President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the federal government will soon announce a new strategy to tackle underage vaping, promising, “We’re going to protect our families, we’re going to protect our children, and we’re going to protect the industry.”
Trump was vague about what the plan would entail, but suggested “certain flavors” in cartridge-based e-cigarettes would be taken off the market “for a period of time.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration would ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes, such as those sold by Juul and NJOY. E-cigarette pods formulated to taste like tobacco or menthol would still be allowed.
The Journal also reported that tank-based vaping systems, which are less popular among teenagers, would still allow users to custom-mix flavors. The Journal report cited anonymous “people familiar with the matter.”
Previous effort stalls
In September, Trump and his top health officials said they would soon sweep virtually all flavored e-cigarettes from the market because of their appeal to young children and teens. But that effort stalled after vaping lobbyists pushed back and White House advisers told Trump the ban could cost him votes with adults who vape.
On Tuesday, Trump suggested a ban of flavored e-cigarettes might be temporary.
“Hopefully, if everything’s safe, they’re going to be going very quickly back onto the market,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he was hosting a New Year’s Eve party.
“People have died from this, they died from vaping,” the president said. “We think we understand why. But we’re doing a very exhaustive examination and hopefully everything will be back on the market very, very shortly.”
FDA announcement
But the FDA had already announced that, starting in May, all e-cigarettes will need to undergo a review. And only those that can demonstrate a benefit for U.S. public health will be permitted to stay on the market.
In Florida, Trump added: “Look, vaping can be good from the standpoint — you look at the e-cigarettes, you stop smoking. If you can stop smoking, that’s a big advantage. So, we think we’re going to get it back on the market very, very quickly.”
Australia deployed military ships and aircraft Wednesday to help communities ravaged by apocalyptic wildfires that destroyed homes and sent thousands of residents and holidaymakers fleeing to the shoreline.
Navy ships and military aircraft were bringing water, food and fuel to towns where supplies were depleted and roads were cut off by the fires. Since Monday, seven people have died as destructive wildfires tore through communities in New South Wales and Victoria states on Australia’s southeast coast.
On Tuesday morning, 4,000 people in the coastal town of Mallacoota fled to the shore as winds pushed a fire toward their homes under a sky darkened by smoke and turned blood-red by flames. Stranded residents and vacationers slept in their cars, and gas stations and surf clubs transformed into evacuation areas. Dozens of homes burned before winds changed direction late Tuesday, sparing the rest of the town.
MV Sycamore departs from a naval base in Sydney, Jan. 1, 2020. Australia is deploying military ships to help communities ravaged by wildfires that destroyed homes and sent thousands fleeing to the shoreline.
Victoria Emergency Commissioner Andrew Crisp told reporters the Australian Defense Force was moving naval assets to Mallacoota on a supply mission that would last two weeks and helicopters would also fly in more firefighters since roads were inaccessible.
Conditions cooled Wednesday, but the fire danger remained very high across the state, where four people are missing.
“We have three months of hot weather to come. We do have a dynamic and a dangerous fire situation across the state,” Crisp said.
In the New South Wales town of Conjola Park, 50 properties were confirmed destroyed and cars were melted by Tuesday’s fires. More than 100 fires were still burning in the state Wednesday, though none were at an emergency level. Seven people have died this week, including a volunteer firefighter, a man found in a burned-out car and a father and son who died in their house. Two people in New South Wales are missing.
A fire truck moves up the main street of the New South Wales town of Bombala, which is shrouded in smoke from nearby bushfires, Dec. 31, 2019.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said firefighting crews would take advantage of easing conditions Wednesday to restore power to critical infrastructure and conduct some back burning.
Climate change debate
The early and devastating start to Australia’s summer wildfires has led authorities to call this season the worst on record and reignited debate about whether Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative government has taken enough action on climate change. Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas, but Morrison rejected calls last month to downsize Australia’s lucrative coal industry.
Morrison won a surprise third term in May. Among his government’s pledges was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% by 2030, a modest figure compared to the center-left opposition Labor party’s pledge of 45%.
The leader of the minor Australian Greens party, Richard Di Natale, demanded a royal commission, the nation’s highest form of inquiry, on the wildfire crisis.
“If he (Morrison) refuses to do so, we will be moving for a parliamentary commission of inquiry with royal commissionlike powers as soon as parliament returns,” Di Natale said in a statement.
About 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land have burned nationwide over the past few months, with 15 people confirmed dead and more than 1,000 homes destroyed.
