EU approves Japanese, UK, Italian venture for combat aircraft
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- The European Union said on Monday it had approved a joint venture among BAE Systems (Holdings), Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co. and Leonardo, which will be the prime contractor and lead systems integrator for the Global Combat Air Programme.
The joint venture will develop a sixth-generation combat aircraft for use by the governments of Italy, the U.K. and Japan, with the potential for sales to other jurisdictions or government buyers in the future, the European Commission said.

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Asahi Shimbun
14 hours ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Taiwan's ambitious drive for renewable energy troubles some fishing communities
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Yomiuri Shimbun
15 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Satellite Imagery Shows Ukraine Attack Destroyed and Damaged Russian Bombers
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Top Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev also said, in an apparent response to the strikes on Russian strategic bomber bases, that Moscow would take revenge. 'Retribution is inevitable.' Ukraine's domestic security agency, the SBU, has claimed responsibility for the operation, called 'Spider's Web', and said that in total 41 Russian warplanes were hit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the attack, which struck targets up to 4,300 km (2,670 miles) from the frontlines of the war, 'absolutely brilliant'. The Ukrainian military initially added 12 aircraft to its running tally of Russia's wartime military losses on Tuesday. 'After processing additional information from various sources and verifying it … we report that the total (Russian) losses amounted to 41 military aircraft, including strategic bombers and other types of combat aircraft,' it added in a later update. There was no immediate public response from Moscow to the SBU statement. The SBU said the damage caused by the operation amounted to $7 billion, and 34% of the strategic cruise missile carriers at Russia's main airfields were hit. Reuters could not independently verify the claims. Some experts said the operation would not be enough to stop Russia from launching missile attacks on Ukraine using strategic bombers, but it would be hard, if not impossible to replace the damaged planes because some of them are no longer in production. The attack was also likely to force Russia to reconfigure its air defences, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) research group. 'The … operation will force Russian officials to consider redistributing Russia's air defence systems to cover a much wider range of territory and possibly deploying mobile air defence groups that can more quickly react to possible similar Ukrainian drone strikes in the future,' the ISW said.


Asahi Shimbun
15 hours ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Global alarms rise as China's critical mineral export curbs take hold
Alarm over China's stranglehold on critical minerals grew on Tuesday as global automakers joined their U.S. counterparts to complain that restrictions by China on exports of rare earth alloys, mixtures and magnets could cause production delays and outages without a quick solution. German automakers became the latest to warn that China's export restrictions threaten to shut down production and rattle their local economies, following a similar complaint from an Indian EV maker last week. China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets has upended the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world. The move underscores China's dominance of the critical mineral industry and is seen as leverage by China in its ongoing trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump has sought to redefine the trading relationship with the U.S.' top economic rival China by imposing steep tariffs on billions of dollars of imported goods in hopes of narrowing a wide trade deficit and bringing back lost manufacturing. Trump imposed tariffs as high as 145% against China only to scale them back after stock, bond and currency markets revolted over the sweeping nature of the levies. China has responded with its own tariffs and is leveraging its dominance in key supply chains to persuade Trump to back down. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to talk this week, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday, and the export ban is expected to be high on the agenda. 'I can assure you that the administration is actively monitoring China's compliance with the Geneva trade agreement,' she said. 'Our administration officials continue to be engaged in correspondence with their Chinese counterparts.' Trump has previously signaled that China's slow pace of easing the critical mineral export ban represents a violation of the Geneva agreement. Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while license applications make their way through the Chinese regulatory system. The suspension has triggered anxiety in corporate boardrooms and nations' capitals - from Tokyo to Washington - as officials scrambled to identify limited alternative options amid fears that production of new automobiles and other items could grind to a halt by summer's end. 'If the situation is not changed quickly, production delays and even production outages can no longer be ruled out,' Hildegard Mueller, head of Germany's auto lobby, told Reuters on Tuesday. Frank Fannon, a minerals industry consultant and former U.S. assistant secretary of state for energy resources during Trump's first term, said the global disruptions are not shocking to those paying attention. 'I don't think anyone should be surprised how this is playing out. We have a production challenge (in the U.S.) and we need to leverage our whole of government approach to secure resources and ramp up domestic capability as soon as possible. The time horizon to do this was yesterday,' Fannon. Diplomats, automakers and other executives from India, Japan and Europe were urgently seeking meetings with Beijing officials to push for faster approval of rare earth magnet exports, sources told Reuters, as shortages threatened to halt global supply chains. A business delegation from Japan will visit Beijing in early June to meet the Ministry of Commerce over the curbs and European diplomats from countries with big auto industries have also sought 'emergency' meetings with Chinese officials in recent weeks, Reuters reported. India, where Bajaj Auto warned that any further delays in securing the supply of rare earth magnets from China could 'seriously impact' electric vehicle production, is organizing a trip for auto executives in the next two to three weeks. In May, the head of the trade group representing General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and other major automakers raised similar concerns in a letter to the Trump administration. 'Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components, including automatic transmissions, throttle bodies, alternators, various motors, sensors, seat belts, speakers, lights, motors, power steering, and cameras,' the Alliance for Automotive Innovation wrote in the letter.