I guess this goes in international news although it is taking place in Charlevoix, Québec.
We can start off with an agrarian story:
The smell of progress? Quebec farmers told not to spread manure near G7
Farmers near the site of next week's posh G7 summit are being asked to refrain from spreading manure lest a world leader get a whiff.
Backlash Against US Over Tariffs
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/06/02/trad-j02.html
"The meeting of G7 finance ministers taking place in Whistler, Canada [unceded therefor illegally occcupied Lil'Wat territory, actually] this weekend has begun with a barrage of criticism directed at US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over the Trump administration's decision to proceed with tariffs on steel and aluminum exports from Mexico, Canada and the EU. On his arrival, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz immediately denounced the US actions.
'The decision by the US government to unilaterally implement tariffs is wrong and - from my point of view - also illegal.' he told reporters. 'We have clear rules, which are determined at the international level, and this is a breach of these rules.' Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau, the chairman of the meeting, said the issue of trade conflicts had moved to front and centre..."
This is important, though not exactly on topic. Whistler is a hell of a long way from Charlevoix.
G7 Summit of Finance Ministers. Close enough.
G7 still negotiating as clock runs down on climate commitments
Environmental policy experts are watching to see if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can deliver a strong outcome on climate change at this week's G7, as the U.S. continues to avoid consensus deals and Canada faces backlash over its pipeline purchase announcement.
The issue of climate at the summit in Charlevoix, Que. remains front and centre in civil society, as more than 45 foundations around the world called on the G7 on Tuesday to put its commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 into action.
That call comes on the heels of a new report from environment and development groups that showed G7 nations continue to shovel at least $100 billion a year in subsidies toward coal, oil and gas.
Yet the leaders of the world’s seven advanced industrialized nations are still battling it out over fundamental policy differences, in a last-ditch effort to come to a consensus and issue a joint statement agreeable to all at the end of the June 8-9 summit, Canadian government officials confirmed Tuesday.
“We are working on bridging the differences that exist and bringing people together,” said one official speaking on background.
quote:
Trudeau has spent months pushing a set of themes for the summit that includes “working together on climate change.” But his focus is also on achieving a deal on oceans protection and plastics that environmentalists warn might take too narrow a view on climate.
Officials said Tuesday that resilient coastal communities, plastics and the biosphere will serve as the components of that oceans plan.
quote:
Catherine Abreu, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, said negotiations over plastics and oceans will have to involve a broader discussion about economic links between the oceans and the climate.
“You can’t talk about plastics, which are produced using petroleum, or oceans, which interact with the atmosphere, without talking about climate change,” she said in a Tuesday briefing of policy groups ahead of the summit.
As global transition gains momentum, institutional investors question G7’s resistance
Institutional investors with $26 trillion in assets under management called on Group of Seven leaders on Monday to phase out the use of coal in power generation to help limit climate change, despite strong opposition from Washington.
Government plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions were too weak to limit warming as agreed by world leaders at a Paris summit in 2015, they wrote. U.S. President Donald Trump announced a year ago that he was pulling out of the pact.
“The global shift to clean energy is under way, but much more needs to be done by governments,” the group of 288 investors wrote in a statement before the G7 summit in Canada on June 8-9.
quote:
The world’s major industrial democracies spend at least $100 billion each year to prop up oil, gas and coal consumption, despite vows to end fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, a report said on Monday ahead of the G7 summit in Canada.
Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – known as the Group of Seven (G7) – pledged in 2016 to phase out their support for fossil fuels by 2025.
But a study led by Britain’s Overseas Development Insitute (ODI) found they spent at least $100 billion a year to support fossil fuels at home and abroad in 2015 and 2016.
“Governments often say they have no public resources to support the clean energy transition,” the study’s lead author Shelagh Whitley told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“What we’re trying to do is highlight that those resources are there (but) it is being used inefficiently.
“The G7 have pledged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, but they don’t have any systems in terms of accountability to meet the pledges – they don’t have road maps or plans,” added Whitley, head of the ODI’s climate division.
Justin Trudeau's 'Trump Management' To Be Tested at Summit
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/06/05/trudeaus-trum...
"Trudeau's Trump management remains one of his signal accomplishments. He is drawing on a deep well of diplomatic skill..." [rotflmao!]
As It Happens - Part 1: Trump/Trudeau & the War of 1812...(and podcast)
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.46...
"The PM says he'll confront President Trump about duties on steel at the G7 - and a former US ambassador apologizes in advance for how that will go."
