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Joe Biden latest news: President jokes he’s not going back to US during ‘love-in’ meeting with Boris ahead of G7
JOE Biden finally met UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson after he was slammed as "senile" by hardline Brexiteers for reprimanding Britain over "inflaming tensions" in Northern Ireland.
The Bidens met Johnson and his wife ahead of their bilateral meeting today in Cornwall, England.
It comes after the US issued an official diplomatic censure to Britain because the UK's stance disrupted supplies into Northern Ireland, resulting in violent riots over the past few months. Yesterday, Flotus also told her husband to "pay attention" during his RAF address after arriving in the UK.
Biden still has the G7 summit, a meeting with Queen Elizabeth, and tense talks with Vladimir Putin, on the horizon.
Biden has set the stakes for his eight-day trip in sweeping terms, believing that the West must publicly demonstrate it can compete economically with China as the world emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.
The paramount priority for Biden, who left on Wednesday for his first stop in the United Kingdom, is to convince the world that his Democratic administration is not just a fleeting deviation in the trajectory of an American foreign policy.
Read our Biden live blog below for the very latest news and updates…
- Fionnuala O'Leary
JOHNSON'S RELATIONSHIP WITH CARRIE
Carrie Symonds reportedly grew close to Boris Johnson in 2018 when he was then Foreign Secretary.
Marina Wheeler, then married to Boris, later filed for divorce.
In July 2019, Boris became PM – and both he and Carrie moved into 10 Downing Street.
She made her first public appearance after moving in on August 16 2019, when she addressed the "gigantic" climate crisis.
On February 29 2020, the couple announced they were engaged and expecting their first child.
Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson was born on April 29 2020 at University College Hospital in London.
It's Carrie's first wedding – and Boris's third.
He tied the knot with first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1987.
That marriage was annulled in 1993 — the same year he married Marina Wheeler. The couple had four children but separated in 2018.
They formally divorced weeks before news emerged of Boris’s engagement to Carrie.
The only other PM to marry in office was Lord Liverpool who wed Mary Chester in 1822. His first wife Louisa, 54, died the previous year.
Boris is also thought to be the first PM to divorce in office since Augustus FitzRoy, the 3rd Duke of Grafton
- Fionnuala O'Leary
ANTICIPATED MEETING
Joe Biden said he was "thrilled" to meet BoJo's wife Carrie Johnson.
Boris was the first PM to marry while in office in 199 years.
Biden meeting Carrie JohnsonCredit: AFP - Fionnuala O'Leary
PUNCHING ABOVE THEIR WEIGHT
During their meeting – where the world leaders greeted each other with a fist pump – Biden told Johnson they were punching above their weight in relation to their wives.
The US president said “we both married above our station” about Jill Biden and Carrie Johnson.
"I told the prime minister we have something in common – we both married way above our station" he said, adding that he was "thrilled" to meet Carrie.
"I am not going to dissent on that one — or indeed on anything else," Johnson joked back.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
BIDEN BESOTTED
Joe Biden told UK reporters that he wanted to stay put in scenic Cornwall minutes before his bilateral meeting with Boris Johnson.
“It’s gorgeous. I don’t want to go home,” he told journalists.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
LOVING THE OUTFIT
First Lady Jill Biden sported a jacket emblazoned with a very pointed message during her meeting with the Johnsons in Cornwall.
Flotus proudly held Joe Biden's had as she looked to sea wearing a "Love" jacket.
“We’re bringing love from America… This is a global conference, we’re trying to bring unity across the globe," she told journalists.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
BIDEN STATEMENT
"I believe we are at an inflection point in history," Biden tweeted.
"A moment where it falls to us to prove that democracies will not just endure — they will excel as we rise to seize the enormous opportunities of this new age."
- Fionnuala O'Leary
WHAT IS THE ATLANTIC CHARTER?
Biden and Johnson are set to renew and sign The Atlantic Charter.
The joint declaration issued during World War II (1939-45) by the United States and Great Britain, laying out a vision for the postwar world.
It was announced on August 14, 1941, by the 26 Allies countries.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill – Johnson's idol – hammered it out aboard Naval ships and today, Biden is set to view it.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
MEDIA CHAOS
Biden and Johnson were seen flanked by the press before their meeting kicked off. The UK prime minister could be seen shaking his head as journalists loudly shouted questions at them.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
'PLEASED TO BE HERE'
Joe Biden told reporters in Cornwall, England, that he was "very pleased" to be in England for the bilateral meeting with Boris Johnson.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
LEADERS MEET
The Bidens meeting the Johnsons:
Credit: Reuters - Fionnuala O'Leary
WEATHERING CHANGES
The venue of Joe Biden and Boris Johnson's bilateral meeting had to be changed as a result of bad weather.
As the unpleasant condition build up over Carbis Bay, the G7 Summit organisers had to cancel St Michael's Mount as the venue for the on June 10 talks near St Ives, England.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
PROTESTING G7
The Resist G7 Coalition will lead thousands of protesters decrying the summit in Carbis Bay in Cornwall this week.
Security has been ramped up as a result with around 5,000 police officers out of 6,500 being brought in from all over Great Britain.
"Our rights weren’t won through quiet, polite protest. Our rights were won through being noisy, disruptive and annoying," the Kill The Bill group told Reuters.
The Resist G7 Coalition will lead thousands of protesters decrying the summit in Carbis Bay in Cornwall this week (Pic: Getty)Credit: Getty - Fionnuala O'Leary
BIDEN TRUMPS PREDECESSOR
Confidence in the USA has surged after Joe Biden took office after the tumultuous Trump presidency.
See the Axios data below:
- Fionnuala O'Leary
FIRST LADY MEETS BOJO'S WIFE
Jill Biden is set to meet Boris Johnson's wife Carrie Johnson today at 3pm local time in Cornwall.
They will meet separately over tea in Carbis Bay and local photographers will take pictures of them.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
HYPED UP SECURITY
Security in St Ives, Cornwall, is being tightened ahead of the upcoming G7 meeting taking place in Carbis Bay.
G7 leaders and guests will meet in the Cornish resort from tomorrow, Friday, June 11, 2021.
Biden is on his way to meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
There are reportedly 40 protest groups decrying the G7 summit, while 6,500 police officers have been brought in to Cornwall.
Police speak with visitors and residents as they patrol a checkpoint in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Thursday, June 10, 2021 (Pic credit: AP Photo/Jon Super)Credit: AP Photo/Jon Super
- Fionnuala O'Leary
PASSING THE PUB
The US motorcade passes the Cornish Arms pub in Carbis Bay, ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall today.
Picture credit: Aaron Chown/PA WireCredit:Aaron Chown/PA Wire - Fionnuala O'Leary
TRAVEL TASKFORCE
Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP confirmed the US and UK would be establishing the travel Taskforce to facilitate reopening transatlantic travel between the United States and Britain.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
MILITARY TRIBUTE
- Fionnuala O'Leary
BIRTHDAY WISHES
Moments before they headed off to meet with Boris Johnson in Cabris, Cornwall, Jill Biden issued a tribute to Prince Phillip on what would have been his 100th birthday.
"We are holding the entire Royal Family in our hearts today, and wishing them peace and comfort on what would have been Prince Philip’s 100th birthday," she said.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
CRUZIN' FOR A BRUISIN'
Ted Cruz hit out at Joe Biden once more as the president prepares to meet with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
"The Biden/Harris admin has been a domestic, economic, and fiscal disaster. But there has been no area where they have messed up more than in foreign policy," he tweeted.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
NATIONS UNITED
When Biden and Johnson meet in approximately 10 minutes, they are set to sit down and strike up a task force.
Both leaders are slated to announce the creation of a US-UK task force to resume travel between both countries.
The majority of travel has been banned between the two since March 2020 as a result of coronavirus.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
NEW GUY IN TOWN
Joe Biden is set to make his debut at the G7 summit tomorrow after his bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
He'll join Angela Merkel, Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Yoshihide Suga in the wake of his predecessor Donald Trump.
Trump had thrown a wrench into G7 unity, demanding the absolute prioritization of U.S. interests, threatening decades-old security guarantees, insulting colleagues, and loudly suggesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin be invited back into the group despite his refusal to meet demands for Moscow to stay out of Ukraine.
Asked about his goals upon departing from Washington, Biden replied: “Strengthening the alliance and make it clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight, and the G-7 is going to move.”
Biden and Draghi took office within weeks of each other this year and are the newest members of the G7 summit.
The US president intends to smooth relations after Trump once accused Trudeau of being “very dishonest and weak," disparaged Merkel and Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May, and said Macron's NATO skepticism was “nasty” and “insulting.”
- Fionnuala O'Leary
BULLET PROOF BIDEN
Joe Biden's 17-car motorcade hurtled through a Cornish town with its bulletproof limo, anti-IED jamming truck, and an ambulance in tow last night
Biden's motorcade was also flanked with Secret Service agents before his meeting with UK PM Boris Johnson today.
He is staying at the Tregenna Castle Hotel in St Ives, Cornwall, with Jill Biden.
Reports indicate that they were getting around via motorcade instead of the Marine One helicopter as a result of the bad weather.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
BIDEN BLASTED BY BREXITEERS
Tory backbenchers and the DUP leader Edwin Poots slammed Joe Biden for warning the UK that their stance in Northern Ireland was "inflaming tensions" there.
Supplies and trade have been disrupted there as a result of Brexit, resulting in violent riots on the streets – and Biden is expected to reprimand Boris Johnson for jeopardizing the Good Friday Agreement.
But Tories lambasted the US president for "driving a coach and horses through the Good Friday Agreement."
"This is effectively a constitutional change," said Poots, who wants the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit deal taken out.
"Would president Biden for example allow Alaska, which is separate and distinct from the rest of the land block of the USA, but still part of the USA, to be taking laws from Canada, and have its laws applied from Canada?"
An unnamed Tory MP told Politico: "America should remember who their allies are… unfortunately [Biden is] so senile that he probably won't remember what we tell him anyway.
"Unless an aide is listening I'm not sure he's going to remember for very long."
Biden and Johnson are due to meet at around 9.55am ET.
- Fionnuala O'Leary
GOOD JAB
Today, Joe Biden is expected to formally announce that the US will be donating a whopping 500million doses of the Covid-19 to about 100 countries, reports say.
He's slated to confirm the news during his 6.10pm press briefing (around 1.10 pm ET).
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