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The drizzle had stopped by the time anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny bounded to the stage to cheers in a packed downtown Moscow square, where at least 20,000 anti-government protesters assembled to demand an end to prosecutions tied to earlier mass protests.The overcast sky and unseasonably cold September weather didn’t deter the tens of thousands of protesters to assemble to voice their opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin and to call for the release of 13 anti-government activists still being held in jail in Moscow. Four others have been freed but remain under investigation.It was the first mass event Navalny has appeared since he was released last month from jail where he had been held for 30 days for organizing unauthorized public gatherings.Anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny just before bounded to protest stage to tell protesters they should have confidence in their power, Moscow, Sept. 29, 2019. (J. Dettmer/VOA)The chants of “Let Them Go” and “Putin is a Thief” were heard throughout an afternoon during which the police maintained a low presence for a protest that had had been granted a rare legal permit by Moscow city authorities. More than 1,000 people were detained in July and August during the largest demonstrations since Vladimir Putin’s re-election to the presidency in 2012. Those protests had not been sanctioned and at their height they saw as many as 60,000 turn out to brave harsh police crackdowns.In 2012, the anti-Putin protests, sparked by allegations of electoral fraud and frustration over Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin for a third presidential term, eventually fizzled out, with anti-government activists worn down by an uncompromising Kremlin. Protesters Sunday expressed some worry the same fate will befall the new wave of demonstrations.But 36-year-old Lisa, a freelancer working in the education sector, said she isn’t allowing that to deter her from joining the protests now.“There is no way of staying at home, no way of observing and not taking any action,” she told VOA. “It is too much. I have not been to any gatherings for years. But now I can’t stand just staying at home. I prefer not to think about 2102 but live in the here and now,” she added.Police estimated the crowd at 20,000 — organizers put the figure higher at 25,000.Anti-Kremlin protesters demand release of more than a dozen arrested for taking part in demonstrations in July and August against rigged Moscow city council elections, Sept. 29, 2019. (J. Dettmer/VOA)Political activist Navalny, widely seen as the key opposition figure in a protest movement that has brought together groups spread across the spectrum, from Communists and liberals to Russian nationalists and others of no fixed ideology, says now is not like 2012, when a Kremlin crackdown exhausted anti-government protesters.Speaking to VOA and other reporters, he said: “The most important thing we saw today is that protests supporting political prisoners are not niche anymore. You remember such meetings in 2012-2014. They were small. And there were just a few of them. Now we see the defense of political prisoners is the main political subject. More and more people are getting involved, many of whom were never interested in politics before. It is very important and we’re at the beginning. What we see now is totally different, in terms of the size and duration. Previous protests rapidly faded. Now new people are getting involved.”To the crowd, who chanted along with him, Navalny said: “We should be confident of our power.” He asked the crowd why they thought the Kremlin had released some activists. “Because they have a conscience? Because they are ashamed? Because they have children? No, because they’re afraid that their popularity ratings were dropping,” he answered.Earlier, Ilya Azar, a journalist and activist, told the flag and placard-waving crowd: “Looking back to the protest in 2011-2012 there was no such solidarity of civil society as we can see now. This is fantastic.” She said the strength of the movement had intimidated the authorities into releasing jailed activists.Alexey Minyaylo was freed last week from jail after rioting charges against him were dropped, Moscow, Sept. 29, 2019. (J. Dettmer/VOA)One of those freed, Alexey Minyaylo, who released from custody after prosecutors dropped rioting charges against him, told VOA he believed civil society has matured since 2012-2014. “In 2012 there were very high expectations but we were not ready for a real fight and when we were hit, we just stood back and did nothing. Now we can take hits and still act.”Tatiana Lazareva, an activist and onetime TV host who lost her job after participating in anti-Putin protests, says the issues now and in 2012 are the same — honest elections and honest trials.  But “people are starting to realize that they’re living worse. The important thing is that people are starting to understand there’s no sense just to blame Putin, they have to do something themselves.”Lazareva acknowledges there’s a disconnect between Moscow and St. Petersburg, where the protest movements are stronger, and the countryside. She argues the protest movement has to do more to reach out. “Big cities attract brave people who come to achieve something. People here are different. People who afraid of something or afraid to overcome something stay in their hometowns,’ she says.  
