President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands during the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany in this still image taken from video, July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Steffen Kugler/Courtesy of Bundesregierung/Handout via REUTERS</s>Aboard Air Force One, chief economist Gary Cohn, national security adviser H.R. McMaster, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin all declined to knock down those remarks when pressed by reporters, deferring instead to Trump himself.

"President Trump will be happy to make statements himself about that," Mnuchin said. "But President Trump handled himself brilliantly. It was very clear that he made his position felt, and after a very substantive dialogue on this, they agreed to move on to other discussions."

A senior administration official who spoke to CNN on Friday evening said Trump did not accept Putin's denial of responsibility for the hacking.

Trump departed Germany earlier Saturday without taking questions from the press, unlike many of his counterparts. That included Russian President Vladimir Putin, who told reporters that Trump appeared to accept his assertion that Russia did not meddle in the US presidential contest.

"He asked a lot of questions on this matter," Putin said at a Saturday press conference. "I answered as many as I could answer. I think he took it into consideration and agreed with it. But you should ask him what his opinion is on that." McMaster said the meeting was focused primarily on "what we are going to do going forward." He listed Syria, Ukraine and North Korea as the major topics of discussion. The meeting, which took place Friday, lasted for more than two hours. Neither Cohn, McMaster nor Mnuchin was present for the talks; only Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson represented the US.</s>(CNN) As the current leader of the G20, Angela Merkel gets to call the tune, and the German Chancellor appears to be sending a musical message to some of her guests in Hamburg this week.

On Friday evening, while the musicians at the Elbphilharmonie tune up and tighten strings, some of the world's most powerful men and women will settle into their seats for a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

While they will have traded the conference room for the concert hall, the day's politicking will continue.

A German government spokesman told CNN that Merkel herself selected the Ninth Symphony ("a substantial part of German culture"), whose final movement, better known as the "Ode to Joy," is "a hymn to humanity, peace and international understanding."

After US President Donald Trump's first trip to Europe in May, is Merkel trying to make nice with music? Or is she looking to score points off a man who has previously conceded that symphonies aren't really his thing?

"I have to admit that my knowledge of classical music is limited," Trump wrote in his 2004 book "How to Get Rich."

Idealistic vision of unity

Completed in 1824, Beethoven's final symphony sets the idealistic words of German poet Friedrich Schiller to music; together, they look forward to a time of joyful unity, when "All people become brothers."

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"The piece was written ... at a time of repression and counter-revolution," says Nicholas Baragwanath, head of the music department at the UK's University of Nottingham. "The [French] Revolution, this great experiment, had failed and it was a police state, effectively."

Given the troubled times it was created in, the symphony has long been seen as "a cry for freedom," Baragwanath says.

But John Deathridge, emeritus professor of music at Kings College London, says the original poem was toned down to make it less revolutionary: "In the original, it has the line 'Beggars become princes' brothers,' suggesting all levels of society come together. That becomes ... more abstract."

The Ninth Symphony was Ludwig van Beethoven' final major work -- the composer was deaf by the time it was completed.

And he says "the idea that Beethoven was a democrat," using his music to argue that power should be in the hands of the people, is "rubbish."

"He believed in a kind of benign authoritarianism," Deathridge says. "He was a monarchist at the end of the day. He wanted everyone together, but not in the democratic spirit as we think of it today."

Music used for political ends

Whatever Beethoven's original intentions, the 150-plus years since the Ninth Symphony's debut have seen it — and in particular the "Ode to Joy" — co-opted by a string of political causes, some of which would be considered far from utopian today.

"Few great works of art have spent so much time with such unappealing people," wrote music and arts critic Igor Toronyi-Lalic n The Times in 2009 . "For much of its history, the ode has been a companion to the most murky and murderous of political extremes."

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That, says Deathridge, is both the work's genius and its weakness: "It creates this empty space that you can put all sorts of things into. You can interpret the desire for unity as something authoritarian, or as a protest against authoritarianism."

The piece has also been used at times of great celebration in Germany. During the early part of the Cold War (from 1956 to 1968) "Ode to Joy" was the de facto anthem of the combined East and West German teams at the Olympic Games.

Since the 1970s, "Ode to Joy" has also been the anthem of what is now the European Union , chosen because it "expresses the European ideals of freedom, peace and solidarity."

