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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 theLiberal partyabout '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 withPeter Dutton,' LaCivita says on 16 April in the first of two calls. The footage waspublished on Thursdayby the Europe-based organisations Correctiv and the Centre for Climate Reporting.ACoalitionspokesman 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'Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube

This blog has now closed. Read our latest story hereDonald Trump promptly claimed this morning that the contraction in the US economy had nothing to do with his tariff wars, repeated his habitual claim that this is all somehow his predecessor Joe Biden's fault, and predicted the economy would boom when tariffs kicked in. He wrote on his Truth Social platform:This is Biden's Stock Market, not Trump's. I didn't take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden Overhang." This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!! Continue reading...

Former NFL star absolutely devastated' by death of Jeff Sperbeck, 62, who suffered injury at California golf resortJeff Sperbeck, a business partner and former agent for NFL Hall of Famer John Elway, died Wednesday after suffering an injury last weekend at a southern California golf resort community. He was 62.No cause of death was released, but the Riverside county coroner's office said Sperbeck was injured on Saturday and the address listed for the incident belongs to the Madison Club in La Quinta. Continue reading...

Accord establishes joint investment fund for Ukraine's reconstruction; homeland security secretary issues fresh threat to Salvadorian Kilmar Abrego Garcia - key US politics stories from Wednesday 30 AprilUkraine and the US have signed a deal pushed by President Donald Trump that will give the US preferential access to Ukrainian mineral resources and fund investment in Ukraine's reconstruction.The accord establishes a joint investment fund for Ukraine's reconstruction as Trump tries to secure a peace settlement in Russia's three-year-old war in Ukraine. Continue reading...

Administration in touch with Nayib Bukele over detention of wrongly deported man, according to two peopleThe Trump administration has been in touch directly with the Salvadorian president Nayib Bukele in recent days about the detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, according to two people familiar with the matter.The nature of the discussion and its purpose was not clear because multiple Trump officials have said the administration was not interested in his coming back to the US despite the US supreme court ordering it to facilitate" Abrego Garcia's release. Continue reading...

Red and navy hats were strategically placed as Trump's cabinet gushed over 100 presidential days like no otherThere were navy blue and red baseball caps up and down the table, strategically placed in front of every cabinet member, and each bearing the message Gulf of America".Yet the unorthodox collection of headwear, embroidered with Donald Trump's forced new name for the centuries-old Gulf of Mexico, was far from the most bizarre aspect of an extraordinary White House gathering hosted by the president on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Lawmakers including Chuck Schumer denounce failure' on economy, costs, foreign policy, democracy and middle classDozens of Democratic lawmakers gathered on the steps of the Capitol on Wednesday to accuse Donald Trump of spending his first 100 days damaging the US economy and democracy with the help of complicit" congressional Republicans.The speeches by party leaders served as a counterpoint to Trump's insistence at a rally in Michigan the night before that he has delivered the most profound change in Washington in nearly 100 years" with an administration focused on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, the dismantling of parts of the federal government and the levying of tariffs on major US trading partners. Continue reading...

Funding will not be continued next year after bill signed in 2022 helped schools hire more mental health workersThe Trump administration is moving to cancel $1bn in school mental health grants, saying they reflect the priorities of the previous administration.Grant recipients were notified on Tuesday that the funding will not be continued after this year. A gun violence bill signed by Joe Biden in 2022 sent $1bn to the grant programs to help schools hire more psychologists, counselors and other mental health workers. Continue reading...

Oklahoma case is part of a broader push to erode separation of church and state, and a test of role of religion in schoolsThe US supreme court's conservative majority seemed open to establishing the country's first public religious charter school as they weighed a case Wednesday that could have significant ramifications on the separation of church and state.The Oklahoma state charter school board approved the application for St Isidore, a Catholic virtual charter school. The ACLU and other groups filed suit, as did Republican attorney general Gentner Drummond. The state supreme court sided with Drummond, ruling that the US and Oklahoma constitutions prohibit the state from using public money for the establishment of a religious institution". Continue reading...

With seven-day pause expiring Wednesday, Paula Xinis says administration must provide sworn testimony by May

In Long Beach, city with the largest diaspora of Cambodians in the US, people dance, eat and reflect on the 1975 killingsSousdey chnam thmey!" a rider shouted in Khmer into a megaphone while sitting atop a float swaddled in US and Cambodian flags. Happy new year!" parade-goers yelled back from the street.Thousands of Cambodian Americans gathered to celebrate the Khmer New Year in Long Beach's Cambodia Town district - the heart of the largest diaspora of Cambodians in the United States. Continue reading...

We are tottering on the edge of dictatorship. Powerful voices across institutions, from politics to academia and religion, must speak outWe have witnessed the first 100 days of the odious Trump regime.The US constitution is in peril. Civil and human rights are being trampled upon. The economy is in disarray.If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home? And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies? The threat, even if not the actuality, would always be present, and the Executive's obligation to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed' would lose its meaning.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

The president has signed orders to ban gender transitions for people under 19, end birthright citizenship and moreDonald Trump signed 140 executive orders in the first 100 days of his second term, including orders aimed at enacting steep tariffs, ending birthright citizenship, curbing DEI and gender radicalism" in the military and pardoning January 6 rioters.The US president promised in his inaugural speech that these orders would amount to a complete restoration of America". Continue reading...

US president Donald Trump quarrelled with a ABC News interviewer after he corrected him on the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian man, who was deported and who Trump alleged had MS-13 tattoos. In a tense exchange, Trump claimed that Garcia had a MS-13 tattoo on his knuckles but Terry Moran pushed back, telling the president the photo was doctored

Palestinian, a lawful permanent US resident, was detained and ordered deported despite not being charged with crime

US homeland security secretary said Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador not under our control'Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, said that if Kilmar Abrego Garcia was sent back to the US, the Donald Trump administration would immediately deport him again".Noem repeated White House assertions about Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian man who the Trump administration has admitted was mistakenly deported from Maryland last month, in a new interview with CBS. Continue reading...

Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, has admitted involvement in armed robbery of reality TV star but denies being ringleaderA retired restaurant owner alleged to have been the ringleader of an armed robbery of American reality TV star Kim Kardashian in Paris, has told a court he was in part driven by a taste for easy money.Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, known as Old Omar", has admitted to police that he took part in the robbery in which Kardashian was tied up and held hostage at gunpoint in her Paris hotel bedroom during Paris fashion week in 2016. But he has denied the prosecution's accusation that he was the organiser or ringleader of the jewel heist in the early hours of 3 October 2016, which was the biggest robbery of an individual in France in 20 years. Continue reading...

Four ex-heads of US embassies in nations that swung from democracies to dictatorships say landscape eerily familiarThe US is treading the path followed by democracies that descended into authoritarianism and dictatorship, former ambassadors to countries that underwent autocratic takeovers have warned.At a panel discussion held to mark Donald Trump's first 100 days in office, four ex-heads of American embassies in countries that had experienced swings away from democracy said the current domestic political landscape felt eerily familiar and was pervaded by a climate of fear" deliberately created to make opponents back off". Continue reading...

Drop comes amid a huge fall in consumer sentiment which in April dropped 32% to lowest level since 1990 recessionThe US economy shrank in the first three months of the year, according to official data, as Donald Trump returned to the White House promising to make America great again".The US president sought to blame Joe Biden for the reading. But economists said it was largely driven by an unprecedented surge in imports, as consumers and companies braced for Trump to impose his controversial wave of tariffs. Continue reading...

President lashed out at Terry Moran in tense TV interview, which included questions about deportations and tariffs

President holds campaign-style event in Michigan, attacks Democrats and communist' judges, and repeats 2020 election lieDonald Trump has celebrated his 100th day in office with a campaign-style rally in Michigan and an attack on communist radical-left judges" for trying to curb his power, warning: Nothing will stop me."The president also served up the chilling spectacle of a video of Venezuelan immigrants sent from the US to a notorious prison in El Salvador, accompanied by Hollywood-style music and roars of approval from the crowd. Continue reading...

Mark Carney's win isn't as comforting as it should be, especially when we look at all the events leading up to itAfter a snap election, weeks of breathless campaigning and a surprisingly close race, Mark Carney has been elected prime minister of Canada. It's a win for Liberals, who were rightly nervous that former prime minister Justin Trudeau's poor performance and late-stage missteps might cost them this election. But Carney's win isn't as comforting as it should be, especially when we look at all the events leading up to it.It's no secret that over the last decade, Canada's image as a welcoming, pacifist, melting pot has completely unravelled, revealing a rightwing underbelly that has seen the rise of the manosphere" and a deepening of its influences on young people, as well as a sharp increase in anti-immigrant sentiment and hate crimes. When it came down to this election, it was Trudeau's forced resignation and people's ability to credibly accuse the Liberal party of spending a decade basically twiddling their thumbs while the cost of living soared, that pushed Canadians to the right and helped the Conservative party coast to a near win. Continue reading...

