AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EST

Trump’s plan to curb teen vaping exempts some flavours

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials will begin cracking down on most flavoured e-cigarettes that are popular with underage teenagers, but their plan includes major exceptions that benefit vaping manufacturers, retailers and adults who use the nicotine-delivery devices.

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will prohibit fruit, candy, mint and dessert flavours from small, cartridge-based e-cigarettes favoured by high school and middle school students. But menthol and tobacco-flavoured e-cigarettes will be allowed to remain on the market.

The targeted flavour ban will also entirely exempt large, tank-based vaping devices, which are primarily sold in vape shops that cater to adult smokers.

Together, the two exemptions represent a significant retreat from President Donald Trump’s original plan announced four months ago, which would have banned all vaping flavours — including menthol — from all types of e-cigarettes. The new policy will spare a significant portion of the multibillion-dollar vaping market. And the changes mark a major victory for thousands of vape shop owners who sell the tank-based systems, which allow users to mix customized nicotine flavours.

Vape shop owners expressed relief following the announcement.

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Iran’s Gen. Soleimani killed in airstrike at Baghdad airport

Baghdad (AP) — Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, was killed in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport Friday, Iraqi television and three Iraqi officials said.

The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, the officials said.

Their deaths are a potential turning point in the Middle East and are expected to draw severe retaliation from Iran and the forces it backs in the Middle East against Israel and American interests.

The PMF blamed the United States for an attack at Baghdad International Airport Friday.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. or Iran.

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Attack on US Embassy exposes widening US-Iraq divide on Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) — The New Year’s Eve attack on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad has exposed a deepening divide between the United States and Iraq over Iran’s role there, even as the Pentagon embarks on a more aggressive mission to counter Iranian influence across the Mideast.

“The game has changed,” Defence Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday, telling reporters that violent acts by Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq — including a rocket attack on Dec. 27 that killed one American — will be met with U.S. military force. The U.S. had retaliated by launching air strikes that killed 25 fighters of an Iran-back militia.

In a reflection of that tougher stance, upwards of 700 U.S. Army paratroopers arrived in Kuwait on Wednesday from their base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Esper said they are “defensive support” that can be used if there is more trouble in Baghdad or elsewhere in the region. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said additional forces are on alert to deploy, although he said no decision has been made yet to augment the battalion of paratroopers.

Milley, who has combat experience in Iraq, said Iraqi security forces are capable of preventing Iran-backed groups from threatening U.S. interests in Iraq.

“It’s a question of political will,” he said, alluding to the central issue of whether Iraq will choose to sustain its U.S. partnership, which many Iraqis see as an infringement on their sovereignty.

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Video edited to suggest Biden made racist remark

A video of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that was selectively edited to falsely suggest he made racist remarks during a recent speech made the rounds Thursday on social media, raking in more than a million views on one tweet alone.

Experts have been warning about the dangers of selectively edited videos being used as a misinformation tactic ahead of the 2020 presidential election. They are easier to make and do not require the sophisticated technology needed to produce deepfake videos, which are fabricated to look realistic.

In the edited clip, which was less than 20 seconds long, Biden says, “Our culture is not imported from some African nation or some Asian nation.” Social media users paired the video with comments like “It’s almost like Joe Biden is a Racist.” Posts with the video surfaced across social media platforms on Wednesday.

The clip was taken from ABC News coverage of Biden speaking for more than an hour in Derry, New Hampshire, on Dec. 30, 2019. A review of the full video shows that Biden was commenting on changing the culture around violence against women. In discussing the difficulty victims face reporting sexual assault on college campuses, he said, “Folks, this is about changing the culture, our culture, our culture, it’s not imported from some African nation or some Asian nation. It is our English jurisprudential culture, our European culture that says it is all right.”

Earlier in the discussion, Biden, when asked about his work with women and sexual assault victims, talked about the need to change an entrenched “cultural problem,” that dates back centuries, noting that in the 1300s many wives were being beaten to death by their husbands without repercussions.

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Backlog of toxic Superfund cleanups grows under Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has built up the biggest backlog of unfunded toxic Superfund cleanup projects in at least 15 years, nearly triple the number that were stalled for lack of money in the Obama era, according to 2019 figures quietly released by the Environmental Protection Agency over the winter holidays.

The accumulation of Superfund projects that are ready to go except for money comes as the Trump administration routinely proposes funding cuts for Superfund and for the EPA in general. The four-decade-old Superfund program is meant to tackle some of the most heavily contaminated sites in the U.S. and Trump has declared it a priority even while seeking to shrink its budget.

“There hasn’t been a sense of urgency,” said Violet Donoghue, who has lived for 31 years on Bon Brae Street in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Toxic PCBs have poisoned some local soil, water and fish at nearby Lake St. Clair, and the neighbourhood is one of the 34 Superfund sites where cleanup projects languished for lack of money in 2019.

“I feel many people have been harmed, but that’s only my opinion,” Donoghue said. She said the last word from the EPA was that soil would be removed from the front of her house. “Now when they say they’re cleaning it, I say, ‘OK, give me the date,'” she said.

The unfunded projects are in 17 states and Puerto Rico. They range from abandoned mines that discharged heavy metals and arsenic in the West to an old wood pulp site in Mississippi and a defunct dry cleaner that released toxic solvents in North Carolina.

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Lebanon receives Interpol notice for ex-Nissan fugitive

BEIRUT (AP) — Interpol issued a wanted notice Thursday for former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon rather than face trial on financial misconduct charges in a dramatic escape that has confounded and embarrassed authorities.

Lebanese Justice Minister Albert Serhan told The Associated Press in an interview that Lebanon “will carry out its duties,” suggesting for the first time that the automotive titan may be brought in for questioning. But he said Ghosn entered the country on a legal passport, and he appeared to cast doubt on the possibility Lebanon would hand Ghosn over to Japan.

The Interpol notice is the latest twist in Ghosn’s daring escape, which spanned three continents and involved private planes, multiple passports and international intrigue. Turkey made several arrests Thursday as part of an investigation into how he passed through the country.

Ghosn’s arrival in Lebanon jolted the nation, already in the midst of a crippling political impasse and its worst economic crisis in decades.

Lebanon must now decide how to deal with the Interpol-issued Red Notice, which is a non-binding request to law enforcement agencies worldwide that they locate and provisionally arrest a fugitive. A Red Notice is not an arrest warrant and does not require Lebanon to arrest Ghosn.

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Poll: White evangelicals distinct on abortion, LGBT policy

White evangelical Protestants stand noticeably apart from other religious people on abortion restrictions and LGBT discrimination protections, two of the most politically divisive issues at play in the 2020 presidential election, according to a new poll.

The findings point to an evangelical Protestant constituency that’s more firmly aligned with President Donald Trump’s agenda than other Americans of faith. White evangelicals were also more likely than members of other faiths to say religion should have at least some influence on policymaking.

Rev. Franklin Graham, son of the late Rev. Billy Graham and one of Trump’s most stalwart evangelical allies, pointed to the president’s record on abortion as a key driver of support from his religious community.

“I don’t think evangelicals are united on every position the president takes or says, but they do recognize he is the most pro-life-friendly president in modern history,” Graham said in a recent interview. “He has appointed conservative judges that will affect my children and grandchildren’s lives, long after he’s gone.”

Asked about significant restrictions that would make abortion illegal except in cases of rape, incest or to threats to a mother’s life, 67% of white evangelical Protestants responded in support. Those abortion limits drew 39% support from white mainline Protestants, 33% support from nonwhite Protestants, 45% support from Catholics and 37% of all Americans, according to the poll of more than 1,000 American adults from various faith backgrounds conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

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US starts sending asylum seekers across Arizona border

PHOENIX (AP) — The U.S. government on Thursday began sending asylum-seekers back to Nogales, Mexico, to await court hearings that will be scheduled roughly 350 miles (563 kilometres) away in Juarez, Mexico.

Authorities are expanding a program known as Remain in Mexico that requires tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait out their immigration court hearings in Mexico. Until this week, the government was driving some asylum seekers from Nogales, Arizona, to El Paso, Texas, so they could be returned to Juarez.

Now, asylum-seekers will have to find their own way through dangerous Mexican border roads.

About 30 asylum seekers were sent to Nogales, Mexico, on Thursday, said Gilda Loureiro, director of the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora.

Loureiro said the migrants hadn’t made it to the shelter yet but that it was prepared and has a capacity of about 400.

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5 crew members feared dead after Alaska fishing boat sinks

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Five fishermen missing after a crab boat sank in the frigid waters off Alaska were feared dead after authorities called off a search for those working in the one of the most dangerous industries in the U.S.

Two other crew members were rescued after the disaster Tuesday, telling authorities they were the only ones who made it into a life raft, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Dean Gribble Jr., who’s appeared on the Discovery Channel documentary series “Deadliest Catch,” and John Lawler suffered hypothermia but have been released from a hospital.

The Coast Guard said it used helicopters, planes and a boat to look for the missing crew members for 20 hours before ending the search late Wednesday because they were not likely to have survived.

The agency didn’t release any details Thursday on what caused the boat to sink, saying that talking to the survivors is part of the investigation.

The boat, named the Scandies Rose, was carrying a load of crabbing pots for the start of the winter season, Dan Mattsen, a partner in the vessel managed by Seattle-Based Mattsen Management, told the Seattle Times.

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Co-creator defends suspected UAE spying app called ToTok

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — If the popular ToTok video and voice calling app is a spying tool of the United Arab Emirates, that’s news to its co-creator.

Giacomo Ziani defended his work in an interview with The Associated Press and said he had no knowledge that people and companies linked to the project had ties to the country’s intelligence apparatus, despite a recent report in The New York Times.

Millions downloaded the ToTok app during the several months it was available in the Apple and Google stores. Its surge in popularity was likely driven by the fact that it allowed users to make internet calls that have long been banned in the UAE, a U.S.-allied nation where the largest city is Dubai.

The ban means Apple iPhones and computers sold in the UAE do not carry Apple’s FaceTime calling app. Calls on Skype, WhatsApp and other similar programs do not work.

Ziani, a 32-year-old native of Venice, Italy, said ToTok won rapid approval from UAE telecommunications regulators, something long sought by established competitors that remain banned. He attributed that decision to the monopoly on the telecom market held by two companies that are majority-owned by the government. ToTok’s small market share, he said, would not cut as deeply into their business as major firms if allowed access.

The Associated Press