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South Korea said Wednesday that as an invited nation, it will not be part of a G7 joint statement, which is assumed to include content targeting and pressuring China.

As the US has been seeking to rally its allies to take a harder stance against China, South Korea’s Blue House spokesperson said in a news briefing on Wednesday that the G7 joint statement will be an official document enacted by G7 member states, and invited nations will not participate in it, South Korean media Kyunghyang Shinmun reported.

While there have been media reports saying US President Joe Biden is seeking to rally solidarity to pressure China at the meeting, experts believe it is crucial for South Korean President Moon Jae-in to strike a balance between the US and China.

China has expressed disappointment over a joint statement issued by leaders from the US and South Korea last month which expressed so-called concerns over the situations in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits.

In addition to the seven G7 member states, host country UK also invited South Korea, India, Australia, and South Africa to attend this year’s meeting. South Korea has been invited for two years in a row, but it will be Moon’s first G7 summit as last year’s event was canceled due to the pandemic.

Also on Wednesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong said in a phone call with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi that as a close neighbor, South Korea attaches great importance to the development of the South Korea-China strategic partnership, adheres to the one-China principle, and fully recognizes the sensitivity of cross-Taiwan Straits relations.

Wang reminded Chung that the US’ “Indo-Pacific strategy” is the result of a Cold War mentality and aims to provoke group confrontation, adding that as friendly neighbors and strategic partners, China and South Korea should abide by their political consensus.

Minister Chung voiced hope for the stable development of relations between the US and China in the phone call, Yonhap reported.

Global Times

Source: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202106/1225907.shtml

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US President Donald Trump has been adamant about reducing its trade deficit with other nations, while two-thirds of Japan’s trade surplus with the US comprises vehicle sales [File: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg]

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The fires that burned through the Amazon rainforest last month sparked international outcry and offers of help, but as world leaders meet in New York, the planet’s largest rainforest remains engulfed in flames.

The latest satellite data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) shows 131,600 fires burning since January within the country, where 60 percent of the Amazon lies.

The fires, which are mostly caused by humans with the goal of clearing land for farming and cattle ranching, are having a grievous effect on the forest: the rate of deforestation in the Amazon has nearly doubled since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro came to power on January 1, with the equivalent of 110 football fields of land being cleared every hour.

“It’s sad to see Brazilians attacking me for fires in the Amazon, as if they hadn’t always existed,” Bolsonaro wrote on Facebook Thursday.

We “remain below the average of the last 15 years. But I’m accused of being a Nero, who sets fires everywhere.”

Yet fires are at a seven-year high, according to INPE data, and despite a slight drop at the start of the month, the number of active fires recorded in Brazil from the start of the year to September 19 was up 56 percent over the same period in 2018. Nearly half of the blazes are in the Amazon.

Smokes rise from forest fires in Altamira, in Brazilian the Amazon basin state of Para, in late August 2019

Bolsonaro is a climate change skeptic, but last month he sent soldiers to help put out fires in the Amazon region after Brazil came under criticism at the G7 summit, with the host French President Emmanuel Macron among the most outspoken detractors.

Under that deployment, which was renewed Friday for another month, nearly 7,000 soldiers and 16 aircraft are fighting both the flames and “deforestation and illegal mining,” Brazil’s defense ministry said.

‘I’m going to get hit’

Marcio Astrini, a Greenpeace official in Brazil, said the deployment is making little difference.

“We did a lot of fly-overs. We did not see anything happening on the ground, apart from the deforestation that is progressing. It’s tragic,” he told AFP.

Experts sent by the United States, logistical equipment from Japan, and four aircraft from Chile are all fighting the blazes, while firefighters sent from Israel have departed, the defense ministry said.

A forest wildfire spreads onto a farm in the municipality of Nova Santa Helena, in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, in the southern Amazon basin region

Bolsonaro, however, has blanched at other international offers to help put out the fires, rejecting $20 million from the G7 and accusing members France and Germany of “buying” Brazil’s sovereignty.

On Monday, Macron will launch a “call for mobilization” on the Amazon together with his counterparts Sebastian Pinera of Chile and Ivan Duque of Colombia during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Brazil won’t attend the meeting, but Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, also a climate change skeptic, will appear at the UN’s climate summit on Monday, before traveling to Europe.

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro will make the opening speech at the UN General Assembly, in which he is expected to focus on the Amazon.

“I am preparing a rather objective speech, unlike my predecessor,” he wrote on Facebook, adding, “I’m going to get hit, you can be sure. The media always finds something to complain about.”

Loss of forest cover and Co2 emissions in countries that share the Amazon river basin between 2001 and 2018

No end in sight

Environmental groups have little faith that Bolsonaro will change tack.

The government “wants to show that it is doing the best for the forest. In fact, it is doing its utmost for deforestation,” said Greenpeace’s Astrini.

“Brazil is running a campaign to show that it is taking care of the Amazon. It’s a lie,” he said.

And there’s little to suggest that the fires are abating.

Between September 18 and 19, the number of forest fires in Rondonia state jumped to 242 from 12 just the day before, an increase of 1,915 percent, according to the INPE.

Smoke billows from a burning tree trunk near Porto Velho, in the western-central Brazilian Amazon basin state of Rondonia

Fears are also rising over the number of blazes in the Cerrado savanna, which account for a third of all the fires in Brazil.

And on Friday the World Wide Fund for Nature warned of an “emergency situation in the biome” of the Pantanal wetland.

Fires have risen 351 percent since January in the Pantanal region, some 90 percent of which were set illegally.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-09-global-leaders-amazon-rainforest.html

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New Italian PM agrees with US president that Kremlin should be back at the table.

LA MALBAIE, Canada — Italy’s new prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, broke sharply with the EU on Friday at his first international summit, and joined U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for Russia to be reinstated to the exclusive club of industrialized nations.

Trump called for Russia’s reinstatement as he left the White House to travel to the G7 leaders’ meeting in Quebec.

The Western powers and Japan ejected Russia from the G8 in 2014 in response to the Kremlin’s invasion, and subsequent annexation, of Crimea.

Conte posted his support for Trump’s view on Twitter, apparently between meetings with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. It’s unclear if Tusk or Juncker were aware of Conte’s statement before their meetings.

At a news conference, Tusk and Juncker mostly sidestepped questions about Conte’s position, saying they expected there would be overall agreement on Russia policy. But they also pushed back on Trump’s suggestion that Russia rejoin the club.

“I see a lot of speculation about G6 plus 1 or G7 minus 1, or G7 plus one,” Tusk said. “But let’s leave seven as it is. It’s a lucky number. At least in our culture.”

Tusk added that the G7 faced enough obstacles in their quest for unified positions without adding Russia back into the mix. Juncker, meanwhile, noted that EU leaders were re-engaging Russia in other formats, such as a recent economic forum in St. Petersburg attended by French President Emmanuel Macron.

But he said Russia still had to be held accountable for its actions.

“As we see it, Russia is in violation of international law because of its annexation of Crimea, equally because of what it has done in the east of Ukraine,” Juncker said. “Over and above that, of course, there are good reasons leaving these factors aside to renew our relationship with Russia and this is something which we intend to do,” he said. “I expect that it will be something we discuss.”

“But,” he added, “we need to take a stand against an aggressive approach and aggressive action on the part of Russia.”

Since Russia’s ejection, Western nations, including the U.S. and all EU countries, have been unified in the need to maintain economic sanctions and other pressure on Russia over its military intervention in Ukraine, in Crimea and in the eastern Donbas region, where the Kremlin continues to support an armed insurgency.

–Other G7 powers have not indicated any willingness to ease the pressure on Russia.–

Conte’s statement adds further diplomatic chaos to the G7 leaders’ summit, which was already descending into a chaotic war of words on Twitter. Trump on Thursday lashed out at the summit host, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and French President Emmanuel Macron, who criticized Trump for imposing unilateral tariffs on steel and aluminum.

While Trump was still traveling, and expected to arrive late at the summit, his comment calling for Russia to be reinstated is certain to further inflame tensions in Quebec.

On the South Lawn of the White House, Trump claimed to be Putin’s worst nightmare but then said “Russia should be in this meeting. Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting? And I would recommend, and it’s up to them, but Russia should be in the meeting. They should be a part of it.

“You know, whether you like it or not — and it may not be politically correct — but we have a world to run. And in the G7, which used to be the G8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in. Because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.” It was unclear what negotiation Trump had in mind.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, who was on an official trip to China, told reporters Russia was focused “on other formats.”

Other G7 powers have not indicated any willingness to ease the pressure on Russia, and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, has worked hard to maintain unity on the issue in Brussels.

Conte’s statement will be especially problematic for Mogherini, who is Italian.

The first draft of the contract drawn up between the two parties in Conte’s government — the far-right League and the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement — contained a line calling for the end of Russian sanctions “immediately.” The text was amended in later versions.

In his first speech in the Italian parliament this week, Conte said that Italy remains a committed NATO partner but he added that “we will promote a revising of sanctions, starting with those that demean Russia’s civil society.”

Yet he didn’t indicate whether this should take place ‘immediately.” That’s because Rome has not yet decided whether to veto the rolling over of the sanctions during a meeting of EU leaders at the end of the month.

“We have to think about it,” said the League’s leader Matteo Salvini on Thursday at a reception at the Russian embassy in Rome.

Russia had been scheduled to host the G8 summit in 2014, and was planning to hold the leaders’ gathering in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, which was also the site of the Winter Olympics that year. Instead, officials quickly rescheduled the G7 summit for Brussels, the capital of the European Union, which participates in both the G7 and the G20 but normally does not host summits. Russian remains a part of the G20.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/conte-trump-russia-g8-breaks-with-eu-backs-call-for-to-return/

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Developing now, Friday, June 8, 2018

• President Trump heads to potentially tense talks at the G7 summit in Quebec City on Friday after accusing allies Canada and France of putting heavy economic burdens on the U.S.

