Boris Johnson has raised tensions with the EU over the so-called “sausage war” on imports, arguing that he “will not hesitate” to invoke measures to suspend elements of the Northern Ireland protocol.
At a meeting on Saturday, Emmanuel Macron warned the PM to keep his word on Brexit in order to reset relations between the UK and France amid a stand-off over the impact of leaving the EU on Northern Ireland.
The French president reportedly said the two countries had common interests but the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement signed with the bloc last year had to be respected.
It came as leaders from the G7 launched a new plan to quash future pandemics within the first 100 days, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the Covid-19 crisis.
The so-called ‘Carbis Bay Declaration‘ will see the UK create a new animal vaccine centre aimed at preventing future diseases crossing from creatures to humans.
You can watch action from the second day of the G7 summit live below:
ICYMI: Boris Johnson says post-Covid world needs to be ‘more feminine’
Boris Johnson told G7 leaders on Friday that he wanted to create a “more feminine” world through the global recovery from the Covid crisis.
The prime minister made his comments at the first round-table session of the summit of world leaders, including US president Joe Biden and German chancellor Angela Merkel, in Cornwall.
Our political editor, Andrew Woodcock, has the full story below:
Opinion: ‘Macron has told Johnson to keep his word over Brexit. The very best of luck with that’
France’s president Emmanuel Macron will struggle to make any progress with Boris Johnson over Brexit due to the “scale of the absurdity” around the UK government’s position on Northern Ireland, according to our columnist Tom Peck.
Tom writes:
“The French president, Emmanuel Macron is not stupid, so quite what he expects from having told Boris Johnson to stop lying is not clear. Johnson’s lies are not an unfortunate side effect of the government position. The lie is the position. It is only the lie that makes the unsolvable problem solved. There is no alternative but to ignore reality, pose for the G7 photo, and hope, for enough people, it somehow goes away.”
You can find his full piece below:
An ominous take on the meeting between EU leaders and Boris Johnson today, from Politico Europe’s chief Brussels correspondent…
You can find some more images below from the climate change protests in Cornwall earlier today:
Hundreds of climate protesters take to Cornish seaside for G7
Hundreds of climate protesters have taken to the Cornish seaside today in a bid to draw the attention of world leaders at the G7 summit this weekend.
A crowd of surfers, kayakers and swimmers gathered on Saturday on a beach in Falmouth for a mass “paddle out protest” organised by the group Surfers Against Sewage, which is campaigning for more action to protect oceans.
Earlier, activists from Oxfam assembled on Falmouth beach to protest climate change and put on masks depicting the leaders attending the G7 summit.
Max Lawson, Oxfam’s head of policy, told AP that the activists wanted wealthy countries to commit to bigger reductions in carbon emissions and to financing to help poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.
World Trade Organisation chief hopes for no UK-EU trade war
The head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has said she hopes that post-Brexit tensions between the UK and the EU will not lead to a trade war between the two sides.
“I would really, really hope that a UK-EU trade war will not take place,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on Saturday.
“With all the opportunities there are too for dialogue, I would be a little surprised if we ended up with a UK-EU trade war.”
Ms Okonjo-Iweala added: “It’s too costly for both sides. This is not what the world needs right now.”
Johnson warns he ‘will not hesitate’ to suspend protocol over ‘sausage war’
Boris Johnson has ramped up tensions with Brussels by saying he “will not hesitate” to invoke measures to suspend elements of the Northern Ireland protocol if EU leaders do not compromise in the so-called “sausage war” over imports.
The prime minister’s comments followed a series of meetings with EU leaders this morning, in which he was warned to deliver on his side of the Brexit deal.
Our political editor, Andrew Woodcock, has more on this breaking story below:
Biden will hold solo news conference following Putin meeting, White House says
US president Joe Biden will hold a solo news conference after meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin next week, the White House has said.
The US and Russian delegations will have a working session and smaller session as part of their meeting on Wednesday in the Swiss city of Geneva.
However, the White House said on Saturday that it was still finalising the format of the meeting.
It added that a news conference with only Mr Biden was the appropriate format to communicate the topics discussed, areas of agreement and sources of significant concern.
Opinion: ‘Global G7 goals cannot be met without bold investment in women and girls’
Achieving the G7’s goals will require investment in women and girls through projects to advance gender equality, according to the deputy executive director of UN Women Anita Bhatia.
Ms Bhatia says that “just as green bonds have been designated to support specific climate or environment-oriented projects, gender bonds could be leveraged to support projects advancing gender equality”.
You can find her full piece below:
