Trump campaign chief tells undercover reporters he advised Liberal party ahead of election
Footage of the undercover conversations between veteran Republican strategist Chris LaCivita and undercover reporters shows LaCivita claiming he visited Australia to advise the Liberal party ahead of the election. LaCivita says he made an unpublicised visit to Australia to advise the Liberal party about 'structural issues' related to Peter Dutton. 'I was in Australia two weeks ago helping the Liberal party there, on some of their structural issues that they were having with Peter Dutton,' LaCivita says on 16 April in the first of two calls. The footage was published on Thursday by the Europe-based organisations Correctiv and the Centre for Climate Reporting. A Coalition spokesman has denied LaCivita had any connection to the Dutton campaign. In a statement, LaCivita told Guardian Australia: 'I did not and do not work for the Liberal Party of Australia. I provide consulting to a wide variety of business interests – some in Australia some in the US etc in terms of a political party – I have not. Also, I have never met Mr Dutton, but I hope to when he is elected prime minister'
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The Independent
10 minutes ago
- The Independent
Government urged to disrupt ‘addictive grip' of smartphones on children's lives
The Government is being urged to create child-friendly playful neighbourhoods and disrupt the 'addictive grip' of smartphones on children's lives. Closures of playgrounds, busier roads, shortened school break times and the dominance of screentime have restricted children's opportunities to play, a report has suggested. Urgent action is needed to create more opportunities for children to play outdoors and away from digital devices and social media, according to a report by the Raising the Nation Play Commission inquiry. It warned: 'Too many of our children are spending their most precious years sedentary, doomscrolling on their phones and often alone, while their health and wellbeing deteriorates.' The commission was chaired by Paul Lindley, founder of organic baby food manufacturer Ella's Kitchen, in partnership with the Centre for Young Lives think tank, which was co-founded by the former children's commissioner for England Baroness Anne Longfield. It has called on the Government to establish a National Play Strategy for England, backed by an annual £125 million investment and led by a 'minister for play'. The strategy should include a commitment to a 'step-change' in the quantity and quality of children's use of digital devices through stronger regulation, public engagement and information, and addressing addictive 'push' factors that have driven children online, the report added. The inquiry has called on the Government to raise the digital age of consent to 16 and introduce a ban on smartphones in schools during the school day. It added that it should become easier for parents to organise 'safe play' in their streets, and there should be a national ban on 'No Ball Games' signs. A poll of 2,000 parents in England, commissioned by the inquiry, suggested that 55% of parents believe their youngest child plays outside less than they did when they were children. Around three in four (76%) parents agree that people are generally less accepting of children playing outside on the street than when they were a child, according to the poll. The Raising the Nation Play Commission brought together 19 expert commissioners to conduct a year-long inquiry into how play can be restored to every childhood in England. Lady Longfield, executive chairwoman of the Centre for Young Lives, said: 'Too many of our children are spending their most precious years sedentary, doomscrolling on their phones and often alone, while their health and wellbeing deteriorates. 'It is no coincidence that the least happy generation, the generation with the highest rates of obesity and rising ill health, is the generation that plays less and less. 'As we have heard from a swathe of experts and professionals working with children over the last year, play is being squeezed out of childhoods, with drastic implications for children, our economy and public services. 'With so much at stake children really have everything to play for: their health, wellbeing, happiness, learning, and development depends on our ability to reignite the role of play. 'This report provides a blueprint for how we can get children playing again and also tackle the scourge of addictive doomscrolling, so we can prevent future generations from becoming glued to screens.' Technology Secretary Pete Kyle has indicated he is considering an 'app cap' for children. On Sunday, the minister signalled he was looking at measures to restrict the amount of time children spend on their phones, including through a possible 10pm curfew. Mr Lindley, chairman of the Raising the Nation Play Commission, said: 'Creating truly playful communities is not just about better street design, traffic management, and reduced crime, but also about a reversal of the growing culture of intolerance towards children playing. 'This will also encourage more parents to have confidence they can let their children play out more freely, in the knowledge that their children will be both having a great time and are also safe. 'We need to give our children back the time, space, opportunity, freedom – and the right – to play again.' A Government spokesperson said: 'We recognise the vital importance of play and access to nature as part of children's development and wellbeing as we strive to create the healthiest and happiest generation of children ever. 'Through our Plan for Change, we are setting young people up to achieve and thrive – both inside and outside the classroom. 'We have given hundreds of thousands of children the tools to turn their grey school spaces green as part of our National Education Nature Park, we are opening up grassroots sports to all with £100 million investment in facilities and we are working with experts to develop a framework to improve access to activities outside of school. 'Schools already have the power to completely ban phones in the classroom and the overwhelming majority – 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools – limit or restrict use. 'And from July, new rules under the Online Safety Act will require social media platforms to protect children in the UK from seeing harmful content online.'
