Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, has accused the government of Nicolás Maduro of trying to bribe lawmakers to vote against his re-election as National Assembly president in an effort to put Maduro loyalists in the parliament and gain control of Venezuela’s last democratic institution.  Guaidó, who last year declared himself Venezuela’s interim president, made the comments in an exclusive interview with VOA. Alvaro Algarra and Adriana Nunez in Caracas contributed to this report by VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit.

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The recent launch of ballistic missiles against U.S. military air bases in Iraq, in response to the U.S. killing of top Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani, was immediately claimed by the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 
This, experts say, highlights a different position assumed by Tehran in carrying out attacks against the U.S. and other adversaries as opposed to relying on its many proxy forces throughout the region to have the luxury of plausible deniability. 
Targeting a high-profile military leader such as Soleimani, who led IRGC’s elite Quds Force, prompted the Iranian leadership to respond to the U.S. at a similar level, experts argue. 
“The IRGC has been in charge of the game when it comes to Iranian security,” said Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council in Washington.  
“The IRGC is part of their national security system. They have a Supreme Council of National Security, which includes a representative there and the head of the branches of the military as well as the president and the foreign minister,” she told VOA. 
Slavin added that Iranian leaders “make these decisions jointly, and they reach a consensus on what they think is the appropriate step.” 
The IRGC “chose this tactical attack against U.S. installations in Iraq to be able to calm down its public and to demonstrate that it has indeed retaliated” for the killing of Soleimani, said Cyrus Saify, an Iranian affairs analyst based in Washington. 
He said the IRGC attack was also a move to appeal to hardliners in the Iranian government. 
Previous attacks 
Over the years, Iran has built a significant network of mostly Shiite militias across the Middle East, including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere. 
In an assessment of the Tuesday attack on U.S. military bases in Iraq, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of IRGC’s aerospace force, spoke at a news conference where he stood behind flags that represent several Iranian proxies, including the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces and the Palestinian Hamas. 
The slain commander Soleimani was personally involved in founding some of those armed groups, particularly after the Arab Spring uprising in the region and the subsequent rise of the Islamic State terror group in Syria and Iraq. These militias have been instrumental in expanding Iran’s influence and reach in the region. 

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In recent years, Iran has relied on its proxies to carry on its agenda of targeting U.S. interests in the Middle East, experts said. 
In Iraq, for example, military bases housing U.S. troops have been attacked at least 10 times since October, with U.S. officials mostly blaming Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite militias. 
An assault last month on a military base in the Iraqi province of Kirkuk killed an American contractor and wounded several U.S. and Iraqi military personnel, prompting the U.S. to respond by striking five facilities in Iraq and Syria that belonged to the pro-Iranian Iraqi Shiite militia Kataeb Hezbollah. 
Kataeb Hezbollah, which was led by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed along with Soleimani in the U.S. airstrike last week, was one of the main Iranian-backed Shiite militias behind the recent attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. 
In September 2019, Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have been battling a Saudi-led coalition in the war-ravaged country, claimed responsibility for a drone attack on oil facilities run by state-owned Saudi Aramco. 
Experts said those attacks highlight the serious threats Iran’s proxies could pose in the ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran. 
Additional responses 
Jason Brodsky, an Iran expert based in Washington, believes that the Iranian missile response against U.S. forces should be measured by phases. 
“The first phase was direct retaliation. The second phase is likely to be indirect retaliation through proxies within its broader Axis of Resistance,” he told VOA. 
Iran and its proxy militia groups in the region refer to their alliance as the “Axis of Resistance.” 
It’s important to pay attention to the messaging of Iran’s supreme leader’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Brodsky said, adding that “in response to Iran’s attack on the airbases in Iraq, [Khamenei] said ‘such military actions are not enough.’ That may be a signal that retribution from Iran-backed militias – not from Iran’s armed forces – in the region could be next.” 

