Russian President Vladimir Putin is quickly moving to consolidate proposed constitutional reforms unveiled last week – the first in Russia in over a quarter century. The moves are part of a political shakeup that analysts say may be aimed at allowing Putin to retain influence when his current and final term at the Kremlin ends in 2024. From Moscow, Charles Maynes reports.
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A Minneapolis carpenter whom the Associated Press exposed as a former Nazi commander — a charge his family fiercely denied — has died.According to a Hennepin County, Minnesota, death certificate, Michael Karkoc died last month in a nursing home at age 100.The Ukrainian-born Karkoc came to the United States after World War II in 1949 and led a modest life, working as a carpenter and worshipping at a Ukrainian Orthodox church.FILE – This undated file photo shows Michael Karkoc, which was part of his application for German citizenship filed with the Nazi SS-run immigration office on Feb. 14, 1940.A 2013 Associated Press investigation concluded that Karkoc commanded a Nazi-led Ukrainian military unit accused of committing atrocities against Polish civilians in 1944. Dozens of women and children were among the victims. The AP said Karkoc concealed his wartime activities from U.S. immigration officials.The AP said it relied on interviews, Nazi documents, and U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence files. It also looked at Karkoc’s own memoirs where he said he was a founder of what he called the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion — a group that collaborated with the Nazi SS to stave off communist forces.German prosecutors declined to extradite Karkoc, citing his age. But Polish prosecutors say a suspected Nazi war criminal’s age is no barrier to punishment. They announced in 2017 they would seek his arrest and extradition from the United States.Karkoc’s son strongly denied his father was a war criminal, calling him a Ukrainian patriot who fought to free Ukraine of both Nazi and communist rule. Andrij Karkoc called the AP report “evil, fabricated, intolerable and malicious.”But the top Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Efraim Zuroff, said he regrets U.S. and Polish officials did not move fast enough to put Karkoc on trial.”He didn’t deserve the privilege of living in a great democracy like the United States,” Zuroff said.
 
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Spain’s new government on Tuesday declared a “climate emergency” and pledged to unveil a draft bill on transitioning to renewable energy within its first 100 days in office.In a statement announced after the weekly cabinet meeting, the government committed to bringing a draft bill “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the objective of reaching climate neutrality by 2050” — effectively net-zero carbon emissions.Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s leftwing coalition government, which took office on Jan. 13, also committed to updating the national plan for tackling climate change.The government has decided to ensure that “climate change and the transition is the cornerstone for all (ministerial) departments and governmental action,” spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero told reporters.Environment Minister Teresa Ribera said the government had been inspired by French moves to create a public advisory panel “to generate ideas about responding to climate change in an inclusive, consultative way with a special focus on the youth.”Last summer, France announced the creation of a citizens’ panel on climate change made up of 150 people who would offer ideas and views on an array of issues touching on climate change “in keeping with the spirit of social justice”.At the end of November, the European Parliament voted to declare a “climate and environment emergency” in a symbolic gesture just ahead of the UN global crisis summit which took place in Madrid last monthThe motion urged efforts to ensure the “objective of limiting global warming to under 1.5 degrees C (35.7 degrees Fahrenheit).”It was followed by similar moves in a number of parliaments across the EU, notably in France, the United Kingdom and in Austria.
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An extradition proceeding under way in Canada could lead to Chinese tech giant Huawei’s chief financial officer being transferred to the United States to face charges related to sanctions violations.Prosecutors are asking a British Columbia court to determine if charges against Meng Wanzhou are a case of “double criminality,” which means they are crimes in both Canada and the United States. For someone to be extradited from Canada to the U.S., the charges would have to be recognized by both countries.Meng was arrested by Canadian officials at the request of the U.S. and is accused of misleading U.S. banks and attempting to circumvent American sanctions against Iran while serving as the chief financial officer of Huawei, which was founded by her father.Prosecutors allege the charges amount to fraud, which is illegal in both Canada and the United States.Meng’s defense says the accusations allege a violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran. Canada currently has no sanctions against doing business in Iran, and lawyers argue Meng could not be extradited based solely on violating U.S. sanctions.Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou attends her extradition hearing in British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver, British Columbia, Jan. 21, 2020, in this courtroom sketch by Jane Wolsak.If the court finds the charges are only about violating sanctions, the 47-year-old executive could be free to return to China.If, instead, the court rules the charges amount to fraud, Meng could remain free on $7.7 million bail in one of her two mansions in Vancouver. Meng’s next scheduled appearance would then take place in June. At that time, her defense attorneys would argue that Canadian authorities participated in an improper “covert criminal investigation” when she was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1, 2018, while transiting to Mexico.Any decision in the case is subject to multiple levels of appeals.Longtime Vancouver immigration lawyer and policy analyst Richard Kurland, who is not involved in the case, attended the hearing. Speaking outside the courthouse, he said those appeals can go on for years.   “Don’t forget these cases are complex in law and in fact,” Kurland said. “The Canadian system traditionally has appeals and, (in) extraditions where the litigants can afford it, that (can) run to 10 years and longer.”A decision on the current stage of the extradition proceedings may be announced at the end of this week or may be “reserved” for a later date.
 
