The UK has signed an international treaty with Japan and Italy to build the next generation of stealth fighter jet.
The deal will see the headquarters for the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), the defence partnership between the three nations, based in Britain.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the collaborative international effort to build military planes with supersonic capability and cutting-edge technology a year ago.
Called Tempest in the UK, the ambition is for them to take to the skies by 2035 and serve as a successor to the RAF Typhoon.
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) said the signing of the treaty in Tokyo on Thursday marked a “key stage” in the development of the aircraft.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was in the Japanese capital to sign the document alongside his Italian and Japanese counterparts, Guido Crosetto and Minoru Kihara.
He said: “Our world-leading combat aircraft programme aims to be crucial to global security and we continue to make hugely positive progress toward delivery of the new jets to our respective air forces in 2035.
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“The UK-based headquarters will also see us make important decisions collaboratively and at pace, working with our close partners Italy and Japan, and our impressive defence industries, to deliver an outstanding aircraft.”
When complete, the Tempest will boast a powerful radar that can provide 10,000 times more data than current systems, the MOD said.
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Pilots will be able to use virtual reality in the aircraft’s digital cockpit, with vital information displayed directly in front of them.
The on-board weapons system will deploy artificial intelligence and machine learning to “maximise the effect” its arsenal can deliver, the department said.
Some £2bn has been committed to the project by the UK Government up to 2025, with the investment announced in 2021 before the partnership with the other two nations on GCAP was confirmed.
The MOD awarded the contract to BAE Systems, in collaboration with Leonardo UK, missile maker MBDA UK and Rolls-Royce, as well as industry partners from Japan and Italy.
Joint development of the aircraft is due to start in 2025.
The treaty confirms that the UK will host the joint GCAP government headquarters, with a Japanese chief executive at the helm at the outset.
Locations for the government HQ and a separate industry base, which will also be in the UK and led by an Italian, are to be announced in “due course”, the MOD said, along with a timeline for opening.
The department said the offices will support UK jobs and facilitate close working with Japanese and Italian colleagues.
The next step is for the treaty signed by the allies on Thursday to be sent to all three national parliaments for ratification.
The UK has sent the first failed asylum seeker to Rwanda under a voluntary scheme.
The scheme is for those who have gone through the asylum process and had permission rejected, rather than for migrants who have illegally entered Britain by crossing the Channel on small boats.
The migrant was sent on a commercial flight and handed a fee from the British taxpayer to help relocate under the terms of a deal with Rwanda.
According to The Sun, the man of African origin claimed asylum in the UK but was rejected at the end of last year. He then accepted the offer to go to Rwanda.
He left the UK on Monday.
This was not done using the powers set out in the Safety of Rwanda Act, but rather a parallel scheme that allows someone to choose to make the trip if their attempts to claim asylum in the UK fails.
And upon arrival in Kigali, the person is able to claim around £3,000 in UK taxpayer money as help.
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Migrants ‘will be found and removed’
The development was criticised by both the Labour Party and Reform UK director Nigel Farage.
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Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, said: “The Tories are so desperate to get any flight off to Rwanda before the local elections that they have now just paid someone to go.
“British taxpayers aren’t just forking out £3,000 for a volunteer to board a plane, they are also paying Rwanda to provide him with free board and lodgings for the next five years. This extortionate pre-election gimmick is likely to be costing on average £2m per person.
“Former Tory Home Office ministers warned that the government’s plan was just to get token flights off before a General Election. Now we know what they mean.”
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Rwanda plan: ‘What does success mean?’
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An Israeli ground offensive in Rafah is “on the immediate horizon”, the UN’s aid chief has warned, as Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed that his forces “will enter” the southern Gaza city.
Martin Griffiths said in a statement on X on Tuesday the threatened attack would “spell even more trauma and death” for those in the city and “strike a disastrous blow” to the aid agencies trying to help them.
“Famine is taking hold. The rules of war continue to be flouted,” he said, adding that a ground operation in the city, where an estimated 1.5 million displaced GazaPalestiniansare sheltering, will be “a tragedy beyond words”.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to states with influence over Israel “to do everything in their power” to prevent an Israeli assault on Rafah.
Their comments came as Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, reaffirmed his intention to order a long-promised assault on the city, whatever the response by Hamas to the latest ceasefire proposals.
Mr Netanyahu said Israel would enter Rafah, which it says is Hamas’s last stronghold, regardless of whether a truce-for-hostages deal is struck.
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In a statement from his office, he said: “The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate Hamas’s battalions there – with or without a deal, to achieve the total victory.”
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His comments appeared to be directed at his nationalist governing partners, who have pressured him not to accept a deal that might prevent an assault on the city.
Mr Netanyahu appeared to reassure one of them, national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose office said the leader promised him “Israel will enter Rafah, we are not stopping the war and there won’t be a reckless deal”.
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The US has repeatedly said it opposes the Rafah operation until Israel presents a credible plan for evacuating and protecting those in the city.
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US secretary of state Antony Blinken, speaking in Jordan before flying to Israel, to help advance the latest round of ceasefire talks, urged Hamas to respond to Israel’s latest ceasefire plan, saying: “No more delays. No more excuses. The time to act is now.”
Negotiations aimed at freeing hostages, bringing relief to civilians and averting an Israeli offensive into Rafah appear to be gaining strength.
The near seven-month conflict began when Hamas fighters killed around 1,200 people and took some 250 Israelis and foreigners hostage in their 7 October incursion into southern Israel.
It prompted Israel’s assault on Gaza, as it pledged to destroy Hamas and bring the hostages home.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to local health officials, who say about two-thirds of the dead are women and children.
It was a rare window into confrontations most have viewed from afar. We were invited on board the Philippine Coastguard Vessel BRP Bagacay.
They were on a resupply mission to Scarborough Shoal – a submerged reef which Chinaclaims as its own but is within the Philippines’Exclusive Economic Zone.
They were meant to be dropping off food and fuel to fishermen who rely on the lives beneath these waters. But they knew, as did we, that this journey was about far more.
It felt as if they wanted to show the world they were willing to stand up to Beijing if Chinese ships tried to block their path.
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We got on the ship on Monday afternoon. By dawn the following day, the tension was already apparent.
Two ships were already trailing behind our vessel – more than three hours away from Scarborough Shoal.
There has long been a game of brinkmanship in this waterway – where about one-third of the world’s shipping passes through. But this felt more choreographed and intense than it has for some time.
Soon, the captain told us 12 ships were encircling our vessel.
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They swerved in front of the Philippine crew, who exchanged warnings over the radio.
On the deck, the crew rushed towards buoys every time the Chinese edged closer – trying to protect themselves in case there was a collision. We could see the Chinese crew taking pictures – just metres away from us.
Then suddenly, a volley of water was fired at the boat. The force of it seemed to take even the experienced crew on board by surprise.
We were on the stern of the vessel and got soaked. As we were ushered inside, the roof of part of the deck that some of us had spent the previous night sleeping on was ripped apart. Despite the damage, the water cannons continued to fire.
Within hours the Chinese coastguard was trying to get the first word out to the world about the incident.
They say the Philippine vessel we were on has been “expelled”.
The team on board the Philippine vessel tell us they’re turning back because the other ship they were travelling alongside has had its radar damaged by the water cannons.