Queen meets G7 leaders amid vaccine pledges

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G7 leaders were in agreement over the need to continue supporting their economies with fiscal stimulus after the pandemic, Reuters news agency reported.

"There was broad consensus across the table on continued support for fiscal expansion at this stage," a source said.

Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and Italy's Mario Draghi expressed particular support, they added.

The leaders believe there should be long-term policies for ensuring the health of public finances in the future, the source said.

Leaders emphasised the importance of taking action to reduce unemployment. These included policies such as retraining and offering support for younger workers.

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Diplomatic summits can sometimes be awkward affairs, as presidents and prime ministers are forced to put on smiling faces for the surrounding cameras.

But the Queen seems to have tried to ease any nerves among G7 leaders, by joking to the group as they posed for photos this evening: "Are you supposed to be looking as if you're enjoying yourself?"

According to PA Media, the leaders around the Queen laughed and Prime Minister Boris Johnson said emphatically: "yes".

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The Prince of Wales has called on G7 leaders to take climate change as seriously as they have taken the pandemic.

"The global health emergency has shown us what a truly borderless crisis looks like. Of course, we did not fully see Covid coming," he said in a speech.

"Yet climate change and bio-diversity loss represent a borderless crisis, the solutions to which have been argued about and postponed for far too long."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are doing it for the pandemic. So if you don’t mind me saying so, we must also do it for the planet," he added.

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Boris Johnson has given his backing to the Tokyo Olympics during a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga this morning, Downing Street says.

The games - postponed from last year due to the pandemic - are scheduled to start on 23 July.

Japan had been hoping to gain support for the event, which has come under criticism in recent weeks amid a rise in Covid cases in the country - and it seems the British prime minister was happy to provide it.

"The prime minister expressed his support for the Tokyo Olympics, and welcomed Japanese efforts to ensure the Games can take place safely," the Number 10 spokesperson says.

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Boris Johnson will meet the European Union's key players on Saturday as the dispute over Northern Ireland's post-Brexit trading arrangements intensifies.

The prime minister will hold talks with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, European Council head Charles Michel, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel at the G7 summit in Cornwall.

Ahead of the talks, No 10 indicated the UK would be prepared to unilaterally delay the full implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol in order to prevent a ban on chilled meats crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain.

The move risks triggering a "sausage war" trade dispute, with the EU threatening to respond to any breach of the deal.

Johnson has suggested the EU was taking an "excessively burdensome" approach to the arrangements and insisted he is not trying to back out of the agreement.

But he said the UK's "internal market" has to be respected and "we just need to make it work".

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The G7 leaders pose for a picture with the Queen in front of the iconic Eden Project domes after they gathered for the evening reception.

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South Korean President Moon Jae-in is among world leaders to have arrived at the summit.

"We will show our leadership at the G7 in formulating joint responses to pressing global challenges including health issues and climate change," a senior presidential official told reporters before Moon set off.

South Korea has committed to zero emissions by 2050 and backed a Green New Deal to promote investment in green technology as a way to bounce back from the pandemic.

The G7 is also likely to include talks on free trade and countering China's growing influence.

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The Queen is smiling broadly as she speaks to US President Joe Biden and his wife at the G7 reception at Cornwall's Eden Project.

Prince Charles chats to Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, in the background.

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The Eden Project is the venue for this evening's G7 reception. So what do we know about it?

The project - an educational charity based in Cornwall - has been billed as "the largest indoor rainforest in the world" and attracts about a million visitors a year.

It was built in a disused china clay quarry and first opened in 2001.

It was chosen because climate change and biodiversity are among the main themes for the summit.

US journalists are taking in the sights and sounds of Cornwall in Britain's far south-west as they travel with President Biden on his first official trip outside the US.

Steve Holland, who has been filing pool reports about the president's movements, took a moment to share a photo of the iconic cliff tops.

Josh Wingrove, a reporter for Bloomberg, tweeted a photo of the "not-so-ugly" press filing centre for journalists working at the G7 summit.

After President Biden dropped by a hotel pub last night with his wife - displacing a US-based BBC journalist who happened to be dining outdoors - a Washington Post reporter made a crack about his decision to spend time outside despite the grey weather.

"Classic Tourist Perseverance: It's cold, it's rainy, we overpaid for this castle' hotel — but we're putting on our jackets, dammit, and getting a pint," tweeted Ashley Parker.

