Daily Brief - Friday 5th June, 2020

NEWS

Carnival Fantasy crew back in TT

TT nationals who have been stranded on board the Carnival Fantasy cruise ship finally got home on Thursday afternoon. The ship was anchored offshore near the Port of Port of Spain and could be seen from the waterfront at the Hyatt Regency since early Thursday morning. It was not allowed to dock. The Seven C's, a smaller vessel, made four trips to and from the cruise ship, transporting the TT crew members to shore. Three large buses, including a PTSC bus, an ambulance and a police escort took them from the port to an undisclosed quarantine location to be tested for covid19. Read more here

Griffith goes head-to-head with Fuad

As the exchange of words between Police Commissioner Gary Griffith and political leader of the New National Vision (NNV) Fuad Abu Bakr heats up, the top cop has challenged Bakr to give his views pertaining to what happened in 1990, “or is it in his view that black lives did not matter.” Griffith was responding to an ongoing social media rant by Bakr since the US George Floyd incident where Bakr saw it fitting to post a comparative photograph of him (Griffith) watching over the lifeless body of Michael Thomas during a confrontation with police in 2019, with the death of Floyd. Griffith said Bakr is trying to make himself relevant by being involved in controversial issues. “Fuad Abu Bakr is the first political leader that I can recall prior to an election, who is trying to make himself relevant by being involved in controversial issues than anything else…this varies from storming a screening in a political party and now, speaking about me knowing that the media will take it up.” Griffith said. Read more here

 

POLITICS

UNC leader proposes splitting National Security Ministry

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the National Security Ministry will be split into two Ministries, Home Affairs and Defence, should the party win the upcoming general elections. She said the Home Affairs Ministry would encompass the internal security of Trinidad and Tobago and focus on crime deterrence, crime prevention and the judicial system. Some of the agencies to be included in this ministry would include the TTPS, TT Fire Service, TT Prison Service, cadets, the ODPM, and E99, among others. She said those agencies would carry out the functions of policing, surveillance, intelligence gathering, maintenance of law and order, security, etc. Read more here

Better United blanks Fuad’s return attempt

The Better United group of parties has turned down an approach from New National Vision (NNV) leader Fuad Abu Bakr to return to the group after he struck out in getting a People’s National Movement election candidacy last week. Better United’s Louis Lee Sing (Port-of-Spain People’s Movement leader) confirmed the situation yesterday after the group discussed the approach at their weekly Wednesday meeting. Better United includes the PPM, Congress of the People and Democratic Party of T&T. The group formed after a meeting which former UNC leader Basdeo Panday had earlier this year seeking a united opposition force under one umbrella to contest elections. Panday and some others who attended his meeting agreed to go that route but the COP, PPM and others didn’t and formed Better United. Read more here

 

BUSINESS

ILO outlines ways to safely return to the workplace

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has released a new tool on safety and health for decision makers in the world of work to confront COVID-19. In a statement issued it said the ten 10 steps are designed of return strategies for offices, factories and all kinds of workplaces in Latin America and the Caribbean that are faced with the progressive lifting of measures. The ILO’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Vinícius Pinheiro noted that occupational safety and health must have the highest priority. “We must get used to the idea that the workplace will no longer be the same and that it will be in this scenario where a decisive battle against the pandemic will be waged,” he advised. Read more here

South businesses killed by Covid

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced as much as 15 per cent of retail businesses in San Fernando to permanently shut down. And some small business owners are being forced to make tough decision about reducing staff and adjusting opening hours. Read more here

 

REGIONAL

‘Enough proof of fraud’

ELECTIONS Commissioner Vincent Alexander said there is clear evidence that Guyana’s General and Regional Elections were compromised, as he cited cases in which unscrupulous people voted in the place of persons who were either dead or out of the country when the elections were held on March 2. “Now the fact of the matter is that where we’re at, there is proof that the system has been breached; it has been breached,” Alexander told reporters on Thursday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), even as he explained that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that there are persons on the Official List of Electors (OLEs), who were out of the country on polling day, but have been marked off as having voted. Read more here

‘I tried everything’ - Sister of man who died in custody after 40-year wait for trial speaks out

For more than three decades, Joyce Davy sought justice for her brother, Noel Chambers, stepping up her efforts as visible signs emerged that his health was deteriorating at the Kingston-based Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre, where he spent 40 years without a trial. In January, it seemed like her fight had come to a shattering end when prison officials ushered her to his emaciated frame sprawled on the floor of the prison hospital and draped in a hanging white merino, shorts, and a surgical mask attached to his face. Read more here

 

INTERNATIONAL

Hong Kong restaurant group's Covid-19 bible sweeps the world

With the coronavirus pandemic came a wave of mandatory physical distancing measures at restaurants around the world. Already operating on thin margins, such measures have forced tens of thousands of them out of business, with many more to come. But during this global crisis, one valuable resource is now making the rounds among restaurateurs: the "Covid-19 Playbook," by Black Sheep Restaurants. The group operates 25 establishments across Hong Kong, including Michelin-starred restaurants Belon and New Punjab Club. When co-founders Asim Hussain and Christopher Mark got wind of a highly contagious virus across the border in mainland China, the restaurateurs immediately set to work. Read more here

George Floyd: Videos of police brutality during protests shock US

Several videos of police brutality have emerged during protests over the death of African American George Floyd. In Buffalo, New York State, two officers were suspended after they were seen shoving an elderly white man to the ground. And in New York City, police were captured on video roughly handling demonstrators as they ran away. The reports come hours after a memorial for Floyd in Minneapolis, the city where he died at the hands of police. His killing, also captured on video, has caused outrage and sparked a wave of protests against racial discrimination and police treatment of African Americans in cities across the US and the world. The vast majority of demonstrations over the past eight days have been peaceful but some have descended into violence and rioting, with curfews imposed in a number of cities. Read more here

5th June 2020

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