Our live coverage has ended. Read more about the G7 summit here.
The leaders of the world’s advanced economies gathered Friday on the Cornish coast for the first time since the global coronavirus pandemic began, welcoming President Biden as a new member who arrived here intent on restoring traditional American alliances.
With a pandemic raging in much of the world, a global economy still in shock and threats rising from Russia and China, the Group of 7 summit that formally began on Friday was shaping up to potentially be one of the most consequential in recent memory. The gathered nations will pledge to donate 1 billion Covid vaccine doses, with the US providing about half of those shots.
Biden has ramped up those stakes, framing the moment as one just as momentous as the years during and after World War II, when the US, the United Kingdom and their allies worked together to help the world recover.
His day began with the landmark “family photo,” a symbolic moment for a President who has long sought a place in the club of world leaders. The group smiled for the picture with scenic Carbis Bay in the background.
Biden was seen in friendly conversation with President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada as he walked to the platform. As the leaders were returning inside after the photo was taken, Biden walked arm-in-arm with Macron, whom he had not yet met as president.
Already, Biden has used his first trip abroad as President to announce a purchase of new vaccines for the developing world, likening it to American wartime efforts building tanks and airplanes. And he sat down for his first face-to-face meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister in a photo op designed to replicate a historic World War II alliance.
He’s sought to convey a message of unity after four years of fractured alliances under then-President Trump.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that she is “very happy” to have Biden at the summit, saying that the G7 Summit will send a “strong” message in support of multilateralism.
“We will find strong words here in support of multilateralism and also for values based multilateralism which will lead to a dispute with Russia and in some aspects also with China,” she added.
Read more about day 1 here.
President Biden had a pull-aside meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday during the G7 summit, their first substantial in-person interaction since Biden took office.
The two will also hold a more formal bilateral meeting on Saturday, a White House spokesperson said.
“President Biden enjoyed a positive and productive first day of discussions at the G7, focused on ways we can collaborate to build a more inclusive and fair global economy,” the spokesperson added.
President Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson exchanged gifts as part of their gathering in Cornwall for the G7 summit.
Biden gave Johnson a custom-made touring bike and helmet from Bilenky Cycle Works, a Philadelphia-based family business, as a “gesture of friendship and in recognition of their shared interest in cycling,” the White House said.
Johnson gave Biden a framed photograph of a mural of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. First lady Jill Biden received a first edition novel by 20th century British author Daphne du Maurier.
President Biden posed with Queen Elizabeth II and other G7 leaders ahead of a reception in Cornwall.
Biden was seated two seats away from the Queen, who was positioned center-stage during a photo-op at the Eden Project environmental site.
After the Queen stood up to conclude the photo, other leaders gathered around her, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Biden stayed back, speaking with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi as the group walked back into the venue.
It did not appear from the on-camera portion that Biden spoke one-on-one with the Queen during this engagement.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden have arrived at the Eden Project, a Cornish botanical garden, where they will be joining G7 leaders and Queen Elizabeth II, as well as other members of the Royal Family, for a reception and dinner.
The first lady wore a trench coat and the President wore a suit and tie.
The Queen arrived earlier this hour with Prince Charles, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
During a speech at the G7 Summit in Cornwall on Friday, the Prince of Wales is set to call on world leaders to work together and mobilize to tackle the climate crisis, as they have mobilized to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are doing it for the pandemic. We must also do it for the planet,” he will add.
The address will come just a day after the Prince of Wales hosted members of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) at St James’s Palace to discuss how the private sector can work with governments to tackle the global climate crisis.
“The Prince of Wales has worked for over 50 years to address environmental issues and tackle climate change. His Royal Highness believes that economic and social development will best succeed when it works in harmony, rather than in conflict, with nature,” Clarence House said Thursday in a statement.
During a speech on Thursday, the Prince of Wales described “potentially game-changing” partnerships between government, business and private sector finance as being “absolutely vital” to combatting climate change and biodiversity loss.
“Unless we can actually unlock private sector resource, innovation and finance…we just don’t stand a chance of solving the existential crises we have engineered over the years,” he added.
Queen Elizabeth II and other senior members of the royal family are set to meet G7 leaders and their partners at a reception in Cornwall, England.
The 95-year-old Queen, the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will attend the reception at the Eden Project, a famous visitor attraction located in a reclaimed china clay pit.