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‘Plausible deniability’ 
Abbas Milani, director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University, said that despite an uncertain calm in tensions between Washington and Tehran following the Iranian missile attack, Iran would likely rely on its proxy militias if it decided to assault U.S. military targets in the future. 
“If [the Iranians] do carry something out next time, my guess would be that instead of doing something like this, where it was Iranian military against U.S. bases in Iraq, they would use their proxies instead so that they have some plausible deniability,” he told VOA. 
“The region is still a flashpoint, although Iran’s proxies in Iraq have announced that they are ceasing, essentially, actions against the U.S., but it might always be something,” Milani said. 
Jesusemen Oni and Niala Mohammed contributed to this report from Washington. 

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U.S. and Canadian officials say there is evidence suggesting that an Iranian missile downed the Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran on Wednesday. Media reports are rife with speculation about the cause of the crash, with a mechanical error all but ruled out. Iranian authorities are in possession of data recorders from the plane that can help determine the cause of the crash that killed more than 80 Iranian citizens. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.

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Lebanon’s banks will not go bankrupt and deposits are secure, central bank Governor Riad Salameh said Thursday in remarks aimed at reassuring depositors amid a deep financial crisis that has shaken confidence in the country’s banking system.
Speaking to broadcaster MTV in his first extended remarks in nearly two months, Salameh said that foreign support was needed to pull the country from crisis and that Qatar appeared open to offering help.
“I believe the Qataris want to support Lebanon,” he said, referencing a recent visit he made to Doha, before adding: “Contact between the two states is not the responsibility of the central bank.”

FILE – Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh gestures as he speaks at the bank’s headquarters in Beirut, Nov. 11, 2019.Salameh said that contact with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been limited to talks with the prime minister over technical support.
“There has been no negotiation with the IMF by the Lebanese state to really know what conditions they would put,” he said.
Foreign donors pledged $11 billion in project finance to Lebanon in 2018 but made it contingent on Beirut carrying out long-delayed economic reforms — something it has failed to do.
Fixed exchange rate
Salameh said the central bank remains convinced of its fixed exchange rate, which has kept the Lebanese pound pegged to the U.S. dollar at the same rate since 1997.
Since protests directed against the country’s elite erupted on Oct. 17, Lebanon’s pound has slumped by more than a third against the dollar on a parallel market.
Salameh said exchange rate stability was less costly for Lebanon, especially “given the country has no exports.”
Looking to reassure jittery depositors that have been hit by tight capital controls since the unrest, Salameh said the central bank had $31 billion in liquidity and was ready to step in to secure liquidity demanded by banks for depositors.
Commercial banks have imposed stiff capital controls in recent months that include narrow limits on dollar withdrawals and are blocking most transfers abroad.
Salameh insisted that there would be no haircut on deposits, referring to a one-time reduction in their value.
 

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The commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has ordered an investigation into the al-Shabab attack this week that killed three Americans, dispatching two of his top generals Thursday to Manda Bay, Kenya.
“I want ground truth to assess the situation and hear from the troops to ensure they have what they need to accomplish their mission,” AFRICOM commander U.S. Army General Stephen Townsend said.
U.S. Africa Command said that U.S. Army Major General Michael Turello, the commander who oversees operations in the Horn of Africa, and U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Leonard Kosinski, the command’s director of logistics, visited Camp Simba base and Manda Bay Airfield on Thursday with the command’s top senior enlisted leader and an investigating officer.
Three U.S. Department of Defense personnel, including one U.S. soldier, were killed Sunday when fewer than 20 al-Shabab fighters assaulted the Manda Bay Airfield, which is used by Kenyan and U.S. counterterrorism forces.

Manda Bay KenyaU.S. and Kenyan forces repelled the attack after using indirect and small-arms fire for about an hour, according to an AFRICOM official. The Kenya Defense Forces said in a statement that five attackers were killed.
An East Africa Response Force of between 50 and 100 troops arrived Sunday at the Manda Bay Airfield to augment security, according to officials.
Manda Bay is used by U.S. forces to train African partner forces, respond to crises and protect U.S. interests in the region. 
The attack came days after al-Shabab fighters killed three people on a passenger bus in Lamu County. The Somalia-based militant group was also responsible for a massive explosion in Mogadishu that killed more than 80 people.
“Al-Shabab is ruthless and must be dealt with,” Townsend said.
Al-Shabab has launched several attacks inside Kenya, including assaults on schools and shopping malls.  
U.S. airstrikes in Somalia targeting the al-Qaida affiliate have drastically increased during President Donald Trump’s administration.

