Daily Brief - Monday 14th January, 2019

NEWS

AMCHAM CEO: End LGBTQI discrimination

AMCHAM T&T CEO Nirad Tewarie said the time has come for the Equal Opportunities Act to be amended to end legal discrimination against the LGBTQI community. Tewarie was responding to adverse comments from RebuildTT which condemned statements made by his father Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie in support of acceptance of the community. Read more here

The hidden treasures of Biche

Nes­tled amid the lush forests where a thick canopy con­ceals flour­ish­ing mar­i­jua­na plan­ta­tions, lies the scenic com­mu­ni­ty of Biche. With a pop­u­la­tion of over 4,000, res­i­dents say the area is one of the most peace­ful. The news that the Gov­ern­ment is con­sid­er­ing the de­crim­i­nal­i­sa­tion of mar­i­jua­na this year, some res­i­dents be­lieve the fer­tile lands in Biche will now at­tract out­siders to their com­mu­ni­ty and pos­si­bly dis­rupt their easy-go­ing way of life. Pres­i­dent of the Biche Sports Club Lewis Tom, 77, said Biche was not al­ways recog­nised as a peace­ful place. Peo­ple see Biche as a back­ward place but it is not so. We are very mod­ernised. We have an abun­dance of cit­rus and fruits, the va­ri­eties of which is lost to many parts of T&T,” Tom said. Read more here

 

POLITICS

PM defends Venezuela strategy

The Prime Minister yesterday defended his government's approach towards the ongoing political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Dr Rowley made no comment on TT being one of eight countries to abstain from the Organisation of American States (OAS) vote not to recognise the legitimacy of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's new term in office. But Dr Rowley rejected the Opposition Leader's claim that government strategy to deal with the Venezuela crisis was jeopardising TT's geo-political and economic future. He said he was aware of only three instances in recent times when "TT's interests were jeopardised on foreign and Caricom affairs." Read more here

Lawyers press PM for answer on CJ issue

That’s the ques­tion sev­er­al se­nior le­gal prac­ti­tion­ers are ask­ing fol­low­ing a lack of re­sponse so far from Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley on the Law As­so­ci­a­tion’s (LATT) re­port con­cern­ing al­le­ga­tions against Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie. So much so, a group of cit­i­zens has ap­proached se­nior coun­sel Is­rael Khan, mulling pur­suit of ju­di­cial re­view to en­sure a re­ply from the Prime Min­is­ter. They are dis­cussing whether that might be­come nec­es­sary with­in the next few weeks in the ab­sence of word from him. Yes­ter­day was a month since LATT sub­mit­ted its re­port to the Prime Min­is­ter’s Of­fice con­cern­ing al­le­ga­tions which have dogged Archie since 2017 in­to 2018. The sit­u­a­tion po­larised the Ju­di­cia­ry with some se­nior judges crit­i­cal of the sit­u­a­tion con­cern­ing Archie. Read more here

 

BUSINESS

Will stock markets advance in 2019?

We at Bourse take a closer look at where local and international equity markets could be headed in 2019. As highlighted in our previous article entitled ‘Equity Markets Lower in 2018’, several factors would have contributed to lower returns across markets. Read more here

 

REGIONAL

Baby Snatchers! - Experts Say Desperation And Mental Illness Among The Factors Leading To The Abduction Of Children

The abduction of two babies in less than a week has sparked fresh debate about the reasons Jamaicans, mainly women, would want to snatch babies to whiom they did not give birth. Psychiatrist and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of the West Indies Frederick Hickling argues that the pressure society places on women to have children could be one of the factors. "There is a cultural thing in this country where there are a lot of women who don't feel complete if they don't have a baby, and, therefore, they will go to very strange ends to meet those needs that they have," Hickling told The Sunday Gleaner as he listed mental illness as another possible factor. Read more here

 

INTERNATIONAL

Theresa May says no Brexit more likely than no deal

Prime Minister Theresa May is making a last-ditch attempt to persuade MPs to back her Brexit deal as Tuesday's key Commons vote looms closer. She will warn that trust in politics will suffer "catastrophic harm" if the referendum result is not implemented. The EU has issued fresh assurances over the deal's impact on Northern Ireland. In a letter to Mrs May, it said it did not want the customs backstop to take effect and, if it did, it would only be for "the shortest possible period". It also promised to consider alternative ways of preventing the need for physical checks on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, such as "facilitative arrangements or technologies". Read more here

Passenger carries firearm through TSA screening at Atlanta onto Delta flight

A traveler carrying a firearm boarded a flight from Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and flew to Tokyo Narita International Airport on January 3, according to a statement from the Transportation Security Administration. "TSA has determined standard procedures were not followed and a passenger did in fact pass through a standard screening TSA checkpoint with a firearm at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on the morning of January 3," the release states. Read more here

14th January 2019

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