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Good morning. At their summit this week, G7 leaders would like to avoid the sort of cage fight that just unfolded on the White House lawn – more on that below, along with Britain’s social media ban and China’s spy turtles. But first:
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U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron kick off the G7 Summit in Evian-les-Bains. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump packed a lot into the last few hours of his 80th birthday. First, he announced – on Truth Social, of course – a deal to wind down the war with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Then he sat ringside Sunday night
while UFC fighters whaled on each other inside an octagon cage on the White House lawn. Finally, around 3 a.m., he boarded Air Force One for a transatlantic flight to the annual G7 summit, which kicked off this week in eastern France.
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Trump arrived in Évian-les-Bains a little worse for wear: His voice was hoarse, his posture listless, and he didn’t attempt the yanky, white-knuckled handshake that’s been a hallmark
of his interactions with Emmanuel Macron. The French President praised Trump’s “very important” Iran deal yesterday, vowing that France would “take our fair share of the burden” to safeguard its success. Trump greeted the promise of Hormuz-patrolling warships – which he’s repeatedly demanded from European countries – with a bit of a shrug. “I don’t think we’re gonna need much help,” he said, because the Strait “is going to be open.” The precise terms of the tentative agreement haven’t yet been released.
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But Iran is sure to dominate the G7 agenda – this is, after all, Trump’s first in-person meeting with allied leaders since launching the war in late February. They will want to understand his plans for keeping the deal together, demining the Strait of Hormuz, resuming oil tanker traffic and managing the energy shocks that have roiled the world economy. They’ll also be keen to know how Trump intends to convince Iran to back off its nuclear project and persuade Israel to ramp down its military operations in Lebanon.
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Beyond that, G7 leaders are slated to cover AI regulations, legal immigration, supply chain resilience, the Ebola outbreak, digital safety and support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, with President Volodymyr Zelensky attending meetings
today. It’s a lengthy menu, and Macron has done his very best to ensure Trump stays till the end of the summit – including arranging a dinner tomorrow at the gilded Palace of Versailles. If Trump does hold on, it will mark a change from last year (when he left Alberta early to deal with “big stuff” in the Middle East) and 2018 (when he left Quebec early to attack Justin Trudeau on Twitter).
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Last year's family photo in Kananaskis, Alta., before Trump ditched the G7 summit. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
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Not every thorny topic will be on the table, however. Prime Minister Mark Carney said he didn’t expect to broach the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement this week; instead, he’d leave those trade talks to the main negotiators on both sides of the file. The USMCA is up for review on July 1, although Trump has taken to musing recently
about not renewing the pact. Still, Carney had a good start to his G7 summit, announcing the first Canadian company to land a contract under a major European Union defence fund. Montreal’s Marconi Technologies will supply Poland with tactical radios in a deal worth more than $10-million.
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Most likely, the G7 leaders will tacitly agree to skip over Trump’s insults toward them, as well. The U.S. President has been on a tear of late,
contending that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lacked courage, that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is “not Winston Churchill,” that Carney is the “future Governor of Canada,” and that Brigitte Macron once socked her husband directly in the jaw. At least they can be confident that, in person, Trump tends to shy away from these attacks – and yesterday was no exception, as he quickly worked to make nice.
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“We’ve had a fantastic relationship,” Trump said of Macron in his first remarks at Évian-les-Bains. “Emmanuel has been a special friend of mine.”
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‘It’s as if Notre-Dame had been bombed.’
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Firefighters work to extinguish the Dormition Cathedral in Kyiv. Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
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Russia struck another holy Ukrainian site yesterday, launching 70 missiles and 611 drones and setting the centuries-old Dormition Cathedral ablaze. Read more here from The Globe’s Mark MacKinnon on the ground in Kyiv.
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What else we’re following
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