G-7 leaders gather in Canada for a summit overshadowed by Israel-Iran crisis and trade wars
BANFF, Alberta — Leaders of some of the world's biggest economic powers began arriving in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday for a Group of 7 summit, overshadowed by an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran and President Trump's unresolved trade war with allies and rivals alike.
Israel's strikes on Iran and Tehran's retaliation, which appeared to catch many world leaders unawares, is the latest sign of a more volatile world as Trump seeks to withdraw the U.S. from its role as world policeman.
Speaking on a flight to Canada to attend the summit, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had discussed efforts to de-escalate the crisis with Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as other world leaders.
Britain is sending fighter jets and other military reinforcements to the Middle East.
'We do have long-standing concerns about the nuclear program Iran has. We do recognize Israel's right to self-defense, but I'm absolutely clear that this needs to de-escalate. There is a huge risk of escalation for the region and more widely,' Starmer said, adding that he expected 'intense discussions' would continue at the summit.
As summit host, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has decided to abandon the annual practice of issuing a joint statement, or communique, at the end of the meeting.
With other leaders wanting to talk to Trump in an effort to talk him out of imposing tariffs, the summit risks being a series of bilateral conversations rather than a show of unity.
Trump is the summit wild card. Looming over the meeting are his inflammatory threats to make Canada the '51st state' and take over Greenland. French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Greenland on Sunday for a highly symbolic stop on his way to Canada, meeting the Arctic territory's leader and Denmark's prime minister aboard a Danish helicopter carrier.
Macron's office said the trip to Greenland is a reminder that Paris supports principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders as enshrined in the United Nations charter.
Macron, who is one of the few leaders to have known Trump during his first term, was the first European leader to visit the White House after Trump took office, emerging unscathed from the Oval Office encounter.
But despite the two leaders' sporadic alliance, Macron's approach to Trump has failed to bear major results, with France caught up in the president's planned tariffs on the European Union.
Nor did it bring any U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine despite Macron's efforts, together with Starmer, to build a coalition of nations that could deploy forces after any ceasefire with Russia, with the hope it would convince the Trump administration to provide backup.
Trump is scheduled to arrive late Sunday in Kananaskis, Alberta. Bilateral meetings among other leaders are possible Sunday, but the summit program does not get underway until Monday.
Peter Boehm, who managed Canada's 2018 Group of 7 summit in Quebec and is a veteran of six G-7 gatherings, expects the heads of state to pivot discussion to devote more time to the war.
'Leaders can accommodate a discussion, perhaps even a statement,' Boehm said. 'The foreign policy agenda has become much larger with this.'
Leaders who are not part of the G-7 but have been invited to the summit by Carney include the heads of state of India, Ukraine, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, Australia, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates. Avoiding tariffs will continue to be top of mind.
'Leaders, and there are some new ones coming, will want to meet Donald Trump,' Boehm said. 'Trump doesn't like the big roundtable as much he likes the one-on-one.'
Bilateral meetings with the American president can be fraught as Trump has used them to try to intimidate the leaders of Ukraine and South Africa.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien told a panel last week that if Trump does act out, leaders should ignore him and remain calm like Carney did in his recent Oval Office meeting.
'He tends to be a bully,' Chrétien said. 'If Trump has decided to make a show to be in the news, he will do something crazy. Let him do it and keep talking normally.'
Starmer had a warm Oval Office meeting with the president in February, wooing Trump with an invitation for a state visit from King Charles III. Trump has praised the British prime minister, despite their political differences.
Last month Britain and the U.S. announced they had struck a trade deal that will slash American tariffs on U.K. autos, steel and aluminum. It has yet to take effect, however, though British officials say they are not concerned the Trump administration might go back on its word.
Starmer's attempts to woo Trump have left him in an awkward position with Canada, the U.K.'s former colony, close ally and fellow Commonwealth member. Starmer has also drawn criticism — especially from Canadians — for failing to address Trump's stated desire to make Canada the 51st state.
Asked whether he has told Trump to stop the 51st-state threats, Starmer told the Associated Press: 'I'm not going to get into the precise conversations I've had, but let me be absolutely clear: Canada is an independent, sovereign country and a much-valued member of the Commonwealth.'
The war in Ukraine will also be on the agenda. President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to attend the summit and is expected to meet with Trump, a reunion coming just months after their bruising Oval Office encounter which laid bare the risks of having a meeting with the U.S. president.