Fireworks go on
Some communities canceled New Year’s fireworks celebrations, but Sydney’s popular display over its iconic harbor controversially went ahead in front of more than a million revelers. The city was granted an exemption to a total fireworks ban in place there and elsewhere to prevent new wildfires.
Smoke from the wildfires meant Canberra, the nation’s capital, Wednesday had air quality more than 21 times the hazardous rating to be reportedly the worst in the world.
The smoke has also wafted across the Tasman Sea and into New Zealand.
The world rang in a new year and decade Wednesday with fireworks, music and all-night parties.
The celebrations included the usual massive gathering in New York’s Times Square where people counted down the remaining seconds of 2019 and cheered as 2020 officially arrived.
People celebrate as they watch the traditional New Year’s fireworks at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Dec. 31, 2019.
Several million people gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a massive celebration featuring fireworks and music on Brazil’s famous Copacabana beach.
In Paris, fireworks lit up the Champs-Elysees area as France took its turn welcoming the new year.
Fireworks explode over the Kremlin during New Year’s celebrations in Red Square with the Spasskaya Tower, left, in the background in Moscow, Jan. 1, 2020.
The huge clock looming over the Kremlin in Moscow chimed in 2020 with fireworks in the sky and fake snow on the ground. Unusually warm temperatures has made it a wet, not white New Year’s Eve, leading Russian authorities to spread artificial snow around Moscow to create the proper New Year’s atmosphere.
A 10-minute fireworks show delighted revelers in Dubai, while in Japan, celebrants took turns in striking Buddhist temple bells, an ancient tradition.
Fireworks brightened the skies elsewhere in Asia and the Pacific, including Sydney Harbor in Australia.
Fireworks were canceled in other parts of the country because of the extremely dry conditions that led to devastating wildfires.
Pro-democracy demonstrators broke out in chants as midnight approached in Hong Kong. Authorities there canceled the traditional fireworks over the city for “security reasons,” replacing them with a light show beamed against skyscrapers.
Moscow and Kyiv on Monday signed a five-year agreement on the transit of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine, finalizing months of difficult talks just ahead of a New Year deadline.
The current deal between the two ex-Soviet countries expires Tuesday and ties between them have been shredded since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and supported a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the deal by phone and congratulated each other ahead of New Year’s celebrations, a sign that their relations could be on the mend.
The gas deal “creates a positive atmosphere for solving other bilateral problems,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
About 18 percent of the European Union’s annual natural gas consumption comes from Russia via Ukraine, which put pressure on EU officials to help broker the deal.
“Ukraine has signed a five-year transit contract,” Zelensky announced in a late-night post on his Facebook page, nearly two weeks after a provisional deal was reached.
A wide range of documents and contracts were involved, and together formed “a package deal which has re-established the balance of interests,” Alexei Miller, the boss of Russian gas giant Gazprom, was cited as saying in a statement.
The documents were signed after five days of non-stop talks.
Gazprom is expected to ship at least 65 billion cubic meters (2.3 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas via Ukraine next year, and at least 40 billion per year from 2021 to 2024, said Zelensky, from which Kiev would earn “more than seven billion dollars”.
‘Great news’ for Europe
The agreement should prevent a repeat of so-called gas wars that previously disrupted supplies and in some years caused real energy problems in EU member states.
EU Commission vice president in charge of energy Maros Sevcovic called the deal “great news for Europe’s energy security” on Twitter, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked Russia and Ukraine.
“Continued gas transit via Ukraine… is a good and important signal for ensuring our European security of gas supply,” she said.
Last year, Gazprom supplied Europe with 200.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas, about 40 percent of which passed through Ukraine for roughly $3 billion in transit fees.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Moscow wanted to keep some gas flowing through Ukraine, despite having built several pipelines to Europe since the current deal was agreed a decade ago.
The new agreement comes days after Gazprom paid $2.9 billion to Ukraine’s Naftogaz to settle a long-running dispute over transit fees that had blocked the deal.
Meanwhile, Russia is pursuing work on the Nord Stream 2 project that is to be completed by the end of next year and would double gas shipments to Germany.
The United States has long opposed the 9.5-billion-euro ($10.6-billion) project and the U.S. Senate voted last week to levy sanctions on companies working on it.
Washington believes the pipeline will give Russia too much influence over security and economic issues in western Europe.
Transit problems for Russian gas began after the fall of the Soviet Union when independent Ukraine took control of the pipeline infrastructure.
