NEWS

NGO appeals to govt, opposition to unite against crime

Reacting to the police alert being raised to the red and highest level, an NGO is making a strong appeal for government and the opposition to unite in the fight against crime. RebuildTT Gregory Lal-Beharie said the lawlessness is hampering economic growth and is a disincentive for foreign investment. Read more here

New plot uncovered to kill Griffith

A new plot has been un­cov­ered to as­sas­si­nate Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith by two in­car­cer­at­ed gang lead­ers and one of their as­so­ciates. In­tel­li­gence sources say the con­tract to kill was con­nect­ed to the hu­man traf­fick­ing bust which oc­curred last Wednes­day. The in­for­ma­tion is com­piled in a con­fi­den­tial re­port pre­pared by the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team on Feb­ru­ary 8. Read more here

POLITICS

Gadsby-Dolly denies funding crisis at NCC

Amid doubts over funding for Carnival-related activities, Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts Nyan Gadsby-Dolly is denying there is a funding crisis at the National Carnival Commission (NCC). She also defended her ministry’s decision not to release all the fundsto the NCC before Carnival, because the total sum is not for Carnival activities alone. A release from the mnistry said, “Minister Gadsby-Dolly firmly denies any funding crisis at the commission and reiterates that “the NCC’s total allocation is not solely for the events of Carnival and therefore there is no requirement for the Commission to receive its total allocation before Carnival.” Read more here

Stakeholders: We’re willing to be inconvenienced

Stake­hold­ers across the coun­try are will­ing to be in­con­ve­nienced as law en­force­ment agen­cies move to bring down the crim­i­nal el­e­ments. On Wednes­day, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young and Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith warned the pub­lic to ex­pect some lev­el of in­con­ve­nience as law­men launch an in­tel­li­gence-dri­ven op­er­a­tion tar­get­ed at crim­i­nals in cer­tain com­mu­ni­ties. The Po­lice Ser­vice al­so raised the polic­ing alert from “Am­ber” to “Red” as a re­sult of on­go­ing gang ac­tiv­i­ties. With­in the last few weeks, Sea Lots, East Port-of-Spain, Care­nage and En­ter­prise have been plagued by gang and gun vi­o­lence. Yes­ter­day, stake­hold­ers shared their views on the new crime-fight­ing ini­tia­tive, stat­ing that they are pre­pared to be in­con­ve­nienced to put the crim­i­nals be­hind bars. Read more here

BUSINESS

Neisha, the Energybae

Neisha Ramdass has made herself a regional name in the energy sector and will be speaking and moderating at a global energy forum to be held in Panama next month. She will speak on a panel titled Disrupting Dependency: How can the Caribbean say goodbye to fossil fuel imports. She will also be moderating another panel called, Caribbean islands and their potential as microcosms of sustainability. In 2017, as a member of the audience, she had attended the Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum, where she realised how expensive the switch from fossil fuels to renewables could be, especially for the cost of utilities. Read more here

Ministry of Finance, CBTT holding up NCB takeover of GHL

Jamaica’s NCB Financial Group (NCB) is facing another stumbling block in its bid to acquire a majority stake in T&T’s Guardian Holdings Ltd (GHL). Read more here

REGIONAL

Big Boost For Crime Fight - Billions More To Beef Up Police, Army; $1b For Cop Cars, $3.7b For Aircraft

The Jamaican Government will be ramping up its fight against crime, rolling out new legislation geared at giving the security forces greater powers and allocating $9.2 billion more to the Ministry of National Security than fiscal year 2018-19. The Government is projecting to spend approximately $803.2 billion in fiscal year 2019-20, which begins on April 1, about $700 million more than its revised Budget of $802.56 billion in fiscal year 2018-19, suggesting a comparatively flat Budget. Debt payments account for almost 34 per cent of planned expenditure, with $136.12 billion set aside for interest payments and $138.3 billion allocated for amortisation, or debt maturity. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Brexit vote breaks down 'fragile Tory truce'

Plasters lose their stick, revealing the hurt underneath. And the fragile patch that was covering the Tory truce has been well and truly torn. Just when Theresa May wanted to show the European Union that she could hold her party together to win, she lost. And at home the prime minister has been shown in no uncertain terms that she simply can't count on the factions in her party to come through for her. There were, and still are, suspicions among Eurosceptics that the prime minister doesn't really mean it when she says we'll leave at the end of March, whatever happens. It's no secret that a significant number of government ministers would push as firmly as they could to stop that happening. And on show in Parliament, an increasing determination to make that impossible. That explains the demand from Brexiteers for reassurance that Mrs May is still willing to follow the existing law and leave, whatever happens. