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French president Emmanuel Macron has, once again, gotten physical with his US counterpart Donald Trump.

The latest incident took place at the G20 summit in Hamburg. When the world leaders gathered for the traditional family photo, Macron is seen pushing through the crowd to stand next to Trump. Once Macron reaches the front row, he claps Trump on the shoulder, before taking his place beside the US president.

According to one British newspaper, Macron took the opportunity to zone in on Trump like a cruise missile. While some commentators saw the encounter as yet another example of Macron going mano a mano with Trump, French media had a simple explanation.

Macron was actually following a strict diplomatic rule, Le Parisien newspaper reports (link in French). According to protocol, the first row is reserved for heads of state, with the longest-serving leaders positioned towards the center and newer arrivals at the ends. Macron thus moved to stand next to Trump, another recently elected president. The middle rows feature heads of G20 governments (Canadas Justin Trudeau, second row) as well as leaders from non-G20 countries invited as guests (Singapores Lee Hsien Loong, third row). The back row is intended for representatives of international bodies, such as the director of the IMF Christine Lagarde and head of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim.

There was an exception to these rules for Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany (a head-of-government position), who stood in the center of the first row because she was hosting the summit, and her immediate neighbors, Argentinas president Mauricio Macri (host of the next summit) and Chinese president Xi Jinping (host of the previous summit).

In May, during the NATO summit in Brussels, Macron and Trump engaged in a death-grip handshake, in which their knuckles turned white and their jaws seemed to clench. The photos showed Macron grabbing Trumps hand hard and refusing to let goeven when Trump tried to pull away. Trump, who is notorious for his uncomfortably long handshakes, was seen to have lost at his own game.

Macron went on to explain that the handshake wasnt an innocent encounter but a moment of truth. He added: We must show that we wont make small concessions, even symbolic ones, but not to over-publicize it either. I dont believe in the diplomacy of public invectives but in my bilateral talks, I dont let anything pass, its how one gets respected.

Correction (July 10): This post was updated to clarify that the middle rows are reserved for heads of governments and guest leaders, and also to explain the arrangement protocol in more detail.

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Donald Trump and Emanuel Macron's awkward G20 encounter actually has a simple explanation - Quartz

David Letterman may be tired of late-night hosts constant mockery ofDonald Trump, but he still wants it known that he is no fan of the current president.

Lets just stop whining about what a goon he is and figure out a way to take him aside and put him in a home, Letterman told The Associated Press.

Asked whether he wished he could still be a part of late-night TV at a moment when its comedians are heavily focused on Trump, the former Late Night host turned the conversation toward action.

I just think we ought to direct our resources and our energies to doing something about it, Letterman said.

Heres his full response:

Heres what I keep saying: We know theres something wrong, but what Im tired of is people daily, nightly, on all the cable news shows telling us theres something wrong. I just think we ought to direct our resources and our energies to doing something about it. And other people have made this point: If the guy was running Dairy Queen, hed be gone. This guy couldnt work at The Gap. So why do we have to be victimized by his fecklessness, his ignorance? But its just the behavior is insulting to Americans, whether you voted for him or not and I feel bad for people who did vote for him because he promised them things that they really needed and one wonders if hes really going to come through. I know theres trouble in this country and we need a guy who can fix that trouble. I wish it was Trump, but its not, so lets just stop whining about what a goon he is and figure out a way to take him aside and put him in a home.

The comedians comments come as his new video series with Sen.Al Franken(D-Minn.) premieres on Funny or Die.

The new project,Boiling the Frog with Senator Al Franken, debuted Monday and will roll out new episodes weekly. Franken said the goal is to fight back against the countrys uninterested attitude toward climate change and other science-based problems.

In particular, Boiling the Frog will address the White Houses stance on those topics.

Since taking office, President Trump has decided to disregard science in order to repeatedly put the short-sighted interests of his friends in the fossil fuel industry ahead of the safety of our planet, Franken told the AP.We hope to bring some much needed attention to this critical issue and ultimately, to help encourage people in Minnesota, Daves home state of Indiana and all Americans to make their voices heard and join the fight to combat climate change.

The team behind the Emmy-winning show Years of Living Dangerously in which Letterman traveled to India for an episode partly about climate change is also on board.

Watch the first episode below:

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David Letterman Would Like To Depose Donald Trump And 'Put Him In A Home' - HuffPost

Photo Donald Trump Jr. at the Republican National Convention last year. He has offered different accounts of a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer. Credit Josh Haner/The New York Times

In less than 24 hours, President Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has given two different explanations for a meeting he held during the 2016 campaign with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who promised to provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Trumps meeting with that lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was first reported by The New York Times on Saturday. In response, Mr. Trump said the meeting was brief and focused mostly on the issue of adoption.

This was Mr. Trumps statement to the news media on Saturday:

It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up.

I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.

The statement made reference to Jared Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law, and Paul J. Manafort, the presidents former campaign manager.

Mr. Trumps version of the meeting changed Sunday, when three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it told The Times that Mr. Trump met Ms. Veselnitskaya after she promised to provide damaging information on Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Trump acknowledged on Sunday that Ms. Veselnitskaya offered him information on Mrs. Clinton but that her statements made no sense and the information was not meaningful.

This is the statement Mr. Trump gave to the news media on Sunday:

I was asked to have a meeting by an acquaintance I knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign. I was not told her name prior to the meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to attend, but told them nothing of the substance. We had a meeting in June 2016. After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information. She then changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of Russian children and mentioned the Magnitsky Act. It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting. I interrupted and advised her that my father was not an elected official, but rather a private citizen, and that her comments and concerns were better addressed if and when he held public office. The meeting lasted approximately 20 to 30 minutes. As it ended, my acquaintance apologized for taking up our time. That was the end of it and there was no further contact or follow-up of any kind. My father knew nothing of the meeting or these events.

An earlier version of this article misquoted a statement by Donald Trump Jr. about a meeting with a Russian lawyer. He said the meeting mostly focused on the topic of adoption, which was not a campaign issue. He did not say it was a campaign issue.

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Donald Trump Jr.'s Two Different Explanations for Russian Meeting - New York Times

BBC News

Donald Trump backtracks on Russia joint cybersecurity unit BBC News Donald Trump has backtracked on a proposal to work with Russia to create an "impenetrable" cybersecurity unit to prevent election hacking. Hours after promoting the idea on Sunday, the US president said that he did not think it could actually happen. Trump on his 'impenetrable' cybersecurity unit with Putin: I didn't mean itCNBC Trump now says Russia-US Cyber Security unit can't happenABC News Donald Trump puts US in a club of oneCNN Washington Times -Gizmodo all 4,874 news articles »

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Donald Trump backtracks on Russia joint cybersecurity unit - BBC News

President Trump drew condemnation for tweeting a violent, doctored video of him punching CNN on July 2, but the real punches were thrown back in 2007, at a scripted WWE match. Here's a look at how the fight came to be. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

If we could rip Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr.out of all political context and speak of them simply as two men with smartphones,their story might be one ofa father and son learning to memetogether.

Witness their accomplishments in the past week.

Step 1. The fatheradvancesan idea:

Step 2. The son follows up:

Of course, thats simplistic; theTrumps memescantbe separated from politics any more than the men.

When Trumptweeted a clip of himself pummeling a CNN avatar a week ago, he did so as president of the United States one who frequently attacksthe press asanenemy.

WhenTrump Jr. spent the following days advancingvariations of his fathers meme culminating in Trump as Tom Cruise chasing CNN in Top Gun he did so as the son of an embattled politician, and one of the presidentsfiercest defenders.

[The Reddit user behind Trumps CNN meme apologized. But #CNNBlackmail is the story taking hold.]

Father and sonhave long beenprolific online. And their week-long WrestleMania-to-Top Gun assault on CNN is not the first time they ganged up ona rival.

You might rememberthe final weeks of the 2016 election, when Trump jumped on his Democratic opponentfor calling his supporters a basket of deplorables.

Wow. Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard working people, Trump wrote on Twitter, which he had been using for years, favoring thewritten word over GIFs.

I think it will cost her at the Polls! Trump concluded in his tweet in September.

Clintons deplorables labeldid, in fact, turn into a symbolof pride for many Trump fans. Its evolution into a full-blown meme gota strong assist from Trump Jr. a few days after his father tweeted.

That was nearlya year ago, and Trump Jr. claimed ignorance of the imagehed promoted.

Ive never even heard of Pepe the Frog, he told an ABC host who called the cartoon a white supremacist symbol. I thought it was a frog in a wig. I thought it was funny.

But if Trump Jr. was ameme novice then, he would learn much.

So would his father.

[A Reddit user who wrote about stabbing Muslims is claiming credit for Trumps CNN video]

Toward the end of 2016, many reporters began to write about a phenomenon theycalled fake news. As outlets such asPoliticoand NPR reported, thesewere manufactured news articles, originating onshady websites, designed to trick people into sharing fictions as facton social media.

Trump, at least as much as anyone, helped invert the terms meaning at first simply typing FAKE NEWS in all caps when someoneran a story he didnt like, buteventually applying it to virtuallyevery major news outlet in the United States.

And Trump Jr. followed up by extending fake news tohashtag form.

Trump supporters picked up on the trend, too, and inevitably, fake news became one of the political rightsfavorite memes.

Which bring us up to the present day, and the Trumps cooperativememe war onCNN.

No one is quite sure how a clipof Trumppummeling an anthropomorphized news networkat WrestleManiatraveled from Reddit to the presidents Twitter feed last weekend, where Trump adorned it with the hashtag: #FraudNewsCNN.

But travel itdid, and becameone of the presidentsmost popular tweets ever.

It also providedhis son with memetic inspirationfora full week.

A day after Trump tweeted the CNN-Wrestlemania clip, Trump Jr. retweeted one of countless variations that sprang up: CNN as Charlie Brown failingto kick a football held by Trump as Lucy.

Trump Jr. also went back tothe ancient hold-my-beer meme, retweeting an updated version that mocked CNN.

And he repeatedly tweeted the #CNNBlackmail hashtag accusingthe network of coercing an apology out of the Reddit user who created the WrestleMania meme.

A meme about a meme, yes.Trump Jr. had learned much sincehis first forayinto the world of Pepe the Frog.

Then, on Saturday, he shared one of the best Ive seen.

Best memes, that is. It was his fathers face pasted over Tom Cruises fighter pilotin the climactic scene of Top GunTrump chasing a CNN logopasted onwhat in the movie was aRussian-made MiG jet.

There may have been some unintended irony in Trump Jr.s selection. The same day, theNew York Times reportedthat he had met with a lawyer tied to the Kremlin during his fathers campaign.

But never mind. Trump and Trump Jr.have both downplayed investigations into the campaigns possible collusion withRussian hackers as fake news.

In thelatest iteration of the intergenerationalcycle ofmemes, the fatherblasts CNN out of the sky, and the sonshares it with the world.

More reading:

A Reddit user who wrote about stabbing Muslims is claiming credit for Trumps CNN video

We are not fake news: At a Trump-free correspondents dinner, White House press has its say.

From old photo to right-wing meme to Trumps twitter: The journey of one Schumer/Putin pic

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Donald Trump Jr. loyally prosecutes his father's meme war on CNN - Washington Post