The dinner comes after the initial day of meetings at the G7 summit. The leaders of the world’s advanced economies gathered Friday on the Cornish coast for the first time since the global coronavirus pandemic began.
The global economy is up first on the agenda, with the global tax rate and aid for countries in need on the docket. These efforts, the White House said, will “forge a more fair and inclusive global economy” as the world leaders gather in Cornwall.
President Biden and the G7 leaders, the White House said, will “discuss ways to forge a more fair, sustainable, and inclusive global economy that meets the unique challenges of our time. President Biden and G7 partners are committed to a global recovery that benefits the middle class and working families at home and around the world.”
What happens tomorrow: The world leaders will have back-to-back plenary sessions where they are expected to continue to discuss multiple topics including the economy and foreign policy.
Read more about today’s events here.
Queen Elizabeth’s history with US Presidents:
Leaders of the world’s major economies have arrived in Carbis Bay, England, for the start of an in-person G7 summit.
It’s the first time US President Biden is meeting his counterparts since being sworn in earlier this year. The global tax rate and coronavirus aid and recovery, as well as climate change and cybersecurity are set to be big topics of discussion.
CNN’s chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny answered viewers’ questions live from England. Watch:
At least 12 UK police officers supporting policing efforts at the G7 Summit in Cornwall, England, are now self-isolating after one police officer tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed Friday in a statement.
According to Devon and Cornwall Police, the officer was being accommodated on the MS Silja Europa ferry, which is housing some 1,000 police officers and members of staff over the course of the G7 Summit.
“The officer, plus those who have come into close contact, are currently self-isolating at another designated location,” the statement from Devon and Cornwall Police said.
“All who have come into close contact or are in the bubble of those who tested positive are also currently self-isolating which equates to 12 officers in total,” the statement added.
Devon and Cornwall Police have affirmed that they continue to follow the advice of Public Health England, adding that all those who receive a positive lateral flow test for coronavirus are then required to undertake a PCR test.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on G7 leaders to make “concrete commitments” to tackle global challenges, adding that this year’s summit in Cornwall, England, “must be one of action.”
“We have a responsibility to set clear goals and make concrete commitments to meet the challenges of our time,” Macron said in a tweet on Friday following a roundtable discussion with G7 leaders.
“I am glad to see you again, dear partners and friends. Let’s get to work, together,” he added.
Earlier on Friday, Macron shared a photo with other European leaders at the opening of the summit, tweeting: “As ever, the same union, the same determination to act, the same enthusiasm.”
The French Embassy in the UK described the summit on Friday as a “historic opportunity” for leaders to address issues facing the world, including the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and vaccine distribution; fighting global inequality; and tackling the climate crisis.
The French president also tweeted a video with US President Joe Biden. The two leaders met for the first time at the G7 summit:
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN’s Matthew Chance in an exclusive interview on Friday that Russia is not expecting a joint press conference at the end of Putin-Biden summit in Geneva set to take place next Wednesday.
However, the Kremlin said negotiations are continuing on the final format of the summit and no final decision has been reached.
Peskov told CNN Putin is ready to participate in a joint press conference or hold one of his own in Geneva.
Peskov added Putin is not going to Geneva just to appear on the same platform as Biden but because “the poor state of relations” between the US and Russia demands a summit.
Earlier today, CNN reported that Biden and Putin are not currently expected to hold a joint press conference following their high-stakes summit in Geneva, according two US officials familiar with the matter said.
The final plans are still being formulated, and could change. But officials putting together the day’s events said that as of Friday no joint press conference was expected.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.
The leaders of the G7 will work together as part of a “united vision” to support the recovery of the global economy, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday, describing the summit as a “huge opportunity” for leaders to learn from mistakes made during the global coronavirus pandemic.
“We need to make sure that we don’t repeat some of the errors that we made over the course of the last 18 months or so, and we need to make sure that we now allow our economies to recover, and I think that they have the potential to bounce back very strongly,” Johnson said.
Speaking ahead of a roundtable discussion with G7 leaders on the first day of a three-day summit in Cornwall, England, the British prime minister stressed the need for equal recovery across society.
“I think what’s gone wrong with this pandemic, or what risks being a lasting scar, is that I think the inequalities may be entrenched. We need to make sure that, as we recover, we level up across our societies and we build back better,” Johnson said.
