Home Office hires aircraft hangar to practice forcing asylum seekers on to Rwanda flights
An aircraft hangar and fuselage have been hired by the Home Office for security officials to practice forcing asylum seekers on to deportation flights to Rwanda, it has emerged.
Guards have undergone special training programmes to deal with “disruptive” people, according to The Times.
This includes individuals resorting to violence to prevent being put on a plane and protesters “playing dead” by lying on the floor and refusing to move.
Politics live: Tory peer makes Rwanda admission
Security officials are also preparing for the prospect of demonstrations by campaigners outside the airbase in an attempt to stop flights, the newspaper said.
It is estimated that five officers will be needed for each migrant being removed.
The Home Office did not deny the report.
A spokesperson said: “Since 2015, the government has had training facilities to ensure escorts can respond professionally to the challenges of removing people with no right to be in the UK.
“This includes practical sessions so escorts have the skills they need to deal with different scenarios.
“As we ramp up removal activity we will continue to ensure new escorts have the training facilities necessary.”
Overseas escorts on deportation flights must undergo the Home Office Manual for Escorting Safely (HOMES) training course, which covers which restraint techniques to use in different scenarios.
This is alongside a wider Initial Training Court (ITC) about how to remove people safely.
The training emerged as a senior Conservative peer cast doubt that the stalled £290m scheme will ever get off the ground.
Under the plan, migrants who cross the Channel in small boats could be sent to Rwanda rather than being allowed to seek asylum in the UK.
As Rishi Sunak gears up for a battle with the Lords over legislation aimed at reviving the plan, former Scottish Tory leader Baroness Ruth Davidson said there are “dogs on the street that know” the flights will “probably never happen”.
Ruth Davidson said ‘dogs on the street’ know the Rwanda flights probably won’t happen
She told BBC’s The Today Podcast: “Every sovereign nation should be in charge of who comes in; not everybody has a right to go to every country in the world – I completely get all of that. But where is the balance in this, rather than some of the language that is being used, some of the knots that people are getting into?
“And this thing about putting people on planes to Rwanda. I mean, there are dogs in the street that know that, one, it is probably never going to happen.
“And two, if it does, it is going to be a number so small that it makes very little difference to the bottom line.”
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The prime minister managed to get his controversial policy through a third reading in the Commons this week after earlier rebellions by Conservative MPs, who want to see his Safety of Rwanda Bill toughened up.
The legislation, which aims to declare Rwanda safe and block further legal challenges, will now face scrutiny in the House of Lords.
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Sunak warns Lords over Rwanda Bill
Peers are expected to challenge the plan, which comes after the Supreme Court ruled the deportation scheme unlawful last November.
Members of the upper chamber have long expressed concerns that the policy could breach international law.
Speaking to reporters from Hampshire on Friday, Mr Sunak said he was “determined” to get the bill through parliament so the scheme can be “up and running as quickly as possible so we can properly solve this problem”.
The Rwanda policy is seen as central to the “Stop the Boats pledge” Mr Sunak has staked his premiership on.
But with a general election expected in the second half of this year, time is running out for flights to take off.
Mr Sunak used a news conference on Thursday to urge the Lords not to “frustrate the will of the people” and back his bill, as he refused to repeat a previous commitment that fights to Rwanda would take off “in the spring”.
But barrister and cross-bench peer Lord Carlisle, who has described the legislation as “a step towards totalitarianism”, described the prime minister’s message as “banal” and “vacuous”, telling Sky News: “It is plain… [Mr Sunak] doesn’t understand anything about the way the House of Lords operates. We are not there to thwart the government.”
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, marks their 50th birthday amid a year of rising institutional and geopolitical adoption of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The identity of Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in crypto, with speculation ranging from cryptographers like Adam Back and Nick Szabo to broader theories involving government intelligence agencies.
While Nakamoto’s identity remains anonymous, the Bitcoin (BTC) creator is believed to have turned 50 on April 5 based on details shared in the past.
