Merkel, 64, appeared to clutch her arms together to keep herself still as she attended an event with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday.
The incident, at a farewell ceremony for Justice Minister Katarina Barley, was captured on a live feed by the Reuters news agency.
Merkel's spokesperson told CNN that the chancellor is "fine."
"Everything is taking place as planned. The chancellor is well," he added, indicating that Merkel would still take part in this weekend's G20 summit in Japan.
Earlier this month Merkel was seen shaking dramatically as she met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin.
"Since then I have drunk at least three glasses of water -- I obviously needed that and so I'm doing very well now," she told reporters at a press conference with Zelensky shortly afterwards.
Germany is in the midst of a record-breaking heatwave, with temperatures hitting 38.6 degrees Celsius (101.5 Fahrenheit) in parts, though Berlin was cooler than much of the country on Wednesday.
CNN's Simon Cullen and Amy Woodyatt contributed to this report.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump will have a lunch meeting Saturday after a Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
Photo:
fred dufour/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
OSAKA, Japan—Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to present President Trump with a set of terms the U.S. should meet before Beijing is ready to settle a market-rattling trade confrontation, raising questions of whether the two leaders will agree to relaunch talks.
Among the preconditions, said Chinese officials with knowledge of the plan, Beijing is insisting that the U.S. remove its ban on the sale of U.S. technology to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. Beijing also wants the U.S. to lift all punitive tariffs and drop efforts to get China to buy even more U.S. exports than Beijing said it would when the two leaders last met in December.
The U.S. chief trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, and his Chinese counterpart, Liu He, talked by telephone this week on ways to get the talks back on track and expect to meet in person in advance of the presidents’ Saturday lunch meeting after a Group of 20 summit in Osaka, said people familiar with the discussions. It is far from clear what the two will manage—and whether their bosses will approve their work.
Despite his preconditions, Mr. Xi isn’t expected to take a confrontational tone with Mr. Trump, according to the Chinese officials. Rather, they say, he will sketch out what he envisions as an optimal bilateral relationship, which includes China’s help on security issues vexing to the U.S., especially Iran and North Korea.
For their part, U.S. officials say they are going into the meeting looking to see whether their Chinese counterparts are willing to pick up negotiations from where they broke off. According to U.S. and Chinese officials, the two nations were close to a trade deal in April when, in the U.S. view, China reneged on provisions. It is up to Beijing, U.S. officials feel, to get the talks back on track.
“So we went in and we thought we had a deal, and we went in and then they said, ‘You know, we’re not going to give you certain things that we agreed on,’” President Trump told Fox Business Network on Wednesday. Unless China gets the talks back on track, Mr. Trump said, he was ready to go ahead with what he called “Phase 2”—assessing levies on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese imports not currently hit with tariffs. He said he could start with 10% tariffs on items including such consumer mainstays as clothing, mobile phones and laptop computers.
That was the tactic Mr. Trump used with the last $200 billion of goods—starting at 10% to put pressure on Beijing without significantly disrupting the U.S. economy, and then shifting to 25% when he felt China was backsliding.
Some corporate lobbyists are hoping that talks produce a plan to finish negotiations by a specific deadline. That way, the two sides will be under pressure to deliver—and President Trump would presumably refrain from moving ahead with tariffs during that time period.
The Chinese leader isn’t expected to make big concessions at his meeting with Mr. Trump. That is because he is facing increased political pressure on the home front to stand firm against Washington, which is seen among elite Chinese political circles as unfairly accusing China of a range of misdeeds, from violating intellectual-property protection, improperly subsidizing state-owned enterprises and spying on U.S. firms.
“The Chinese side hopes to set a tone for the relationship going forward,” said a person briefed on China’s plans in Beijing.
President Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, are set to meet in Japan. All eyes will be on the world’s two most powerful leaders, but can they resolve their disputes? Photo: Getty Images
Mr. Xi is expected to find a tough audience in Mr. Trump, who continues to vow to raise tariffs and is counting on his hard-nosed stance on China to be a political plus during his re-election bid. “The incentives not to do a deal are getting stronger,” said Hudson Institute China scholar Michael Pillsbury, who consults with the White House. With a deal “either Xi or Trump would suffer criticism. That wouldn’t have happened six months ago,” said Mr. Pillsbury.
A trade cease-fire, if reached, could give the two sides momentum and a possible path to rapprochement on a number of other tense fronts, from disputes over China’s expansive hold on the South China Sea to the U.S. campaign against Chinese technology firms over security concerns, which in recent days has expanded to include more Chinese companies in addition to Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications gear-maker.
U.S. negotiators have tried to keep the Huawei issue separate from the trade talks, though Mr. Trump has several times talked of packaging Huawei in a trade deal. A Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman, at a regular briefing in Beijing on Thursday, urged the U.S. “to immediately rescind the suppression and sanction measures against Huawei and other Chinese enterprises.”
