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)…[+]