UK government rejects plan to build national flagship

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government has scrapped a 250 million-pound ($288 million) plan to build a national flagship that was supposed to tour the world as a “floating embassy” amid a public spending squeeze and to prioritize funding for boosting U.K. defenses against Russia. New Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sunk the plan to create a successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was retired in 1997. The new flagship was championed by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but critics had slammed it as a vanity project. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said he was instead prioritizing the procurement of multi-role ocean surveillance vessels, which will protect undersea cables and pipelines amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.