Typically billed as a gathering aimed at fostering international cooperation, this year's G7 meeting is held in the shadow of a looming trade war between old allies, with heated exchanges between leaders of US, France and Canada.

Set to begin on Saturday in picturesque rural Quebec, the 44th meeting of the Group of Seven - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US - is off to a rocky start.

According to media reports, even as late as Thursday afternoon, Trump was rethinking his presence at the G7 meeting, telling advisers that there would be no point in attending the event since the US would be outnumbered on key issues. The summit comes after Trump slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum, and withdrew the US from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal - actions which have enraged Washington's allies.


Combative remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron may have stirred Trump's competitive spirit, and now it appears that the US President will use the meeting as an opportunity to double-down on his uncompromising trade policies.

Donald Trump says Russia should be at the negotiating table in the G7 meeting whether the world powers "like it or not." The US president made the statement as he was preparing to fly to Canada for the summit.

"It used to be [the] G8 because Russia was in it, now Russia isn't in it... But Russia should be in this meeting. Why are we having a meeting while Russia isn't at the meeting," the US leader told reporters, adding that he will recommend Russia's inclusion in the summit. "Whether you like it or not, it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run. And it's the G7, which used to be the G8, threw Russia out, they should let Russia come back in because we should have Russia at the negotiating table," he stated.

The 44th G7 summit is due to open in La Malbaie, Quebec. The summit has received significant attention due to a major decline in relations between the leaders of the participating states. French President Emmanuel Macron struck a hostile tone against Trump, saying that the US could be kicked out of the G7.

Although the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy. happened nearly 55 years ago, global interest in the event has only grown stronger with the passage of time.

As recently as 2013, 61 percent of Americans surveyed by CBS News still believed that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in the assassination of President Kennedy, countering the government's official narrative of events.

The public's appetite for books, investigative journalism, and even feature films on this unsolved mystery has been insatiable over the years.

President Trump promised to release all of the documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy. Following the initial document release, Trump gave federal agencies six additional months to review and release the remaining documents.

As TGP previously reported in February, according to Mike Cernovich, McCabe altered far left FBI investigator Peter Strzok's 302 notes on his interview with General Michael Flynn.

And then McCabe destroyed the evidence.

Now Senate investigators suspect McCabe altered his 302 notes on General Flynn and have referred the matter to Inspector General Horowitz.

Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter this week to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who is currently leading the Department of Justice. As we have previously reported numerous times Jeff Sessions is still hiding under his desk.

In the letter Charles Grassley pointed out to Rosenstein that General Mike Flynn was a witness against Andrew McCabe in a sex abuse case when McCabe came to interview him. McCabe later reportedly altered the 302 interview reports and Mike Flynn was forced out of the Trump Campaign.

Additionally, former Director McCabe was fired for lack of candor regarding a leak to the Wall Street Journal, and Lt. General Flynn was an adverse witness in a pending sexual discrimination case against Mr. McCabe at the time Mr. McCabe was supervising a criminal inquiry targeting Lt. General Flynn.

Sarah Carter at Circa News first reported on this HUGE conflict of interest last year at Circa News.

The FBI launched a criminal probe against former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn two years after the retired Army general roiled the bureau's leadership by intervening on behalf of a decorated counterterrorism agent who accused now-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and other top officials of sexual discrimination, according to documents and interviews.

Flynn's intervention on behalf of Supervisory Special Agent Robyn Gritz was highly unusual, and included a letter in 2014 on his official Pentagon stationary, a public interview in 2015 supporting Gritz's case and an offer to testify on her behalf. His offer put him as a hostile witness in a case against McCabe, who was soaring through the bureau's leadership ranks.

The FBI sought to block Flynn's support for the agent, asking a federal administrative law judge in May 2014 to keep Flynn and others from becoming a witness in her Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) case, memos obtained by Circa show. Two years later, the FBI opened its inquiry of Flynn.

A new report from John Solomon of The Hill ties together several loose threads floating around over the genesis of the FBI/DOJ espionage operation against the Trump campaign, who was involved in the "setup" of campaign aides, and how text messages between FBI employees suggest that the Obama White House was not only aware of the operation - but possibly directing it.

Not only is the timeline moved up from the summer of 2016 to spring, Solomon provides clarification on early contacts between the players involved in DOJ/FBI sting and Trump campaign aides.

The White House says US President Donald Trump will cut his trip to the G7 summit short, skipping a climate change session while staying for one on women empowerment. Trump is increasingly at odds with the other group members.

As Trump was about to depart for the summit, which will take place on Friday and Saturday in Charlevoix, Canada, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that he would leave the venue for Singapore at 10:30 am on Saturday, while the summit will continue until 5:00 pm.

"The President will travel directly to Singapore from Canada in anticipation of his upcoming meeting with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un Tuesday," Huckabee Sanders said on Thursday, adding that Trump's seat at the world leaders' table will be taken by his economic affairs aide, Everett Eissenstat.

Huckabee Sanders did not give any clue as to why Trump will be wrapping up his visit so hastily. Whatever the reason, it's unlikely to be the preparations for the summit with Kim, since Trump previously said he would only need to bring his attitude.

Trump's schedule means that while he will sit through the G-7 working session on "gender equality and women's empowerment," but the session on "climate change and clean energy" will kick off without him. The session starts at 10:45 am, when Trump will supposedly be en route to Singapore.

An older post of mine from December 15, 2017, The Inspector General's Implied Oversight has been receiving some attention recently.

Several different points were made in the piece but three primary ones are as follows:

1. IG Horowitz's discovery of Page/Strzok texts happened on or before July 14, 2017.
2. Horowitz formally began a new line of investigative pursuit on July 14, 2017.
3. Horowitz informed Mueller that he was looking into his team on July 27, 2017.

Given what we know from the McCabe OIG Report, Horowitz probably first saw the Strzok/Page texts in late June or early July 2017. Late May 2017 is possible. Recall:

McCabe first lied to the FBI's Inspection Division on May 9, 2017.

Just when you thought Israel couldn't get any lower... The Israeli army has just released an incitement video, titled "Hamas' use of human shields must stop", in which it frames the slain medic Razan al-Najjar as a "Hamas human shield"- a day after it claimed she was killed by accident.

This is more than adding insult to injury. This is adding malice to crime.

The propaganda effort is based on twisting al-Najjar's own words. I have consulted with three Arabic experts, who have looked at the original Arabic interview from which the IDF took the "human shield" text, and it is clear to them beyond a doubt that the IDF was knowingly and cynically manipulating Razan's words to mean something other than what she said.

Australian government officials have paid a mysterious visit to Julian Assange in his Ecuadorian embassy refuge in London, in a sign there may be a breakthrough in the stalemate that has lasted almost six years.

Two officials from Australia's High Commission were spotted leaving the embassy in Knightsbridge in west London on Thursday.

It is the first time Australian consular officials have visited Assange at the embassy.

They were accompanied by Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson.