Big payout for blazes

A CALIFORNIA utility that operated power lines that ignited several huge, deadly wildfires has agreed to pay $US1 billion ($A1.45bn) in damages to 14 local governments.

More than half of the money from Pacific Gas & Electric would go to four governments impacted by a 2018 fire that killed 85 people and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes in Paradise.

A total of $270 million would go to Paradise. The town had 26,000 residents before the fire and now has less than 3000 people. DONALD Trump has launched his 2020 re-election campaign boasting about the US economy being the “envy” of the world and warning that opposition Democrats want to “destroy” the country.

Promising 20,000 supporters in Orlando, Florida an “earthquake at the ballot box,” Trump said: “We did it once and we’re going to do it again — and this time we’re going to finish the job.”

“Our economy is the envy of the world,” said the US President who is betting that strong jobs growth will help persuade the country to give him a second term.

“We are going to keep America great again,” Mr Trump told the crowd. “Oh we will keep it so great. Better than ever before.”

Striking a darker note, Mr Trump repeatedly encouraged the crowd to boo journalists covering the event, calling them “fake news.”

The Republican then turned on the Democrats, accusing them of seeking to “rip your country apart.”

“Our radical Democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice and rage. They want to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it,” he said to roars of boos.

Even if early poll numbers show he faces a difficult race, Mr Trump goes into the reelection fight buoyed by soaring GDP, low unemployment, and confidence in the fierce loyalty of his right-wing base.

Mr Trump, accused by opponents of wide-ranging cor