International news

BIARRITZ, France — It's the seaside summit of seven truths.

Gathered for their annual pow-wow in the French coastal city of Biarritz this weekend, leaders of the G7 club of rich democracies agreed that Russia should not be invited back into the fold. Or maybe they didn't.

The leaders also decided that their host, French President Emmanuel Macron, would issue a joint statement to Iran on their behalf and pursue discussions to de-escalate tensions. Or actually, they didn't. U.S. President Donald Trump told perplexed reporters that each G7 country would pursue its own dialogue with Tehran.

And as the political titans of the industrialized world chit-chatted about the fragile global economy, amid the breeze blowing in off the Bay of Biscay, apparently the prospects for a deal on Brexit somehow magically improved. Or perhaps that was just a bit of wishful thinking — if not outright distortion — by new U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson. EU officials said after a meeting between Johnson and European Council President Donald Tusk that absolutely nothing had changed.

Welcome to big-league global diplomacy in 2019 — where everything is at stake and yet nothing is certain and no one can be trusted, at least not without extensive corroboration. And that's largely down to Trump and Macron.

Welcome to big-league global diplomacy in 2019 — where everything is at stake and yet nothing is certain and no one can be trusted, at least not without extensive corroboration. And that's largely down to Trump and Macron.

WASHINGTON – With U.S.-China trade talks at a near-standstill, President Donald Trump escalated the long-running trade war Thursday by saying he will put a "small additional tariff" of 10% on another $300 billion in Chinese products.

Despite the additional penalty, the latest in a drawn-out trade war with the Chinese, Trump said on Twitter that "we look forward to continuing our positive dialogue with China on a comprehensive Trade Deal."

The new tariffs will take effect Sept. 1, Trump said, though he has changed his mind after making similar threats in the past.

U.S. markets fell by hundreds of points immediately after Trump's announcement on Twitter.

A U.S. team of trade negotiators returned from China this week. A Chinese delegation is scheduled to visit the United States in September for more talks of a new trade agreement. The parties had broken off talks in May due to a series of disputes.

Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to resume negotiations during a bilateral meeting at the G-20 summit in late June. At that time, Trump said he would hold off on further tariffs pending the new negotiations.

The two countries remain at odds over issues that include protections for intellectual property, forced technology transfers to the Chinese, non-tariff barriers, agriculture, services, the trade deficit, and enforcement of new trade rules, the White House said in a statement. 

Speaking with reporters after his tariff tweet, Trump said he likes Xi, but the Chinese president is "not moving fast enough" on a new trade deal.

Defending the tariffs, Trump again protested what he called unfair Chinese trade practices, citing currency devaluation in particular. "China, for the last 20 years, has been taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of our country," the president said.

Trump made his latest tariff decision after a morning meeting with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer about the recent talks in China.