If you’re just joining us, here are the latest headlines today:

• Boris Johnson tells the BBC the alliance between the US and the UK should be known as the "indestructible relationship", after meeting US President Joe Biden for the first time
• A hotel reportedly hosting media and security staff for the G7 has closed following a coronavirus outbreak. And a police officer in the area for the summit has tested positive
• The UK has announced it will donate at least 100 million surplus coronavirus vaccine doses within the next year
• An Extinction Rebellion protest calling for immediate action from the G7 leaders has gained momentum this morning in St Ives
• The leaders have all arrived in Cornwall and have posed for the traditional so-called "family photo" before starting their talks a few minutes ago.

Image source, EPA

Boris Johnson begins his opening remarks by saying how "genuinely wonderful" it is to see everyone in person.

He says the world has been going through "the most wretched pandemic our countries have faced for our lifetimes, maybe longer".

The UK prime minister says he thinks the meeting needs to happen because "we need to learn from the pandemic, we need to make sure we don't repeat some of the errors that we have doubtless made in the course of the last 18 months or so".

He adds he thinks the economies of the countries need to recover and he thinks they have the potential to bounce back, adding there are reasons to be "optimistic".

But he says it is vital "we don't repeat the mistakes" of the previous financial crisis when the recovery was not "uniform across all parts of society".

"What risks being a lasting scar is I think inequalities may be entrenched," he says.

A police officer working in the South West for the G7 summit has tested positive for Covid-19.

Devon and Cornwall Police said the officer, plus 12 officers who were in close contact with them, are self-isolating.

In the early hours of Friday, the officer received a positive lateral flow test.

The officer was staying on the ferry which was hired to accommodate officers working during the G7 summit.

The next stage is a PCR test and to continue following advice from Public Health England, said Devon and Cornwall Police.

Here's the traditional "family photo" of G7 leaders, which they have just posed for in Cornwall...

Image source, G7

The G7 leaders are gathering at the moment ahead of the traditional 'family photo' ahead of talks beginning.

Boris and Carrie Johnson are greeting each of them with elbow-bumps whilst wearing masks.

Image source, PA Media

Here's the Duchess of Cambridge and First Lady Jill Biden visiting a school in Cornwall a little earlier.

They visited an academy for four to 11-year-olds to highlight the issue of the early years development of children.

They also brought carrots - which were fed by the children to the school's pet rabbits in the grounds of the Academy.

During the visit, the duchess was asked about her new niece Lilibet. She said: "I wish her all the very best. I can’t wait to meet her."

She was also asked if she had spoken with Lilibet's mother, the Duchess of Sussex, via FaceTime. She replied: "No I haven't."

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are taking part in their first G7 events, and later will join the Queen, Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall at the G7 Leaders' reception at the Eden Project.

Tony Blair told the BBC that while the agenda at the G7 summit may huge, the “main aims are clear”.

“To get a programme in place to vaccinate at least the most vulnerable in the world by the end of this year, and the whole of the world by 2022,” he says.

“To put in better systems of genomic surveillance so that we’re picking up the new variants as they emerge – and the whole issue of economic recovery and climate change.”

The former UK prime minister said the real issue is that in 2022, there will be large amounts of vaccine “but it is now that we need at least some of that vaccine to get out of the door to the most vulnerable”.

He adds: “To vaccinate the world is not just a humanitarian issue – it’s one of self-interest for all of us.”

Welcome back to our rolling coverage of the G7 leaders' summit in Cornwall, south-west England.

Technical problems meant we've had to pause our live coverage for the past 90 minutes or so - but things are now up and running. Thank you for your patience.

A hotel reportedly hosting media and security staff for the G7 has closed following a coronavirus outbreak.

The website for the Pedn Olva hotel in St Ives says it had temporarily shut on Thursday.

The hotel says staff have been affected and it will close for deep cleaning following discussions with Public Health England.

Image source, PA Media

The head of UK advocacy for the anti-poverty campaign group One, Liz Wallace, tells the BBC the G7 leaders' pledge to donate more vaccines is a good beginning, but it is vital the vaccines be shared more quickly.

"We welcome the number: 100 million doses is a good start from the UK," she says. "However, the timing is not nearly fast enough. We need the UK to start sharing doses immediately.

"We have a global pandemic still raging, we cannot be conserving any water whilst the fire is raging. So yes, we call on the UK and all G7 members to start sharing doses right now.

"And in addition to that, we should be backing this up with a global plan, with new money. So we need both dollars and doses."

Environmental activists asking for immediate action from the G7 leaders are campaigning in Cornwall.

An Extinction Rebellion protest has gained momentum this morning in St Ives.

It is estimated a few hundred protesters have gathered in the field above the town's leisure centre.

The protesters plan to march into the town centre.

Penny Kent, who has traveled from Stroud to take part in the protest, says she is worried for her grandchildren's future.

She queued to get to the protest site from her accommodation between St Ives and Falmouth.

She tells the BBC she wants action from the G7 leaders "immediately".

