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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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President Donald Trump told two Russian officials in a 2017 meeting that he was not concerned about Moscow’s meddling in the U.S. election, which prompted White House officials to limit access to the remarks, the Washington Post reported Friday.A summary of Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Russia’s foreign minister and its ambassador to the U.S. was limited to a few officials in an attempt to keep the president’s comments from being disclosed publicly, the Post said, citing former officials with knowledge of the matter.The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.Whistleblower complaintA whistleblower complaint about a July phone call in which Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden is at the heart of the U.S. House of Representatives impeachment inquiry launched this week.A member of the U.S. intelligence community who filed the complaint against Trump said notes from other conversations the president had with foreign leaders had been placed on a highly classified computer system in a departure from normal practice in a bid to protect information that was politically sensitive, rather than sensitive for national security reasons.Trump’s 2017 meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergei Kislyak was already considered controversial after it was learned that Trump disclosed highly classified information about a planned Islamic State operation.On election interference, Trump told Lavrov and Kislyak he was not concerned about Russian meddling because the United States did the same in other countries, the Post reported.Limited access to other conversationsCNN, citing people familiar with the matter, said efforts to limit access to Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders extended to phone calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin.White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters that procedures for handling records of Trump’s conversations with world leaders had changed early in his tenure after calls with Mexico’s president and Australia’s prime minister were leaked.
 
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Mourners gathered at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Friday to pay their respects to former President Jacques Chirac, whose death unleashed a flood of tributes to a charismatic but complex giant of French politics. 
 
Chirac, president from 1995 to 2007, died Thursday at age 86 after years of deteriorating health since suffering a stroke in 2005. 
 
Ahead of a national day of mourning announced for Monday, the French presidency threw open the doors of the Elysee Palace for people wanting to sign a book of condolences. 
 
“I express my admiration and tenderness for the last of the great presidents,” read one tribute. “Thank you for fighting, thank you for this freedom and good spirits.” 
 
In a televised address Thursday night, President Emmanuel Macron praised “a man whom we loved as much as he loved us.” 
 
Chirac is also to be given the honor of a public memorial ceremony on Sunday as well as a mass on Monday, which will be attended by Macron and foreign dignitaries including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. 
 
A minute of silence will also be observed Monday at public institutions, schools and football matches. 
 
Schools have also been urged to dedicate class time on Monday “to evoke the former head of state’s memory,” with the education ministry saying it will propose potential discussion themes for teachers. 
 
And the Quai Branly museum of indigenous art founded by Chirac, who had a deep appreciation of Asian cultures, said it would offer free admission until Oct. 11. 
 
French newspapers splashed his portrait across their front pages and dedicated most of their editions to the former president’s life — Le Parisien had an exhaustive 35 pages plus a 12-page special insert. People line up to sign a condolence book for the late French President Jacques Chirac, Sept. 27, 2019, in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace in Paris.Everyman charm Even Chirac’s opponents hailed his charm and qualities as a political fighter, as well as how he stood up to Washington in 2003 by opposing the Iraq War. 
 
He was also lauded for acknowledging France’s responsibility for the wartime deportation of Jews, slashing road deaths with the introduction of speed cameras, and standing up to the increasingly popular far right under Jean-Marie Le Pen. 
 
But some questioned how much he had actually achieved during a long period in office — his career shadowed by a graft conviction while mayor of Paris, from 1977 to 1995. 
 
He contested the ruling but did not appeal it, saying the French people “know who I am: an honest man” who worked only for “the grandeur of France and for peace.” 
 
And it hardly dented the popularity of the beer- and saucisse-loving charmer, whose extramarital affairs were an open secret. 
 
He had barely been seen in public in recent years, after suffering a stroke in 2005 and undergoing kidney surgery in December 2013. 
 
He will be buried at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris next to his daughter Laurence, who died in 2016 after a lifelong battle with anorexia. 
 
He is survived by Bernadette, his wife of more than six decades; his daughter Claude, who served as his confidante and adviser; and a grandson, Martin. People gather to pay tribute to the late former French President Jacques Chirac in Nice, France, Sept. 27, 2019.‘Embodied’ France 
 
The centre-right Chirac succeeded his longtime political rival,  Socialist Francois Mitterrand, in 1995 after two previously unsuccessful bids to secure the Elysee. 
 
“As a leader who was able to represent the nation in its diversity and complexity … President Chirac embodied a certain idea of France,” Macron said Thursday. 
 
His death garnered an outpouring of tributes from world leaders, the latest from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who lauded “an old friend of the Chinese people.” 
 
Lebanon has also declared a day of mourning Monday, noting the close ties between Chirac and the family of former Premier Rafiq Hariri — whose family provided Chirac and his wife with a sumptuous Paris apartment for several years after he left office. 
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Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev says he is optimistic that an extortion investigation of the country’s former chief special prosecutor will be resolved ahead of upcoming European Union accession talks.”I expect that once I return (from New York), there will be something prepared by the working groups, the negotiators on both sides,” Zaev told VOA’s Macedonian Service at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday.Zaev, who refused to divulge details of a pending agreement for fear of disrupting negotiations, said he expects a deal before a European Council meeting on Oct. 17, when ministers from the 28 EU member states will decide whether to let North Macedonia and Albania start the accession process.”The solution itself will send another message about our political and democratic maturity,” he said, referring to EU accession criteria.FILE – Public prosecutor Katica Janeva, right, takes an oath in Skopje, Macedonia, Sept. 16, 2015.This summer, North Macedonia’s former chief Special Prosecutor, Katica Janeva, unexpectedly tendered her resignation amid allegations that she masterminded a scheme to extort millions from an indicted businessman in exchange for a reduced sentence.Janeva’s Special Prosecution Office (SPO), an organized-crime-busting outfit also tasked with addressing high-level corruption, has long been emblematic of the former Yugoslav republic’s transatlantic aspirations. By spearheading investigations of the now-ousted authoritarian regime of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Janeva’s office was largely mandated to restore rule of law.The country changed its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia in a historic 2018 Prespa accord, ending a more than two-decade dispute with Greece over its name, and removing an obstacle to EU and NATO membership.Last month, EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn said Skopje needs to reform its judiciary to ensure it can handle high-level crime and corruption cases before the EU accession talks begin.Zaev met with his Greek counterpart, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in New York, where the two discussed ways to build on the Prespa agreement.From border crossings to trade deals and economic cooperation, Zaev said, “These are the ways to enhance the friendship that we have already established through the Prespa agreement,” adding that he was “pleased with this first encounter.”Mitsotakis, who took office in July, told Zaev he would never have signed the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press conference at the Palace Hotel on the sidelines of the 74th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 26, 2019.On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he plans to visit North Macedonia on an upcoming swing through Italy, Greece and the Western Balkans during the first week of October.Pompeo “will attend the U.S.-Holy See Symposium on Partnering with Faith-Based Organizations, where he will deliver keynote remarks,” read a Friday statement from the State Department. “He will have a private audience with His Holiness Pope Francis, and meet with Secretary of State Cardinal [Pietro] Parolin and Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop [Paul] Gallagher.”Pompeo will then meet with Italian leaders before meeting with Zaev and his top officials in the capital of North Macedonia, along with the leaders of Montenegro and Greece.This story originated in VOA’s Macedonian Service. 
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After the 24-hour storm dumped more rain on his olive trees than 55-year-old Gianluca can recall having seen in a September, the part-time farmer shook his head as he inspected his forlorn crop. “This is the third year I have not seen much to harvest,” he lamented. “Last year was even worse, mind you. But look at this,” he said, pointing to trees with few olives and many threadbare branches. FILE – Damaged olives hang in a grove in Nerola, 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Rome, Nov. 13, 2014.In the distance, Lago di Bolsena shimmered and the Italian countryside just north of Rome seemed picture perfect. The sun had returned after Monday’s extreme storm and with it warm autumnal temperatures. But for all the surrounding bucolic beauty, farmers and smallholders in northern Lazio, as in much of rural Italy, are becoming alarmed at the increasingly fickle weather with erratic rainfall, spring frost, tempestuous wind and summer drought.Farmers say the change in climate patterns across Italy is causing poor olive harvests, which are leaving in their wake predictions that the country could become dependent on olive oil imports.That’s a remarkable turnaround for a country that many see as synonymous with olive oil — although olive trees weren’t natural to Italy and first arrived in Italy from Greece, thanks to Greeks who settled in Sicily.By early in the first century AD, the Roman historian Pliny could brag that Italians produced more olives than the Greeks and the quality was superior.FILE – Olive oil comes out of a tap in an oil mill in the Tuscan village of Montepuclciano, Oct. 6, 2007.Last year, Italy saw a 57 percent plunge in the country’s olive harvest, sparking protests by thousands of Italian farmers who descended on Rome wearing orange vests, calling for climate action. According to Riccardo Valentini, a professor in forest ecology at the University of Tuscia in Viterbo, the development of olive trees can suffer greatly when there are sudden extremes in weather.”Three or four days of 40 (degree Celsius) temperatures in summer, or 10 days without rain in spring — even two days of freezing temperatures in spring — are important,” he said in a recent interview with Italian media. “The alarm bell is ringing loud and clear: If we do not limit emissions and pollution levels, the land that we all know is in great danger.”Climate change, disease and insects are reducing Italy’s production of homegrown olive oil, say scientists and farmers. Last year’s unusual weather patterns inflicted an estimated $1 billion worth of damage on the olive-oil sector, according to the national farmers’ association Coldiretti. The sharp drop in production was the worst the country has witnessed in a quarter-century. Insects, diseaseThe weather is also hurting the trees by helping insect infestations — especially of a species of fly that lays eggs in the trees after burrowing into them.FILE – Olive trees infected with a disease called Xylella fastidiosa are seen near Gallipoli in the Salento peninsula, in Apuglia, southern Italy, June 20, 2019.Of even greater threat is a bacteria called Xylella fastidiosa, thought to have come from Costa Rica and spread by the meadow spittlebug. The bacteria starts in the leaves, turning them a rusty brown color, then proceeds into the trunks, disrupting arteries that allow the tree to absorb water. The disease first broke out around 2013 in the southern region of Puglia, in the heel of the Italian boot. Until recently, Puglia was responsible for more than half of Italy’s olive oil production but it has slipped as a result of hundreds of thousands of olive trees dying. Last year, the region’s production plunged by 65 percent. Altogether, an estimated one million Italian trees have died as a result of the disease, and farmers in Lazio are fearful that they will soon see what they dub “tree cemeteries.” While climate change isn’t being held responsible for the appearance of the bacteria in Italy, it is thought to have helped its quick spread. The EU has called on Italy to create a buffer zone by cutting down diseased trees, but the work has been patchy and trees elsewhere — in Lazio and Tuscany — are showing early signs of the disease. 
 
