Global Smoking Rates Fall For First Time, But Rise For Kids, Africa – Report

Smoking rates have declined globally for the first time on record, according to a new report on tobacco use from a public health campaign group and U.S. academics.

However, the figures from the Tobacco Atlas report – described as a potential tipping point by the authors – also mask growing numbers of smokers in parts of the world, as well as increased tobacco use among young teenagers in almost half of the countries surveyed.

Globally, there are 1.1 billion smokers and 200 million more people who use other tobacco products, the report from Vital Strategies and the Tobacconomics team at the University of Illinois at Chicago found.

That represented a decline in smoking rates from 22.6 per cent of people in 2007 to 19.6 per cent in 2019, they said, the first since the report began in 2002.

However, population growth in Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific regions meant there were still increasing numbers of smokers in a number of areas, the report said. Moreover, prevalence is rising among adults in at least 10 countries in Africa, as well as among young people.

“The industry is still preying on emerging economies in ways that will lock in harms for a generation or more,” said Jeffrey Drope, public health professor at the University of Illinois and a report author.

Children were also being targeted in a number of countries, resulting in a rise in smoking among teenagers aged 13-15 in 63 of 135 countries surveyed, he said. Around 50 million in this age group, both boys and girls, now used tobacco products, he said, and the impact of new products like e-cigarettes and flavoured products was not yet fully understood.

Falling prevalence globally was a sign of the effectiveness of strong tobacco control measures, such as increased taxes, Drope added, but many lower-income countries did not have tough enough restrictions in place.

The data also shows tobacco use caused almost 8.7 million deaths worldwide in 2019, and approximately $2 trillion in economic damage. While more than half of the deaths are currently in high-income countries, this is expected to change if cigarette use continues to rise in lower-income areas.

The report also suggests that the tobacco industry is targeting black people in the United States with menthol cigarette promotion. The authors backed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s plan to ban their sale.

Source: REUTERS

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FBI Uncover Secret Tunnel Linking Mexico To California Filled With $100,000,000 Worth of Cocaine

The FBI has discovered a secret underground drug-smuggling tunnel  linking California and Mexico. The tunnel, which is 1,774ft long had a rail track, ventilation and electricity and starts from Tijuana, Mexico, to  a warehouse in the Otay Mesa district of San Diego, California.

Following a surveillance operation by Federal agents, nearly two tonnes of cocaine with a street value of nearly $100 million have been recovered.

The tunnel was discovered by Federal agents who were spying on a house known to be used by a criminal gang where 61lbs of cocaine had previously been stashed.

Agents followed the alleged gang members Luz de Luna Olmos and Vanessa Ramirez from the home to a tool shop and then back and forth from the warehouse.

They were taken into custody along with Juan Cruz, Adrian Enriquez and Mario Jaramillo and were due to face court on Monday.

US Attorney Randy Grossman said: ”There is no more light at the end of this narco-tunnel. ‘We will take down every subterranean smuggling route we find to keep illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.’

At least 90 drug tunnels have been discovered in the southern district of California since 1993, with the last one busted in March 2020.

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Canada To Ban Huawei/ZTE 5G Equipment, Joining Five Eyes Allies

Canada on Thursday said it plans to ban the use of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (HWT.UL) and ZTE Corp (000063.SZ) 5G gear to protect national security, joining the rest of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network.

“We intend to exclude Huawei and ZTE from our 5G networks,” Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told reporters in Ottawa. “Providers who already have this equipment installed will be required to cease its use and remove it under the plans we’re announcing today.”

Champagne added that companies will be required to remove their 5G gear by June, 2024, would not be reimbursed. Companies using their 4G equipment must be removed by the end of 2027.

The decision – widely expected – had been delayed amid diplomatic tensions with China. The rest of the Five Eyes network – which consists of Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand – has already banned the equipment.

In September 2018, Canada first announced it would review the possible threats to national security in adopting Huawei equipment.

Then in December of the same year, Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on a U.S. warrant, creating a long-running dispute with China that finally ended last September with Meng’s release.

After Meng’s arrest, two Canadians were arrested by Beijing and accused of espionage. The two men were released the same day as Meng. read more

Now diplomatic tensions between China and Canada have eased somewhat. On Wednesday, China removed a three-year restriction on imports of Canadian canola seed, reversing what was considered a retaliatory move for Meng’s arrest. read more

Thursday’s decision comes after telecom companies in Canada already opted to use other companies’ 5G hardware.