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Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido was in London on Tuesday as part of a surprise international trip to revive support for forcing the resignation of the country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro.  One year ago, Guaido was recognized by the U.S. and over 50 countries as Venezuela’s interim president after Maduro blocked opponents in the last presidential election. However, VOA’s Brian Padden reports that tough U.S. sanctions and diplomatic pressure imposed a year ago have not succeeded to break the socialist president’s hold on power.
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A high-level panel on internal displacement established by the U.N. Secretary-General said it will seek concrete long-term solutions to try to alleviate the plight of tens of millions of people internally displaced by conflict and natural disasters. The panel had its first brainstorming session Tuesday in preparation for the complex and challenging work that will get underway on Feb. 26. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has given the eight distinguished members of this high-level panel only one year to come up with a realistic plan to prevent displacement and mitigate its effects.Last year, the number of people internally displaced by conflict around the world reached a record high of more than 41 million.  In the same year, the United Nations said 17 million other people were forced to move because of natural disasters and climate-related events.Former European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini arrives at the European Union leaders summit, in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 17, 2019.Panel Co-Chair Federica Mogherini is the former European Commission high representative for foreign affairs and a seasoned politician.  She said the panel will address the problem of displacement from many aspects.  She said it will look for realistic, durable solutions and mobilize international support to help both the displaced and the countries hosting them.“The issue of internal displacement tends to be forgotten, while it is one of the major, not only humanitarian, but also, I would say, political crises that our times are seeing,” Mogherini said. “So, our first task will be to keep, or rather put this as high as possible on the agenda and try to provide some good advice on how this can be addressed.”  Former African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka speaks during the opening ceremony of the annual meeting commemorating the 50th anniversary of the African Development Bank in Abidjan, May 26, 2015.Co-Chair Donald Kaberuka is a former president of the African Development Bank Group and minister of Finance and Economic Planning in Rwanda.  He said he hopes to bring his experience from the development world to find practical solutions to this problem.He told VOA it is not possible to separate development, environment and security — all elements involved in displacement.  “We would be failing the secretary-general if we did not address the issue of climate impacts …  I do not see any solution in the Sahel at the moment … unless it encompassed what we are saying,” Kaberuka said.  “What is happening to climate … and how it has fallen into a social problem and now into a security problem. Those will have to be addressed together.”  The panelists said they want a positive, productive outcome to their year-long deliberations.  As such, they said they do not intend to point fingers of shame or dwell on governmental shortcomings.  They will try to get states to work together to meet the needs of the displaced.  They said they will try to avoid politicizing the issue.  Rather, they will look at ways to help those forced to flee conflict and natural disasters live better under very difficult circumstances.   
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The United States urged China on Tuesday to join trilateral nuclear arms talks with Moscow, calling Beijing’s secrecy around growing stockpiles a “serious threat to strategic stability.”U.S. President Donald Trump said last year he had discussed a new accord on limiting nuclear arms with Russian President Vladimir Putin and hoped to extend that to China in what would be a major deal between the globe’s top three atomic powers. But China has so far refused to take part.”We think, given the fact that China’s nuclear stockpile is estimated to double over the next ten years, now is the time to have that trilateral discussion,” Robert Wood, U.S. disarmament ambassador, told reporters on the opening day of the U.N.-backed Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.He said that Washington had discussed the potential trilateral talks in a security meeting with Russia last week and had reached an “understanding” about pursuing them. “We cannot afford to wait,” he added.Asked how to go about pressuring Beijing to join, Wood said that he hoped Russia, and others, would help. “Hopefully over time and through the influence of others besides the United States, they (China) will come to the table. We think it’s imperative for global security that the Chinese do that.”Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that Russia would take part in potential trilateral talks but that he “won’t force China to change” its current position.China has previously said its weapons were the “lowest level” of its national security needs and not comparable to those of Russia and the United States.The United Nations is seeking the total elimination of nuclear arms but talks have been deadlocked for more than 20 years.Other talks between the five declared nuclear powers that have ratified the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) – China, United States, Russia, France and the United Kingdom – are ongoing and a meeting is planned in London next month.However, Wood said this was not the right framework for nuclear arms talks with Beijing.In his speech, China’s disarmament Ambassador Li Song did not refer to its own nuclear stockpiles but called for cooperation among nuclear powers and made a thinly-veiled swipe at the Trump administration.Li called for a commitment to multilateralism, “with no exceptions, least of all the big power which shoulders a special responsibility for international peace and security and who is not expected to play the role of a ‘spoiler’ to our collective efforts and to withdraw from treaties.”
 
