New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing to enact a statewide ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes amid growing health concerns connected to vaping, especially among young people.
The Democrat announced Sunday that the state health commissioner would be making a recommendation this week to the state Public Health and Health Planning Council. The council can issue emergency regulations that would go into effect as soon as they are voted on and start being enforced in as soon as two weeks, following a short grace period for retailers, officials said.
In announcing the action, Cuomo sharply criticized the flavors that are for sale, like bubble gum and cotton candy.
“These are obviously targeted to young people and highly effective at targeting young people,” he said.
The biggest player in the industry, Juul Labs Inc., said it was reviewing the announcement, but agreed with the need for action.
The ban would not impact tobacco- and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes, but Cuomo said the Department of Health would continue evaluating and that could change.
Cuomo signed legislation earlier this year raising the statewide smoking age to 21, and earlier this month signed a mandate that requires state anti-tobacco campaigns to also include vaping.
Vaping is also under a federal spotlight , as health authorities look into hundreds of breathing illnesses reported in people who have used e-cigarettes and other vaping devices.
In his first public comments on vaping, President Donald Trump proposed a similar federal ban last week.
The FDA has been able to ban vaping flavors since 2016, but hasn’t taken the step, with officials looking into whether flavors could help cigarette smokers to quit.
The global market is estimated to have a value of as much as $11 billion. The industry has spent a lot of money in states around the country to lobby against state-level flavored e-cigarette bans, in states including Hawaii, California, Maine and Connecticut.
US Officials Repeat Warning on Iraq Disarmament Ultimatum
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking prior to the summit in the Azores, said time is running out for Iraq to disarm or face possible military action. Their comments underscored the call by President George W. Bush and the leaders of Britain and Spain for the international community to support an ultimatum for the immediate disarmament of Iraq.
Speaking on the NBC television program Meet the Press, Vice-President Cheney signaled that the U.S. administration is running out of patience.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer earlier this month ordered that state’s health department to come out with emergency rules to prohibit flavored e-cigarette sales.
Juul reiterated Sunday the agreeable stance it had taken following Trump’s proposal.
In an emailed statement, spokesman Austin Finan said, “We strongly agree with the need for aggressive category-wide action on flavored products,” and “will fully comply with local laws and the final FDA policy when effective.”
An angry mob in southern Pakistan has vandalized several Hindu temples and property over allegations a local school principal belonging to the minority community had committed blasphemy.
Police said Sunday the riots in Ghotki in the province of Sindh broke out the previous day and quickly spread across the entire city, with an estimated 40% Hindu population, and surrounding towns.
Residents and the community leaders confirmed protesters had stormed three temples, vandalizing statues and other sacred material inside the places of worship.
They also assaulted and destroyed multiple houses belonging Hindus, including the school being run by the alleged blasphemer, prompting the district administration to call in paramilitary forces to assist in bringing the situation under control. Ghotki was completely closed Sunday amid tensions and fears of more protests.
Area police confirmed Sunday they have arrested the school principal and an investigation was underway into the accusations he made derogatory remarks regarding the Prophet Muhammad.
Videos shared via social media showed stick-wielding angry mobs roaming the streets and destroying infrastructure.
The non-governmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also shared a video of the violent protests , denouncing them and demanding authorities quickly take action to ensure safety of the Hindu community.
“The video circulated earlier is chilling: mob violence against a member of a religious minority is barbaric, unacceptable,” the commission said.
#Hindus living in #Ghotki are under seige as miscreants are vandalizing properties of Hindus & temples after a teacher Notan Das was accused of blasphamy. Mr Das has been teaching since 30 years, but some vested interests are distorting peace & interfaith harmony in #Sindh. pic.twitter.com/VQREltuz4E
— Kapil Dev (@KDSindhi) September 15, 2019
A prominent Hindu rights activist in Pakistan, Kapil Dev, said Hindus living in Ghotki are under siege and posed the question “Aren’t We Pakistani.”
Aren’t we Pakistani?
We #Pakistani#Hindus are only 2% of the total population. I just want to know what danger do we pose to 98% population. Just visit my timeline & see how we observed Muhrram a few days ago, but yet we suffer incidents like #Ghotki.
— Kapil Dev (@KDSindhi) September 15, 2019
Insulting Islam and the prophet is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan where mere allegations of blasphemy have led to mob lynching of suspects.
The country’s laws carry a compulsory death sentence for anyone found guilty of blasphemy, though critics say the laws are often used to settle personal feuds and persecute Pakistani religious minorities.
US President Donald Trump mounted an angry defense of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Sunday as the controversial judge faced calls for an investigation over fresh allegations of sexual misconduct.
Trump blasted the media and “Radical Left Democrats” after a former Yale classmate of Kavanaugh alleged that the jurist — one of the most senior judges in the land — exposed himself at a freshman year party before other students pushed his genitals into the hand of a female student.
The latest allegation in The New York Times came after Kavanaugh denied sexual misconduct accusations leveled against him by two women during his confirmation to the Supreme Court last October.
“Now the Radical Left Democrats and their Partner, the LameStream Media, are after Brett Kavanaugh again, talking loudly of their favorite word, impeachment,” Trump tweeted.
“He is an innocent man who has been treated HORRIBLY. Such lies about him. They want to scare him into turning Liberal!”
Now the Radical Left Democrats and their Partner, the LameStream Media, are after Brett Kavanaugh again, talking loudly of their favorite word, impeachment. He is an innocent man who has been treated HORRIBLY. Such lies about him. They want to scare him into turning Liberal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
FILE – Professor Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Brett Kavanaugh of a sexual assault in 1982, testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill in Washington.
