NEWS
Coast Guard impounds, releases Venezuelan boat
A Venezuelan boat, carrying copper and scrap iron, was impounded for three days by Coast Guard officials on Thursday morning but was subsequently released without the cargo being offloaded. The boat, with three Venezuelan men on board, left Guira on Wednesday at 11 pm for the Port of Spain docks. Global Brokerage Ltd of San Fernando, is agent for the boat as well as broker for the Trinidad importer who bought the copper and scrap iron from a Venezuelan dealer. Read more here
Olatunji into next round of UK’s X Factor
T&T soca artiste Olatunji Yearwood has made it through to the next round of the United Kingdom’s X Factor show after delivering a very energetic performance of his hit “Bodyline” on one of the UK’s main competitive stages yesterday. Yearwood, 33, who was described as a “superstar” and who won the Soca Groovy Monarch/International Soca Monarch in 2015, wowed the judges – Simon Cowell, Louis Tomlinson, Robbie Williams and his wife Ayda Field – with his energetic performance, which he did in the company of two dancers. In the intro video leading up to his audition, Yearwood said he loves the UK and has been “coming up and down” since he was 15 years old as he has family there. He indicated that he thought the X Factor was the best stage to promote soca music worldwide. Yearwood ended the brief video clipping with his famous “Tadow” chant. Read more here
General strike on Friday
Trade unions representing workers for Trinidad and Tobago’s single largest employer, the Government, called yesterday on public and private sector workers to stay at home on September 7. A general strike in protest of the Government’s plan to shut down the State-owned Petrotrin refinery, in the first instance, is on, regardless of what Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had to say last night, labour movement leaders said yesterday. Read more here
POLITICS
Buy the Refinery
The Prime Minister last night said the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) will be given the first option to buy the Petrotrin refinery, which he described as non-viable, as the company shifts its focus to the extraction and export of crude oil. In a televised address to the nation, Dr Rowley spoke about last week’s announcement from Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet about the refinery’s intended closure, with the loss of 1700 jobs in refining plus the loss of 900 jobs in exploration and production (where staffing will fall from 1700 to 800 workers, according to Rowley.) Read more here
PNM membership to fund new Balisier House—Rohan
The new Balisier House, costing between $12.5 million and $25 million, will be funded strictly by fund-raising efforts within People’s National Movement (PNM) constituencies. One of the deputy political leaders yesterday pegged the cost for the new five-storey structure between $500 and $1,000 per square foot. The building is expected to be 25,000 square foot when completed. Rohan Sinanan, the Works and Transport Minister, said that despite the negative comments and questions about where the party would get the money to start the work, the PNM had been raising funds for the past two years for this project. “We have been having fund-raising activities, like boat cruises and other efforts, for the past two years for this project,” Sinanan said. Read more here
Kamla: Reconsider closing Petrotrin
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is calling on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to reconsider closing the Petrotrin refinery and to pursue a partnership with Guyana to refine its oil following new oil discoveries in the neighbouring country. Read more here
BUSINESS
Petrotrin US$ bonds
This week, we at Bourse examine the recent developments of Trinidad and Tobago’s State-owned oil refinery—The Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Petrotrin). On August 28, 2018, the company’s board announced its intentions to terminate the refinery and its marketing operations as well as reduce the company’s labour force. Read more here
REGIONAL
'This Is A Real Horror Story' ... Said Dad After Identifying Body Of Daughter Found In Igloo
Approximately three months had passed since he last spoke to his daughter. She had made the decision to move out of the family home and experience life independently, but unbeknown to Dr Pastor Amos Campbell was that he would never see his daughter alive again. On Tuesday, August 28 at approximately 1:25 a.m., the Manchester police found the body of a woman, with a slashed throat, wrapped in a sheet, in an igloo on the back seat of a Toyota Starlet motor car along Marshall's Pen Road in the parish. Two days later, fears were confirmed when Pastor Campbell positively identified the body as that of his 25-year-old daughter, Khyhymn Campbell. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
China's President Xi pledges another $60 billion for Africa
Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced a $60 billion package of aid, investment and loans to Africa, against a backdrop of growing concern about rising debt distress from Chinese loans to the continent. The announcement was made during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, a triennial meeting between senior Chinese leaders and their counterparts from across Africa. The financial package is the same amount Beijing pledged at the previous FOCAC summit in 2015, and is in line with analysts' expectations that Xi would not vastly increase the amount of Chinese money flowing into Africa. Read more here
Brazil's 200-year-old national museum hit by huge fire
3rd September 2018