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Hurricane Lorenzo lost some force Sunday, weakening to a Category 4 storm after briefly escalating to Category 5 late Saturday.The National Hurricane Center said the powerful storm is expected to pass over or near the Azores, the group of Portuguese islands about 900 miles west of Portugal on Tuesday.”Steady weakening is expected over the next few days, but Lorenzo is still expected to be a potent hurricane in a couple of days,” the center said.The forecasters warned of heavy rains and life-threatening flash flooding on the islands.”Lorenzo is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 3 to 6 inches over much of the western Azores and 1 to 2 inches over the central Azores on Tuesday and Wednesday. This rainfall could cause life-threatening flash flooding in the western Azores,” the center said.The NHC said Lorenzo has a wide wind field that could bring strong surf conditions to the beaches of the eastern United States and Canada, Western Europe and many Caribbean islands over the next few days.Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Narda began pounding Mexico’s Pacific Coast Sunday.Narda was expected to dump up to 25 centimeters of rainfall along the Mexican coast from Oaxaca to Nayarit, including resort towns of Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied wrongdoing Sunday over his links to an American businesswoman who allegedly received money and favorable treatment because of their friendship during his time as mayor of London.Asked during a BBC interview about his ties to tech entrepreneur and model Jennifer Arcuri, Johnson sought to suggest that political motivations were behind the decision Friday by the Greater London Authority to refer a conduct matter to a police watchdog agency.The matter arose from a Sunday Times report saying Arcuri was given 126,000 pounds in public money and privileged access to trade missions to the United States, Israel and Asia that Johnson led as mayor, even though her fledgling business had not yet met eligibility requirements for such trips.“Everything was done in accordance with the code … and everything was done with full propriety,” Johnson said Sunday. When pressed again by BBC journalist Andrew Marr, Johnson added: “There was no interest to declare.”The scandal worsened Sunday as Johnson’s Conservative Party was opening its annual party conference in Manchester following a tumultuous week for a leader who has only been in the job since July.In just the last few days, the U.K. Supreme Court declared Johnson’s attempt to suspend Parliament illegal and he cut short a trip to the United States, racing home to face the House of Commons, where lawmakers greeted him with cries of “Resign!” He then lost a vote on a normally routine matter — a request to adjourn for a week so that Conservatives could attend their conference.Complicating things further, questions were raised about the 55-year-old Johnson’s links to Arcuri, now 34, who set up a cyber firm in East London after moving to the capital seven years ago.Yet even as the British leader visited North Manchester General Hospital on Sunday to talk about his government’s plans to build 40 hospitals, his efforts failed to change the subject.“Let’s be absolutely clear, I am very, very proud of everything that we did and certainly everything that I did as mayor of London,” he said, adding that the current London mayor, Sadiq Khan of the Labour Party, “could possibly spend more time investing in police officers than he is investing in press officers and peddling this kind of stuff.”The independent office, which oversees police complaints in England, was asked to consider if there were grounds to investigate Johnson for misconduct in public office. The authority said Friday it had a “statutory duty” to record the matter because Johnson served as police commissioner during his 2008-2016 tenure as London’s mayor.The probe is the latest sign of animosity that has consumed British politics since the country narrowly voted in 2016 to leave the European Union. Three years later, Britain and its politicians remain bitterly divided over how, or even whether, to leave the 28-nation bloc.Johnson took power two months ago with a “do-or-die” promise that Britain will leave the EU on the scheduled date of Oct. 31 — even if there’s no divorce deal outlining Britain’s commercial relations with the other 27 EU nations. His foes in Parliament are determined to avoid a no-deal exit, which economists say would plunge Britain into recession.In unusually heated debate Wednesday, Johnson referred to an opposition law ordering a Brexit delay as the “Surrender Act” and said postponing the country’s departure would “betray” the people. He also brushed off concerns that his forceful language might endanger legislators as “humbug.”Opponents accused him of fomenting hatred in the country with his populist, people-versus-politicians rhetoric.As tempers smoldered, Johnson rejected the notion that he himself had played a role in whipping up tensions.“I think I’ve been a model of restraint,” Johnson said Sunday. “But I think everybody should calm down.”
