Illegal tobacco is the “new cash crop” due to the amount of money it can be sold for, says The Daily Telegraph’s Crime Editor Mark Morri. Mr Morri joined Sky News host Steve Price to discuss Victoria’s tobacco wars where shops were being fire-bombed and set alight. “It is amazing, up to 50 premises have been fire-bombed,” he said.

The Daily Telegraph’s Crime Editor Mark Morri says New South Wales is in a “horrendous state” as knife crimes amongst young people soar. “How you police it is really, really difficult – it is totally different to the gun problem,” Mr Morri told Sky News Australia host Steve Price. “I have never had to report so many young people being stabbed in my career, ever.”

The White House is concealing Biden’s incompetence, CNN to host first Biden-Trump debate, United States debt hits worrying amount. Plus, Biden introduces new tariffs on China. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.

Victoria Shadow Sport and Events Minister Sam Growth has gone through a list of workers including teachers and first responders he believes deserve to be paid more after it was revealed some Traffic Operators were annually earning $200,000. “I just don’t think it passes the pub test,” Mr growth told Sky News host Steve Price. “It is time to give the frontline workers in this state a fair go.”

Schools in England are set to be banned from teaching children about gender identity and trans issues under planned new education guidance. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the new guidance would ensure children were not exposed to disturbing content. “It think it absolutely is good news for parents and children,” said Sky News contributor Emily Carver.

Sky News Digital Editor Jack Houghton discusses Joe Biden’s upcoming CNN debate with Donald Trump which “may have a few restrictions” to help the sitting president.

The Australian’s Media Writer Sophie Elsworth has sorted through budget papers to find the ABC’s audience reach is expected to plummet.

Assistant Defence Minister Matt Thistlethwaite says the Labor government is already going to “halve net migration” over the next “couple of years”. “There was a recovery in migration numbers in the wake of COVID where we, of course, closed the borders, and there weren’t any migrants,” he told Sky News Australia. “That recovered over the last couple of years – the need was there from a number of employers and businesses who had demand but couldn’t fill positions.”

Sky News host Steve Price looks at the ABC’s 7.30 program’s commentary on Peter Dutton's budget reply and the next election to be held within 12 months. “So predictably the ABC and its current affairs show, the 7.30 Report, has taken only minutes to show their hand when it comes to the contest of ideas for the next federal election to be held within 12 months,” Mr Price said. “No sooner had Coalition leader Peter Dutton sat down from his budget speech in reply, than 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson took exception to the slogan Dutton had used in the speech to highlight a cut in migration. “The presenter ... unless I've missed it, doesn't seem to have the same issue with the government and the PM hijacking the term 'made in Australia' for their grand manufacturing plan making expensive solar panels that can’t compete with China.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton says under the Albanese government, the “only thing made in Australia is inflation”.  “I just think the Prime Minister is trying to get this slogan up of ‘Made in Australia’,” he said during a media conference on Friday.  “But under this government, the only thing made in Australia is inflation.”

Sky News Political Reporter Cameron Reddin says there are now a lot more people at Parliament House who believe an election will be held by the end of the year following the budget this week. “That budget on Tuesday night is the sort of budget that you would be handing down if an election was around the corner,” Mr Reddin told Sky News host Erin Molan. “We’re now creeping into the 12-month window, but there’s a lot more people around Parliament House now who think there’ll be an election by the end of the year, at the end of this week, than there were at the beginning of this week. “It had everything you’d want going into an election, the tax cuts, rebates on power bills, business incentives, optimistic economic forecasts, promising that inflation will be below three per cent by the end of this year.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry Co-CEO Alex Ryvchin has called out former Australian soccer player Craig Foster’s “low move” of urging Australia to vote to expel Israel from international football. “Seven months after the October 7 atrocities, Craig Foster, who is someone that I admire and respect, and I’ve watched him for many, many years … to see Craig Foster come out and jump on this bandwagon and make nonsense claims about a genocide case at the ICJ … it’s a low move,” Mr Ryvchin told Sky News host Steve Price. “It comes at a time when Israelis are suffering.”