Reality Check

Image source, Andrew Parsons/10 Downing St

Boris Johnson’s decision to fly to the G7 summit has raised questions over whether it was the most environmentally friendly way of travelling there.

So what was the carbon cost of his flight and could he have got to Cornwall in a greener way?

Reality Check has been looking at the different ways he could have made the journey and estimated the contribution each would have made to carbon emissions. You can read what we found out here.

Image source, PA Media

Dr David Nabarro, the World Health Organization's special envoy on Covid-19, calls on G7 leaders to create a global Covid response programmme, saying the pandemic needs to start being treated as a global issue.

"I feel like world leaders are inching towards where they need to be to really deal with the pandemic as a global issue," he says. "If I had one request to the leaders... it would be to stop presenting the present moment as one where rich countries are offering vaccines as charity.

"It's not charity it's self-interest that needs to be coming to the fore."

He adds vaccines should be deployed where they will save the most lives around the world.

"Let's save lives and then when we have more vaccine available we can use the vaccine for its other use which is to end the pandemic. The first thing to do is to stop people dying all over the world."

We have already given you a taste of what Boris Johnson told BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg ahead of the G7 summit.

If you'd like a bit more detail, here you can watch the prime minister's 10-minute interview in full.

Image source, Reuters

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the latest world leader to arrive at Cornwall Airport in Newquay ahead of the G7 talks.

Earlier French President, Emmanuel Macron arrived along with his wife Brigitte.

Image source, PA Media

Bonhomie with the Bidens won't solve PM's dilemmaspublished at 11:44 British Summer Time 11 June 2021

11:44 BST 11 June 2021

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

Image source, PA Media

Boris Johnson came practically bouncing out of his bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden yesterday, ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall.

The meeting was personal as well as political for both men, and their partners.

The quartet strolled obediently, admiring the view for the cameras before jokes were cracked as the men sat down.

The First Lady then took a barefoot walk on the beach with Carrie Johnson and her young son.

The two leaders' first real-life introduction clearly went well.

Boris Johnson and his team believe chemistry between leaders matters, and that the simple fact of gathering in person sends an important message too.

The prime minister won't escape political pressure this week on whether his big promises stand up to reality.

The issues he wants to confront this week can't be solved by just bonhomie at the beach.

In an opinion piece published in France's Le Monde newspaper, UK PM Boris Johnson expands on the expected pledge from the G7 to provide vaccine doses to developing countries.

"The G7 must set itself the goal of providing one billion doses of vaccines to developing countries by the end of 2022," he writes.

"Our common task is to overcome the pandemic, minimise the risk of recurrence and better rebuild ourselves after this tragedy.

"That is why we must strengthen our collective capacity to prevent a new pandemic and, in the face of future threats, put in place an early warning mechanism, for example by creating a network of monitoring centres - a kind of global pandemic radar.

"While striving to minimise the risk of yet another disaster, we have an obligation to ensure that something positive emerges from current trials. We must build back better through a global economic recovery based on greener and more equitable foundations."

What's on Japanese PM's mind as G7 kicks off?published at 11:24 British Summer Time 11 June 2021

11:24 BST 11 June 2021

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC Tokyo correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has arrived in Cornwall, leaving behind a couple of massive headaches back home. The first is Japan’s position as the most unvaccinated country in the G7. The second is that Tokyo is about to host the Olympics.

Suga is hoping to persuade his fellow summit leaders that Japan’s vaccine programme is now going great guns - with a million shots a day being administered and, because of that, holding the Olympics really is not a danger to global health.

Suga reportedly wants the G7 leaders to sign a declaration of support for the Tokyo Olympics, although the prime minister’s office has gone very quiet on this in the past few days.

Prime Minister Suga also wants to sell his big new commitment to make the world’s third biggest economy carbon-neutral by 2050. That is a very tall order, and it’s not clear how he plans to get to that target when Japan is still building new coal-fired power stations.

But the Japanese PM will tell Boris Johnson that a new plan to turn Japan green will be unveiled before the November meeting in Glasgow.

BBC Newsbeat

Image source, Getty Images

In the run up to the G7 summit Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday met US President Joe Biden for the first time since Biden took over from Donald Trump.

Johnson has told the BBC he does not want to continue the cliche of the "special friendship" and says it should be known as the "indestructible relationship".

On paper Boris Johnson still has a lot more in common with the previous US president than the current one.

Unlike Trump, Biden was against Brexit. He is of Irish descent so has big concerns about how it will affect Northern Ireland and Ireland.

However, the two men may find themselves coming together on climate change and national security - issues where they share more similar ideas.

Relations between the UK and the US have had their ups and downs over the years.

Here's a short history of that "special relationship" starting in 1946 when Winston Churchill first came up with the phrase.

The G7, or Group of Seven, is an organisation of the world's seven largest so-called advanced economies.

They are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States.

Representatives from the European Union are also present while India, South Korea and Australia have also been invited this year.

Russia joined the group to make it the G8 in 1998 but was excluded in 2014 over its annexation of the Crimea, while China has never been a member.

You can find out more about the G7 here.