Latest news with #migrantcrackdown
Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Bring back Rwanda scheme to end small boats crisis, says architect of Australia's successful migrant crackdown
The mastermind behind Australia's migrant crackdown has called on Keir Starmer to 'reinstitute' the Rwanda scheme. Alexander Downer called on the Prime Minister to 'eat a bit of political humble pie' and resurrect the scheme, which was scrapped last year in one of Starmer's first acts after being elected into No 10. Sir Keir insisted the deportation scheme was a £700million 'gimmick' which did nothing to cut migrant Channel crossings. But Mr Downer, who was Australia's minister for foreign affairs from 1996 to 2007, claimed the move was a 'tragedy' and believes it could have worked if the legal issues surrounding it 'could be properly addressed'. 'It would have worked assuming the legal issues could be properly addressed — and they were being,' he told the Sun. 'So the easiest thing for them to do would be to eat a bit of political humble pie and reinstitute the Rwanda scheme.' Just earlier this week, Downing Street admitted the situation in the Channel was 'deteriorating' as the number of migrants reaching the UK topped 2,000 in a week for the first time in 21 months. The 2,222 arrivals over seven days meant an average of one migrant reached Britain every four-and-a-half minutes. Mr Downer has previously expressed his belief in having a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to illegal migration. The former foreign minister was one of the masterminds behind Australia's crackdown on illegal immigration in the early 2000s, which sought to punish migrants who arrived on the country's shores by boat. This meant sending them by boat to detention centres in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru, where migrants would be offered to return to their home countries and refugees were told they could resettle in another. 'Once word got round that if you tried to get into Australia by boat you would not be allowed in and would be sent to Papua New Guinea instead, they ran out of customers. The smugglers' businesses closed down,' he previously said. The Tony Abbott government claimed a 90 per cent reduction in maritime arrivals of asylum seekers once the policy was introduced in 2013. There were 207 arrivals in November that year, opposed to 2,629 in November 2012. Starmer has pledged to crack down on smuggling gangs that bring people into the UK in small boats, including by targeting criminal networks overseas. Last month he said the Government would start talks with other countries on 'return hubs' for failed asylum seekers, which would see failed asylum seekers sent for processing in third countries prior to deportation. The PM admitted these would not be a 'silver bullet' for halting the crossings, but the proposal is expected to act as a deterrent. Last week's crossing total was the most since September 2023, when the former Tory government's Rwanda policy was still in legal limbo. It tipped the total since Labour came to power at last July's general election past the 40,000 mark, hitting 40,276. Since the start of this year, 17,034 migrants have reached Britain, up 38 per cent on the same period last year. The figure does not include hundreds more who reached Dover yesterday. Reform leader Nigel Farage said it was 'about time' Britain faced up to the fact it was 'our fault' – rather than France's – that so many migrants head here. 'We will never stop the boats from leaving France,' he told broadcaster Talk.
WIRED
30-05-2025
- Politics
- WIRED
A Hacker May Have Deepfaked Trump's Chief of Staff in a Phishing Campaign
Andy Greenberg Matt Burgess Lily Hay Newman May 30, 2025 2:42 PM Plus: An Iranian man pleads guilty to a Baltimore ransomware attack, Russia's nuclear blueprints get leaked, a Texas sheriff uses license plate readers to track a woman who got an abortion, and more. Photo-Illustration: Wired Staff;For years, a mysterious figure who goes by the handle Stern led the Trickbot ransomware gang and evaded identification—even as other members of the group were outed in leaks and unmasked. This week German authorities revealed, without much fanfare, who they believe that enigmatic hacker kingpin to be: Vitaly Nikolaevich Kovalev, a 36-year-old Russian man who remains at large in his home country. Closer to home, WIRED revealed that Customs and Border Protection has mouth-swabbed 133,000 migrant children and teenagers to collect their DNA and uploaded their genetic data into a national criminal database used by local, state, and federal law enforcement. As the Trump administration's migrant crackdown continues, often justified through invocations of crime and terrorism, WIRED also uncovered evidence that ties a Swedish far-right mixed-martial-arts tournament to an American neo-Nazi 'fight club' based in California. For those seeking to evade the US government surveillance, we offered tips about more private alternatives to US-based web browsing, email, and search tools. And we assembled a more general guide to protecting yourself from surveillance and hacking, based on questions our senior writer Matt Burgess received in a Reddit Ask Me Anything. But that's not all. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn't cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there. The FBI is investigating who impersonated Susie Wiles, the Trump White House's chief of staff and one of the president's closest advisors, in a series of fraudulent messages and calls to high-profile Republican political figures and business executives, the Wall Street Journal reported. Government officials and authorities involved in the probe say the spear phishing messages and calls appear to have targeted individuals on Wiles' contact list, and Wiles has reportedly told colleagues that her personal phone was hacked to gain access to those contacts. Despite Wiles' reported claim of having her device hacked, it remains unconfirmed whether this was actually how attackers identified Wiles' associates. It would also be possible to assemble such a target list from a combination of publicly available information and data sold by gray market brokers. 