“I think that is what the people of our countries now want us to focus on. They want us to be sure that we’re beating the pandemic together and discussing how we’ll never have a repeat of what we’ve seen, but also that we’re building back better together, building back greener, building back fairer and building back more equal and in a more gender-neutral and more feminine way — how about that,” he added.
European Union leaders declared China a “systemic rival, a partner on global issues and a competitor” at a meeting in Cornwall, England, ahead of the Group of Seven summit, the French presidency said on Friday.
The G7 member nations intend to pursue this issue with President Biden during the summit in Cornwall, England, the statement added.
The heads of state also addressed global access to Covid-19 vaccines. To achieve this, France intends to strengthen the World Health Organization’s Act-A initiative, implement in-kind donations and mobilize pharmaceutical laboratories, the statement said.
These efforts should achieve a 60% vaccination of the population of the Global South by March 2022, in particular in Africa, according to the French presidency.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she is “very happy” to meet with US President Biden, adding that the G7 Summit will send a “strong” message in support of multilateralism.
“I am of course happy that the American President is present here. Being able to meet Joe Biden is obviously important because he stands for the commitment to multilateralism which we were missing in recent years,” Merkel said.
Addressing reporters shortly after her arrival at the summit in Cornwall, England, the German Chancellor said she hopes G7 leaders will be able to achieve positive results on issues including the re-starting of the global economy, climate protection and global access to coronavirus vaccines.
“We need everyone across the world, we want to work together, especially on the issue of climate protection and biodiversity where we will never find solutions without China,” Merkel said.
“I hope we will achieve very good results here to show that we are not only thinking of ourselves but also of those who do not yet have a possibility to get vaccinated, especially the countries in Africa but also elsewhere,” she added.
Earlier today, the White House said Biden will welcome German chancellor Angela Merkel to the White House next month. The White House said Merkel will visit on July 15. It will be her first visit to Washington during Biden’s presidency, and likely her final US visit in a long era as chancellor.
Merkel is not seeking a fifth term and will depart office. Elections to replace her are in September.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins contributed reporting to this post.
Amanda Sloat, the National Security Council’s senior director for Europe, said President Biden’s upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is “certainly not a reset.”
“And the President really believes he’s going to have the wind at his back as he moves into this meeting with President Putin” on June 16 following the G7 and NATO summits, she said.
Sloat also said that Biden’s “overarching message” is that “democracies can work and that democracies can come together to address these challenges.”
There will be conversations during the three-day G7 summit about ransomware and emerging threats, as well as infrastructure and the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.
As Biden and the first lady were returning indoors after the G7 “family photo,” reporters asked the President what his message was for Putin.
“I’ll tell you after I deliver it,” he said before walking indoors.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.
The G7 leaders posed for the landmark “family photo” in Carbis Bay, England ahead of the first plenary session of the three-day summit.
It’s a major moment for President Biden, who has been near the center of the American foreign policy establishment for decades but never as a member of the world leaders’ club.
On Friday, he took his place alongside the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and the European Union to pose for a photo marking the start of the G7 summit. Biden posed to the right of Johnson during the photo.
Biden was seen in friendly conversation with President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada as he walked to the platform. As the leaders were returning inside after the photo was taken, Biden walked arm-in-arm with Macron, whom he had not yet met as president.
More on today’s agenda: The leaders of the world’s advanced economies are gathering today on the Cornish coast for the first time since the global coronavirus pandemic began, welcoming Biden as a new member who arrived here intent on restoring traditional American alliances.
The global economy is up first in the summit, with the global tax rate and aid for countries in need on the docket. These efforts, the White House said, will “forge a more fair and inclusive global economy” as the world leaders gather in Cornwall.
Biden and the G7 leaders, the White House said, will “discuss ways to forge a more fair, sustainable, and inclusive global economy that meets the unique challenges of our time. President Biden and G7 partners are committed to a global recovery that benefits the middle class and working families at home and around the world.”
The group is expected to announce an endorsement for the global minimum tax of at least 15%, a Biden-led overhaul of the global tax system, after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her finance minister counterparts announced an agreement on the matter earlier this month in London.
Read more about today’s meetings here.
Watch the historic moment here:
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden were greeted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson for the start of the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, England.
The group shared an elbow bump upon greeting. The G7 leaders are expected to take the landmark “family photo” soon.
Biden was the second-to-last leader to greet host Johnson. The two men and their wives posed for a photo with Carbis Bay as the backdrop before the Bidens kept walking into the venue.