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Brazilian prosecutors on Tuesday accused U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald of involvement in hacking the phones of officials involved in a corruption investigation, but said court rulings protecting free speech prevent them from bringing charges.A prosecutor in the Federal District, Wellington Divino Marques de Oliveira, said the journalist helped a group of six people who hacked into phones of hundreds local authorities.Greenwald’s The Intercept Brasil published excerpts from conversations involving Justice Minister Sérgio Moro, saying they showed the then-judge was improperly coordinating with prosecutors at the time he was a judge overseeing a vast corruption investigation. The probe led to the imprisonment of former President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva on corruption charges.While many Brazilians hail Moro as a hero, others believe he unfairly targeted da Silva and other top leftist figures. Moro is now a key member of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet.Greenwald’s attorneys said in a statement that the prosecutors’ allegations are “bizarre” and that they challenge the top court ruling protecting the journalist and freedom of press in Brazil.“Their objective is to disparage journalistic work,” the lawyers said.FILE – U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald (L) walks with his partner David Miranda in Rio de Janeiro’s International Airport, August 19, 2013.Prosecutors said in a statement that an unreleased audio links Greenwald to the group of hackers as they broke the law, terming it “auxiliary participation in the crime” and saying he was “seeking to subvert the idea of protection of a journalistic source into immunity to guide criminals.”Brazil’s top court last year said that “the constitutional secrecy” around journalistic sources prevented the Brazilian state from using “coercive measures” against Greenwald. Because of that, a judge would have to authorize any attempt by prosecutors to formally investigate Greenwald or bring charges.Greenwald, an attorney-turned-journalist who lives in Brazil, has frequently come under criticism by Bolsonaro.Moro has not acknowledge the veracity of the reports by The Intercept Brasil, saying they come from “criminal invasion” of the phones of several prosecutors. Many others involved in the leaked messages or mentioned in them have confirmed their content.   
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Prince Harry has reunited with his wife Meghan in Canada as he steps back from royal duties.
Video from Sky News shows Harry landing at Victoria’s airport on Vancouver Island late Monday. The prince, Meghan and their 8-month-old son Archie were reportedly staying at a mansion on the island off Canada’s Pacific coast. The video shows Harry stepping off a small passenger plane and getting into a SUV on the tarmac.
Buckingham Palace said Tuesday it would not comment on private matters.
The palace announced Saturday that the prince and his wife will give up public funding and try to become financially independent. The couple, who were named the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their wedding day, are expected to spend most of their time in Canada while maintaining a home in England near Windsor Castle in an attempt to build a more peaceful life.
A photographer spotted a smiling Meghan on a hike with Archie and her two dogs, trailed by her security detail, on Vancouver Island on Monday.
Sky News and the BBC reported that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have issued a legal warning over paparazzi photographs that appeared in The Sun newspaper. They reported that the photographs were taken by photographers hiding in the bushes and spying on her.
The couple spent the holiday season on the island, but it’s unclear where in Canada they will settle. Meghan worked for seven years in Toronto, where she filmed the TV series “Suits.”
It is also unclear who would pay for their personal security and what the immigration and tax status would be for the couple. Harry’s grandmother, the queen, is technically head of state in Canada, a Commonwealth nation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spoken warmly about Harry and Meghan, but has said there are questions to be addressed.
“Discussions are continuing and I have no update at this time,” Trudeau said Tuesday.
The country’s leading newspaper, The Globe and Mail, wrote in an editorial last week that senior royals were welcome to visit Canada but should not stay because a royal living in Canada does not accord with the longstanding nature of the relationship between Canada and Britain, and Canada and the Crown.
The paper said it would break an “unspoken constitutional taboo.” But The Globe and Mail published another editorial on Monday that said while a senior member of the Royal Family setting up shop in Canada “doesn’t accord with what Canada has become,” Harry is no longer a royal so the problem is solved.  
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Spain’s new government declared a national climate emergency on Tuesday, taking a formal first step toward enacting ambitious measures to fight climate change.
    
The declaration approved by the Cabinet says the left-of-center Socialist government will send to parliament within 100 days its proposed climate legislation. The targets coincide with those of the European Union, including a reduction of net carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
    
Spain’s coalition government wants up to 95% of the Mediterranean country’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2040. The plan also foresees eliminating pollution by buses and trucks and making farming carbon neutral.
    
Details of the plan are to be made public when the proposed legislation is sent to parliament for approval.
   
More than two dozen countries and scores of local and regional authorities have declared a climate emergency in recent years.
    
Scientists say the decade that just ended was by far the hottest ever measured on Earth, capped off by the second-warmest year on record.
    