The latest allegation surfaced during a 10-month investigation by Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, and features in their upcoming book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation.”
Trump called on Kavanaugh to take legal action over the claims, suggesting also that the Department of Justice should intervene on the judge’s behalf and “come to his rescue.”
But Democrats seeking to be Trump’s opponent in the 2020 election called for the judge to be investigated.
“Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation is a shame to the Supreme Court. This latest allegation of assault must be investigated,” former housing secretary and Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro tweeted.
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobouchar, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who was involved in a heated exchange with Kavanaugh during his confirmation, described the process as a “sham.”
“I strongly opposed him based on his views on executive power, which will continue to haunt our country, as well as how he behaved, including the allegations that we are hearing more about today,” she told ABC’s “This Week.”
Republican Senator Ted Cruz dismissed the new allegation, however, as “the obsession with the far left with trying to smear Justice Kavanaugh by going 30 years back with anonymous sources.”
Saudi Arabia scrambled Sunday to restore operations at its key oil fields after drone attacks cut the kingdom’s production in half, while also saying it would tap its vast reserves to shore up exports to the world market.
Meanwhile, there was widespread uncertainty about responsibility for the attacks that cut the Saudi oil production by 5.7 million barrels of oil a day — nearly 6% of the world’s crude supply — and where the early Saturday missile attacks were launched.
Fires burn in the distance after a drone strike by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group on Saudi company Aramco’s oil processing facilities, in Buqayq, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 14, 2019 in this still image taken from a social media video.
Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militia claimed responsibility for the attacks, but U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran and ruled out Houthi involvement.
“Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy,” Pompeo said on social media, referring to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif.
Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy. Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply. There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo)
A saudi man looks to the computer showing stock prices at ANB Bank, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 15, 2019.
Saudi Arabia said it would compensate for the production loss by tapping in to its reserves of 188 million barrels of crude, with Saudi Aramco telling one Indian refinery there would be no immediate impact on deliveries. Oil analysts said the damage at the Saudi production sites could boost Friday’s benchmark $55-a-barrel oil price by $3 to $5 a barrel on Monday.
The Saudi embassy in Washington said U.S. President Donald Trump assured Prince Mohammed in a phone call that the U.S. was ready to help Riyadh to protect its security in the aftermath of the drone attacks.
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department could also tap its Strategic Petroleum Reserve to sell oil on the world market to stabilize the global energy supply.
FILE – In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani speaks at a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 11, 2019.
Trump in recent days has said that he could meet with Iran’s Rouhani at the United Nations General Assembly later this month as tensions mount over the U.S. leader’s withdrawal last year from the 2015 international pact to restrain Iran’s nuclear weapons and his reimposition of economic sanctions that have hobbled Iran’s economy.
Conway said the attack on the Saudi oil fields “did not help” the prospects for Trump talks with Rouhani, but “he’ll consider it. The conditions must be right for this president to take a meeting.”
Amateur video of the middle-of-the night attack on the Saudi Aramco facilities in Abqaiq, in eastern Saudi Arabia, showed several blazes raging. By afternoon, video showed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky. Saudi officials said no workers were killed or injured in the attacks.
A military spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi militia, Col. Yahya Saree, said 10 Houthi drones hit the oil facilities, with the attacks being dubbed “Operation Balance of Terror.” He said the attacks were a response to what he called the “ongoing crimes of blockade and aggression on Yemen” since the Saudi-led coalition began battling the Houthis five years ago.
Saree claimed the attack was the “largest to date” and that it “required extensive intelligence preparations,” including information from sources inside Saudi Arabia.
The U.S.-led coalition said Sunday that “good progress” was being made in implementing a buffer zone in northern Syria along the Turkish border.
Turkey and the United States last month agreed on the so-called “security mechanism” to create a buffer between the Turkish border and Syrian areas controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The YPG led the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in battle against the Islamic State group in Syria, but Ankara views the Kurdish fighters as “terrorists”.
The United States and Turkey launched their first joint patrol of the border areas on September 8, but Ankara has accused Washington of stalling in the week since.
A coalition delegation on Sunday visited a military council in the northern town of Tal Abyad, from which Kurdish forces started withdrawing late last month.
“We are seeing good progress for the initial phase of security mechanism activities,” the coalition said in a statement handed out to journalists.
“The coalition and SDF have conducted multiple patrols to identify and remove fortifications to address concerns from Turkey,” the statement said.
“Four joint US and Turkish military overflights” were also carried out, it said.
Little is known about the buffer zone’s size or how it will work, although Ankara has said there would be observation posts and joint patrols.
“We will continue our talks and close coordination with Turkey to work out additional details for security mechanism activities,” the coalition statement said.
“We will continue the removal of certain fortifications in the security mechanism area of concern to Turkey,” it said.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to go his “own way” if the buffer zone was not set up by the end of September “with our own soldiers”.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday belittled efforts to create the safe zone as largely “cosmetic”.
Syria’s Kurds have established a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Syria during the country’s eight-year war.
Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to attack Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria, and the prospect of a US withdrawal after the territorial defeat of IS in March again stoked fears of an incursion.
Damascus labelled the first patrol last week as a flagrant “aggression” that seeks to prolong Syria’s war.
Turkey has already carried out two cross-border incursions into Syria, the latest of which saw Turkish troops and Ankara’s Syrian rebel proxies seize the northwestern enclave of Afrin last year.
Promised talks this month between the United States and North Korea will give President Donald Trump yet another chance to conclude a deal with the reclusive nation, something that has eluded several of his predecessors.
But after three summits and more than two years of on-and-off talks, some analysts are asking just how well Trump’s self-proclaimed prowess as a dealmaker translates to the world of diplomacy.