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An elected official in central Illinois has resigned as president of a local nonprofit after a social media post about teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.The Peoria Journal Star reports that Jay Hall wondered on Facebook if the 16-year-old Swede had “Mongoloidism.” He acknowledged it was an inappropriate reference to Down syndrome.
 
Hall has resigned as president of a local AMBUCS group in Pekin, an organization that helps people with mobility problems. He says he wasn’t trying to insult Thunberg. He believes she’s being manipulated by climate change activists.AMBUCS says it has accepted Hall’s resignation over “inappropriate comments.”
Hall also is an elected member of the Tazewell County Board.    
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday continued to chart a collision course with Washington over Iran. Erdogan is categorically ruling out enforcing American sanctions intended to put Iran in an economic straitjacket.”It is impossible for us to cancel relations with Iran with regard to oil and natural gas. We will continue to buy our natural gas from there,” Erdogan said to reporters Friday, while returning from the United Nations General Assembly. Turkey is Iran’s second-largest importer of natural gas.”The importance [of] this announcement is economic,” said Iran expert Jamshid Assadi of France’s Burgundy Business School. “Any income in Tehran’s situation is very welcome by the regime, which is increasingly starved of funds.”President Donald Trump talks with reporters after arriving at Joint Base Andrews, Sept. 26, 2019, in Maryland.President Donald Trump imposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran after withdrawing the United States from an international nuclear accord with Iran. Dubbed a “maximum pressure campaign” by Trump, White House officials indicated they want to cut Iran’s energy exports to zero.”The American grand strategy in the region, is not on the same line as Turkey’s foreign policy, not now and not in the past,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “Turkey will not go against Iran; we will not be Iran’s enemy. Competitor yes, but never its enemy.”Erdogan acknowledged U.S. sanctions are impacting trade with Iran, saying Turkish private companies have curtailed oil purchases from the Islamic nation to avoid punitive measures. Speaking anonymously, a European banker said internationally-operating Turkish companies would not risk being hit with U.S. sanctions for trading with Iran.Even so, the Turkish president is pledging to step up bilateral trade. “On this issue [trade] especially and many other issues, we will continue our relations with Iran,” said Erdogan.FILE – Turkish liras, center, featuring images of Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, among other foreign currency, Istanbul, June 8, 2015.Last week, Erdogan reportedly discussed with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani a goal of tripling bilateral trade, which currently stands at $10 billion. The discussions focused on ways to use domestic currencies — the Turkish lira and Iranian rial — as a means of evading U.S. sanctions that prohibit the use of the dollar in trade transactions with Iran.”Turkey will circumvent and break U.S. sanctions against Iran, just as they have done in the past,” said Bagci, “because Ankara does not believe it’s bound by those sanctions. This will likely result in U.S. sanctions against Turkey, but Turkey is ready for that.”Erdogan told Fox News on Wednesday, “Sanctions have been avoided in the past. I, for one, know that sanctions have never solved anything.”Last year, a New York Court convicted and jailed a senior banking executive of the Turkish state-owned Halkbank for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.A street vendor sells roasted chestnuts in front of a branch of Halkbank in central Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 10, 2018.U.S. authorities are still considering whether to impose a fine against Halkbank, which analysts say could run into the billions of dollars. The size of any potential penalty is widely seen as leverage Washington has over Ankara.Undaunted, Erdogan told reporters Friday