Several crises followed, with Russia using gas supplies to put pressure on Ukraine by cutting them repeatedly in 1992, 1993 and 1994.
The last gas crisis disrupted supplies to Europe in 2010.
Israel’s offshore Leviathan field started pumping gas on Tuesday in what the operating consortium called “a historic turning point in the history of the Israeli economy.”
A joint statement from partners Noble Energy, Delek Drilling, and Ratio said that the start of production was expected to lead to an immediate reduction in domestic electricity prices and the start of exports.
“For the first time in its history, Israel to become a significant natural gas exporter,” it said.
On December 17, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz announced approval of sales to Egypt from Leviathan and the smaller Tamar field.
A spokesman for Israeli partner Delek said then that deliveries to Egypt were expected to begin on January 1.
Leviathan was discovered 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of the Mediterranean port city Haifa in 2010.
It is estimated to hold 535 billion cubic meters (18.9 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas, along with 34.1 million barrels of condensate.
Delek and US-based Noble struck a $15 billion 10-year deal with Egypt’s Dolphinus last year to supply 64 billion cubic meters (2.26 trillion cubic feet).
It will be the first time Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace accord with Israel, imports gas from its neighbor.
Israel had previously bought gas from Egypt, but land sections of the pipeline were targeted multiple times by Sinai jihadists in 2011 and 2012.
The Tamar and Leviathan gas will reach Egypt through the mainly undersea East Mediterranean Gas Company pipeline connecting the coastal city of Ashkelon with the northern Sinai peninsula.
Tamar, which began production in 2013, has estimated reserves of up to 238 billion cubic meters (8.4 trillion cubic feet).
Israel’s neighbor to the east, Jordan, has been purchasing gas from Tamar on a small scale for nearly three years.
Besides bringing energy independence, Israel hopes its gas reserves will enable it to strengthen strategic ties in the region and help forge new ones, with an eye on the European market.
Lat week, the government of Greece said that it was about to sign an agreement for a huge pipeline project with Cyprus and Israel designed to pipe gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s office said the agreement for the EastMed pipeline would be inked in Athens on January 2 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.
The 2,000-kilometre (1,200-mile) pipeline will be able to transfer between nine and 12 billion cubic meters a year from offshore gas reserves between Israel and Cyprus to Greece, and then on to Italy and southeastern Europe.
There are growing tensions with Turkey over its own activities in the area, particularly a contentious maritime deal with Libya expanding Ankara’s claims over a large gas-rich area of the Mediterranean.
Scramble for energy
The discovery of hydrocarbon reserves in the eastern Mediterranean has sparked a scramble for the energy riches and a dispute between Cyprus and Turkey, which occupies the north of the Mediterranean island.
Natural gas is set to replace coal as the main fuel for power generation in Israel.
Critics note that while less polluting than coal, gas is still far from being a clean source of energy.
There have been fears among the Israeli public that the start of production from Leviathan, in which gas flows to a processing platform 10 kilometers offshore, could bring harmful emissions.
Israel’s environmental protection ministry has sought to calm residents and has set up monitoring stations in communities along the northern coast to check for any spike in pollution.
Nevertheless, Israeli public radio reported that some residents had evacuated their homes until results of the air testing were verified.
The first space race pitted the United States against what was then the Soviet Union for the bragging rights of being first in space travel. The space race of the 21st century is a quest by many to land the first people on Mars. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi coasts the cosmos in this look at the various space agencies’ 2020 plans to research the Red Planet.
There’s no doubt that many people around the world see – in magazines and on social media – unrealistic beauty standards and end up feeling unhappy with how they look. But Jessamyn Stanley has never let her body image get in the way of her dream of teaching yoga. Karina Bafradzhian reports from Savannah, Georgia.
Criticism mounted in Kyiv Monday over a controversial prisoner swap with Russian-backed separatists, as it emerged that among the captives exchanged by Ukraine were five riot policemen accused of killing protesters during the 2014 Maidan uprising.
The policemen were members of a Berkut militia unit that is now disbanded.
Relatives of those killed during the uprising had urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy not to include the policemen in the exchange. After the handover, which took place Sunday, the Ukrainian leader defended his decision, saying it was necessary in order for Ukraine to secure the return of several of its reconnaissance soldiers.
A total of 200 captives were exchanged between the two warring sides.
“It was a hard decision. It was a political decision,” Zelenskiy told reporters at Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport, as he met 76 freed Ukrainians.
