NEWS
‘He died in his dad’s arms’
“After being shot over and over, he died in his father’s arms.” This was how Denise Williams described the final moments of her 15-year-old son Jahdil Xavier’s life, as she recalled on Monday when the teen was gunned down at home in Arima on Sunday night. She said it is so unfair that Jahdil will never get the chance to fulfil his dream of being a web designer. Police said he was killed at about 7.30 pm a few houses away from his own. Police said the youngster was liming with two friends on the road, when they were approached by two gunmen. As the men raised their weapons, the limers ran off in different directions, with Jahdil choosing to run into a house while his friends ran in opposite directions on the road. Read more here
Scavengers threaten to shut down PoS market
Scavengers who clean the Central Market say the Port-of-Spain City Corporation has been forcing them to do two jobs for one salary for over a year. In a protest at the market in Port-of-Spain yesterday, the workers say they are giving Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley one week to respond to their plight or they are shutting down the market. Led by shop steward from the Amalgamated Workers’ Union, Alwin Jeffrey, the workers clapped and sang, calling for justice for themselves. As they sang, one worker kept shouting, “Market workers matter!”, taking a page from the Black Lives Matter movement that is currently sweeping the globe. Read more here
POLITICS
Ministry mindful of capacity, cost for covid19 treatment
The government has been mindful in managing it's resources and finances when attempting to contain and treat people diagnosed with the coronavirus. Responding to concerns over a possible saturation of the parallel healthcare system in TT by coronavirus patients, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram sought to assure the public that there were adequate resources in place to house potential cases. Parasram made the remarks during the Ministry of Health's virtual media conference on Monday, in which he said there were enough facilities available to adequately accommodate over 100 suspected covid19 patients. Read more here
Nakhid: PNM has failed Tunapuna
Former local and international footballer David Nahkid yesterday blasted the People's National Movement (PNM) for what he sees as its poor representation of the people of Tunapuna over the past 43 years. "The People's National Movement always say 'great is the PNM and never great is T&T. You realise that? They have always been more about party than people," Nahkid said in a telephone interview yesterday. "Forty-three years out of 58 years, this is a PNM government, now and before that has never sought to uplift the national community out of that race division," Nahkid said. Read more here
BUSINESS
PowerGen to host virtual meeting about tower demolition
The Wrightson Road skyline is set to undergo a significant facelift soon as the Power Generation Company of T&T Limited (PowerGen) has announced plans to demolish its Port-of-Spain power plant and its iconic four towers. As a result of this planned work, PowerGen is now inviting members of its neighbouring community to a virtual public consultation on Thursday. PowerGen said the planned schedule of works on the decommissioning and demolition of its Port-of-Spain power plant will be conducted “in accordance with industry standards in Health, Safety, and Environment.” The virtual public consultation is scheduled to be held at 5 p.m. on Thursday. Read more here
BP takes $17.5b Covid hit
BP says it will cut the value of its oil and gas assets by as much as US$17.5 billion and review plans for some oil wells as the Covid-19 pandemic reduces demand for oil and gas and forces major energy companies to speed up the shift away from fossil fuels. Read more here
REGIONAL
‘Short on facts’
Elections Commissioner Vincent Alexander, though not dismissing the Observation Report compiled by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Observation Team, said it failed to take into full consideration the impact voter impersonation would have on the 2020 General and Regional Elections, on the simple basis that it was not privy to the records that confirmed that electoral fraud had in fact taken place. “[The] CARICOM Report, essentially, is a basic electoral report. I don’t think the CARICOM people were disposed, or had access, to the death information or the immigration information…,” Alexander told reporters on Monday, while explaining that whereas the three-member delegation was aware of the allegations, it was not in possession of the official records submitted by the Immigration Department and the General Registrar’s Office. Read more here
TRANSPORT HIKE - Shutdown Looms As Busmen, Cabbies Demand Fare Rise
Bus and taxi operators have threatened to shut down Jamaica’s transport sector next Monday if their demand for a 100 per cent fare increase is not met. They have also singled out Transport Minister Robert Montague for criticism for the sector’s “chaka chaka” state. Egeton Newman, head of the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS) grouping, said at Monday’s press conference at the Half-Way Tree Primary School that the Government has been given seven days to respond. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
North Korea blows up joint liaison office with South in Kaesong
Trump's wish for an end to the pandemic contradicts reality
President Donald Trump has no intention of accepting any new normal dictated by the coronavirus pandemic. His big return-to-the-campaign trail rally set for Saturday night is dramatic proof of that. The event in Oklahoma will be an extraordinary moment, even in a presidency that has often defied credulity. In effect, it will be one of, if not the first, mass participation events indoors anywhere in the world in months. Trump's 20,000-strong crowd will be packed together, flouting social distancing, at a moment when major North American sports leagues are weeks away from playing games -- without spectators amid fears of creating "super-spreader" events. Read more here
16th June 2020