Britain starts hearing US case for extraditing Wikileaks’ Julian Assange

A UK court ruled in February 2011 that Assange could be extradited back to Sweden to stand trial

Britain on Monday starts hearing Washington’s extradition request for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a test case of media freedoms in the digital age and the limits of US justice. A ruling against Assange in the case could see the 48-year-old Australian jailed for 175 years if convicted on all 17 US Espionage Act charges and one count of computer hacking he faces. Each stems from his site’s release in 2010 of a trove of classified State Department and Pentagon files detailing the realities of the US campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

One video from 2007 showed an Apache helicopter attack in which US soldiers gunned down two Reuters reporters and nine Iraqi civilians in broad daylight in Baghdad. The files also disclosed the secret identities of diplomats and government agents in hostile environments — as well as locals who risked their lives by cooperating with the United States. These names were redacted by the Western newspapers with which WikiLeaks initially worked.

But a falling out with their editors prompted Assange to release hundreds of thousands of files in their original form. The US Justice Department said last May that the “human resources” compromised by Assange “included local Afghans and Iraqis, journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates, and political dissidents from repressive regimes”. His supporters argue that Assange’s prosecution was political — and personal — from the start.”For the sake of press freedom, Julian Assange must be defended,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said in December.

US House passes Hong Kong ‘Democracy Act’; move may infuriate China further

Millions have taken to the streets of Hong Kong, initially against a now-dropped bid by its leaders to allow extraditions to the authoritarian Chinese mainland

The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill sought by pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong that aims to defend civil rights in the semi-autonomous territory. The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which will now move to a similar vote in the Senate before it can become law, has drawn rare bipartisan support in a polarized Congress.

Its passage is likely to further aggravate China which has accused “external forces” of fuelling weeks of unrest in the global financial hub. “Today we’re simply urging the Chinese president and the Hong Kong Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, to faithfully honor the government’s promises” that Hong Kong’s rights and autonomy would be protected, Republican

Representative Chris Smith, prime sponsor of the bill, said on the House floor. Millions have taken to the streets of Hong Kong, initially against a now-dropped bid by its leaders to allow extraditions to the authoritarian Chinese mainland.

The months-long movement has expanded into a broader pro-democracy push in the territory where activists say freedoms are being eroded by Beijing, despite a deal that outlined Hong Kong’s 1997 return to China from British colonial rule. The Hong Kong Rights and Democracy Act would end Hong Kong’s special trading status with the United States unless the State Department certifies annually that city authorities are respecting human rights and the rule of law…

US cautions India over buying S-400 missile defence system from Russia

The S-400 is known as Russia’s most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system

BS: The US is ready to help India’s defence needs with the latest technologies and equipment, but New Delhi purchasing long-range S-400 missile defence system from Russia would limit cooperation, the Trump administration has cautioned.

The statement came weeks after an identical warning from a senior State Department official who had said that New Delhi’s deal to procure the lethal missile system from Moscow will have “serious implications” on India-US defence ties. The S-400 is known as Russia’s most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system. China was the first foreign buyer to seal a government-to-government deal with Russia in 2014 for the system.

India and Russia signed a USD 5 billion S-400 air defence system deal in October last year after wide-ranging talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Senior State Department official (South and Central Asian Affairs) Alice G Wells told House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee for Asia, the Pacific and Nonproliferation on Thursday that the US now does more military exercises with India than any other country.

“Under the Trump administration, we’ve been very clear that we’re ready to help meet India’s defence needs and we are seeking a very different kind of defence partnership building on the ‘Major Defence Partner’ designation that India has received from Congress,” Wells said. She was replying to the Congressional sub-committee on India buying S-400 from Russia and how to make India-US ties as robust and as meaningful as possible.

Just a few weeks ago, India, the United States, the Philippines and Japan did a sail by in the South China Sea, she said. “In both our bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral formats, we’re working together in ways that we didn’t even conceive of 10 years ago. And so we’d like all aspects of our military relationship to catch up to this new partnership,” Wells said…