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Building a tech startup is not easy, especially in countries with less-established tech industries. Nevertheless, many global entrepreneurs are determined to succeed, and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is their chance to prove themselves to the rest of the industry. VOA’s Tina Trinh met with startup founders from Senegal, Ukraine and Thailand.

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President Donald Trump wrongly dismissed the continuing threat of the Islamic State group and spread a false tale of the U.S. paying out billions of dollars to Iran as part of the multinational deal freezing its nuclear program in an address Wednesday that fell short on facts.

He also made an assertion that is as dubious as it was provocative: that the Iranian missiles fired by Tehran at two military bases hosting U.S. forces in Iraq were paid for by money “made available” to Iran by the Obama administration.
A look at some of the president’s claims in his remarks on Iran’s missile strike on the two Iraqi bases:
TRUMP: “Three months ago, after destroying 100% of ISIS and its territorial caliphate …”
THE FACTS: His claim of a 100% defeat is misleading as the Islamic State still poses a threat.
IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017, then lost the last of its land holdings in Syria in March, marking the end of the extremists’ self-declared caliphate.
Still, extremist sleeper cells have continued to launch attacks in Iraq and Syria and are believed to be responsible for targeted killings against local officials and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
As recently as this week, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the fight against ISIS in Syria was continuing.
IS controlled large swaths of northern and eastern Syria, where it declared a caliphate in 2014, along with large parts of neighboring Iraq.
U.N. experts warned in August that IS leaders are aiming to consolidate and create conditions for an “eventual resurgence in its Iraqi and Syrian heartlands.”

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TRUMP: “Iran’s hostility substantially increased after the foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013. And they were given $150 billion, not to mention $1.8 billion in cash.”
THE FACTS: There was no $150 billion payout from the U.S. treasury or other countries.
When Iran signed the multinational deal to restrain its nuclear development in return for being freed from sanctions, it regained access to its own assets, which had been frozen abroad. Iran was allowed to get its money back. The deal actually was signed in 2015, after a 2013 preliminary agreement. Trump has taken the U.S. out of it.
The $1.8 billion is a separate matter. A payout of roughly that amount did come from the U.S. treasury. It was to pay an old IOU.
In the 1970s, Iran paid the U.S. $400 million for military equipment that was never delivered because the government was overthrown and diplomatic relations ruptured. After the nuclear deal, the U.S. and Iran announced they had settled the matter, with the U.S. agreeing to pay the $400 million principal along with about $1.3 billion in interest.
The $400 million was paid in cash and flown to Tehran on a cargo plane, which gave rise to Trump’s previous dramatic accounts of money stuffed in barrels or boxes and delivered in the dead of night. The arrangement provided for the interest to be paid later, not crammed into containers.

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TRUMP: “The missiles fired last night at us and our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration.”
THE FACTS: That accusation comes without corroboration. The administration has offered no information supporting the contention that in regaining access to $150 billion of its assets that had been frozen abroad, Iran steered a chunk of that money to the missiles that hit the bases in Iraq.
“I doubt anyone has the insight into Iran’s budgetary mechanisms to say that this money was used for this purpose,” said Gerald Feierstein, a career U.S. diplomat who retired in 2016 as the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs.
“It’s a funds-are-fungible kind of argument,” he said. “I mean, if they have money, can you say that dollar went directly to buy a missile, as opposed to freeing up another dollar that went to buy a missile?”
Gen. Joseph Votel, who retired from the U.S. Army in March as the top military commander for the Middle East, said he was not aware of any specific intelligence on this question. “I don’t have anything that would particularly support that,” he said. “I’m not saying it did or it didn’t, but I don’t have details to demonstrate it one way or the other.”
As President Barack Obama’s secretary of state, John Kerry said it was possible Iran would use some of the money being returned to it for malign activities. Whether it did in this case has not been established.
Iran has many sources of revenue, despite the severe pinch of sanctions. Oil sales to China and other countries dominate its exports. It also sells chemicals, plastics, fruits and more abroad.

