HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT

No record. While past G-7s have seen leaders sign onto a written communiqué, Macron announced there would be no such statement this time, because “it’s pointless” and “no one reads the communiqués, let’s be honest.” It also allowed him to avoid the embarrassment of last year’s G7, where Trump signed a statement and then immediately disavowed its contents.

Firefighting. One of Macron’s chief issues at the summit was the fires in the Amazon rainforest, a key environmental issue … and one that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has largely dismissed or blamed on environmental groups. International pressure has seen him authorize the deployment of troops to help fight the fires, and today the G-7 leaders (minus Trump, who didn’t attend the session) pledged $22 million in emergency funding to combat the crisis, as well as a long-term initiative whose details have yet to be sketched out. That sum is considered paltry considering the scale of the problem: It’s comparable to what President Trump spent on travel during his first 80 days in office.

War of words. The U.S. focus on trade wars was another concern voiced at the conference, with Macron specifically calling out the tactic as something he hopes can be abandoned before the world slides into another recession. Some saw hope for the French president’s platform yesterday when Trump said he had second thoughts about raising tariffs on Chinese goods — but the White House later fired back that he’d only meant he regretted not raising them even further. Meanwhile, French and U.S. officials say they’ve reached a draft compromise over a French digital tax that had Trump threatening to levy wine tariffs just days ago.

WHAT TO READ

Political Craftsman Macron Scores Victory at the G-7, by Barbara Wesel in Deutsche Welle
“The French president invited Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif as a surprise guest and launched a diplomatic initiative on the sidelines of the summit — and he did that right under Donald Trump's nose.”

Trump's Demands for Russia's Readmission Cause Row in Biarritz, by Julian Borger in The Guardian
“Trump argued strenuously that Vladimir Putin should be invited back, five years after Russia was ejected from the then G8 for its annexation of Crimea.”

WHAT TO WATCH