'It's an embarrassing level of security awareness. You cannot convince me they actually did their security trainings,' says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and vice president of research and development at Hunter Strategy. 'This is the type of garden variety social engineering that everyone can end up dealing with these days and certainly top government officials should be expecting it.' In some cases, the targets received not just text messages but phone calls that impersonated Wiles' voice, and some government officials believe the calls may have used artificial intelligence tools to fake Wiles' voice. If so, that would make the incident one of the most significant cases yet of so-called 'deepfake' software being used in a phishing attempt. It's not yet clear how Wiles' phone might have been hacked, but the FBI has ruled out that a foreign nation is involved in the impersonation campaign, the Bureau reportedly told White House officials. In fact, while some of the impersonation attempts appeared to have political goals—a member of Congress, for instance, was asked to assemble a list of people Trump might pardon—in at least one other case the impersonator tried to trick a target into setting up a cash transfer. That attempt at a money grab suggests that the spoofing campaign may be less of an espionage operation than a run-of-the-mill cybercriminal fraud scheme, albeit one with a very high-level target. 'There's an argument here for using something like Signal—yes, the irony—or another messaging platform that offers an independent form of authentication if users want to validate who they're talking to,' Hunter Strategy's Williams says. "The key thing as always is for government officials to be using vetted tools and following all federally mandated protocols rather than just winging it on their own devices." Iranian Man Behind Baltimore Ransomware Attack Pleads Guilty The 2019 ransomware attack against the city government of Baltimore represents one of the worst municipal cybersecurity disasters on record, paralyzing city services for months and costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. Now the Department of Justice has unexpectedly revealed that it arrested one of the hackers behind that attack, 37-year-old Sina Gholinejad, in North Carolina last January, and that he's pleaded guilty in court. Gholinejad has admitted to being involved in the larger Robbinhood ransomware campaign that hit other targets including the cities of Greenville, North Carolina and Yonkers, New York. It's still far from clear how Gholinejad was identified or why he traveled from Iran to the US, given that most ransomware criminals are careful to remain in countries that don't have extradition agreements with the US government and are thus beyond US law enforcement's reach. Indeed, the indictment against him names several unnamed co-conspirators who may be still at large in Iran. Russia's Nuclear Blueprints Exposed in Huge Document Leak More than two million documents left exposed in a public database have revealed Russia's nuclear weapons facilities in unprecedented levels of detail, according to reporting this week by Danish media outlet Danwatch and Germany's Der Spiegel. Reporters examined the huge trove of documents relating to Russian military procurement—as Russian authorities slowly restricted access—and found blueprints for nuclear facilities across the country. Experts called the leak an unparalleled breach of Russia's nuclear security, with the data potentially being incredibly useful for foreign governments and intelligence services. The documents show how Russia's nuclear facilities have been rebuilt in recent years, where new facilities have been created, detailed site plans including the locations of barracks and watchtowers, and the locations of underground tunnels connecting buildings together. There are descriptions of IT systems and security systems, including information on surveillance cameras, electric fences being used, and the alarm systems in place. 'It's written explicitly where the control rooms are located, and which buildings are connected to each other via underground tunnels,' Danwatch reports. Cops Used License Plate Recognition Cameras in Search for Woman Who Got an Abortion License plate recognition cameras are creating huge databases of people's movements across America—capturing where and when cars are traveling. For years there have been concerns that the cameras could be weaponized by law enforcement officials or private investigators and turned against those seeking abortions or providing abortion related care. Officials from Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Texas—where nearly all abortions are illegal—searched 83,000 Flock license plate reader cameras at the start of this month while looking for a woman they claim had a self-administered abortion, 404 Media reported this week. Sheriff Adam King said that the officials weren't trying to 'block her from leaving the state' and were searching for the woman as her family were concerned about her safety. However, experts say that conducting a search across the entire United States shows the sprawling dragnet of license plate reader cameras and highlights how those seeking abortions can be tracked. 'The idea that the police are actively tracking the location of women they believe have had self administered abortions under the guise of 'safety' does not make me feel any better about this kind of surveillance,' Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation told 404 Media. Investment Scam Company Linked to $200 Million in Losses Sanctioned by US Government Philippines-based company Funnull Technology Inc and its boss Liu Lizhi have been sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for their links to investment and romance scams, which are often referred to as 'pig butchering' scams. 'Funnull has directly facilitated several of these schemes, resulting in over $200 million in U.S. victim-reported losses,' OFAC said in a statement announcing the sanctions. The company purchases IP addresses from major cloud service providers and then sells them to cybercriminals who could use them to host scam websites—OFAC says Fullnull is 'linked to the majority' of investment scam websites reported to the FBI. In January independent cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs detailed how Fullnull was abusing Amazon and Microsoft's cloud services.