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Thousands of mourners paid tribute Sunday to former French President Jacques Chirac, who died at 86.Chirac was lying in state Sunday afternoon inside the Invalides monument in Paris, where France honors its heroes, after he died Thursday.
 
People were holding a moment of silence in front of the casket draped in the French flag under a large, smiling picture of Chirac.FILE – France’s President Jacques Chirac waves as he leaves a French citizenship naturalization ceremony in Tours, central France, June 29, 2006.A booklet prepared by Chirac’s family was handed to those who came to the Invalides. Titled “Chirac in his own words,” it includes some quotes evoking key moments of Chirac’s presidency, like when he defiantly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, saying: “War is always the worst of all solutions.”
 
Chirac was also the first French president to acknowledge France’s role in the Holocaust in 1995.People queue to say a final farewell to former French President Jacques Chirac as the coffin lie in state at the Saint-Louis-des-Invalides cathedral at the Invalides memorial complex in central Paris, Sept. 29, 2019.Remy Clovel came from Paris’ western suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye to pay his respects.
 
“I have Jewish origins, so it’s important for us that he [Chirac] acknowledged the responsibility of the French state in the persecution of Jews during the Second World War,” he said.
 
Nicole Pats from Boulogne-Billancourt, west of Paris, has recalled Chirac as “a simple man.” “He watched you, smiled at you and he loved you. We had the impression [that we belonged] to his family,” she said.FILE – France’s former President Jacques Chirac poses as a womans takes a picture of him sitting at a table outside the famous Le Senequier cafe in the French Riviera searesort of Saint-Tropez, Aug. 14, 2011.Yolaine Mongole, native from La Reunion island, said she “always admired the man. He was, popular, warm and accessible.”
 
A memorial service is planned Monday in Paris. It will be attended by President Emmanuel Macron and about 30 former or current heads of states and government, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
 
A private funeral will take place later that day at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.
 
Chirac served as Paris mayor, a lawmaker, prime minister and France’s president from 1995 to 2007.        
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The Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says it has reached an agreement to hear from a whistleblower whose whose complaint that has sparked an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.”We are taking all the precautions we can to … allow that testimony to go forward in a way that protects the whistleblower’s identity,” Adam Schiff told the ABC news show “This Week.” With the president issuing threats … you can imagine the security concerns here.”Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump face reporters during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 25, 2019.The whistleblower alleges that Trump, in a July 25 phone call, sought help from the new president of Ukraine in digging up incriminating information about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that would hurt Biden’s prospects of winning the Democratic presidential nomination and challenging Trump in 2020.President Donald Trump, who has released a rough transcript of the phone call, has insisted he did nothing wrong and has continued to defend himself via Twitter.  Has he called the impeachment inquiry launched by Democrats in the House of Representatives “the greatest scam in the history of American politics.”FILE – Senior White House Advisor Stephen Miller waits to go on the air in the White House Briefing Room in Washington, Feb. 12, 2017.His adviser, Stephen Miller, told “Fox News Sunday” that the whistleblower’s behavior was “close to a spy” and said Trump himself was the true whistleblower for revealing alleged corruption by the Bidens.As vice president, Biden and other Western leaders pressured Ukraine to get rid of the country’s top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, because he was seen as not tough enough on corruption.Trump has claimed Biden was seeking to protect his son but that allegation has been debunked.Screenshot of whistleblower complaintThe whistleblower’s complaint also said the White House tried to “lock down” the information to prevent its public disclosure. Efforts to hide the information allegedly included the removal of the transcript of the call from the computer system that is typically used for such records of calls with foreign leaders and loading it into a separate electronic system that is used only for classified information that is of an “especially sensitive nature.”White House officials have stressed that the whistleblower didn’t have first hand information to make the allegations.
