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 bushfires 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.
On Thursday, Morrison said the 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.
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.
KIM JONG UN kicked off the new decade as only a North Korean dictator with a growing arsenal knows how: By making threats. Pyongyang will no longer commit to limiting its nuclear and ballistic-missile development, he said, and is planning to unveil a new strategic weapon (read: nukes) “in the near future.”
Reading between the lines, it sounded to many like Kim was offering the U.S. one final chance to meet his demands. If America doesn’t make concessions, he warned, North Korea “will shift to a shocking actual action.”
PRESIDENTDONALD TRUMP seems to have interpreted Kim’s message in the spirit of the season. Amid the New Year’s festivities at Mar-a-Lago, POTUS replied like so, per the White House transcript:
“I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un. I know he's sending out certain messages about Christmas presents and I hope his Christmas present is a beautiful vase. That's what I'd like, a vase, as opposed to something else.
“Look, he likes me, I like him, we get along. He's representing his country. I'm representing my country. We have to do what we have to do. But he did sign a contract, he did sign an agreement talking about denuclearization, and it was signed.
“Number one sentence: denuclearization. That was done in Singapore. And I think he's a man of his word. So, we're going to find out, but I think he's a man of his word.”
BETWEEN IRAN AND NORTH KOREA, the United States sure has its hands full right now. And many will certainly argue that, by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and engaging in failed summitry with Kim, Trump has made a bad situation worse. But keep in mind that the U.S. has been facing these two wily and dangerous foes for decades -- starting with the Korean War in the early 1950s, and picking up with the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s.
No president has figured out a magical formula for dealing with either country, and yet here we are. And if Democrats think they can do better, they’re going to have to make that case to voters in 2020.
MEANWHILE, IN IRAQ -- “U.S. Troops Fire Tear Gas as Protesters Swarm Embassy in Iraq Again,” by NYT’s Falih Hassan and Alissa J. Rubin in Baghdad: “For a second day, demonstrators swarmed outside the United States Embassy in Iraq on Wednesday and troops fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse them, but after a few hours the militia leaders who had organized the demonstration called on the crowd to leave.
“Unlike on Tuesday, protesters did not get inside the compound. By midafternoon all but about 200 had dispersed, taking their tent poles with them.” NYT
AND/BUT: The U.S. dispatched more troops to the Middle East yesterday, including forces that “come from the very unit that was created in the wake of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi attack to rapidly come to the aid of embattled embassies in the Middle East.” Like it or not, he’s getting involved. More on Trump’s fears of a Benghazi redux
Good Wednesday morning and Happy New Year. Here’s to the 2020s, and to the thousands of Americans serving in harm’s way today. (It’s me, Blake Hounshell, filling in for one last day before Jake and Anna come back.)
CLICKER -- Invariant’s Heather Podesta is out with her annual holiday card of funny New Year’s resolutions.
LETTER FROM PALM BEACH -- “Trump cuts loose with unpredictable characters at Mar-a-Lago,” by Daniel Lippman: “Alan Dershowitz, the liberal lawyer who now volubly defends Trump on TV, ran into the president on Christmas Eve. The two were waiting to get food, and Dershowitz said he offered the president an empty plate — Trump declined and instead picked up his own — as the two discussed holiday plans.
“‘He was in a very good mood,’ Dershowitz said. ‘People were talking to him, people were high-fiving him. These are his people.’”
SPOTTED last night strolling the red carpet on their way to having New Year's Eve dinner in a grand ballroom at Mar-a-Lago: Rudy Giuliani, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Eric, Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, Eric and Lara Trump, Tiffany Trump and Michael Boulos, Lou Dobbs, Charlie Kirk, Sergio Gor, Hogan Gidley, Mike Lindell and Michael Greenwald and Nolan Wein. (h/t Daniel Lippman, Tuesday’s travel pooler)
-- “From the Brig to Mar-a-Lago, Former Navy SEAL Capitalizes on Newfound Fame,” by NYT’s Dave Phillips: “A year ago, Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher was wearing drab prison scrubs at a brig near San Diego, facing murder charges that could have sent him to prison for the rest of his life. Now he is modeling his own lifestyle clothing brand, endorsing nutrition supplements and positioning himself as a conservative influencer with close ties to the man who helped clear him — President Trump.” NYT
TRUMP’S WEDNESDAY: The president has nothing on his public schedule.
PLAYBOOK READS
SENATE TRIAL TEA-LEAF READING … JOSH GERSTEIN: “Chief Justice John Roberts warns about dangers of fake news”: “Chief Justice John Roberts — who’s on the verge of an extraordinarily high-profile balancing act presiding over the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump — issued a warning on Tuesday about the dangers of misinformation in the internet era.
“In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public’s need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital,” Roberts declared in his annual New Year’s Eve message summing up the work of the federal judiciary.