Earlier today, the US first lady met Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, touring a school in Cornwall, England, near the G7 summit.
Biden and the Duchess focused their meeting on children and education during their first-ever meeting, which took place at Conor Downs Academy, inside a classroom of 4- and 5-year-old students.
CNN’s Kate Bennett contributed reporting to this post.
President Biden and Russian President Putin are not currently expected to hold a joint news conference following their high-stakes summit in Geneva next week, two US officials familiar with the matter say.
The final plans are still being formulated, and could change. But officials putting together the day’s events said that as of Friday, no joint press conference was expected.
This is a change from three years ago, when then-President Trump met privately for two hours with Putin in Helsinki. Both leaders spoke to reporters after, which is when Trump sided with the Kremlin over US intelligence agencies.
US officials said they expect to be negotiating details of the summit’s structure and format with their Russian counterparts until the hours before it begins.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said earlier this week that details like a joint press conference were still being sorted.
Sullivan said as Biden was flying to England to begin his foreign trip that the President himself did plan to speak afterward.
“He does want to have an opportunity after that meeting to read it out and speak about his impressions and what he sees as the way forward,” he said.
In the weeks following Biden’s invitation to Putin for a summit meeting in Europe, officials from the two sides have negotiated details of the encounter, including its agenda and location.
Some more background: Putin has a history of joint news conferences with his American counterparts, including a much-maligned appearance alongside then-President Donald Trump in Helsinki. Trump drew criticism for appearing to side with Putin instead of American intelligence agencies after a question on election meddling.
Officials who have been involved in arranging past US meetings with Putin say the Russian side often pushes for a joint press conference, hoping to elevate Putin’s stature by having him appear alongside the American leader.
It’s one of several fraught decisions that go into planning meetings with Putin.
During a visit to a local elementary school in Cornwall on the first day of the G7 Summit, the Duchess of Cambridge and First lady Jill Biden, expressed their hopes for the United Kingdom and the United States to work together to support the improvement of early childhood education.
“I am committed to this for the long term. I hope our two countries can keep sharing data, knowledge and best practice for many years to come,” she added.
Speaking alongside the Duchess of Cambridge, the US first lady said she is “sure” the two countries will continue to work together, expressing how important she feels early childhood education is for all.
While touring a classroom and meeting with pupils at the Connor Downs Academy, Biden also expressed how “impressed” she was by the “inspiring” pupils she met and the work of the school to support early years education.
Asked by reporters how important she feels early childhood education will be for children during and after the global coronavirus pandemic, the first lady touched on her own experience as an educator, describing early years education as “the foundation of everything.”
“I can tell you that as a teacher at the upper levels, if they don’t have a good foundation, they fall so far behind, so this is amazing to see what these children are doing, and how far advanced they are at four and five years old,” Biden said.
President Biden’s first international trip since taking office includes a G7 summit, where he will look to reestablish US leadership on key global topics. The first day of the three-day summit is today in Carbis Bay, England.
Here’s what you need to know about the summit:
What is the G7?
The G7 is shorthand for Group of Seven, an organization of leaders from some of the world’s largest economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Russia was indefinitely suspended from the group — which was at the time known as the G8 — in 2014 after the majority of member countries allied against its annexation of Crimea.
What does the G7 do?
Members of the G7 meet each year for a summit to discuss global issues, such as international security and the world economy, and coordinate policy. This year, recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to be a big topic.
In a statement ahead of the summit, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would urge his fellow G7 leaders to make concrete commitments to vaccinate the world, as well as give support to the “Global Pandemic Radar” — a new global surveillance system intended to protect immunization programs.
What power does the G7 have?
The group has often produced decisions with global consequences.
Ahead of this year’s summit, for instance, G7 finance ministers agreed to back a global minimum tax of at least 15% on multinational companies. The G7 group also agreed that the biggest companies should pay tax where they generate sales, and not just where they have a physical presence.
First Lady Jill Biden and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, met for the first time at the Connor Downs Academy in Hayle, Cornwall.
The classroom was full of children around the ages of four and five.
“It’s the quietest class I’ve ever been into,” the Duchess said.
The teacher shared that the children are learning about how to make the world greener and a better place, “which is what we know the G7 is all about,” he said.
Biden said early childhood education during a pandemic is “very important.”
The children also shared their reading skills with Biden and the duchess.