 
The complaint noted that a White House official described that as an abuse of the secure system because there was nothing “remotely sensitive” on the phone call from a national security perspective.
 
On Thursday, before leaving New York where he attended the U.N. General Assembly, Trump told a crowd of staff from the United States Mission to the U.N. that he wants to know who provided information to the whistleblower. He said that whomever did so was “close to a spy” and that “in the old days,” spies were dealt with differently,” according to The New York Times newspaper. 
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Despite a personal apology from beleaguered Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Buckingham Palace sources say Queen Elizabeth is deeply frustrated at being drawn into the political firestorm raging over Brexit.Johnson telephoned the queen midweek after Britain’s Supreme Court decided he had been wrong to ask her for approval to suspend Parliament for five weeks —  a historic ruling allowing the House of Commons to resume its session and frustrating government plans to take Britain out of the European Union by Johnson’s October 31 deadline.  FILE – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Boris Johnson, then newly-elected leader of the Conservative party, during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London, England, July 24, 2019.“He got on to the queen as quickly as possible to say how sorry he was” by requiring her to approve what the Court later ruled an unlawful suspension of  Commons, a Downing Street official said. The 11-judge court, to the anger of Brexiters, ruled unanimously Tuesday that the suspension, known formally as a prorogation, was designed to obstruct parliamentary scrutiny of his plans to break with the EU.The court’s rebuke, and implied suggestion that Johnson lied to the queen to get her approval for the prorogation, has led to a breakdown in trust between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street, according Britain’s Sunday Times. Courtiers are frustrated with Johnson for ignoring concerns expressed privately by the queen’s advisers prior to the prorogation.“They are not impressed by what is going on — at the very highest levels of the family,” a senior civil servant told the newspaper.FILE – Pro-Brexit and anti-Brexit protesters with placards stand together at Westminster in London, Britain, Sept. 3, 2019.Brexit has bent British politics out of all recognizable shape, shattering the delicate balance of power shared between Parliament, the courts, the government and the Crown, say analysts. Johnson claimed he needed the prorogation to draft plans for a new government program in line with a normal pattern that sees an annual autumn parliamentary suspension.However, the length of the prorogation — more than double the usual duration — and its timing led Britain’s top court to agree with Johnson’s opponents that he wanted  avoid Commons scrutinizing or blocking his Brexit plans.FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is surrounded by reporters as she arrives to meet with her caucus at the Capitol in Washington, after declaring she will launch a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.Johnson’s woes, though, are not only with the palace. Prompted partly by transatlantic political developments and the impeachment inquiry announced by Democratic lawmakers into U.S. President Donald Trump, opposition party leaders in Britain are exploring the possibility of of reviving an impeachment process that has not been used since 1848, one of  several options being explored to censure Johnson.The move would constitute a revival of an obsolete sanctions process not seen in Britain since the mid-19th century, when there was an unsuccessful move to impeach Lord Palmerston, then foreign minister, for having signed a secret treaty with Russia. In earlier centuries impeachment of members of the executive wasn’t an uncommon method to depose ministers the Crown refused to discard, and was first used in 1376 with the impeachment of William Latimer, a crown minister. The last successful impeachment was of Henry Dundas, the peer Viscount Melville and secretary of war for misappropriation of public money.Opposition politicians are throwing Johnson’s 2004 call for the impeachment of Prime Minister Tony Blair for misleading the country over the reasons for going to war against Iraq back at him. In a newspaper column Johnson wrote, “He treated parliament and the public with contempt, and that is why he deserves to be impeached.”Welsh nationalist MP Liz Saville Roberts, acknowledges that “the idea of impeaching a prime minister seems extraordinary — unique even. But we are in extraordinary times.”She added: “I have made clear to opposition leaders that Boris Johnson cannot be allowed to get away scot-free with breaking the law by shutting down parliament. Motions are being discussed between opposition parties and House of Commons officials that would see a salary cut, bans from parliament and other disciplinary measures, alongside a motion to explore impeachment.”Such a move would inflame the country’s already-incendiary politics, which last week saw ferocious exchanges between members of the minority Conservative government Johnson leads and opposition parties and rebel Conservatives. Johnson’s own sister, broadcaster Rachel Johnson, branded his rhetoric as “tasteless” and “reprehensible.”Johnson has repeatedly denounced legislation that would force him to delay Brexit if he can’t agree an exit deal with the EU, calling it a “surrender bill.” He dismissed as “humbug” lawmakers’ worries that “immoderate language” by government ministers is encouraging Brexiter outliers to target MPs with death threats, and risks an incident like the murder by a Brexit fanatic three years ago of Labour lawmaker, Jo Cox.FILE – Stanley, Rachel and Jo Johnson, Boris Johnson’s father, sister and brother, wait for the announcement that he has been elected leader of the Conservative party, at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London, July 23, 2019.