TWENTY FORTH DAY
US-China trade talks back on track, says Trump
President says US will not impose further tariffs after meeting with Xi Jinping at G20
Donald Trump has declared US trade negotiations with China to be “right back on track” after a highly
anticipated meeting with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka.
Trump said the US would not impose further tariffs in a trade war that other world leaders have warned
could threaten the global economy, and added that the world’s two biggest economies would restart
negotiations on a trade deal.
The US president told a press conference that he and his Chinese counterpart had had a “great
meeting”.
“We will continue to negotiate, and I promise that at least for the time being we won’t be adding
additional [tariffs] … We’re going to work with China to see if we can make a deal. China will consult
with us and will be buying a tremendous amount of food and agricultural products, and they’re going to
start doing that almost immediately.”
He had said at the start of the meeting that he was open to a “historic fair trade deal” with China. “We
are totally open to it,” he told Xi, who called for “cooperation and dialogue” instead of confrontation.
Trump added: “We want to do some things that will even it up with respect to trade. We were very close
but something happened where it slipped up a little bit,” he added, in a reference to the failure of
previous talks.
In a G20 declaration issued at the end of the two-day summit, the leaders avoided criticism of Trump-
style protectionism but committed themselves to realising “free, fair and non-discriminatory” trade and
to “keep our markets open”.
Fears of a protracted trade war that could put other countries, including Japan, in Washington’s
crosshairs have overshadowed the summit.
Trump had threatened to extend existing tariffs to cover almost all imports from China to the US unless
Beijing made progress in meeting US demands for economic reforms.
Their trade dispute escalated when talks collapsed in May after Washington accused Beijing of
reneging on reform pledges. Trump raised tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200bn of Chinese goods, and
China retaliated with levies on US imports.
The Trump-Xi meeting came hours after the European Union and the South American trade bloc,
Mercosur, sealed a free trade deal after two decades of negotiations.
The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said: “In the midst of international trade
tensions, we are sending today a strong signal with our Mercosur partners that we stand for rules-
based trade.”
Fears that disagreement over the climate crisis could sink the G20 declaration were overcome with a
compromise that again left the US isolated in international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
All G20 nations except the US reiterated their determination to implement the Paris agreement, noting
in a separate clause that Washington intended to withdraw from the agreement “because it
disadvantages American workers and taxpayers”.
The lack of progress on the climate emergency, despite it being flagged as a priority by the summit’s
Japanese hosts, drew an angry reaction from campaigners.
Kimiko Hirata, international director of the Kiko Network, said Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, had
“raised expectations that he would use this G20 moment to take bold action for the planet. Instead,
Japan hid behind the Trump administration and didn’t try to build a clear majority of support for climate
action and lower ambitions.
“Prime Minister Abe and other G20 leaders need to get serious about their climate commitments and
make sure they don’t show up empty-handed for the climate action summit in September.”
US-China trade: Trump says tariffs on Beijing may linger
This article is more than 3 months old
‘We have to make sure that if we do the deal, China lives by it,’ says president ahead of
resumption of trade talks
Donald Trump has warned that the United States may leave tariffs on Chinese goods for a “substantial
period” to ensure that Beijing complies with any trade agreement, while later emphasizing he wanted
them to reach a “great” trade deal.
Trade talks are set to resume next week and Chinese officials have been pressing for a full lifting of US
tariffs as part of any deal.
Trump said his top negotiators, US trade representative Robert Lighthizerand treasury secretary Steven
Mnuchin, would leave for Beijing this weekend, confirming plans for talks next week disclosed on
Tuesday by an administration official.
The face-to-face talks will be the first since Trump delayed a 1 March deadline to avert a rise in tariffs
on $200bn-worth of Chinese imports to 25% from the current 10%.
“The deal is coming along nicely,” Trump said to reporters at the White House, adding that
the China trip was intended “to further the deal.”
But when asked about lifting US tariffs on Chinese goods, Trump said: “We’re not talking about
removing them. We’re talking about leaving them for a substantial period of time because we have to
make sure that if we do the deal, China lives by it.”
Trump did not elaborate on his plans for the tariffs. His negotiators have demanded that China agree to
an enforcement mechanism to ensure that Beijing follows through on any reform pledges in any deal.
Later in a speech in Ohio at a military tank-manufacturing plant, Trump said: “We’re so far down, it’s got
to be a great deal. If it’s not a great deal, you never catch up.”
Washington is demanding that China end practices it says force the transfer of American technology to
Chinese companies, improve access for American companies to China’s markets, and curb industrial
subsidies.
Since July 2018 the United States has imposed duties on $250bn of Chinese imports, including $50bn
in technology and industrial goods, at 25%, and $200bn in other products including furniture and
construction materials, at 10%. China has hit back with tariffs on about $110bn of US goods including
soybeans and other commodities.
The eight-month trade war between the world’s two largest economies has raised costs, roiled financial
markets, shrunk US farm exports and disrupted manufacturing supply chains.
