News

Kublalsingh blocks bulldozer

Activist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh on Thursday said he recently had to stand in front of a bulldozer and tractor which tried to work on the Debe to Mon Desir section of the Point Fortin Highway. Honked by passing drivers outside the Office of the Prime Minister at Whitehall, Port of Spain, Kublalsingh and Highway Reroute Movement (HRM) members Jason Ash and Sureash Chaitoo spoke with reporters. Read more here…

Cannabis Bill goes to Senate

At 10 am Friday, the Senate sits to debate a bill to decriminalise the use of cannabis. The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2019 was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives on Wednesday. However, the Senate will not debate the Cannabis Control Bill (to regulate the business of cannabis) as the House sent this to a joint select committee. Read more here…

Politics

Imbert to ask banks to relax fees

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert says he’ll ask banks if they can “re­lax” their stan­dard fees for peo­ple do­ing the $100 poly­mer note changeover. Im­bert con­firmed this at yes­ter­day’s post-cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing where he and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young spoke about is­sues stem­ming from the changeover from the pa­per-based $100 note to new poly­mer ones. The dead­line for sub­mis­sion of “old” notes is De­cem­ber 31. At mid­night on that date, the notes will no longer be le­gal ten­der. Read more here…

Business

Market blanks old $100s; Minister rescinds notice

Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Clarence Ramb­harat has di­rect­ed that a no­tice post­ed at the Ma­coya Whole­sale Mar­ket ad­vis­ing cus­tomers, mar­ket ven­dors and the pub­lic, that ef­fec­tive next Thurs­day, De­cem­ber 19 it will not be ac­cept­ing the old $100 bills be re­scind­ed im­me­di­ate­ly and he wants an­swers as to who au­tho­rised the no­tice. Read more here…

JMMB announces holdings in new Sagicor

JMMB Group Lim­it­ed (JMMB Group) has ac­quired 22.5 per cent of the new Sagi­cor, Sagi­cor Fi­nan­cial Com­pa­ny Ltd (Sagi­cor). In hail­ing the news of the share ac­qui­si­tion, JMMB Group CEO, Kei­th Dun­can, said “My team and I are very hap­py about this mile­stone, as it marks a new phase in our jour­ney as an or­gan­i­sa­tion, hav­ing ac­quired a stake in Sagi­cor for in­vest­ment pur­pos­es.” Read more here…

EU funds training for T&T’s Procurement Office

The Delegation of the European Union yesterday announced that it has signed an agreement for the provision of technical assistance to the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR). Read more here

Regional

MoBay Market Mayhem - Robbers Fleece Vendors, Shoppers Of Millions; Corporation Promises Security For Christmas

Despite the ongoing state of emergency in St James, robbers have laid siege to the Charles Gordon Market in the parish capital, fleecing vendors and shoppers of millions of dollars. The St James Municipal Corporation, which operates the facility, has since vowed to ramp up security in a bid to boost public confidence. “I am fully aware of these robberies, and I recently had a dialogue with Mayor Homer Davis about the security at the market,” Gerald Lee, the chief executive officer of the corporation, told The Gleaner in an interview Wednesday. Read more here

Gov’t to help ‘ramp-up’ honey production in Reg. 10

Region 10 is expected to soar in honey production, as local farmers, with the support of the government, are now gravitating towards apiculture.
On Thursday, 22 of these bee keepers were presented with bee hives, in West Watooka, by Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture, Valarie Yearwood. This initiative of pushing apiculture in Region 10 commenced in June, with a training, which benefitted 30 Lindeners, many of whom were youths. The training was facilitated by the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN), in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Region 10, Department of Agriculture. Read more here

International

Election results 2019: Boris Johnson hails 'new dawn' after historic victory

Boris Johnson has promised to deliver Brexit and repay the trust of voters after he led the Conservatives to an "historic" general election win. The prime minister - who has met the Queen to ask to form a new government - has a House of Commons majority of 78, with one seat still to declare. He said he would work "flat out" and lead a "people's government". Jeremy Corbyn said he would not fight another election as Labour leader, amid recriminations over the party's defeat. The opposition was swept aside by the Conservatives in its traditional heartlands in the Midlands and north-eastern England, and lost six seats in Wales. Read more here

Boris Johnson has cleared an election hurdle. Now he faces a US-China balancing act

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears to have won the majority he needs to deliver Brexit. Now the hard work begins. As the UK general election results still come in, all indications are the ruling Conservative Party will move forward with Johnson's Brexit plan quickly, possibly holding a vote on it in the newly reorganized House of Commons before the end of the year. Brexit has dominated UK politics for almost five years now, well before the 2016 vote that sent the country on course to leave the European Union, and many other issues have fallen by the wayside as the debate has become more and more focused on how exactly the UK will leave and whether any Prime Minister could get the parliamentary math right to do so. Read more here

13th December 2019

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