US President Donald Trump clashed with his western allies over trade and climate change on Friday at what one EU leader described as one of the most challenging meetings of the G7 in years.
The gathering on the Italian island of Sicily agreed to step up efforts to fight terrorism in the wake of the suicide bombing in the English city of Manchester on Monday in which 22 people died, including pressing the world’s big tech companies such as Google and Facebook to do more to suppress terrorist content.
But remarks by Mr Trump on the eve of the meeting in Taormina attacking Germany’s trade surplus with the US and his refusal to swing behind the 2015 Paris agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions soured the atmosphere at what are usually carefully choreographed shows of unity by the leaders of the world’s leading industrialised countries.