'One is the Loneliest Number...'
Trump, Trudeau and Macron : Not a pretty sight...
#G7Canada
https://twitter.com/hashtag/g7Canada
#G7Charlevoix
https://twitter.com/hashtag/g7charlevoix
"Are President Trump's decisions merely seasonal turbulences or rather the first symptoms of the breakup of the Western political community, which the G7 represents and informally leads? " -- Donald Tusk - President EU Council
Trump to Miss G7 “Working Together on Climate Change” Session
quote:
Trump of course has already started making headlines on tariffs on steel and aluminium and for calling for the re-introduction of Russia so the G7 can once again become the G8.
The call has already been rejected by Trump’s European allies, already smarting over being recently being hit by steel tariffs. “What worries me most is the fact that the rules-based international order is being challenged, quite surprisingly not by the usual suspects but by its main architect and guarantor, the US,” said President of the European Council Donald Donald Tusk at a press conference at the G7 summit.
But it is not just tariffs that Trump is at loggerheads with his partners with. Another issue is, of course, climate and if Trudeau had hoped the summit might make progress on it, all the signs are not good. As the Washington Post put it: “The summit will put Trump face to face with leaders he has antagonized on a range of issues, including the environment and the U.S. withdrawal last month from the international nuclear accord with Iran.”
Trump, the climate denier, is not even going to be at the session on “climate change and clean energy” or the health of the oceans, in part caused by climate change. He leaves the summit when it is barely into its second day.
The fact that Trump won’t even be at the session on climate makes Justin Trudeau’s job of trying to spin a positive message on climate even the harder. Trudeau faces the uncomfortable position of being the host for the G7 and trying to be an international climate hero, whilst at home he is a climate villain for saying his Government will buy Kinder Morgan’s $4.5 billion Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline.
As the Canadian Star notes: “At this weekend’s G7 summit, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s reputation as a leader on climate change is at stake.”
The paper adds “Many people are already saying he has already lost it. The purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline, and the increased oilsands production its expansion will enable, have significant consequences for Canada and the world in terms of carbon pollution. How that decision can be squared with Canada’s climate change targets, with the government’s signature pan-Canadian climate framework, or with its narrative of climate action remains unclear.”
Appeasement or Global Policy? - by James Petras
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49596.htm
"...Trump is not 'improvising', nor is he 'erratic.' He wields power; he knows that his competitors' spinelessness is accompanied by mutual backstabbing, and he is exploiting their appeasement, by encouraging their belly-crawling...Trump will be entertained by the quartet of Trudeau, Macron, Merkel and May who will perform an original composition: 'Making America Strong in a World of Wimps.'
Is that Justin's hair, just above Merkel's head?
That or she converted to Judaism and doesn't really understand the Kippah.
The 'West' is Past
"G-7 summits are supposed to symbolize 'The West', its unity and its power. The summits pretended to set policy directions for the world. We are happy to see that they are dead.
Before leaving the summit Trump again used Mafia language against everyone else:
'As he prepared to depart early from the G-7 summit in Charlevoix, Canada, to head to Singapore ahead of his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong un, Trump delivered an ultimatum to foreign leaders, demanding that their countries reduce trade barriers for the US or risk losing market access to the world's largest economy.
'They have no choice. I'll be honest with you, they have no choice,' Trump told reporters at a news conference, adding that companies and jobs had left the US to escape trade barriers abroad. 'We're not going to fix that situation. And if it's not fixed, then we're not going to deal with these countries.'
The row at the G-7 meeting was in stark contrast to the more important other meeting that happened today, the 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Qingdao, China..."
Trump says Trudeau is weak and meek and accuses him of making false statements (LOL).
Farmers near the site of next week's posh G7 summit are being asked to refrain from spreading manure lest a world leader get a whiff.
LOL!
A “world” leader at the G7?!?!??
Theres your fuckin manure right there! They’re all a bunch of corporate puppets scared asking how high to jump! Addicted to money and their celebrity status
[quote=josh]
Trump says Trudeau is weak and meek and accuses him of making false statements (LOL).
[quote=NDPP]
"Dishonest and weak" actually. No surprise and nothing new. Like those 'groping' allegations...
Trump Rage-Tweets That Trudeau Lied At G-7 - Refuses to Endorse Final Statement
https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/1005592324888563712
"PM Trudeau of Canada was very dishonest and weak...I have instructed our US Reps not to endorse the Communique."
