The German government’s anti-Semitism commissioner has urged Jews to avoid wearing skullcaps in public. Felix Klein warned Jews against donning the kippa in parts of the country following a rise in anti-Semitism. He said his opinion on the matter had “changed compared with what it used to be”. Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin said the recommendation amounted to “an admittance that, again, Jews are not safe on German soil”. A sharp increase in the number of anti-Semitic offences was recorded by the German government last year.

Official figures showed 1,646 hate crimes against Jews were committed in 2018 – an increase of 10% on the previous year. Physical attacks against Jews in Germany also rose in the same period, with 62 violent incidents recorded, up from 37 in 2017. Speaking to the Handelsblatt newspaper, Justice Minister Katarina Barley said the increase in anti-Semitic crimes was “shameful for our country”.(BBC)…[+]

LONDON – The contest to replace Theresa May as British prime minister hotted up yesterday with seven candidates now throwing their hat into the ring, saying they would succeed where she failed by taking a deeply-divided Britain out of the European Union. May announced on Friday she was quitting over her failure to deliver Brexit, raising the prospect of a new leader who could seek a more divisive split with the EU and lead to confrontation with the bloc or a possible parliamentary election.

British health minister Matt Hancock, ex-Brexit minister Dominic Raab and former House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom on Saturday joined an increasingly crowded field to replace May. Former foreign minister Boris Johnson, current foreign minister Jeremy Hunt, International Develop-ment Secretary Rory Stewart and former work and pensions minister Esther McVey had already announced they would stand.

About a dozen contenders in total are thought to be considering a tilt at the leadership with newspapers reporting that environment minister Michael Gove was expected to announce his candidacy on Sunday. May failed three times to get a divorce deal she agreed with the EU through parliament because of deep, long-term divisions in the Conservative Party over Europe. It meant the original Brexit date of March 29 has been extended until Oct. 31 to see if any compromise could be reached.(Reuters)…[+]

The US Em­bassy in Port-of-Spain has ad­vised that ef­fec­tive June 1, doc­u­ments sub­mit­ted in sup­port of a Non-Im­mi­grant Visa (NIV) in­ter­view waiv­er ap­pli­ca­tion will not be re­turned, oth­er than the ap­pli­cant’s valid and ex­pired pass­ports. For ap­pli­cants who sub­mit­ted sup­port­ing doc­u­ments be­fore June 1, of­fi­cials said these will be re­turned as per the cur­rent prac­tice.

In a re­lease on its web­site, of­fi­cials ex­plained this was meant to sim­pli­fy the process for both the Em­bassy and the ap­pli­cants, en­abling them to process ap­pli­ca­tions faster and re­turn pass­ports and visas quick­ly. When ap­ply­ing for a visa on­line, the sys­tem tells you based on in­for­ma­tion en­tered, whether you qual­i­fy for the in­ter­view waiv­er and what doc­u­ments to sub­mit in your pack­age.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]