As part of a deal, Beijing is seeking the removal of all additional tariffs imposed by the U.S. since early last year—25% levies on $250 billion in Chinese imports. Beijing also has said U.S. demands for Chinese purchases of American goods should be “reasonable”—meaning, according to Chinese officials, they must be based on domestic Chinese demand, rather that requiring China to divert purchases it now make from other countries.
Some Chinese government advisers have said that U.S. negotiators raised the purchasing target to an additional $300 billion a year in exports from current levels. In talks last December, the discussed figure was $200 billion. Even hitting that $200 billion number would be unlikely. It would require more than doubling of U.S. exports to China, which were $120.1 billion in 2018 and $129.8 billion in 2017 before the trade battle began.
Chinese officials have also repeatedly said the text of any agreement should be “balanced”—meaning the U.S. should make some concessions to China as well. China hasn’t publicized its demands. In the past, Beijing has asked for more high-tech exports from the U.S. and an easier path for Chinese to get visas and business approvals in the U.S.
In recent weeks, President Xi has been seeking to increase Beijing’s bargaining position with Washington. Last week, Mr. Xi met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, becoming the first Chinese leader to visit the reclusive state in 14 years.
By strengthening China’s ties with North Korea, especially at a time of deadlocked talks between Pyongyang and Washington, Mr. Xi was sending a message to Mr. Trump that China could still help the U.S. ease the tensions in the Korean Peninsula. Some U.S. officials said they believe Mr. Xi is playing a positive role.
The mood and agenda of the Osaka G-20 meeting contrasts sharply with the last time the leaders met at a Buenos Aires G-20 in December. Then, the two sides met for a leisurely dinner. Chinese officials saw China’s economy as shaky, and Mr. Xi was keen for a deal to shore up business confidence.
Soon after, Canada arrested a senior executive of Huawei at the U.S. request on charges related to violating Iran sanctions, and Washington began to ratchet up moves to slow the flow of technology to Huawei and portray it as an espionage threat. Huawei denies the accusations.
More nationalistic voices in the Communist Party and in the public gathered volume in accusing Washington of trying to use the trade fight to stop China’s rise and undermine the state-led economic model that has delivered strong growth for decades.
Mr. Trump faces his critics too—and many Democratic presidential candidates willing to pummel him if he accepts what is seen as a weak deal with China after hitting U.S. consumers with higher bills through tariffs. At Wednesday night’s Democratic primary debate, four of 10 candidates picked China as the greatest threat facing the U.S.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump are having a Saturday lunch meeting after a Group of 20 summit in Osaka.
Photo:
fred dufour/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
OSAKA, Japan—Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to present President Trump with a set of terms the U.S. should meet before Beijing is ready to settle a market-rattling trade confrontation, raising questions of whether the two leaders will agree to relaunch talks.
Among the preconditions, said Chinese officials with knowledge of the plan, Beijing is insisting that the U.S. remove its ban on the sale of U.S. technology to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. Beijing also wants the U.S. to lift all punitive tariffs and drop efforts to get China to buy even more U.S. exports than Beijing said it would when the two leaders last met in December.
The U.S. chief trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, and his Chinese counterpart, Liu He, talked by telephone this week on ways to get the talks back on track and expect to meet in person in advance of the presidents’ Saturday lunch meeting after a Group of 20 summit in Osaka, said people familiar with the discussions. It is far from clear what the two will manage—and whether their bosses will approve their work.
Despite his preconditions, Mr. Xi isn’t expected to take a confrontational tone with Mr. Trump, according to the Chinese officials. Rather, they say, he will sketch out what he envisions as an optimal bilateral relationship, which includes China’s help on security issues vexing to the U.S., especially Iran and North Korea.
For their part, U.S. officials say they are going into the meeting looking to see whether their Chinese counterparts are willing to pick up negotiations from where they broke off. According to U.S. and Chinese officials, the two nations were close to a trade deal in April when, in the U.S. view, China reneged on provisions. It is up to Beijing, U.S. officials feel, to get the talks back on track.
A 21-year-old California woman was reportedly killed by three tiger sharks Wednesday while she was snorkeling in the Bahamas with her family, according to local reports.
Jordan Lindsay of Los Angeles County had her right arm severed in the attack, officials from the Bahamas said, according to KABC. She was also bitten on her legs and buttocks in the attack.
The photo was taken by another tourist who was in the area when the attack happened. The shark is supposedly in the left part of the photo.
(Jace Holton)
Her family reportedly saw the sharks while she was snorkeling and shouted to her but Lindsay didn’t hear them before the attack on Rose Island, which is just northeast of Nassau.
"The Ministry of Tourism, on behalf of the Government and the people of The Bahamas expresses its condolences and deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of the victim of Wednesday's shark attack off Rose Island, near New Providence," Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation officials said in a statement, according to KABC.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong was plunged into chaos again on Thursday as protesters rallied outside the justice secretary’s offices, blocking roads and forcing workers to leave in the latest unrest to rock the city over an extradition bill that has now been suspended.