The two women later sat at a table where the children were drawing their own renditions of famous landmarks, including the White House. Biden pointed to parts of it to the children, like where her bedroom was.
Watch Jill Biden and the Duchess interact with the children:
CNN’s Arlette Saenz contributed reporting to this post.
US President Joe Biden will welcome German chancellor Angela Merkel to the White House next month, the White House said on Friday.
Biden has not met formally with Merkel, but has spoken to her by phone. He will see her in person at the G7 summit in Cornwall.
The White House said Merkel will visit on July 15. It will be her first visit to Washington during Biden’s presidency, and likely her final US visit in a long era as chancellor.
Merkel is not seeking a fifth term and will depart office. Elections to replace her are in September.
“Chancellor Merkel’s visit will affirm the deep bilateral ties between the United States and Germany,” the White House said.
“The leaders will discuss their commitment to close cooperation on a range of common challenges, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the threat of climate change, and promoting economic prosperity and international security based on our shared democratic values.”
No high-level political summit is ever complete without a swanky dinner featuring local delicacies.
Queen Elizabeth and other senior members of the royal family are set to meet G7 leaders and their partners at a reception in Cornwall, England on Friday. The 95-year-old Queen, the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will attend the reception at the Eden Project, a famous visitor attraction located in a reclaimed china clay pit.
While the hosting country’s national cuisine tends to dominate formal menus at events like this, there while be no fish and chips or beans on toast on the menu for Friday.
Instead, the meal that chef Emily Scott will serve to the G7 leaders will reflect the location of the G7 summit, Cornwall. Here is the menu, according to a statement from the Downing Street:
CNN’s Luke McGee and Lindsay Isaac contributed reporting to this post.
First lady Jill Biden will meet with Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge this week while she is in England, Kensington Palace told CNN on Thursday, as the first family makes their first international trip.
Biden and Kate will focus on children and education during their first-ever meeting on Friday, a White House official told CNN. The two women will participate in a roundtable about early childhood education and tour a school in Cornwall.
Another White House official said the event would include touring a classroom and a walk outside for a show and tell from the children of how they take care of rabbits. The two women will also hold a roundtable with early childhood experts from the US over Zoom.
Kate, with her husband the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, has taken a larger public-facing role in recent years in the United Kingdom, championing causes including mental health, the overall well-being of children, the importance of sports and visual arts, as well as the importance of getting the Covid-19 vaccine. She posted a photo of herself on her social media accounts receiving her first dose on May 29.
Biden has also taken several recent trips to various parts of the United States encouraging people to get vaccinated. The meeting in England between Biden and the Duchess has been in the works for the last couple of weeks, a White House official tells CNN.
The first lady is accompanying President Joe Biden for his first Group of 7 summit, which is being held in Cornwall, England, from Friday to Sunday. The Bidens arrived in England on Wednesday. On Thursday, the President and first lady met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson. Jill Biden and Carrie Johnson had a separate meeting over tea and a tour of St. Michael’s Mount off the coast of Cornwall.
Some more background: The President and first lady will also meet with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle on Sunday. It will be the Queen’s first major meeting with a world leader since the death of her husband, Prince Philip, in April, and comes after a year in which most of her in-person engagements were postponed or canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Jill Biden will return to the United States after meeting the Queen.
While Jill Biden has for several years been friends with Prince Harry, whom she met in 2012 while second lady, she has not met other senior members of the royal family.
The Northern Ireland protocol, part of the Brexit agreement, is expected to come up during the G7 summit discussion – but protesters in Belfast, Northern Ireland have already expressed their anger with the current situation.
Protests erupted in Belfast on Thursday night, as more than 3,000 people took part in an unplanned procession through the city, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Social media footage from the scene showed loyalist protesters setting fire to a large united Ireland banner used by republican party Sinn Féin.
Loyalists maintain that the protocol, which seeks to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (part of the EU), impinges upon their sense of British identity.
To prevent the hard border, the protocol keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s customs area and single market for goods, meaning there is no need for physical checks for goods crossing the border. But in doing so, the arrangement has created a de facto sea border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Talks between the UK and EU over the protocol have stalled with the bloc pushing for it to be implemented. The UK has yet to fully implement the protocol, for fear of food shortages in Northern Ireland among other things.
US President Joe Biden has maintained his commitment to the Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 peace accord that ended three decades of violence.
Biden discussed the situation with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the run-up to the summit in Cornwall.
