Jon Sopel
BBC North America Editor

Image source, Reuters

Though the agenda items for Saturday’s discussions sound bland – all about post-Covid rebuilding – in health, in resilience, in foreign policy, the Americans are putting it rather differently.

They see today at the G7 as being about challenging the rise of Chinese influence around the world. Beijing’s belt and road initiative, which has seen billions poured into developing countries must be countered with a build back better for the world plan by the Western democracies - or B3W according to the jargon.

Senior administration officials want to prove that western values can prevail. They argue Chinese investment has come with too high a price tag. That the forced labour of the Uighurs in Xinxiang is morally egregious, and economically unacceptable as it prevents fair competition. Global supply chains, Joe Biden will insist, must be free of this kind of labour.

US officials say it’s not just about confronting China, it’s about presenting a positive alternative for the world. But on how much the west would contribute to this global infrastructure plan, over what timescale, the Biden administration was vague.

But what is clear is a renewed determination that the Western powers need to act, and act now to counter a resurgent and increasingly powerful China.

Image source, Reuters

• On Friday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson opened the summit with a plea to tackle global inequality. Johnson urged fellow world leaders to "build back better”, saying it was vital to learn from the "mistakes" of the 2008 financial crisis when economic recovery was “not uniform across all parts of society". “As G7, we are united in our vision for a cleaner, greener world,” the PM said.

• The global distribution of Covid vaccines was also high on the summit agenda yesterday. Johnson pledged the UK will donate more than 100 million Covid vaccines to poorer countries within the next year, while President Biden promised 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccines to 92 low and middle-income countries and the African Union. Collectively the G7 nations are expected to agree to provide a billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine in an effort to end the pandemic in 2022.

• Elsewhere, Boris Johnson pledged £430m to improve education in some of the world's poorest countries - with girls' education a priority. The summit will approve plans to get 40 million more girls into school, in countries where girls might either be kept out of school or drop out early. Domestically, Johnson has been criticised for his decision to reduce overseas aid spending from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income, in spite of an earlier manifesto promise.

After Friday's talks, the leaders were joined by the Queen for a dinner at the nearby Eden Project.

As they posed for a group photo - seated with appropriate social distancing - the monarch was heard to joke: "Are you supposed to be looking as if you're enjoying yourself?"

The leaders around the Queen laughed, and Boris Johnson replied emphatically: "Yes”.

The prime minister added: "We have been enjoying ourselves - in spite of appearances."

Image source, Reuters

On the agenda on Saturday, the G7 leaders are expected to agree a new plan to halt future pandemics.

The leaders, from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the US and the UK, will issue the Carbis Bay Declaration.

The action plan will see the G7 commit to using all their resources in an effort to ensure the devastation caused by a pandemic like Covid-19 is never repeated.

Globally, there have more than 3.7 million Covid-related deaths since the outbreak began, according to Johns Hopkins University in the US.

The G7 will spell out a series of concrete steps forming the declaration, including:

• Slashing the time taken to develop and licence vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for any future disease to under 100 days
• Reinforcing global surveillance networks and genomic sequencing capacity
• Support for reforming and strengthening the World Health Organization (WHO).

UN Secretary General António Guterres and WHO director Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus will also take part in Saturday's session.

“To truly defeat coronavirus and recover we need to prevent a pandemic like this from ever happening again. That means learning lessons from the last 18 months and doing it differently next time around,” G7 host, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has said ahead of Saturday’s talks.

Read the full story.

Image source, PA Media

Welcome to today’s live coverage of the second day of the G7 summit in Cornwall.

We will be bringing you all the latest news from Carbis Bay where leaders from seven of the world’s leading economies are discussing the environment, the global economy and coronavirus – among other issues.