President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed in phone talks that they would step up pressure on North Korea in cooperation with South Korea. The bilateral talks were aimed at confirming close cooperation among the United States, Japan and South Korea before a Group of 20 summit meeting to be held in Hamburg, Germany. The two leaders stressed that their countries are “ready to defend and respond to any threat or action taken by North Korea. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda told the Japanese news agency Kyodo, meanwhile that Abe praised Trump for sanctions the United States imposed last week on a Chinese bank and individuals accused of laundering money for North Korea.

Qatar is a nation about the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut which juts out like a thumb on the Arabian Peninsula into the Persian Gulf. It has the highest per-capita income in the world due to its natural gas reserves, the 3rd largest on the planet after Russia and Iran. Just over 10 percent of its 2.2 million people are Qataris, with the rest foreign workers. Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut ties to Qatar on June 5. They also stopped Qatar Airways flights from using their airspace, closed off the small country’s sole land border with Saudi Arabia and blocked its ships from using their ports. They say the crisis stems from Qatar’s support for extremist groups in the region, charges denied by Doha. The four nations have also pointed to Qatar’s close relationship with Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore gas field that provides the peninsular nation its wealth. The demands from Qatar include limiting diplomatic ties to Iran, shutting down the state-funded Al-Jazeera satellite news network and other media outlets, and severing ties to all “terrorist organizations,” including the Muslim Brotherhood and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. It also demanded Qatar expel the Turkish troops now stationed in the country, as well as pay reparations and submit to auditing. Qatar has rejected the demands as violations of its sovereignty.

Google has introduced a new video format, VR180, developed with input from its Daydream team. The VR180 format, which displays what’s in front of the user only, delivers good video quality both on desktop PCs and mobile devices. While VR180 videos appear in 2D on desktops and mobile devices, they appear in 3D VR when viewed with Cardboard, Google’s Daydream headset or a PlayStation VR headset.

Iran says French energy giant Total is to sign a contract worth close to $5bn (£3.8bn) to develop an offshore gas field in the Gulf. It is the biggest foreign deal since most economic sanctions against the country were lifted in 2016. Oil ministry officials said the deal will be shared with Total getting a 50.1% stake, China’s CNPC would hold a 30% stake and Iran’s Petropars 19.9%. Total was planning to sign the contract several months ago, but decided to wait and see if the Trump administration in the US would re-impose sanctions on Tehran. The offshore field, which is shared between Iran and Qatar, was first developed in the 1990s. Total was one of the biggest investors in Iran before international sanctions were imposed in 2006 over suspicions the country was trying to develop nuclear arms. Last month Total’s boss Patrick Pouyanne indicated the firm was ready to make an initial $1bn investment in Iran, the third largest producer in oil body OPEC.

Thousands of people are taking part in the first major protest in the northern German city of Hamburg before the Group of 20 meeting next weekend. About 4,000 people marched through the city center to protest against the climate and trade policies of the world’s major developed and emerging economies. The demonstration, which also saw protesters take to the water with a flotilla of hundreds of small boats, was organized by environmental, labor, human rights and church groups. Authorities are putting in place tight security and declaring certain areas of Hamburg off limits to protesters during the July 7-8 summit. Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a video address that she wants discussion among leaders to include issues such as sustainable development, labor rights and environmental protection.