Truss and Sunak face Tory hustings after both say Covid lockdown went too far – as it happened

Latest updates: Tory leadership frontrunner reacts to Sunak comments, saying school closures went too far; pair meet Tory members in Norwich

Lee Cain, who was director of communications in Downing Street during the early phase of the Covid crisis, says Rishi Sunak’s comments about the lockdown policy (see 9.22am and 9.47am) are “simply wrong”.

But Sunak is not saying lockdown should not have happened, as Cain suggests. He is just saying that it was implemented too rigidly, and perhaps for too long, and that more consideration should have been given to the downsides.

Continue reading...

Rise in Albanian asylum seekers may be down to criminal gangs

Albanian gangs controlling UK drugs trade offer minibus trip and Channel crossing for £4,000 on TikTok

Official data released on Thursday has confirmed suspicions that Albanians are now a prominent national group among the asylum seekers travelling across the Channel.

But the Home Office and refugee charities are still trying to explain why there has been a recent surge in demand.

Continue reading...

Babies among people who crossed Channel in small boats in last 24 hours

Pause in crossings recorded between Friday and Sunday as almost 5,000 made journey to Dover in August

Babies and young children are among some of the people who have crossed the Channel in small boats to the UK in the last 24 hours after a three-day hiatus in arrivals.

Arriving in Dover by dinghy and other vessels, large numbers of people made the treacherous journey to the Kent coast after a pause in crossings was recorded between Friday and Sunday. Piles of life vests were pictured at the arrival scene at the dockside.

Almost 5,000 people have made the journey so far in August and more than 21,300 people have arrived in the UK by small boats in 2022, according to provisional government figures.

Continue reading...

‘Free riders’: NSW unions want to charge non-members for pay rises they broker

Exclusive: Peak body also wants employers to pay skilled visa applicants 30% above median wage to encourage local training instead

Non-union workers would be forced to pay fees for union pay deals while the requirement to advertise jobs domestically, before sponsoring foreign workers, would be abolished in favour of a higher wage floor, under two proposals by Unions NSW.

Under the plan employers could be forced to pay a skilled visa applicant 30% above the industry median wage before sponsoring an offshore worker, a move designed to incentivise training Australians.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Khaby Lame, TikTok’s most followed star, granted Italian citizenship

Top TikTok user was born in Senegal but has been in Italy since age one and says he ‘always felt Italian’

Khaby Lame, the Senegalese-born comedian who is the most followed TikTok user in the world, has been granted Italian citizenship.

Lame, 22, has lived in Italy since he was one and has said he “always felt Italian”. He received his citizenship during a ceremony in Chivasso, his home town, close to Turin in the northern Piedmont region, on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Greece finally aids refugees stranded on scorpion and snake-infested islet

Five-year-old child reportedly died of scorpion sting after nearly 40 Syrians spent a month marooned between Greece and Turkey

A group of adults and children who spent a month stuck on a scorpion- and snake-infested spit of land between Greece and Turkey – and denied help by both nations – were finally taken to temporary accommodation by Greek police this week.

Among the group of nearly 40 Syrian refugees forced to seek refuge on the islet in the Evros river was a five-year-old girl, Maria, reported to have died from a scorpion sting. Her nine-year-old sister remains gravely ill.

Continue reading...

Revealed: Indonesian workers on UK farm ‘at risk of debt bondage’

As farms look further afield for labour, investigation finds Kent pickers saying they struggle to pay fees charged by unlicensed brokers

Indonesian labourers picking berries on a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been saddled with debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a single season.

Pickers at the farm in Kent were initially given zero-hours contracts, and at least one was paid less than £300 a week after the cost of using a caravan was deducted, according to payslips and other documents seen as part of a Guardian investigation.

Continue reading...

‘My family need my support to eat’: how Indonesians came to work on a Kent farm

Drawn to the prospect of a job abroad, people such as Banyu signed up to a language course. From there, their debts to brokers grew

Sitting in a caravan in the hot Kent countryside, Banyu’s face is etched with worry. It is July and he is less than a month into a job picking fruit at Clock House farm near Maidstone, which supplies strawberries, raspberries and other soft fruit to leading supermarket chains.

He says he arrived from Indonesia this summer £5,000 in debt to an unlicensed broker in Bali, handing over the deeds to his family home as surety. He only has a six-month visa for the picking season and is scared that the work is not as lucrative as he hoped.

Continue reading...

EU border agency accused of exploiting interpreters ‘paid under €2.50 an hour’

Petition accuses Frontex of violating European standards by using contractor that offers low wages

The EU border agency Frontex has been accused of exploiting staff by using a contractor who it is claimed offers interpreters an effective wage of less than €2.50 (£2.11) an hour.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, the EU’s best-funded agency with a budget of €754m, is being petitioned by interpreters who work with vulnerable asylum seekers in places such as Greece, Italy and the Canary Islands.

Continue reading...

Labor vows to prioritise Australian jobs as it eyes migration boost

Annual intake could potentially rise from 160,000 to up to 200,000 places as businesses cry out for skilled workers

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, has vowed Labor “will always prioritise jobs for Australians” as the government eyes increasing the migration cap potentially to 200,000 places per year.

A boost from the current annual migration intake of 160,000 will be on the table at the federal government’s jobs and skills summit next month.

Continue reading...

Daniel Andrews backs federal plan to boost migration – as it happened

Labor’s plan to tackle skills shortages would lift the annual migration cap from 160,000 to between 180,000 and 200,000. This blog is now closed

Bowen says climate reforms will help Australian industry avoid carbon tariffs

Bowen says how this will work has yet to be determined and gives a nod to an upcoming discussion paper, with the details to be hammered out in consultation with industry. But he raises some interesting points that this needs to happen as there is a growing risk Australian industry will be exposed to carbon tariffs if nothing changes.