Heatwave cooks mussels in their shells on California shore
Temperatures lead to what appears to be largest local die-off in 15 years, raising fears for
broader ecosystem
In all her years working at Bodega Bay, the marine reserve research coordinator Jackie Sones had
never seen anything like it: scores of dead mussels on the rocks, their shells gaping and scorched, their
meats thoroughly cooked.
A record-breaking June heatwave apparently caused the largest die-off of mussels in at least 15 years
at Bodega Head, a small headland on the northern California bay. And Sones received reports from
other researchers of similar mass mussel deaths at various beaches across roughly 140 miles of
coastline.
While the people who flocked to the Pacific to enjoy a rare 80F beach day soaked up the sun, so did
the mussel beds – where the rock-bound mollusks could have been experiencing temperatures above
100F at low tide, literally roasting in their shells.
Sones expects the die-off to affect the rest of the seashore ecosystem. “Mussels are known as a
foundation species. The equivalent are the trees in a forest – they provide shelter and habitat for a lot of
animals, so when you impact that core habitat it ripples throughout the rest of the system,” said Sones.
“I would expect that this actually impacted the entire region, it’s just that you would have to have people
out there to document it to know,” said Sones.
Years of research into ocean health has focused on rising water temperatures and the effects of
acidification on marine life. Kelp and coral are suffering in warmer waters, starfish are melting, and
shellfish are breaking down.
But there is less data on the impacts of these kinds of one-off extreme weather events in the open
coastal air. The Northeastern University marine ecologist Brian Helmuth designed a robot mussel that
can measure and log temperatures as the animal would experience them.
“We no longer think of climate change in the future when we do this kind of forecasting work,” Helmuth
told BayNature. “It’s how do you prepare for it now.”
The University of British Columbia biologist Christopher Harley documented a mussel cook-off at
Bodega Head in 2004, but he and Sones believe this one was probably bigger.
“These events are definitely becoming more frequent, and more severe,” said Harley, citing diminishing
mussel beds along the west coast, up to British Columbia. “Mussels are one of the canaries in the coal
mine for climate change, only this canary provides food and habitat for hundreds of other species.”
France records all-time highest temperature of 45.9C
Record for mainland France falls in southern commune of Gallargues-le-Montueux as Europe
swelters in heatwave
What is causing the European heatwave?
France recorded temperatures nearly two degrees higher than its previous record and firefighters
continued to battle historic wildfires in Spain as much of western Europe remained in the grip of an
extreme early-summer heatwave on Friday.
The French state weather forecaster, Météo-France, said the temperature in Gallargues-le-Montueux in
the Gard département hit 45.9C at 4.20pm on Friday.
The previous 2003 record of 44.1C was beaten twice before on Friday: first when the southeastern
town of Carpentras reached 44.3C, then hours later when Villevieille, in Provence, hit 45.1C.
“This is historic,” a Météo-France meteorologist, Etienne Kapikian, said. “It’s the first time a temperature
in excess of 45C has ever been recorded in France.”
In Germany, the national DWD weather service said overall June temperatures were more than four
degrees higher than historic averages for the month and 0.4C higher than the 2003 June average, the
warmest since records began in 1881.
The World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva said 2019 was now firmly on course to be among the
world’s hottest ever years and that 2015-2019 would then become the hottest five-year period on
record.
While it was too soon to definitely attribute the Europe’s current blistering heatwave, which began on
Monday, to climate change, it was “absolutely consistent” with extremes linked to the impact of
greenhouse gas emissions, the UN agency said.
“Heatwaves will become more intense, they will become more drawn out, they will become more
extreme, they will start earlier and they will finish later,” the WMO spokeswoman, Clare Nullis, told
journalists.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said extreme weather would become more frequent as a
result of global warming. “We will need to change our set-up, our way of working, build differently,” he
said, stressing a necessary “adaptation of society and its habits”.
Quick guide
How global heating is causing more extreme weather
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Four administrative départements in France – Vaucluse, Gard, Hérault and Bouches-du-Rhône – were
placed on red alert, signalling temperatures of “dangerous intensity” that are more typical of Saudi
Arabia.
About 4,000 schools were closed in France as head teachers warned they could not guarantee safe
conditions, local authorities cancelled many end-of-school-year carnivals, and nursing homes equipped
the elderly with hydration sensors.
“This heat wave is exceptional by its intensity and how early it is,” the prime minister, Edouard Philippe,
said, defending authorities’ efforts to avoid a repeat of the notorious 2003 heatwave which caused
15,000 premature deaths.
“I want to appeal to the sense of responsibility of citizens - there are avoidable deaths in every
heatwave,” Philippe said. “Measures have been taken for the most vulnerable people but given the
intensity of the heat wave, it’s the entire population who must be careful today ... both for oneself and
for loved ones and neighbours.”
