Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz faces being removed from office in a no-confidence vote on Monday afternoon. His previous coalition ally, the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), said it would support the motion being brought by the opposition Social Democrats.

The FPÖ had become embroiled in a political scandal caused by a secret video, which ended the coalition. If Mr Kurz is forced out, a new chancellor would lead a caretaker government ahead of elections. They are expected in September. Mr Kurz, head of the conservative Austrian People’s Party, could become the first chancellor in post-war Austrian history to be removed from office in this way. At 32, he is the world’s youngest state leader.

There will be two no-confidence votes, one against the government and the other against Mr Kurz individually. The motions have been submitted by the opposition Social Democrats, with the debate due to begin at 13:00 (11:00 GMT). But they only have 52 seats in the 183-seat lower chamber. Unfortunately for Mr Kurz, the FPÖ has signalled it will back the motion, and it has 51 seats. A majority is all that is needed in the votes.(BBC)…[+]

BRUSSELS – Parties committed to strengthening the European Union held on to two-thirds of seats in the EU parliament, official projections from the bloc’s elections showed yesterday, though far-right and nationalist opponents saw strong gains. France’s Emmanuel Macron, who has staked his presidency on persuading Europeans that the EU is the answer to the challenges of an uncertain, globalising world economy, took a personal hit when his centrist movement was edged into second place by Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, anti-Brussels National Rally.

But Macron’s Renais-sance, built on the ruins of centre-left and centre-right parties, added to gains for liberals at the EU level as turnout bounced sharply across the bloc. Along with a surge for the Greens, that meant four groups occupying the pro-EU middle ground lost under 20 seats, securing 505 seats out of 751, according to a projection by the European Parliament.

That may complicate some policymaking, as a two-party “grand coalition” of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) and the Socialists (S&D) no longer has a majority. The liberals, with over 100 seats and Greens, with nearly 70, want a big say. But it also dents the hopes of Le Pen, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and others who have been seeking to disrupt attempts to forge closer EU integration. Salvini called the elections a mandate for a shake-up in Brussels.(Reuters)…[+]

Sad­dened by the en­slave­ment of Venezue­lan mi­grants who are on­ly seek­ing to fill emp­ty stom­achs in T&T, re­cent­ly-in­stalled mod­er­a­tor of the Pres­by­ter­ian Church, Rev Joy Ab­dul-Mo­han, says her flock will use their re­sources to al­le­vi­ate the mi­grants’ hunger. She said it was wor­ri­some to think that po­lice of­fi­cers were in­volved in hu­man traf­fick­ing of refugees to have them prac­tice mod­ern day slav­ery.

“Refugees and mi­grants are hu­man be­ings cre­at­ed in the im­age and like­ness of God like all of us. They are fam­i­lies with hopes and dreams for their chil­dren. The church must make a dif­fer­ence in the lives of those who are mar­gin­alised, alien­at­ed, op­pressed and ex­ploit­ed,” Ab­dul-Mo­han said.

“The ques­tion must be asked: If we see refugees as fam­i­lies seek­ing a bet­ter life as many ‘Trin­bag­on­ian’ fam­i­lies who mi­grat­ed to North Amer­i­ca and Eu­rope, how might that change the ways we re­ceive them in our coun­try? Notwith­stand­ing the crim­i­nal el­e­ments and the need to put prop­er struc­tures in place to deal with the is­sue at hand.” Ab­dul-Mo­han made the com­ment as she was be­ing recog­nised by the Rapid-fire Kidz Foun­da­tion for be­ing el­e­vat­ed to her new po­si­tion at Can­ton Palace, San Fer­nan­do, on Sat­ur­day.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]