French President Francois Hollande took issue with Donald Trump's Friday comments about Paris , in which the American President claimed he had a friend who felt "Paris is no longer Paris" in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.

Hollande called for Trump to support U.S. allies.

"There is terrorism and we must fight it together," Hollande said on Saturday during a visit at the Paris Agric fair, according to Reuters . "I think that it is never good to show the smallest defiance toward an allied country. I wouldn't do it with the United States and I'm urging the U.S. president not to do it with France.

"I won't make comparisons but here, people don't have access to guns," the French president added. "Here, you don't have people with guns opening fire on the crowd simply for the satisfaction of causing drama and tragedy."

Trump's initial remarks came during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference . The president criticized Europe's handling of recent Islamist terrorist attacks , saying his friend "Jim" no longer wants to take his family to the French capital.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault additionally responded to Trump's comments via Twitter on Friday. </s> PARIS — The usually mild-mannered president of France pointedly reproached President Trump on Saturday after Mr. Trump commented on the dangers of terrorism in Paris, reminding the American leader of a cardinal rule in diplomacy: If you want to keep your friends, don’t criticize them in public.

“I think it’s never a good idea to show the least disapproval with respect to an ally,” said François Hollande, the French president, at the opening of an agriculture exposition in Paris. “I wouldn’t do that to an ally and I would ask that the American president not do that with regard to France.”

Mr. Hollande was responding to remarks Mr. Trump made on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, in which he implied that Europe’s open borders had led to the terrorist attacks there.

Mr. Trump pinned his assertions on a friend named “Jim,” who he said had stopped going to Paris because “Paris is no longer Paris.” Mr. Trump said his friend had stopped traveling to the French capital four or five years ago, which was before the terrorist attacks there occurred. </s> Dan Kitwood/Getty Images(PARIS) — French President Francois Hollande on Saturday dismissed President Trump’s recent remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference about Paris and Europe.

In his speech at the conservative conference, the president said he had a friend named “Jim” that did not want to go to Paris anymore because “Paris is no longer Paris.”

“Take a look at what’s happening to our world, folks, and we have to be smart… We can’t let that happen to us,” President Trump said.

At the annual International Agricultural Show in Paris, Hollande responded according to BBC, “It’s never good to show distrust toward an ally.”

“I won’t make comparisons, but here there’s no circulation of firearms. Here we don’t have people who take firearms and shoot at people in order to get the satisfaction of creating drama or tragedy,” he said. “There is, sadly, terrorism here. And we have to fight terrorism all together. It’s never good to show distrust toward an ally. I don’t do that to our allies, and I ask the American president to do the same toward France.” </s> PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande fired back at Donald Trump on Saturday after the U.S. president remarked in a speech that a friend thought “Paris is no longer Paris” after attacks by Islamist militants.

Hollande said Trump should show support for U.S. allies.

“There is terrorism and we must fight it together. I think that it is never good to show the smallest defiance toward an allied country. I wouldn’t do it with the United States and I’m urging the U.S. president not to do it with France,” Hollande said.

“I won’t make comparisons but here, people don’t have access to guns. Here, you don’t have people with guns opening fire on the crowd simply for the satisfaction of causing drama and tragedy,” Hollande said, responding to questions during a visit at the Paris Agric fair.

During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Trump repeated his criticism of Europe’s handling of attacks by Islamist militants saying a friend “Jim” no longer wanted to take his family to Paris.

More than 230 people have died in a series of assaults in France since the beginning of 2015, and the country has been under a state of emergency rules since November the same year.

Trump’s comments also drew a rebuke from the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo. </s> In response to unfavourable comments over Paris, French President Francois Hollande warned his American counterpart Donald Trump over showing “defiance towards an allied country”, media reports said. “There is terrorism and we must fight it together. I think that it is never good to show the smallest defiance toward an allied country. I wouldn’t do it with the US and I’m urging the US president not to do it with France,” Xinhua news agency quoted Hollande as saying on the sidelines of the Paris agriculture fair.

