India, June 20 -- On the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, seated on a small sofa, Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni were seen deep in what looked like an extended conversation. The US President has now claimed the Italian PM had "begged" him for that moment: "She wanted a picture with me so badly - I could have skipped it, but I felt sorry for her." Meloni's response was a rebuke in Italian: "Io e l'Italia non imploriamo mai." 'Neither I nor Italy ever beg.'

A diplomatic row has since erupted, and responses have included a reference to World War 2.

Trump's remarks were made in an interview broadcast on Friday on Italy's La7 channel, where a correspondent asked him about Ukraine, but Trump raised Meloni instead. And the conve...