Starmer met with Carney in Ottawa before the summit for talks focused on security and trade, in the first visit to Canada by a British prime minister in eight years.
German officials were keen to counter the suggestion that the summit would be a 'six against one' event, noting that the G-7 countries have plenty of differences of emphasis among themselves on various issues.
'The only problem you cannot forecast is what the president of the United States will do depending on the mood, the need to be in the news,' said Chrétien.
Gillies and Lawless write for the Associated Press and reported from Banff and Ottawa, respectively. AP writers Josh Boak in Calgary, Canada, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
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Associated Press
2 minutes ago
- Associated Press
ICE is using no-bid contracts, boosting big firms, to get more detention beds
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One pays $73 million to a company led by former federal immigration officials for 'immigration enforcement support teams' to handle administrative tasks, such as helping coordinate removals, triaging complaints or telling ICE if someone is a risk to community safety. Just last week , Geo Group announced that ICE modified a contract for an existing detention center in southeastern Georgia so that the company could reopen an idle prison on adjacent land to hold 1,868 migrants — and earn $66 million in annual revenue. 'Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services as we are seeing right now,' said CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger during an earnings call last month with shareholders. A tax-cutting and budget reconciliation measure approved last month by the House includes $45 billion over four years for immigrant detention, a threefold spending increase. The Senate is now considering that legislation. 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CoreCivic and Geo Group officials said last month on earnings calls that ICE used what are known as letter contracts, meant to speed things up when time is critical. Charles Tiefer, a contract expert and professor emeritus of law at the University of Baltimore Law School, said letter contracts normally are reserved for minor matters, not the big changes he sees ICE making to previous agreements. 'I think that a letter contract is a pathetic way to make big important contracts,' he said. A Kansas prison town becomes a priority CoreCivic's Leavenworth facility quickly became a priority for ICE and the company because of its central location. Leavenworth, with 37,000 residents, is only 10 miles (16 kilometers) to the west of the Kansas City International Airport. The facility would hold men and women and is within ICE's area of operations for Chicago, 420 miles (676 kilometers) to the northeast. 'That would mean that people targeted in the Chicago area and in Illinois would end up going to this facility down in Kansas,' said Jesse Franzblau, a senior policy analyst for the National Immigrant Justice Center. Prisons have long been an important part of Leavenworth's economy, employing hundreds of workers to guard prisoners held in two military facilities, the nation's first federal penitentiary, a Kansas correctional facility and a county jail within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of city hall. Resistance from Trump country The Leavenworth area's politics might have been expected to help CoreCivic. Trump carried its county by more than 20 percentage points in each of his three campaigns for president. But skeptical city officials argue that CoreCivic needs a special use permit to reopen its facility. CoreCivic disagrees, saying that it doesn't because it never abandoned the facility and that the permitting process would take too long. Leavenworth sued the company to force it to get one, and a state-court judge last week issued an order requiring it. An attorney for the city, Joe Hatley, said the legal fight indicates how much ill will CoreCivic generated when it held criminal suspects there for trials in federal court for the U.S. Marshals Service. In late 2021, CoreCivic stopped housing pretrial detainees in its Leavenworth facility after then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to curb the use of private prisons. In the months before the closure, the American Civil Liberties Union and federal public defenders detailed stabbings, suicides, a homicide and inmate rights violations in a letter to the White House. CoreCivic responded at the time that the claims were 'false and defamatory.' Vacancies among correctional officers were as high as 23%, according to a Department of Justice report from 2017. 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Counties often lease out jail space for immigrant detention, but ICE said some jurisdictions have passed ordinances barring that. ICE has used contract modifications to reopen shuttered lockups like the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall Facility in Newark, New Jersey, and a 2,500-bed facility in Dilley, Texas, offering no explanations why new, competitively bid contracts weren't sought. The Newark facility, with its own history of problems, resumed intakes May 1, and disorder broke out at the facility Thursday night. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who previously was arrested there and accused of trespassing, cited reports of a possible uprising, and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed four escapes. The contract modification for Dilley, which was built to hold families and resumed operations in March, calls its units 'neighborhoods' and gives them names like Brown Bear and Blue Butterfly. 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When CoreCivic announced its letter contracts, Joe Gomes, of the financial services firm Noble Capital Markets, responded with, 'Great news.' 'Are you hiding any more of them on us?' he asked. ___ Hanna reported from Topeka, Kan. Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Morgan Lee, in Santa Fe, N.M., contributed reporting.