Also Tuesday, young climate activists including Greta Thunberg told the elites gathered at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland they are not doing enough to deal with the climate emergency and warned them that time was running out.
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An ethnologist and photographer are trying to recover a lost chapter of Poland’s past by marking the sites of now vanished Jewish cemeteries with transparent ‘headstones’ and taking photographs of them.The plexiglass installations bear laser-etched epitaphs in Hebrew to those believed to have been buried at the site.Poland was home to more than three million Jews before World War Two, one of the world’s largest Jewish communities, but the vast majority were killed by Nazi German occupiers who set up death camps such as Auschwitz on Polish soil.Next Monday world leaders including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will join some of the dwindling number of survivors at Auschwitz to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation.Ethnologist Katarzyna Kopecka and photographer Piotr Pawlak travel around Poland searching for the sites of former Jewish cemeteries in their ‘Currently Absent’ project.“This is a bit like bringing back roots that have been destroyed, but life is stronger than the entire attempt at destruction,” said Pawlak. “We can bring some memory back.”The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw says on its website there are 1,164 Jewish cemeteries in Poland, but more than half of them have no tombstones left.Kopecka said they got the idea for the project after they discovered they were unwittingly sitting in an area that was actually a cemetery.“Whether it’s a field, or something else, these places are usually neglected,” said Kopecka, who plans to visit some 200 such sites with Pawlak for their project.DESCENDANTS’ INTERESTKopecka said they often work with local authorities to determine the site of a former cemetery, but even they sometimes cannot locate it, forcing her and Pawlak to rely on guesswork.The plexiglass installations are removed after they have been photographed.The pictures have been displayed in Poland’s parliament and in cultural centers around the country.“We have people contacting us whose ancestors were buried in these cemeteries and they ask when we’ll be going to a particular location,” Kopecka said.“They tell us the name of the place, they would like to obtain a photo because they’ve never been to Poland, and here rest their grandfathers, great-grandfathers, aunts and uncles.”The duo plan to publish a book of their photos and to make a documentary on the cemeteries which would also feature descendants of those buried there.
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Hundreds of Central American migrants were stranded in a sort of no-man’s land on the river border between Guatemala and Mexico after running up against lines of Mexican National Guard troops deployed to keep them from moving en masse into the country and on north toward the U.S. Naked children played amid the sand and trash Monday evening as clothing and shoes hung from the trees to dry along the Suchiate River, normally a porous waterway plied all day by rafts ferrying people and goods across. Men grilled a fish over a small fire below the border bridge, and migrants bedded down under blankets on the banks or dry sections of the riverbed without knowing what might come next. The path forward was blocked Monday by Mexican troops with riot shields, and about 100 National Guard agents continued to form a barrier with anti-riot gear into the night. But a return home to impoverished and gang-plagued Honduras, where most of the migrants are from, was unthinkable. “We are in no-man’s land,” said Alan Mejia, whose 2-year-old son was cradled in his arms clad only in a diaper as his wife, Ingrid Vanesa Portillo, and their other son, 12, gazed at the riverbanks. Mejia joined in five previous migrant caravans but never made it farther than the Mexican border city of Tijuana.”They are planning how to clear us out, and here we are without water or food,” said a desperate Portillo. “There is no more hope for going forward.” Unlike was often the case with previous caravans, there was no sign of humanitarian aid arriving for those stuck at the river. Throngs waded across the Suchiate into southern Mexico on Monday hoping to test U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy to keep Central American migrants away from the U.S. border. The push also challenged Mexico’s ramped-up immigration policing that began last year in response to threats of economic tariffs from Trump, a change that effectively snuffed out the last caravan in April.Some scuffled with National Guard troops on the riverbank while others slipped through the lines and trudged off on a rural highway, with most taken into custody later in the day. Still others were taken into custody on the spot or chased into the brush. Some migrants hurled rocks at the police, who huddled behind their plastic shields and threw some of the rocks back. Most of the migrants, however, stayed at the river’s edge or stood in its waters trying to decide their next move after being blocked earlier in the day from crossing the bridge linking Tecun Uman, Guatemala, with Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico. “We never thought they would receive us like that,” said Melisa Avila, who traveled from the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa with her 12-year-old son and was resigning herself to the prospect of spending the night outdoors. “They treated us like dogs.” In an approach that developed after the first migrant caravan in late 2018, Mexican officials seem to be succeeding in their effort to blunt large-scale incursions by breaking up the mass of people repeatedly and into increasingly smaller groups. Over the weekend, government officials convinced about 1,000 people they should enter legally via the bridge.The National Immigration Institute issued a statement saying it would detain any migrants in the country illegally, hold them in detention centers and deport those who did not legalize their status. Any who made it through and continued north could expect a gauntlet of highway checkpoints.As feared, children suffered in the chaos. On the Mexican bank an unconscious 14-year-old girl was carried away for medical attention Monday.Later along the highway, a mother sobbed after realizing her youngest daughter had been separated when migrants tried to escape authorities. Another migrant who had been helping her by carrying the 5-year-old ran in another direction when the migrants scattered and she hadn’t been able to locate them.Back at the river, Avila, who had befriended the woman at a shelter in Tecun Uman, walked along the bank showing everyone a picture of the daughter. “Have you seen this little girl?” Avila asked other migrants. “Blue pants, beige shirt and little pink shoes.”The Guatemalan government issued new data saying that 4,000 migrants had entered that country through the two primary crossings used by the migrants last week, and over the weekend nearly 1,700 entered Mexico at two crossings. It said 400 had been deported from Guatemala. The Immigration Institute said late Monday in a statement that about 500 migrants had entered irregularly and announced the “rescue” of 402 of them — using the term it frequently employs to describe migration detentions; It said the latter were taken to holding centers and offered medical care. The institute said five National Guard troops were hurt but did not give details. While Mexico says the migrants are free to enter if they do so through official channels — and could compete for jobs if they want to stay and work — in practice, it has restricted such migrants to the impoverished southernmost states while their cases are processed by a sluggish bureaucracy. When the rocks began flying at the river Monday, Elena Vasquez, , fearful for the safety of her two wailing sons, bolted back to the Guatemalan side where she would later spend the night. Exhausted after a week on the road, the 28-year-old from Olancho, Honduras, vowed to endure and hoped Mexican authorities would have a change of heart. “I am going to wait as long as necessary. God will open the gates for us,” Vasquez said. “Necessity forces one day more on us,” she continued. “We will have to wait and see what happens.” 
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A Mexican human rights organization on Monday urged authorities to investigate the disappearance of an environmental activist dedicated to protecting the famed monarch butterfly, suggesting the case may be linked to illegal logging in the area.Homero Gomez, who manages a butterfly sanctuary in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, disappeared Jan. 13, according to the Human Rights State Commission of Michoacan.The organization has asked the attorney general’s office to determine if Gomez’s disappearance is linked to his role in defending Mexico’s forests, commission official Mayte Cardona told Reuters.”He was probably hurting the (business) interests of people illegally logging in the area,” Cardona said.Illegal logging and trafficking is rife in Michoacan, a state plagued by organized crime.”The investigation is ongoing,” a source with the state prosecutor said.Environmentalists say illegal logging hurts the habitat of the monarch butterfly, which migrates thousands of kilometers from Canada across the United States to reproduce in Mexico.
 