This week,
FILE – Real estate mogul Donald Trump announces, during a news conference in New York, the opening of his Taj Mahal Resort Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., Feb. 28, 1989.
Baruch Fischhoff, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Politics and Strategy, said Trump’s dealmaking with world leaders is influenced by his dealmaking in the business world.
“Mr. Trump’s business experience is primarily as a real estate developer,” Fischhoff said. “In that business arena, it was possible for him to have major properties go bankrupt and still get funding for new ones.”
In the world of business, deals are often viewed through the lens of cost and benefit analysis, and strategies involved are aimed at maximizing profit while minimizing cost, said Vershbow, the former Bush administration ambassador.
However, in the world of diplomacy, Vershbow continued, costs and benefits cannot always be assessed in monetary terms and strategies involved cannot solely be based on gaining financial advantage.
“In the business world, you’re talking about economic benefits and costs,” he said. “It’s kind of fairly dry but straightforward. In [diplomatic] negotiations, there’re many different factors in terms of building trust between different countries, different cultures, and calculating the interest of third parties who may not directly be involved but could be affected. So it’s more complex undertaking.”
It is in the international system of alliances where Trump’s business calculations tend to overshadow the building of relationships and fostering intrinsic values, said Bruce Klingner, former CIA deputy division chief of Korea and current senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
“Trump’s transactional views on the U.S. alliance and the stationing of American troops overseas are at odds with 70 years of post-World War II American strategy,” Klingner said. “Seeking alliances as business transactions, rather than based on [sharing] common values and strategic objectives, is a disservice to the men and women in the U.S. military.”
A group of Native American women from several tribes in Oklahoma have launched a nonprofit organization they’re calling the “
A Quiche indigenous woman faces a monument that pays homage to migrants from the town of Salcaja, at the entrance to the town in Guatemala, June 7, 2019. Central Americans still dream of reaching the United States as Mexico cracks down on migration.
“But I’m hearing it more and more from Native American activists who say that before the Europeans came, we were all indigenous people, so there’s that shared history of kinship,” Leza said.
It is not known what percentage of migrant detainees are indigenous, but a
LAREDO, TEXAS/NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO — Editor’s note: VOA is withholding some identifying information and images when requested by the migrant or asylum-seeker, to limit risks to their safety, as criminals in northern Mexico are targeting migrants for kidnapping, assault and ransom. Only first names are included in this report from the border, which contains personal accounts as told by migrants that have not been verified by VOA but are consistent with reports from a wide range of news outlets and sources.
The U.S. Border Patrol reports it has intercepted more than 800,000 migrants and asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border so far in the 2019 fiscal year.
In recent months, the Trump administration has returned tens of thousands of mostly Central American migrants to Mexico to await U.S. immigration hearings under the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” program.
This past Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the administration to deny asylum to all recent non-Mexican claimants who hadn’t already been denied asylum in a third country before reaching the U.S. border. Even before the Supreme Court decision, U.S. officials reported nine of 10 asylum claims were being rejected.
Despite such statistics, and amid rapidly shifting U.S. policies, migrants and asylum-seekers from the Americas, Africa and beyond await a determination of their fates while biding their time on both sides of America’s southern border.
VOA reporters Victoria Macchi and Ramon Taylor spoke with a broad sampling of migrants and asylum-seekers in early August. Many departed their home countries months before U.S. policy changes went into effect, under assumptions that no long apply. All are awaiting immigration court hearings. These are their stories.
Melissa, 25: ‘It’s only been an American nightmare’
Country of Origin: Venezuela Status: Returned to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, under MPP
Melissa fled Venezuela in late July seeking asylum in the United States. As a critic of Venezuela’s disputed President Nicolás Maduro, she feared retribution from the government. Along her route, she says she was kidnapped and extorted by smugglers in Reynosa, Mexico, who forced her to cross into the U.S. between ports of entry, where she was detained. Melissa was returned to the International Bridge spanning the Rio Grande river to Nuevo Laredo, Puente 1, lacking laces in her shoes, a change of clothes, food or shelter. Her pleas to remain in the U.S. to await her Oct. 22 court hearing were denied. “I thought this would be, as they say, the American dream. But for me, it’s only been an American nightmare.”
Voices of Migrants: Detained at the US-Mexico Border video player.
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Victor, 26: ‘My baby was shaking from the cold’
Country of Origin: El Salvador Status: Released to temporary nonprofit migrant facility in Laredo, Texas
After spending three days at a crowded U.S. detention facility in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, Victor and son Daniel, 2, were transferred to a migrant shelter in Laredo. They were the only ones in his detention group who were not returned to Mexico under MPP, he said. He’ll await his court date in the U.S. Victor describes their brief time in detention as a test of physical and mental endurance. At night, the air conditioning made the facility dangerously cold, he says, and Daniel caught the flu. “My baby was shaking from the cold, so I wrapped him tighter.” Victor said Daniel received prompt medical attention. Since their release, Victor’s goal is to provide “security” for his son, free of violence.
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Keiny, 27: ‘Faith in God and the truth’
Country of Origin: Cuba Status: Returned to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, under MPP
In a barren shelter in Nuevo Laredo, Keiny and his seven-months-pregnant wife are counting the days until their immigration court date later this month. They are among Laredo’s first scheduled MPP hearings and have been in the border city since July with no lawyer and no money, only “faith in God and the truth.” With the savings from a food cart he ran in Cuba, the couple paid about $475 each for a flight to Nicaragua. From there, they went by bus to Honduras, Guatemala and into Mexico. Frustrated by the long waits and dangers asylum-seekers face on Nuevo Laredo’s streets, Keiny insists returning to Cuba is not possible for him and his wife. It’s his fourth attempt to leave Cuba for good. The first three were by boat. When he was returned, he was forced to pay hefty fines and says his family was surveilled. If his asylum bid fails and he is sent back again, he fears punishment in the form of jail, or even torture. “I don’t feel safe in my country. The police and government do what they want.”
