G7 Summit

Mhmmmm my dear friend Angela posted picture this on her official Instagram yesterday. Which is in itself an example of when a picture tells us more than a thousand words.

The Guardian informs us:

"Donald Trump has left the G7 network of global cooperation in disarray after he pulled the US out of a previously agreed summit communique (my embolding), blaming the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau whom he derided as “dishonest and weak”.

The US president, who arrived at the summit in Canada late and left early to fly to Singapore to prepare for his summit with Kim Jong-un, shocked fellow leaders with a bellicose press conference on Saturday in which he attacked the trade policies of other countries." 

Today Reuters published this.

PARIS (Reuters) - France and Europe are maintaining their support for the Group of Seven communique and anyone departing from the commitments made at the summit would be showing their “incoherence and inconsistency”, a French presidency official told Reuters.

The official was reacting after U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement on Saturday that he was backing out of the G7 communique drawn up at a summit in Canada.

“International cooperation cannot depend on being angry and on sound bites. Let’s be serious,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added.

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As I've said before, we live in exciting - if not downright scary - times! Then again, simply the thought of Trump, Putin, Xi and Kim in an unholy alliance is terrifying.

Gorblimey!

Pope Francis on Sunday called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, saying the commandment "You shall not kill" was absolute and equally valid for the guilty as for the innocent.

Using some of his strongest words ever against capital punishment, he also called on Catholic politicians worldwide to make "a courageous and exemplary gesture" by seeking a moratorium on executions during the Church's current Holy Year, which ends in November. (Source: Reuters)

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Gorblimey, I never, ever, thought this day would come. For once I agree wholeheartedly with the pontiff.

Little Father Blames Plummeting Ruble on "The West"

Via Reuters (and J.M.G.):

President Vladimir Putin assured Russians on Thursday that the economy would rebound after the ruble's dramatic slide this year but offered no remedy for a deepening financial crisis. In an assured performance at a three-hour news conference, Putin blamed the economic problems on external factors and said the crisis over Ukraine was caused by the West, which he accused of building a "virtual" Berlin Wall to contain Russia. Putin even cracked jokes at times, despite pressure to fix an economy that is heading into recession and caught by what his economy minister called a "perfect storm" of low oil prices, Western sanctions over Ukraine and global economic problems. The ruble has fallen about 45 percent against the dollar this year, and suffered particularly steep falls on Monday and Tuesday, but Putin said its eventual rise was unavoidable and avoided using the word "crisis".

Nota bene: The picture I use in this post is not from today's press conference but from another occasion.

Seriously?

Reuters reports that the British Home secretary (interior minister) Theresa May yesterday said, that Britain should consider leaving the European Convention on Human Rights because it interferes with the government's ability to fight crime and control immigration,

Theresa May, Minister of the Interior

May's Conservative Party has long criticized the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which enforces the convention, as an encroachment on British sovereignty.

Among other things the ECHR in January 2012 overruled the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on the issue of deporting the radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada to Jordan, where he is wanted on terrorism charges. The ECHR held that he could not lawfully be deported because a trial in Jordan could be tainted by evidence obtained under torture.

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Call me naive and clueless but the mere fact that a statement of this enormity can be made by a top politician in Europe, let alone Britain of all countries, feels like a kick in the balls and leaves me totally flabbergasted and gasping for breath with pain and astonishment. Admittedly Mrs. May is presumably trying to draw attention to herself as a future candidate to succeed David Cameron as the leader of Britain' s Conservative Party but surely there must be limits to the stupidity?

The Court applies the European Convention on Human Rights. Its task is to ensure that States respect the rights and guarantees set out in the Convention. I for one am extremely happy and relieved that the court exists and caries out the purpose for which it was created, however irritating it may be for the various purportedly democratic nations, courts or politicians.

Shame on you Mrs May! And shame also on the Conservative Party of Britain and Britain itself for making such sentiments convenient and possible among its leading representatives.