<span style="color: #222222;">In Australia, protesters in smoke-covered Sydney kicked off a fresh round of global protests against climate change today. Activists and schoolchildren picketed the headquarters of the ruling Conservative Liberal Party.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Protesters in several Asia-Pacific cities are responding to 16-year-old climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg's call to action. The protests have taken on extra urgency in Australia, where hundreds of damaging bushfires devastated country's southeast recently.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The protesters, turned out as Sydney was again enveloped in toxic smoke caused by the fires that have blanketed the city for much of the last month.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Six people have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed in the crisis, which scientists say has been worsened by rising temperatures. Drought and unseasonably hot, dry and windy conditions have fuelled the unprecedented blazes.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The target of the protesters' ire was Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has angrily denied any link between the fires and climate change while defending his support for fossil fuels.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Protests also took place in Melbourne and Tokyo, where hundreds marched through the teeming Shinjuku district to raise awareness of the issue.</span><br />