Forbes
4 minutes ago
- Forbes
Israel's Strategy Against Iran: Will It Succeed?
As the Israel-Iran confrontation extends day after day, while officials claim it could last weeks, it's useful to take a dispassionate look at the goals and likely outcomes. Readers will recall that this columnist covered a comparable events on site in Israel a year or so ago. This after decades of covering the wider region for Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal. So, peering through the fog of war let us find areas of clarity where possible. This latest round of the conflict began with precision strikes by Israel successfully targeting top members of the Iranian regime's military and nuclear leadership. One should pause there a moment and put that in context. Russia and Iran ratified a security treaty in April which, inter alia, included Russian anti-aircraft defenses. Did they not function? What happened to their efficacy? If such a strategic treaty means anything it means at least defending the regime, if not the country. Russia doesn't want regime change in Iran - certainly not a Western-style democracy hostile to Moscow. There will undoubtedly be leaders in Tehran wondering about the value of the Russian alliance, its weapons and guarantees. Or indeed there will be suspicions of Russian perfidy - as happened over Syria. In the first days, Israel limited its attacks to military and nuclear affiliated leaders and sites. Moscow wouldn't (in private) necessarily mind that scenario - it would rather have a non-nuclear Iran on its southern borders anyway or at least one dependent on Russian nuclear installations. Plus Moscow would doubtless welcome the spike in oil prices that a regional conflict spurs - which indeed is happening now. The problem is that the momentum of events is turning into a test of the regime's legitimacy - that is to say, threatening the regime's power. The success of Israel's initial attacks meant Tehran had to respond. And not just as a piece of theatrical son et lumiere as happened last time when Israel got off virtually unscathed. But as Tehran fired back repeatedly and began to get through sporadically, Israel has widened the range of targets. Attacks on energy installations will certainly spike the price of oil. But damaging the regime's oil revenues, blacking out Tehran's electricity grid, and causing civilian disorder definitely weakens the government's grip on power. These latest additional targets, combined with the rising civilian casualties in Israel, constitute an escalation where both sides are striving to alienate the opposing side's public from its leadership. There is some media talk that Israel asked President Trump for permission to take out Supreme Leader Khamenei and Trump refused. This sounds implausible in its literal form. Did they ask permission before launching the attacks in the first place? And taking out other top leaders? If not, then why consult the US about Khamenei? No, it's more likely to be a form of subtle or not-so-subtle messaging - Trump kept Khamenei alive this time. In return, nuclear concessions should be forthcoming otherwise the US might not be able to restrain the Israelis next time. This exact strategy, scaled up, is likely the core calculation of Israel's strategy for the full-scale renewal of hostilities. Why suddenly attack a number of nuclear installations if you can't take them all out in a first strike or after several strikes? Iran has nuclear plants buried deep inside mountains, inaccessible to air strikes and others that would, if flattened, contaminate large areas of the Persian Gulf. Including Arab states potentially friendly to the US and Israel. Short of a ground attack with US troops included, these parts of Iran's nuclear network are to some degree invulnerable. So why then launch the attacks in the first place? The answer lies in the Khamenei protocol above. Remember that top nuclear and military personnel were also neutralized in the first strikes. In other words, because the installations cannot all be destroyed, those responsible for them can and will be. In short, this is a kind of anti-personnel war disguised as a strategic anti-infrastructure campaign. Israel has repeatedly shown that it can knock out vital component parts of hostile leadership from Hezbollah to Iran. That is the nature of this latest Israeli casus belli too. Nuclear and military officials will either negotiate away Iran's nuclear threat or they themselves will pay. The principle applies equally to Khamenei himself. Time will tell if the regime leaders react as desired. Thus far, it seems not. Iran's counterstrikes at Israel and the widening of the domestic damage in each country suggests that a much longer attritional struggle to induce regime change by each side is on the cards.
Washington Post
4 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Israel condemns black partition walls around its pavilions at Paris Air Show
PARIS — French authorities ordered black partition walls erected around some Israeli defense industry exhibits at the Paris Air Show, a move denounced by Israel's Defense Ministry, which demanded an immediate reversal. A French appeals court had ruled Friday against activist groups who sought to block Israeli companies from participating in the show due to the war in Gaza. The Paris Air Show , held at Le Bourget north of Paris, is one of the world's largest and most prestigious events for the aerospace and defense industry.