“My brother is using words like ‘surrender’ and ‘capitulation’ as if the people standing in the way of the blessed will of the people, as defined by the 17.4 million votes in 2016, should be hung, drawn, quartered, tarred, and feathered,” Rachel Johnson told Sky News. “I think that is highly reprehensible.”Brexiters also say they are targeted by foul language and threats as a consequence of their opponents dubbing them racists. Government ministers accuse the Supreme Court of mounting a “constitutional coup” with its ruling and of straying deeply into political territory.Johnson is also facing rising calls for him to explain his relationship when the mayor of London with an American ex-model and entrepreneur, Jennifer Arcuri. He is accused of failing to declare a series of potential conflicts of interest over benefits provided to Arcuri’s business by London authorities, including sponsorship cash for her company and other benefits and preferential treatment, including being on three overseas trade missions led by Johnson that officials had ruled she wasn’t eligible to join.Johnson’s dealings with Arcuri, whose London apartment he visited frequently, is now the subject of four official investigations, including one by a police watchdog for misconduct in public office.   
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Austrians began voting Sunday in snap elections, in which the conservatives look set to triumph but face difficulties finding a partner to govern after a corruption scandal brought down their last coalition with the far-right.The People’s Party (OeVP) led by 33-year-old Sebastian Kurz is predicted to win around 33 percent, up slightly from the last elections two years ago but not enough to form a majority government.Kurz has “nothing to win, but a lot to lose,” Die Presse daily warned in an editorial Saturday. “Even with a nice plus on Sunday, it is more difficult for him than in 2017,” it said, adding there was no partner that quite suited any more.With 6.4 million people eligible to vote, polling stations across the country opened at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT). They will close by 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) when first projections are expected. Far-right troublesThe parliamentary elections were brought about by the “Ibiza-gate” corruption scandal that engulfed Kurz’s far-right coalition partner in May, after 18 months in government together.Experts have predicted “whizz-kid” Kurz could once again partner up with the Freedom Party (FPOe) in a re-run of the coalition that has been touted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other nationalists as a model for all of Europe.But fresh allegations of wrongdoing have shaken the far-right over the past week.Prosecutors confirmed Thursday they were investigating Heinz-Christian Strache, who resigned as FPOe leader and vice-chancellor in May because of “Ibiza-gate,” over fraudulent party expense claims.The FPOe’s current leader, Norbert Hofer, has said he won’t tread gently if any wrongdoing is confirmed, leading to worries that supporters of Strache, who led the party for 14 years and remains influential, could stay away from the polls in protest.Kurz himself has also warned that left-leaning parties could gain more than predicted and then band together to form a coalition without him.“If there is just a little shift… then there will be a majority against us,” Kurz told supporters at a final rally in Vienna on Saturday.Climate matters Unlike in 2017, the top voter concern is not immigration but the climate.Tens of thousands of people marched Friday in Vienna and other Austrian cities to demand the government fight climate change.The protests were part of global demonstrations led by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and the biggest yet in the Alpine country of 8.8 million.Against this backdrop, Austria’s Greens, who failed to get into parliament in 2017 in shock results, look set to make the biggest inroads Sunday.They are tipped to garner 13%, up 10 percentage points from two years ago.It remains to be seen if Kurz, a former law student who has enjoyed a rapid ascent through the ranks in Austrian politics, tries to woo them and another small party, the liberal NEOs, to form a partnership.Prominent concernsUnsurprisingly given the reason the election was called, corruption in public life and party financing have also been prominent themes in the campaign, as well as more bread-and-butter issues like social care.Another option for Kurz could be to form a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPOe).With a predicted historic low of around 22%, the SPOe was neck and neck with the FPOe before the troubles this week as the country’s second strongest party.Since World War II, either OeVP or SPOe have always governed, and for 44 years in total the two ruled together, but it was Kurz who ended their last partnership, leading to the 2017 polls.He has also floated the idea of ruling in a minority government. But this would potentially continue political uncertainty and could even trigger another election.Either way, negotiations between parties are expected to take months again. Ultimately, President Alexander Van der Bellen, a former Greens leader, will need to approve any government. 
