Category Archives: G7

Covid live: half of UK adults receive booster vaccine; Ireland sets 8pm curfew for hospitality venues

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Half of UK adults receive booster vaccine; Ireland will also face 50% capacity limit on events

Here is a bizarre story out of the US to add a little light relief to an otherwise sombre news day.

A Florida man wearing a red thong as a face mask was forced off a United Airlines flight after failing to comply with the federal mask mandate.

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G7 leaders warn Russia all sanctions on table over Ukraine border buildup

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Kremlin would ‘face massive consequences’ in event of invasion, says UK foreign secretary at Liverpool talks

All forms of economic sanctions against Russia are on the table if it makes an incursion into Ukraine, the British foreign secretary has said, as she hinted she may be prepared to look again at the UK’s anti-money-laundering laws that are seen by some as a way for Russian elites to stash their cash.

Speaking on the final day of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Liverpool, Liz Truss said that if Russia were to invade, it “would face massive consequences for which there would be severe cost”, amid fears over a Russian troop buildup.

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Omicron variant: G7 to hold emergency Covid meeting as Japan closes its borders

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South African president and WHO’s Africa chief urge against travel bans, saying they ‘attack global solidarity’

G7 health ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Monday about the new Omicron Covid-19 variant spreading across the world and forcing border closures, as experts race to determine the level of threat posed by the new strain.

The meeting was called by G7 chair Britain, which is among a steadily growing number of countries that have detected cases of the heavily mutated new variant.

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UK invites south-east Asian nations to G7 summit amid Aukus tensions

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The alliance between Britain, the US and Australia has divided the region and angered China

The UK has invited south-east Asian nations to attend a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Liverpool next month, in a move that risks highlighting concerns that the new alliance between Britain, the US and Australia will fuel a regional nuclear arms race.

States from the Association of South-East Asian Nations are divided on the new Aukus partnership but some, notably Indonesia and Malaysia, have sharply criticised it, and many in the 10-member bloc are reluctant to take sides in the unfolding superpower rivalry between the US and China.

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UK falling behind most G7 countries in sharing Covid vaccines, figures show

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Campaigners call for action after analysis finds only third of jabs pledged to poorer countries this year have so far been delivered

The UK is lagging behind other G7 countries in sharing surplus Covid vaccines with poorer countries, according to newly published figures.

The advocacy organisation One, which is campaigning to end extreme poverty and preventable disease by 2030, described it as shaming for the UK government.

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IMF to issue downbeat outlook as spectre of stagflation looms

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Fund set for a gloomy annual meeting as supply chain issues and inflationary pressures hobble global recovery

Weaker global growth, vaccine protectionism and the spectre of 1970s-style inflation haunting large economies. As the International Monetary Fund prepares for its annual gathering this week, the contrast with the spring could not be more stark.

Back in April, at the Washington-based fund’s last virtual bash, there were sharp upgrades for global growth amid a sense of optimism for the road ahead, led by stronger-than-expected recoveries in the US, UK and other advanced economies. Vaccines would pave the way for the swift unlocking of pandemic restrictions, fuelling a rapid recovery from the worst global recession since the 1930s Great Depression.

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International talks aim for consensus on Taliban government

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Western G7 powers are meeting Turkey, Qatar and Nato in Doha to discuss how Kabul airport could be reopened

Talks are due in Doha and New York to try to reach an international consensus on the conditions for recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan. There are signs of tensions between superpowers after Russia called on the US to release Afghan central bank reserves that Washington blocked after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul earlier this month.

“If our western colleagues are actually worried about the fate of the Afghan people, then we must not create additional problems for them by freezing gold and foreign exchange reserves,” said the Kremlin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov.

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Biden pours salt into wounds of relations with Europe at G7 meeting

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Analysis: US president dashes hopes he might acknowledge damage done by handling of Afghan withdrawal

In the end it took only seven minutes for Joe Biden to pour salt into the wounds of his fractured relationship with European leaders, telling them firmly on a video call that he would not extend the 31 August deadline for US troops to stay in Kabul, as he had been asked by the French, Italians and most of all the British. The rebuff follows Biden’s earlier decision in July to insist on the August deadline previously set in 2020 by Donald Trump for the withdrawal, a decision the US president relayed to his EU colleagues as a fait accompli.

For Europe the episode has been a rude awakening, and a moment of sober reassessment. Only on 25 March Charles Michel had afforded Biden the chance to address a meeting of the European Council, the first foreign leader given the honour since Barack Obama 11 years earlier. Biden after all had said his foreign policy would only be as strong as his system of alliances, the true shield of the republic, and Europe would be at the heart of that system.

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Afghanistan: what does each nation hope to get out of the G7 meeting?

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Analysis: Tuesday’s meeting called by Boris Johnson may include postmortem on Joe Biden’s handling of crisis

The emergency meeting of G7 nations on Tuesday – called by Boris Johnson as this year’s chair of the G7 – is in essence a gathering of the vanquished but faces a threefold agenda: how to ensure as many Afghans as possible can leave Kabul, and whether the US is prepared to stay beyond the original 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces; how a resettlement programme can be coordinated for the medium term; and finally, how to encourage the Taliban to form an inclusive government, including by threatening sanctions or withholding recognition.

But each country will bring its own concerns and an ugly postmortem on Joe Biden’s handling of the crisis cannot be ruled out.

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Trump team thought UK officials ‘out of their minds’ aiming for herd immunity, book says

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Trump officials tried to convince him to take threat seriously and British experts ‘oddly pessimistic’ on defeating virus, says book

US officials thought their British counterparts “were out of their minds” in aiming for herd immunity as part of Boris Johnson’s initial policy on dealing with the coronavirus, according to a new book about the global response to the pandemic.