Watch What Else Is Making News

“I won’t make comparisons but here, people don’t have access to guns. Here, you don’t have people with guns opening fire on the crowd simply for the satisfaction of causing drama and tragedy,” he added. Hollande called on Trump to show more solidarity after he told the story of a friend named “Jim” who thought that “Paris is no longer Paris” after a series of attacks which rocked the French capital.

“I don’t go there anymore. Paris is no longer Paris,” Trump quoted as saying Jim “a very, very substantial guy” — who was once a regular visitor to the French capital. At the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in Maryland on Friday, Trump made the comments to endorse his claim that “national security begins with border security” and defend his travel ban. </s> French President Francois Hollande fired back at Donald Trump on Saturday after the U.S. president remarked in a speech that a friend thought 'Paris is no longer Paris'.

Hollande countered by saying that Trump should show support for U.S. allies.

During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Trump repeated his criticism of Europe's handling of attacks by Islamist militants.

Trump told the crowd at CPAC he had a friend who used to go to Paris every year.

'He loves the city of lights,' Trump said. 'For years every summer he would go to Paris, it was automatic, with his wife and his family.'

Now, Trump said, his friend doesn't visit.

'I said Jim, let me ask you a question, how's Paris doing?' Trump said, playing himself in the conversation. 'I don't go there anymore, Paris is no longer Paris,' the president said, answering as his friend.

Now, Trump pointed out, 'he doesn't think in terms of going there.'

While attending the Paris Agricultural Fair on Saturday, Hollande addressed Trump's comments.

He said: 'There is terrorism and we must fight it together. I think that it is never good to show the smallest defiance toward an allied country.

'I wouldn't do it with the United States and I'm urging the U.S. president not to do it with France,' Hollande said.

He continued: 'I won't make comparisons but here, people don't have access to guns. Here, you don't have people with guns opening fire on the crowd simply for the satisfaction of causing drama and tragedy.'

Trump's comments also drew a rebuke from the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo.

She addressed Trump and 'Jim' in a hashtag, saying that American tourism to Paris is still flourishing despite the attacks.

More than 230 people have died in a series of assaults in France since the beginning of 2015, and the country has been under a state of emergency rules since November the same year.

Paris has seen multiple terror attacks, the deadliest being the November 2015 shootings and bombings of restaurants, the Bataclan theater and the Stade de France, which killed 30 at the hands of the Islamic State.

On Bastille Day of last year, an ISIS-aligned terrorist drove a truck through a crowd in Nice, killing 86. </s> Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin walks to a working breakfast with President Donald Trump and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Hotel du Palais on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. (Erin Schaff, The New York Times, Pool)

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — The Latest on the summit of leaders from the Group of Seven democracies (all times local):

French President Emmanuel Macron says France and the U.S. have reached a “very good agreement” defusing tensions over a French tax on online giants like Google.

The tax had prompted threats from U.S. President Donald Trump of heavy tariffs on French wine.

Speaking Monday alongside Trump, Macron said they made “considerable headway in the spirit of unity” at the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France.

Macron said France would reimburse companies who pay the tax once an international tax deal is in place to replace the 3% French tax on French revenues of big online companies. It’s aimed at reducing tax avoidance for digital multinationals.

French President Emmanuel Macron says he hopes for a meeting in coming weeks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Speaking alongside Trump on Monday, Macron said G-7 leaders had agreed that Iran needs to meet its nuclear obligations and that there was a hope for a diplomatic breakthrough in the tensions that have grown since the U.S. left the 2015 nuclear accord.

Macron spoke at the end of the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says a G-7 agreement on fighting the Amazon fires treats the region like a colony.

The response came in a tweet Monday morning after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the Group of Seven had agreed on a $20 million firefighting fund as well as a long-term initiative to protect the rainforest.

At the same time, Macron savaged the Brazilian president for “extraordinarily disrespectful comments” about his wife and reiterated that Bolsonaro had lied about commitments to deforestation.

Bolsonaro, in turn, said Macron’s “ludicrous and unnecessary attacks on the Amazon” were unacceptable and accused him of treating the region “as if we were a colony.”

French President Emmanuel Macron says he is considering launching an international campaign to help sub-Saharan African countries fight fires raging in the area that are being compared to the Amazon rainforest fires.