UK Prime Minister Theresa May, currently negotiating the terms of Britain's departure from the EU, may also be uncomfortable in her seat at such a celebration of European unity — some Scottish MPs have used the tune as a means of protesting Brexit

Apt choice of music?

US President Donald Trump's music taste favors crooners over classical tunes.

So when conductor Kent Nagano taps his baton to signal the start of the performance, will Trump be in the auditorium? A recital of the Ninth Symphony typically lasts for over an hour, and its best-known section, the "Ode to Joy," comes at final movement.

Given the US President's infamously short attention span , the idea of him sitting through the whole concert is "extraordinary," says John Deathridge. "Perhaps he'll come late."

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It would be a shame for him to miss it, says Deathridge, insisting it is a very apt piece of music for Trump.

"I think there is actually something fitting about the choice," he says. "Donald Trump is behaving like a monarch ... it's like going backwards to monarchical times when leaders had absolutely no conscience, so in a way it is a very suitable piece for him."

But if Merkel's US visitor doesn't enjoy his evening's entertainment, Trump's own history suggests he won't hesitate to show his displeasure.

"In the second grade ... I punched my music teacher because I didn't think he knew anything about music," Trump claimed in "The Art of the Deal," his 1987 book. "The difference now is that I like to use my brain instead of my fists."</s></s>California’s hard-charging green governor is shaking things up once again on the world stage.

In an affront to President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate-change agreement, Gov. Jerry Brown will announce a major initiative, inviting nations around the world to join California at a global “climate action” summit meeting in San Francisco.

The video message — to be aired before tens of thousands gathered at the Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg, Germany — comes right in the middle of Trump’s closely watched appearance at the G20 summit.

“It’s up to you and it’s up to me and tens of millions of other people to get it together to roll back the forces of carbonization and join together to combat the existential threat of climate change,” Brown said in prepared remarks released this morning by his office. “That is why we’re having the Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, September 2018. President Trump is trying to get out of the Paris Agreement, but he doesn’t speak for the rest of America. We in California and in states all across America believe it’s time to act, it’s time to join together and that’s why at this Climate Action Summit we’re going to get it done.”

Brown is making good on his vows to place California, along with its jumbo-sized world-class economy, at the vanguard of governments trying to meet global warming head on. Last December, Brown said the Golden State would put up “its own damn satellites” if Trump cuts funding for projects that gather climate data from space. This evening at the festival, Brown will once again thrown down the gauntlet.

As Trump and other world leaders gather in that city to discuss the Paris climate change accord, California’s CEO will tell the world that Trump does not speak for all Americans when it comes to dealing with environmental concerns.

The New York Times, which obtained an early copy of the governor’s prepared remarks, reported Brown will invite “entrepreneurs, singers, musicians, mathematicians, professors” and others who represent “the whole world” to the San Francisco summit.

In the past two months, Brown has waged a public activist campaign to counter Trump, who declared last month that the U.S. would pull out of the 2015 accord. That agreement included pledges by nearly 200 nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help poor countries battle climate change by developing clean sources of energy. Shortly after Trump’s announcement, Brown traveled to China, where he signed an agreement to work together on reducing emissions, warning that “disaster still looms” unless governments around the world take urgent action. On that trip, Brown predicted that Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris accord would prove to be only a temporary setback, thanks to firm commitments by China, European countries and individual U.S. states to pick up the leadership role vacated by the president.

“President Trump, he’s going off the reservation hopefully for a month, a year, not much longer,” Brown told the Mercury News and East Bay Times before departing for China. “If he stays on his present course, California will just redouble its efforts and the people of the world will have to rise up and take action. And I think in a very paradoxical way, that’s exactly what Trump is stimulating — the very opposite of climate denial is climate activism.”

But the governor’s latest action is arguably his most politically aggressive yet, sure to draw criticism as well as praise.

“It’s brazen on several levels,” from “stepping on the president’s trip” to “thinking he speaks for the American people,” said Bill Whalen, a longtime GOP strategist who is now a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, The San Francisco summit is not likely to accomplish much, Whalen said, besides gathering people to “collectively thumb their nose at the American president.”

“To what end will this conference change anything other than pumping more carbon in the atmosphere as people fly from all over the world to get here?” he asked. “It’s not going to change climate change policy in America, and it’s not going to change Donald Trump’s mind.”