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The International Labor Organization warns that rising unemployment and inequality are preventing people from working their way out of poverty and threatening social cohesion.For the ninth consecutive year, the International Labor Organization reports global unemployment has remained stable at about 188 million people. But the agency says unemployment is projected to increase by around 2.5 million this year.The ILO says the employment picture is actually worse than these figures indicate when one factors in the 285 million people who do not have enough paid work or have are no longer looking for work. By doing this, the agency says the current global unemployment rate of 5.4 percent goes up to 13 percent.ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said this means more than 470 million people worldwide are either unemployed or underemployed. He said these people are unable to lift themselves out of poverty because they are working fewer paid hours than they would like or are underpaid for the work they do.“The report shows that for millions of working people, it is becoming increasingly difficult, I think, to build better lives through work. Persisting and substantial work-related inequalities and exclusion are preventing them from finding decent work and better futures,” he said.The report finds that significant inequalities in the workplace defined by gender, age and geographic location are growing. It said the gender gap is widening. In 2019, it notes the female labor force participation was 47 percent, which is 27 percent below the male percentage rate.The situation for young people between the ages of 15 and 24 is even worse. The report says 262 million young people have no jobs and are receiving no skills training. Ryder said inequalities are politically unacceptable and politically unsustainable.“I think that this is an extremely worrying finding and that it has very profound and worrying implications for social cohesion. And these implications need to be better addressed in policy making. Our view is that we will find sustainable inclusive parts of development only if we tackle these kinds of labor market gaps and inequalities,” he said.Ryder said labor market conditions are feeding into social unrest and affecting social cohesion in parts of the world. He notes violent anti-government protests have erupted from South America to the Middle East over political and economic grievances. He said these protests show what can happen when discontent is left to fester. 
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The first stage of an extradition hearing for a senior executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei begins Monday in a Vancouver courtroom, a case that has infuriated Beijing,  caused a diplomatic uproar between China and Canada and complicated trade talks between China and the United States.
    
Canada’s arrest of chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s legendary founder, in late 2018 at America’s request shocked Beijing.
    
Huawei represents China’s progress in becoming a technological power and has been a subject of U.S. security concerns for years. Beijing views Meng’s case as an attempt to contain China’s rise.
    
China’s foreign ministry complained Monday the United States and Canada were violating Meng’s rights and called for her release.
    
“It is completely a serious political incident,`” said a ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang. He urged Canada to “correct mistakes with concrete actions, release Ms. Meng Wanzhou and let her return safely as soon as possible.”
    
Washington accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It says Meng, 47, committed fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company’s business dealings in Iran.
    
Meng, who is free on bail and living in one of the two Vancouver mansions she owns, left her home dressed in a black dress and black coat in a black SUV surrounded by security. She waved at reporters as she arrived at court.
    
Meng denies the allegations. Her defense team says comments by President Donald Trump suggest the case against her is politically motivated.
    
Meng was detained in December 2018 in Vancouver as she was changing flights _ on the same day that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for trade talks.
    
Prosecutors have stressed that Meng’s case is separate from the wider China-U.S. trade dispute, but Trump undercut that message weeks after her arrest when he said he would consider intervening in the case if it would help forge a trade deal with Beijing.
    
China and the U.S. reached a “Phase 1” trade agreement last week, but most analysts say any meaningful resolution of the main U.S. allegation that Beijing uses predatory tactics in its drive to supplant America’s technological supremacy, could require years of contentious talks. Trump had raised the possibility of using Huawei’s fate as a bargaining chip in the trade talks, but the deal announced Wednesday didn’t mention the company.
    
Huawei is the biggest global supplier of network gear for cellphone and internet companies. Washington is pressuring other countries to limit use of its technology, warning they could be opening themselves up to surveillance and theft.
    
James Lewis at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said the U.S. wanted to send a message with Meng’s arrest. There is good evidence that Huawei willfully violated sanctions, he said.
    
