{"id":109254,"date":"2026-06-16T17:45:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/109254\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T17:45:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:45:50","slug":"from-smoking-habits-sports-and-a-cryptic-greenland-reference-g7-hot-mics-capture-world-leaders-banter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/109254\/","title":{"rendered":"From smoking habits, sports and a cryptic Greenland reference, G7 hot mics capture world leaders\u2019 banter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Council President Antonio Costa, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, Tuesday.Thibault Camus\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The leaders of the world\u2019s richest democracies are talking about how to tackle some of the world\u2019s biggest problems this week, but hot mics at the G7 summit revealed that conversations also covered lighter fare. Sports. Cigarettes. The weather. And something about Greenland?<\/p>\n

As world leaders made their way into conference rooms at a lakeside resort, microphones set up for their weighty discussions about war and trade often caught off-the-cuff banter.<\/p>\n

Meloni quit smoking<\/p>\n

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni\u2019s smoking habits were the subject of a hot-mic moment on Tuesday. Asked by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz if she had already had a cigarette that morning, Meloni revealed that she hadn\u2019t smoked \u201csince the first of May.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her turn against tobacco prompted enthusiastic congratulations from leaders of Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and the European Union. Meloni raised her hands in celebration. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney had a question for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you have a patch?\u201d Carney asked, grabbing his own arm.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The leaders of the world\u2019s richest democracies are talking about how to tackle some of the world\u2019s biggest problems at the G7 summit this week.Isabel Infantes\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Sports talk includes \u2018Allez les blues!\u2019<\/p>\n

With the World Cup under way in the United States, Mexico and Canada, soccer naturally became a fallback of discussion.<\/p>\n

As leaders gathered for lunch, French President Emmanuel Macron and others weighed in. Someone shouted \u201cAllez les bleus,\u201d the cheer for the French team. Another leader can be heard talking about the recent Champions League victory by Paris-Saint Germain.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump turned attention to the UFC cage-match event he hosted at the White House on Sunday. Trump, who sat ringside on his 80th birthday, spoke glowingly about Dana White, the CEO of UFC.<\/p>\n

At another point in the day, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer effused about Cape Verde\u2019s surprise 0-0 draw against World Cup champion Spain. \u201cQuite remarkable, I have to say,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump makes a cryptic Greenland reference<\/p>\n

In a moment of intrigue, Trump was caught on microphone talking with European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou understand?\u201d Trump said before pausing and looking squarely at Costa. \u201cGreenland.\u201d The start and end of the conversation was unclear.<\/p>\n

European politicians have been outraged by Trump\u2019s threats to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.<\/p>\n

Macron loses track of time \u2013 literally<\/p>\n

Later, Trump added some levity after Macron appeared to have left his watch behind when he departed the group\u2019s working lunch. Carney drew attention to it, saying, \u201cHe\u2019s left his watch here. We\u2019ve got his watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGive me it if he left, gimme,\u201d Trump chimed in, drawing laughs from the group.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a jersey with the number 47 on it as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz look on.Thibault Camus\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Trump gets a jersey for his birthday, and a bike<\/p>\n

The day brought a few instances of gift-giving diplomacy.<\/p>\n

Macron gave all seven of his counterparts personalized bicycles to promote the Cycling World Championships scheduled next year in the French Alps, according to David Lappartient, president of the Union Cycliste Internationale, on social media.<\/p>\n

There was no hot mic moment to detect the reaction of Trump, who is not known to bike and has joked about doing minimal exercise beyond regular golf outings.<\/p>\n

Merz, who recently sparred with Trump over the war in Iran, presented Trump with a German national team soccer jersey bearing Trump\u2019s name and the number 47. Trump raised it and smiled for a photo before setting it aside.<\/p>\n

Merz posted a photo of the exchange on social media and offered a pointed message: \u201cAfter all, we\u2019re on the same team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Council President Antonio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[2592,2582,2593,2574,2572,2594,227,2571,2587,2588,2584,2573,2570,1414,440,2072,2586,2580,2605,2575,2576,1585,57,2583,2501,2578,2595,436,2600,2601,2603,2598,2602,2596,2599,2577,2590,2591,1158,2589,2597,2581,239,1413,2585,2579,1161,2604],"class_list":["post-109254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-greenland","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-greenland","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}