As the scale of the threat became increasingly clear in January and February 2020, officials in Donald Trump’s administration were trying to convince him to take the threat seriously, despite personal reassurances he had been given by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, that it was under control.

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UK condemns 10-year sentence for dual national in Iran as tensions rise

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British-Iranian labour rights activist’s sentencing coincides with deteriorating relations between western allies and Iran

The UK government has hit out at reports that a British-Iranian labour rights activist has been given a sentence of 10 years in Tehran for participating in an outlawed group.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement on Friday that London “strongly” condemned the sentence handed out to Mehran Raoof, a former teacher from north London.

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Malawi Pride and press freedoms in Palestine: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Chile to Cambodia

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Biden warns Russia over cyber attacks, says Putin doesn’t want cold war – video

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Joe Biden warned Russian president Vladimir Putin that the US has significant cyber capability as he looked to pressure his counterpart over cyberattacks. The US leader says Putin wasn't seeking to intensify confrontation with the west after the two held "good and positive" talks. "I think that the last thing he wants now is a Cold War,” Biden said

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Expect China to be furious at being cast as a threat to the west

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Analysis: Beijing may well seek to undermine Nato unity in response to being accused of posing a systemic challenge to western values

When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) was established on 4 April 1949, its mission was to counterbalance armies from the Soviet Union that were stationed in central and eastern Europe after the conclusion of the second world war.

After Emmanuel Macron, the current leader of one of its founding members, France, called it “brain-dead” in 2019, some analysts said the alliance will have to look for a new unifying mission to keep itself relevant in the new age of great power competition between the United States and China.

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Australia news live update: Victoria records two new local Covid cases; Morrison heads to London for trade talks

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Authorities yet to say which coronavirus restrictions will be relaxed in Melbourne and regional Victoria. Follow live updates

Scott Morrison was denied a one-on-one meeting with Joe Biden yesterday, at the PM’s first meeting with the US president, because Boris Johnson joined it.

Labor’s Penny Wong said it was disappointing that Morrison could not have a one-on-one meeting with Biden.

[The three-person meeting] was an opportunity that presented because we’re all here and so it was mutual.

It was a great opportunity for my first meeting, of course, with the president. I mean I’ve known Boris for many years.

Related: Scott Morrison denied one-on-one with Joe Biden as Boris Johnson joins meeting

Another exclusive, this time from Daniel Hurst.

The Australian army is investigating allegations of bullying and harassment of officer cadets at the University of Sydney regiment. Allegations include searches through women’s underwear drawers and a nearly three-month period in which cadets were forced to work seven days a week with no days off.

Related: Australian army investigating alleged bullying and harassment at Sydney University regiment

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Scott Morrison inks G7 deals with Japan and Germany to develop lower-emissions technology

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PM resists pressure to commit Australia to 2050 climate deadline as he talks up hydrogen, LNG and carbon capture and storage

Scott Morrison has inked deals with Japan and Germany to develop technology to help reach “a net zero emissions future” – but continues to resist international pressure to formally commit Australia to a firm 2050 deadline.

With the climate crisis taking centre stage on the final day of the G7 summit in Cornwall, England, the prime minister stuck to his preferred approach of focusing on technologies such as hydrogen, rather than signing up to more ambitious medium- and long-term emission reduction commitments.

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Biden says US-Russia relations at low point but ‘we’re not looking for conflict’

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Speaking at G7, president addresses autocracy and democracy, climate crisis and Donald Trump’s legacy

Joe Biden agreed on Sunday with Vladimir Putin’s latest assessment that US-Russia relations are at their lowest point in years but insisted that while the two countries may have fundamental disagreements, “we are not looking for conflict”.

The US president also addressed the issues of autocracy versus democracy, the climate crisis, future pandemics and problems caused by his predecessor Donald Trump, while holding a press conference to mark the end of the G7 summit in the English county of Cornwall.

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G7 partners survive small talk at ultimate office awayday | Helen Pidd

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Some summit spouses must have trust issues – why else would they turn up?

It could be said that anyone who voluntarily attends their partner’s office party is either a masochist or has trust issues. So, why, then, do the spouses of world leaders feel obliged to turn up to global summits?

Ordinarily, it appears that their only duty is to make small talk with their fellow spare parts while their other halves chew over the big issues of the day. At the G7 meeting in Cornwall this weekend, the Wags and Habs were also required to admire Boris Johnson’s latest child when he was rolled out before their beachfront BBQ.

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Boris Johnson doesn’t quite get his big moment in the Cornish sunshine

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Analysis: an unseemly spat over Brexit derailed the UK prime minister’s chance to impress on the global stage

Delivering his closing press conference in the Carbis Bay hotel on Sunday, pale golden sand and azure sea visible behind him, Boris Johnson sought to play down the unseemly diplomatic spat that had marred his moment on the world stage.

“Actually, what happened at this summit was that there was a colossal amount of work on subjects that had absolutely nothing to do with Brexit,” he insisted.

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Biden reveals Queen asked about Putin and Xi during tea at Windsor Castle

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US president gives insight into his discussions with monarch in short visit after G7 summit in Cornwall

Joe Biden revealed the Queen had asked him about his Russian and Chinese counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, during their 45-minute talk over tea at Windsor Castle, in the aftermath of the G7 summit on Sunday.

It was an exceptionally rare, if limited, insight into political discussions involving the British monarch: the contents of her regular weekly audiences with the British prime minister of the day are kept confidential.

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