Johnson denied rumors that Biden had pressured him over the implementation of the protocol, telling reporters the US, UK and EU “have one thing we absolutely all want to do, and that is to uphold the Good Friday, the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and make sure we keep the balance of the peace process going.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that US President Joe Biden expressed a “great deal of sympathy” over the case of Harry Dunn, a British teenager who died after being hit by a car driven by a US diplomat’s wife.
Anne Sacoolas, the driver, claimed diplomatic immunity and left the UK after the crash outside RAF Croughton, a central England military base controlled by the US Air Force.
Britain’s attempt to extradite Sacoolas to face charges of causing death by dangerous driving was declined by US authorities, and the incident has sparked an ongoing diplomatic spat between the two countries.
In a statement to CNN, a Downing Street spokesperson said the “tragic” issue was raised with Biden and said Johnson “reiterated” that the UK “wants to see justice for the family.”
“He has his own personal reasons for feeling very deeply about the issue,” Johnson told the BBC. Biden’s first wife and an infant daughter were killed in a car crash in 1972.
“He was extremely sympathetic, but this is not something that either government can control very easily because there are legal processes that are still going on,” Johnson added.
Last year, the UK and US agreed to revise an “anomaly” that allowed Sacoolas, the wife of a former US diplomat, to leave Britain. Under the terms of the revised agreement, family members of staff based at RAF Croughton will no longer be given immunity from criminal jurisdiction and will face criminal prosecution where applicable.
In a statement, Dunn’s mother Charlotte Charles said Thursday that they were “incredibly grateful” that the case was being taken “so seriously as to be raised on the eve of the G7 meeting.”
“We very much hope that President Biden takes a different view to the previous administration given his deeply personal connection to the case having suffered loss in similar circumstances,” the statement from the family’s lawyer Radd Seiger said.
The White House declined to comment on the conversation, but a spokesperson for the National Security Council told CNN, “We again offer our sincere condolences and sympathy to the Dunn family for the loss of their son. This was a tragic accident. The United States has remained closely engaged with the UK government, and we have been transparent about our positions on legal and diplomatic matters concerning this accident.”
Some more context: Former President Trump once tried to intervene in Dunn’s case, even meeting with his parents at the White House in October 2019. Dunn’s parents were caught off guard when Trump told them Anne Sacoolas was in room next door. Dunn’s parents rejected Trump’s offer to meet with her.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Zahid Mahmood contributed reporting to this post.
On the first day of the G7 summit in Cornwall, Boris Johnson is, even by his own dramatic standards, putting on a show.
Johnson’s G7 leaders will today have the full force of Britain’s greatest diplomatic asset hurled at them, as they are invited to join none other than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, along with other senior members of the family, for a reception before dinner tonight.
The dinner will take place at the world-famous Eden Project, a striking collection of biomes, one of which is home to the largest indoor rainforest on earth.
While the dinner will be the main royal event of the day, leaders will meet with other members of the world’s most famous family to discuss issues on which some members of the family have been long-term campaigners. Prince Charles, for example, will meet with leaders and representatives from the world of business to discuss the coordinated effort to tackle climate change, one of the British government’s top priorities as it gears up to host COP26 later this year.
Meanwhile, First Lady Jill Biden will meet with future Queen Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, to talk about children’s education, another major international focus of Johnson’s government.
Rolling out the royals in this way is nothing new and plenty of British prime ministers have used the pomp of state visits to curry favor with world leaders. However, they are doing so at a time of particular tumult for the monarchy.
It was only a few weeks ago that the family was mourning its patriarch, after Prince Philip died at the age of 99. And the family is in the middle of a very public spat with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, following their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in which they accused an unnamed senior royal making racist statements.
Yesterday, things were not looking so good for Johnson, as he appeared on track for a collision course with the US President over Brexit. However, the US diplomatic pushback over reports that Biden had issued a demarche over Northern Ireland meant Johnson could sleep easy. Now, he can sit back and enjoy dazzling his fellow leaders as they rub shoulders with Britain’s biggest rockstars.
This post has been updated to clarify that the Queen will host G7 leaders before the dinner on Friday.
Pledges made by the UK and US to donate Covid-19 vaccines to developing world are “a step in the right direction, but they don’t go far enough, fast enough,” according to the Wellcome Trust, a leading UK charity focused on health research.