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TRUMP: “We are independent, and we do not need Middle East oil.”
THE FACTS: Trump’s declaration of energy independence is premature. The U.S. still needs plenty of oil from the Mideast.
The volume of U.S. oil imports from the Persian Gulf alone — 23 million barrels in October – would not be easy to make up elsewhere, at least not without major changes in U.S. demand or production.
Technological advances like fracking and horizontal drilling have allowed the U.S. to greatly increase production, but demand remains brisk and the country still imports millions of barrels of oil from Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iraq and other countries. Moreover, much of what the U.S. produces is hard for domestic refiners to convert to practical use. So the U.S. exports that production and imports oil that is more suitable for American refineries to handle.
On energy more broadly, the U.S. is indeed close to parity on how much energy it produces and how much it consumes. In some months, it produces more than it consumes. But it has not achieved self-sufficiency. In the first nine months of last year, it imported about as much energy as it exported.

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TRUMP: “The American military has been completely rebuilt under my administration, at a cost of $2.5 trillion.”
THE FACTS: That’s an exaggeration.
It’s true that his administration has accelerated a sharp buildup in defense spending, including a respite from what the U.S. military considered to be crippling spending limits under budget sequestration.
But a number of new Pentagon weapons programs, such as the F-35 fighter jet, were started years before the Trump administration. And it will take years for freshly ordered tanks, planes and other weapons to be built, delivered and put to use.
The Air Force’s Minuteman 3 missiles, a key part of the U.S. nuclear force, for instance, have been operating since the early 1970s and the modernization was begun under the Obama administration. They are due to be replaced with a new version, but not until later this decade.

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China’s close alliance with Cambodia has been forged, in large part, with billions of dollars in aid and investment tied to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, which provides developmental assistance around the world to strengthen trade ties and political influence. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his government have welcomed this assistance, saying it comes without “strings attached” compared to western nations that link aid to democratic reforms. But VOA’s Brian Padden reports that China’s massive loans and investment in Cambodia come at a price.

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In southwestern Kentucky, near the border with Tennessee sits Fort Campbell, a US Army base that is one of the largest military installations in the world. Its personnel and families are profoundly affected by all things military. VOA’s Martin Secrest reports on how the community is dealing with recent hostilities in Iraq involving the United States and Iran.

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Norway says it will take 600 asylum-seekers recently evacuated to Rwanda from Libyan detention centers as the Scandinavian country wants to stop the sometimes deadly smuggling of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.
“For me it is important to send a signal that we will not back smuggling routes and cynical backers, but instead bring in people with protection needs in organized form,” Justice and Immigration Minister Joaran Kallmyr said in a statement emailed Thursday to The Associated Press.
“Therefore, the government has decided to collect 600 quota refugees from Libya, out of 800 in total, from the transit reception in Rwanda in 2020,” he added. Many of the asylum-seekers are from Horn of Africa nations.
Since the 2015 massive influx of migrants to Europe authorities, especially the European Union, have been trying to stop refugees and other migrants from crossing the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe. Thousands of people have died at sea. Many set off from Libya’s coast.
As part of an agreement signed between Rwanda, the African Union and the United Nations refugee agency in September, the East African country hosts a camp for people who have been evacuated from often chaotic, overcrowded detention centers in Libya. 
About 800 are currently staying at an emergency transit center in Rwanda’s Bugesera district.
So far Norway and Sweden have offered to take some of them, according to Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta, who said Wednesday that Sweden has taken in seven.

