January 24, 2018 The Skanner Page 9
Thorny Global Issues Abound a Year Into
Trump Presidency
AP correspondents take stock of
volatile, unprecedented year in
global politics
ith a sharp de-
parture from
years
and
sometimes
decades of U.S. foreign
policy, President Donald
Trump has made a seis-
mic global impact during
his first year in office.
It has been delivered
with his own brand of
bombast and occasional
threats.
Contentious
issues
have always existed, es-
pecially in conflict-rid-
den or volatile countries,
but has he improved
or worsened matters?
Twelve months into his
presidency, Associated
Press
correspondents
take stock:
W
RUSSIA
Trump repeatedly de-
clared in his campaign
that he would improve
relations with Russia
but was never specific.
A year into his presiden-
cy, it’s no clearer. Mos-
cow and Washington
are at odds over issues
ranging from North Ko-
rea to Ukraine, despite
Trump’s open admira-
tion of President Vladi-
mir Putin.
Russian officials had
high hopes that Trump
would move to abandon
or reduce the sanctions
that the United States im-
posed over Russia’s an-
nexation of Crimea and
its support for separat-
ists in eastern Ukraine.
Instead, Trump ap-
proved selling lethal
weapons to Ukraine
for the fight against the
rebels, he appointed a
Russia hawk as Washing-
ton’s envoy for Ukraine’s
peace process, and his
U.N. ambassador, Nik-
ki Haley, declared that
the Crimea sanctions
wouldn’t be lifted un-
less the peninsula is re-
turned to Ukraine.
Trump even signed
legislation
imposing
new sanctions on Russia
— unwillingly, but effec-
tively forced to by the
measure’s near-unani-
mous Senate approval.
Publicly, the Kremlin
contends Trump is hog-
tied by suspicions of Rus-
sia held over from the
Barack Obama era and by
hysteria over allegations
that Moscow meddled in
the 2016 election and that
Trump and Russia had
colluded.
Trump himself has
criticized Russia, saying
Moscow “seeks to chal-
lenge American values,
influence and wealth,”
and complaining he is
not satisfied with Rus-
sia’s role in easing ten-
sions over North Korea’s
nuclear and missile pro-
grams.
Russia contends the
U.S. wants to undermine
the deal limiting Iran’s
nuclear program and
that Washington clan-
destinely supports Is-
lamic fighters in Syria.
Although
Trump
has a taste for defying
conventional
political
wisdom, his potential
moves toward Russia
appear constricted un-
til the investigation into
his campaign’s dealings
with Russia concludes
and leaves him untar-
nished. While the probe
continues, the Kremlin is
edging from quiet disap-
pointment into needling
suggestions of U.S. weak-
ness.
“Will they show good
will? Will they gather
courage, exercise com-
mon sense?” Putin said.
ASIA
Asia was one of
Trump’s punching bags
during his election cam-
paign. Chinese and Jap-
anese exports were de-
stroying U.S. jobs. South
Korea and Japan weren’t
paying enough for U.S.
troops defending their
countries.
Then came Kim Jong
Un.
Two weeks before
Trump took office, the
leader of North Korea de-
clared in a New Year’s ad-
dress that preparations
for an intercontinental
ballistic missile were in
“the final stage.” Trump
tweeted in response:
“North Korea just stated
that it is in the final stag-
es of developing a nu-
clear weapon capable of
reaching parts of the U.S.
It won’t happen!”
Both
sides
traded
threats and insults, and
North Korea conducted
an underground nucle-
ar test and three ICBM
launches that demon-
strated at least a theoret-
ical ability to reach the
U.S.
Seeking China’s help
on isolating North Korea
through economic sanc-
tions, Trump backed off
a threat to label China a
currency manipulator.
He was off-and-on con-
ciliatory on trade during
an extended visit to Asia
in November, and China
said it would lift restric-
By Matthew Perrone
AP Health Writer
AP PHOTO/NASSER NASSER, FILE
By The Associated Press
News
Anti-Smoking Plan May
Kill Cigarettes — and
Save Big Tobacco
In this Dec. 14, 2017 file photo, Palestinian protesters burn a poster
with a picture of U.S. President Donald Trump during clashes with
Israeli troops following protests against Trump’s decision to recognize
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Trump promised to pursue “the ultimate deal” - an agreement to
end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A year later, he has made little
headway and his hoped-for peace push appears to be in tatters. In
December, he upended decades of policy by recognizing Jerusalem
as Israel’s capital. The move, seen as siding with Israel, set off weeks
of unrest and prompted the Palestinians to declare Trump unfit to
mediate peace.
tions on foreign invest-
ment in its banks and
other financial institu-
tions.
As his second year in
office dawns, however,
Trump appears to be
moving steadily toward
raising tariffs or re-
stricting imports to try
to force China to take
steps to narrow its trade
surplus with the United
States.
Kim began the year
with his own conciliato-
ry note: sending a delega-
tion to next month’s Win-
ter Olympics in South
Korea. But he also said in
a Jan. 1 speech that North
Korea’s nuclear and mis-
sile tests have achieved a
powerful deterrent that
“nothing can reverse.”
SYRIA, IRAQ AND
THE ISLAMIC STATE
Trump can claim credit
for the virtual defeat of
the Islamic State group
in Iraq and Syria on his
watch. He largely con-
tinued Obama’s anti-IS
strategy and intensi-
fied it. U.S. troop levels
were increased in both
countries, coalition com-
manders got more au-
See TRUMP on page 10
WASHINGTON (AP)
— Imagine if cigarettes
were no longer addic-
tive and smoking itself
became almost obso-
lete; only a tiny seg-
ment of Americans still
lit up. That’s the goal of
an unprecedented an-
ti-smoking plan being
carefully fashioned by
U.S. health officials.
But the proposal from
the Food and Drug
Administration could
have another unexpect-
ed effect: opening the
door for companies to
sell a new generation
of alternative tobacco
products, allowing the
industry to survive —
even thrive — for gen-
erations to come.
The plan puts the
FDA at the center of a
long-standing debate
over so-called “re-
duced-risk” products,
such as e-cigarettes,
and
whether
they
should have a role in
anti-smoking efforts,
which have long fo-
cused exclusively on
getting smokers to quit.
“This is the single
most controversial —
and frankly, divisive —
issue I’ve seen in my 40
years studying tobac-
co control policy,” said
Kenneth Warner, pro-
fessor emeritus at Uni-
versity of Michigan’s
school of public health.
The FDA plan is two-
fold: drastically cut
nicotine levels in ciga-
rettes so that they are
essentially non-addic-
tive. For those who can’t
or won’t quit, allow low-
er-risk products that
deliver nicotine with-
out the deadly effects of
traditional cigarettes.
This month the gov-
ernment
effort
is
poised to take off. The
FDA is expected to soon
begin what will likely
be a years-long process
to control nicotine in
cigarettes. And next
week, the agency will
hold a public meeting
on a closely watched
cigarette
alternative
from Philip Morris In-
ternational, which, if
granted FDA clearance,
could launch as early as
February.
The product, called
iQOS
(pronounced
EYE-kose), is a penlike
device that heats Marl-
boro-branded
tobac-
co but stops short of
burning it, an approach
that Philip Morris says
reduces exposure to
tar and other toxic by-
See TOBACCO on page 11