Alex Harris, Wellcome’s director of government relations, said in a statement that the G7 must show the political leadership the pandemic demands. “We urge G7 leaders to raise their ambition,” he said, adding:
COVAX is a global vaccine sharing initiative run by a coalition that includes the Vaccine Alliance known as Gavi and the World Health Organization (WHO).
It is funded by donations from governments, multilateral institutions and foundations and its mission is to buy coronavirus vaccines in bulk and send them to poorer nations that can’t compete with wealthy countries in securing contracts with the major drug companies.
The UK said overnight it will donate at least 100 million surplus Covid-19 vaccine doses to COVAX. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the US plans to donate 500 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses globally.
However, Harris said that to end the pandemic, the G7 leaders must agree to do the following:
British Environment Secretary George Eustice said it was “a big change” to see the US engaging in global climate action following the lack of commitment on the issue from the Trump administration.
While the Trump administration rolled back many of the climate commitments the US had made in the past, the Biden administration has “completely changed the US stance on this,” Eustice said.
Referring to his meeting with US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Eustice said:
Eustice said he spoke with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson about his bilateral meeting with Biden, and that Johnson called it “a breath of fresh air” to have the US back at the table again. “So, I think it is a big change,” Eustice said.
Apart from the G7 summit, the UK is also hosting the COP26 climate meeting later this year. Eustice says the aim is to get “more ambitious targets from countries to reduce their carbon emissions.”
The UK has already set its nationally determined contribution at 68% by the end of this decade, and “we’ve already said that by 2035, we want to 78% reduction against our 1990 level,” Eustice added.
However, the government’s own independent climate advisor, the UK Climate Change Committee, said the government needs to put in place a firm and detailed plan on how to achieve the goal.
WATCH EUSTICE’S INTERVIEW WITH CNN’S BIANCA NOBILO:
China, and the ideological challenges posed by its rise, is set to be among the most pressing topics facing leaders of the G7 summit.
In his first foreign trip as the US President, Joe Biden is expected to try and convince allies to join Washington in taking a tougher stance towards Beijing over its actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea among other areas.
Laying out his trip last week, Biden wrote in the Washington Post that “the United States must lead the world from a position of strength,” including on confronting the “harmful activities of the governments of China and Russia.”
In some areas, there are signs such a united front is already forming.
In a joint statement on Thursday, Biden and his British counterpart Boris Johnson vowed to support a further investigation into the origins of Covid-19, including in China.
Support from the UK and possibly other G7 members will add weight to Biden’s push for a reexamination on the origins of the virus, including new scrutiny on the lab leak theory. Beijing lashed out at Biden’s call last month, accusing Washington of “political manipulation to shift the blame.”
The summit is also reportedly expected to see the launch of a green alternative initially pushed by Biden to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative, with an aim to support sustainable development in developing countries.
US President Joe Biden will use his G7 debut on Friday to push for one of his international policy priorities: a global agreement on a global minimum tax rate of at least 15% on multinational companies.
The finance ministers of the seven countries have already put their support behind the plan during their meeting in London last weekend.
Crucially, the group also agreed that the biggest companies should pay tax where they generate sales, and not just where they have a physical presence.
UK finance minister Rishi Sunak announced the agreement in a video posted on Twitter on Saturday, saying G7 finance ministers – hailing from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US – had “reached a historic agreement to reform the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age and, crucially, to make sure that it’s fair so that the right companies pay the right tax in the right places.”
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the agreement was a “significant, unprecedented commitment,” from the world’s richest economies aimed at preventing companies from avoiding taxes by shifting profits overseas.
The announcement could have wide-reaching impacts. Tech giants such as Apple, Facebook and Google might be affected by the agreement. Foreign governments have long complained that large digital companies should pay them more in taxes.
Some have recently passed taxes specifically targeting revenue generated by such companies, including those based in the US such as Facebook, Google and Amazon.
The United Kingdom will donate at least 100 million surplus Covid-19 vaccine doses to COVAX, the vaccine sharing initiative, and to countries in need within the next year, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce Friday.
In a statement issued by Downing Street on Thursday, Johnson said:
G7 leaders are expected to agree to provide one billion doses via dose-sharing and financing with an aim to end the pandemic next year, the statement adds.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced the United States plans to donate 500 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses globally.
Carrie Johnson has taken her first step onto the world stage as she welcomed the Bidens to Cornwall, southwest England.
It comes only two weeks after she married British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a ceremony that was kept secret until after the event. The couple has a one-year-old son.
