Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, is back in a Vancouver courtroom as lawyers fight her extradition to the U.S. Meg’s arrest, arising from U.S. allegations about the Chinese telecom giant’s financial practices, has undermined Canada’s carefully-cultured relationship with China since establishing formal ties nearly a half-century ago. [node:read-more:link]
Tariffs on a diverse list of 437 items imported from China have been lifted by the U.S. as President Donald Trump explains that the two sides as “making a lot of progress” on trade talks. The editor of the Beijing-based Global Times, said the development is being taken as “a goodwill signal.” [node:read-more:link]
Reacting to a U.S. decision to sent more troops and weapons to Saudi Arabia after the recent drone strike on critical oil infrastructure, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says he’s not confident that war can be avoided. He also said in a televised interview that “whoever starts one will not be the one who finishes it.” [node:read-more:link]
Western powers are being urged by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to remoes their assets from the Persian Gulf and leave its security to regional nations. He is expected to unveil a regional peace plan this week at the United Nations. [node:read-more:link]
With gun violence in the United States at epidemic proportions, a group of the nation’s top constitutional scholars, organized by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS), sent a letter to the White House calling on President Obama to take executive action to curb gun violence. [node:read-more:link]
An appropriations bill which would commit $250 million for improvements to the security of U.S. elections has been endorsed by senior Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who has opposed the notion. Congress now has to reconcile the Senate bill with a House of Representatives proposal for to spend $600 million on the issue. [node:read-more:link]
The Stockholm International Peace and Security Institute says that although the security implications of climate change have increasingly been debated by the UN Security Council, there are growing concerns about the UN’s overall response. In a new policy brief, SIPRI looks at how the climate security debate has evolved and highlights three priorities for action. [node:read-more:link]
Some “assault-style” rifles could be prohibited, and firearms possession and storage rules stiffened, by a re-elected Liberal government, according to Bill Blair, Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction. The former Toronto police chief says the plans will be detailed soon as part of the Liberals’ campaign platform for the Oct. 21 election. [node:read-more:link]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival, Benny Gantz, are jostling over the prospect of a unity government after the second general election in five months failed to give either leader’s party enough seats to set up a coalition government. [node:read-more:link]
Chris Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ithin he U.S. Department of Homeland Security, says government and industry should not be “selling fear” if they want broader community engagement in fighting digital threats. [node:read-more:link]
An Australian academic detained in Iran is reported to have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for alleged espionage. University of Melbourne lecturer Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who specializes in Mideast politics, had begun teaching a course in Qom last year. [node:read-more:link]
Unofficial results of Israel’s second general election in five months are too close to call. The parties led by incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger, Benny Gantz, each apparently have captured 32 seats in a Parliament where 61 are required for a majority. [node:read-more:link]
Donald Lafleur, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, is the subject of an internal investigation after attending a trade union conference in Syria and then calling for an end to international sanctions. A CLC spokesperson says the organization was unaware Lafleur had attended the conference organized by the Syrian regime. [node:read-more:link]
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says intrusions into Canadians’ digital privacy have become a crisis and it’s time to stop companies from data-mining for profit. She says it’s a timely issue to raise during an election campaign because democracy is threatened when data are collected, manipulated and used. [node:read-more:link]
National polling from the first week of Canada’s 43rdgeneral election indicate that the Liberals and Conservatives are in a virtue tie in terms of stated public support. The New Democratic Party and Greens evidently are running a distant third. [node:read-more:link]