Millions have thronged the streets in the past three weeks to demand that the bill, which would allow criminal suspects to be sent to the mainland for trial in courts controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, be scrapped altogether.
“I think this movement is very successful because this time the goal is very clear,” said one protester, Ken Yau, drawing a contrast with Hong Kong’s 2014 democracy movement that gridlocked parts of the Asian financial center for 79 days.
“I was 11 when the Umbrella Movement happened. I only went to the occupied sites a few times with my family.”
In sweltering heat of 32 degrees C (89.6°F), some protesters chanted, “Withdraw evil law, release martyrs...Teresa Cheng, come out,” referring to the justice secretary. Others shouted, “Condemn excessive force by police and release protesters.”
Police formed a cordon to block the demonstrators, and one officer held a banner warning them away. Minor scuffles broke out between pro-democracy group Demosisto and officers.
“Fight for Justice”, “Free Hong Kong,” and “Democracy Now” were some of the demands emblazoned on the protesters’ banners.
Police chief Stephen Lo warned of consequences for outbreaks of violence and condemned what he said was an environment of hostility making his officers’s task difficult.
Riot police clear the area outside police headquarters, after a rally ahead of the G20 summit, urging the international community to back their demands for the government to withdraw the extradition bill, in Hong Kong, China June 27, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
In the early hours, riot police wielding batons and shields chased dozens of protesters as they broke up a siege of police headquarters.
The demonstrators have seized on this week’s G20 summit of world leaders in Japan to appeal for Hong Kong’s plight to be put on the agenda, a move certain to rile Beijing, which has vowed not to tolerate such discussion.
“We know that the G20 is coming. We want to grasp this opportunity to voice for ourselves,” said Jack Cool Tsang, 30, a theater technician who took a day off work to protest.
Images of police firing rubber bullets and tear gas beneath gleaming skyscrapers this month near the heart of the financial center grabbed global headlines and drew condemnation from international rights groups and protest organizers.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, who has kept a low profile over the past few days, bowed to public pressure and suspended the bill a day after the violent protests but stopped short of a full withdrawal and rejected repeated calls to step down.
The demonstrations, which pose the greatest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he took power in 2012, have repeatedly forced the temporary closure of government offices, blocked major roads and caused massive disruptions.
Since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, it has been governed under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, including the liberty to protest and an independent judiciary.
But many accuse China of increased meddling over the years, by obstructing democratic reform, interfering with elections, suppressing young activists, as well as being behind the disappearance of five Hong Kong-based booksellers who specialized in works critical of Chinese leaders.
Slideshow (11 Images)
Opponents of the extradition bill fear being placed at the mercy of a justice system rights group say is plagued by torture, forced confessions and arbitrary detentions.
(This story refiles to fix typo in eight paragraph)
Reporting By Vimvam Tong, Jessie Pang, Delfina Wentzel, Donny Kwok and Noah Sin, Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
As tensions between the U.S. and the Iranian regime continue to mount, President Trump suggested Wednesday that any potential war with Iran "wouldn't last very long." During a phone interview on Fox Business' "Mornings with Maria Bartiromo," Mr. Trump was asked if the United States would be going to war with the regime amid his threats of "obliteration" against the country.
"I hope we don't, but we are in a very strong position," Mr. Trump said. He added, "It wouldn't last very long, I can tell you that. It would not last very long. I'm not talking boots on ground...or sending a million soldiers."
The comments was the president's latest suggestion of military action against the Iranians after the administration issued its newest round of economic sanctions against the regime, this time targeting Iran's supreme leader and his office after Iran shot down an unmanned U.S. drone last week.
Iranian officials in response said the path to diplomacy between the two nations is now permanently closed.
In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian presidency, President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 8, 2019.
Iranian Presidency Office via AP
Last week, the president decided at the last minute to call off a retaliatory strike over the downed drone, saying he believed the casualty count would be disproportionate to Iran's attack. The president initially said he believed the strike was not intentional before walking back those comments on Saturday.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in a televised address, called the new sanctions "outrageous and idiotic" and said the White House was being "afflicted by mental retardation."
Mr. Trump responded on Wednesday, saying: "I don't think their leadership is very smart."
Oscar Alberto Martinez and his daughter — identified by officials from El Salvador as Angie Valeria M. — drowned in the currents of the Rio Grande on Sunday as they tried to slip into the United States.
Their bodies were found Monday near Matamoros, across the river from Brownsville, Texas. The child was 2 years old, The Associated Press reported.
The photograph was taken by journalist Julia Le Duc, who lives in Mexico.
In the image, the young girl is tucked inside her father's shirt, her right arm slung around his neck as they lie near the shore. Their bodies have come to rest near a river bank where five discarded beer cans and an empty soda bottle sit in the tall reeds. Another beer can floats next to the girl's body.
Mexican newspaper, La Jornada talked to the man's wife, Tania, who said she saw her husband and child drown Sunday.
