Russia halts oil supplies to Belarus in push for closer ties

Russia has halted oil supplies to Belarus as talks on strengthening economic ties remained stalled over concerns that Russia could effectively swallow up its neighbor. In a case that has echoes of Russia's relationship with Ukraine before it annexed the Crimean Peninsula, Belarus' state-owned oil company said Friday that Moscow has stopped supplying crude until contracts for this year are drawn up. Belarus' two main refineries were operating at low capacity, running on reserves.

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Australian Firefighters Brace for Inferno Amid Searing Heat

(Bloomberg) -- Firefighters are bracing for an intensification of catastrophic wildfires sweeping southeastern Australia amid searing temperatures and strong winds.Emergencies have been declared and tourists have been urged to flee a 350-kilometer (217-mile) stretch of coastline in New South Wales and Victoria states as temperatures climb as high as 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) inland Saturday. Hot, dry winds have brought “extremely dangerous” conditions, intensifying wildfires and sparking blazes.Two people died in wildfires on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island, adding to the death toll, which stood at 20 on Friday.“Today is all about saving lives,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney Saturday. “There are still windows for people to get out if you wish to do so.”Fires that have been burning since Dec. 20 on Kangaroo Island, off the South Australian coast, overran a car killing its occupants, the state’s assistant police commissioner Linda Williams told reporters in Adelaide Saturday.More than 500 people are battling blazes across the island, a prominent tourist destination, scorching much of the Flinders Chase National Park and devastating wildlife. Improved weather conditions Saturday are helping to bring the infernos under control, said Mark Jones, chief of the Country Fire Service.Mass ExodusTens of thousands of people in New South Wales have altered their travel plans or relocated because of the warnings, Berejiklian said. Across Victoria, about 100,000 people have been urged to evacuate amid concerns that blazes could be unstoppable, ABC reported.Convoys of vehicles have departed fire-ravaged areas, and navy ships have carried hundreds of people to safety in eastern Victoria state, one of the largest peacetime evacuations in Australia’s history.About 60 of the 137 grass and bush-land fires in New South Wales are burning out of control, Berejiklian said. Winds from the west and northwest will reach speeds of as much as 90 kilometers an hour, the state’s Rural Fire Service said, potentially fanning the flames and spreading embers, igniting new blazes.Flare Up Risk“Strong, dry northwesterly winds will cause ongoing fires to flare up yet again threatening communities that have already experienced widespread devastation,” said Jonathan How, a weather forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology.More than 12 million acres (5 million hectares) have been blackened -- an area about twice the size of Vermont -- in hundreds of blazes in recent months. That’s bringing terrifying scenes of walls of fire that have killed about half a billion native animals and destroyed hundreds of homes.Gusty winds of up to 80 kilometers an hour will probably reach Victoria’s southern region of Gippsland by midday Saturday in a cooling, southerly change that should arrive in Sydney in the late evening, the weather bureau said.Still, it won’t diminish the fire risk since a change in wind direction will cause the flank of wildfires to become the new front, “greatly broadening the fire threat area,” How said. In addition, thunderstorms and lightening could start more fires.Australia’s electricity grid operator warned that blazes may bring down vital transmission lines and raise the likelihood of outages, days after wildfires and winds damaged power lines and forced blackouts for tens of thousands of households in fire-affected towns in the nation’s southeast.Insurers have already received 5,250 claims as a result of the catastrophe, with losses estimated at A$321 million ($223 million), the Insurance Council of Australia said Friday.(Adds Kangaroo Island deaths in third and fifth paragraphs.)To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Melbourne at j.gale@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Siraj DatooFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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As Tensions With Iran Escalated, Trump Opted for Most Extreme Measure

By BY HELENE COOPER, ERIC SCHMITT, MAGGIE HABERMAN AND RUKMINI CALLIMACHI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2trbipB

Trump vows to hit 52 Iranian targets if Iran retaliates after drone strike

President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites "very hard" if Iran attacks Americans or U.S. assets after a drone strike that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi militia leader, while tens of thousands of people marched in Iraq to mourn their deaths.

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Many killed in attack on military camp in Libya’s capital: minister

At least 28 people were killed in an attack on a military academy in the Libyan capital late on Saturday, the health minister of the Tripoli-based government said.

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White House gives lawmakers formal notice of Iraq strike amid complaints from Democrats

The White House sent to Congress on Saturday formal notification of Friday's U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general, congressional aides said, amid complaints from Democrats that President Donald Trump did not notify lawmakers or seek advance approval for the attack.

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U.S.-led coalition confirms attacks on Iraqi bases housing its troops

The United States-led military coalition fighting Islamic State said early on Sunday that there were two attacks near Iraqi bases housing its troops on Saturday night but that none of its troops were harmed.

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Trump says U.S. would hit 52 Iranian sites if Iran attacks American targets

President Donald Trump said on Saturday the United States has targeted 52 Iranian sites that it would strike if Iran attacks any Americans or any U.S. assets in response to Friday's U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Trump says US has targeted '52 Iranian sites' if Iran retaliates after Soleimani killing

01/04/20 3:57 PM

Iran faces dilemma in avenging general's death: To strike back without starting a war

Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, vowed to exact “severe revenge” for the Thursday night U.S. airstrike that killed the country’s most famous general, but the Iranian regime will have to walk a fine line to respond strongly without provoking a war with the United States, former intelligence officials familiar with the region said Friday. Qassem Soleimani headed the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force, which combines intelligence gathering, covert action and special operations. Also killed in the airstrike, which hit two vehicles, was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of the Iraqi Shiite militia group Kataib Hezbollah, along with several other Quds Force and militia members.