Reuters
23 minutes ago
- Reuters
Insight: Egypt's crackdown drives Sudanese refugees on new route to Libya and beyond
CAIRO/ATHENS/BRUSSELS, June 11 (Reuters) - Bahr el-Din Yakoub fled Sudan to seek sanctuary in Egypt after a missile ripped through his home in Khartoum and killed four of his friends. But economic hardship and a crackdown on refugees in Egypt pushed him onwards, first along dangerous desert smuggling routes into northeastern Libya, and then on the perilous sea crossing to the Greek island of Crete. Yakoub, 25, is one of a small but growing number of Sudanese refugees who are giving up on Egypt and taking their chances in Libya, rather than returning home where civil war has been raging since April 2023, according to migrants, smugglers, aid workers and activists. While the flight of tens of thousands of Sudanese to Libya via their common border has been documented, the trend of Sudanese nationals feeling they have no option but to take the northern route out of Egypt has not previously been reported. For this story, Reuters spoke with 32 Sudanese refugees. While a few are still in Egypt, most described how they had moved on due to the difficult conditions there, making it to Libya, Greece and France. And as more Sudanese head to Libya, where the situation can be precarious for refugees, more are boarding boats for Europe. In the first five months of 2025, the number of Sudanese nationals arriving in Europe jumped 134% from a year earlier, even as overall numbers of people crossing from North Africa declined, according to preliminary figures from the U.N.'s refugee agency UNHCR. "The sea was rough and it was a very difficult trip, but we were exhausted by all that we endured in Libya. We had no other choice, either we cross or die," Yakoub said, adding that he had been detained, arrested and ill-treated by Libyan authorities and militias. Europe has supported the Libyan coastguard, which returns migrants stopped at sea to detention centres, and has funded Libyan border management programmes. A U.N. fact-finding mission concluded in 2023 that crimes against humanity had been committed against migrants in some Libyan detention centres. Major General Ibrahim Al-Arbd, head of Libya's Department to Combat Illegal Migration in the eastern Libyan district of al-Butnan, said as of January, 20,000-25,000 Sudanese had crossed into Libya via Egypt since the Sudan war started. He said many of them held refugee status in Egypt but had struggled to settle there due to economic hardship. He said in May that 200-250 Sudanese were crossing per week and, as summer approaches, he expected the number to rise. Since the war between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces started, more than 4 million Sudanese have been driven into neighbouring countries, according to UNHCR. By far the largest number, 1.5 million, fled north to Egypt. Although Egypt initially allowed visa-free entry for all but working-age Sudanese men, it limited entries after a surge in arrivals, leading to more refugees using smuggling routes to reach the country, according to migrants, migration lawyers and aid workers. Securing residency in Egypt - a crucial step for obtaining access to basic services such as health and education - also became increasingly difficult, with significant delays and financial barriers, they said. Egypt's Foreign Ministry and State Information Service (SIS) did not respond to requests for comment. Mahmoud Fawzi, Egypt's Minister of Parliamentary and Legal Affairs and Political Communication, denied any restrictions had been placed on issuing residency permits to Sudanese migrants. For many, the process, which required a deposit of about $1,000 under an August 2023 decree, was unaffordable, leaving them living on the fringes of society. Some instead undertook the lengthy project of acquiring U.N. refugee status. But a government crackdown last year put those who had not paid at risk of being rounded up or deported, regardless of their refugee status, according to three migration lawyers in Egypt who have handled hundreds of such cases. Rights groups and migration lawyers said there has been an increase in deportations from Egypt since the passage of a new asylum law at the end of 2024 which placed refugee approval and registration under government control instead of the UNHCR. "The sense of insecurity created by this new situation among refugees and asylum seekers, combined with their inability to return to their own country, has led them to seek safety beyond Egypt, facing the perils of further migration," said Mohamed Lotfy, director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, a non-governmental organisation in Egypt. Fawzi said there was no bias against Sudanese nationals and they receive all their rights. He said no deportations happen unless people violate the law, or choose to return home. After leaving Khartoum a few weeks into the war, Yakoub moved three times in search of safety within Sudan. When he couldn't find refuge, he paid smugglers to take him to Egypt. He believed the three-day journey across the desert would lead him to safety and stability, but life in Egypt proved difficult. After arriving in Cairo in January 2024, he slept on cold streets for days, waiting to register with UNHCR. Eventually, he gave up, saying the waiting time was too long. He moved into a small apartment with eight other Sudanese men and worked sporadically as a day labourer. Still, without proper documentation, he risked arrest as authorities began rounding up migrants without papers and deporting them. "The conditions there