“Roberts was not explicit about whether his call for increased civics education was intended as a rebuke of Trump, although some quickly read it that way.” POLITICO … Roberts’ message
-- NYT’s ADAM LIPTAK: “The two men have a history of friction, and Chief Justice Roberts used the normally mild report to denounce false information spread on social media and to warn against mob rule. Some passages could be read as a mission statement for the chief justice’s plans for the impeachment trial itself. … The report seemed to continue a conversation with Mr. Trump about the role of the courts.”
FOR YOUR RADAR … AP/PERTH: “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.
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION -- “FDA to Ban All E-Cigarette Pod Flavors Except Tobacco and Menthol,” by WSJ’s Jennifer Maloney and Thomas M. Burton: “The Food and Drug Administration plans to ban the sale of fruity flavors in cartridge-based e-cigarettes, but the restriction won’t apply to tank vaping systems commonly found at vape shops, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The action is seen as a compromise between Trump administration officials who want to address a rise in teen vaping and those concerned about the impact on small businesses and the possible political fallout for President Trump, these people said. Polls commissioned by the vaping industry have shown an outright ban would be unpopular in key states for the 2020 election. Federal officials are expected to announce the new plan as soon as Friday.” WSJ
TRUMP, INC. -- “Trump Organization fires more undocumented workers — a year after its use of illegal labor was revealed,” by WaPo’s Joshua Partlow and David A. Fahrenthold in Charlottesville, Va.: “Nearly a year after the Trump Organization pledged to root out undocumented workers at its properties, supervisors at the Trump Winery on Monday summoned at least seven employees and fired them because of their lack of legal immigration status, according to two of the dismissed workers.” WaPo
BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- “U.S. Ushers In 2020 With Slate of New Laws,” by WSJ’s Jacob Gershman: “Hundreds of state laws across the country take effect on Jan. 1., with new measures changing rules dealing with everything from hiring practices to felon rights and grocery bags.
“The nation’s most stringent data-privacy law takes effect on Wednesday, when hundreds of thousands of businesses will have to start complying with the California Consumer Privacy Act. The state’s business community is also bracing for another law that sets a higher threshold for classifying workers as independent contractors.
“A number of criminal-justice changes are set to take effect. New York will eliminate cash bail for defendants charged with minor offenses and nonviolent felonies, curtailing pretrial detention.
“Starting Jan. 1, employees of colleges and universities in Texas, including the University of Texas, Austin, could face criminal penalties for failing to report incidents of sexual assault, harassment or dating violence.
“California will limit the circumstances under which police may use deadly force. Starting on Wednesday, lethal force against a suspect is justified only when necessary in defense of human life.” WSJ
CHAPO TRAP HOUSE READING -- “Why Pete Buttigieg Enrages the Young Left,” by Derek Robertson in POLITICO Mag’s Chicago bureau: “The unspoken truth about the furor Buttigieg arouses is that his success threatens a core belief of young progressives: that their ideology owns the future, and that the rise of millennials into Democratic politics is going to bring an inevitable demographic triumph for the party’s far left wing.” POLITICO Magazine
HART RESEARCH ASSOCIATES is out with its annual list of polling findings for 2019, ranging from 100% (general-election Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren voters who don’t think Trump has the right goals and policies) to less than 0.1% (the Nationals’ chances of winning the World Series back on May 28). A couple of other notable stats: 49% of Americans think we need a complete overhaul of, or major changes to, democracy … 45% of independents believe climate change necessitates immediate action … 71% of suburban Americans think parents should have to get their kids vaccines like MMR. All the stats
IN MEMORIAM -- “The Historian of Moral Revolution,”by David Brooks in The Atlantic: “Gertrude Himmelfarb argued that a great deal is lost when a society stops aiming for civic virtue and is content to aim merely for civility.”
-- “Gen. Paul X. Kelley, Top Marine Tested by a Bombing, Dies at 91,”by NYT’s John Cushman Jr.: “Gen. Paul X. Kelley, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who rose to become commandant of the Marine Corps from 1983 to 1987 and endured the devastating bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 service members in 1983, died on Sunday at a care facility in McLean, Va. He was 91.
“His wife, Barbara Kelley, said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease. At a time when the nation’s military was rebuilding both equipment and morale, a decade after the Vietnam War, General Kelley, regarded as politically adept and well connected, was trusted by President Ronald Reagan’s inner circle.”
-- “Sonny Mehta, literary tastemaker who long reigned at Knopf, dies at 77,”by WaPo’s Emily Langer: “Sonny Mehta, a literary tastemaker and kingmaker who spent more than three decades at the helm of the Alfred A. Knopf publishing house, where he courted critical acclaim, profits and sometimes both at once with a lineup of books that included works by a stable of Nobel laureates, the memoirs of presidents and prime ministers, and page-turning crime and love stories, died Dec. 30 at a hospital in Manhattan.”
SPOTTED: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Jared Kushner, Chris Ruddy and Michael Lindell having coffee on the Mar-a-Lago terrace on Tuesday. … Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) in row 11 on a United Airlines flight from Denver to Boston.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Kelsey Philie, communications director at the Foundation for Government Accountability, and Mathieu Philie, a U.S. Army company commander, welcomed Mason James Philie on Dec. 24.
BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) is 66 … European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is 64 … Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) is 55 … Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) is 46 … BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti is 46 … WaPo’s Brady Dennis … Dana Klinghoffer of NBC News communications … James Glassman is 73 (h/t Tim Burger) … Rob Johnson, founder of Johnson Strategies … Dan Koh … Google’s Tomer Ovadia … former New Jersey Gov. and Sen. Jon Corzine (D) is 73 … former Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) is 55 … former Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas) is 78 … Stephanie Penn … Kevin McGrann, assistant VP for federal relations at AT&T … Todd Webster, SVP at Cornerstone Government Affairs (h/t Jon Haber) … Nirmal Mankani … Paul E. Singer Foundation’s Daniel Bonner is 3-0 … Andrew Greene is 3-0 … Dan Weiss is 5-0 …
… Shannon Watts … Josh Nanberg, president of Ampersand Strategies, is 46 … Katie Lee … Ted Bridis, who teaches investigative reporting at the University of Florida … Jeremy Bates … J.D. Bryant, director at Bully Pulpit Interactive … Kara Kearns … POLITICO Europe’s Giulia Chiatante … Ken Toltz … Hannah Schwartz of Joe Biden’s campaign … Michael Kelly … Meagan Vargas … Margot Friedman … POLITICO’s Alex DiNino … Sally Slater … Caroline Buck … Victor Ashe … Alison Howard … Kate Beale Maguire … Brian Frederick … Lauren Hagen … Yama Noori … James Donnelly is 3-0 … C-SPAN’s Nicole Ninh … Max Richtman … Zach Howell … Jay Kahn … Jennifer Hall … Justin Bartolomeo, SVP at HDMK … Rocky Disabato … Hugh Delehanty … Tony Esoldo (h/t Teresa Vilmain)
Protesters were seen trying to climb the embassy's exterior walls, an eyewitness -- who asked not to be named for security reasons -- told CNN.
Others said the protesters were hurling rocks at the building and trying to set fire to its walls and to the security booths at the main entrance.
It marks the second day of mass demonstrations outside the building in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, in response to US airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militia group on Sunday.
The US carried out airstrikes on five facilities in Iraq and Syria that it says are tied to the Iranian-backed group Kataib Hezbollah, killing dozens of people.
US officials hold Kataib Hezbollah responsible for a growing number of rocket attacks against American facilities in Iraq.
The death of a US contractor in one such attack last week was the last straw for the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump blamed Iran for both the US contractor's death and Tuesday's attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad, and warned Iran's leaders they would be held responsible for any deaths or destruction at the embassy.
"Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities," Trump tweeted. "They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat."
But Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded by tweeting that the US "can't do anything."
"If you were logical -- which you're not -- you'd see that your crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan... have made nations hate you," Khamenei added.
Paramilitary groups who have been protesting at the embassy on Wednesday asked their supporters to "withdraw" from the area and respect the Iraqi government, according to a statement released by the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
It was not immediately clear if supporters were heeding the call by the PMU, and local media reports suggested some factions within the group had rejected the request.
Eyewitnesses also told CNN that local law enforcement forces around the embassy had not been seen doing anything significant to stop the protestors demonstrating in front of the compound, or from throwing stones at it.
In the wake of Tuesday's attack on the US Embassy, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the US would send approximately 750 soldiers to the Middle East.
"This deployment is an appropriate and precautionary action taken in response to increased threat levels against US personnel and facilities, such as we witnessed in Baghdad today," he said in a statement.
"The United States will protect our people and interests anywhere they are found around the world," Esper added.
Trump insisted in a tweet Tuesday that the embassy was safe. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also told Fox News that there are currently no plans to evacuate the embassy or pull US troops out.
The weekend's airstrikes have strained relations between Washington and Baghdad. Iraqi officials accuse the US of attacking without sufficient evidence, of violating Iraqi sovereignty and of threatening the country's security.
The militia targeted by US airstrikes
The Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah is militantly anti-American. In 2017 and 2018, its fighters in Syria tried to attack the US-supported garrison at al-Tanf on the Iraqi border.
It has provided hundreds of fighters for the Assad regime in Syria -- part of a broader Iranian effort to help stamp out the insurgency there -- and is an important element in Iranian efforts to extend its influence through northern Iraq and into Syria. The US strikes, notably, were against targets along the main route between Iran and Syria.
A spokesman for Kataib Hezbollah told CNN that the embassy protests were only a "first step."
"The American administration should understand the following: the first step was to protest near the American embassy, we are waiting their reactions to determine the second step," Mohamad Mouhiye said, calling for the US to shut down the embassy and withdraw from Iraq.
"First, close the doors of the evil embassy, which we consider a spy building and an operations room to administer and sabotage Iraq's well-being," Mouhiye said. "We also call on the US to withdraw their military forces which are in Iraq illegally."
CNN's Arwa Damon, Jeremy Diamond, Pamela Brown, Ryan Browne, Caroline Kelly and Tim Lister contributed to this report.