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Quite the contrast! Moment Albania's 6ft 7in Prime Minister gushingly takes a knee as he meets Italy's 5ft 3in PM - days after towering over Keir Starmer during their meeting in Tirana
It was quite the contrast to his humiliation of Sir Keir Starmer on live TV just a day earlier. Albania's Edi Rama dramatically knelt before his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni today as she arrived at his gathering of European leaders. Putting his umbrella to one side as she strode towards him on the red carpet, he then put his hands together as if in prayer before they embraced. The 6ft 7ins Prime Minister, a former professional basketball player, has made similar gestures to 5ft 3ins Ms Meloni at other public events in recent months. And she joked that he only does so because of their great difference in height. 'He only does this to be as tall as me,' the Italian PM told reporters as she arrived at the European Political Community summit. However Mr Rama made no such concession to 5ft 8ins Sir Keir, whom he also towered over during their shared press conference on Thursday. Rama, who won a fourth term as PM on Sunday, loomed large over his 5ft 8in British counterpart and humiliated him over his latest attempt at a migrant crackdown. Putting his umbrella to one side as she strode towards him on the red carpet, he then put his hands together as if in prayer before they embraced Clambering to 'smash the gangs', Sir Keir used a trip to Tirana to unveil plans to create Rwanda-style centres abroad to house failed asylum seekers from the UK. Standing at two podiums in front of the Union Jack and Albanian flags, there was a notable disparity between the two leaders. Not only was Sir Keir dwarfed by his Albanian counterpart in size, he was then subjected to a televised rebuke that has left Labour red-faced and the Conservatives laughing. Addressing the media, Starmer revealed Britain was 'in talks with a number of countries about return hubs' - a scheme where asylum seekers would be sent back to their home country if they have exhausted all of their options in the UK. In a moment he may be living to regret, he then suggested he would be speaking about the idea with Mr Rama. But puffing his chest out and publicly dunking the PM, Mr Rama said: 'We have been asked by several countries if we were open to it, and we said no, because we are loyal to the marriage with Italy and the rest is just love.' Overshadowing the PM's migration crackdown attempt, the white-trainer-wearing leader explained: 'I have been very clear since day one when we started this process with Italy that this was a one off with Italy because of our very close relation but also because of the geographical situation which makes a lot of sense.' It marked a major blow for the Labour Party who just days ago launched an immigration crackdown as Sir Keir pledged to 'tighten up every area of the immigration system'. In stark contrast, it was a sharp response from Mr Rama, who extended his record as Albania's longest-serving leader since the fall of communism as he was elected for a fourth term on Sunday. His Socialist Party secured 52 per cent of the vote against the Democratic Party, led by 80-year-old ex-PM Sali Berisha. Mr Rama is well respected by both European and American leaders, who see him as a stabalising force in the Balkan region. The PM, who studied art in Paris as a young man, has led Albania's bid to pull away from Russia and be friendly with Europe. Albania has also become a popular European destination, with more than 10 million foreign visitors flocking to its stunning Riviera each year.
