Trump Plays Down Iran-Israel Truce as He Leaves G-7 Early
Donald Trump abruptly exited the G-7 summit in Canada, deepening questions about the US president's promise to bring peace. Stephanie Lai explains. (Source: Bloomberg)
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Hamilton Spectator
4 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
G7 summit ends without joint communiqué, but Canada, India reach diplomatic truce
KANANASKIS - Canada failed to rally the U.S. to voice the same support for Ukraine as European and Japanese allies, but ended the G7 summit in Alberta on Tuesday with an agreement with India to restore top diplomats in both countries. The G7 summit came to a close after the group's leaders issued a series of joint statements on key priorities. As expected, the leaders did not issue a joint communiqué, the lengthy statement outlining shared views that typically ends G7 summits. Instead, there were several statements on individual issues ranging from transnational repression and migrant smuggling to AI and quantum technology. There was no joint statement on the war in Ukraine, even though Prime Minister Mark Carney had made support for the country one of the summit's key discussion topics on Tuesday, inviting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend the event in person. A senior Canadian government official — who briefed reporters at the G7 on background — said the U.S. was offside with the other countries on Ukraine and sought weaker language than what the other members proposed. Canada planned to use the language the other countries agreed to in its closing chair's statement. Ottawa did not want to release a weak statement, the official said. The official said that it was challenging to get the U.S. to agree on a statement on Ukraine in part because Washington is trying to negotiate a ceasefire or peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Carney outlined $4.3 billion in new Canadian support for Ukraine's defence and another set of sanctions on Russia as he met with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the G7 summit on Tuesday morning. That sum includes $2 billion for the purchase and donation of weapons and matériel, along with a $2.3-billion loan to help the embattled country rebuild its infrastructure, to be repaid by interest on frozen Russian assets. French President Emmanuel Macron said Carney fulfilled his mission as G7 host by preserving the unity of the multilateral organization. 'We shouldn't ask the Canadian presidency to resolve every issue on earth today. That would be unfair. But he held the group together,' said Macron, who will host the G7 next year. The G7 leaders note they are 'deeply concerned by growing reports of transnational repression,' defined in the statement as an aggressive form of foreign interference which sees states or their proxies try to intimidate, harass, harm or coerce people outside their borders. The statement condemns all forms of transnational repression, which can include activities ranging from cyber-surveillance to assassination. It says a G7 initiative led by Canada that tracks online misinformation and threats to democracy, the Rapid Response Mechanism, will have its public reports include updates on transnational repression, and that the group will co-ordinate ways to counter those threats. The statement was published just before Carney met with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, whose government has been singled out by Canadian intelligence officials as a prolific perpetrator of foreign interference in Canada, including transnational repression. As their bilateral meeting began Tuesday, Carney said it was 'a great honour' to host Prime Minister Modi at the G7. 'It's a testament to the importance of your country, to your leadership, and to the importance of the issues that we look to tackle together,' Carney said, noting those issues include the energy transition, the future of AI and the fight against transnational repression and terrorism. Speaking through a translator, Modi said attending the G7 summit offers a great opportunity to serve the world. 'I believe that India-Canada relations are extremely important, and India and Canada should work together,' Modi said, noting that the two countries share democratic values. Following their meeting, Carney's office said the two leaders agreed to designate new high commissioners and restore regular diplomatic services to citizens in both countries. In 2023 and 2024, former prime minister Justin Trudeau and the RCMP said there was evidence linking agents of the Indian government to the murder of Canadian Sikh separatist activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., in June 2023. Last October, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said the Mounties had evidence linking Indian government officials to other crimes in Canada, including extortion, coercion and homicide. Later that month, Canada announced it had expelled six Indian diplomats who refused to waive their diplomatic immunity in order to participate in the RCMP investigation — including the high commissioner. India expelled the acting Canadian high commissioner in New Delhi and five other Canadian diplomats in response, and the posts have remained vacant since then. Carney's decision to invite Modi to the G7 drew criticism from some Sikh organizations in Canada. The G7 leaders also signed on to a statement pledging to tackle migrant smuggling, including by exploring the potential use of sanctions to target criminals involved in migrant smuggling and human trafficking operations. Another statement pledged to explore ways to benefit public services using artificial intelligence, including a Canadian initiative to 'increase government efficiency' at a time when Ottawa and most G7 peers seek to cut back spending on their civil service. A wider group of signatories, which includes Australia, India and South Korea, is committing to working together to invest in responsible critical minerals projects. Australia, India, Mexico, South Korea and South Africa also signed on with the G7 to a wildfire charter that calls for co-operation to prevent, fight and recover from devastating fires. The G7 leaders did release a statement Monday evening calling for a de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East in response to continued fighting between Israel and Iran. That came shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump announced he planned to leave the summit a day early to deal with the ongoing crisis. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained in Kananaskis on Tuesday as the American delegation's lead. — With files from Emilie Bergeron in Kananaskis and Sarah Ritchie in Ottawa This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2025. Note to readers:This is a corrected story. A previous version said that the G7 leaders could reach agreement on a statement about the ongoing war in Ukraine. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