were not suitable for a refugee ... I did not have the proper documentation, and I was running from the authorities all the time. There was no way I could stay," he said, speaking to Reuters from a migrant camp outside Athens. "I was afraid of getting arrested and being sent back to Sudan, so I went to Libya," he said, "But I found the situation there much worse." Critics of the asylum law say its criteria for determining refugee status are vague and it jeopardises the legal protection of those already recognised as refugees - including those with UNHCR documentation. Lotfy, whose organisation provides legal support to migrants, said the new law appeared to have emboldened security forces further, with a rise in police reports and cases against Sudanese and sub-Saharan Africans. His organisation has documented dozens of cases where police confiscated UNHCR papers before deporting refugees, he said. Egypt's Fawzi denied any refugees or asylum seekers registered with UNHCR had been deported. Numbers of deportations are not made public but according to two Egyptian security sources speaking on condition of anonymity, the security services had deported nearly 21,000 Sudanese, as of the end of March 2025, for their illegal presence or for violating Egypt's laws. Rights group Amnesty International has also documented the detention of migrants in Egypt in what it called cruel and inhuman conditions ahead of such deportations, which it says violate international law. Egyptian officials say the government has shown generosity by absorbing so many Sudanese despite economic pressures such as double-digit inflation and a dollar crunch. Fawzi said everyone benefits from national subsidy schemes. Migrants in Egypt who spoke to Reuters disputed this, as did an internal EU commission report in 2024 seen by Reuters. It said about 1.5 million of the 9 million migrants Egypt says it has taken in were in vulnerable situations. Of them, nearly 1 million were registered as refugees and asylum seekers as of May 2025, according to the UNHCR. "Migrants and refugees are not entitled to domestic subsidy schemes or social protection programs and a large number of them have become food insecure," the report said, adding that this had prompted many to move onwards. Five Western diplomats and EU officials said Cairo has attempted to pressure Brussels into increasing financial aid - in exchange for stopping migrants from heading to Europe. Tineke Strik, a member of the European Parliament and rapporteur for Egypt, said during a visit in December she met Fawzi and he asked her, "Imagine if our border guards took a four-week holiday. What would happen then?" "They are really using the migration card to get money from the EU," Strik said. Fawzi declined to comment. In March, the EU announced a 7.4 billion euro funding package for Egypt as part of a push to stem migrant flows. Anti-immigration rhetoric has surged throughout the EU since more than a million people, mainly from Syria, arrived via the Mediterranean in 2015. This hostility has been exploited by right-wing and nationalist parties, pushing governments to adopt increasingly restrictive migration policies focused on returns. In recent months, the EU and member states have proposed policies criticised by human rights group to accelerate deportations and send migrants to hubs in third-party countries with which migrants have no connection. Two months after arriving in Libya, Yakoub boarded a dinghy bound for Crete with about 50 other people, mostly Sudanese. The Eastern Mediterranean route he took was the second most active route into the EU from January to April, with 12,228 people crossing, the EU's border agency Frontex said. The Central Mediterranean route to Italy and Malta was the most active. Though the Eastern route has seen a year-on-year decline in traffic, the number of Sudanese has surged to among the top three nationalities from January to May, totalling about 1,469 people, according to Frontex. This represents a significant rise from 361 during the same period last year and 237 the year before. Yakoub said he was relieved to be safe finally in Greece, and to start thinking about the future. "If Greece offers me safety and stability, I will stay."
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Live Reeves to hand out billions in spending review
Rachel Reeves is set to unveil billions of pounds of new public spending as the Chancellor argues that her priorities are 'the priorities of working people'. Ms Reeves will deliver her eagerly-anticipated spending review at lunchtime and it is expected to include big increases for the NHS, defence and schools. But other Whitehall departments are likely to face real-terms funding cuts. Among the main announcements is expected to be a £30 billion increase in NHS funding, a rise of around 2.8 per cent in real-terms, along with an extra £4.5 billion for schools and a rise in defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that any increase in NHS funding above 2.5 per cent is likely to mean real-terms cuts for other departments, or further tax rises to come in the Budget this autumn. This could mean a budgetary squeeze for areas such as local government, the justice system and the Home Office, despite reports that policing would receive an above-inflation settlement. Ms Reeves is expected to say: 'I have made my choices. In place of chaos, I choose stability. In place of decline, I choose investment. In place of retreat, I choose national renewal. 'These are my choices. These are this Government's choices. These are the British people's choices.'