Macron tweeted from the Group of Seven summit Monday that “the forest is also burning in sub-Saharan Africa. We are studying the possibility of launching an initiative similar to what we just announced for the Amazon.”

Macron said earlier Monday that G-7 nations are committing $20 million to countries in the Amazon region to help fight the fires and help with “re-forestation.”

Environmental groups have expressed concern about massive fires in African countries including Angola and Congo that are getting less attention than those in the Amazon, which have caused worldwide concern because of their potential impact on climate change.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says that the world faces “a dramatic climate emergency.” He is urging leaders at a Sept. 23 summit in New York to agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than they promised in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

Guterres said Monday at the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, that “we are much worse than we were during Paris (…) And so it’s absolutely essential that countries commit themselves to increase what was promised in Paris.”

Guterres said that Greenland’s ice cap was melting “dramatically” and that 2015 through 2019 were “the five hottest years on record.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris accord but Guterres said states, cities and businesses had “the capacity to deliver in relation to climate action.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has missed a discussion on climate with other world leaders at the Group of Seven summit in France.

Trump was scheduled to attend Monday’s session on climate, biodiversity and oceans, but his chair was empty during a portion of the meeting reporters were allowed to witness.

French President Emmanuel Macron says that while Trump didn’t attend, his aides were there.

The president started the morning behind schedule. His meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel was delayed about two hours.

He then met with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where he was asked about attending the climate session.

He said it would be his next stop and that he wants clean air and water.

Trump is a climate change skeptic who once had claimed it’s a hoax that was invented by the Chinese.

Some called it PorkGate. A disagreement between Britain’s prime minister and makers of a distinctive type of pork pies highlighted some of the tensions surround the country as it faces Brexit.

Boris Johnson said on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in France, where he is trying to drum up trade with the U.S., that Britain’s failure to sell Melton Mowbray pork pies is an example of unfair U.S. barriers to trade. He said the pies are sold as far as Thailand and Iceland.

But Matthew O’Callaghan, head of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, told the BBC that Johnson had it wrong and that the pies were not sold in those two countries.

Downing Street fought back saying the association was misinformed and sharing the documents Johnson used for the briefing.

Turns out Johnson was only partly correct. The company that makes them, Samworth Brothers, says they once sold a “very small amount” of the pies in those two countries, but decided in 2015 to focus on the U.K. market.

French President Emmanuel Macron isn’t backing down in his ongoing dispute with Brazil’s leader.

Macron has threatened to block a European trade deal with Brazil and other South American countries over the Amazon wildfires and what he has described as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s lies over containing deforestation.

The back and forth deteriorated over the weekend when Bolsonaro endorsed a Facebook post insulting Macron’s wife, Brigitte. Macron also accused him of missing a scheduled meeting with the French foreign minister in favor of a barber appointment and reiterated that Bolsonaro had lied to him.

Macron said: “It’s sad. First for him and for the Brazilians.”

He said Brazilian women “are doubtless ashamed to read that about their president” and that he hoped the country would soon have a president who could behave according to the standards of the office.

G-7 countries have agreed to an immediate $20 million fund to help Amazon countries fight wildfires and launch a long-term global initiative to protect the rainforest.

The announcement came from French President Emmanuel Macron, the host of this year’s meeting of G-7 leaders, and the Chilean President Sebastián Piñera. Macron said that the Amazon represents the “lungs” of the planet and that leaders were studying the possibility of similar support in Africa, also suffering from fires in its rainforests.

Macron said the U.S. supported the initiative, although he acknowledged that U.S. President Donald Trump had skipped Monday’s working session on the environment.

Satellites have recorded more than 41,000 fires in the Amazon region so far this year — with more than half of those coming this month alone. Experts say most of the fires are set by farmers or ranchers clearing existing farmland.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hailing what she describes as a “big step forward” on Iran at the Group of Seven summit.

G-7 leaders held what Merkel describes as a constructive discussion on Iran Saturday night, which was followed by a surprise visit Sunday by Iran’s foreign minister for discussions with the French hosts.

Merkel said Monday: “It is a big step forward that we not only don’t want Iran to have nuclear weapons, but we also (want to) achieve the solution by political means.”