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Julia, 34: ‘I don’t want that anymore for my children’
Country of Origin: Democratic Republic of Congo Status: Released to temporary nonprofit migrant facility in San Antonio, Texas
Julia and her two daughters, ages 15 and 9, left the DRC in 2014 after her eldest son was killed. They spent four years in Angola, but security concerns there prompted them to leave Africa entirely. Last year, they flew to Ecuador. On foot and by bus and boat, they made their way through South and Central America, into Mexico, and finally to the U.S.-Mexico border. They crossed the Rio Grande alone and reached out to border agents waiting on the other side. They were allowed to remain in the U.S. pending their first court hearing, scheduled for the first week of August. “I told them when we left Angola that we were headed for America. We’re going to have a better life. … We suffered a lot. I don’t want that anymore for my children.”
Lilian, 30s: ‘They treat us like delinquents’
Country of Origin: Honduras Status: Returned to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, under MPP
Hours after being dropped off on the Mexican side of Puente 1 by U.S. border agents, Lilian says her group of migrants was told if they didn’t get on the buses to Mexico’s southern Chiapas state, nearly 2,000 kilometers away, they would be left to fend for themselves. A diabetic, traveling with her 9-year-old son, she said she was forced to dump all of her belongings when a smuggler took the group across the river, and she hasn’t had access to insulin since then. She says it’s cruel to make people wait three months for their November court date in Laredo, if they are just going to be rejected for asylum in the U.S. Her son’s father, who lives in Baltimore, Maryland, has yet to find an attorney they can afford — and she’s not alone. In June, only 1.3% of the nearly 13,000 MPP cases had legal representation. “We’re coming to this country for a better life,” Lilian says. “They treat us like delinquents, both in the U.S. and in Mexico.”
Marvin, 38: ‘The journey could have cost me my life’
Country of Origin: Honduras Status: Released to temporary nonprofit migrant facility in San Antonio, Texas
When they set out northward in February, Marvin and the group he traveled with decided to avoid trains to minimize risks to the children. By the time the group — including his teenage son, Kevin, colleagues, and extended family members — got to the border, they knew they didn’t want to pay fees to cartels to cross the river. He bided his time for a few days in Piedras Negras, visiting the river daily to determine where and when it would be safest to cross. “I prayed to God in that moment to clear the way for us,” says Marvin, sitting beside his son in a San Antonio shelter waiting for their bus. They were allowed to remain in the U.S. pending their court hearing. “I know that the journey could have cost me my life along the way. … If doing nothing means you’ll die, or that something will happen to you (in your home country), you’ll do whatever it takes — risk illness and everything.”
VOA Spanish Service reporters Jorge Agobian contributed reporting from Laredo, Texas, and Celia Mendoza from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Read their reports in Spanish.
Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Saturday that drone attacks on two Aramco oil facilities by a Yemen Houthi militia group have cut the kingdom’s oil production in half.
Amateur video of the early morning attack in Abqaiq, in eastern Saudi Arabia, showed several blazes raging. By afternoon, video showed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky. Saudi officials said no workers were killed or injured in the attacks.
A military spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi militia, Col. Yahya Saree, claimed responsibility Saturday for the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities and vowed to increase them if Saudi-coalition forces continued their strikes on targets inside Yemen. It was not clear, however, if the drones originated in Yemen.
Smoke is seen following a fire at an Aramco factory in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 14, 2019.
Saree said 10 (Houthi) drones hit the two oil facilities run by Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant. He said the attacks are being dubbed “Operation Balance of Terror” and are a response to what he called the “ongoing crimes of blockade and aggression on Yemen” (since the Saudi-led coalition began battling the Houthis five years ago).
Saree claimed the attack was the “largest to date” and that it “required extensive intelligence preparations,” including information from sources inside Saudi Arabia.
Later Saturday, however, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for the attacks on the Saudi oil plants, and ruled out involvement by Yemen’s Houthis.
“Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy,” Pompeo said on social media, referring to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif.
Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy. Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply. There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo)
Khurais oil field and Buqyaq
U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia John Abizaid told Reuters news agency, “The U.S. strongly condemns today’s drone attacks against oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais. These attacks against critical infrastructure endanger civilians, are unacceptable, and sooner or later will result in innocent lives being lost.”
James Krane, a Middle East energy specialist at the Baker Institute at Rice University in Texas, told Reuters, “This is a pretty serious escalation of the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. With something like this, we might see the U.S. get dragged in. Iran is telling us, ‘You need to put us on the front burner.’
“They’re not going to be put out of the picture forever. With (former U.S. national security adviser John) Bolton out, who knows? It is hard to see that Bolton’s departure isn’t part of the calculus,” Krane added. “Iran is stepping up what they see is its defense and looking for us to make the next move, and we’ve just fired the hardest-line guy in the Cabinet.”
The attacks Saturday were the latest of many recent such assaults on the Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, and they have been the most destructive.
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a statement by the state-run Saudi Press Agency Saturday that the damage at the facilities led to “the temporary suspension of production operations,” affecting an estimated 5.7 million barrels of crude supplies at the Abqaiq site and the Khurais oil field.
Saudi Aramco said in the statement some of the shortage would be offset with stockpiled supplies and added it would provide additional information in the next 48 hours.
The drone assaults also led to concerns about the global oil supply and what will likely be an increase in tensions in the region.
Fires burn in the distance after a drone strike by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group on Saudi company Aramco’s oil processing facilities, in Buqayq, Saudi Arabia September 14, 2019 in this still image taken from a social media video obtained by…
Drones not likely launched in Yemen
Hilal Khashan, who teaches political science at the American University of Beirut, told VOA that he suspects the drones may not have been launched from inside Yemen because the Houthis don’t have drones capable of flying as far as Saudi Arabia’s eastern province. Khashan does believe, however, that forces inside the kingdom helped guide the attacks.
“There is no doubt that in order for the Houthis to land the drone on the target they need coordinates and they need someone on the ground to guide them in determining the coordinates. It sounds plausible to me that they have support on the ground in the Eastern Province,” Khashan said.
There has been some speculation that alleged Houthi drone attacks on the Saudi Yanbu pipeline last May were launched from Iraq, which is much closer to the target than Yemen. That attack damaged two oil pumping stations along the largest Saudi cross-country oil pipeline.
FILE – Saudi security guards the entrance of the oil processing plant of the Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Abqaiq in the oil-rich Eastern Province, Feb. 25, 2006.
Saturday’s attack comes as the Saudi oil giant Aramco prepares to publicly sell shares of the company, leading some analysts to speculate the attacks were meant to depress the value of the company when its shares go on the market.
Several analysts on Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV accused Iran of perpetrating Saturday’s drone attacks from bases operated by its Revolutionary Guard and local Shiite proxies from inside Iraq. VOA could not confirm the claims.
At two of the world’s biggest coal mines, the finances got so bad that their owner couldn’t even get toilet paper on credit.
Warehouse technician Melissa Worden divvied up what remained of the last case, giving four rolls to each mine and two to the mine supply facility where she worked.
Days later, things got worse.
Blackjewel worker Melissa Worden, poses for a photo in Gillette, Wyo., Sept. 5, 2019. When Blackjewel shut down Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines, July 1, 2019, people thought they would reopen. “I don’t think we’ll ever be that naive again,” she said.
Mine owner Blackjewel LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection July 1. Worden at first figured the accounts would get settled quickly and vendors of everything from copy paper to parts for house-sized dump trucks would soon be back to doing normal business with the mines.
“The consensus was: In 30 days, we’ll look back on this, and we made it through, and we’ll be up and running, and it’s a fresh start,” Worden said.
What happened instead has shaken the top coal-producing region in the United States like a charge of mining explosive. Blackjewel furloughed most of its Wyoming employees and shut down Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines, the first idled by hardship since coal mining in the Powder River Basin exploded in the 1970s.
It’s a big hit to the region straddling northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana, where coal has quietly supported the economies of both states for decades and fuels a shrinking number of power plants in 28 states.
Negotiations that could reopen the two Wyoming mines under new ownership — potentially previous owner Bristol, Tennessee-based Contura Energy — are stalled more than two months later. Some 600 employees remain off the job. They lost health insurance coverage in late August.
The entrance to the Blue Ayr Mine south of Gillett, Wyo., Sept. 5, 2019. The shutdowns of Blackjewel LLC’s Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines in Wyoming since July 1, 2019, have added more uncertainty to the Powder River Basin’s struggling coal economy.
And doubts are growing about the long-term viability of the region’s coal mines — particularly Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr, the fourth- and sixth-biggest in the U.S. by production, respectively.
“I don’t think we’ll ever be that naive again,” said Worden, 44.
Blackjewel, based in Milton, West Virginia, told its Wyoming employees this week that the mines might be up and running soon and to let the company know if they wanted their jobs back.
Worden said she felt little reassurance. On a break at a part-time electrical contracting job in North Dakota, she wondered if she should accept any offer of full-time work or hold out for her old job.
She’s not the only one questioning long-held assumptions about Powder River Basin coal mines, which produce cleaner-burning coal less expensively than mines in other parts of the U.S. and weren’t widely thought of being at risk despite a push for renewable energy to combat climate change.
But with coal in long-term decline, how the basin might eventually scale down production to a sustainable level has become a big question, said Rob Godby, director of the Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy at the University of Wyoming.
“The irony here — and it’s really a cruel irony — is everybody is focused on getting these miners back to work. But really the solution to creating a healthy industry is some mines close,” Godby said.
For now, little appears changed in Gillette, a city of 30,000 people at the heart of the basin of rolling grasslands midway between the Black Hills and snowcapped Bighorn Mountains. Tattoo shops are abundant, and big, late-model pickup trucks still cruise the main drag.
This year, however, has been especially tumultuous. Three of the Powder River Basin’s nine producers — Westmoreland Coal, Cloud Peak Energy and Blackjewel — have filed for bankruptcy since March. Two others, Arch Coal and Peabody, have announced they will merge assets in the region.
The turmoil comes as U.S. coal production is down more than 30% since peaking in 2008. Utilities are retiring aging coal-fired power plants and switching to solar, wind and cheaper and cleaner-burning natural gas to generate electricity despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to prop up the coal industry.
Blackjewel employee Rory Wallet poses for a photo in Gillette, Wyo., Sept. 5, 2019. The shutdown of Blackjewel LLC’s Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines in Wyoming, July 1, 2019, left Wallet unemployed, but he’s optimistic about coal’s future.
A decade ago, about half of U.S. electricity came from coal-fired power. Now it’s less than 30%, a shift that heavy equipment operator Rory Wallet saw as utilities became less willing to lock in multiyear contracts for Belle Ayr mine’s coal.
“The market’s changed,” Wallet said. “The bankruptcies all tie into that.”
Wallet, 40, followed his father, an equipment mechanic, into the Belle Ayr mine in 2008. He said the recent mine closures and loss of his $80,000-a-year job took him by surprise.
