Monday Morning Briefing: High-nicotine e-cigarettes flood market despite FDA

Highlights

Special Report: Reuters investigates how an influx of knock-off vaping devices hit the shelves despite FDA restrictions on sales without regulatory review. Health advocates fear Juul and other vaping devices are triggering a new wave of teenage nicotine addiction.

The university professor who accused Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, of sexual assault will testify before a Senate panel on Thursday about her allegation, her lawyers and the committee said on Sunday.

With the Chinese billionaire Richard Liu at her Minneapolis area apartment, a 21-year-old University of Minnesota student sent a WeChat message to a friend in the middle of the night. She wrote that Liu had forced her to have sex with him.

United Nations

U.S. and Canadian officials trying to reach a deal on NAFTA are “very likely” to hold informal talks on the sidelines of a major U.N. meeting in the next few days, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

 

“I am sure that’s going to be the most watched Security Council meeting ever,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told reporters. (Ratings again?) https://reut.rs/2xAB4H8 via ⁦@michellenichols⁩

10:45 PM - Sep 23, 2018

World

Hong Kong authorities formally banned a group promoting independence from China - the first outlawing of a political organization since Britain handed its former colony back to Chinese rule in 1997.

The deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned U.S. and Israeli leaders to expect a “devastating” response from Tehran, accusing them of involvement in an attack on a military parade in the city of Ahvaz.

Dozens of newspapers, radio and television stations critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orban have changed hands in the past four years. Some subsequently closed down, while others quickly and dramatically changed their tune.

Commentary: “The brute facts of poverty, or worse – starvation, wars, even slavery – impose themselves upon the world, more urgently than before,” writes columnist John Lloyd. At the same time, it has become clear that ‘The time for large humanitarian gestures, and for large interventions in the name of humanitarian goals – as in the former Yugoslavia, in Iraq and in Libya – is over.’

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Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two @Reuters journalists, have been imprisoned in Myanmar since Dec. 12, 2017. Follow the case:: https://reut.rs/2yPnwus

7:35 AM - SEP 24, 2018

Business

Comcast overreaches for Sky with $40 bln knockout

Comcast has overreached in its pursuit of Sky. The U.S. cable giant prevailed over Twenty-First Century Fox on Saturday, winning a dramatic one-day auction with an offer that values the UK broadcaster at 30.6 billion pounds ($40 billion). For Chief Executive Brian Roberts, it’s a huge bet on overseas growth for a company that cannot get much larger at home, writes Peter Thal Larsen for Breakingviews.

3 min read

Michael Kors to take control of Italy's Versace - sources

U.S. fashion group Michael Kors Holdings has agreed to take control of Italy’s Versace, three sources familiar with the matter said, adding that an official announcement would be made this week.

3 min read

Tariffs

China says U.S. trying to force it to submit on trade as new tariffs kick in

The United States and China imposed fresh tariffs on each other’s goods as the world’s biggest economies showed no signs of backing down from an increasingly bitter trade dispute that is expected to knock global economic growth.

6 min read

Home modems, routers hit by U.S. China tariffs as 'smart' tech goods escape

U.S. tariffs that hit some $200 billion worth of Chinese products spare many high-profile consumer technology items such as “smart” watches and speakers, but the less flashy home modems, routers and internet gateways that make them work weren’t so lucky.

5 Min Read

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