His remarks failed to assuage the relatives of protesters who were killed in 2014.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a ceremony to welcome Ukrainian citizens exchanged in a prisoner swap, at Boryspil International Airport, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec. 29, 2019.
As the exchange began, 200 people protested at a detention center in the capital, Kyiv, where three of the riot police were held.
“This country has no future,” Volodymyr Golodnyuk, the father of a 19-year-old protester killed in the uprising, said on Facebook. In an open letter to Zelenskiy, the victims’ families warned the release of the suspects could lead to a “wave of protests.”
Nearly two dozen civil society groups were also critical of the policemen’s release, issuing a joint statement warning that “the decision at the request of the Kremlin undermines the values of the rule of law, justice and dignity, and can divide society by sowing hatred between different groups of Ukrainians.”
Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker who Russia handed over to Ukraine in a September exchange, criticized Sunday’s swap. He said Kyiv was giving up “real murderers” while other Ukrainians remained in captivity in Russia and rebel territory. “All that Ukrainians fought for is turning to ash,” Sentsov said.
About 100 demonstrators were killed during the monthslong 2014 revolution, which ended in the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
FILE – A man places flowers at a monument to the so-called “Heavenly Hundred,” anti-government protesters killed during Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov. 21, 2019.
The Berkut was among militias accused of the worst violence. Members of the Russian-trained Alfa Team have also been accused of involvement in the killings. Many of the slain protesters died from precise shots to the head or neck, while others were gunned down in closer quarters by less expert shooters armed with AK-47 assault rifles.
A dozen Ukrainian soldiers were among those released by pro-Russian separatists. They had been captured during skirmishes in the conflict, which started in 2014, and has so far claimed around 14,000 lives, making it the bloodiest war in Europe since the 1990s.
In order to gain the release of 76 captives — some of them pro-Kyiv activists and bloggers — Ukraine had to free 124 prisoners it was holding. Two contributors to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, VOA’s sister broadcaster, were also released.
This is the second prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia this year.
The first swap in September of 70 captives prompted hopes that Moscow and Kyiv were ready for serious talks to end the more than five-year war in the Donbas region. That exchange included the release of 24 Ukrainian sailors captured in a naval clash.
When Zelenskiy was elected in April, he pledged to move quickly to engineer the release of Ukrainians held captive by Russian-backed forces. A former TV comedian, Zelenskiy won a landslide electoral victory on a promise to end the war.
Relatives of Ukrainian citizens, who were exchanged during a prisoner swap, surround an aircraft during a welcoming ceremony at Boryspil International Airport, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec. 29, 2019.
Sunday’s prisoner swap was brokered during peace talks this month between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany amid renewed efforts to reach a cease-fire.
The exchange was made at a checkpoint on the front line of the conflict, overseen by armed troops from both sides.
Live footage streamed by Ukraine’s presidential office showed buses with prisoners parked at a crossing point. The office of Ukraine’s president tweeted, “The mutual release of detained persons is completed …76 of ours are safe in Ukraine-controlled territory … details later.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the Paris talks, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the prisoner exchange. In a joint statement, they said “further work will still be necessary to allow the exchange of all prisoners linked to the conflict.”
In a statement published on Twitter, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv also welcomed the “return of liberated captives from Russian-controlled Donbas.” It added, “Recognizing that Russia’s ongoing aggression confronts Ukraine’s leadership with difficult choices, we stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian partners and the many Ukrainians who remain in captivity in Russia and Crimea.”
This second prisoner swap is also viewed as an encouraging sign that the conflict can be brought to a peaceful conclusion. But seasoned analysts are skeptical, arguing that there is little incentive for the Kremlin to agree to a deal.
Zelenskiy’s peace strategy has been strongly criticized by Ukrainian war veterans and nationalists, but opinion polls suggest it still has strong backing by many Ukrainians.
“Today’s prisoner exchange in Donbass will bring relief to the persons involved and their families, but it will not bring the settlement any closer,” tweeted Dmitri Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center. “The conflict is much more likely to become frozen than resolved.”
Bolivia’s interim president says her government is expelling the Mexican ambassador over an alleged attempt by members of Bolivia’s former government to leave refuge in the Mexican Embassy and flee the country.
Interim President Jeanine Anez said Ambassador Maria Teresa Mercado had been given 72 hours to leave the country.
A group of nine former officials in the government of deposed Bolivian President Evo Morales sought refuge in the Mexican embassy after Morales’ stepped down under pressure last month.