By the way, while our BBC team was moving tables for the Bidens, the president himself commented on the famous British weather.

"Well I tell you, this is so beautiful it doesn't even need the sun," Biden said.

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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has touched down in Cornwall for the G7 summit.

In a phone call with Boris Johnson this week, Ramaphosa discussed how the summit would be an important opportunity to lead a global effort to end the pandemic, "including by increasing access to vaccines and taking steps towards a global treaty to prevent future pandemics", a Downing Street statement said.

The leaders also discussed the need to make progress on tackling climate change, it said.

BBCCopyright: BBC

The Queen is hosting G7 leaders at the world’s largest indoor rainforest at the Eden Project.

Her Majesty arrived with the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and was greeted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie.

World leaders enjoyed welcome drinks in the giant biodomes at the globally renowned eco-attraction.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

BBCCopyright: BBC

The Queen has arrived at the world-famous biodomes of the Eden Project near St Austell in Cornwall to host an evening reception for G7 leaders.

The monarch arrived shortly after Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Carrie Johnson and French President Macron and his wife Brigitte.

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Joe Biden will be the 13th US president to meet the Queen when they come face-to-face at a reception in Cornwall this evening.

The two previously met in 1982 when Biden was a senator, according to a White House official.

The Queen has met every single president since Dwight Eisenhower. Only one president did not meet her during her 69-year-reign: Lyndon Baines Johnson, who never visited the UK as president.

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US pop singer and actress Selena Gomez has condemned UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's vaccine-sharing plan, telling her nearly 65 million Twitter followers that he must do more.

".@BorisJohnson, 5million doses by September is too little too late. You promised Britain would donate ALL its surplus vaccines," she wrote.

Gomez also instructed her followers to "call on the PM to help meet 1B doses" and included a link to a petition.

The singer hosted a star studded concert called Vax Live in Los Angeles last month, where Prince Harry appeared on stage to call for vaccines to be "distributed to everyone everywhere".

This whole G7 summit is a huge push by the UK, the red carpet has been rolled out for world leaders and the royals are coming to Cornwall tonight.

The Queen is actually hosting the summit dinner and in terms of effort from the country to welcome people, well they couldn't really do more than that.

But when it comes to the solid commitments that Boris Johnson wants to see and those crucial vows on vaccines, although the numbers sound huge campaigners and charities are convinced the problem is so acute even those numbers aren't enough.

We're expecting to bring you more from that royal reception early this evening.

If you’re just joining us, here are the main developments:

• Leaders at the G7 summit have come to the end of their talks for the afternoon and are making their way to the Eden Project for this evening's reception, where they will be joined by the Queen, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged fellow leaders to "build back better" as the world recovers from the Covid pandemic
• He also pledged £430m to improve education in some of the world's poorest countries - with girls' education a priority
• Biden has presented Johnson with a bike built in Philadelphia, and Johnson in return gifted the US president with a photograph of a mural from Edinburgh depicting famed US anti-slavery activist Frederick Douglass
• The UK has announced it will donate at least 100 million surplus coronavirus vaccine doses within the next year
• The leaders all posed for the traditional so-called "family photo" before starting their talks

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A police officer who was staying on the ferry moored in Falmouth for the G7 summit has tested positive for Covid-19, the Devon and Cornwall force says.

The officer, along with 11 others who were in close contact with them, are all now in self-isolation at a different location.

There are around 6,500 police officers in Cornwall to provide cover for the meeting of world leaders in Carbis Bay.

As well as officers from Devon and Cornwall Police, others have been drafted in from forces across the UK to work on security for the event.

The ferry moored in Falmouth is just one provider of accommodation for police officers with others staying in locations across Cornwall.

Here's the full story.

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A spokesman for Russia's Kremlin says he does not expect the leaders of the US and Russia to hold a joint press conference when they meet in Geneva on Wednesday.

Dmitry Peskov told CNN that the two sides are still negotiating the terms of the meeting, which is highly anticipated by both countries.

“We heard about such a possibility from our American counterparts, but we are still waiting for final confirmation but since the very beginning President Putin has been open to any alternatives,” Peskov told the US network.

Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, was often criticised for allegedly being too cosy with Putin. Biden has sought to take a tougher line, but has so far given no indication as to what he is planning to tell the Russian president.

Asked by reporters on Friday what his message will be, Mr Biden responded: “I’ll tell you after I deliver it.”