In The Headlines On This New Years Special

• Thousands of Australians flee to beaches as wildfires rage

Thousands of Australians fled their homes on New Year’s Eve, taking refuge on beaches from raging wildfires that turned the sky bright red, destroyed houses and businesses, and caused deaths in the country’s most populous states

• Tennessee rangers discover family illegally staying in cabin

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office told news outlets that rangers at Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park went to the cabin over the weekend to prepare it for a renter's upcoming stay. But the officers instead found recently slept-in beds and clothes strewn about. Court documents said rangers later found Shawn and Leah Hyde there as well as a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old.

The two adults were charged with burglary. Records show Shawn Hyde was accused of aggravated sexual battery of a minor in 1993 and required to register as a sex offender for life.

Authorities in Tennessee have discovered two adults and two young children illegally staying in a state park cabin.

• All the cadets pictured giving a Nazi salute will be fired, West Virginia governor says

According to CNN "The image, discovered in early December, shows the members of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Basic Training Class 18 with one arm raised. The text above reads "HAIL BYRD!" in a reference to a training instructor for the class, according to the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety."

The governor condemned the training group's behavior in a statement on Monday.

Three staff members at the training academy will also be fired. Four other instructors who failed to report the photograph will be suspended without pay, he said.

Some of the cadets did it because they 'feared they would not graduate'. A number of employees were suspended amid an investigation into why the group picture was taken.

• TikTok app banned by US Army on work mobile phones

The US Army has banned the use of the increasingly popular TikTok app on work mobile phones for security reasons.

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based company founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. It is used to create short lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos. The app was launched in 2017 for iOS and Android for markets outside of China

The app, owned by the Chinese company, ByteDance, has come under close scrutiny recently in the US and other countries.

The app allows its more than half a billion users worldwide to post short, often quirky, self-edited videos.

All accounts are by default public, though subscribers have the ability to restrict this.

Col Ochoa told Military.Com that the Army had advised its personnel to stop using the app on government-owned phones from the middle of December. It follows a similar move by the US Navy.

The military cannot prevent its use on private phones but the Department of Defence recently issued guidance for employees "to be wary of applications you download".

• Greyhound hopes to reunite families this holiday season by offering runaways a free ride home through its Home Free program.

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