Trade spat looms as Trump heads for G7 summit

QUEBEC CITY (AFP) – Europe and host Canada warned US President Donald Trump on Thursday that they will not be intimidated at the G7 summit, despite fears that a trade war will weaken the Western alliance.

With the leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized democracies due in Quebec, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned the US leader that they would not roll over on trade tariffs.

And France's President Emmanuel Macron, who met Trudeau in Ottawa before

SAN MIGUEL LOS LOTES, Guatemala (AP) – Estuardo Hernandez, a 19-year-old worker at a plant nursery in the nearby city of Antigua, is certain he knows where his parents are, and the knowledge is driving him to desperation. He’s sure they are buried inside the home where he grew up, covered by ash and other debris that swept down the Volcano of Fire into this small community.

Lying on his stomach, he reaches into a narrow space left between the top of a window and the tons of ash now filling the one-story house. The ash is almost up to the roof, and his efforts are so futile he stops and weeps softly.

Guatemala’s government suspended the search for the dead Thursday, saying wet weather and still-hot volcanic material were too dangerous for rescuers. The bulldozers and backhoes that Hernandez would need to uncover his parents are at the bottom of the hill, concentrating on re-opening a highway blocked by a mountain of ash and boulders.

SINGAPORE (AFP) – North Korea has a habit of making others pick up its overseas travel tabs, and experts say either Singapore or South Korea is likely to get stuck with an eye-watering bill for next week's historic North-US summit in a luxury resort. they headed on to the summit, said he would rally support from his British, German and Italian counterparts before they all sit down with Trump.

''The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a six-country agreement if need be,'' Macron tweeted in English, turning to the medium Trump has made his own.

''Because these six countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a

The government said at least 109 people were killed when the volcano exploded Sunday, and there are nearly 200 listed as missing. Relatives and friends have been left in many cases to continue searching with their hands or the few tools at their disposal.

Hernandez was talking to his father, Margarito Hernandez, on the phone when millions of tons of volcanic ash tore through San Miguel Los Lotes, a hamlet sitting on the volcano’s slope.

“He called me at 3:13 p.m. Sunday,” said the younger Hernandez, who was working in Antigua that day “The last thing he told me was to go far from here... the last thing I could hear was him saying: ‘Get inside! There’s a lot of fire out there.’ I say they stayed in the house.”

Hernandez peers into the narrow open space and points to the back wall of the house, where the lahar hit the structure. “That’s where they had the beds. I believe they went there.”

In the four days since the disaster, no government official had even

Preparations are in full swing for the June 12 meeting on an island off Singapore, with authorities readying to lock down the citystate.

Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump are reportedly set to stay at pricey hotels – although true international force.''

Trump, of course, responded in kind.

''Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the US massive tariffs and create non-monetary barriers,'' he tweeted.

''The EU trade surplus with the US is $151 billion, and Canada keeps our farmers and others out. Look forward to seeing them tomorrow.''

''Why isn't the European Union and Canada informing the public that for years they have used massive Trade passed by to collect that information, or lend a hand, he said. “Without help we can’t do anything... the only thing that matters to the government is the highway. Why not bring machinery in here?”

A few houses down the slope, construction worker Alejandro Esqueque, sanctions-hit Pyongyang will almost certainly not pay its own way.

''Pyongyang has been conditioned to expect others to pay for any 'diplomatic outreach' the reclusive regime makes,'' SungYoon Lee, a Korea expert at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told AFP.

Singapore's Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said at the weekend that the wealthy city-state was willing to bear some costs to play their part in the ''historic meeting.'' Those costs could be quite significant. Even by expensive Singapore's standards, the hotels reportedly under consideration Tariffs and non-monetary Trade Barriers against the US,'' he later added.

''Take down your tariffs & barriers or we will more than match you!''

Trump, who met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Washington before the summit, may be more preoccupied with next week's historic nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

But before leaving Washington, he made clear that he too has no intention of backing down on his plan to rebalance trade by imposing tariffs on steel, aluminum and other goods imported from US allies.

So great is the rift between traditional allies that some observers have suggested renaming the G7 summit the G6+1 – and Macron said they should not hesitate to reach agreements without Trump. 45, got tired of waiting for the government to recover the bodies of his mother, three brothers and four nieces and nephews. He organized a group of fellow construction workers and friends Thursday to dig with shovels into the house, which is filled to the roof with ash. to host Kim and his team would leave the average wallet a lot lighter.

The five-star Fullerton Hotel, an imposing building on Singapore's waterfront dating back to the British colonial era, has a $6,000a-night presidential suite that may appeal to the young leader's penchant for luxury.

If that's not good enough, the St. Regis – which lays on personal butlers for guests and has a fleet of Bentleys to chauffeur them about – charges around $6,700 for its presidential suite. Breakfast is included.

It also boasts a private art collection, with over 70 works by artists inluding Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro.