Venezuela migration nears 'Mediterranean crisis point

The UN's migration agency says Venezuela is heading for the same refugee "crisis moment" seen in the Mediterranean in 2015.

The warning comes as its neighbours try to halt the movement of people fleeing Venezuela's economic crisis.

Peru brings in stricter border regulations on Saturday - a day after a court overturned Ecuador's attempt to strengthen its own controls.

More than two million Venezuelans have fled their country since 2014.

They are fleeing a dire economic situation, with Venezuelans facing shortages of food, medicine and basic goods.

Dash to the Peruvian border

Hundreds of Venezuelans were bussed through Ecuador to the Peruvian border before the midnight deadline on Friday.

Jonathan Zambrano, 18, who is at Tumbes on the border between Ecuador and Peru, told news agency AFP he had been on the road for five days along with many others.

• How Venezuela's crisis drove out millions of people
• Venezuelan's bridge of desperation
• My first week as a BBC Venezuela correspondent

More than 2,500 crossed into the small Peruvian border town of Aguas Verdes on Friday, with thousands more trying to reach Peru at the main crossing point at Tumbes.

The new rules coming into force on Saturday require them to have valid passports. Until now, Venezuelans have been allowed to enter Peru with just their ID cards.

Ecuador brought in a similar law last week. However, on Friday, a judge found requiring Venezuelans to carry valid passports broke regional agreements on freedom of movement.

The state of Roraima, in Brazil's Amazon region, also had its attempt to close the border thrown out by a judge earlier this month.

A hardening attitude towards Venezuelans seeking a new life could also be heard on the streets in Peru.

Giannella Jaramillo, who runs a clothes stall in a town near the border, told AFP: "On the one hand we're sorry for the Venezuelan people, but they are taking a job away from a Peruvian. It's hard to help more people."

Her words were echoed by Ecuadoran Gerardo Gutierrez.

"Walk two blocks and you see 10 Venezuelans, walk another two and you see 10 Venezuelans.

"In economically poor countries, it's hard to help more people with what little there is."

Situation 'building to a crisis'

Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that all this - as well as recent violence at the border in Brazil - was an early warning sign that the region was in need of help.

"This is building to a crisis moment that we've seen in other parts of the world, particularly in the Mediterranean," he told reporters.

"A difficult situation can become a crisis situation very quickly and we have to be prepared," he added.

However, Chiara Cardoletti of the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), said other countries in the region had welcomed Venezuelans and were helping to "avoid a situation like the one we have seen in Europe".

"What we are seeing is a continent that has opened its doors to people who are fleeing and who need support," she said.

Ms Cardoletti added that Colombia had registered more than 450,000 Venezuelans and given them regular status. The UN says more than 870,000 Venezuelans are in Colombia, many of them in vulnerable situations.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is to set up a special UN team to co-ordinate a regional response to the crisis, while Ecuador is to host a 13-nation regional summit in September.

PV Sindhu: How India's Olympic badminton star became a sponsors' dream on £126,000 a weekIt was no surprise when Serena Williams topped the Forbes list of highest-earning female athletes released earlier this week, but you may have not recognised the name of the woman in seventh place. Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, more commonly known as PV Sindhu, is a 23-year-old badminton player from India and became only the second Indian competitor, male or female, to win an Olympic badminton medal with a silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Her on-court winnings last year totalled $500,000 (£387,000) but endorsements saw Sindhu bring in an extra $8m (£6.2m) in sponsorship in sports-mad India. That works out as a weekly income of $163,000 (£126,000). That is more than earned by Simona Halep, the WTA world number one as of 22 August, and the top seed for the 2018 US Open. Sindhu comes from a sporting background with both her parents playing volleyball at national level, but she took up badminton aged six when inspired by Pullela Gopichand, who won the men's singles event at the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001. Her life and career changed during the women's singles competition at the 2016 Olympics. She was only seeded ninth but gained wins over eighth seed Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei in the last 16, China's second seed Wang Yihan in the quarter-finals and Japan's sixth seed Nozomi Okuhara in the semi-finals before losing to Spain's world number one Carolina Marin in the final.

It was no surprise when Serena Williams topped the Forbes list of highest-earning female athletes released earlier this week, but you may have not recognised the name of the woman in seventh place.

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, more commonly known as PV Sindhu, is a 23-year-old badminton player from India and became only the second Indian competitor, male or female, to win an Olympic badminton medal with a silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Her on-court winnings last year totalled $500,000 (£387,000) but endorsements saw Sindhu bring in an extra $8m (£6.2m) in sponsorship in sports-mad India. That works out as a weekly income of $163,000 (£126,000).
That is more than earned by Simona Halep, the WTA world number one as of 22 August, and the top seed for the 2018 US Open.

Sindhu comes from a sporting background with both her parents playing volleyball at national level, but she took up badminton aged six when inspired by Pullela Gopichand, who won the men's singles event at the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001.

Her life and career changed during the women's singles competition at the 2016 Olympics. She was only seeded ninth but gained wins over eighth seed Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei in the last 16, China's second seed Wang Yihan in the quarter-finals and Japan's sixth seed Nozomi Okuhara in the semi-finals before losing to Spain's world number one Carolina Marin in the final.

After her return from Rio, she received cash prizes from the different state governments and government institutions worth Rs 13 crore (130m rupees - about £1.4m), while, as a comparison, gold medallist Marin received Rs 70 lakh (7m rupees - about £77,500) from the Spanish government for her achievement.

Sindhu was also awarded land from the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana government and a luxury BMW car from the Hyderabad Badminton Association, presented by cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar.
Since then, a host of companies have been queuing up to be associated with Sindhu, with her sponsorship value matching and surpassing that of many Indian cricketers, apart from captain Virat Kohli.

Those companies on Sindhu's sponsor roster include Bridgestone Tyres, sports drink Gatorade, pain reliever ointment Moov, online fashion store Myntra, Nokia, Panasonic, honey producer APIS Himalaya, herbal health drink firm Ojasvita and the Bank of Baroda. She is also a brand ambassador for both the Central Reserve Police Force and Vizag Steel.
"Her soaring popularity has attracted the attention of so many companies," Mishra told The Times of India in 2016. "Even after achieving stupendous success, her humility and the value she brings to women power is remarkable."

Success off court has also followed success on court, with silver medals at the 2017 and 2018 World Championships and an individual silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, where she also helped her country to mixed team gold.

On Thursday, she begins her campaign in the women's singles at the Asian Games in Indonesia, where she is the third seed.

India have won one individual bronze medal in this competition - Syed Modi in the men's singles in 1982; Sindhu is aiming to become the first Indian woman to secure an Asian Games badminton medal.

If she does, her brand value and marketability will rise further and even more companies will be looking for endorsements, As a result, she could find herself even higher up the Forbes list in 2019.

Trump: Hush payments came from me but were not a campaign violation

US President Donald Trump has denied using election campaign finances to make payments to two women who say he had affairs with them.

It comes after his ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to violating laws during the 2016 presidential election over his handling of the hush money.
In a TV interview with Fox & Friends, Mr Trump said the payments came from him personally, not from the campaign.
Earlier he accused Cohen of making up stories to receive a lighter sentence.

• 'I don't care if Trump paid off a porn star'

In an excerpt from the Fox & Friends interview, which will be aired in full on Thursday, Mr Trump responded to questions about the hush payments by insisting that they were "not a campaign violation".
"They came from me. And I tweeted about it. But they did not come out of the campaign," he says, adding that he only found out about the payments "later on".
His comments contradict a statement made earlier by Cohen under oath in which he said the president had instructed him to make the payments.

In July, Cohen released audio tapes of him and Mr Trump allegedly discussing one of the payments before the election.

Has Trump contradicted himself?

In his first public comments, back in April, about an alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, Mr Trump denied knowing about a $130,000 (£100,000) payment made to the actress via his lawyer, Cohen.
Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, alleges that she and Mr Trump had sex in a hotel room in 2006.
Asked by a reporter in the press cabin of Air Force One if he had any knowledge about where Cohen got the money to pay Ms Daniels, the president responded at the time: "I don't know."
The following month, Mr Trump officially disclosed a payment to Cohen of between $100,001 and $250,000 for expenses incurred in 2016.

Why did Cohen pay hush money?

Undisclosed payments to bury embarrassing stories about a political candidate can be treated as a violation of US campaign finance laws.
Both prosecutors and Cohen agree that Cohen violated campaign finance laws by handling the payments.
Cohen, who was Mr Trump's personal lawyer for more than a decade, has admitted to passing on funds to two women - thought to be Ms Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.
He said he had paid hush money to two women who alleged they had affairs with Mr Trump, at the direction of "the candidate" - a clear reference to Mr Trump.
Cohen said the payment was made for the "principal purpose of influencing [the 2016] election".
Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis has asked why the US president should not be prosecuted for the crimes Cohen had confessed to committing on his behalf.

• McDougal apologises for 'Trump affair'
• Michael Cohen: Trump's pit bull

What happens next?

Cohen has reached a plea deal with prosecutors, which may see his prison sentence reduced from 65 years to five years and three months.

• Will Trump remain bulletproof?
• A crazy day in Trumpland: Blow by blow
• Who is the woman in the blue dress?

On the same day that Cohen pleaded guilty, a jury convicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of bank and tax fraud charges.
It was the first criminal trial arising from the justice department probe led by former FBI chief Robert Mueller.
Mr Mueller has been investigating allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, and whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to swing the election in his favour.
Russia has denied claims it interfered in the elections.
There is no confirmation that Cohen will speak to Mr Mueller's Russia inquiry.
However, Mr Davis says his client is happy to discuss what he knows about whether Mr Trump was aware in advance of the reported computer hacking which undermined his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
In summer 2016, embarrassing emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) server were made public.
Russian intelligence officers have since been charged in absentia for the hack.
Cohen also has knowledge, Mr Davis said, of a meeting at Trump Tower in New York in June 2016 between Trump campaign aides and a Russian delegation which was promising political "dirt".
Mr Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr, went into the meeting in the belief that he would be offered "official documents and information that would incriminate" Mrs Clinton.

• Russia-Trump: Who's who in the drama to end all dramas?
• What new Trump Tower documents tell us

Under US campaign law, it is illegal for a US citizen to solicit foreigners for campaign donations or contributions - although legal experts are divided on whether the offer of information counts as such.
President Trump has denied knowing in advance about the meeting.
However, according to US media, Cohen has said that Mr Trump had known about the meeting beforehand and that he is willing to state this to the Russian inquiry.

'Exploding' iPad prompts Apple shop evacuation

Three Apple employees have been treated for minor injuries after an iPad battery reportedly exploded in an Amsterdam shop.

The three staff are believed to have breathed vapours released when the battery caught fire.
The incident, on 19 August, led to the shop in Amsterdam's Leidseplein being evacuated and closed.
Firefighters were called and they dealt with the iPad and made sure the shop was properly aired.
Amsterdam's fire brigade tweeted that it had attended the incident and three people had been treated for breathing problems.

Apple said it was now "investigating" the incident. It added: "Our staff were able to evacuate customers quickly and safely and the store re-opened shortly afterwards."
A Dutch media site said staff in the store had initially dealt with the fuming iPad by putting it in a sand-filled fire bucket.

This reportedly quelled the fire but not before some of the potentially harmful irritants had been released.

Apple news site 9to5mac said it had seen more incidents of similar faults since the electronics company had started its iPhone battery replacement programme.
Apple began the replacement initiative after being criticised for slowing down older iPhones whose batteries were ageing.

A consumer backlash against the policy led to it offering discounted and free battery swaps for some customers.

Stormy Daniels: Celebrity Big Brother no-show 'never about money'

Adult film star Stormy Daniels has appeared on TV to explain why she did not appear on Celebrity Big Brother.

She denied asking for more money and accused the show's producers of trying to "deport" her.
"It was never about the money," she said, insisting she'd always asked for her fee to be donated to charity.
Daniels - real name Stephanie Clifford - made headlines after it was alleged she had slept with Donald Trump in 2006, which the US president denies.

• Stormy Daniels in Big Brother 'row'
• Big Brother denies Daniels claims
• Celebrity Big Brother line-up in full

The 39-year old had been due to enter the Celebrity Big Brother house last Thursday.
On Friday, her lawyers issued a statement claiming the Big Brother producers had tried to "control" her and "script a result" she didn't agree with.

Celebrity Big Brother broadcaster Channel 5 denied the allegations, claiming: "Five hours before the live show, Stormy informed us that she wished to simply appear on launch night and then leave."
In an interview broadcast on Monday's edition of ITV's Loose Women, Daniels said a development in the ongoing custody battle for her seven-year old daughter had made her feel "uncomfortable" about staying in the house.

"Being a mum comes first," Daniels said, "and I wanted to be able to talk to her with everything going on."

Daniels said she had still wanted to make an appearance on the show, to apologise for her non-appearance and explain the situation to her fans.

She claimed it was agreed she would enter the house on Friday morning, instead of Thursday's launch night, and spend the day in the Big Brother house.

Her stint, she went on, was to have finished with a visit to the diary room and an explainer about why she would not be taking part in the rest of the series.

"I thought it was a great way to salvage some of the show," the US star said. "I didn't want to let down the British fans."
Daniels said it had been agreed that her "day rate" would have been donated to charity.
Daniels claims the Celebrity Big Brother producers "came back a couple of hours later and said 'You're either going to go on, stay in the house, follow the contract to a T or we're deporting you at 6am [on Friday].'

"There was no way I was going to get on a plane and wake up to the headlines that Stormy Daniels gets deported from England, without being able to tell my side of the story.

"And sure enough I woke up to all these crazy claims that I was abusive to someone there - absolutely not true; that I demanded more money - absolutely not true.
"It was never about the money - I was trying to give the money away."
In a statement, Channel 5 did not address allegations that attempts were made to "deport" Ms Daniels but said reports she asked for more money were "completely false".

