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Optics are everything

Every leader in the free world dreams of the day they play host to the Group of Seven. Their staff will spend months agonizing over the choreography and debating the finer points of the final communique.

But more often than not, the optics are all that people will remember of these big displays of geopolitical might. No matter how much planning is involved, it can go horribly wrong.

Justin Trudeau is the ultimate cautionary tale. While the Canadian prime minister was a key attraction in Sicily in 2017, his own show just a year later went down in history as the G-7 where Donald Trump stormed off in a huff, ripping up the communique in the process.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel emerged from that one looking great, shown standing up to the American president's tantrums. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson disarmed French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Biarritz in 2019 with his famous English humor, though the equally renowned English weather is making his own G-7 on the Cornish coast a less sunny affair.

So far, it's all gone according to script, even though a socially distanced international gathering during a pandemic comes with new challenges. At some point a "family" photo will capture just how at ease this latest cast of characters are with each other and indeed how much sway they have over issues including China, Russia and climate change.

Their influence has waned over the decades with the rise of China: While Joe Biden comes with the message that America is back, the reality is Washington still has ground to make up.

This will be Merkel's last G-7, though she's sick of being reminded of it. Germany will host the next round and it remains to be seen if it will be an all-male affair or if the next chancellor will be a woman, too. That would make for a better picture. — Flavia Krause-Jackson

The faces of Macron, Trudeau, Johnson and Biden drawn into the sand in Newquay, England, with the message 'Share the Vaccine, Waive the Patents.'

Photographer: Sam Morgan Moore/Getty Images Europe

Follow our rolling coverage of the G-7 summit here and click here for this week's most compelling political images. Also, tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

Global Headlines

Timing tussle | The Biden administration is pressing the United Arab Emirates to remove Chinese tech giant Huawei from its network and distance itself from Beijing, potentially putting the country's purchase of some $23 billion in F-35 jets and drones at stake. Nick Wadhams and Sylvia Westall report the U.S. is asking the UAE to replace Huawei equipment in the next four years — before it's scheduled to get the F-35s — but Emirati officials say they'd need more time and an affordable alternative.

Covid-19 probe | G-7 leaders are expected to call for a fresh probe into the origins of the coronavirus, possibly including whether it leaked from a Wuhan lab. That raises a key question: What has China failed to disclose? Kwan Wei Kevin Tan and Jason Gale outline the issues a new study should examine.

Shady links | Ransomware attacks by criminal hackers tied to Russia recently paralyzed a key U.S. oil pipeline and crippled one of the world's largest meat producers. The close relationships between some hackers and President Vladimir Putin's government make it extremely difficult for the U.S. to pursue them, Michael Riley reports. While the Kremlin denies links, Biden plans to push Putin on the issue at their summit next week.

Without a thriving London, the U.K.'s overall economy could begin to resemble something like Italy, another faded imperial power struggling with debts that are too big, economic growth that's too anemic and a vicious cycle that has it falling further behind its main competitors, according to the independent Resolution Foundation.

Medical debt | Indians are being forced to choose between food and health care after the pandemic saddled millions with unmanageable medical bills. Bibhudatta Pradhan and Vrishti Beniwal report the country, with one of the world's highest out-of-pocket medical expenses, has endorsed treatments not recommended by the World Health Organization, resulting in people spending small fortunes on the black market for drugs they didn't need.

Colorful partner | Despite its name, it's never been very clear what the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico stands for. Max de Haldevang reports it has few green credentials and corruption allegations have long swirled around the party. After the recent midterms, though, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will likely need its support in congress to pursue his agenda.

What to Watch

  • A bipartisan group of 10 U.S. senators has agreed to pitch a $1.2 trillion, eight-year infrastructure spending package to Biden.

  • South Korea's main opposition party picked a 36-year-old who has never served in parliament as its leader, turning to a reform advocate as it tries to reclaim the presidency next year.

  • A prosecutor in Peru is seeking to detain presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori for violating the terms of her bail just as she disputes the results of a runoff vote that her rival Pedro Castillo appears to have won.

  • More than 350,000 people are facing catastrophic famine conditions in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, according to United Nations agencies, who say food aid is urgently needed.

  • In a vindication for investor activism, an independent probe found that Toshiba sought help from the Japanese government to influence a key shareholder vote that installed its slate of directors.

Pop quiz, readers (no cheating!). The ousted leader of which country was formally charged this week with corruption? Send your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally ... Hong Kong is instructing censors to ban any movie that could be seen as endorsing activities that would contravene the national security law imposed by China last year, the latest curb on freedom of expression in the Asian financial hub. As Iain Marlow reports, they've been told to be mindful of their duty to prevent and suppress acts or activities that threaten the "territorial integrity" of China.

A patron at the K11 Art House cinema in Hong Kong on May 8.

Photographer: Roy Liu/Bloomberg

 

 

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