• A former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee was indicted Thursday, charged with lying to the FBI about possible leaks of classified information

• A much-anticipated report on the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe will be released June 14, the Justice Department inspector general announces

• FOX News Exclusive: The woman whose life sentence was commuted after Kim Kardashian West championed her cause thanks President Trump and vows she will not let him down

• The Washington Capitals win the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history, beating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 in Game 5 of their best-of-seven series.

THE LEAD STORY – TRUMP FACING CHILLING RECEPTION AT G7: On the eve of Friday’s G7 summit in Quebec City, President Trump publicly took aim at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron for imposing “massive” economic burdens on the United States … “Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the U.S. massive tariffs and create non-monetary barriers,” Trump tweeted Thursday. “The EU trade surplus with the U.S. is $151 Billion, and Canada keeps our farmers and others out. Look forward to seeing them tomorrow.” With his new tariffs increasing U.S. isolation, Trump heads to Canada on Friday for a meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations. The White House is expecting a chilly reception from Canada and West European countries, already frustrated over Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear agreement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel previewed the dynamics on Wednesday, telling the German parliament that “it is apparent that we have a serious problem with multilateral agreements here, and so there will be contentious discussions.”

• What you should know about the G7 summit
• White House spokesman: We ‘laughed’ at reports Trump will skip G7 to focus on N. Korea
• Peggy Grande: Trump prepares for North Korea summit as a great performer — like Reagan
• Trump-Kim summit: Who will foot the bill for North Korea?

SEX, LIES AND CLASSIFIED INFO: A former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee — who was in charge of maintaining all classified information from the Executive Office to the panel — was indicted for allegedly giving false statements to FBI agents looking into possible leaks to reporters, the Justice Department announced Thursday night … James A. Wolfe, 58, served as the panel’s security director for 29 years, according to the feds. Prosecutors said Wolfe lied to the FBI in December 2017 about contacts he had with three reporters. Prosecutors say he also lied about giving two reporters non-public information about committee matters. Earlier Thursday, the New York Times revealed that federal investigators had seized years’ worth of email and phone records relating to one of its reporters, Ali Watkins. She previously had a three-year romantic relationship with Wolfe, the Times reported, adding that the records covered a period of time before she joined the paper.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The long-awaited watchdog report on the FBI and DOJ’s Hillary Clinton investigation during the 2016 presidential campaign will be released next Thursday, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said … In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Horowitz said “we anticipate releasing the report on June 14, 2018.” That day is also President Trump’s birthday. The inspector general also told committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in the letter that he has accepted the invitation to testify about the report on June 18, meaning his scheduled appearance before the committee is being delayed again. Washington has been on edge since last month, when Horowitz told lawmakers the draft report was done. Congressional committees have scheduled, and then postponed, hearings with Horowitz while waiting for the report to be released.

• Judge Napolitano: Trump has ‘legitimate fears’ the inspector general’s report is being ‘watered down’

‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP’: Alice Marie Johnson, the woman whose life sentence President Trump commuted this week, promised the commander in chief: “I will make you proud” … Johnson, 63, had been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after she was convicted of a first-time nonviolent drug offense and charges related to money laundering. Reality TV icon Kim Kardashian West took up her case, even meeting with Trump at the White House to plead for clemency. In an exclusive interview Thursday night with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on “The Story,” Johnson expressed her gratitude for Trump’s decision the day before to commute her sentence. “Thank you so much, President Trump, for taking the time to look at my case and to really look at me,” she said. “I promise you, President Trump, I will make you proud that you gave me that second chance.” Johnson spent 22 years in prison, a third of her life, and said that it was her faith and her optimism that allowed her to carry on.

• Martha MacCallum: America loves a second chance
• Trump should consider pardoning ex-CIA boss Petraeus, senator says

FIRST IN WAR, FIRST IN PEACE, FIRST IN HOCKEY: For the first time in franchise history, the NHL’s Washington Capitals have won the Stanley Cup ... The Caps took the Stanley Cup Final four games to one, with a 4-3 victory Thursday night in Las Vegas over the Vegas Golden Knights, a first-year expansion team that made a stunning run to the championship round. “We did it,” said Caps captain Alex Ovechkin, whose 15 playoff goals set a franchise record and helped him win the Conn Smythe Trophy as this year’s playoff MVP. “That’s all that matters. Look at the smiles on my teammates. This is something you’ll never forget. This moment, I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I’m so happy. It’s unbelievable.”

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/06/08/fox-news-first-trump-tension-coming-to-g7-ex-security-officer-charged-in-leak-probe-singapore-summit-countdown.html

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