NEWS
Family of woman killed after covid19 lime: Learn from her death
Let the untimely death of Crystal Cazoe be a lesson to all that the government's stay-at-home regulations should be obeyed. This was the plea from Cazoe's relatives on Monday as they waited for her autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre in St James a day after the mother of four was killed in an accident along the North Coast Road in Las Cuevas after attending an illegal covid19 lime at Maracas Bay. Cazoe, 29, from Barataria, was a passenger in the tray of a panel van which collided with an embankment and then a light pole at 4 am on Sunday. Seven other people were injured. Newsday understands Cazoe and the others were returning from a boatride in Las Cuevas and were offered a ride by a fish vendor. Read more here
Crime will persist without counselling for vulnerable boys
Crime in Trinidad & Tobago will persist unless counsellors are placed in all schools to assist vulnerable children particularly boys, says Founder of International Men’s Day Dr Jerome Teelucksingh. Speaking to Guardian Media in observation of the International Day of the Boy Child, Teelucksingh said the biggest challenge facing boys are a lack of proper role models within the home, schools and community. He said a properly monitored mentoring programme should be launched in all communities, especially those where there are fatherless children. “This has to be monitored properly and assessed because we don’t want to know there is a mentoring programme where boys are physically or sexually abused,” he said. Read more here
POLITICS
Is Moonilal baiting Trump?
Former speaker Nizam Mohammed has questioned whether a letter from Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal to the US Ambassador to TT was meant to bait US President Donald Trump. Writing to the US ambassador as he did was reckless, crazy and to be condemned, said Mohammed. He said Moonilal’s inability to find a way to raise the issue in Parliament showed he was “slothful.” Read more here
Kamla: Reduce taxes, remove VAT from basic food items
Reduce taxes for citizens and businesses most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, remove VAT from basic food items to help people regain their feet and restart the Guaracara refinery. The recommendations are among a five-pronged economic manifesto plan which the Opposition has compiled to restore growth and transform T&T, post COVID-19.Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who presented the plan yesterday, is offering it to the Rowley Government to help T&T recover from the economic cost of the crisis. Read more here
BUSINESS
NGC/Touchstone/Heritage sign natural gas agreement
The NGC has signed a Framework Agreement with Primera Oil and Gas Ltd-- a wholly owned subsidiary of Touchstone Exploration Inc (Touchstone)--and Heritage Petroleum Company Limited (Heritage) for the supply of natural gas from Touchstone’s recent land discovery. In a media release the NGC said the gas discovery was made in the Ortoire Onshore Block in two wells, Coho and Cascadura. “The Coho-1 well is a natural gas discovery, and initial production rates are expected to be 10-12 MMscf/d. “Work is progressing to bring this well on stream in the third quarter of 2020,” the NGC noted. Read more here
Businesses: Time to reopen
With less than two weeks to go with Government’s stay-at-home order in effect, many business owners are clamouring for restrictions to be lifted, and a gradual reopening of the country. Read more here
REGIONAL
$822m return bill - Repatriating 5,000 Jamaicans could hit taxpayers hard
Taxpayers will fork out $64 million to pay for accommodation and food for 330 Jamaicans stranded overseas by the COVID-19 pandemic who will arrive back home this week. But Gleaner analysis projects that taxpayers would have to cough up another $758 million, at the Government’s new peg of US$1 to J$145, for accommodation and food if the remaining 4,670 Jamaicans who have expressed an interest to return be state-quarantined at US$80 per day per person for 14 days. All told, the price tag would hover around $822 million. Read more here
‘Full scrutiny’
THE Order, bringing into legal effect the National Recount of the votes cast at the March 2 General and Regional Elections, was published in the Official Gazette of Guyana on Monday, May 4. The gazetting of the Order now paves the way for the much-anticipated recount to commence on Wednesday, under the supervision of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), and the watchful eyes of scrutineers drawn from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
The price of reopening the economy: tens of thousands of American lives
President Donald Trump now knows the price of the haunting bargain required to reopen the country -- tens of thousands more lives in a pandemic that is getting worse not better. It's one he now appears ready to pay, if not explain to the American people, at a moment of national trial that his administration has constantly underplayed. Depressing new death toll projections and infection data on Monday dashed the optimism stirred by more than half the country taking various steps to reopen an economy that is vital to Trump's reelection hopes and has shed more than 30 million jobs. Stay-at-home orders slowed the virus and flattened the curve in hotspots like New York and California, but they have so far failed to halt its broader advance, leaving the nation stuck on a grim plateau of about 30,000 new cases a day for nearly a month. Read more here
New Zealand PM: No open borders for 'a long time'
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the country will not have open borders with the rest of the world for "a long time to come". Ms Ardern was speaking after attending part of Australia's cabinet meeting via video link. The meeting discussed a possible "trans-Tasman bubble", where people could go between Australia and New Zealand freely, and without quarantine. But she said visitors from further afield were not possible any time soon. Both Australia and New Zealand have closed their borders to almost all foreigners as part of their Covid-19 response. Read more here
5th May 2020