According to Brown’s advisers, it will be the first meeting an American state has hosted to support the Paris agreement. Former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres, who will introduce Brown tonight, says the global meeting will send a strong message that the president is not speaking on behalf of all Americans, most of whom believe climate change poses real threats to everyone on the planet.

“A summit like that takes on even more importance because,” said Figueres, “it has become even more crucial for the United States to see evidence of the fact that the U.S. economy continues to decarbonize.”

The governor will speak via video during the final hour of the Global Citizen Festival. The annual event has drawn huge crowds and featured remarks from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Norweigan Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, along with performances from Coldplay, Shakira, Pharrell Williams and others.

According to Brown’s office, the September summit, which will take place ahead of the 14th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, will convene representatives from “subnational governments, businesses, investors and civil society … to demonstrate the groundswell of innovative, ambitious climate action from leaders around the world, highlight the economic and environmental transition already underway and spur deeper commitment from all parties, including national governments.” It will be a part of a larger effort around the globe to recruit and lobby governments and municipalities of all sizes to make good on pledges to fight climate change.

Earlier this week, Brown joined the leaders of Baden-Württemberg, Catalonia and South Australia – all members of the Under2 Coalition – to urge the G20 to reaffirm its support for implementation of the Paris Agreement and to recognize the role of sub-national governments, states, regions and cities, in leading and delivering on climate action.

“All over the world, momentum is building to deal seriously with climate change,” Brown said in statement. “Despite rejection in Washington, California is all in. We are fully committed to the Under2 Coalition and the Paris Agreement.”</s>So the G20 summit is starting in Hamburg in Germany, after a day of angry protests which saw dozens arrested.

As the talks commence, the new international "Climate Pariah," Donald Trump, is going to come under intense pressure from the G20 to reconsider pulling out of the Paris agreement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit host, has publicly stated that this year's summit will focus on strengthening the Paris agreement, which "puts her on a direct collision course with the U.S. president," according to the BBC.

She has told the media that despite Trump's stance, tackling climate change remains a top priority for Europe, who will speak with "one voice" on the issue during the summit.

Speaking in front of the German parliament on Thursday, Merkel said, "The European Union unconditionally stands by its agreement in Paris and will implement it speedily and with determination." She continued that the differences with Trump "are obvious and it would be dishonest to try to cover that up."

She added, "Since the decision of the United States to leave the Paris climate agreement, we are more determined than ever to make it a success."

Merkel is backed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has said Europe will "clearly reaffirm our very strong commitment to the Paris accords," adding, "I hope that the others can be brought back to their senses."

Trump will get pressure from other G20 leaders, too. Speaking earlier Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the G20 would tell Trump "it's important to take a lead role in tackling climate change and creating good jobs."

On the one hand, you can argue that the G20 leaders are being hypocritical for castigating Trump. As Oil Change and others pointed out this week, the G20 provides nearly four times more public finance to fossil fuels than to clean energy. In total, public fossil fuel financing from G20 countries averaged some $71.8 billion per year. The leaders were accused of "talking out of both sides of their mouths."

If they really are promoting climate leadership, then words are not enough. But on the other, Trump should not be allowed to get away with pulling out of the Paris agreement to satisfy the alt-right and his fossil fuel buddies.

As Trump comes under pressure, he's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin face to face for the first time today. The feeling is that Trump, by pushing his "America First" policy and pulling out of Paris, has marginalized the U.S.

America is suddenly the pariah. Putin is now the moderate.

They have much to discuss, including Russian meddling in the U.S. elections, Islamic terrorism, North Korea, Ukraine and hopefully climate change.

Putin is still in favor of the Paris agreement, despite the U.S. withdrawal. The Russian president recently said the Paris climate agreement was a "secure basis for long-term climate regulation" and Russia wanted to make a "comprehensive contribution to its implementation."</s>HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — World powers lined up against U.S. President Donald Trump on climate change, reaffirming their support for international efforts to fight global warming.

The Group of 20 summit that ended Saturday in Hamburg also showed the tensions on trade, as the U.S. administration and international partners forged a deal that endorsed open markets but acknowledged countries had a right to put up barriers to block unfair practices

The summit’s final statement made clear that the other countries and the European Union unanimously supported the Paris climate agreement rejected by Trump. They called the deal to reduce greenhouse gases “irreversible” and vowed to implement it “swiftly” and without exception.

