NEWS
World Bank grants TT US$20m to fight covid19
The World Bank has approved US$20 million for TT's covid19 emergency response project. In a statement on Wednesday, the bank's country director for the Caribbean Tahseen Sayed said this new World Bank project will support TT's response to covid19, focusing on the health sector. "It will assist in providing critical medical supplies and equipment and will strengthen the capacity of the health sector," he said. The bank added that this project will help Government's national covid19 preparedness and response plan. Read more here
Friend of domestic violence victim: 'After first lash, run'
At the funeral service of her murdered friend Adana Stacey Dick, Annmarie Peltier called on men to respect a woman’s decision to walk away from a relationship. “I want to say one small thing to men in Trinidad and Tobago. When we say no more as women, we mean that. We simply mean that and move on. You don’t have the right to demand more,” said Peltier. Dick, 36, was allegedly murdered by a close male relative while on way to make a domestic violence report at St Margaret's Police Station on June 30. The mother of five was stabbed multiple times at a bus shed along Southern Main Road, St Margaret's, a short distance away from the police station. Read more here
POLITICS
Deyalsingh: No decision yet to increase 25 gathering limit
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said no decision has been taken to increase the public health ordinance restriction of people gathering to more than the current 25. "People are willing to push the envelope and break the rules," he observed at Wednesday's covid19 virtual media briefing. He said there was no firm date when the number would be raised to 50 for example, notwithstanding a lawsuit from the Barkeepers and Operators Association of TT. The group had issued a pre-action protocol requesting a return to normal operating hours for bars after Government reduced the closing time from 10 pm to 8 pm. Read more here
Couva North wants explanation on Ramona's exclusion; Cumuto still vex
While there are concerns by Couva North constituents about the UNC’s replacement for MP Ramona Ramdial, the area’s executive is working with new candidate Ravi Ratiram. However, they say some reason should have been given on why Ramdial wasn’t selected. Couva North executive chairman Orlando Nagessar aired this opinion yesterday after the unit began working with Ratiram. Concerns had been swirling some UNC constituencies since last Sunday’s announcement of the Opposition’s election candidates for the August 10 general election. Of the 18 incumbent MPs, eight were retained and 10 replaced. Some were asked to step down. Some were promised a place in a future UNC Government. Read more here
BUSINESS
Plant closures in an election season
The closure of ammonia facilities at Point Lisas adds further stress to the already difficult economic situation. But this is particularly traumatic given the fact that this country was once toasted as the world’s largest exporter of ammonia. The developments have been precipitated by a fall in natural gas prices that has made other markets cheaper as well as oversupply amid the covid19 economic crisis. Tringen I is due to shutter for maintenance some time in August as a response to current market conditions, according to the plant’s operator Yara International. This will be the second plant to be closed by Yara in the past six months. The plant was due to close on Tuesday but managed to secure a last-minute sale for export. Read more here
REGIONAL
‘IT’S ALL UP TO GECOM’
President David Granger said on Wednesday that now that the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has ruled on Guyana’s elections matter, the ball has been placed back into the courts of the Elections Commission which is now expected to continue the process towards a final declaration with consideration to the “massive” electoral fraud uncovered during the elections. Following the CCJ ruling yesterday, a group of supporters of the APNU+AFC gathered outside of State House and the President came out to speak with them. He said that, as far as the APNU+AFC is concerned, “massive” electoral fraud has been uncovered from the elections and his party will continue to fight to ensure that the valid votes of all eligible electors count. Read more here
King Valley Gang Trial | 44-Y-O Looks Forward To Dinner With Family, Restarting Farm After Acquittal
Copeland Sankey, one of the six alleged members of the King Valley Gang who were acquitted yesterday, said he is now anticipating rebuilding his business that was destroyed when he was wrongfully arrested by the police almost two years ago. The men, who were accused of terrorising the citizens of Grange Hill and its environs in Westmoreland, carrying out contract killings, rapes, and a string of bike robberies, leaving unsuspecting victims in fear, were found not guilty yesterday after Chief Justice Bryan Sykes ruled that the prosecutors did not provide enough evidence to convict them. Sykes also pointed to inconsistencies in statements given by the main witness, a self-proclaimed former member of the gang. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Trump scorns science -- and wants his scientists to do the same
President Donald Trump's fresh efforts to undermine medical and scientific experts and his failure to ask the country to make the sacrifices that could quell the coronavirus are consigning America to a constantly worsening pandemic with no clear route back to health. Trump recommitted to that strategy -- which defies the example of nations that have at least temporarily beaten back the virus -- by blasting the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on reopening schools on Wednesday as "very tough and expensive." Within hours, Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the White House coronavirus task force, said the CDC would issue new guidelines. Read more here
Coronavirus: Catalonia makes masks mandatory in public
9th July 2020