“The message that you are no longer invulnerable has been sent to Chinese executives,” Lewis said. “No one has held China accountable. They steal technology, they violate their WTO commitments and the old line is, ‘Oh, they are a developing economy, who cares.’ When you are the second-largest economy in the world you can’t do that anymore.”
    
The initial stage of Meng’s extradition hearing will focus on whether Meng’s alleged crimes are crimes both in the United States and Canada. Her lawyers filed a a motion Friday arguing that Meng’s case is really about U.S. sanctions against Iran, not a fraud case. Canada does not have similar sanctions on Iran.
    
The second phase, scheduled for June, will consider defense allegations that Canada Border Services, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the FBI violated her rights while collecting evidence before she was actually arrested.
    
The extradition case could take years to resolve if there are appeals. Nearly 90 percent of those arrested in Canada on extradition requests from the U.S. were surrendered to U.S. authorities between 2008 and 2018.
    
In apparent retaliation for Meng’s arrest, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor. The two men have been denied access to lawyers and family and are being held in prison cells where the lights are kept on 24-hours-a-day. That's mafia-style pressure, Lewis said.
    
China has also placed restrictions on various Canadian exports to China, including canola oil seed and meat. Last January, China also handed a death sentence to a convicted Canadian drug smuggler in a sudden retrial
     
“Canada is fulfilling the terms of its extradition treaty but is paying an enormous price,” said Roland Paris, a former foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “This is the kind of world we’re living in now, where countries like Canada are at risk of getting squeezed in major power contests.”
 
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Untied States will start doing more to support Venezuela’s opposition leader and self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaido.Pompeo and Guaido met with reporters Monday on the sidelines of a regional counterterrorism meeting in Bogota, Colombia.Guaido, head of the National Assembly, declared himself Venezuelan president one year ago, after ruling that President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election was illegitimate.The Trump administration and about 50 other countries recognize Guaido as Venezuela’s true president.”I want you to know that your president is a great leader who wants to take your country in the right direction — the direction of freedom, democracy, to restore economic prosperity,” Pompeo said in remarks directed at the Venezuelan people. He said the U.S. will do everything to ensure they get that opportunity.FILE – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro delivers his annual state of the nation speech during a special session of the National Constituent Assembly, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 14, 2020.Guaido’s initial momentum and popular uprising against Maduro has appeared to wane over the past year. But Guaido told reporters the fight for democracy “finds alternatives, different pathways, and reinforced mechanisms.”He said getting rid of Maduro is a “long-term strategy.””The dictators won’t want to give up the power they’ve taken. … We’re much more like Syria than like Cuba … in terms of migration, access to services, the inflation. There’s no vaccines for our children. They are dying because of lack of food,” Guaido said through an interpreter.Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party Vice President Diosdado Cabello dismissed Guaido on Monday as ineffective.”It is totally irrelevant for us that a lackey has gone to meet his masters in Colombia. He hasn’t achieved anything he promised,” Cabello said at a press conference.U.S. ‘actions’ unclearPompeo did not specify what “further actions” the U.S. would take to back Guaido. It has already imposed sanctions on a number of senior Venezuelan politicians and on the Venezuelan oil sector. U.S. military action against Venezuela has never been taken off the table.The U.S. accuses the Maduro regime of having links to Colombian rebel groups and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terrorists.Pompeo would not say if the U.S. is planning to designate Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism, telling reporters it is “constantly evaluating” who belongs on the list.Guaido heads to the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. He leaves Venezuela at great personal risk because the Venezuelan Supreme Court has barred him from leaving the country, and he may not be allowed to return home.Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country in the past two years after failed socialist policies, corruption, and the drop in world energy policies wrecked the oil-rich country’s economy. Gasoline, medicine, and many basic foods are in short supply or priced out of reach because of hyperinflation.Maduro has said he is ready to hold direct talks with the United States.
 
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The European Union is considering restarting an operation to control migrant trafficking and enforce a U.N. arms embargo on Libya if a shaky truce in the North African country solidifies into a formal cease-fire. Speaking Monday after an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said member states discussed revamping the operation to include monitoring a Libya arms embargo by land as well as by sea.Known as Sophia, the mission has mostly been combating migrant trafficking off Libya’s shores. Its maritime operation ended last March, after Italy said it would no longer welcome migrants rescued at sea.  “We are not going to change but to refocus the mandate of operation Sophia, to refocus especially on the issue of embargo,” Borrell said. “The arms embargo has to be controlled not only by sea, because most of the arms goes through the desert.”Borrell said this means also enforcing the embargo by land and air. He gave no timeline. However, Italy’s foreign minister said his country is interested only in the arms embargo aspect of the Sophia operation, not the migrant component.  Borrell spoke a day after foreign powers at a Berlin summit agreed to shore up a fragile truce in Libya, where two rival governments are vying for power and energy resources.  Analysts say Europe is late in concentrating on the Libya crisis, waking up only now to its implications — especially with the recent involvement of Russia and Turkey in the conflict.  EU foreign ministers also discussed a neighboring hotspot — the Sahel — where extremist violence is growing.  Borrell described Libya as a tumor spreading instability across the Sahara. He said roughly 4,000 soldiers and civilians died in the region last year alone.  The EU announced no concrete measures Monday, but French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian applauded what he described as Europe regaining control in international affairs. France hosted a summit last week to shore up military cooperation with West African countries against growing Islamist militancy in the Sahel.
 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears set to give the go-ahead for Chinese telecom giant Huawei to play a role in the development of Britain’s 5G wireless network — a move that risks jeopardizing intelligence-sharing between Britain and America, according U.S. officials.  Despite last-ditch lobbying by the U.S. to block Huawei, British officials say it is a “foregone conclusion” Johnson will allow Huawei participation.That would confirm a “provisional” decision made by his predecessor, Theresa May. Last year, she said Huawei should be allowed to build some so-called “non-core” parts of Britain’s future 5G data network, discounting U.S. alarm.Johnson’s final decision could come as early as this week, officials say.For a year, the Trump administration has urged Britain to ban Huawei from participating in the development of Britain’s fifth-generation wireless network. U.S. officials say there’s a significant risk that the company, which has close ties to Chinese intelligence services, will act as a Trojan horse for Beijing’s espionage agencies, allowing them to sweep up data and gather intelligence.FILE – Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrive at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Oct. 16, 2019.Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have urged all Western allies to shun Huawei on security grounds. They have specifically warned Downing Street that Britain’s participation in the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing arrangement — the U.S.-led Anglophone intelligence pact linking Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain — would be imperiled.Australia and New Zealand have banned Huawei from developing their 5G networks. As yet, Canada has not.Senior U.S. security officials flew to London last week and warned Johnson and his ministers that allowing Huawei to supply even some non-core equipment of the future 5G network would be “nothing short of madness.”Cost factorBut Johnson has faced strong counter lobbying from China — and also from British telecom providers and mobile phone companies. They have already been installing Huawei technology to start setting up the new network in more than 70 cities in Britain. They warn that delaying the rollout of 5G would cost the British economy billions of pounds. Ripping out masts and other equipment already in place would cost British providers hundreds of millions of pounds and could delay by up to five years the 5G network.Last week, Johnson expressed frustration with the U.S. over the issue, saying in a BBC radio interview that he didn’t want “to prejudice our national security or our ability to co-operate with Five Eyes intelligence partners,” but that he wanted Britain to have “access to the best possible technology. We want to put in gigabit broadband for everybody.”Johnson added, “If people oppose one brand or another, then they have to tell us what’s the alternative.”Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks at the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London, Britain, Jan. 20, 2020.U.S. officials reportedly told Johnson that Britain shouldn’t prioritize costs over security.Johnson has some U.S. supporters.”It is a difficult decision for a number of countries, the U.K. being one of them,” said Robert Manning, an analyst at the Atlantic Council.Huawei alternativesManning sympathizes with Johnson’s complaint that the U.S. isn’t offering any alternatives to Huawei.”On one level, this is all a fallout from America First policy. We should have sat down with our allies a long time ago to sort out what you have to worry about and what you might have some leeway on. There is a certain demonization going on, ” he told VOA.British technology experts say it is easier for the U.S. to avoid using Huawei equipment, as it is building a less sophisticated 5G network and doesn’t require the advanced antenna-sharing technology Huawei has developed. They say Huawei will provide not just faster mobile data connection but easier connectivity between internet-based devices, from laptops and smart refrigerators to self-driving cars.U.S. giants Cisco and Qualcomm are the go-to 5G equipment suppliers in America. But like Europe’s Ericsson and Nokia, they can’t currently provide the same advanced equipment as Huawei or at the same low price.Security risksBritish intelligence agencies are split on whether Huawei poses a security risk.  Andrew Parker, head of MI5, believes U.S. alarm is overblown. He has said publicly that the security risks can be managed if Huawei has access to the less sensitive parts of the new network, and is monitored closely and its equipment screened.He has also discounted U.S. threats to review intelligence-sharing, saying there is “no reason to think” Washington would follow through with its threat, as the U.S.-U.K. partnership is “very close and very trusted.”But U.S. officials have told VOA that Parker is wrong to think that U.S. intelligence agencies would overlook the spying fears. They also warn that a possible Johnson fudge, whereby Huawei’s equipment would be allowed in less sensitive parts of the network, wouldn’t assuage their concerns.Top officials at Britain’s GCHQ, the eavesdropping spy agency and the country’s largest intelligence, aren’t as sanguine as Parker, and remain worried about the risks of handing Huawei unprecedented access to British citizens’ sensitive data.FILE – An analyst points to a screen at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain’s electronic intelligence service, in London, March, 14, 2014.They agree with U.S. intelligence assessments that restricting Huawei to the “edges” of the new network would make little difference to the security risk. They told Britain’s Sunday Times that giving Huawei such access would be akin to “letting a fox loose in a chicken coop.”Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who when in office ruled out using Huawei for 5G development, said the nature of 5G technology made it impossible to separate the core from non-core elements of the future network. He said Huawei could be forced by Chinese law to hand over information to Beijing’s espionage agencies.”Do you want to give China the capability to materially interfere with what will become one of the most fundamental technological platforms in the modern economy?” he said in a radio interview last week.The Chinese government says Huawei is a private company and poses no security risk to the West. Huawei has dismissed U.S. allegations that it could undermine Britain’s national security as “baseless speculation.”Beijing has also made thinly veiled threats, suggesting a decision to ban Huawei could result in Britain being punished when it comes to trade and investment.Britain hopes to pull off post-Brexit trade deals with both Washington and Beijing to help compensate for reduced trade with Europe.
 