he was aware his stance could invite punitive measures from Washington. Analysts note the Turkish president had already irked Washington by casting doubt over claims Tehran was responsible for an attack earlier this month on Saudi Arabia oil refining facilities.”If we just place the entire burden on Iran, it won’t be the right way to go. Because the evidence available does not necessarily point to that fact,” Erdogan said Wednesday.Saudi Colonel Turki al-Malki displays pieces of what he said were Iranian cruise missiles and drones recovered from the attack site that targeted Saudi Aramco’s facilities, during a press conference in Riyadh, Sept. 18, 2019.Several key European countries are backing Washington’s belief that Tehran is behind the attack.Ankara’s strong backing of Tehran comes as Erdogan is trying to build regional support for his plan to repatriate as many as two million Syrian refugees.Erdogan envisages relocating the refugees to a so-called “safe zone” in northeast Syria currently controlled by the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia. Ankara designates the YPG as terrorists, and Turkish forces are poised to push the militia 40 kilometers back from Turkey’s frontier.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during the Cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 18, 2019.Speaking in Ankara earlier this month, Rouhani insisted refugees be returned to their home towns, not repatriated en masse.”Rouhani is saying to Turkey, that it will not support Ankara’s plan of the mass returning of refugees, “said international relations lecturer Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.”Damascus and Tehran are perfectly happy that millions of Sunni Arabs, which oppose Damascus, are out of Syria,” he added.Analysts suggest Tehran will not soften its stance. “Tehran will not just change its stance over Syria and refugees because Ankara is opposing U.S. sanctions, that is just a dream,” said Bagci.Despite Ankara and Tehran backing opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, the two countries, along with Moscow, say they want an end to the conflict.Ankara’s cooperation with Moscow on Syria has alarmed Washington. Turkey’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system prompted Washington to suspend sales of the U.S. F-35 fighter jets. Turkish companies were also excluded from the warplane’s construction. 
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The BBC is facing a backlash after finding one of its presenters in breach of its editorial guidelines on impartiality for comments that were critical of U.S. President Donald Trump.Journalists and celebrities are demanding Friday that the BBC overturn its decision and expressed support for BBC Breakfast anchor Naga Munchetty, who was discussing Trump’s remark on July 17 that four female American lawmakers should return to the “broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”Co-anchor, Dan Walker, asked Munchetty for her opinion, and she responded: “Every time I have been told, as a woman of color, to go back to where I came from, that was embedded in racism.”Questioned further, she says she was “absolutely furious a man in that position thinks it’s OK to skirt the lines by using language like that.” 
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Britain’s government watchdog says there’s still a “significant amount” of work to do to make sure the country has an adequate supply of licensed drugs in case of a no-deal Brexit.In a report issued Friday, Britain’s National Audit Office said additional shipping capacity chartered by the U.K. for sending goods across the English Channel might not be operational until the end of November — one month after the Oct. 31 deadline for Britain to leave the European Union. Of the more than 12,300 medicines licensed in the U.K., about 7,000 arrive from or via the EU, mostly across the Channel.Meg Hillier, who chairs a committee overseeing the audit office, called the findings “deeply concerning.” She said she had seen “countless examples” of the British government missing deadlines, but that this one was particularly striking.”If the government gets this wrong, it could have the gravest of consequences,” she said. 
 