Merkel was pressed on what progress she saw exactly and on whether U.S. President Donald Trump was prepared to accommodate any move toward alleviating sanctions against Iran. She replied: “I can’t say that at the moment. There is an atmosphere here in which talks are welcomed, in which talks between the Europeans and Iran and particularly France and Iran are welcomed — this is happening in coordination with the United States of America, and that is already a lot.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson talked trade with his Australian counterpart at the Group of Seven summit in France as he sought to position his nation for a post-Brexit world.

Johnson’s office says he and Prime Minister Scott Morrison “discussed their enthusiasm for an enhanced and deep trading relationship once the U.K. leaves the EU.”

The two leaders also discussed concerns about Hong Kong “and agreed that it was paramount for all sides to remain calm and peaceful.”

Johnson says it was “fantastic” to talk to Morrison, who “seemed in very high spirits” despite England’s victory Sunday in the third test of the Ashes cricket series.

French officials say the U.S. and France are nearing a possible deal on taxing online powerhouses — and avoiding new tariffs on French wine.

Two officials said Monday that progress was made at a dinner Sunday night with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, France’s finance minister and other U.S. officials on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France.

France introduced a 3% tax last month on French revenues of big tech companies like Google and Amazon, which currently pay next to no taxes on French sales.

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened retaliatory measures on French wine, which could be announced as soon as Monday.

Asked about the wine tariffs Monday, Trump said “it depends on the deal we work out on the digital tax,” which “We’re negotiating right now.”

The French officials said France would scrap its tech tax if an international tax deal on digital multinationals is in place by 2020 or 2021 — and could reimburse the companies if the international tax is lower than the French tax.

The officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because they could not be named publicly.

G-7 leaders are wrapping up a summit dominated by tensions over U.S. trade policies and a surprise visit by Iran’s top diplomat.

U.S. President Donald Trump and summit host French President Emmanuel Macron will finish off the three-day summit with a joint news conference Monday.

But first the leaders of the Group of Seven rich democracies — the U.S., France, Britain, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy — are holding a string of meetings on climate change, how digitalization is transforming the world and other issues.

The troubled world economy is overshadowing the meetings in the French Atlantic resort of Biarritz.

Macron also took a big gamble by inviting the Iranian foreign minister to Biarritz, hoping to secure a breakthrough in global tensions over Iran’s nuclear program. </s> Washington (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron will address the US Congress when he visits Washington next month on a high-profile trip held against the backdrop of rising transatlantic trade tensions.

Macron's two-day state visit will be the first by a foreign leader since Donald Trump assumed the presidency last year.

"France is not only our oldest ally, but one of our strongest," Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday.

"I look forward to welcoming President Macron to the United States Capitol to address a joint meeting of Congress on April 25."

Trump, who will host Macron at the White House on April 24, extended the invitation in January after he was hosted by the French leader for the Bastille Day national holiday -- when he was impressed by the traditional military parade on the Champs-Elysees.

Although Trump and Macron have met several times and professed good relations, they disagree on a range of fundamental issues, not least Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris agreement on fighting climate change.

But the strategic relationship remains strong, and Macron recently expressed his vocal support for Trump's decision to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Ryan called Macron's address to Congress "a special opportunity to build on the historic relationship between our countries, and to reaffirm our commitment to defeating terror both domestically and around the world."

With the exception of Macron's predecessor Francois Hollande, every French president since Charles de Gaulle has addressed the US Congress.

The honor -- reserved for the leaders of America's close allies -- began on December 10, 1824, when France's Marquis de Lafayette spoke in the House chamber.

The last foreign leader to address members of the House of Representatives and the Senate was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in 2016.

In 1976, France's president Valery Giscard d'Estaing delivered his address in English.

A generation later in 2007, with US-French ties frayed by the Iraq war, it was Nicolas Sarkozy who came to Congress to reassure US lawmakers of the transatlantic friendship.

"In times of difficulty, in times of hardship, America and France have always stood side by side," Sarkozy said.

Macron's visit comes at a time of escalating tensions over trade.

