There has been more glory for Great Britain in the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, with gold in the men’s 200m freestyle relay.
Fresh off their one-two on Tuesday, Tom Dean led the way with Duncan Scott swimming the anchor leg.
James Guy and Matthew Richards completed the line-up – and the quartet finished 0.03 seconds off the world record.
Dean got Team GB off to a solid, if unspectacular, start, swimming just behind the United States before Guy closed the gap.
It was 18-year-old Richards’ leg that was the standout – with the teenager storming into the lead leaving Scott with what turned into the simple task of confirming the gold.
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In the end, Team GB claimed an emphatic victory – 3.32 seconds clear of the Russian Olympic Committee in second.
The United States dropped to fourth after a good start, with Australia finishing third.
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The victory means Dean is the first British male swimmer to win two golds at the same Olympic Games since 1908.
Earlier in the day, Abbie Wood just missed out on a medal in the 200m individual medley despite swimming a lifetime best, with Kate Douglas of the USA just beating her to the bronze medal.
James Wilby’s excellent Games continued as he qualified for the men’s 200m breaststroke as the second-best swimmer, but Ross Murdoch missed out on a place in the final.
It was a disappointing and frustrating morning on the Sea Forest Waterway for the British rowers, who finished fourth in three races.
Team GB had an outside medal chance in the men’s double sculls and women’s four, but they just missed out on the podium in both events – finishing fourth.
The biggest disappointment came in the third race – the men’s four cox – where Team GB were bidding for a sixth straight gold but missed out on a medal altogether.
Debutants Sholto Carnegie, Oliver Cook, Matthew Rossiter and Rory Gibbs tried to push eventual winners Australia all the way, but the Brits were chased down by Romania and Italy, with the Team GB boat almost crashing into Italy in the closing stages after swerving out of their lane.
Great Britain did get its first rowing medal at the Games, finishing second in the men’s quadruple sculls.
Going into the race, Team GB had an outside chance of a podium and were ranked as the fifth-best team.
But they held off Australia and Poland to take silver, behind the Netherlands – who won four rowing medals on day five of the Tokyo Olympics.
Jack Beaumont, 27, from Maidenhead, said: “It was wild out there. The conditions are rough, with a tailwind, but it’s what we’re used to back at home so we’ve trained in this so many times, it did not shake us.
“We decided that, as we were in lane one with an outside chance of a medal, we were going to take it to them and we really did it.”
Harry Leask, 25, from Edinburgh, added: “I knew basically the whole way where we were, I had a pretty good view from where I was sitting of the whole race.
There could be more medals in rowing, after Emily Craig and Imogen Grant qualified for the final in the lightweight women’s double sculls.
In the rugby sevens, Team GB were hoping to qualify for their second final in consecutive Games but were well beaten by New Zealand in the semi-final.
They will play Argentina in the bronze medal match at 8am.
Rishi Sunak has admitted the Tories may not win the general election after grim defeats in the local polls.
The prime minister suggested the UK was on course for a hung parliament and claimed voters would not want to see Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer “propped up in Downing Street” by the SNP or smaller parties.
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PM on ‘disappointing’ election results
Sunak urged to take party towards right
Former home secretary Suella Braverman urged him to mould the party towards the right in order to win back voters.
But she told the BBC a change of leadership was not a “feasible prospect,” adding: “There is no superman or superwoman out there who can do it.”
Ms Braverman urged the prime minister to adopt several measures to win back voters, including further tax cuts and a cap on legal migration.
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Rishi Sunak ‘up for the fight’ in general election
Tories ‘up for the fight,’ minister insists
But Transport Secretary Mark Harper insisted Mr Sunak and the Tories are “up for the fight” of a general election despite their terrible results in the local contests.
Talking to Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, the minister said: “I think the key thing that people need to do now is get behind the prime minister, focus on the things the government is focused on delivering – the British people’s priorities around the economy, dealing with migration – and get out there and take that fight to the country ahead of the general election.”
Labour won 1,158 seats in the 107 councils in England that held elections on 2 May, an increase of more than 232.
The Liberal Democrats won 552 seats, up nearly 100, while the Tories came in third place on 515 seats, down nearly 400.
Rishi Sunak’s internal critics have abandoned their attempt to unseat him because they have run out of time and do not believe Penny Mordaunt would do what is necessary to save the party.
The Politics at Jack and Sam’s podcast this week discusses how the PM is unlikely to face a challenge but will be confronted by an exhausted, sceptical and in parts broken Tory party when Parliament returns on Tuesday.
He faces legislative challenges in the coming weeks, with revolts on the criminal justice bill and sentencing bill, that could be aggravated by the party’s poor performance.
However, efforts by plotters – a loose band co-ordinating to bring down Sunak dominated by ex advisors rather than Tory MPs – have been abandoned.
They are understood to believe the local elections show the Tories still on course for annihilation but they have run out of time, and the window for a challenge was back in December or January.
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They had hoped a suitable candidate would emerge and the closest they came to believing someone was interested was with Penny Mordaunt, though she has denied plotting. In the end, rebels concluded she would not do what it takes. They also said the political cost of changing leader increased sharply in recent months.
Sunak is now hoping Britain coming out of recession this Friday will help turn his fortunes around.
According to leaked correspondence between high-ranking officials, the Iraqi returns commitments were made with a “request for discretion” and no publicity.
The country was willing to move forward but did not want a formal or public agreement.
The current travel advice to Iraq on the Foreign Office website simply advises against “all travel to parts of Iraq”. However, according to the document, negotiations were fairly advanced and described in one table as “good recent progress with Iraq”.
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Other government aims included enhancing cooperation with the Iranian Embassy in order to enhance returns arrangements for migrants and potential asylum seekers.
Returns agreements are also in the works for Eritrea and Ethiopia, according to documents about work undertaken by the Home Office and Foreign Office that relates to countries with the highest number of nationals arriving to the UK by small boats.
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In a tranche of internal government documents seen by Sky News, even from the earliest stage of the Rwanda policy, Downing Street advisers knew there were serious problems with their proposals.
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First Rwanda relocation raids carried out
There are even private admissions that many people arriving here on small boats did so without the assistance of criminal gangs – despite their communications strategy.
Comparisons were also made to Australia’s response – to what Downing Street officials understood to be a comparable “smaller problem” than in the UK and admitted it had cost billions of Australian dollars in order for their returns processes to be fully operational.
In one document submitted to the Home Office, some of the highest-ranking officials at the time wrote that their guidance was to be “prepared to pay over the odds” to get the policy up and running. And that the initial offer from Rwanda was a “modest sum”.
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Whitehall’s official spending watchdog has priced the cost of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda at £1.8m per person for the first 300 people the government deports to Kigali.
It also disclosed that since April 2022 the Home Office has paid £220m into Rwanda’s economic transformation and integration fund, which is designed to support economic growth in Rwanda, and will continue to make payments to cover asylum processing and operational costs for individuals relocated to Rwanda.
It will also pay further amounts of £50m over the next year and an additional £50m the following year.
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A government source said: “The Home Office is spending millions every day accommodating migrants in hotels – that’s not right or fair. We’re taking action to put an end to this costly and dangerous cycle. Doing nothing is not a free option – we must act if we want to stop the boats and save lives.
“The UK is continuing to work with a range of international partners to tackle global illegal migration challenges. Our Rwanda partnership is a pioneering response to the global challenge of illegal migration, and we will get flights off the ground to Rwanda in the next nine to eleven weeks.”