NEWS

Floods, quakes jolt TT out of complacency

Recent floods and earthquakes have jolted TT out of its sense of complacency and forced the country to consider the “what ifs.” American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) president Patricia Ghany made his observation yesterday at the opening of Amcham’s 2018 Health Safety, Security and Environment conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain. Ghany said against this background, people must now think about how to proactively prepare for a serious geophysical event. Saying people can no longer solely cling to the belief that “God is a Trini,” Ghany said, “If we look beyond the economics, we are not prepared for full scale disaster in TT.” Read more here

Process of recovery starts

The first steps of re­build­ing af­ter a dis­as­ter are al­ways the hard­est but with the aid of help­ing hands, thou­sands of peo­ple who lost al­most all of their pos­ses­sions af­ter flood­wa­ters swept through their homes are be­gin­ning to slow­ly re­cov­er. Cit­i­zens abroad are al­so reach­ing out to help and or­gan­is­ing re­lief dri­ves to gath­er much-need­ed sup­plies to send to T&T. At­ten­tion has now turned to the spread of po­ten­tial dis­eases which come af­ter such nat­ur­al dis­as­ters and clear­ing de­bris from wa­ter­ways. Con­sumers are al­so be­ing ad­vised to be care­ful when pur­chas­ing veg­eta­bles and oth­er or­gan­ic foods. Read more here

POLITICS

Baptist minister wants govt to rethink restorative justice

A Baptist minister wants legislators to rethink their position on the reform of prisoners and give back some control to prison officers as inmates call “hits” on their lives. During his sermon at the funeral of murdered prison officer Darren Francis on Monday, Pastor Earl Ellis reacted to statements from acting Attorney General Fitzgerald Hinds, that all control has been taken away from prison officers in the quest to initiate a more restorative approach. Hinds said this approach may be one of the reasons why prison officers are at risk today. Read more here

Griffith: Protesters must obey law

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has tak­en a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach to cit­i­zens who in­tend to block roads when car­ry­ing out protest ac­tion. Speak­ing at the week­ly po­lice press brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing in Port-of-Spain on Wednes­day, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith re­peat­ed­ly said such mea­sures had no place in a mod­ern so­ci­ety. "I am not say­ing it is not your right to protest, but I am humbly plead­ing with the pub­lic that the days of block­ing roads and burn­ing bridges and in­fring­ing on the rights of oth­ers to free­dom of move­ment has to stop," he said. Read more here

BUSINESS

Sandals gives $.3m to flood relief efforts

The Sandals Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sandals Resorts International, has donated US$50,000 (TT$335,000) to help the country with flood relief efforts. Read more here

REGIONAL

Major Drainage Upgrade For Tinson Pen After Flood

The Government has announced plans for the construction of "significant" drainage infrastructure capable of managing the magnitude of water that rendered the roadway in the vicinity of Tinson Pen impassable for hours on Tuesday, following heavy rain. There will also be a realignment of Marcus Garvey Drive for expansion of the port and a new link road between Spanish Town Road and Marcus Garvey Drive. Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie made the announcement during a tour of the area yesterday. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Khashoggi killing was premeditated, Saudi attorney general says

The killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate was premeditated, the country's attorney general said Thursday. According to the statement posted by the Saudi state news agency, the latest evolution in the official version of events surrounding Khashoggi's death came after new information was received from Turkish investigators. Read more here

Europe markets calm after Asia and US sink

European share markets have steadied after big falls in Asian stocks that followed a bruising trading session on Wall Street. Tokyo stocks slumped more than 3%, while losses pushed the US Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 into negative territory for the year. European markets followed suit at first, but had risen by lunchtime, with London's FTSE 100 up 0.17%. Concerns over corporate profits and slowing growth have rattled investors. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 2.4% to 24,583.4 points, while the S&P 500 plunged 3.1% to 2,656.1 points on Wednesday. Read more here

25th October 2018

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