China expressed opposition to this decision. “We will take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate interests of Chinese firms,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing on Friday.

A spokesperson for China’s embassy in Canada said the alleged security concerns were a “pretext for political manipulation” and accused Canada of working with the United States to suppress Chinese companies.

Alykhan Velshi, vice president of corporate affairs for Huawei in Canada, said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp that the company is still waiting to hear “what sort of national security threats they think Huawei poses”.

Velshi said that Huawei still has 1,500 employees in Canada, mostly in research and development, and sold products like mobile phones, and would continue to do so.

ZTE did not immediately responded to requests for comment.

In 2020, Bell Canada (BCE.TO) and rival Telus Corp (T.TO) – two of the biggest wireless providers – teamed up with Sweden’s Ericsson (ERICb.ST) and Finland’s Nokia Oyj (NOKIA.HE) to build fifth-generation (5G) telecoms networks, ditching Huawei for the project despite using Huawei 4G gear.

In addition to the ban, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Canada would draft new legislation to protect critical financial, telecommunications, energy and transport infrastructure from cyber threats.

Source: REUTERS

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Man Traffics His Wife to Mali For Prostitution And Sells Her 2-Year-Old Child

 NIGERIA: A 36 years old man Kingsley Essien has been arrested by men of Ogun state police command for allegedly trafficking his wife to Mali for prostitution and subsequently selling her 2-year-old son at the rate of N600,000.

A statement released by DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, spokesperson of the state polie command, says the suspect was arrested following the report lodged at Agbara divisional headquarters by his wife, Bright Essien, who reported that sometime in October 2021, her husband, Kingsley Essien, informed her that he had secured a job for her in Bamako Mali, and that he has assisted many people to that country for greener pastures before.

”She explained further that being her husband, she didn’t suspect any foul play until she got to Mali only to discover that she has been sold to human trafficker cartel headed by a woman at the rate of One million four hundred thousand naira. While in Mali, she was forced into prostitution, but later found her way to Nigeria embassy in Bamako where she was assisted back to Nigeria.

On getting to Nigeria, she discovered that her two years old son in care of her husband is nowhere to be found.

Upon the report, the DPO Agbara division, SP Abiodun Salau detailed his detectives to go after the suspect, and he was eventually arrested.”Oyeyemi said

The PRO added that on interrogation, the suspect confessed to the committing the crime and said he sold the two year old son to somebody at the rate of six hundred thousand naira.

Oyeyemi added that the commissioner of police, CP Lanre Bankole, has ordered the transfer of the suspect to anti human trafficking and child labour unit of the state criminal investigation and intelligence department for discreet investigation.

He equally ordered that the buyer of the son must be traced and arrested in order to recover the stolen child.

DNT News

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Twitter To Tackle Ukraine Conflict Misinformation With Warning Labels

 Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) will begin placing warning notices in front of some misleading content regarding the conflict in Ukraine and limit the spread of claims debunked by humanitarian groups or other credible sources, the social media company said on Thursday.

The step-up against misinformation around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation,” is part of a new policy that outlines how Twitter will approach misinformation during crises.

Social media platforms have faced increasing scrutiny over how they determine and handle misinformation. Twitter has agreed to sell itself to Tesla (TSLA.O)Chief Executive Elon Musk, who has said he believes the site should be a platform of free speech.

The new warning notices will alert users that a tweet has violated Twitter’s rules, but still allow people to view and comment. The platform will not amplify or recommend such tweets and retweeting will also be disabled.

The approach could be “a more effective way to intervene to prevent harm, while still preserving and protecting speech on Twitter,” said Yoel Roth, head of safety and integrity at Twitter, during a call with reporters.

The company will prioritize adding labels to misleading tweets from high-profile accounts such as verified users or official government profiles. It will also prioritize content that could cause harm to people on the ground.

Twitter said it defines crises as situations where there is a widespread threat to life, physical safety, health or basic subsistence. It said the policy would initially focus on international armed conflicts but is also intended for events like mass shootings or natural disasters.

“While the timeline for this work began before the war in Ukraine broke out, the need for this policy came into even clearer focus as the conflict in Ukraine unfolded,” said Roth.

