G7 leaders have laid flowers at a memorial to the victims of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima in a sombre opening to a summit overshadowed by fears of a potential nuclear conflict in Ukraine. As the heavy early morning rain began to ease, the summit’s host, the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, and his wife, Yuko, welcomed leaders and their spouses at the entrance to the city’s Peace Memorial Museum, where they viewed graphic reminders of the attack on the city on 6 August 1945 and its gruesome aftermath. The group emerged from the museum after about 30 minutes and, led by Kishida and the US president, Joe Biden, made the short walk to a cenotaph honouring the 333,907 people whose deaths have been attributed to the atomic bombing almost eight decades ago. The leaders also planted a cherry blossom sapling, propagated from a tree that survived the atomic blast

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