The US leader's recent announcement of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports -- due to take effect this week -- has riled Europe, with Macron warning that his American counterpart risked provoking a mutually destructive "trade war."

In rolling out the measures, Trump had tweeted his displeasure with European nations, calling them "wonderful countries who treat the US very badly on trade."

The United States and the European Union agreed Wednesday to a fresh round talks to seek a "mutually acceptable" solution on the tariffs, following talks in Washington between Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and visiting EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem.

An earlier round of talks in Brussels had failed to provide clarity on how Europe might be spared. </s> President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Friday, Aug. 23, 2019, to travel to Biarritz, France, for a G-7 summit. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local):

President Donald Trump is dining with world leaders attending the annual Group of Seven summit in France.

The opening event of the meeting of the world’s richest democracies is being held at the Biarritz lighthouse with its commanding views of the Bay of Biscay.

Foreign policy and security issues are set to be on the agenda for what is being billed as an informal dinner.

The French presidency has chosen five local chefs, all with Michelin stars, to prepare meals featuring local Basque cuisine for the summit.

President Donald Trump French and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed economic and trade issues, as well as security challenges, during their private lunch ahead of the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz.

The White House says they “discussed the importance of promoting free and fair trade, reducing trade barriers, taxation, and regulation, and ensuring freedom of navigation and commerce as pillars of global economic growth.”

Earlier Macron’s office said he raised a proposal with Trump to bring the U.S. and Iran back to the negotiating table over the latter’s nuclear program — a notion that only garnered passing mention by the White House.

The U.S. readout of Saturday’s meeting says only that they “also addressed security challenges of mutual concern, particularly the ongoing crisis in Libya, growing instability in the Sahel region, and tensions in the Persian Gulf.”

President Donald Trump may be in France for an international summit, but his mind is on news coverage at home after he referred to himself as “the chosen one” and pointed to the sky when discussing a spiraling trade war with China.

Trump is tweeting that he was “being sarcastic, and just having fun.” His comments before boarding Marine One this past week were met by laughs from some of the assembled press members.

Trump is attacking news outlets “who covered it as serious news & me thinking of myself as the Messiah.” He adds: “No more trust!”

Trump is in Biarritz, France, for the Group of Seven summit.

President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL’ mah-KROHN’) held a private lunch before the start of the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz.

Macron, who’s hosting the summit, said the leaders are discussing “a lot of crisis” around the world, including Libya, Iran and Russia, as well as trade policy and climate change.

Trump said the two leaders “actually have a lot in common” and a “special relationship.” He adds, “We’ll accomplish a lot this weekend and I look forward to it.”

Asked if he would follow through on his threat to place tariffs on French wines in retaliation for France’s digital services tax, Trump was noncommittal, saying only that “I love French wine.”

President Donald Trump has arrived in France for a summit with world leaders. The Group of Seven meeting in Biarritz comes amid anxieties over a global economic slowdown and the president’s escalating trade war with China.

Air Force One arrived in the seaside resort town on Saturday afternoon.

The two-day summit is taking place at one of the most unpredictable moments in Trump’s tenure, with his public comments and decision-making increasingly erratic and acerbic of late.

Trump faces a wary reception from fellow world leaders. He’s opened new points of tension with allies on trade, Iran and Russia.

The summit is scheduled to kick off with a dinner Saturday night. The summit is expected to focus on economic issues and climate change, among other topics.

President Donald Trump heads into a summit with global economic powers confronting the consequences of his preference for going it alone in a polarized nation and an interconnected world.

The Group of Seven nations are gathering in a French beach resort town at one of the most unpredictable moments in Trump’s tenure, with his public comments and decision-making increasingly erratic and acerbic of late.

Trump faces an icy reception on the world stage, where many challenges await.

With fears of a financial downturn spreading, Trump has ridiculed Germany for its economic travails. But he may well need German leader Angela Merkel (AHN’-geh-lah MEHR’-kuhl) and others to help blunt the force of China’s newly aggressive tariffs on U.S. goods.
French President François Hollande reproaches U.S. President Donald Trump for his disparaging comments about Paris at Friday's Conservative Political Action Conference, noting that allies should have more respect and support for each other.