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The Honduran government has formally declared Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah a terrorist organization, a top security official said on Monday.”We declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization and will include it in the registry of persons and institutions linked to acts of terrorism and its financing,” said Luis Suazo, Honduras’
deputy security minister.
Heavily armed Hezbollah, a Shia-dominated group, has also been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
Last week, Guatemala’s new president, Alejandro Giammattei, also signaled he would label Hezbollah a terrorist group, in addition to keeping the Guatemalan Embassy in Israel in the city
of Jerusalem.
Both moves were seen as aligning Guatemala’s foreign policy more closely with that of U.S. President Donald Trump.
  
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Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido will come to Brussels on Wednesday to hold talks with the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Borrell told a news conference.Recognized as Venezuela’s president by more than 50 countries including the United States and most European Union members, Guaido has already defied a travel ban by going on Sunday to Colombia where he is set to meet U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a regional conference.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel has asked her conservative lawmakers to wait until after a March EU summit before taking a position on whether China’s Huawei can take part in the rollout of Germany’s 5G network, sources involved in their talks said.Merkel believes European Union coordination on the issue is important and she has been unable to bridge differences within her CDU/CSU bloc, the sources said.Merkel’s conservatives are divided on whether to support a proposal by their Social Democrat (SPD) junior coalition partners that, if approved, would effectively shut out the Chinese technology giant from the network.
  
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted to Parliament a package of constitutional amendments widely seen as an attempt to secure his grip on power well after his current term ends in 2024.Putin first presented the proposed changes in his state-of-the-nation address Wednesday, arguing they are intended to bolster the role of Parliament and strengthen democracy. Kremlin critics have argued that they are intended to allow his rule for life.The Kremlin-controlled lower house, the State Duma, confirmed on Monday that it has received a draft bill on constitutional proposals from the Kremlin. The lawmakers will fast-track the document, putting it for discussion at Thursday’s meeting.Putin, 67, has been in power for more than 20 years, longer than any other Russian or Soviet leader since Josef Stalin, who led from 1924 until his death in 1953. Under the law now in force, Putin must step down as president when his current term ends.Observers say that the proposed changes could allow Putin to stay in charge by shifting into the position of head of the State Council or moving into the prime minister’s seat after increasing the powers of Parliament and the Cabinet and trimming presidential authority.Putin’s amendments include a proposal to give the constitution a clear priority over international law – a tweak seen as a reflection of the Kremlin’s irritation over the European Court of Human Rights’ rulings that held Russia responsible for human rights violations.Another suggested amendment says that top government officials aren’t allowed to have foreign citizenship or residence permits.Parallel to lawmakers, a working group created by Putin will also consider the proposed changes before they are put to the vote.Putin said that the constitutional changes need to be approved by the entire nation, but it wasn’t immediately clear how such a vote would be organized.Along with amending the constitution, Putin last week also fired Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who had the job for eight years, and named tax chief Mikhail Mishustin to succeed him. The Russian leader is yet to appoint the new Cabinet. 
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A large caravan of Central Americans was preparing to cross the Guatemalan border into Mexico on Monday, posing a potential challenge to the Mexican government’s pledge to help the United States contain mass movements of migrants.The migrants were massed on a bridge connecting the two countries early on Monday morning in what appeared to be a tense standoff with Mexican migration officials and soldiers.U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to punish Mexico and Central American countries economically if they fail to curb migrant flows, resulting in a series of agreements aimed at taking pressure off the United States in absorbing the numbers.Migrants crossed into Mexico in small groups during the weekend after Mexican security officials blocked an effort by some Central Americans to force their way through the border.The bulk of at least 2,000 migrants remained in the Guatemalan border town of Tecun Uman, opposite the Mexican town of Ciudad Hidalgo, with some saying they planned to set off for Mexico en masse early on Monday, believing that they stood a better chance of making progress in a large caravan.Mexico has offered migrants work in the south, but those who do not accept it or seek asylum will not be issued safe conduct passes to the United States, the interior ministry said.The ministry said in a statement on Sunday afternoon that Mexican authorities had received nearly 1,100 migrants in the states of Chiapas and Tabasco and set out various options to them in accordance with their migration status.”However, in the majority of cases, once the particular migration situation has been reviewed, assisted returns will be carried out to their countries of origin, assuming that their situation warrants it,” the ministry said.According to Guatemala, at least 4,000 people have entered from Honduras since Wednesday, making for one of the biggest surges since three Central American governments signed agreements with the Trump administration obliging them to assume more of the responsibility for dealing with migrants.Mexico has so far controlled the border at Tecun Uman more successfully than in late 2018, when a large caravan of migrants sought to break through there. Many later crossed into Mexico via the Suchiate River dividing the two countries. 
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