NEWS OF THE DAY
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Huawei exec: A Canadian judge ruled Wednesday the U.S. extradition case against a senior Huawei executive can proceed to the next stage, a decision that is expected to further harm relations between China and Canada. The Chinese embassy in Ottawa later warned Canada to drop the case and accused the United States of trying to bring down the Chinese tech giant. Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder and chief financial officer of the company, at Vancouver’s airport in late 2018. The U.S. wants her extradited to face fraud charges. The U.S. accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It says Meng, 48, committed fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company’s business dealings in Iran.
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Venezuelan accused: U.S. authorities filed charges Wednesday against a former Venezuelan lawmaker linked with President Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of narcoterrorism and weapons crimes. Federal prosecutors in New York alleged Adel El Zabayar participated with Maduro and other top Venezuelan officials as a key player in a scheme to flood the United States with tons of cocaine. It follows a similar indictment of Maduro two months ago that U.S. authorities used to announce a $15 million reward for the socialist leader’s arrest. The Trump administration has increased pressure to oust Maduro. El Zabayar, 56, remains out of U.S. custody and he could not immediately be reached for comment. Venezuelan officials did not immediately comment on the charges.
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Brexit setback: The United Kingdom’s chief negotiator with the European Union said Wednesday it’s looking increasingly unlikely the two sides will agree — as hoped — on the terms of access to each other’s waters by the end of next month. Speaking to lawmakers, David Frost said he is “beginning to think we’re not going to make it by June 30.” The U.K. left the political institutions of the EU on Jan. 31, but it remains inside the EU’s tarifffree single market and customs union until the end of the year.
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Russia denial: A senior Russian lawmaker on Wednesday strongly rejected the U.S. military’s claim that Russia has deployed fighter jets to Libya to support eastbased forces in their offensive on the capital, Tripoli. Viktor Bondarev, the former Russian air force chief who heads the defense committee in the upper house of parliament, dismissed the claim by the U.S. Africa Command as “stupidity.” “If the warplanes are in Libya, they are Soviet, not Russian,” he said. The U.S. Africa Command said Tuesday the Russian military aircraft arrived in Libya recently from an airbase in Russia via Syria, where they were repainted to hide their Russian origin. AFRICOM said the aircraft were likely to provide close air support and offensive fire for a company that employs mercenaries to fight alongside military commander Khalifa Hifter.
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Thunberg scolds Copenhagen: Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg lashed out at authorities in the Danish capital on Wednesday because Copenhagen has for the past six years pumped large amounts of wastewater into the strait separating Sweden and Denmark. Danish media, citing the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, say that since 2014, over 9.1 billion gallons of unfiltered sewer water have been pumped into the Oresund Strait during heavy rains because Danish treatment plants could not handle the large volume of water. Thunberg, 17, said on Facebook that these actions are coming from “the same Copenhagen who claim they’ll be climate neutral by 2025.” The Danish capital aims to become carbon neutral by 2025, possibly the first world capital to do so.