NEWS
Energy company directors named
Directors have been named for the boards Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd, Paria Fuel Trading Company and Guaracara Refining Company Ltd. These three companies were formed as part of the restructuring of state oil company Petrotrin last year. A government source said former Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet will chair the boards of Heritage and Paria. Other members of the board of Heritage are Reynold Ajodhasingh, Selwyn Lashley, Joel Harding, Claire Gomez-Miller and George Leonard-Lewis. Read more here
Suspension of 5 QRC students engages LGBTQI community
The video depicting students of Queen’s Royal College having a heated verbal standoff over the sexual orientation and preferences of students has prompted a debate about accommodation for the LGBTQI community in secondary schools. Five QRC students were suspended for seven days after the video surfaced on social media, while the student who filmed and uploaded the clip may be deemed to have “brought the college into disrepute.” As a result, he may be barred from representing the school in sporting activities, attending graduation or being recommended for Sixth Form. Read more here
POLITICS
Gopee-Scoon: TT preparing for Brexit
Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon on Wednesday said TT was doing what it could to deal with the outcome of the Brexit process in the UK. On Tuesday the House of Commons rejected British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan for Britain to leave the European Union. The defeat was said to be the biggest for a government in the House of Commons for over a century. Gopee-Scoon said, "We continue to work together, doing the necessary legal scrubbing to ensure that we are ready for a UK agreement should that be the outcome." Read more here
Mayor: Don’t urinate around the Red House
Don’t urinate on the Red House, there are open and clean public washrooms in Port-of-Spain. This was a call made by Port-of-Spain Mayor Joel Martinez at City Hall yesterday as he lamented the public’s lack of concern for cleanliness in the city. “Today I was driving here, and I saw a gentleman urinating on the fence by the Red House. Took a picture of him and passed it on to the council. Now our infrastructure, which is our public convenience, is in Woodford Square. Just across the road, it’s clean,” lamented the mayor during a press conference. The mayor stressed that the City Corporation had started a programme to ensure all public washrooms are clean and open to the public. Read more here
BUSINESS
Duke: I am responsible for Sandals pullout
Minority Leader of the Tobago House of Assembly Watson Duke says THA chief secretary Kelvin Charles is right, he (Duke) was responsible for Sandals’ withdrawal from Tobago. Read more here
REGIONAL
US$738 Million Corruption Cost - Metry Seaga Demands Action To Cure Disease Eating Away Heart Of Jamaica
Jamaica continues to pay dearly for corruption, with an estimated five per cent of the gross domestic product lost each year to the practice, amounting to millions of dollars. This is a serious indication of the failure of successive administrations to do more than talk about this most egregious of crimes, according to president of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) Metry Seaga. "This is US$$738 million of our hard-earned money," the businessman told yesterday's weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Kingston at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Australia swelters through record-breaking heatwave
BuzzFeed: Sources say Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about proposed Moscow project
President Donald Trump personally directed his longtime former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project, two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter told BuzzFeed. The law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed that Trump directed Cohen to claim negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow ended months earlier than they actually did. The law enforcement sources told BuzzFeed that Cohen confirmed to special counsel Robert Mueller's team that Trump issued the order to lie to Congress. CNN has not corroborated the BuzzFeed report. Read more here
18th January 2019