The Bidens and Johnsons met on the seafront Thursday in Carbis Bay before the wives left to take tea together, and the two leaders headed into a bilateral meeting.
On Friday, the 33-year-old will take center stage as she and her husband welcome the remaining leaders of the Group of Seven nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan — and their partners to the G7 summit at Cornwall’s Carbis Bay Hotel.
Carrie Johnson, nee Symonds, will not be the only spouse notching up her first G7 appearance as the summit gets under way Friday.
Jill Biden is also attending for the first time, as are Mariko Suga, wife of the new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and Maria Serenella Cappello, wife of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Brigitte Macron, spouse of French President Emmanuel Macron, has a number of G7 summits under her belt already and helped host the leaders for their last face-to face meeting in Biarritz in 2019.
Last year’s G7, due to have been hosted in the US by then-President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, was canceled because of the pandemic.
Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, will meet with US first lady Jill Biden on Friday, Kensington Palace told CNN.
A spokesperson said they will conduct “a joint engagement.”
The palace has not yet publicly released any further information regarding the meeting, including expected timings or the location.
As the G7 summit kicks off Friday, the global economy will be front and center, according to a statement from the White House.
The leaders of some of the world’s biggest economies will discuss global tax rate and aid for countries in need. These efforts, the White House said, will “forge a more fair and inclusive global economy” as the world leaders gather in Cornwall.
President Biden and the G7 leaders, the White House said, will:
The statement says the G7 leaders are “committed to a global recovery that benefits the middle class and working families at home and around the world.”
The group is expected to announce an endorsement for the global minimum tax of at least 15% after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her finance minister counterparts announced an agreement on the matter earlier this month in London.
President Biden announced Thursday evening that the United States plans to donate 500 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses globally as part of his efforts to reassert US leadership on the world stage.
He added, “We know the tragedy. We also know the path to recovery.”
The move will also serve to counter efforts by Russia and China to use their own state-funded vaccines to expand their global influence.
During remarks announcing the vaccine purchase, Biden underscored that there were no strings attached with accepting the US-bought vaccines.
‘Let me be clear: Just as with the 80 million doses we previously announced, the United States is providing these half-(billion) doses with no strings attached,” Biden said. “Our vaccine donations don’t include pressure for favors or potential concessions. We’re doing this to save lives, to end this pandemic. That’s it. Period.”
Administration officials suggested the move is part of a broader effort for the world’s democracies to lead the way in pandemic recovery. The effort to donate doses is also intended to encourage other US allies to step up.
“We’re also using this announcement today to leverage and mobilize larger commitments from the world’s democracies, from the G7 and partner countries,” a separate senior official said, previewing a “G7 Covid-related multilateral announcement.”
At the G7 summit this weekend, the official said, leaders will announce a “collective effort by the world’s democracies to beat Covid-19 for once and for all.”
Here are other key things to know about the donation:
One hundred former presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers have urged the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations to pay for global coronavirus vaccinations to help stop the virus mutating and returning as a worldwide threat.
The leaders made their appeal ahead of a G7 summit in England which begins today, when President Biden will meet the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.
It’s the first time the G7 leaders have met since the start of the pandemic. The three-day summit will cover a range of issues, with a particular focus on how the group can lead the global recovery from coronavirus.
In their letter to the G7, the former world leaders said global cooperation had failed in 2020, but that 2021 could usher in a new era.
“Support from the G7 and G20 that makes vaccines readily accessible to low- and middle-income countries is not an act of charity, but rather is in every country’s strategic interest,” the letter said.
Among the signatories were ex-British premiers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, former United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, and 15 former African leaders.
They said the G7 and other leaders invited to the summit should guarantee to pay what would amount to about $30 billion a year over two years towards fighting the pandemic worldwide.
The leaders of the world’s advanced economies will gather Friday on the Cornish coast for the first time since the global coronavirus pandemic began, welcoming US President Joe Biden as a new member who arrived here intent on restoring traditional American alliances.
Biden’s day will include the landmark “family photo” of the full G7 group, which comprises the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and the United States.
It will be a symbolic moment for a President who has long sought a place in the club of world leaders. Biden’s wife, first lady Jill Biden, said Thursday that her husband had been building up to this moment for years.
“He’s been studying for weeks working up for today,” she said. “He knows most of the leaders that will be here. Joe loves foreign policy. This is his forte.”