Sky News host James Morrow has blasted pro-Palestine campus protests in the United States as “anti-Semitic” and “pro-Hamas”. Pro-Palestine protests on university campuses escalated in April following mass arrests at the Columbia University encampment. “These anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and, frankly, seemingly pro-Hamas campus protests … just don’t seem to want to quit,” Mr Morrow said.

Sky News host James Morrow believes the Biden administration has created a “huge dilemma” for themselves on Israel and says the situation is now “entirely muddled”. US President Joe Biden has urged Israel not to go ahead with such an operation over fears it would exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian enclave. Last week, Biden said the United States would not provide offensive weapons for a Rafah invasion, raising pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “It seems like the White House has now created this situation where they’ve got a huge problem if they go too hard or don’t go hard enough on Israel with voters in places like Michigan,” Mr Morrow said. “It seems like they’ve created this huge dilemma for themselves now, and it’s entirely muddled.”

ANU Professor Nicolas Lemay-Hebert claims there is a strong “anti-colonialism” sentiment in Haiti with a pushback against Western imperial positions. For months, Haiti has been engulfed in a relentless storm of political chaos and economic ruin, with gang warfare spiralling out of control. “It’s very tricky for the US to be seen as being very present, but they are behind the scenes, really they still the most important player in that crisis,” Professor Lemay-Hebert told Sky News Australia. “They probably know what's happening on the ground and what they would like to see happen in the next two weeks.”

Mission of Hope founder and president Brad Johnson says many Haitians have chosen to stay and are committed to seeing their country change amid the gang violence in the region. For months, Haiti has been engulfed in a relentless storm of political chaos and economic ruin, with gang warfare spiralling out of control. “The team has adapted incredibly well given the circumstances, and that's we believe that's why we can continue to work there,” Mr Johnson told Sky New Australia. “Because we have 300 full-time Haitian staff that they feel like they own the vision, and they want to see their country changed.”

Liberal MP Keith Wolahan discusses the Opposition’s plan to slash migration by 25 per cent from Thursday night’s budget reply. “It’s not only viable, it's essential. We have, in effect, a recession per capita,” Mr Wolahan told Sky News Australia. “The only reason we are not in an official recession is we have migration numbers are artificially propping it up, that’s not a way to increase productivity and grow the economy. “It’s hard, but it has to be done, and Peter Dutton has shown that leadership.

Sky News host James Morrow has blasted the White House for using executive action to withhold the audio from President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur about his handling of classified documents. House Republicans have since voted to hold Joe Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland, in contempt. “Had there been this sort of standoff and use of executive privilege to withhold evidence from Congress under Trump, this would be front-page news, this would be being treated as the greatest constitutional crisis since Watergate,” Mr Morrow said. “And it is indeed a crisis, I mean, withholding evidence from Congress to protect the President in a case involving pretty much the same charges – mishandling classified documents – his rival Donald Trump is being charged with? “This is banana republic stuff.”

Two men have been turned over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement following reports they tried to lie their way into the Quantico Marine Corps Base. Military police officers directed them to go to a holding area to undergo standard vetting procedures before the driver attempted to forcefully drive onto the base. According to Potomac Local News, anonymous sources told the publication one of the two individuals in the truck was a Jordanian foreign national who had recently crossed the southern border into the United States. One person in the truck was also reportedly on the US government’s terrorist watch list.

Independent MP Allegra Spender has discussed the Coalition and Albanese government’s policies to help address the housing crisis in Australia. This comes after Opposition leader Peter Dutton delivered the Coalition’s reply to the government’s budget on Thursday night. Mr Dutton’s budget reply speech centred on a plan to reduce immigration in order to free up housing supply, while the government focused on an energy subsidy to help drive inflation down. “The biggest focus for housing must be growing supply, and I think that’s where, I’d say, the government’s doing more and more focused on this than frankly what we heard so much from Dutton,” Ms Spender told Sky News Australia. “Which is being focused on super for housing, which does absolutely nothing for supply and probably not enough for people who need it, plus some tweaks in migration, which could have an impact but is not actually going to be the major driver to changing this housing disaster.”