The channel added: "Producers discussed a variety of options with her but weren't able to agree any acceptable conditions for her entering the house.

"Our focus is now on making a brilliant series with our fantastic celebrities."
Loose Women said Daniels waived her appearance fee from ITV, asking instead for it to be donated to Oxfam.

Asia Argento was one of the first women to accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault

One of the leading figures in the #MeToo movement has reportedly been accused of sexual assault herself.

Italian actress Asia Argento was one of the first to speak out against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

The New York Times reports that legal documents, which the BBC has not seen, show she paid a former co-star $380,000 after he alleged she had assaulted him in a California hotel room in 2013.
A lawyer for Ms Argento declined to comment on the allegations.
Her accuser, Jimmy Bennett was just 17 at the time. The age of consent in California is 18.
Ms Argento would have been 37 at the time of the encounter.

• What has #MeToo actually changed?
• Has #MeToo divided women?

Mr Bennett says in the documents that the encounter traumatised him and threatened his mental health and career, the New York Times reported.
He had played Ms Argento's young son in a 2004 film.
In the documents seen by the paper, the actress's lawyer said that the money was given to Mr Bennett to help him, and that it was Ms Argento who had been preyed upon.
In a statement published by Vanity Fair, a lawyer for Mr Bennett said his client would not comment but would take the "next 24 hours, or longer, to prepare his response".
A lawyer for Mr Weinstein said the development revealed "a stunning level of hypocrisy by Asia Argento".
Another high-profile accuser of Harvey Weinstein, Rose McGowan, has also reacted to the reports.

Pope Francis has condemned the "atrocities" of child sex abuse and clerical cover-ups in a letter to the world's 1.2bn Roman Catholics.

The letter to "the People of God" calls for an end to the "culture of death" in the Church, addresses failures to deal with abuse and asks for forgiveness.
Last week a grand jury report detailed seven decades of abuse in Pennsylvania.
The landmark investigation found more than 1,000 identifiable minors had been abused by 300 priests in the US state.
Thousands more are thought to have fallen victim. The inquiry found evidence of systematic cover-ups by the Church, with many cases now too old for prosecution.
After the report was made public, the Vatican said the Pope was on the side of victims against "predator" priests.

What did the Pope say?

The Vatican says it is the first time a Pope has addressed a letter to the entire Catholic population on the topic of sex abuse.
In Monday's 2,000-word letter he addresses the US scandal directly and acknowledges the Church's role in failing to act sooner.
He describes the "heart-wrenching pain of these victims" that were "long ignored, kept quiet or silenced".

• Read the letter in full
• Sex abuse and the Catholic Church explained
• US cardinal resigns over abuse claims

"With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives," he writes.
"We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them."
The Pope's message quotes a passage from the Bible in Corinthians that says "if one member suffers, all suffer together" and calls for the Church to come to grips with the reality of what has happened in a "comprehensive and communal way".
"If, in the past, the response was one of omission, today we want solidarity, in the deepest and most challenging sense, to become our way of forging present and future history.
"It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable. Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others."

What are the latest cases?

The letter's release comes days before the Pope is due to travel to Ireland to address the Church's World Meeting of Families.
The head of Ireland's Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop Eamon Martin, has said he expects Pope Francis to meet victims of clerical sex abuse during his visit to Dublin.
Child sexual abuse scandals continue to embroil the Church around the globe.
Last month the former archbishop of Washington DC, Theodore McCarrick, stepped down over abuse accusations against him.
US church officials described as credible allegations that he sexually assaulted a teenager nearly 50 years ago. He says he has no recollection of this.
In May, Archbishop Philip Wilson became the most senior Catholic in the world to be charged with concealing child sexual abuse in Australia in the 1970s.

What has the reaction been?

Margaret McGuckin from Survivors & Victims of Institutional Abuse, a historic abuse charity based in Northern Ireland, said the Pope's response was "too little too late" and said "nothing will change" with the letter.
Anne Barrett-Doyle, co-director of clerical abuse tracking website BishopAccountability.org, said there needed to be "more actions, less words" from Pope Francis.
"He needs an effective discipline process for bishops and religious superiors who are known to have enabled abuse," she said.
Irish campaigner Marie Collins, who was abused by a priest as a teenager, welcomed the condemnation of Church cover-ups, but said more concrete action on accountability was needed.
Skip Twitter post by @marielco
Last year Ms Collins resigned from a Vatican child protection commission set up by Pope Francis because of what she said was the Church's resistance to change.
Voice of the Faithful, a group that was formed after revelations of abuse in Boston in 2002, welcomed Monday's letter but reiterated the necessity of full accountability for offenders and those who covered abuse up.
"Although we applaud the Pope's expressions of regret and sorrow, as always, we find ourselves anxiously anticipating action to back up his words," the statement said.