Alan Boyd of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges said people with epilepsy were a particular concern in the event of any drug shortages, noting that “one seizure can have a life-changing impact.” 
 
According to the British government’s “reasonable worst-case” scenario, the flow of goods could be cut by half on Day One of a no-deal Brexit and could take a year to recover. It said time was “extremely limited” if the shipping issues were to be resolved by the end of October.’Troubling, reckless’FILE – Dr. David Nicholl, center, demonstates with activists near the Houses of Parliament in London, Sept. 3, 2019.Dr. David Nicholl, a neurologist who helped draft the U.K.’s no-deal Brexit planning and went public with his concerns this month, said he felt vindicated by the audit office report. He said during his work consulting for the government, there were concerns about adequate supplies for treatments for conditions including epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and certain cancers including leukemia. 
 
“It’s incredibly troubling and reckless,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any evidence that we’re in any better situation than we were before.” 
 
Nicholl said British politicians were still refusing to honestly acknowledge the harm that would be caused to patients in Britain by a no-deal exit. He predicted there would be a spike in illness and deaths if Britain does leave Europe without a divorce deal.In early September, Nicholl publicly raised the issue of drug shortages on a London radio show when he pointedly asked Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House of Commons, what level of excess deaths he would be willing to accept in a no-deal Brexit. Mogg dismissed Nicholl’s warnings and later compared him to the disgraced researcher Andrew Wakefield, who published a now-discredited paper linking a childhood vaccine to autism. Mogg later apologized for the comparison.”It’s completely surreal,” Nicholl said, describing how politicized the situation has become. “I still don’t think there’s been an honest conversation about the harms that will be caused by a no deal.” Precautions, stockpiles
 FILE – Protesters demonstrate against the stockpiling of medicines and food in the event of a no-deal Brexit in London, Britain. Aug 22, 2018.Britain’s department of health said it has taken measures to prepare, including ordering six weeks of extra medicine stocks across the country and securing specialist courier services to deliver products with a short shelf life. 
 
But not everyone was convinced by the moves.”One thing is clear about a no-deal Brexit and that is that no amount of preparation can fully eradicate the risks it presents to patient safety,” said Donal O’Donoghue of the Royal College of Physicians. “It is impossible for me and my colleagues to reassure patients that their health and care won’t be negatively impacted by the U.K. leaving the EU without a deal.”Steve Bates, CEO of U.K.’ s Bioindustry Association, said that unlike the last Brexit deadline — March 31 — the government has given companies much less information about alternative routes in case a no-deal Brexit results in jammed ports. 
 
“Last time, we knew which ferry services had been commissioned on alternative routes with pharmaceutical companies encouraged to book space to ship their products,” he told reporters last week. “But the same approach has not been adopted this time.” 
 