The acting Bolivian government has initiated criminal charges against the officials for sedition, terrorism and electoral fraud and has refused to allow them safe passage out of the country.
The Bolivian government has accused Spanish diplomats of trying to help the nine officials leave the Mexican embassy on Friday and says the Spaniards arrived at the embassy accompanied by a group of hooded men. Spain has denied the charges but the six Spanish diplomats departed Bolivia on Sunday after the Bolivian government asked them to leave.
“A serious violation has been committed against Bolivian sovereignty and democracy, which must be respected,” Anez said.
The Mexican government said Mercado had always followed the principles of Mexican foreign policy and international law.
“We consider this to be a political decision,” the government said in a written statement.
Democratic congressman John Lewis, an icon in the fight for civil rights, announced Sunday he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
“I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now,” Lewis said in a statement.
“So I’ve decided to do what I know to do and what I have always done: I am going to fight and jeep fighting…we still have many bridges to cross,”
Lewis said he is “clear-eyed” about the prognosis and that his doctors tell him he has a fighting chance.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted that “generations of Americans” have Lewis in their thoughts and prayers, saying she knows he will be well.
The 79-year-old Lewis has represented the 5th Congressional District in Georgia since 1986 and has been a stalwart for liberal causes and human rights.
But Lewis is best known has a tireless fighter for civil rights — he marched with Martin Luther King in the early 1960s, sat down at segregated lunch counters, and was the victim of police nightsticks and billy clubs, suffering from a fractured skull.
Lewis was an original Freedom Rider, traveling on busses across the south as part of the battle for integration.
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” stayed on a strong glide path in North American theaters, taking in an estimated $73.6 million for the three-day weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.
The Disney film, marketed as a grand finale of the nine-film “Skywalker Saga,” has had mixed reviews and was down considerably from last weekend’s lofty $177.4 million opening.
But it has compiled a strong domestic total of $364.5 million.
It again maintained a big lead over the No. 2 film, Sony’s “Jumanji: The Next Level,” an action sequel starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart, which had $34.4 million in North American ticket sales for the Friday-through-Sunday period.
In third for the second straight week was Disney’s “Frozen II,” at $17 million. The animated musical film has Broadway star Idina Menzel voicing Queen Elsa in her latest adventures.
Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel “Little Women” has been brought to the screen many times — no fewer than seven, by Variety’s count — but the new version from director Greta Gerwig has drawn strong reviews and netted $16.2 million to place fourth in its debut this weekend.
The film stars Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet, Emma Watson and Laura Dern, in the story of the joys and struggles of four sisters during the US Civil War.
In fifth was new Fox/Disney release “Spies in Disguise,” at $13.4 million. The animated children’s film features the voices of Will Smith and Tom Holland.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Sunday condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for blaming Poland for the outbreak of World War II, saying Moscow was lying to deflect attention from recent failures.
Poland’s foreign ministry had already summoned the Russian ambassador in protest on Friday, recalling that the war began with a Soviet-German alliance and that Poland lost around six million citizens in the conflict.
“President Putin has lied about Poland on numerous occasions, and he has always done it deliberately,” Morawiecki said in a statement.
“This usually happens when Russian authorities feel international pressure related to their activities…. In recent weeks Russia has suffered several significant defeats,” he added.
As examples, Morawiecki mentioned that the European Union had prolonged sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea, Russian athletes were suspended for four years for doping, and Russia “failed in its attempt to take complete control over Belarus.”
FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during his annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia Dec. 19, 2019.
“I consider President Putin’s words as an attempt to cover up these problems. The Russian leader is well aware that his accusations have nothing to do with reality — and that in Poland there are no monuments of Hitler or Stalin,” Morawiecki said.
“Such monuments stood here only when they were erected by the aggressors and perpetrators — the Third Reich and Soviet Russia.”
Ahead of the German invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to carve up eastern Europe between them in a secret clause of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
The Soviets attacked Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, and occupied part of its territory before Hitler launched a surprise attack against the USSR in 1941.
Earlier this month, Putin blamed the Western powers and Poland for World War II, pointing to various treaties signed with Nazi Germany before the conflict began in 1939.
He later also accused Poland of anti-Semitism, claiming a pre-war Polish ambassador promised to put up a statue of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Warsaw for his pledge to send Jews to Africa.
The row comes as bilateral tensions are running high, with NATO and EU member Poland fearing what has been described as Russian military adventurism and imperialist tendencies.
