this is the news live from berlin the world rings in a new year and a new decade berlin welcomes the 20 twentieth's with a fireworks display down at the brandenburg gate celebrations also underway in new york city where huge crowds watched the ball drop in times square also on the show . the new year begins in australia with now went inside to expose fire crisis blazes are sweeping through coastal towns the navy says is preparing to evacuate the stranded at least another 7 lives lost over the past 48 hours.

and tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators taking to the streets of hong kong for a peaceful new year's day march just hours after a while and clashes on new years. are brian thomas great to have you with us for the start of the new year where people around the world have of course been ringing in the new year and the new decade here in berlin thousands gathering down at the brandenburg gate and in new york city the crowds and times square said hello to 2020 in one of the world's favorite new year's spectacles. and new year in new york. crowds

gathered in times square to ring in 2020. in berlin thousands welcomed the new decade at the iconic brandenburg gate with fireworks company by beethoven's 9th symphony. 12 hours earlier auckland 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.

in hong kong the traditional fireworks display was replaced with a toned down light show this year with authorities citing security concerns following months the pro-democracy protests. and already the north koreans were treated to a televised spectacle from the capital pyongyang thousands of people had gathered in kim il sung square to usher in the new year. can do by the world's tallest building the burj khalifa was the center of a display featuring fountains projections and fireworks from the 800 meter tower. london's big ben rung in the new year in the british capital the familiar chimes were accompanied by and the labrat pyrotechnic display from the london eye lighting up the river thames and the thousands of revelers celebrating the arrival of 2020.

well the new york coming on a somber note in australia where a further 7 people have been confirmed dead over the last 2 days thor days are now delivering food and water to thousands of people taking refuge on beaches outside and the danger is far from over. fuelled by searing temperatures and fast moving winds more than 200 fires continue to consume a strain southeastern states of new south wales and victoria. falls these rescue volunteers to take shelter in that 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 loss a lot of communities where we've got reports of of injuries and burn injuries to members of the public we haven't been out to get access of our roads all of our aircraft it's been socked in all to digress and we simply can't access nor can the

people in these areas get out. in some places the blazes assume intense that the thick smoke 10 day tonight. the fires are causing dry lightning storms that themselves are starting new fires. is pretty scary that wall of fire that we saw earlier i don't know whether we'd be any use trying to save the house and you're always worried that it's more important save your family than that little property itself. some people who have returned home have found there's not much left. for so you know it's. they go on this is the other you know that as i'm on the roof now trying to stop it. i stray has been battling huge bushfires for several months mostly on its east coast but every state has battled blazes that have raised more than 40000 square kilometers of land stranding people and

displacing wildlife. so is help getting through to stranded people right now under these conditions let's go straight to journalist roger maynard in sydney good day to you roger or what's the latest on on the thousands of people trapped outside mallika on the beaches on this very difficult new year's day for australia well most of the law still the only. roads are closed because there's nowhere to go late the same situation in the marshes of the south coast of new south wales to thousands of people remain in small holiday resorts in tiny communities and on the beach and in serve to try and to try to find some temporary accommodation until they're rescued that might be some days away because the roads are likely to remain closed to some time and in the meantime the australian air force and the navy tries to get these people on trial either to evacuate them by sea or to bring them

out by helicopter but that is taking some time to organize and it may well be that these people who stay there until saturday if they can't get out of all are ok you mentioned the australian norm terry roger are they going to be playing a major role now what are they going to be doing to help alleviate the situation and the comfort. well 2 disorders departed in the past few hours one from sydney and one from jervis claims just south of sydney they're heading down towards the north you selflessly tour the border so that they can closely evacuate these people at miller cooter they're also taking supplies his book supplies it very very important at the moment because of these people are running short of food and water and the only way to get more lot food supplies in is not up but by sea so the of the the the nigger playing important role and also

the other the efforts of playing an important role to with 2 or 3 helicopters being sent from new south wales and queensland to you know to bring in these extra supplies and if necessary take people out particularly those people who have been injured or who are suffering from burns ok briefly if you could roger is this unprecedented has the north terry ever been used in australia on this scale to evacuate people well to the yes the military is always standing by in the case of a crisis like this in floods and fires and no manner and site and all manner of situations in the military is standing by that really the help so it's not unprecedented but. it's very good they're also playing a very very important role particularly in this case in this particular crisis it's just bush leon president and you know it's becoming almost a humanitarian disaster roger maynard for us in sydney roger thanks very much.