He has four children, ages 11 to 16, and his wife’s job at the Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant in Gillette is their main income while they await news about the mines.
Blackjewel said Thursday that it was working on plans to restart the mines while pursuing their sale. There were no indications in federal bankruptcy court filings in West Virginia that the mines were set to reopen, however.
“This is a fast-moving and sometimes unpredictable process, and accordingly, we do not have answers to all of your questions at this time,” the company’s statement said.
Wallet is looking for a job and using his downtime to sell “We Will Rise Again” T-shirts to benefit families of out-of-work coal miners. He’s also lobbying Wyoming lawmakers to fight harder to force Washington state to approve a port facility expansion that would allow more coal exports to Asia.
He questions the outlook from Godby of the Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy that some mines must close.
“I think, with Rob, it’s the middle- to worst-case scenario,” Wallet said. “The ports are going to be a big deal. Asia is going to be a big deal.”
Wallet pointed out that the Powder River Basin still has a century or two of recoverable coal left. And just north of Gillette, the state has invested $15 million in a facility to study how to capture climate-changing carbon dioxide from a working power plant and profitably use it in products ranging from concrete to biofuels.
Wallet is optimistic that technology could save coal. But carbon capture, if it happens at all, could arrive too late to do the coal industry much good amid global concern about climate change, Godby said.
“We will not see widespread adoption of carbon capture and storage for at least a decade,” Godby said. “That’s just the reality.”
He also doubted that exports can save the region’s coal industry. There’s no direct rail line to the Pacific Northwest from most of the basin’s mines, and the amount of coal that the proposed export terminal could handle would offset only a small fraction of the amount that production has declined, Godby said.
FILE – A dump truck hauls coal, March 28, 2017, at Contura Energy’s Eagle Butte Mine near Gillette, Wyo. President Donald Trump lifted a federal coal lease moratorium that will allow new coal leasing at the mine and others in the Powder River Basin.
Powder River Basin mines employ about 5,000 miners — 20% fewer than eight years ago. But the impact is even wider because an additional 8,000 jobs, from teachers to car mechanics, have indirect ties to the broader economy around the coal industry.
Local unemployment rose to 5.7% in July, compared with 4.1% a year earlier.
Trump got 88% of the vote in Campbell County, the heart of the basin. Locals cheered when he lifted a federal moratorium on coal leases that former President Barack Obama imposed, but Worden and Wallet disagree about whether changing environmental regulations will do much good in the long run. Wallet thinks improvement could be just around the corner.
Both say coal should continue to have a place in the economy alongside renewable energy.
“It needs to be a group effort, not green is on one side and black is on the other,” Worden said. “We don’t want this community to die.”
Recent efforts by the governments of Australia and New Zealand to tackle online extremism has renewed the debate over the threat of radicalization on the internet, with some analysts seeing new opportunities for states and tech giants for a joint action.
Australian officials earlier this week enacted what they are calling the world’s first law to curb online extremism, as authorities ordered five websites to remove extremist content or face prosecution. The offending websites are all based outside Australia, the country’s eSafety commission told the Financial Times. The commission is charged with investigating and removing such content.
In neighboring New Zealand, a self-avowed white supremacist in March opened fire at two mosques and gunned down 51 people while livestreaming his actions on Facebook. On Monday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey met with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Wellington to discuss what his company can do to help eliminate violent extremist content on its platform.
FILE – People visit a memorial for victims of a shooting at the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 18, 2019.
The meeting was a part of Ardern’s efforts through Christchurch Call, a pledge by 18 countries and eight technology companies in Paris on March 15 to collaborate to eradicate violent extremist content from the internet.
“It is in fact the prime minister of New Zealand and the Australian movement in the parliament who have stepped up to do something a little more sharp and more defined,” said Farah Pandith, former U.S. special representative to the Muslim communities.
Evolving threat
Pandith authored the recent book “How We Win: How Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurs, Political Visionaries, Enlightened Business Leaders and Social Media Mavens Can Defeat the Extremist Threat.”
“It is too early to tell whether or not those kinds of action are going to make a difference in the rate and the impact of spreading content that radicalizes. But it’s going to be a very important space to watch,” Pandith told VOA, adding that governments and tech companies have a long way to go in ending this evolving threat.
“As I look at where we are today, 18 years after September 11, and the morphing of the online threat and the more severe and dangerous threat landscape we are in,” she said, “it is critical that private sector companies, not just technology companies, look at what they need to do to help defeat the extremist ideology and the capacity for them to spread hate and extremism around the world.”
FILE – An Islamic State flag lies in an abandoned tent encampment near Baghuz, Syria, March 23, 2019.
Violent extremist content has become a major concern for governments in recent years as violent ideological groups try to use social media platforms to spread propaganda. That threat became more significant when Islamic State (IS), which emerged in mid-2014, began to use the internet to establish a “virtual caliphate” to lure thousands of supporters and inspire several deadly attacks around the world.
In the past, social media giants — particularly Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — have taken several measures to identify and remove millions of extremist propaganda material.
Facebook reported that it had removed more than 3 million pieces of IS and al-Qaida propaganda in the third quarter of 2018 alone.
Within the first 24 hours of the New Zealand shooting, Facebook said it removed more than 1.2 million videos of the attack at upload, and another 300,000 additional copies after they were posted.
But governments say the companies need to do more to crackdown on extremist content.
In a statement in June at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, world leaders pressed social media companies to improve how they root out terrorism and violent content on the internet.
“The internet must not be a safe haven for terrorists to recruit, incite or prepare terrorist acts,” the world leaders wrote in their statement, pushing the tech companies to, among other measures, develop technologies that prevent extremist content online.