This will help us avoid these, by showing the EU and the rest of the world, you don’t need to slap tariffs on our manufacturers and our producers because Australia is working with industry to get emissions down in a very sensible way.

The safeguard mechanism is taking the 315 biggest emissions and working with them to reduce emissions, because if we don’t, we will continue the 10 years of no reductions from those facilities and it won’t cut the mustard.

Any facility which emits more than 100,000 tonnes … whether it is new or existing, which is just increasing its activity, we are not having the same architecture. They will be put on a trajectory to net zero, facility by facility. We have designed this in a very sensible way.

Continue reading...

Dozens feared dead as migrant boat sinks off the coast of Greece

Officials say navy and air force efforts to rescue up to 50 people has shown no signs of progress

Dozens of people are feared to have died off the coast of Greece after their boat sank while attempting to make the perilous crossing from Turkey.

Efforts by Greece’s navy and air force to rescue up to 50 people who went down with the vessel in stormy waters off Rhodes had shown no signs of progress by late Wednesday, coast guard officials said.

Continue reading...

Child left ‘stateless’ after estranged Australian father couldn’t be reached for DNA test, court hears

In decision quashed by federal court, citizenship application was rejected despite father’s name on birth certificate and Medicare card

The Department of Home Affairs rejected an Australian-born child’s citizenship application after her estranged Australian father couldn’t be reached to provide a DNA test, which her lawyer says rendered her “stateless”.

In a decision quashed by the federal court, the overseas-born mother of the child was told the department did not have proof of a biological link to the father – despite his name being listed on the girl’s birth certificate and Medicare card, his payment of child support and photos of the pair together.

Continue reading...

Almost 35,000 Britons in limbo as Portugal fails to issue post-Brexit ID cards

British nationals living in country are unable to access healthcare, change jobs or travel in and out

British nationals living in Portugal are unable to access healthcare, change jobs, or travel in and out of the country as its ministers have not issued them with post-Brexit residency cards, it has emerged.

The UK government has raised the issue at ministerial level and urged Portugal to implement fully the withdrawal agreement and protect the rights of the 34,500 Britons who made the country their home before Brexit.

Continue reading...

Coalition used private contractor to collect intelligence on Nauru asylum seekers

Exclusive: asylum seekers in the offshore detention centre who had contact with Australian journalists, lawyers and advocates were closely watched, documents reveal

The Australian government used private security contractors to collect intelligence on asylum seekers on Nauru, singling out those who were speaking to journalists, lawyers and refugee advocates, internal documents from 2016 reveal.

Intelligence officers working for Wilson Security compiled fortnightly reports about asylum seekers “of interest”, including individuals flagged as having “links with [Australian] media”, “contact with lawyers in Australia” or “contacts with Australian advocates”.

Continue reading...

Ukrainians at risk from anti-refugee tensions in host countries, report warns

Falsehoods and disinformation could cause breakdown in relations with local communities, says World Vision

Ukrainian refugees are likely to become victims of rising tensions and disinformation campaigns in their host countries, a report has warned.

False reports exaggerating how much aid refugees receive compared with local people, as well as linking refugees with violent crime and political extremism, could cause a breakdown in relations with local communities, the charity World Vision said.

Continue reading...

Calls for Ukrainians living on cruise ship in Scotland to be quickly rehoused

MS Victoria is temporary solution to host refugees but there are concerns about small rooms and seasickness

Ukrainian refugees staying on a cruise ship docked in Edinburgh must be moved to more suitable accommodation within days, welfare groups have said, as those onboard already report concerns about small rooms and feeling seasick.

The first arrivals of mainly women and children displaced by the war in Ukraine boarded the MS Victoria passenger ship earlier this week. Chartered by the Scottish government, it is expected to host up to 1,700 people and is a temporary solution to a growing accommodation crisis, which earlier this month prompted the government to pause its Ukrainian refugee sponsorship scheme for three months.

Continue reading...

Seventeen dead after boat carrying Haitian migrants capsizes in Bahamas

Twenty five people rescued in dangerous route frequently used by migrants seeking to reach the US

Seventeen people died after a boat carrying dozens of Haitian migrants capsized off the coast of the Bahamas, authorities said on Sunday, as more Haitians attempt to reach the US to flee gang violence and poverty at home.

Rescue teams recovered the bodies of 17 people including an infant and 25 people were rescued, the Bahamian prime minister, Philip Davis, told reporters. Davis said authorities believe the people were on a speedboat heading for Miami.

Continue reading...

Australia news live updates: Greens aim to ‘improve and pass’ Labor climate bill; Andrews rules out mask mandates as nation records 90 Covid deaths;

No change in Operation Sovereign Borders policy

Clare O’Neil is asked about the desperate situation in Sri Lanka, where many people are trying to find a way out.

Operation Sovereign Borders is Australian government policy.

Continue reading...

Teenager saves baby from shipwreck during Mediterranean crossing

‘I went to help people,’ says Togolese boy, who was among 71 survivors rescued nine days after boat sank, killing at least 30

The actions of a teenager from Togo have been lauded after video footage was published of him supporting a baby he saved from a shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea last week in which at least 30 people died.

The 17-year-old, whose identity has not been disclosed, swam to save the child, whom he was holding above water when a rescue team arrived, in footage published by the French media group Brut.

Continue reading...