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French police repeatedly used tear gas and water cannons to break up a protest Saturday by nearly a 1,000 yellow vest demonstrators in the southwest city of Toulouse.A police statement said officers made five arrests after being targeted by objects thrown by some of the protesters.A group that observes police conduct at yellow vest protests said officers had attacked five of their number during the demonstration, injuring one of them.The Observatory of Police Practice (OPP) posted images and video on Twitter to support their account and posted an open letter to the authorities protesting the incident.The police headquarters in Toulouse was not available to comment on the allegations Saturday evening.”Yellow vest” protesters kneel during an anti-government “yellow vests” (gilets jaunes) protest in Paris, Sept. 28, 2019.Earlier this month, a member of the OPP filed a complaint alleging that he had been injured during a police charge at a yellow vest protest.The march in Toulouse, which holds regular yellow vests protests on Saturday, was led by demonstrators brandishing a giant banner that read: “Fed up of surviving. We want to live.”As staff at a McDonalds outlet closed up the premises, one of the parasols outside went up in flames.Even after the use of tear gas and water cannons, demonstrators continued to gather in the city streets.Newlyweds take selfies next to “yellow vest” protesters during an anti-government “yellow vests” (gilets jaunes) protest in Paris, Sept. 28, 2019.Calm in ParisIn the capital Paris, some yellow vests joined a climate protest march.September’s protests have revived the yellow vest movement, though not to the levels seen late last year and in the first half of 2019.Saturday’s protests came two days after the French government unveiled a draft 2020 budget with more than 9 billion euros in tax cuts for households.It includes 5 billion euros in tax cuts for some 12 million households already promised by President Emmanuel Macron, the result of a “great national debate” he held to try to address the ongoing protests.Macron swept to the presidency in 2017 with a pledge to get the country back on a solid financial footing. But he was caught short by the yellow vest movement that accused the former investment banker of ignoring the day-to-day struggles of many French.Demonstrations have been banned on the Champs-Elysees after protesters clashed with police on the famous Paris avenue last Dec. 8, in the early days of the yellow vest protests.On that weekend, police detained 900 people, the most since the anti-government protests began.