New York Times
13 minutes ago
- New York Times
Federal Judge Certifies Class Action for Transgender People Seeking Passports
A federal judge in Boston granted class-action status to transgender and nonbinary Americans on Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging a U.S. State Department policy that requires passports to reflect only the holder's sex recorded on their original birth certificate. The order extends a preliminary injunction blocking the State Department from enforcing the policy against six plaintiffs to apply to all class members who apply for or update passports while the case proceeds. In the earlier order from April, U.S. District Judge Julia E. Kobick concluded that the passport policy likely violates the Fifth Amendment's equal protection guarantee because it discriminates based on sex and is 'rooted in irrational prejudice toward transgender Americans.' The State Department filed an appeal of the preliminary injunction last week. The government maintains that it has a strong interest in passports that accurately reflect the holder's sex. The State Department adopted the new policy earlier this year to comply with an executive order from President Trump directing all government agencies to limit official recognition of transgender identity and mandating that federal documents reflect what it termed the 'immutable biological classification as either male or female.' In court documents, plaintiffs argued that a mismatch between the sex listed on their passport and their gender identity puts them at risk of suspicion and hostility that other Americans do not face. During the first weeks of Mr. Trump's administration, several plaintiffs received passports with an 'F' or 'M' marker contrary to the one they had requested. Another learned that selecting an 'X' marker, indicating a nonbinary gender identity, was no longer an option, though it had been allowed since 2022. The government argued against certifying trans and nonbinary passport holders as a legal class in the case, contending that gender identity is subjective and that a class-wide injunction would create an undue administrative burden. Judge Kobick, who was nominated by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., found that those claims did not outweigh significant harm faced by transgender and nonbinary passport holders. She noted that plaintiffs in the case had described being forced to 'effectively 'out' themselves every time they presented their passports,' leading to anxiety and fear safety fears. 'These are the types of injuries that cannot adequately be measured or compensated by money damages or a later-issued remedy,'' she wrote.
Fox News
18 minutes ago
- Fox News
Thune warns Iran should return to negotiating table 'if they're smart'
FIRST ON FOX: Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., doesn't envision, nor want, the U.S. military becoming directly involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran, but that hinges on whether the Islamic Republic rejoins the negotiating table. "Dismantling Iran's nuclear program is what this is all about," Thune told Fox News Digital from his office in the Capitol. "And that can happen one of two ways. It can happen diplomatically — voluntarily — or can happen via force." Thune's comments come as questions and concerns swirl on Capitol Hill among lawmakers about whether the U.S. will take a bigger, more direct role in the burgeoning conflict in the Middle East. There are active conversations among senators about what role Congress should play in whether to thrust the U.S. into an armed conflict or if that power should be ceded to the president. "The Israelis may not have the military capability to do everything that's necessary," he continued. "If the Iranians are smart, they'll come to the table and negotiate this in a way in which they choose to end or disavow their nuclear program." Israel and Iran traded missile strikes for a fifth day following the Jewish State's late-night strike last Thursday, where critical infrastructure that would aid Iran in its pursuit of creating a nuclear weapon was damaged or destroyed. Notably, Israel has been unable to damage the heavily fortified Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Bipartisan resolutions requiring that Congress gets to weigh in and take a vote on going to war with Iran and disavowing an armed conflict entirely have circulated this week, while some lawmakers believe that the U.S. should go all in to snuff out Iran's nuclear capabilities and back up Israel as fighting rages. President Donald Trump has so far refused to say whether the U.S. would use direct military force to prevent Iran from creating or obtaining a nuclear weapon, and he has continued to urge Iranian leaders to negotiate a nuclear deal. Still, the president met in the White House's Situation Room on Tuesday with his National Security Team after leaving the G7 Summit in Canada early. Ahead of that meeting, he said on his social media platform, Truth Social, "We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran." In that same post, he noted that the U.S. was aware of where Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was "hiding," but was not prepared to strike, "at least not for now." But Thune was more cautious, and contended that "we'll wait and see what they do." "I think right now, they're definitely on their heels," he said. "Their command and control has been taken out. Nobody knows who's really in charge." "We'll see. If they're smart, they'll come to the table." However, he hoped to see Iranians begin to rise up against the Ayatollah and believed that's when the "seeds of change" would begin to appear. He also noted that there are "a lot of things here that suggest to me, this may be that moment in time that we haven't seen since 1979," a reference to the Iranian Revolution that saw the overthrow of the monarchy in Iran and the subsequent creation of the Islamic Republic. Asked whether lawmakers would put forward a supplemental spending package to further aid Israel, Thune said, "We'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it." But he envisioned that if one were necessary, it would be dealt with after the budget reconciliation process, when lawmakers work to fund the government during fiscal 2026 appropriations. "I think, for right now, everybody is wishing the Israelis success and, again, hoping that the U.S. doesn't have to get further involved, but realizing what's at stake, and not only for Israel but for the region and the world," he said.