Trump actually did call Trudeau meek:
“PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings...
First thing I thought of was I wonder how much Trudeau paid Trump to make him the recipient of Trump's usual insults. Probably the best thing that's happened to Trudeau in a while.
Michael Moriarity wrote:
Is that Justin's hair, just above Merkel's head?
Not likely unless he was crouched down. He's fairly tall. Certainly taller than any other standing person in that picture.
Imagine Trump and Jagmeet Singh...... .
NDP Leader Singh Open To Bilateral Trade deal With Trump
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ndp-leader-singh-open-to-bilateral-trade...
"NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh would be open to signing a bilateral trade deal with the United States if President Trump decides to tear up NAFTA...Asked specifically if he would be ok if Trump ripped up NAFTA and turned to Canada to work out something between the two countries, Singh said 'absolutely'."
Perhaps Trump can arrange a little coup d'etat and substitute Singh for Trudeau given Singh's apparent willingness to publicly trash the present federal strategy on NAFTA negotiations in favour of endorsing one more pleasing to the US president. Pretty bold too for a guy that isn't even elected yet.
Before the Smiles, Mounting Tensions Between Trudeau and Trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/world/canada/canada-trudeau-trump-us-...
"Hours before President Trump landed in Canada on Friday, 18-year-old allegations that Justin Trudeau once groped a reporter resurfaced on a website sympathetic to the president.
Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.
But it only adds to the mounting tensions between Mr Trudeau, now the Canadian prime minister, and Mr Trump..."
..2.28 min video
Quebec City activists shut down legislature in peaceful G7 demonstration
Protests in the streets of Quebec City managed to shut down the provincial legislature on Friday.
Aside from a couple of arrests, the demonstrations have so far been peaceful.
US-European Tensions Erupt at the G-7 Summit
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/06/09/pers-j09.html
"...The bitter character of the divisions between the US and its allies was made clear in a series of statements by Macron, who declared Thursday on Twitter: 'The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be. Because these 6 countries represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force..
Macron subsequently told reporters, 'The six countries of the G7 without the US are a bigger market taken together than the American market.' He added, 'There will be no world hegemony if we know how to organize ourselves. And we don't want there to be one.
The summit is likewise riven by sharp differences over Trump's desire to launch a new war in the Middle East. Forming an axis with Saudi Arabia and Israel, Trump has withdrawn from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement - in the face of opposition from the European powers..."
Trump says Trudeau is weak and meek and accuses him of making false statements (LOL).
He also said that his words standing up to Trump made him look so. The tweet was incoherent.
This is neat. Not the onion either.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justin-trudeau-trolls-trump-with...
How ironic. What goes around comes around...
'Screwed' By Justin Trudeau, Leaders Fume Over Scuppered Trans-Pacific Partnership Deal
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-10/tpp-talks-stall-after-justin-trude...
"Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has infuriated leaders of 10 other Asia Pacific countries by pulling a sudden 'no-show' for the signing of a lucrative trade deal..."
This is a little more recent:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tpp-champagne-deal-1.4499616
not that I am happy about it.
Putin Questioned on US Trade War and Unipolar-Multipolar World
"I told Europe in 2007. They didn't listen. Now 'enjoy your meal!"
My favourite comment was from some Republican commentator in the USA. He said Trump 'beclowned' himself at the G7.
Putin Questioned on US Trade War and Unipolar-Multipolar World
"I told Europe in 2007. They didn't listen. Now 'enjoy your meal!"
That he paid for.
Well, you've got to give Trump this, no other leader in the history of the world has so sucessfully united Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Greens. A singular accomplishment.
Who the fuck cares one way or the other?
I mean, we're not even acknowledging Trump's rug anymore.
Who the fuck cares one way or the other?
I mean, we're not even acknowledging Trump's rug anymore.
Exactly why would it matter at all.
BAR: 'Every White Man For Himself' (and podcast)
https://blackagendareport.com/every-white-man-himself
"The Atlanticist bloc, with NATO as its military arm, is coming undone, said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black is Back Coalition. President Trump's verbal assaults on Washington's European and Canadian allies at the recent G7 summit showed that 'there's a fraying of much of the arrangement that was established under the Atlanticist project' after WWII. The rise of China as the world's economic center has created an 'every whiteman for himself', mentality, said Yeshitela."
Ms Merkel and Ms May are white, but they certainly aren't "men".