Cooperation
Some analysts charge that more cooperation between states and tech companies is crucial to combat violent extremist content, particularly as the threat crosses country borders.
Laura Pham, an expert with New York-based Counter Extremism Project, argued that countries in Europe have particularly made significant achievements through enacting transnational laws that target online extremist content.
The European Union in late 2015 established its Internet Forum (EUIF), which aims to bring together EU governments and other stakeholders, such as Europol, and technology companies to counter hate speech and terrorist content.
Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are showing progress in flagging and removing illegal hate speech online, according to an assessment in February but a European Union organization.
The EU in mid-2016 moved to establish a Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online, the original signatories to which were Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube. An assessment of the code by the organization in February showed that tech companies were assessing 89% of flagged content within 24 hours, with removal of 72% of the content deemed to be illegal hate speech, compared with rates of 40% and 28%, respectively, when the code was first launched in 2016.
“These efforts show that the EU as a whole in parliament will not stand for the continued proliferation and the spread of extremist and terrorist material online. We will probably see more action from member states and from individual states, but there is a clear public understanding of the potential public safety and security concerns that come with proliferating terrorist material online,” Pham told VOA.
Meanwhile, as countries continue their efforts with tech companies to address violent content online, potential risks to free speech and privacy will remain the core of the debate, said Maura Conway, a professor of international security at Dublin City University in Dublin, Ireland.
“The role of the internet and social media, in particular, in the case of violent extremism and terrorism was not something that internet companies wished to countenance early in their development, but is certainly an area that they now acknowledge is one in which workable solutions need to be found,” Conway told VOA.
Despite those concerns, Conway said a workable solution eventually will need to be found to prevent further exploitation of the internet by hate groups to spread their ideology.
The Bahamian government has discontinued a tropical storm warning as Humberto moves away from the island nation struggling to recover from Hurricane Dorian.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tropical Storm Humberto was expected to become a hurricane by Sunday night or early Monday but wouldn’t threaten land by the time it intensified to that strength.
Officials warned that the storm could still cause dangerous swells in the northwest Bahamas and along the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina later this weekend and early next week.
At 5 p.m. EDT, the storm was located about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Great Abaco Island. Humberto was moving 7 mph (11 kph) north-northwest with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph).
U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a possible mutual defense treaty between the two nations, a move that could bolster Netanyahu’s re-election bid just days before Israelis go to the polls.
“I had a call today with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss the possibility of moving forward with a Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Israel, that would further anchor the tremendous alliance between our two countries,” Trump said on Twitter.
He added that he looked forward to continuing those discussions later this month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session in New York.
Netanyahu thanked Trump, saying in a tweet that Israel “has never had a greater friend in the White House,” and adding that he looked forward to meeting at the U.N. “to advance a historic Defense Treaty between the United States and Israel.”
Close race seen
The timing of Trump’s tweet, just days before Israel’s election on Tuesday, appeared aimed at buttressing Netanyahu’s bid to remain in power by showcasing his close ties to Trump.
Opinion polls predict a close race, five months after an inconclusive election in which Netanyahu declared himself the winner but failed to put together a coalition government.
FILE – Benny Gantz, the leader of Blue and White party, speaks at an event hosted by the Tel Aviv International Salon ahead of general elections, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sept. 9, 2019.
Netanyahu’s Likud party is running neck and neck with the centrist Blue and White party led by former armed forces chief Benny Gantz, who has focused heavily on looming corruption charges Netanyahu faces.
In a televised interview with Israel’s Channel 12 later Saturday, Netanyahu made a direct appeal to voters based on the treaty. “I’m going to get us a defense pact that will provide us with security for centuries, but for that I need your votes,” he said.
Trump previously bolstered Netanyahu’s candidacy when he recognized Israel’s claim of sovereignty over the Golan Heights ahead of the elections earlier this year.
Some Israeli officials have promoted the idea of building on Netanyahu’s strong ties to the Trump administration by forging a new defense treaty with the United States, focused especially on guarantees of assistance in any conflict with Iran.
Trump provided no details, but a mutual defense treaty could obligate the United States to come to Israel’s defense if it is attacked.
Nuclear threats, Iran
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said earlier this month that a pact should apply to “defined issues — nuclear threats and the matter of long-range missiles aimed by Iran at Israel.”
FILE – Israel’s acting foreign minister, Israel Katz, attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Feb. 24, 2019.
“We have means of offense and defense, but this would spare us the need to earmark enormous resources on a permanent basis and for the long term in the face of such threats,” Katz told Israel’s Ynet TV.
Netanyahu’s chief rival Gantz assailed the idea as a “grave mistake,” arguing it would strip Israel of military autonomy.
“This is not what we want,” the centrist candidate told a conference in Jerusalem. “We have never asked anyone to get killed for us. We have never asked anyone to fight for us. And we have never asked anyone’s permission to defend the State of Israel.”
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation will hold an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intent to annex parts of the West Bank.
The 57-member organization tweeted earlier this week that the meeting would be held “at the request of Saudi Arabia” in Jeddah.
On Saturday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said the OIC would meet to discuss “Netanyahu’s statements on the intention to annex Jordan Valley and the illegal settlements in the West Bank by Israel.”
Jordan Valley, northern Dead Sea
Netanyahu said Tuesday that he planned to annex part of the occupied West Bank if he won re-election next week, a move that could significantly alter the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu said in a live televised address that he intended to “apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea,” a strategically important area, if he won on Sept. 17.
Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi tweeted that annexation would destroy any chance of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord:
“Netanyahu’s cheap pandering to his extremist racist base exposes his real political agenda of superimposing ‘greater Israel’ on all of historical Palestine & carrying out an ethnic cleansing agenda. All bets are off! Dangerous aggression. Perpetual conflict.”