The French health minister, Agnès Buzyn, warned people tempted to plunge into cold water to do so
only in designated public bathing areas, adding that four people had drowned since the beginning of the
week.
A six-year-old child was also in life-threatening condition after being hit by water shooting from an
illegally opened fire hydrant in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, French media reported.
French families with elderly relatives who were ill or living alone were advised to call or visit them twice
a day and take them to cool places, while the state-run rail operator SNCF offered free cancellations or
exchanges on long-distance trips.
The greater Paris region, Ile de France, had already banned more than half of cars from its roads in an
effort to reduce air pollution and the cities of Lyon, Strasbourg and Marseille have also restricted traffic.
With temperatures in parts of Spain expected to hit a new June record of 43C, the Spanish
meteorological office issued red alerts in parts of Catalonia, Navarre and the Basque country.
Hundreds of firefighters in Catalonia continued to battle to bring a large wildfire under control which has
so far burned through 6,500 hectares of land and could consume as many as 20,000ha.
A 17-year-old Spanish boy died from heatstroke in the early hours of Friday after having convulsions
when he jumped into a swimming pool to cool down, while an 80-year-old man died on Thursday after
collapsing from what is thought to have been heatstroke in the city of Valladolid.
Italy put 16 cities under alerts for high temperatures, and civil security services distributed water to
tourists visiting famed sites around Rome under a scorching sun and in Berlin, a police unit turned
water cannon usually used against rioters on city trees to cool them down.
As Germans attempted to cool off amid scorching temperatures, at least four people died in bathing
accidents in different parts of the country on Wednesday. Parts of Britain were expected to experience
high temperatureson Saturday, with a high of 32C forecast for London.
How have you been affected?
As extreme heatwave conditions and wildfires put parts of Europe on alert, we would like to hear from
you. Tell us what is happening where you are and how your area and community has been affected
using the form below. We may contact you for more info and will feature some of your contributions as
part of our reporting.
Though we’d like to hear from you, your safety and security is most important. When responding please
make sure you put your safety and the safety of others first. Extreme weather events can be very
unpredictable and carry very real risks.
German far-right group 'used police data to compile death list'
Activists linked to military and police suspected of preparing terror attack, reports say
A group of German rightwing extremists compiled a “death list” of leftwing and pro-refugee targets by
accessing police records, then stockpiled weapons and ordered body bags and quicklime to kill and
dispose of their victims, German media have reported, citing intelligence sources.
Germany’s general prosecutor had been investigating Nordkreuz (Northern Cross) since August 2017
on the suspicion the group was preparing a terrorist attack.
The 30-odd members of the group reportedly had close links to the police and military, and at least one
member was still employed in the special commando unit of the state office of criminal investigations.
In the past, Nordkreuz was reported as being part of the “prepper” survivalist movement, whose
followers prepare for doomsday scenarios such as the collapse of the prevailing social order.
However, a report by RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, a Hanover-based research agency with links
to smaller regional newspapers, suggested the group was actively preparing the ground for a mass
attack on political enemies.
Members communicated via the encrypted messenger service Telegram, and accessed police
computers to collect almost 25,000 names and addresses of local politicians who had played an active
part in civic efforts during the refugee crisis in 2015, the report said.
Party members from the SPD, the Greens, Die Linke and Angela Merkel’s CDU were reportedly on the
list, which focused on local politics in the eastern states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and
Brandenburg.
The group had also allegedly ordered 200 body bags and quicklime, which can be used to speed up the
decay of a corpse and cover up its smell.
Three members of Nordkreuz were being separately investigated by a prosecutor in Schwerin for illegal
possession of more than 10,000 bullets as well as long- and short-range weapons.
The group is said to deny having planned the murder of the people on the lists.
The report came a few weeks after the murder of a pro-refugee politician by a rightwing extremist, and
amid a growing debate about whether Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, has
underestimated the threat posed by the militant far right.
Thursday’s annual BfV report noted a slight fall in the number of offences by extreme right groups
registered in 2018, but also a rise in the number of violent crimes committed by these groups.
Overall numbers of sympathisers for extremist positions on the far right, the far left and in Islamism had
all slightly increased over the last year, the report noted.
It made no mention of Nordkreuz, fuelling criticism that the agency had been turning a blind eye to the
threat of neo-Nazi terrorism.
Earlier this week, the detained far-right extremist Stephan Ernst confessed to murdering the CDU
politician Walter Lübcke. The head of the Kassel regional government was found dead outside his
house on 2 June.
Two more men were arrested over the case on Thursday, one for selling the weapon allegedly used in
the killing, the other on suspicion of setting up the contact between the gun-seller and Ernst.
Ernst reportedly admitted being incensed by Lübcke’s comments at a town hall meeting he had
attended in October 2015. At the meeting, held to discuss a new asylum seeker shelter, Lübcke said:
“One has to stand up for values here. And those who don’t do so can leave this country any time if they
don’t like it. That’s the freedom of every German.”
