Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says that Trinidad and To­ba­go can­not be the so­lu­tion for mil­lions of Venezue­lans who are flee­ing the coun­try and that there will come a time when the vol­ume of Venezue­lans com­ing here will be­come a bur­den.

He made the re­mark at yester­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia con­fer­ence. The prime min­is­ter said the first pri­or­i­ty of the gov­ern­ment is the wel­fare of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. He told the me­dia con­fer­ence that while Trinidad and To­ba­go is at­tempt­ing to keep its doors open, it will not be able to cope with a large mi­gra­tion of Venezue­lans.

“In­ter­na­tion­al agen­cies, many of them with dif­fer­ent agen­das to our in­ter­est in Trinidad and To­ba­go, will not en­cour­age us in­to con­vert­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, this lit­tle is­land na­tion in the mouth of the Orinoco, in­to any refugee camp for the larg­er Venezue­lan pub­lic,” he said. Dr Row­ley added: “To pro­tect the in­ter­est of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go we will have to lim­it our ex­po­sure to the fall­out in Venezuela.”(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

Barefeet and cold, lit­tle Lu­cia Meza sat on the street hun­gri­ly lick­ing an emp­ty pack of bis­cuits while her moth­er tried to find ac­com­mo­da­tion for them to spend the night. The five-year-old child was among 105 peo­ple picked up by po­lice dur­ing a mas­sive crack­down on il­le­gal Venezue­lans on Wednes­day. Among those ar­rest­ed were four Venezue­lan po­lice of­fi­cers and a fire of­fi­cer.

Meza had been on a boat from Tu­cu­pi­ta with her moth­er and sev­er­al oth­er chil­dren since Tues­day night. They ar­rived at Beach Camp, Pa­lo Seco be­fore dawn. They walked for two miles to a for­est camp where they were round­ed up and ar­rest­ed by the po­lice. Thir­ty-five Venezue­lans were held at Erin, 58 at Beach Camp and 12 at Ce­dros.

Look­ing ha­rassed and scared, the Venezue­lans were tak­en to the Siparia Po­lice Sta­tion where they were in­ter­ro­gat­ed. They were re­leased from cus­tody around 5 pm af­ter get­ting an or­der of su­per­vi­sion clear­ance from the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion to stay un­til Ju­ly. How­ev­er, po­lice said more ar­rests are im­mi­nent.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

Paris Saint-Germain’s president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, has been placed under investigation for alleged corruption as part of an inquiry into the bidding process for the 2017 and 2019 athletics World Championships. A French judicial official said the preliminary charge of “active corruption” was filed against Khelaifi, also the chair of the beIN media group, in mid-May in a case focusing on the payment of $3.5m to an IAAF official.

The official said Khelaifi was suspected of corruption “in regards with Qatar’s track and field worlds”. Khelaifi is from Qatar. Khelaifi’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment and beIN declined to comment except to say the case “doesn’t relate in any way to the company”.

BeIN’s chief executive, Yousef al-Obaidly, faces preliminary charges of corruption, and the former IAAF president Lamine Diack is suspected of “passive corruption” in the same case. According to Obaidly’s lawyer, the investigating magistrate Renaud Van Ruymbeke based his suspicion on documents showing that a former IAAF official received two payments totalling about $3.5m from Qatari investors before the vote for the 2017 World Championships. Qatar eventually lost to London but was later awarded the 2019 event. The championships will be held in Doha from 27 September to 6 October.

The two payments from Oryx Qatar Sports Investments, an investment fund linked to the Qatari government, were made to Pamodzi Sports Marketing in October and November 2011, days before the vote.(TheGuardian)…[+]

At least seven people have been killed in weather-related deaths as tornadoes sweep across the US Midwest, local officials say. Three fatalities were confirmed on Thursday in Golden City, Missouri.

Another two were killed in the state earlier in the week, along with one in Oklahoma and another in Iowa. A tornado also struck Missouri’s state capital, Jefferson City, bringing heavy rain, hail, wind and lightning. Earlier, the US National Weather Service issued a rare “high warning” for severe storms in the region. It said at least 29 tornadoes had been reported in the last 24 hours and more than 170 since Friday.

On Wednesday night, emergency sirens were activated in Jefferson City – home to around 43,000 people – and the storm was spotted 20 minutes later. “When it hit… it felt like an earthquake,” local resident Cindy Sandoval-Jakobsen told CNN. No deaths have been reported in the city, but images on social media show buildings ripped apart, power lines downed and trees uprooted. Thousands are believed to be without electricity.(BBC)…[+]

The family of a 10-year-old Pakistani girl who was abducted and murdered have said they were ignored by police when they tried to report her missing. They say police told them the child might have eloped, and they were made to carry out errands for officers. Farishta vanished in Islamabad on 15 May and a body believed to be hers was found on 20 May.

Police are investigating if she was raped and tortured, and protests are being held to demand justice. The individual police officers involved deny wrongdoing. Hundreds protested in central Islamabad on Tuesday calling for justice. The case has been compared to the rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari in January 2018 – which sparked outrage and protests across the country. Calls for action are being made on social media, under the hashtag #JusticeFor Farishta.