FILE – Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh gestures as he speaks during a workshop on cooperation between Palestinians and East Asian countries, in Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank July 3, 2019.
Anticipating Netanyahu’s announcement shortly before it was made, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Israeli leader was “a prime destroyer of the peace process.”
Netanyahu’s announcement reaffirmed his pledge to annex all Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but he has said he will not act before publication of a long-awaited U.S. peace proposal and consultations with President Donald Trump.
There has been no comment from the White House, but the Trump administration has been receptive to Israel’s annexation of at least portions of the West Bank.
The Jordan Valley is a 2,400-square-kilometer (927-square-mile) area that accounts for nearly 30 percent of the territory in the West Bank, which Israel captured in a 1967 war. The Palestinians covet the valley for the eastern perimeter of a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Close race
Netanyahu is in the midst of a closely contested re-election bid. Voters will go to the polls Tuesday, five months after the country’s parliament was dissolved in a vote in which Netanyahu failed to assemble a government. Polls show he is even or slightly behind Benny Gantz, a moderate former army chief of staff.
The prime minister is also facing a series of corruption charges.
More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements considered illegal by international law. About 2.7 million Palestinians live in the territory.
While the political and economic crisis worsens in Venezuela, countries in the Western Hemisphere continue to be economically impacted by migrants seeking refuge and asylum. To help alleviate some of the burden, the United States Navy has deployed the Comfort hospital ship to assist countries like Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit visited the ship on one of its last stops, Trinidad and Tobago.
The White House said Saturday that the son of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden has been killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
The White House said in a statement, “The loss of Hamza bin Ladin (Laden) not only deprives al-Qaida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group.”
The younger bin Laden was described by the White House as “the high-ranking al-Qaida member” who was “responsible for planning and dealing with various terrorist groups.”
Some media organizations previously reported earlier this summer Hamza bin Laden had been killed about two years ago, but it was not confirmed by the administration of President Donald Trump until Saturday.
Hamza bin Laden was believed to have been in his 30s.
His father declared war against the U.S. in 1996 and was the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. U.S. Navy SEALs killed him in a raid on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday confirmed that Hamza bin Laden, the son and designated heir of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, was killed in a counter-terrorism operation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
“The loss of Hamza bin Laden not only deprives al-Qaida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group,” Trump said in a statement issued by the White House.
U.S. media reported in early August, citing intelligence officials, that the younger bin Laden had been killed sometime in the last two years in an operation that involved the United States.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper confirmed the death later last month, saying it was “his understanding” that bin Laden was dead, but Trump and other senior officials had not publicly confirmed the news.
The 15th of Osama bin Laden’s 20 children and a son of his third wife, Hamza, thought to be about 30 years old, was “emerging as a leader in the al-Qaida franchise,” the State Department said in announcing a $1 million bounty on his head in February 2019 – perhaps after his actual demise.
As leader of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and others plotted the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. U.S. Navy SEALs killed him in a raid on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.
VOA reporters Victoria Macchi and Ramon Taylor spoke with a broad sampling of migrants and asylum-seekers in early August. Many departed their home countries months before U.S. policy changes went into effect, under assumptions that no long apply. All are awaiting immigration court hearings. Here are some of their stories.
VOA reporters Victoria Macchi and Ramon Taylor spoke with a broad sampling of migrants and asylum-seekers in early August. Many departed their home countries months before U.S. policy changes went into effect, under assumptions that no long apply. All are awaiting immigration court hearings. Here are some of their stories.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now reports 380 confirmed and probable cases of lung disease associated with e-cigarette use, or vaping. The agency Friday also confirmed six deaths because of e-cigarettes.
Until recently, most teens weren’t concerned about vaping. In fact, one brand of e-cigarettes, Juul, advertised that vaping was safer than regular cigarettes, but vaping is what sent Adam Hergenreder to the hospital.
“I’m 18 years old and my lungs are like a 70-year-old’s,” he said.
Vaping products for sale are seen at a shop in New York, Sept. 10, 2019.
Many teens have no idea what chemicals they are inhaling, according to Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician.
“Every time they vape, and bring this aerosol into their lungs, it’s not water vapor,” he said, “it has chemicals, including aldehydes and special alcohols that are produced as a result of heating these solvents that are in the vaping liquids.”
In looking at 150 different e-liquids, scientists found about 200 different chemicals. The effect on the body is unknown. The chemicals are approved by a government agency, but they are approved for consumption, not for inhaling.
A study at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine found that vaping causes changes in the lungs similar to the changes found in smokers with emphysema.
Professor Robert Tarran led the study. Tarran said he found proteins called proteases in the lungs of some vapers.
“The best way to describing them are they are molecular scissors, so proteasers are proteins that cut up other proteins,” Tarran said by Skype.
Having some proteases in the lungs is normal. But Tarran says proteases increase with lung damage.
“What we found is that these protease levels were up to the same amount in vapers’ lungs as in smokers’ lungs.”
Tarran said nicotine in the vape liquid is connected to high protease levels in the lungs.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, left, and acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless speak with reporters after a meeting about vaping with President Donald Trump at the White House, Sept. 11, 2019, in Washington.
It’s too soon for studies to determine the long-term effects of vaping, or whether teens, whose lungs are still growing, are more vulnerable to bad outcomes than adults who vape.
In the meantime, the CDC says “people should consider not using e-cigarette products” while it investigates the soaring number of illnesses and the deaths.
Other medical groups are using stronger language. The American Medical Association is urging the public to avoid the use of e-cigarette products.
And the National Association of County and City Health Officials is calling for swift action to eliminate youth vaping.