those brief you know and some of the other stories making the news at this hour u.s. president donald trump's accusing iran of orchestrating tuesday's attack on the u.s. embassy in the iraqi capital baghdad dozens of iraqi shia militia men breaking into the compound to protest u.s. airstrikes washington says all personnel at the embassy are safe and that it will deploy more soldiers in iraq in response and there are reports just coming in of tear gas being fired at the embassy at this hour. north korean leader kim jong un's as the world will soon see what he calls a new strategic weapon he said his country was no longer bound by a moratorium on nuclear and missile testing but he left the door open to further talks with the u.s. . well one of the biggest news stories of 2019 were the pro-democracy protests in hong kong and there's no sign to an end to those demonstrations going

into the new year tens of thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets peacefully this new year's day in anti-government marches as follows violent clashes between protesters and riot police on new year's eve. there is more now from our correspondent. who's following those protests in hong kong. 2020 starts like 2019 ended another high turnout at today's march here in hong kong that shows that to many people here none of the issues that dominated this 2019 this year of protests have been resolved or people turned out to set the tone for 2020 they expect their demands to be met the government has announced it is not going to meet any more demands that has withdrawn the your original bill that was at the beginning of these protests but how sad it is not going to compromise any further. details bowing out of there while it's something

done in secret in iran getting tattooed that soon as there are not illegal but they are definitely frowned upon the it is a form of western decadence now and one of the obvious top reports from the past year we took a look at iran's underground tattoo saying. this is how absent they had to spends most of her time perfecting the contour africa steamer's eyebrows her beauty salon is tucked away in the 1st floor of an apartment building in eastern tehran but the 30 year old artist also offers a different service to women who know what to ask for one that is not openly advertised and can be only performed behind closed doors here in iran. saurav 72 ng is the job she's most passionate about and her preferred form of art

i think will learn to it's much more beautiful to me than drawing or painting on paper which i used to do when i have a sketch and then i to tootle someone's body and it's amazing the fact that i change someone's appearance of my art gives me a good feeling of a good feeling that's shared by the women she tattoos but none of them want to talk about it on camera or even show their faces that's because having a tattoo is widely considered taboo in iran. to add to soften my rest of the islamic republic although to choose a not illegal strictly forbidden by shia islam but authorities consider them a western phenomenon and harmful to iranian values but body art is still very popular among young people here and to run. in public body art mostly remains hidden beneath the moderate dress code that's mandatory here but inside coffee shops were to around hipsters gather tattoos are openly displayed. so hayloft lucky

is one of the scenes most famous artists he considers tattooing to be a symbolic form of medical treatment for his generation a way for people to heal what he sees as spiritual wounds well living in a culture in crisis. getting more and more hollow. for the survey used to use and also expensive clothes as a beautiful cloak to hide what's missing inside. so as a business the tuning is getting more and more successful. for customers or is hard to make an educated choice. because when something is kind of illegal in a society you know it and it's hard to find out information about it. that's something i've seen a how do you would like to change as well instead of creating her art secretly inside a beauty salon she would like to bring it out of the shadows. i guess that. if

i had enough money i would open my own tattoo studio. then i could work along with many other tattoo artists to quote expand the business and get better at what i share. a passion that's not without risks here in the islamic republic but for ason a being able to pursue her art is worth it. st peter's square now in a very rare scene where a woman who made it through pope francis's entourage cause a scene that led to a papal slap a rebuke. and shaking hands of people a crowd was turning to leave one a woman suddenly yanked him from behind the abrupt physicality appeared to cause the 84 year old some pain he slapped her hand away and gave her a good scolding before moving away visibly annoyed with all of it while within moments francis was back to wishing people happy new year and kissing children.

live from berlin i'm brian thomas don't forget there's always more at our web site www dot com for now though from the entire team happy new year and thanks for being with us. and for. which course in. any time any. w.p.s. .