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China’s economy czar will visit Washington next week for the signing of an interim trade deal, the government said Thursday.
Vice Premier Liu He, Beijing’s chief envoy in talks with Washington over their tariff war, had been expected to attend the signing but the Commerce Ministry’s statement was the first official confirmation.
Washington postponed planned tariff increases following the announcement of the “Phase 1” deal in October. But earlier punitive duties imposed by both sides on billions of dollars of each other’s goods stayed in place, dampening global trade and threatening to chill economic growth.
Liu will lead a delegation to Washington, Monday through Wednesday, said ministry spokesman Gao Feng.
Under the “Phase 1” deal, Beijing agreed to buy more American farm goods and Washington’s chief negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, said it would make changes to respond to complaints about its industrial policies. Details have yet to be announced, and Chinese officials have yet to confirm any regulatory changes or the size of purchases of American soybeans and other exports.
Both sides have soothed financial market jitters by announcing conciliatory steps, including postponing planned tariff hikes. Beijing also has resumed purchases of soybeans, the biggest American export to China, and pork.
Washington, Europe, Japan and other trading partners complain Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. Washington is pressing China to roll back plans for state-led creation of global competitors in robotics and other industries that its trading partners say violate its market-opening commitments.
President Donald Trump announced last month he would sign the “Phase 1” agreement Jan. 15 and travel to Beijing after that to start the second stage of talks.
Trump hailed the interim agreement as a step toward ending the tariff war, but Beijing has been more measured in its public statements.
Economists say concluding a final settlement could take years. Potential hurdles include Chinese insistence that U.S. tariff hikes be canceled once an agreement takes effect. The Trump administration says some must remain in place to ensure Beijing carries out any promises it makes.

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Iranian investigators said Thursday the crew of a Ukrainian passenger jet that crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran’s airport had tried to turn back, and that the pilot made no radio communications about any problems.
The initial report from Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization also cited witnesses on the ground and in a passing aircraft as saying the Ukraine International Airlines plane was on fire before it hit the ground.

FILE – Debris from a Ukraine International Airlines plane that crashed after taking off from Iran’s Imam Khomeini airport, is seen on the outskirts of Tehran, Iran, Jan. 8, 2020.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared Thursday a day of mourning for the 167 passengers and nine crew members who died when the plane bound for Kyiv crashed early Wednesday.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said the dead included 82 Iranians and 63 Canadians along with Ukrainians, Swedes, Afghans, Germans and Britons.
The flag over the Canadian parliament in Ottawa was lowered to half-staff Wednesday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the entire country was “shocked and saddened” at one of its worst losses of life in a single day in years.
Trudeau said 138 of the passengers had planned to fly on from Kyiv to Toronto, many of them Iranian students hoping to return to school after a winter break with their families in Iran. He promised to work for a thorough investigation of the crash.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres offered his condolences, through a spokesman, to the families of the victims and the various countries from which they came.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also issued a statement of condolence and said Washington is prepared to offer Ukraine “all possible assistance.” He said the U.S. also calls for “complete cooperation with any investigation” into the cause of the crash.

In this photo from the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, the plane carrying Ukrainian experts prepares to depart for Tehran at Borispil international airport outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 8, 2020.Data recorders found
Iranian investigators said the voice and data recorders from the Boeing 737 aircraft were recovered from the crash site, a swathe of farmland on the outskirts of the Iranian capital.
Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency quoted the head of the nation’s civil aviation agency as saying he did not know which country would get the black boxes for analysis, but that Iran would not hand them over to U.S.-based Boeing, the aircraft’s manufacturer.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board typically participates in investigations of overseas air crashes when a U.S. airline or plane manufacturer is involved. But given the heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran, and the fact that the two sides have no diplomatic relations, it was uncertain whether the NTSB would be involved in the investigation of the UIA crash.
In a statement sent to VOA Ukrainian, the NTSB said it was “monitoring developments surrounding the crash of UIA flight 752” and was “following its standard procedures” for international aviation accident investigations.
“As part of its usual procedures, the NTSB is working with the State Department and other agencies to determine the best course of action,” it said.
“The U.S. has not participated in an accident investigation in Iran since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. So it is very unlikely that the NTSB will be involved,” said Madhu Unnikrishnan, editor of U.S. airline news service Skift Airline Weekly in a VOA Ukrainian interview.
WATCH: Ukraine, Canada Demand Thorough Investigation of Boeing Crash in Iran

Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you canUkraine International Airlines company President Yevhen Dykhne attends a briefing at Boryspil international airport outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 8, 2020. A Ukrainian airplane carrying 176 people crashed on Wednesday shortly after takeoff in Iran.Ukraine International Airline President Yevhen Dykhne said, “It was one of the best planes we had, with an amazing, reliable crew.”
The jet was built in 2016. It was a Boeing 737-800 model, a commonly used commercial jet with a single-aisle cabin that is flown by airlines throughout the world. It is an older model than the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been grounded for nearly 10 months following two deadly crashes.
Tatiana Vorozhko of VOA’s Ukrainian Service and Michael Lipin of VOA Persian contributed to this report.

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TOMERONG, Australia — Residents in the path of wildfires razing southeast Australia were urged to evacuate Thursday if they don’t intend to defend their homes as hot and windy conditions are forecast to escalate the danger over the next two days.
The Rural Fire Service in New South Wales state has told fire-weary community meetings south of Sydney in the coastal towns of Nowra, Narooma and Batemans Bay that northwesterly winds were likely to once again drive blazes toward the coast. Vacationers have retreated to beaches and into the ocean in the area in recent weeks as destructive fires and choking smoke have encroached on the tourist towns, scorching sand dunes in some places.
In neighboring Victoria state, fire-threatened populations were urged to act quickly on evacuation warnings.
“We can’t guarantee your safety and we don’t want to be putting emergency services — whether it be volunteers or paid staff — we do not want to put them in harm’s way because people didn’t follow advice that was given,” Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said.
Temperatures in the threatened area were expected to reach into the mid-40s Celsius (more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit) Friday, and conditions remained tinder dry.
“If you can get out, you should get out,” said Andrew Crisp, Victoria’s emergency management commissioner. “Because tomorrow is going to be a dangerous and dynamic day.”

Signs are displayed near Ulludulla, Australia, Jan. 9, 2020, thanking “firies” a colloquial term for firefighters. House after house in affected areas have hung makeshift banners offering thanks to the people they call “firies.”Fire toll: 26 lives, 2,000 homes
The unprecedented fire crisis in southeast Australia that has claimed at least 26 lives since September, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and scorched an area twice the size of the U.S. state of Maryland has focused many Australians on how the nation adapts to climate change. 
Last year was Australia’s hottest and driest on record. The Bureau of Meteorology’s head of climate monitoring, Karl Braganza, said while the country’s rainfall was expected to pick up a bit, it wouldn’t be enough to snuff out the blazes anytime soon.
“Unfortunately, we’re not looking at widespread, above-average rainfalls at this stage,” he said. “That’s really what we need to put the fires out fairly quickly. It is going to be a campaign, in terms of the fires. We are not looking at a short and sharp end to the event — it looks like something that we will have to persist with for some time.”
Along a main roadway in southern New South Wales, forests of evergreen eucalyptus trees have taken on a ghostly autumnal appearance, with golden leaves and blackened trunks. The forests appear devoid of any wildlife. Outside, it often smells like a campfire that has been recently snuffed out, and hazy waves of smoke drift past.
In many small towns, most homes appear untouched apart from one or two that have been razed to the ground, sometimes with only a chimney still standing. People have hung signs and banners thanking the volunteer firefighters they call “firies.” There are cars that are nothing more than burned-out chassis and wooden power poles that have been reduced to stumps. Not far from the communities, smoke can be seen rising from hills where the wildfires continue to rage.