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
How Albania's 6ft 7in former basketball player Prime Minister towered over Keir Starmer on his day of humiliation as his long-awaited migrant crackdown crumbled live on TV
At 6ft 7in, Albania's giant of a Prime Minister towered over Sir Keir Starmer - both in size and authority - in Tirana yesterday. Edi Rama, a former professional basketball player who won a fourth term as PM on Sunday, loomed large over his 5ft 8in British counterpart and humiliated him over his latest attempt at a migrant crackdown. Clambering to 'smash the gangs', Sir Keir used a trip to Tirana to unveil plans to create Rwanda-style centres abroad to house failed asylum seekers from the UK. Standing at two podiums in front of the Union Jack and Albanian flags, there was a notable disparity between the two leaders. Not only was Sir Keir dwarfed by his Albanian counterpart in size, he was then subjected to a televised rebuke that has left Labour red-faced and the Conservatives laughing. Addressing the media, Starmer revealed Britain was 'in talks with a number of countries about return hubs' - a scheme where asylum seekers would be sent back to their home country if they have exhausted all of their options in the UK. In a moment he may be living to regret, he then suggested he would be speaking about the idea with Mr Rama. But puffing his chest out and publicly dunking the PM, Mr Rama said: 'We have been asked by several countries if we were open to it, and we said no, because we are loyal to the marriage with Italy and the rest is just love.' Overshadowing the PM's migration crackdown attempt, the white-trainer-wearing leader explained: 'I have been very clear since day one when we started this process with Italy that this was a one off with Italy because of our very close relation but also because of the geographical situation which makes a lot of sense.' It marked a major blow for the Labour Party who just days ago launched an immigration crackdown as Sir Keir pledged to 'tighten up every area of the immigration system'. In stark contrast, it was a sharp response from Mr Rama, who extended his record as Albania's longest-serving leader since the fall of communism as he was elected for a fourth term on Sunday. His Socialist Party secured 52 per cent of the vote against the Democratic Party, led by 80-year-old ex-PM Sali Berisha. Mr Rama is well respected by both European and American leaders, who see him as a stabalising force in the Balkan region. The PM, who studied art in Paris as a young man, has led Albania's bid to pull away from Russia and be friendly with Europe. Albania has also become a popular European destination, with more than 10 million foreign visitors flocking to its stunning Riviera each year. On Monday, Sir Keir had vowed to 'take back control of our borders' and close the book on a 'squalid chapter' for politics and the economy. It appeared that the PM was keen to kick on with his pledge by bringing up return hubs in Tirana - but it was a move that majorly backfired. Sir Keir declined to name the countries involved - thought to include Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia - but added: 'At the appropriate time, I'll be able to give you further details in relation to it.' Speaking in Albania earlier, Sir Keir said: 'What now we want to do and are having discussions of, talks of, is return hubs which is where someone has been through the system in the UK, they need to be returned and we have to make sure they're returned effectively and we'll do that, if we can, through return hubs. 'So that's what the talks are about. I would say in this area no single measure is going to be the measure that is, if you like, a silver bullet. 'By putting it all together - arrests, seizures, agreements with other countries, returning people who shouldn't be here, and return hubs, if we can through these talks to add to our armoury, will allow us to bear down on this vile trade and to make sure that we stop those people crossing the Channel.' Downing Street said the plans were 'entirely different' to the last government's flagship Rwanda deportation scheme. But the decision to open talks on paying to send asylum seekers to third countries will leave the Prime Minister open to allegations of hypocrisy. Sir Keir scrapped the Rwanda scheme within days of coming to office, branding it a 'gimmick'. But ministers are now scrambling to find a replacement that could act as a deterrent to Channel migrants following a surge in crossings since Labour came to power. Arrivals this year have topped 12,000 - an increase of 40 per cent on 2024. More than 600 crossed on Monday while the PM was giving a major speech promising a crackdown on immigration. The surge in numbers threatens to make a mockery of Labour's plan to 'smash the gangs', with ministers now resorting to blaming the fine weather for the increase in illegal crossings. The new plan will involve sending paying to send potentially thousands of failed asylum seekers to the Balkans, rather than holding them in the UK until they can be removed. In some cases, those involved will be from countries like Afghanistan which are deemed too dangerous to return people to. But officials say many other cases involve people who are 'actively frustrating' their removal to relatively safe countries through tactics like destroying their identity documents. Downing Street said it was established before Sir Keir's visit that Albania would not be part of the UK's plans and that it was 'never planned as part of discussions' between the Prime Minister and Mr Rama. Sir Keir's official spokesman said there is a 'specific Albania-Italy relationship' on return hubs. While in Tirana, the Prime Minister is also expected to announce further co-operation with Albania on tackling illegal migration and organised crime alongside his Albanian counterpart. This is set to include plans to help ensure returned migrants stay in Albania rather than try to enter the UK again - the so-called 'revolving door problem'. Migration is also likely to feature during talks at the European Political Community summit in Tirana on Friday, along with discussion of defence and Ukraine. Elsewhere as he spoke alongside Mr Rama in Tirana, the Prime Minister was asked if he would apologise on behalf of the UK for negative stereotypes about Albanians. Sir Keir insisted his visit should be seen 'as a statement of intent as to the regard that I hold Albania'. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, claimed the PM's trip was an 'embarrassment', adding: 'Starmer jetted off and now the Albanian prime minister has made clear that there will be no UK return hubs in Albania. So, what was the point of this entire visit? 'Under the Conservatives, we already struck a real returns deal and a law enforcement deal with Albania - and they worked. Small boat arrivals from Albania dropped by over 90%. Now Labour are dishonestly insinuating it's down to them.' Mr Philp claimed the Government was 'scrambling to stitch together a weak imitation' of the Tories' Rwanda plan.