A last-minute supreme court intervention prevented Javier Salazar from getting deported, but the battle is far from overWhen 19-year-old Javier Salazar was loaded on to a bus from an immigrant detention center in northern Texas, he had no idea where he was being taken.He wondered if he was being transferred to another facility or maybe deported back to his native Venezuela. He and the other passengers, their hands and feet shackled, settled into a tense silence. Then a terrifying possibility crept into Salazar's mind. Continue reading...

The first few months have seen record-breaking use of executive powers - here are some of the outlying trends

We would like to hear from US Social Security benefit recipients and agency workers about their experiences under the Trump administrationThe Social Security Administration (SSA) plans to cut 7000 jobs, about 12% of its workforce as part of the Department of Government Efficiency review of the federal work force.Nearly 69 million Americans on average per month are set to receive Social Security benefits in 2025, consisting of retired workers, disabled workers, survivors and dependents. These benefits represent 31 percent of income for people over the age of 65 in the US. Continue reading...

Men at Bluebonnet fear deportation to El Salvador under wartime law despite maintaining they do not have gang tiesDetainees at the Bluebonnet immigrant detention center in the small city of Anson, Texas, sent the outside world a message this week: SOS.With a Reuters drone flying nearby, 31 men formed the letters in the dirt yard of the facility on Monday. Continue reading...

On Monday, the US president took another swing at cities that protect immigrants and limit Ice cooperationSince his first day in office, Donald Trump has zeroed in on so-called sanctuary cities", pledging to withhold federal funding and ensure they are eliminated as part of his administration's massive crackdown on immigrants.On Monday, he took yet another swing, directing his administration to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws". The order also calls on the government to identify federal funds that can be terminated as a consequence for cities that identify as sanctuary jurisdictions. Continue reading...

Although the resistance at the start of Trump's second term was wobbly, ordinary people' are pushing the movement forwardThose opposed to Donald Trump's agenda started his second term on a worse footing than the beginning of his first term.This time, the social media platform owners who previously tried to tamp down on false claims stood with him at his inauguration. Some major media outlets attempted to stay in Trump's good graces. Democrats were wrecked by a popular vote loss, believing they lacked the backing to lead an opposition. The courts were stacked in Trump's favor and had ruled the president had absolute immunity from criminal punishment for official acts". Continue reading...

Aide alludes to president running again in 2028 . Plus, border pick accused of cover-up over death of man beaten by US agentsGood morning.President Donald Trump has said that nothing will stop" him, speaking at a rally in Michigan to celebrate his 100th day in office where an aide alluded to him running again in 2028 - even though US presidents are constitutionally barred from serving a third term.What was said about a third term? Margo Martin, a White House aide, joined Trump on stage and asked: Trump 2028, anybody?" to roars from the crowd.When did the US campaign begin? It began to strike Houthi targets on 15 March, and the US military's central command says it has hit 800 targets and killed hundreds of Houthi fighters. Continue reading...

The president's approach: tackle problems that don't exist via policies that won't workIn the 2024 election, Donald Trump eked out a narrow victory, by 1.5 percentage points nationally, the lowest popular vote margin in 56 years, since Richard Nixon's wafer-thin win by 0.7 points in 1968. Trump claimed he had won an enormous historic mandate to impose a counterrevolution. The American people have given us a mandate, a mandate like few people thought possible," Trump boasted on 6 March in his address to the Congress.His election rested on two principal issues, immigration and inflation. He demonized immigrants (poisoning the blood" of the country), raised the bogeyman of transgender people, and racialized the Democratic candidate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, whom he claimed had decided herself she was Black. In the minds of the marginal voters who swung to him, however, immigration and inflation were conflated, factors impinging on their standard of living and economic security. Trump stigmatized migrants as the source of crime and cultural impurity, but swing voters mainly (and falsely) regarded them as economic competitors for jobs and government resources. Continue reading...

Even a summer holiday isn't straightforward any more - and all across the US, millions of people are having to make calculations like mineLet me start with a message to my wife. SORRY!!! I apologise in advance for everything you are about to read.My more sensible half, you see, is a US citizen, who keeps telling me (a green card holder) that I should stop making jokes about getting sent to a detention centre or deported.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The president promised an extraordinary' first 100 days in office but for many that has been true in all the wrong waysThe first 100 days of Donald Trump's second term have polarized the United States and the world.Public opinion polls show the president's approval rating is around 40% - having flipped from positive to negative since his inauguration. A vast majority of Americans are worried about a recession and how his trade war will affect the economy. Continue reading...