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While the U.S. scrambles to crack down on vaping, Britain has embraced electronic cigarettes as a powerful tool to help smokers kick the habit. The Royal College of Physicians explicitly tells doctors to promote e-cigarettes “as widely as possible” to people trying to quit. Public Health England’s advice is that vaping carries a small fraction of the risk of smoking. U.S. public health officials have taken a more wary approach, and have been slow to regulate e-cigarettes. That caution turned to alarm, though, with an explosion in teen vaping, prompting the federal government and some states to take steps to ban fruit and minty flavors that appeal to youths. And now, with hundreds of U.S. cases of a mysterious lung illness among vapers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that people consider not using e-cigarettes, especially those with THC, the compound that gives pot its high. The U.S. reaction is “complete madness,” said Dr. John Britton, director of the U.K. Center for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham. “The reality with smoking is, if you tell people to stop vaping, they will go back to tobacco and tobacco kills.” Regulations about e-cigarettes vary by country, making for a patchwork of policies. More than 30 countries ban e-cigarettes outright; India halted sales this month. Many European countries including Austria, Belgium, Germany and Italy classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products, subjecting them to strict controls. They are mostly sold as consumer products in Britain and France, under more lax rules. Since arriving in the U.S. in 2007, e-cigarettes have been largely unregulated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration didn’t get the power to do that until three years ago and is still working out the details. Black market versions, meanwhile, have flourished. Appearing before Congress last week, the U.S. FDA’s acting commissioner was pressed to explain the agency’s position. Several lawmakers suggested e-cigarettes should be completely removed from the market. “We do not consider these products safe, we think they have harm,” said Dr. Ned Sharpless. “We do not think really anyone should be using them other than people using them in place of combustible tobacco.” In Britain, a review by Public Health England, an agency similar to the CDC, concluded that vaping is about 95% less dangerous than smoking. A leading British anti-tobacco charity, Ash, even called for e-cigarettes to be licensed as medicines and provided free to smokers trying to quit by Britain’s government-funded health system. “We need radical solutions to stop smoking and one option is providing smokers with e-cigarettes so they can get the nicotine they need without the tobacco smoke,” said Britton. “We have a much more relaxed attitude to people being addicted to nicotine on the basis that nicotine itself isn’t particularly hazardous.” E-cigarettes and other vaping devices typically heat a solution containing nicotine into a vapor that’s inhaled. The amount of nicotine varies widely: Some countries set limits on the amount. There’s no cap in the U.S. And the surge in U.S. teen vaping brought warnings from health officials that nicotine can harm a teenager’s still developing brain. “What’s right for England might not be right for the U.S.,” said Ryan Kennedy of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Compared to the United States, England has had historically higher rates of tobacco use and a “deeper comfort” with the idea of substituting a less harmful habit for a dangerous one, Kennedy said. British health officials have been able and willing to strictly regulate e-cigarettes while promoting them as a stop-smoking tool. “It’s not very surprising that a place like England has embraced e-cigarettes,” Kennedy said. “A lot of things lined up to make sense to use these devices to help people transition away from cigarettes.” In the U.S., meanwhile, the rapid rise in e-cigarettes’ popularity among teenagers, a thriving black market for vapes containing marijuana extracts and the illness outbreak have muddied the public health message recently, Kennedy said. 
“Obviously there are a lot of moving parts with this,” he said. Another key difference is advertising. Unlike in the U.S., Britain has tight regulations on advertising vaping; all TV, online and radio marketing is banned, explained Linda Bauld, a public health professor at the University of Edinburgh. “E-cigarettes are promoted to middle-aged smokers as a way to quit and the imaging from our annual quit campaign is usually all men with beards, so it looks pretty boring,” she said. On Friday, the CDC said it appears THC vaping products are playing a role in the puzzling U.S. outbreak of lung injuries and deaths. 
The agency said many of the 800 people who got sick reported vaping THC. It said more information was needed on whether a single product, substance or brand is responsible. Some researchers suspect an ingredient used as a thickener in vaping oils, particularly in black market products. “It’s inconceivable that any legitimate vaping product would cause that degree of damage,” Britton said. Some British e-cigarette users said, in the meantime, their own habits wouldn’t change. “There seems to be a bit of a panic over there, but that has nothing to do with us,” said Lewis Niall, a personal trainer outside a north London vaping store. Niall said vaping as a whole shouldn’t be tarnished if the problem is illicit marijuana products. “For me, I feel so much better since switching from cigarettes that I don’t think anything will change my mind,” he said.
