What Japan’s G8 summit can accomplish
Will leaders go beyond talk on global warming and hunger?
What happened
Leaders of the U.S. and the seven other G8 industrialized nations are meeting on Japan’s Hokkaid? island this week. On the summit’s agenda are climate change, soaring global energy and food prices, and aid to Africa. (MarketWatch)
What the commentators said
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Facing “bear markets, faltering growth, job losses, and $140-a-barrel oil,” said the Toronto Star in an editorial, the G8 leaders “will be tempted to retreat from past pledges and to dodge new ones.” But they shouldn’t.
It’s safer to expect “more preaching than sacrifice, or even leadership by example,” from this “self-appointed elite,” said Bunn Nagara in Malaysia’s The Star. Rising food and fuel prices hit poor countries disproportionately harder than wealthy ones, so the leaders of the rich G8 nations have different priorities.
This year’s G8 leaders are mostly lame ducks, gangsters, and puppets ill-suited to today’s massive challenges, said Max Hastings in Britain’s The Guardian. But they’re better than nothing, and at least these summits push them to up their giving for worthy causes, such as fighting AIDS in Africa.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Trump’s budget bill will increase the deficit. Does it matter?
Today's Big Question Analysts worry a 'tipping point' is coming
-
Film reviews: The Phoenician Scheme, Bring Her Back, and Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
Feature A despised mogul seeks a fresh triumph, orphaned siblings land with a nightmare foster mother, and a Jane fan finds herself in a love triangle
-
Music reviews: Tune-Yards and PinkPantheress
Feature "Better Dreaming" and "Fancy That"