We are all Valerie

A conservative movement seeking to harness female fandoms and pop culture gossip is the new front in the hard right's endless culture warFun news from the Guardian's Everything is Awful" desk this week: the womanosphere" cometh. The article heralds the arrival of a crop of conservative personalities ... convincing young women of a gender-essentialist worldview".What does such essentialism entail? The woman holding a sign reading Make him a sandwich" is a strong clue. Be thin, fertile and Republican" is the Guardian's conclusion. Continue reading...

As part of the price for peace, Moscow would like sanctions on Russian airlines lifted. That's no surprise: they're vital to the Kremlin's war machineOn Monday, the Kremlin offered a three-day pause in hostilities against Ukraine in May, to coincide with Moscow's celebrations of the end of the second world war. In a context where Ukraine is calling for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, and the US a permanent one, Russia wants concessions before a lasting pause or permanent peace can even be discussed. Central to the Kremlin's demands is the removal of sanctions - especially those restricting its aviation sector.We must be cautious not to make concessions prematurely, under the guise of quick progress. The short pause offered would not make a meaningful difference to the war, and accepting it would enable a regime that has repeatedly shown intent to prolong its war of aggression and undermine this chance for a just, fair and lasting peace.Andriy Yermak is head of the Ukrainian presidential office Continue reading...

During a rally in Michigan to mark his first 100 days in office, Trump mad the false claim that, 'for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction'. In the latest nationwide poll, conducted from 17-21 April for the Associated Press by National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, the overwhelming majority of Americans said that the country is headed in the wrong direction (62% vs 37%).

Donal Trump celebrates 100 days in office with Michigan event, saying nothing will stop me' - key US politics stories from Tuesday 29 April at a glanceDonald Trump has celebrated his 100th day in office with a campaign-style rally in Michigan and an attack on communist radical left judges" for trying to seize his power, warning: Nothing will stop me."The president also served up the chilling spectacle of a video of Venezuelan immigrants sent from the US to a notorious prison in El Salvador, accompanied by Hollywood-style music and roars of approval from the crowd. Continue reading...

President touts most successful 100 days of any administration' at rally in Warren, Michigan. This blog is now closed.

At least 28 people charged in federal court as civil liberties groups condemn enhanced militarization' of border landsThe US Department of Justice has begun the first criminal prosecutions of migrants for entering a newly declared military buffer zone created along the border with Mexico, according to court filings, Reuters reports.At least 28 migrants were charged were charged in federal court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Monday for crossing into the 170-mile-long, 60ft-wide militarized buffer zone patrolled by active-duty US troops. Continue reading...

US president indicated he was aware Anthony Albanese has been pushing for an exemption to trade barriers

Felix Rojas, 44, arraigned after video showed him performing sexual acts on unresponsive passengerAuthorities in New York have charged a man with attempted rape after surveillance video taken showed him performing sexual acts on an unresponsive passenger who was later determined to have died.Police have been looking for suspects in the case for weeks, after footage captured two different people robbing the corpse of a man on a train traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan, one of whom allegedly sexually violated him. Continue reading...

Former top official calls for Rodney Scott to be blocked from CBP role over handling of investigation into Anastasio Hernandez Rojas's deathRodney Scott, Donald Trump's nominee to lead Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has been accused by a former top official of orchestrating a cover-up" over the death of a man detained while trying to enter the country from Mexico, according to a letter obtained by the Guardian.Scott is a former US border patrol chief who has supported the president's vow to build a wall along the border with Mexico and criticized Joe Biden's handling of immigration policy. As commissioner of CBP, Scott would lead one of the largest federal law enforcement agencies, which encompasses the border patrol and staffs ports of entry across the United States. Continue reading...

Narrative that US listings outperform European ones has been popular for years, but analysis shows a different storyDonald Trump is doing an excellent job of demonstrating that US stock markets don't always outperform European ones.On-off tariff wars, threats to fire the head of the Federal Reserve and general unpredictability have prompted a reappraisal of boring old Europe. The S&P 500 is down 6% this year, versus a gain of 2.5% for FTSE 100 index and a 3% improvement in the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600. The differences aren't enormous but they mark a reversal from recent years. Continue reading...

Texas officials say 87 patients hospitalized as researchers say country at tipping point for return of endemic measlesMeasles cases in Texas rose to 663 on Tuesday, according to the state's health department, an increase of 17 cases since 25 April, as the US battles one of its worst outbreaks of the previously eradicated childhood disease.Cases in Gaines county, the center of the outbreak, rose to 396, three more from its last update on Friday, the Texas department of state health services said. Continue reading...