Source: REUTERS

 

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Biden has an eye on China as he heads to South Korea, Japan

 President Joe Biden departs on a six-day trip to South Korea and Japan aiming to build rapport with the two nations’ leaders while also sending an unmistakable message to China: Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine should give Beijing pause about its own saber-rattling in the Pacific.

Biden departs Thursday and is set to meet newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Their talks will touch on trade, increasing resilience in the global supply chain, growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program and the explosive spread of COVID-19 in that country.

While in Japan, Biden will also meet with fellow leaders of the Indo-Pacific strategic alliance known as the Quad, a group that includes Australia, India and Japan.

The U.S. under Biden has forged a united front with democratic allies that has combined their economic heft to make Russia pay a price for its invasion of Ukraine. That alliance includes South Korea and Japan. But even as Biden is to be feted by Yoon at a state dinner and hold intimate conversations with Kishida, the U.S. president knows those relationships need to be deepened if they’re to serve as a counterweight to China’s ambitions.

“We think this trip is going to put on full display President Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy and then it will show in living color, the United States can at once lead the free world in responding to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and that at the same time chart a course for effective, principled American leadership and engagement in a region that will define much of the future of the 21st century,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

The war in eastern Europe has created a sense of urgency about China among major U.S. allies in the Pacific. Many have come to see the moment as their own existential crisis — one in which it’s critical to show China it should not try to seize contested territory through military action.

Biden’s overseas travel comes as he faces strong domestic headwinds: an infant formula shortage, budget-busting inflation, a rising number of COVID-19 infections, and increasing impatience among a Democratic base bracing for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that is likely to result in a roll back of abortion rights.

The conundrums Biden faces in Asia are no less daunting.

China’s military assertiveness has grown over the course of Biden’s presidency, with its provocative actions frequently putting the region on edge.

Last month, China held military drills around Taiwan after a group of U.S. lawmakers arrived for talks on the self-governed island. Late last year China stepped up sorties into Taiwan’s air space. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state, but Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve unification.

Japan has reported frequent intrusions by China’s military vessels into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The uninhabited islets are controlled by Japan but claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.

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Turkey threatens to block Finnish and Swedish NATO membership as tensions rise

 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has threatened to block Finland and Sweden from joining NATO, urged the alliance’s members on Wednesday to “respect” Ankara’s concerns about the two countries, which Turkey accuses of harbouring terrorists.

Erdogan was due to meet with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken today.

Before the meeting, Erdogan accused Stockholm of providing safe haven to members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) designated as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

For the United States and its NATO partners, there is a lot at stake: the opportunity to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by strengthening and expanding the alliance.

Finland and Sweden on Wednesday submitted a joint application to join NATO as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forces a dramatic reappraisal of security in Europe.

“We asked them to extradite 30 terrorists but they refused to do so,” Erdogan claimed.

“You will not send back the terrorists to us and then ask our support for your NATO membership … We cannot say ‘yes’ to make this security organisation being lacking in security.”

Sweden has also imposed embargoes on arms sales to Turkey since 2019 over Ankara’s invasion of Syria.

“We are sensitive about protecting our borders against attacks from terror organisations,” Erdogan added, calling on NATO allies to support Turkey’s “legitimate” Syria operations,  or at least not to stand in Turkey’s way.

The Turkish leader also said he was not convinced by Swedish or Finnish delegations’ request to visit Ankara for consultations.

In an opinion piece in the hardline Daily Sabah newspaper, Director of Foreign Policy Studies at SETA Foundation, Muhittin Ataman, wrote that the issue of Sweden and Finland refusing to extradite PKK members is not the only issue.

Initially, Turkey didn’t oppose NATO’s eastward expansion, he explained.

As well as sheltering members of the Kurdish PKK group, designated by Ankara as ‘terrorists,’ Sweden and Finland also house several members of the Gülen movement, led by religious leader Muhammed Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish Islamic scholar and preacher whom Erdogan accuses of attempting to stage the 2016 military coup.

Meanwhile, the 1980 entry  of Ankara’s arch enemy Greece into NATO in 1980 was always difficult for Turkey.

“If NATO’s policies begin to create a negative atmosphere for Turkey, Ankara will feel obliged to take necessary measures. Other NATO members should understand Turkey’s concern and position,” says Ataman.

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