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The British-flagged oil tanker that was seized by Iran in July has docked in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates early Saturday, according to ship-tracking websites and pool reporters.The Stena Impero, which had been held off Bandar Abbas for more than two months, started moving out of the Iranian port Friday and reached the coast off Dubai early Saturday.The arrival was reported on several ship-tracking websites.Erik Hanell, CEO of the company that owns the vessel, Stena Bulk, told the media earlier that the tanker’s crew are “safe and in high spirits” following their release from Iran.He added that arrangements have been made for them to return to their families.”The crew will have a period of time to be with their families following 10 weeks of detainment on the vessel. Full support will be offered to the crew and families in the coming weeks to assist with their recovery,” he said.The company did not release the names of the crew.Following the release of the vessel, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said his country would cooperate with its overseas partners to protect shipping and uphold international laws.”The Stena Impero was unlawfully seized by Iran. It is part of a pattern of attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation. We are working with our international partners to protect shipping and uphold the international rule of law,” Raab said.Iranian authorities accused the Stena Impero and its crew of failing to observe international maritime law at the time of its seizure on July 19, two weeks after British forces near Gibraltar captured an Iranian oil tanker that has since been released and renamed the Adrian Darya 1.The operator and owner of the 183-meter-long, 50,000-deadweight-ton Stena Impero vehemently denied Tehran’s accusations.An Iranian government spokesman said Monday that, while the vessel was then free to go, he did not know the exact timing of when it would set sail.There were 23 crew members of Indian, Russian, Latvian, and Filipino nationalities aboard the Stena Impero when it was seized in the Strait of Hormuz on July 19.Seven of them were released in early September, while the others reportedly remained aboard the ship off Bandar Abbas.The Gibraltar and Hormuz seizures came with tensions already ratcheted up by confrontations between Western and Iranian naval and commercial ships in the strategic Gulf region that is a conduit for around one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies.U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a naval escort campaign to defend commercial shipping interests in the Gulf against harassment and illegal interference, with support from Australia, Britain, and other Western and Gulf states.
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The United Nations reports human rights violations in both government and separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine continue with impunity.  The report, which was examined by the U.N. human rights council this week also documents violations perpetrated by the Russian occupiers of Crimea.While critical of the overall situation in eastern Ukraine, the report injects a note of optimism that the new government, headed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shows promising signs of the country turning a corner.  It notes the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine largely continue to respect a cease-fire and have disengaged forces. In addition, it says the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine has begun operating.  The report urges the newly-appointed prosecutor general and chief military prosecutor to promptly investigate conflict-related and other grave human rights violations on both sides of the contact line, the patch of land that divides the government and separatist-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine.U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore says accountability for past and present human rights violations on both sides of the line have to be addressed.  She accused the authorities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics of denying U.N. monitors access to their territories and detention facilities despite repeated requests.“We nevertheless continue to document human rights concerns in those areas; breaches of human rights through such as arbitrary and incommunicado arrests and the absence of space for people to exercise fundamental freedoms, symptoms of the persistent climate of fear that prevails in those parts of Ukraine’s territory,” she said.Gilmore also condemned violations perpetrated by the Russian Federation as the occupying power in the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in March 2014.  Abuses documented in the report include deportations of protected persons, forced conscriptions, restrictions on freedom of expression and an increasing number of house searches and raids, mainly against Crimean Tatars.Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya blasted Russia’s occupation of Crimea and blamed Moscow for the suffering of Ukraine’s citizens who are in the sixth year of war that was instigated by Russia.”Russia, which blatantly disrespects human rights of its own citizens, perpetrates human rights abuses at home and abroad, in essence, commits a moral turpitude amid its desire to infiltrate the body, which has been created to prevent human rights violations and go after perpetrators,” Kyslytsya said.Russia is running for a seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council.  The Ukrainian minister said it would be a travesty of justice to elect Russia to the U.N. body, which is the foremost protector and promoter of human rights. 
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An urban climber known as the “French Spiderman” has climbed a high-rise building in the German city of Frankfurt and now faces a fine for his effort.It took Alain Robert 20 minutes to scale the 153-meter (502-foot) Skyper building in the heart of Germany’s financial capital early Saturday.Upon his descent from the gleaming glass structure, the 57-year-old was met by German police who escorted him away.Robert has climbed many of the world’s tallest buildings, often without permission. 
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