The other countries, from European powers such as Germany to emerging ones such as China and energy producers such as Saudi Arabia, merely “took note” of the U.S. position, which was boxed off in a separate paragraph that the summit host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, made clear applied only to the United States.

She said the U.S. position was “regrettable” but that the summit had achieved “good results in some areas,” and cited a hard-won agreement on trade that included Trump and the United States but did not erase the differences over the issue. She said the talks had been at times “difficult.”

Trump’s chief economic adviser played down tensions between the U.S. and other nations as the president headed home from his first G-20 summit.

Gary Cohn told reporters aboard Air Force One that there was nothing unexpected about seeing “a diversity of opinions in a group of 20.”

“To get 20 of your friends to agree to have dinner tonight is pretty hard,” Cohn said.

On trade, the talks preserved the G-20′s condemnation of protectionism, a statement that has been a hallmark of the group’s efforts to combat the global financial crisis and the aftereffects of the Great Recession.

The group added new elements, however: an acknowledgment that trade must be “reciprocal and mutually advantageous” and that countries could use “legitimate trade defense instruments” if they are being taken advantage of.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said there was “incredible consensus” on the issue and that the U.S. pushed to include the phrasing about “reciprocal” trade.

The wording echoes concerns voiced by Trump, who has said trade must be fair as well as open and must benefit American companies and workers. He has focused on trade relationships where other countries run large surpluses with the U.S., meaning they sell more to U.S. consumers than they buy from American companies.

That’s in contrast to the approach favored by Merkel and the EU, who stress multilateral trade frameworks such as the World Trade Organization.

More broadly, concerns about trade and its impact on workers figured large in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and in Britain’s referendum vote to leave the European Union, a free-trade bloc.

Yet pro-trade officials from the European Union pointed out that the language in the G-20 statement contains no departure from the current global system of regulation, which already allows countries to take defensive measures within the rules of the WTO. Those can include import taxes that offset unfair practices such as government subsidies or below-cost pricing.

Despite the trade agreement, the summit was marked by clashing visions, especially where Washington and the European Union were concerned.

The EU demonstrated its willingness to move ahead with free trade despite Trump by announcing a trade agreement with Japan on the eve of the summit.

On climate, summit deputies worked until shortly before the ending news conferences to hash out a three-part fudge that everyone could sign. That meant a first section with a broad pledge to fight climate change in general; a separate paragraph carved out that acknowledged the U.S. did not support the Paris deal; and a third paragraph in which the other 19 members reaffirmed their support for the deal.

Advocates for efforts against global warming expressed relief that the other countries had remained unanimous in support of the Paris accords.

“The U.S. has obviously been clear about where it stands with the Paris Agreement, but it is heartening that 19 other countries reaffirmed their commitment to the agreement,” said Thoriq Ibrahim, minister of energy and environment for the Maldives and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, a group of countries vulnerable to the effects of global warming.

The results of the summit aren’t absolutely decisive, on either the trade or the climate issue. The no-protection pledge was often violated, increasingly in harder-to-detect ways such as tax breaks for home industries rather than obvious import taxes.

Meanwhile, failure to agree on climate doesn’t stop countries from moving ahead in meeting the Paris agreement’s goals, or exceed them if they want to. Additionally, U.S. states and private companies can pursue lower emissions on their own.

G-20 agreements are statements of intent and rely on governments themselves to follow through. Still, they set the tone for global policymaking and enable peer pressure when they’re not followed.

Other deals at the summit included an agreement to press internet providers to detect and remove extremist content as a way of fighting terrorist incitement and recruiting.

John Kirton, co-director of the G-20 Research Group at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, called the summit a “very solid success.” He pointed to broad agreement on the agenda, much of it focusing on less controversial issues such as women’s empowerment and promoting digitalization.

Over the long term, the G-20 implements 72 percent of its promises, and has implemented 80 percent of them since last year’s summit in Hangzhou, China, according to Kirton.

The meetings competed for attention with rioting by anti-capitalist demonstrators outside the heavily secured Hamburg Messe convention center. Rioters set up street barricades, looted supermarkets and attacked police with slingshots and firebombs.

