Daily Brief - Tuesday 18th January, 2022

NEWS

Workers on the line as TSTT calls in unions on restructuring

Citing, among other things, a $453 million decrease in revenue in the last fiscal year, TSTT has called in trade unions representing its workers for talks on restructuring. This was revealed in a media release on Monday. The company blamed its losses on the covid19 pandemic and competition from new technologies, and suggested these negative effects would persist into the future. TSTT said the increased use of digital apps such as WhatsApp and communications platforms like Zoom has resulted in the steady erosion of traditional voice revenue. Read more here

Sources of 8 Omicron cases still being probed

There have been eight Omicron cases detected in the country which do not have immediately apparent sources of infection such as recent travel or contact with a COVID-19 positive patient. This was revealed yesterday by the Ministry of Health’s Epidemiology Division Technical Director Dr Avery Hinds during the ministry’s COVID-19 virtual update. Hinds said investigations are ongoing, adding that some of the patients may have come in contact with symptomatic cases. Read more here

 

POLITICS

UNC blames PM for using tear gas against protesters

The UNC and the COP have criticised the Prime Minister and the police for using tear gas to disperse protesters at the Queen's Park Savannah on Sunday. St Clair police and officers of the Guard and Emergency Branch fired tear gas at the protesters during the Push Back gathering. Police said 12 people were arrested but later released. Read more here

 

BUSINESS

FIU fingers State contractors for tax evasion

Recipients of State contracts were identified by the Financial Intelligence Unit of T&T (FIUTT) for tax evasion during the demonitisation exercise of the $100 bill in 2020. In an analysis published in its 2021 report, the FIUTT said that suspected tax evasion accounted for 71 per cent of the suspicious demonetisation reports, while money laundering accounted for 22.6 per cent of the reports. Read more here

 

REGIONAL

Local company to establish US$4M quarry in Region Two

With an increasing demand for construction materials across Guyana, local company M&B Construction plans to establish a US$4 million quarry on 1,250 acres of land located along the Essequibo River, Region Two. Named the Keriti Quarry Project, the proposed operation will be tailored to produce 300,000 tonnes of aggregate and boulders per year in its initial capacity, the company said in a project summary seen by this publication. According to the Institute of Quarrying, this activity involves the process of removing rock, sand, gravel, or other minerals from the ground, to use them to produce materials for construction or other purposes. Read more here

 

INTERNATIONAL

Texas synagogue hostage-taker was known to MI5

A British man who took four people hostage at a synagogue in Texas had been investigated by MI5. Malik Faisal Akram, from Blackburn in Lancashire, was the subject of an investigation in late 2020 but by the time he flew to the US he was assessed to be no longer a risk. The four people held hostage at the synagogue in Colleyville near Dallas were eventually freed unharmed, after a 10-hour siege. Akram, 44, was shot dead by police. He had been on the British security service's watchlist as a "subject of interest" in 2020 and was investigated in the second half of that year. Two teenagers remain in custody after being arrested in England as part of the investigation into what US President Joe Biden described as "an act of terror", but their ages and genders have not been released. Read more here

18th January 2022

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