Hearing starts for Huawei exec
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The first stage of an extradition hearing for a senior executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei started in a Vancouver courtroom Monday, a case that has infuriated Beijing, caused a diplomatic uproar between China and Canada and complicated highstakes trade talks between China and the United States.
Canada’s arrest of chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, in late 2018 at America’s request enraged Beijing to the point it detained two Canadians in apparent retaliation.
Huawei represents China’s progress in becoming a technological power and has been a subject of U.S. security concerns for years. Beijing views Ms. Meng’s case as an attempt to contain China’s rise.
“Our government has been clear. We are a rule of law country and we honor our extradition treaty commitments,” Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said at a Cabinet retreat in Manitoba.
China’s foreign ministry on Monday accused the United States and Canada of violating Ms. Meng’s rights and called for her release.
“It is completely a serious political incident,” said a ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang.
Washington accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It says Ms. Meng, 47, committed fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company’s business dealings in Iran.
Huge hail in Australia
Severe heat and dry skies have given way to strong thunderstorms in the country’s southeast, where giant hailstones destroyed cars.
Large hailstones have rained down on Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra over the past two days, destroying vehicles, punching holes in roofs and blanketing the lawn in front of Parliament.
Suddenly, a season of suffocating heat, bone-dry skies and voracious fires has given way in southeastern Australia to widespread thunderstorms. Skies once darkened by smoke are now brooding with clouds and rain — at least for a few days.
Hailstones were as large as baseballs. Wind gusts topped 70 mph. In some areas, an inch of rain fell in just 30 minutes. A few places experienced flash flooding. Thousands of people were left without power.
But other images from the region, including a wall of dust that swept rural New South Wales, offered a dramatic reminder that Australia’s drought — and the devastating wildfires it has fed — are far from over.
Yemen death toll climbs
AL MUKALLA, Yemen — The death toll in a drone and missile attack on a government military training base in central Yemen rose to at least 76 on Sunday, representing an escalation bound to complicate international efforts to end the country’s prolonged war.
The attack targeted soldiers gathered Saturday near a mosque in the central province of Mareb before evening prayers. Abdu Abdullah Majali, a spokesman for the Yemeni Army, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, provided the new death toll and said at least 81 people were wounded.
But Yemen’s foreign minister, Mohammed al-Hadrami, gave a higher toll, saying more than 100 people were killed. He called it a “cowardly terrorist act that violates all religious and human customs and values” in a statement on his ministry’s Twitter feed.