Tuesday’s top story: two more fall victim to Australia’s ‘extraordinary’ bushfires. Plus, studies find e-cigarettes are safer than smoking

Good morning, I’m Mattha Busby with today’s essential stories.

Australia bushfires: towns devastated and lives lost

Two more lives have been claimed by Australia’s bushfire crisis and more people are missing after fires tore through several towns on the east coast as skies turned black, with homes and school buildings destroyed and thousands forced to take shelter on beaches. A father and son died when fire hit the New South Wales town of Cobargo on Tuesday, bringing the nationwide death toll to 11.

‘Worst bushfire season on record’. The NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, warned the true scale of the damage would only become clear once the “extraordinary” fires were under control.

One day left to give to the Guardian in 2019 ...

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump may only have a year left in the White House. Illustration: Guardian Design

Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth. As 2020 approaches, the need for a robust, independent press has never been greater. We’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our rigorous journalism in the new year. Help us reach our goal! Contribute now.

E-cigarettes are still safer than smoking, scientists find

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators vape during a rally outside of the White House to protest the proposed vaping flavour ban in Washington DC. Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AFP via Getty Images

The rise of e-cigarette use has been celebrated for contributing to reductions in smoking in the UK during an otherwise disappointing decade for healthcare developments. A recent review in the British Medical Journal said vaping had given “tobacco cessation a boost at no cost to the public purse”. There have been scare stories but the evidence remains consistent and studies published this year showed that e-cigarettes help smokers quit and can benefit cardiovascular health.

Next steps. Proportionate regulation of e-cigarettes and effective tobacco controls must be realised throughout the world or the public health opportunity presented by e-cigarettes to many smokers will be lost, say Prof Linda Bauld and Dr Suzi Gage.

UK Ministry of Defence proposed Russian Nato membership

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, finishes a glass of vodka at a reception of heads of state in the Kremlin. Photograph: Gerard Fouet/AFP FILES/AFP via Getty Images

Declassified government papers reveal the MoD had sought to end decades of east-west antagonism and allow Russia to become an “associate member” of the North Atlantic military alliance 25 years ago. The Downing Street files also provide insights into Boris Yeltsin’s drinking habits and illustrate concern over his health. He was described as “a bad insurance risk” and a message of condolence from the prime minister was prepared in case of sudden death.

Realpolitik. “If Russian representatives were present at all Nato meetings, what effect would this have on Nato’s own decision-making?” Foreign Office officials wondered. “How much do we care about Ukraine’s or Belarus’ independence?”

Cheat sheet

Former Renault-Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has fled court-imposed bail in Japan before his trial for alleged financial misconduct, arriving in Lebanon where he said he would “escape injustice” at the hands of “a rigged Japanese justice system”.

The security team at a church in Fortworth, Texas, who killed a shooter who had shot dead two people, could not have responded as swiftly if it were not for further liberalisation of state gun laws in 2017, the NRA has claimed.

Liberal Jewish groups warned against communities being divided and criticised the police after the decision by the New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, to increase patrols in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods to combat a rise in antisemitic hate crimes .

Authorities in Chile have been urged to investigate whether the murder of a young female photographer, Albertina Martínez, after she was seen going to a protest in Santiago was linked to her reporting of violent clashes between demonstrators and police.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The World in 2050, composite: Guardian Design; The Good Brigade/Getty Images; Getty Images; Alamy Composite: Guardian Design; The Good Brigade/Getty Images; Matelly/Getty Images/Cultura RF; Steve Allen/Alamy; merteren/Getty Images

The future family: artificial wombs, robot carers and single fathers by choice

Although predictions by the Guardian in 2004 that it would be “very hard” to talk about a “typical family” by now have fallen flat, technology and economics could transform our understanding of the family in the coming years.

Conquistador Hernan Cortés still looms large on both sides of Atlantic

About 500 years after the Spanish began their conquest of Latin America, Cortés’s enduring legacy is being invoked in both Mexico and Spain by politicians seeking to use the divisive figure for their own purposes. How will he be remembered in another five centuries?

Furry, cute and drooling herpes: what to do with Florida’s monkeys?

Hundreds of wild monkeys infected with herpes await visitors to Florida’s beautiful Silver Springs state park. The troublesome non-native macaques also prey on birds nests. The state is in a lose-lose position, and has advised people not to feed them, as Adam Gabbatt reports.

How voter purging tactic could help Republicans win in 2020

Alarm over the way people are aggressively taken off voter rolls is growing after Wisconsin and Georgia dubiously removed hundreds of thousands of people and one of Trump’s reelection advisers told of an “aggressive” suppression programme.

Opinion

31 December comes through like a party guest who bursts in after everyone has left, demands that the music is turned back up, then throws up, writes Hamilton Nolan, who argues that we do’t need another holiday after Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Mostly, New Year’s Eve is about getting wasted. Because I do not drink, I find this a boring pretext for a national holiday … Tomorrow morning, I will wake up refreshed.

Sport

Inter Miami, David Beckham’s new MLS team, has its first coach. Uruguayan Diego Alonso, twice-winner of the Concacaf Champions League, said he was excited to be part of a “winning project” before the season curtain-raiser on 1 March.

Megan Rapinhoe, the Guardian’s footballer of the year, has told of her responsibility to make the world a better place and dismantle white privilege as she recalled incurring the president’s wrath before the USA’s World Cup triumph this year.

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