The G7 summit in Italy begins its second day with Pope Francis, Milei and Lula as guests

Japan would be considering approving a new round of sanctions against Russia as a consequence of its invasion of Ukraine, thus following the measures approved in recent days by the United States and other G7 nations.

“We want to take severe measures so that Russia cannot avoid sanctions through third countries“, so we are studying the sanctions package announced during the G7 summit,” the Japanese government spokesman said this Friday, Yoshimasa Hayashiin a press conference.

In this sense, Hayashi highlighted that the new sanctions would affect entities and individuals in countries such as China, India, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstanamong others.

“We are finalizing the details and will make the announcement soon“added the spokesperson.

Japan’s decision comes after the leaders of the Group of Seven – Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Germany and Canada – agreed the day before during a summit in Bari (Italy) to increase pressure on Moscow. .

The United States is trying to promote a united response to China’s subsidies for the production of clean energy, such as electric vehicles or solar panels, which according to Washington is being carried out excessively with the aim of saturating the global market and eliminating competition with low prices.

According to a senior US official, the final communiqué of the summit to be published this Friday will include mentions of that topic and he announced that, later, those words will be followed by actions that he will take “individually each country of the group”, without offering more details.

This week, the European Commission (EC) informed China of its intention to impose a tariff of up to 38.1% to the import of electric vehicles because they consider that subsidizing their batteries harms European producers.

A month earlier, the US had announced new tariffs on China in several clean energy sectors, including electric vehicles, whose tariffs have increased from 25% to 100%.

He Pope Francisco He arrived at the G7 summit being held in southern Italy and will become the first head of the Catholic Church to participate in the meeting of the seven richest democracies in the world.

The 87-year-old pontiff, who arrived by helicopter from the Vatican, will speak about artificial intelligence and ten bilateral meetings are planned with the leaders of the United States, Brazil, India, Ukraine and Türkiye, among others.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putincrossed out “heist” he use of frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine resist against its troops, and promised to respond, after the agreement sealed in that regard by the G7 leaders.

“Despite all the tricks, theft is still theft and will not go unpunished“, declared the Russian president before senior officials of his Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper The Republic published this Friday, the president of Brazil, Lula da Silvahe asked a tax for the “super rich” claiming that “If we imposed a 2% tax, it would help eliminate world hunger”.

He also advocated for the creation of a “task force” against hunger and poverty at a global level.

The most unusual guest at the G7 is the Pope Francisco87, who will give a talk on artificial intelligence (AI) and “algor-ethics” (the ethics of algorithms), an issue that worries the Vatican.

The Holy See has surrounded itself with AI experts to study its impactsome of them references in this field such as the British researcher Demis Hassabisdirector of Google DeepMind, a pioneering company in the sector.

The G7 leaders meeting in Italy will focus their attention in China this Friday, from security in the Asia-Pacific to the best way to protect its industries while avoiding an open trade war with Beijing.

After a first day dominated by Ukraine, the US president Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan, Italy, France, Germany, Canada and Britain opened the second day of their summit in Puglia with talks on migration.

But the key session occurs before lunch and focuses on the fair trade with the world’s second largest economyparticularly in green technology.

The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishidawould lead the talks, which officials said would also address North Korea and territorial disputes between China and his neighbors.

He Pope Francisco joked this Friday in the Vatican with a group of more than a hundred actors and comediansincluding Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon.

“Instead of reading my speech, I’ll just do this”said the 87-year-old Pope, as he stuck his thumb in his ear and wiggled his fingers in a room full of comedians.

Francis, who later travels to Bari, southern Italy, to participate in the G7 summit to talk about artificial intelligence, received cheers and applause.

The audience brought together comedians from 15 countriesfrom Argentina to Germany, passing through East Timor, Colombia or Spain.

“Sister Act” star Whoopi Goldberg and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, known for “Seinfeld,” greeted the pope as he entered a gilded, frescoed room in the Vatican.

Pope Franciscothe president of Argentina, Javier Mileiand that of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvathis Friday will be some of the protagonists of the second day of the G7 leaders summitthe seven most industrialized democracies in the world, gathered in the Italian region of Apulia (southern).

The meetings will begin at 9:30 local time, at the hotel’Borgo Egnazia‘, with a session dedicated to the topic of immigration.

The G7 –Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom– wants to open itself to the world and to do so it has invited some countries from the “global south”, such as the Turkish president Recep Tayip Erdogan or the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi.

Among these will also be the Argentine president, personally invited by the Italian prime minister, the far-right Giorgia Melonias well as Lula da Silvaas acting president of the G20 (the session will begin at 11:00 GMT).

In addition, the summit will be attended by Pope Franciscothe first time for a pontiff in this forum.

The Argentine will arrive at 1:30 p.m. local time (11:30 GMT) to speak in a panel on Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Africa and the Mediterranean, although he recently advanced his intention to also talk about peace.

Francisco will also maintain ten bilateral meetings with Lula Silvathe American president Joe Bidensecond Catholic in the White House after John Fitzgerald Kennedy; the French, Emmanuel Macron or the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau.

He will also meet with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky; the director of the International Monetary FundKristalina Georgieva, among others.