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Fire victims heckle Australian prime minister as country burns: 'You're an idiot'

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was confronted Thursday by angry residents of the town of Cobargo as bush fires made worse by climate change continued to ravage the country.

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With hours' notice, US fast-response force flies to Mideast

Hundreds of U.S. soldiers deployed Saturday from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Kuwait to serve as reinforcements in the Middle East amid rising tensions following the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general. Lt. Col. Mike Burns, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division, told The Associated Press 3,500 members of the division’s quick-deployment brigade, known officially as its Immediate Response Force, will have deployed within a few days. A loading ramp at Fort Bragg was filled Saturday morning with combat gear and restless soldiers.

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Democrats battle White House over executive power and congressional oversight

Two hearings in a Washington court brought the battle between the House and the White House into stark relief.

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Security camera shows Ghosn leaving Tokyo home alone before his escape - NHK

A surveillance camera captured former Nissan Motor Co chairman Carlos Ghosn leaving his Tokyo residence alone shortly before his surprise escape from Japan, public broadcaster NHK said on Friday, citing investigative sources. The security footage was taken by a camera installed at his house in central Tokyo around noon on Sunday, and the camera did not show him returning home, NHK said. Ghosn has become an international fugitive after he revealed on Tuesday he had fled to Lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" justice system in Japan, where he faces charges relating to alleged financial crimes.

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Mystery airstrike reportedly kills Iran-backed militia members in Baghdad just one day after US killed a top Iranian general

Unlike the strike the day prior that killed a top Iranian general, the US is denying responsibility for the latest airstrike.

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Global powers warn that the world has become a more dangerous place after U.S. attacks

Global powers warned Friday that the world has become a more dangerous place and urged restraint after the U.S. assassinated Iran’s top general, although Britain and Germany also suggested that Iran shared blame for provoking the targeted killing that dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the Mideast.

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What's behind the recent rash of anti-Semitic attacks?

There were more than 1,300 anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League, including a stabbing at a rabbi's home Saturday. Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl and professor Ibram Kendi joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss the rash of hate.

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A security expert reveals the possible thinking behind Carlos Ghosn's wild escape from Japan, which involved 2 planes and a mad dash between Turkey and Lebanon

Carlos Ghosn, the former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, fled Japan while awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct.

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Australia's 'ferocious' wildfires are going to get worse this weekend. Here's what to know

Thousands of tourists and residents evacuated parts of Australia as hot temperatures and strong winds were expected to worsen wildfire conditions.

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Ilhan Omar Implies Trump Ordered Soleimani Killing as ‘Distraction’ from Impeachment

Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) implied on Thursday that President Trump may have ordered the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani to distract the public from impeachment proceedings."So what if Trump wants war, knows this leads to war and needs the distraction?" Omar wrote on Twitter. "Real question is, will those with congressional authority step in and stop him? I know I will."Analysts from several news outlets echoed the assumption. CNN analyst Karen Finney wrote that "today’s air strike feels like attempt to create a distraction from impeachment and build support for Trump," while MSNBC contributor Joyce Alene said it was "highly possible then timing of tonight’s attack was meant as a distraction."President Trump ordered an airstrike on a convoy near Baghdad International Airport carrying Soleimani on Thursday evening. As head of the Quds Force, a U.S.-designated terror group, Soleimani led intelligence and counterespionage efforts for the IRGC. Also killed in the strike was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi militia leader who led a days-long siege against the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.The U.S. State Department issued a warning to American citizens to leave Iraq in the wake of the attack."Due to heightened tensions in Iraq and the region, we urge U.S. citizens to depart Iraq immediately," the agency wrote on Twitter. "Due to Iranian-backed militia attacks at the U.S. Embassy compound, all consular operations are suspended. U.S. citizens should not approach the Embassy."Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on CNN on Friday that Trump had ordered the strike due to an "intelligence-based assessment" warning of an "imminent attack" by Iranian forces in the region.

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Trump Threatens to Hit Iran ‘Very Fast and Very Hard’

President Trump warned Iran in a series of tweets Saturday that if the country strikes any Americans or American assets in retaliation for the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the U.S. has chosen 52 Iranian sites to target. “Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD,” Trump said. The president’s comments came a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the “the U.S. remains committed to de-escalation” with Iran. Trump, whose threats against Tehran on Saturday seemed to be a far cry from his claim immediately after the airstrike that he simply wanted to “stop a war,” also defended his decision to kill Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani. He said the top Iranian general “had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters.”“He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations,” Trump wrote. The president has said Soleimani was preparing “imminent” attacks on American interests, and administration officials on Friday told lawmakers at a classified briefing that Iran had plans to kill “hundreds” of Americans, though they offered no details on these plots. Critics of the move have largely agreed with the assessment that Soleimani was a a foe to the U.S. but have questioned the timing of the killing—ahead of Trump’s impeachment trial and amid his 2020 re-election campaign— and his decision to order the airstrike without congressional approval. Trump Told Mar-a-Lago Pals to Expect ‘Big’ Iran Action ‘Soon’Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Kyrie Irving Says He May Need Shoulder Surgery

By BY SOPAN DEB from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/36qzaIu