FILE – Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, center, tours the Wildflower farm owned by Paul and Melissa Churchman in Sarsfield, Victoria, Jan. 3, 2020. Morrison is being criticized for the fire response, which is seen as slow and detached.Morrison criticized
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has come under withering criticism at home and abroad for downplaying the need for his government to address climate change, which experts say helps supercharge the blazes.
Morrison has faced fierce backlash over what many Australians perceive as a slow, detached response to the wildfire crisis. On Thursday, he found himself on the defensive again over an awkward exchange he had with locals on fire-ravaged Kangaroo Island. In a video of his visit to the island, where an outback safari operator and his son were killed in the blazes, Morrison was seen telling locals: “Thankfully, we’ve had no loss of life.”
After he was corrected, he continued: “Yes, two, that’s quite right. I was thinking about firefighters, firstly.”
It was the latest in a string of gaffes for Morrison, who created a public uproar when he took a family vacation to Hawaii in the middle of the disaster. He has tried to strike a more compassionate image since, and earlier this week promised the government would commit an extra 2 billion Australian dollars ($1.4 billion) toward the fire recovery effort.
“Tomorrow’s going to be a very difficult day in the eastern states,” Morrison said during a news conference Thursday. “Once again, I express my sincere condolences and sympathies to the families of all of those who have lost loved ones during the course of this terrible disaster. We will continue to remember them, but also their families in particular in what they need, in supporting them.”
The New South Wales government responded to the crisis Thursday by announcing an additional AU$1 billion ($690 million) to be spent over the next two years on wildfire management and recovery.
The Australian disaster is seen by many as a harbinger for other countries of the future consequences of global warming.
Pope Francis has joined world leaders in expressing solidarity with the Australian people.
“I’d like to ask for you all to pray to the Lord to help the (Australian) people at this difficult moment, with these powerful fires. I’m close to the Australian people,” Francis said at the end of his general audience on Wednesday, drawing applause from congregants.

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Beijing should not interpret Taiwan’s elections as representing a win or loss for China, Taiwan’s foreign minister said Thursday, days ahead of a crucial vote overshadowed by Chinese efforts to get the island to accept its rule.
Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections Saturday. Its elections are always closely watched by China, which claims the island as its territory.
Taiwan says it is an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name.
“I just don’t think China should read Taiwan’s election as its own victory or defeat,” Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told reporters in Taipei. “If China reads too much into our election … there might be a likely scenario that China will engage in military intimidation or diplomatic isolation or using economic measures as punishment against Taiwan.”
President Tsai Ing-wen, who is seeking reelection, has repeatedly warned Taiwan’s people to be wary of Chinese attempts to sway the election through disinformation or military intimidation, an accusation China denies.

FILE – Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu gestures while speaking during an exclusive interview with The Associated Press at his ministry in Taipei, Taiwan, Dec. 10, 2019.Wu drew attention to the sailing of China’s new aircraft carrier into the sensitive Taiwan Strait late last year, calling the move a clear evidence of Beijing’s attempts to intimidate voters.
“This is our own election. This is not China’s election. It is Taiwanese people who go to the voting booth to make a judgment on which candidate or political party is better for them,” Wu said. “If China wants to play with democracies in other countries so much, maybe they can try with their own elections at some point.”
China a major election issue
The issue of China has taken center stage in the campaign, especially after Chinese President Xi Jinping warned last year it could attack Taiwan, though said he’d prefer a peaceful “one country, two systems” formula to rule the island.
Taiwan-China ties have soured since Tsai took office in 2016, with China cutting off formal dialogue, flying bomber patrols around Taiwan, and whittling away at Taiwan’s diplomatic allies.
China suspects Tsai of pushing for the island’s formal independence, a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she will maintain the status quo but will defend Taiwan’s democracy and way of life.
In a front-page election advertisement in the mass circulation Liberty Times Thursday, Tsai appealed directly for people to cast their vote against China.
“In the face of China, every ballot has power,” the advertisement read, next to a picture of Tsai wearing a camouflaged military helmet and flak jacket.
Main opponent: Kuomintang
Tsai’s main opponent is Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomintang party, which ruled China until 1949, when it was forced to flee to Taiwan after losing a civil war with the Communists.
Han says he would reset ties with Beijing to boost Taiwan’s economy, but not compromise on the island’s security or democratic way of life.
Overshadowing the elections have been allegations in Australian media from a self-professed Chinese spy about China’s efforts to influence Taiwan’s politics and support Han, who, along with Beijing, has denounced the accusations as lies.

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