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Starmer faces scrutiny over migrant plans during live TV interview
Keir Starmer faced humiliation over his latest attempt at a migrant crackdown yesterday. In a surprise move, the Prime Minister used a trip to Albania to unveil plans to create Rwanda-style centres abroad to house failed asylum seekers from the UK. But the initiative imploded on live TV just an hour later when his host, Albanian PM Edi Rama, ruled out ever taking part in the scheme. The plan is a major U-turn for Sir Keir, who branded the previous government's Rwanda deportation scheme a gimmick and scrapped it within days of taking office. Towering over Sir Keir at a press conference in the capital Tirana, 6ft 7in Mr Rama (Pictured) said his country had no interest in expanding a similar deal it had struck with Italy. Leaving Sir Keir squirming, Mr Rama said: 'I have been very clear since day one when we started this process with Italy that this was a one-off with Italy because of our very close relationship but also because of the geographical situation which makes a lot of sense.' He added: 'One of the first acts of this Labour Government was to scrap the Rwanda scheme. Now, with 2025 so far the worst year in history for illegal immigrants crossing the Channel, the Prime Minister is scrambling to stitch together a weak imitation. Starmer has never cared about stopping illegal migration... now he's in full panic mode, cobbling together half-baked policies to cover up his chaos.' The blow for Sir Keir comes as he looks to talk tough on immigration to combat the rising threat from Reform UK – despite years of saying the opposite. Officials last night insisted that return hubs could still be negotiated with other Balkan nations, such as Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia. Ministers are also investigating possible deals with several African states, although not Rwanda. Sir Keir attempted to brush off the snub from Albania and insisted he was not ready to name the countries Britain is working with on the plans. Officials tried to suggest there had never been any plan for Tirana to be involved, despite travelling there to announce it. 'At the appropriate time, I'll be able to give you further details in relation to it,' the PM said following Mr Rama's rejection. Speaking before he met with Mr Rama, Sir Keir said he was now in favour of paying to send failed asylum seekers abroad. He said: 'What we now want to do and are having discussions of, talks of, is return hubs which is where someone has been through the system in the UK, they need to be returned and we have to make sure they're returned effectively and we'll do that, if we can, through return hubs. 'So that's what the talks are about. I would say in this area no single measure is going to be the measure that is, if you like, a silver bullet. Putting it all together – arrests, seizures, agreements with other countries, returning people who shouldn't be here, and return hubs – will allow us to bear down on this vile trade and to make sure that we stop those people crossing the Channel.' Downing Street said the plans were 'entirely different' from the last government's flagship Rwanda deportation scheme. But the decision to open talks on paying to send asylum seekers to third countries will leave the Prime Minister open to allegations of hypocrisy. Ministers are now scrambling to find a replacement that could act as a deterrent to Channel migrants following a surge in crossings since Labour came to power. Arrivals this year have topped 12,000 – an increase of 40 per cent on 2024. More than 600 crossed on Monday while the PM was giving a major speech promising a crackdown on immigration. The surge in numbers threatens to make a mockery of Labour's plan to 'smash the gangs', with ministers now resorting to blaming the fine weather for the increase in illegal crossings. The new plan will involve paying to send potentially thousands of failed asylum seekers to the Balkans, rather than holding them in the UK until they can be removed. One Whitehall insider described the plan as 'Rwanda-lite' but insisted it still had the potential to act as a deterrent and persuade some failed asylum seekers to return home voluntarily rather than gamble on finding a way to stay in the UK. It will target only those who have exhausted the asylum appeals process. Want more stories like this from the Daily Mail? Hit the follow button above for more of the news you need.