According to archived data from his P2P Foundation profile, Nakamoto once claimed to be a 37-year-old man living in Japan and listed his birthdate as April 5, 1975.
Source: Web.archive.org
Nakamoto’s anonymity has played a vital role in maintaining the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network, which has no central authority or leadership.
The Bitcoin wallet associated with Nakamoto, which holds over 1 million BTC, has laid dormant for more than 16 years despite BTC rising from $0 to an all-time high above $109,000 in January.
Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Lugano, Switzerland. Source: Cointelegraph
Nakamoto’s 50th birthday comes nearly a month after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, marking the first major step toward integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system.
Related: Bitcoin at 16: From experiment to trillion-dollar asset
Nakamoto’s legacy: a “cornerstone of economic sovereignty”
“At 50, Nakamoto’s legacy is no longer just code; it’s a cornerstone of economic sovereignty,” according to Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert.
“Bitcoin’s reserve status signals trust in its scarcity and resilience,” Lian told Cointelegraph, adding:
“What’s fascinating is the timing. Fifty feels symbolic — half a century of life, mirrored by Bitcoin’s journey from a white paper to a trillion-dollar asset. Nakamoto’s vision of trustless, peer-to-peer money has outgrown its cypherpunk roots, entering the halls of power.”
However, lingering questions about Nakamoto remain unanswered, including whether they still hold the keys to their wallet, which is “a fortune now tied to US policy,” Lian said.
Related: Bitcoin’s next catalyst: End of $36T US debt ceiling suspension
Is Satoshi Nakamoto wealthier than Bill Gates?
In February, Arkham Intelligence published findings that attribute 1.096 million BTC — then valued at more than $108 billion — to Nakamoto. That would place him above Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the global wealth rankings, according to data shared by Coinbase director Conor Grogan.
Satoshi’s new addresses. Source: Conor Grogan
If accurate, this would make Nakamoto the world’s 16th richest person.
Despite the growing interest in Nakamoto’s identity and holdings, his early decision to remain anonymous and inactive has helped preserve Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos — a principle that continues to define the cryptocurrency to this day.
Magazine: 10 crypto theories that missed as badly as ‘Peter Todd is Satoshi’
The United States stock market lost more in value over the April 4 trading day than the entire cryptocurrency market is worth, as fears over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to ramp up.
On April 4, the US stock market lost $3.25 trillion — around $570 billion more than the entire crypto market’s $2.68 trillion valuation at the time of publication.
Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market”
Among the Magnificent-7 stocks, Tesla (TSLA) led the losses on the day with a 10.42% drop, followed by Nvidia (NVDA) down 7.36% and Apple (AAPL) falling 7.29%, according to TradingView data.
The significant decline across the board signals that the Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market” after falling 6% across the trading day, trading resource account The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 4 X post. This is the largest daily decline since March 16, 2020.
“US stocks have now erased a massive -$11 TRILLION since February 19 with recession odds ABOVE 60%,” it added. The Kobessi Letter said Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement was “historic” and if the tariffs continue, a recession will be “impossible to avoid.”
Source: Anthony Scaramucci
On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.
Trump said the reciprocal tariffs will be roughly half the rate US trading partners impose on American goods.
Related: Bitcoin bulls defend $80K support as ‘World War 3 of trade wars’ crushes US stocks
Meanwhile, the crypto industry has pointed out that while the stock market continues to decline, Bitcoin (BTC) remains stronger than most expected.
Crypto trader Plan Markus pointed out in an April 4 X post that while the entire stock market “is tanking,” Bitcoin is holding.
Source: Jeff Dorman
Even some crypto skeptics have pointed out the contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and the US stock market during the recent period of macro uncertainty.
Stock market commentator Dividend Hero told his 203,200 X followers that he has “hated on Bitcoin in the past, but seeing it not tank while the stock market does is very interesting to me.”
Meanwhile, technical trader Urkel said Bitcoin “doesn’t appear to care one bit about tariff wars and markets tanking.” Bitcoin is trading at $83,749 at the time of publication, down 0.16% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
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