Europe

BIARRITZ, France (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump insisted on Sunday that he was getting along well with leaders at a G7 summit in France, but rifts emerged with his Western allies on issues ranging from his trade war with China to Iran, North Korea and Russia.

The G7 gathering is taking place against a backdrop of worries about a global economic downturn and coincides with an era of international disunity across an array of matters.

BIARRITZ, France (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Sunday said he and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had agreed on the principles of a trade deal that would probably be signed next month in New York.

Trump’s Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the deal would open up markets to over $7 billion worth of goods and covered agriculture, industrial tariffs and digital trade.

The U.S. president said Abe agreed that Japan would buy excess U.S. corn. Abe said of the “potential” purchase of U.S. corn that such purchases would be carried out by the private sector.

25 Aug 2019; MEMO: US President Donald Trump appeared to brush aside French efforts to mediate with Iran on Sunday, saying that while he was happy for President Emmanuel Macron to reach out to Tehran to defuse tensions he would carry on with his own initiatives, Reuters reports.

MOSCOW, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday criticized the demand by the U.S. Embassy in Russia to release the suspected spy Paul Whelan out of health concerns.

"Letting a person go home, where they can receive the necessary medical help: does it only concern Paul Whelan? There are millions of prisoners in the US, including over 50 Russian citizens, many of them with health issues. Let them go," the Russian ministry responded to the U.S. demand on Twitter.

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — The Latest on the Group of Seven summit (all times local):

11:05 p.m.

French authorities have detained 68 people taking part in a tense protest near the G-7 summit.

The regional administration says those detained are accused of throwing projectiles, concealing their faces or possessing objects that could be used as weapons.

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — Deal or No Deal?

One might think the issue would be on the minds of two leaders at the vortex of the question of whether the UK will leave the European Union without a deal in October. 

But as Britain and the European Union hurtle toward a no-deal Brexit, the contest Saturday seemed to be who is going to go down in history with the blame and the label: Mr. No-Deal.

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — Under the threatening clouds of a global economic slowdown, President Donald Trump is confronting the consequences of his preference to go it alone, with low expectations that the leaders of the richest democracies can make substantive progress on an array of issues at their summit in France.

ATLANTA (AP) — Six people were injured Saturday when lightning struck a 60-foot pine at the Tour Championship where they were taking cover from rain and showered them with debris, Atlanta police said.

The third round of the season-ending PGA Tour event had been suspended for about 30 minutes because of storms in the area, and fans were instructed to seek shelter. The strike hit the top of the tree just off the 16th tee and shattered the bark all the way to the bottom.

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — The posturing by leaders of the G-7 rich democracies began well before they stood together for a summit photo.

French President Emmanuel Macron, the host, cornered Donald Trump at the American leader’s hotel with an impromptu lunch invitation. It was something of a power move by Macron, who pushed the Amazon wildfires to the top of the agenda at a summit Trump hoped to use to persuade allies they can avoid economic disaster by following his low-tax, low-regulation mantra.

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — President Donald Trump is threatening to use the emergency authority granted by a powerful but obscure federal law to make good on his tweeted “order” to U.S. businesses to cut ties in China amid a spiraling trade warbetween the two nations.

China’s announcement Friday that it was raising tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. imports sent Trump into a rage and White House aides scrambling for a response.