The audit report released Friday also said there was “incomplete information” about the levels of medicine stockpiling but that levels were increasing daily. As of Sept. 20, suppliers reported that 72% of medicines had a six-week stockpile.Boyd said drug shortages already happen every month even without Brexit and the department of health typically issues a list of affected medicines and, in some cases, suggests possible alternatives. He said the group was also concerned that a no-deal Brexit would mean that Britain would be kicked out of a Europe-wide program to identify counterfeit medicines.”The department of health will put its own system in place, but that will likely take a few years before it’s up and running,” he said. 
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At 15 years old, Margarita Naumenko is one of the youngest participants in Russia’s Fridays for Future climate protest movement.Each week, she stands in downtown Moscow with other young activists chanting, brandishing posters and demanding the government take action on worsening climate change threats.Her parents support her decision to protest, Naumenko said, but they are less convinced about the urgency of slowing the climate change.”I tried talking to them and changing their opinion,” she said. “But that is not easy.”Led largely by young people, Russia’s nascent climate protest movement has taken on the challenge of changing minds in a country where, not long ago, both the public and politicians were skeptical about the need to act quickly on climate change.The protests may be having some effect. Earlier this month, Russia announced it would join the 2015 Paris Agreement to fight climate change – one of the last countries in the world to do so.The country is the world’s fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases and was the biggest emitter not to have agreed to the landmark global climate deal.Before the announcement, activists in Moscow held about 50 individual protests, after previously having been denied a permit to demonstrate as part of a large-scale global climate strike last week.On Friday, as young climate campaigners again marched around the globe, about 85 protesters in Moscow held up red and white fabric to spell out the words “Act Now” in front of Russia’s main government building.Naumenko joined the movement five months ago, inspired after attending a lecture on improving sustainability in the education system and after seeing Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old figurehead of the youth climate movement, speak on television.”I thought, ‘Why don’t I take any action?,'” Naumenko told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We have just one planet. If we do not care about it, who else will?”   Growing protestsSince the first mass eco-protest in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park in March – a day students around the world walked out of their classes to call for action on climate change – other Russian cities such as St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Irkutsk, have joined the climate campaign.For Arshak Makichyan, it was the March protest in Moscow that sparked his involvement in climate activism.Since then, the 25-year-old violinist has become one of the faces of Russia’s youth protest movement, demonstrating every week, often on his own.He also acts as one of the coordinators of the movement, and part of his job is to apply for official permission to protest, which can be a time-consuming and frustrating process, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.New rules adopted after mass protests in Moscow that followed President Vladimir Putin’s 2012 election made it a criminal offence to stage some forms of non-violent protests without a permit.Single-person protests, on the other hand, do not require a permit, Makichyan explained. But they do have restrictions – for example, in Moscow, protesters must not stand closer than 50 meters (160 feet) from each other.Makichyan said that, so far, Russia’s climate activists have succeeded in getting permits for two large-scale environmental protests.And the crowds at protests have been getting bigger over the past few months, he added. These days, an organized climate demonstration in Moscow attracts between 20 and 40 participants.The number may be small compared to the thousands who come out for protests in other cities around the globe, but it is a big increase from when Russia’s activists first started, Makichyan said.”The numbers have been growing,” he said. “Ten weeks ago, I was very often protesting on my own. Now every week we get more participants and new cities join in.”Russia’s government has a history of cracking down on protests that it has declared illegal.In a case in July that triggered global condemnation, police in Moscow detained more than 1,000 people for taking part in a protest calling for opposition members to be allowed to run in a local election.Makichyan, who took part in that protest and was detained for three hours, said so far there have been no arrests during any of the climate protests.Local to global  Gathering to demand action on the environment is not something new to Russians, say climate groups, but previous grassroots campaigns tended to focus on local issues, such as air pollution, destruction of green zones and waste management.Recent climate disasters such as the wildfires that raged across Siberia earlier this year, destroying at least 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of forest, have turned the public’s attention toward the global crisis, said Konstantin Fomin, a spokesman for Greenpeace Russia.In a report published in 2014, Russia’s main meteorological service Roshydromet warned that the country is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the world.At a climate forum in September, Russia’s presidential climate adviser Ruslan Edelgeriev noted that this year so far global warming has caused 9.5 billion rubles ($148 million) worth of damage to the country’s agricultural sector.Most of that is due to losses from wildfires and droughts, he said.”(Now) many Russians have personally experienced the effects of climate change. These factors have led civil society to take climate change more seriously,” said Fomin at Greenpeace.A poll conducted in December 2018 by the Moscow-based Public Opinion Foundation, a think tank, showed that 84% of Russians have heard about climate change, while almost two-thirds believe it is serious and happening.More than half of Russians think that people should work to stop climate change, the poll said.”Almost all people in Russia understand and acknowledge that the climate is changing, that this is serious, and they would like to know more about it,” said Alexey Kokorin, head of the WWF Russia energy and climate program.And while a few years ago Russian politicians and businesses were arguing that a warming climate would only benefit the country, the government is now putting the issue of climate adaptation higher on its agenda, Kokorin noted.In the past two months, Russia announced it was working out the country’s first climate adaptation plan as well as a long-term, low-carbon development strategy for the country’s economy, which is today heavily based on gas and oil.Fresh air, clean water  For Fomin at Greenpeace, all of these developments are a boost to Russia’s nascent climate protest movement.”With the support of society, Russian climate activists can become not just another environmental organization, but a real mass movement,” he said.Veronika Essen, 25, said she joined the protests out of concern for her 5-year-old sister’s future.”In 11 years, when she is 16, we probably won’t be able to prevent the negative consequences of the climate crisis,” said Essen, who works in marketing.”But I really want her to enjoy fresh air, clean water and travel around the world, instead of living amidst the climate catastrophe.”Essen said she began looking for like-minded young people, which led her to the climate march movement.”I thought that I would be embarrassed standing in a single-person protest, when people would approach me, ask questions, argue with me and take photos of me,” said Essen.”Now I want to come out every Friday, regardless of whether the protest action has been approved by the authorities.” 
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