The Hotel du Palais venue for the G7 Summit in the French coastal resort of Biarritz. Reuters
The Hotel du Palais venue for the G7 Summit in the French coastal resort of Biarritz. Reuters
The Hotel du Palais venue for the G7 Summit in the French coastal resort of Biarritz. Reuters
The Hotel du Palais venue for the G7 Summit in the French coastal resort of Biarritz. Reuters

Protesters kept at bay as divided G7 leaders head to seaside


Paul Peachey
  • English
  • Arabic

US president Donald Trump’s assault on the established global order is set to resume this weekend as disputes over climate change, trade and Iran further erode the decades-long consensus among the world’s richest nations.

Leaders of the G7 nations will gather at the upmarket French coastal resort of Biarritz protected by more than 13,000 security officials to prevent disruption from environmental and anti-capitalist protesters.

The greatest discord, however, is expected at the five-star Hotel du Palais where Mr Trump’s global vision is set to be challenged in the luxurious salons by other leaders from the 44-year-old elite club of nations.

Mr Trump is likely to hear a largely unified message on Iran from the other delegates, including the European Union, France and Germany, who are seeking to reduce tensions with Tehran but are unlikely to secure any concessions from the US, said analysts.

Further rifts over trade and climate change – the topic championed by conference host, French President Emmanuel Macron – also appear unlikely to be bridged.

Political chaos in Italy, the absence on medical grounds of Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU’s most senior official, and the Brexit spat between the bloc and G7 debutant Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, has added to the sense of pessimism.

“Success will be to not make things worse,” said Dr Tristen Naylor, a G7 expert at the London School of Economics. “The G7 has gone from being an organisation that drives global governance into one fighting a rearguard action against the dismantling of the western rules-based order.”

The last two summits have been dominated by Mr Trump’s wrecking-ball global diplomacy after he refused to back climate change commitments in 2017 and then last year declined to sign up to the traditional final joint statement.

The meeting is likely to end again without the traditional joint statement owing to disagreements between member nations over trade, a Japanese government official told Reuters.

France has put protection of the environment at the heart of this year’s summit in what is seen as a direct rebuke to Mr Trump.

Mr Macron has sought to fill the hole left by US climate change scepticism by leading the charge for multinational action against global warming.

But Mr Macron faces protests from protesters who claim that his actions have failed to live up to the pledges he made.

Activists plan a parade on Sunday brandishing some 127 portraits of the president snatched from town halls across France in a “take down Macron” protest. More than 50 people are scheduled to go on trial for their roles in the portrait snatch.

“He is seen as the world champion of the earth but in fact he is not taking concrete action,” said Pauline Boyer, a spokeswoman for the protesters.

They will protest in the neighbouring town of Bayonne, owing to the tight security cordon placed around the conference venues in Biarritz. Police will be backed up by soldiers and drones to ensure they are unable to confront the world leaders.

Biarritz’s airport and station will both be closed, streets barricaded, the main beach closed to the public and residents forced to show badges to access their homes.

“We will not tolerate any serious trouble,” French interior minister Christophe Castaner told reporters.

Violent anti-government "Yellow Vest" protests convulsed Paris and towns and cities across France late last year and the first half of 2019, challenging Mr Macron's authority and forcing some policy reversals. Rights groups accused the police of excessive force in their handling of the unrest.

The US president has already caused waves before the meeting by suggesting that Russia should be re-introduced to the G7 group – France, the US, Britain, Germany, Canada, Japan and Italy - after its expulsion in 2013 for the invasion of the Crimea. Seven other nations, including Egypt, have also been invited to take part at Biarritz.

The conference comes with Mr Trump at odds with the EU over its handling of the tanker crisis in the Gulf and the seizure of an Iranian-owned tanker, the Grace 1, by British marines off the coast of Gibraltar.

A Gibraltar judge ordered the ship to be released last week after refusing a US request to continue the detention of the ship.

The crisis has meant that Mr Trump is unlikely to be in a position to give ground at this week’s G7, said Sanam Vakil a senior research fellow in the Middle East North Africa programme at the Chatham House thinktank.

“Iran will be on the G7 agenda. Mr Macron is trying to lead the charge on Iran and would like to obtain an agreement from the Trump administration and the Iranians to freeze the current tensions,” she said.

“That’s something that will be very hard to achieve this weekend. It’s a bit early to expect a big shift in the US position. President Trump is really focusing on his re-election.”

ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

'Nope'
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UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

ICC T20 Team of 2021

Jos Buttler, Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, David Miller, Tabraiz Shamsi, Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mustafizur Rahman, Shaheen Afridi

SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EProcessor%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Apple%20M3%2C%208-core%20CPU%2C%20up%20to%2010-core%20CPU%2C%2016-core%20Neural%20Engine%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDisplay%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2013.6-inch%20Liquid%20Retina%2C%202560%20x%201664%2C%20224ppi%2C%20500%20nits%2C%20True%20Tone%2C%20wide%20colour%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EMemory%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%208%2F16%2F24GB%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStorage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20256%2F512GB%20%2F%201%2F2TB%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EI%2FO%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Thunderbolt%203%2FUSB-4%20(2)%2C%203.5mm%20audio%2C%20Touch%20ID%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EConnectivity%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Wi-Fi%206E%2C%20Bluetooth%205.3%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBattery%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2052.6Wh%20lithium-polymer%2C%20up%20to%2018%20hours%2C%20MagSafe%20charging%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECamera%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201080p%20FaceTime%20HD%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EVideo%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Support%20for%20Apple%20ProRes%2C%20HDR%20with%20Dolby%20Vision%2C%20HDR10%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EAudio%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204-speaker%20system%2C%20wide%20stereo%2C%20support%20for%20Dolby%20Atmos%2C%20Spatial%20Audio%20and%20dynamic%20head%20tracking%20(with%20AirPods)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EColours%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Midnight%2C%20silver%2C%20space%20grey%2C%20starlight%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EIn%20the%20box%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20MacBook%20Air%2C%2030W%2F35W%20dual-port%2F70w%20power%20adapter%2C%20USB-C-to-MagSafe%20cable%2C%202%20Apple%20stickers%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh4%2C599%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Six pitfalls to avoid when trading company stocks

Following fashion

Investing is cyclical, buying last year's winners often means holding this year's losers.

Losing your balance

You end up with too much exposure to an individual company or sector that has taken your fancy.

Being over active

If you chop and change your portfolio too often, dealing charges will eat up your gains.

Running your losers

Investors hate admitting mistakes and hold onto bad stocks hoping they will come good.

Selling in a panic

If you sell up when the market drops, you have locked yourself out of the recovery.

Timing the market

Even the best investor in the world cannot consistently call market movements.

2017%20RESULTS%3A%20FRENCH%20VOTERS%20IN%20UK
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ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

Manchester City transfers:

OUTS
Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy, Willy Caballero and Jesus Navas (all released)

INS
Ederson (Benfica) £34.7m, Bernardo Silva (Monaco) £43m 

ON THEIR WAY OUT?
Joe Hart, Eliaquim Mangala, Samir Nasri, Wilfried Bony, Fabian Delph, Nolito and Kelechi Iheanacho

ON THEIR WAY IN?
Dani Alves (Juventus), Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)