The G-20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, France, Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.</s>[The stream is slated to start at 04:35 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

Warsaw, Poland, marks the first stop on U.S. President Donald Trump's European visit. Trump will give a speech in the central European capital and is expected to touch on the issues of bilateral trade agreements, immigration and national security. His address, likely to be monitored by the wider European community, will set his agenda for the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, coming later this week.</s>The Latest on President Donald Trump’s second official visit to Europe (all times local):

President Donald Trump is praising his daughter, Ivanka, and acknowledging the challenges he’s added to her life.

In a rare, self-deprecating moment, the president said Saturday during remarks in Hamburg, Germany that he’s been proud of his eldest daughter from “day one.”

He says, “If she weren’t my daughter it would be so much easier for her,” adding with a laugh: “That might be the only bad thing she has going, if you want to know the truth.”

The candid aside came as Trump was speaking at the launch of a new women’s entrepreneurship fund that Ivanka Trump helped bring together.

Ivanka Trump moved to Washington to work as a senior adviser to her father and has faced pressure from critics who’d hoped she’d be able to push him to adopt more moderate policies.

President Donald Trump is praising a new women’s entrepreneurship fund launched by his daughter and the World Bank that will help women access capital, financing and other support.

Trump says that his administration is making a $50 million commitment to the effort at an event held alongside the Group of 20 world leaders’ summit in Hamburg, Germany.

He says the group will help eliminate barriers for women to launch businesses and transform “millions and millions of lives.”

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim announced Saturday that the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative had raised $325 million from governments including the U.S., Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Canada.

Trump says that, “Empowering women is a core value that binds us together.”

First Daughter Ivanka Trump and the World Bank are rolling out a new fund that aims to help female entrepreneurs access capital, financing and other support.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim says the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative fund has so far raised $325 million from various governments. He hopes to leverage that into a multibillion-dollar fund.

The money will go toward improving access to capital and markets, providing technical assistance, training and mentoring, pushing public policy and investing in projects and programs that support women and women-led businesses.

Kim says, “this is not acute little project,” and says it will drive economic growth.

He’s speaking at a panel on women’s entrepreneurship that coincides with the meeting of Group of 20 leaders in Hamburg, Germany.

President Donald Trump is meeting Britain’s head of government on the sidelines of an international summit in Germany.

Trump said Saturday that he and Prime Minister Theresa May have had “tremendous talks” and developed a “special relationship.”

Trump also says they are working on a trade deal that will be “great for both countries,” but he provided no details.

The two leaders have met several times since Trump took office and collaborate on a number of issues, from security to trade.

Trump and May are sitting down for a meeting Saturday while attending the G-20 summit of industrialized and developed nations.

President Donald Trump will meet with a long list of world leaders Saturday as he wraps up his second trip abroad.

Trump will hold meetings with British Prime Minster Theresa May, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Xi Jinping of China.

He’ll also attend a women’s entrepreneurship finance event and participate in various sessions with fellow Group of 20 leaders.

The second day of the summit of world leaders that has been overshadowed by violent riots between anti-globalization activists and police is expected to include talks on global trade, climate change and international terrorism.

Trump is set to return to Washington Saturday evening.</s>Chairman of the Riigikogu’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Marko Mihkelson (independent), commented U.S. president Donald Trump’s address in Warsaw saying that for the first time since he took office, the president had underlined the importance of unity in the Western world.

"For the first time during his term of office, President Trump in Warsaw gave the kind of speech in which he emphasized the importance of unity in the Western world and the need to protect our values, and called on Russia to end its destabilizing role. We will see what the messages will be tomorrow, when he will meet with the Russian head of state for the first time. All in all, Trump's speech was made at the right time and in the right place," Mihkelson wrote on social media.

The United States had demonstrated that it stands firmly behind the principle of collective defense prescribed in NATO's Article 5, Trump said on Thursday. He also pledged that the U.S. would never use force to coerce eastern and central European nations, and that it wouldn’t allow others to do it either. The ties between Europe and the U.S. were stronger than ever, Trump said. He called on Russia to stop interfering in Ukraine as well.

Trump visited Warsaw on Thursday, where he participated in a meeting of the Three Seas Initiative that brought together heads of state from Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia , Croatia, Lithuania , Latvia , Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.

Trump is scheduled to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin at a meeting of G20 leaders in Hamburg on Friday.
Leaders from the Group of Twenty come together at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, including United States President Donald Trump who is set to meet with President of Russia Vladimir Putin.