Protests to greet G7 leaders as they talk Amazon fires, trade

The leaders of the G7 club of rich countries meet in southwest France on Saturday, a gathering clouded by the burning Amazon, diving stock markets and their own stark divisions, giving little grounds for optimism.

US President Donald Trump, who landed in France around midday, faces a mass protest outside the Atlantic resort of Biarritz where the summit is taking place, though 13,000 police have been deployed to keep them far from view.

Thousands began rallying Saturday some 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the G7 gathering at the border town of Hendaye for a march over the Bidassoa River toward the Spanish town of Irun.

Red, white and green Basque flags waved above a crowd that included anti-capitalists, environmental activists as well as a few dozen of France's "yellow vest" anti-government protesters, according to AFP journalists at the scene.

"It's important to show that people are mobilised and do not accept the world they're offering us," said Elise Dilet, 47, of the Basque anti-globalisation group, Bizi.

Police said 17 people had been arrested as of Friday night amid clashes with protesters camped out near Hendaye.

The summit was already shaping up to be a difficult encounter with Western relations badly strained by Trump, but images of billowing smoke above the Amazon rainforest have lent it a new, even darker mood.

"The Amazon is burning and it's something that concerns everyone," Macron told the Konbini website on Friday.

He has led international pressure on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro over the fires, telling him Paris would block efforts to seal a major trade deal between the EU and Latin America.

He has called for emergency talks at the G7, which runs until Monday, to find "concrete measures" to tackle the crisis.

"We are going to try and mobilise everyone to raise funding for reforestation as quickly as possible," Macron added on Friday.

Talks in the beach resort, known for fierce rainstorms that blow in from the Atlantic, will also be dominated by the darkening clouds over the world economy.

Wall Street stocks tanked on Friday after Trump escalated his trade war with China that is seen as responsible for a global slowdown.

"We don't need China and, frankly, would be far... better off without them," Trump tweeted on Friday, saying US companies were "hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China."
"And if they do that, we'll be taxing their wine... like they've never seen before."
"There are differences with the US about how to resolve global trade imbalances."