“The police didn’t help us at all,” Farishta’s father Ghulam Nabi told the BBC at Tuesday’s protest, which blocked a major intersection. “They would ask me to clean their office, to move their furniture, and to go get fruit for their Iftar [fast-breaking] dinner from the market. “I was so distressed during those [four] days that I couldn’t tell night from day.”(BBC)…[+]

GENEVA – Venezuelans fleeing political and economic crisis at home deserve protection as refugees, the United Nations said today, urging other states not to deport them. Some 3.7 million people have left Venezuela, including 3 million since 2015 as the economy has imploded causing widespread shortages and hunger, and anti-government street protests have brought waves of violence and deaths.

Venezuelans continue to leave at the rate of 3,000 to 5,000 a day, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said, giving updated guidance on how to handle the exodus.

“UNHCR … now considers that the majority of those fleeing the country are in need of international refugee protection,” agency spokeswoman Liz Throssell told a news briefing. “It is incredibly important given the situation in Venezuela that there aren’t deportations, expulsions or forced returns.”(Reuters)…[+]

Nalini Ramai, the woman who made comments about Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley after her Zee TV channel was interrupted by political broadcasts, is threatening to sue Amplia Communications. She has called for a reasonable monetary settlement no less than $300,000 and also for a written apology to be given to her on Facebook within two weeks.

Ramai, who is proposing legal action for breach of confidentiality, defamation of character and/or slander, said she has been suffering from emotional trauma as a result of phone calls or threatening Facebook posts. The pre-action protocol letter from attorney Jeevan Rampersad stated that a recording from Amplia was last month posted on social media. “The said Facebook post also contained my client’s private home address and/or telephone number,” Rampersad said. He added that pictures and personal information were taken from Ramai’s private Facebook account and posted on social media.

He further stated, “The said Facebook post was left online for almost one week for millions of Facebook or other online users to access the same, notwithstanding that my client made an official apology to Amplia for the said racial comment against the Honourable Prime Minister.”(Trinidad Express)…[+]

Democrats are facing another brazen attempt by Donald Trump to stonewall their investigations, this time with former White House counsel Donald McGahn defying a subpoena to appear before Congress on Tuesday, on orders from the White House.

Trump blocked McGahn from testifying before Congress about the special counsel’s report on Russian election interference, prompting sharp criticism and fresh threats of impeachment. A lawyer for McGahn said he would follow the president’s directive and skip the House judiciary hearing he had been summoned to testify before on Tuesday morning, leaving the Democrats without yet another witness – and a growing debate within the party about how to respond.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, backed by House judiciary committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, is taking a step-by-step approach to the confrontations with Trump. Nadler said the committee would vote to hold McGahn in contempt, and take the issue to court. (Theguardian)…[+]

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has said he is “saddened” after his restaurant group went into administration, with 1,000 jobs being lost. The group, which includes the Jamie’s Italian chain, Barbecoa and Fifteen, has appointed KPMG as administrators. In total, 25 restaurants are affected by the move, 22 of which are from the Jamie’s Italian chain.

Mr Oliver, who put in £4m cash this year, said: “I appreciate how difficult this is for everyone affected.” Following the appointment of administrators, all but three of the group’s 25 eating establishments have closed. Two Jamie’s Italian restaurants and Jamie Oliver’s Diner at Gatwick Airport will continue to trade in the short term.

“The group had recently undertaken a process to secure additional investment into the business and, since the beginning of this year, Jamie Oliver has made available additional funds of £4m to support the fundraising,” said the administrators in a statement. “However, with no suitable investment forthcoming and in light of the very difficult current trading environment, the directors resolved to appoint administrators.”Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall at Watergate Bay, which operates under a franchise, is unaffected. The international restaurants trading as Jamie’s Italian, Jamie’s Pizzeria and Jamie’s Deli will also continue to trade as normal.(BBC)…[+]

The T&T Coast Guard (TTCG) is on stand­by should they be called for help by the Venezue­lan Coast Guard as the search con­tin­ues for 19 refugees, who have been feared drowned af­ter the pirogue they were in sunk last Thurs­day. The lone sur­vivor of the in­ci­dent, Al­ber­to Abreu, 25, of Mar­gari­ta, who was res­cued by a US busi­ness­man Robert Richards, Vir­gin Is­lands, is cur­rent­ly in Grena­da.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease is­sued by the TTCG’s Pub­lic Af­fairs Of­fi­cer, Lieu­tenant Ker­ron Valere, on May 17 at 1443 hours (2:43 pm), the TTCG re­ceived in­for­ma­tion from North Post Ra­dio that a civil­ian ves­sel re­trieved an in­di­vid­ual who was in the wa­ter in a po­si­tion ap­prox­i­mate­ly 18 miles north of Cha­cachacare, with­in T&T’s ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters. The for­eign na­tion­al, it added, in­di­cat­ed that he was on board a ves­sel with 19 oth­ers which de­part­ed Mar­gari­ta Is­land, Venezuela en route to Trinidad on the pre­vi­ous day.

“Up­on re­ceiv­ing this in­for­ma­tion, the TTCG im­me­di­ate­ly de­ployed its mar­itime as­sets to aid in the Search and Res­cue Op­er­a­tion. The TTCG has been in com­mu­ni­ca­tion with Venezue­lan coun­ter­parts in the at­tempt to dis­cov­er ad­di­tion­al per­sons with fur­ther search­es be­ing con­duct­ed with­in the wa­ters of Trinidad and To­ba­go since the ini­tial dis­cov­ery,” Valere said.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]