التصنيف: estaql

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.

“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.

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.

Read more:
Photograph captures moment RAF jets appear to have a near miss
Defence cuts will affect UK’s ability to fight from the air

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.

A woman who spent 20 years in jail for killing her four children has had her convictions officially quashed.

Kathleen Folbigg was convicted in 2003 of murdering three of her children, and of manslaughter in the death of her fourth between 1989 and 1999 in New South Wales, Australia.

She was pardoned in June after evidence proving her innocence came to light but has now had the convictions officially expunged by the state.

Her lawyer now says she is preparing to claim “substantial” compensation.

Folbigg maintained her innocence and said the children had died of natural causes over a decade, from 1989 to 1999.

In 2019, an initial inquiry into the case reaffirmed her guilt, but in 2022, a second inquiry found new evidence suggesting two of the children had a genetic mutation that may have caused their deaths.

Folbigg was released from prison in June this year after being pardoned.

“I am grateful that updated science and genetics has given me answers as to how my children died,” an emotional Folbigg told reporters outside a criminal appeals court in Sydney.

“However, even in 1999, we had legal answers to prove my innocence. They were ignored. And dismissed,” she said.

“The system preferred to blame me rather than accept that sometimes, children can and do die suddenly, unexpectedly, and heartbreakingly.”

Read more:
Kathleen Folbigg, mother pardoned for child deaths
Daughters may have died due to ‘incredibly rare’ genetic mutation
Scientists call for convicted child killer Kathleen Folbigg to be pardoned

Folbigg’s lawyer, Rhanee Rego, said her legal team was preparing a claim for “substantial” compensation for her wrongful imprisonment.

“I’m not prepared to put a figure it, but it will be bigger than any substantial payment that has been made before,” she said.

The case, which relied predominantly on circumstantial evidence, caused controversy among scientists and statisticians, some of whom were part of the campaign to secure Folbigg’s release.

“Although there was new scientific evidence (in 2019) …basic scientific principles were not adhered to from the time of
trial,” said Anna-Maria Arabia, chief executive of the Australian Academy of Science.

“Make no mistake, without law reform, these sorts of miscarriages of justice will continue.”

Israel’s ambassador to the UK has told Sky News her country would not accept a two-state solution when the war in Gaza ends.

When pressed on the question of Palestinians having their own state, Tzipi Hotovely told Mark Austin: “Absolutely no.”

Asked how there can be peace without a Palestinian state, she added: “Israel knows today, and the world should know now that the Palestinians never wanted to have a state next to Israel.

“They want to have a state from the river to the sea. They are saying it loud and clear.

“It’s now two months after the war started. The Palestinian Authority didn’t condemn this massacre (7 October). It’s such a big problem.”

Israel-Hamas latest: IDF determined despite heavy losses in Gaza

Earlier in the interview, Ms Hotovely was asked about UN demands for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

She replied: “Ceasefire – no. It just basically means we would like to welcome another attack of 7 October. This is the only thing it means.”

And when asked about US President Joe Biden’s suggestion that Israel was bombing Gaza “without care”, she said: “Absolutely not…

“Do you remember any country in the world creating a humanitarian corridor to the enemy?

“I don’t remember you helping Nazi Germany during the war, and I don’t remember America helping the Japanese during the Second World War.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian militants carried out one of the deadliest single attacks on Israeli soldiers since the Gaza invasion began.

According to the Israeli Defence Forces, nine of its soldiers were killed in an urban ambush.

The attack in a dense neighbourhood comes after repeated claims by the Israeli military that it had broken Hamas‘s command structure in northern Gaza, encircled remaining pockets of fighters, killed thousands of militants and detained hundreds more.

Israel invaded Gaza after around 1,200 of its citizens were killed by Hamas in attacks launched from Gaza on 7 October.

Hamas also took around 240 hostages. More than 100 have since been released.

Read more:
US Navy ‘shoots down drone’ after attack
Israeli troops ‘filmed destroying property in Gaza’
UN diplomats visit Rafah crossing over concerns for aid

Israel’s air and ground assault has killed more than 18,600 Palestinians since 7 October, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Nearly 1.9 million people have been driven from their homes in the Gaza Strip.

The resulting humanitarian crisis has sparked international outrage.

After originally urging Palestinians to move out of northern Gaza, Israel’s military is now operating in the south of the strip, too.

Displaced people are taking shelter in tented camps.

The United States has repeatedly called on Israel to take greater measures to spare civilians, even as it has blocked international calls for a ceasefire at the United Nations and rushed military aid to its close ally.