revelers celebrating the arrival of 2020. 2 now where residents are returning to the. ruins of the harms that have been

ravaged by bushfires 3 people have died and at least 200 houses have been rising by fires in the states of new south wales and victoria. delivering food and water to thousands of residents who were sheltering on beaches and the danger isn't over yet fires are still burning and the navy is on standby for possible rescue mission. field by searing temperatures and fast moving wins more than 200 fires continue to consume australia's southeastern states of new south wales and victoria a fire forced these rescue volunteers to take shelter in their truck as flames surrounded them the crew made it out safely. we also have a very real challenge at the moment with a couple of also lied to communities where we've got reports of injuries and burn injuries to members of the public we have been out to get access of our roads all of our aircraft it's been socked you know to digress and we simply can't access nor

can the people in those areas. and some places the blazes are so intense that they smoke turned day into night the fires are causing dry lightning storms that themselves are starting fires. it's pretty scary that wall of fire that we saw earlier i don't know whether we. have some you're always worried that it's more important save your family property itself. some people who have returned home have found there's not much left so you know it's. this is the other you know. i'm on the roof trying to stop. us trillion has been battling huge bushfires for sale for a month mostly on the east coast but every state has battled blazes that have raised more than 40000 square kilometers. there's

a plant stranding people and displacing wildlife. i'm joined now from melbourne by lou kagan he's the spokesman for victoria's state center for marriage and sea management like whistling apocalyptic scenes in victoria particularly in the coastal town of malik kuta a new die has dawned they what has died light revealed in that corner of the state what we know. and more broadly across the land ration which is where they so far as a burning is that we've had significant impacts to property sorry lots of property losses we don't know the exact numbers but we know that it has been significant recently received from people who were in military use or a number of houses unfortunately. because the crater is continuing to provide us laws to that community so we've now got it drop some supplies into that community we're all sorry city a place barge across to support that community we supplies did i get to know at

challenges how we continue to support that community but also a number of opportunities cross that raging who are currently last light it is not right access to a number of communities right now communities are without heroin without telecommunications access sorry it's a challenging situation for the residents who are living in that part of this site at the moment and that's why we've sort of assistance of the defeats force in this trial yet to provide us with night be a prompt in 90 baseballs that will be outed support the supply to the communities but also us assets that will assist us with farming these for those look at my saying difficult to comprehend for those of us watching from elsewhere in the will but could the situation get any worse in the coming hours and days.

well unfortunately even our it's the new eat this is only the 2nd month of summer for starting to die that means that we've got at least 2 months of of a hard drive without the head of a small morally we're not saying the right in the fall cost and that's what we need to help consign these far as unfortunately that means that any time we see strong we face far as we get into you continue to spray that means you're going to continue to threaten the existing communities that have been cut off or for about 3 new communities 3 out strange things are very very large far as they are not just plain now a the burnie in the northeast of have started and we've also got a number of far as that are very new south wales right across the state border out sorry home north face of victoria parts of new south wales that are really suffering from a security far as look a getting in melbourne thank you and you time now to

take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world from around on this embossed callus going is in lebanon after skipping bail in japan where he was awaiting trial for 5 financial misconduct in a statement gone claimed he was not fleeing justice but it was a scathing political persecution its legal team said it was shocked by the client skate lebanon up. and goal has frozen the assets of the daughter of the former president the move against isabelle to santos as part of an anti corruption drive known as africa's wealthiest woman she in asked a fortune taking stakes in angola companies during her father's term in office she denies any wrongdoing. musicians from the paris opera have given an impromptu performance on the steps of the city's famous bel steal oprah as part of a protest against president emmanuel pension reforms a union spokesman said the reforms would damage the quality of the troops

performance. british police have charged a man with criminal damage for allegedly slashing a painting by the spanish moss the public because the incident happened at the tate modern over the weekend the damage bookies with more than 23000000 euros. crowds of protesters have attacked the u.s. embassy in the iraqi capital baghdad in response to recent u.s. airstrikes targeting an iran backed iraqi militia u.s. president donald trump has accused iran of orchestrating the protests washington says all u.s. personnel at the embassy and that it will deploy more than $750.00 additional soldiers to the country in response. the hezbollah brigade supporters crossed the river tigris in the morning and marched toward the u.s. embassy to demonstrate. their protest began after

a funeral service for fighters killed in u.s. airstrikes on sunday. the militia officers had previously killed a u.s. citizen. the demonstrators broke through the embassies external security barriers and made it as far as the last security wall of the embassy building in baghdad among the demonstrators shiite clergy and a radical militia leader. the other look on the unit this is the command center for the destructive operations but it was from here that iraq's sovereignty was violated all of that was the demonstrators managed to force their way into the compound in the afternoon they remained there until security personnel deployed tear gas to disperse them. washington says it's confident it knows who's backing the shiite militia as president donald trump tweeted earlier. iran is orchestrating an attack on the u.s. embassy in iraq they will be held fully responsible. it was only after several

hours that iraqi security forces arrived to protect the embassy grounds. angela merkel is calling on germans to be courageous and confident in meeting the challenges of the new decade the german chancellor also used the annual new year's eve address to stress the need to 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 key word climate. 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 just moved. medical 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. by cardinal and stevie 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 these values will also remain our compass in the next decade. medical 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 a european framework where in their minds off 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 employer there is still much work left for her to do. now to a rare display of aggravation from a usually unflappable figure of francis the pontiff showed he's just as likely to get grumpy as the rest of us during a walk through some pay to square in the vatican. but francis had been shaking hands with people in the crowd and was turning to leave when a woman yanked him back he dropped gesture appeared to cause the pied piper he slapped a hand and got her telling off before walking away visibly annoyed. not within moments his holiness was back to more familiar jesus. that thing. kissing babies. it watching day the news from berlin up next is

a documentary on making yachts the latest must have for the world's rich and powerful something that you can get all the lettuce news and information around the clock on our website that's the deadly dot com i'm anthony held in berlin wishing you were if your watching happy new year. it's all happening to children in africa. to link to news from africa the world your link to exceptional stories and discussions can you and will come to the day after calling program a night from funny to me from using these beads now i would say damn it.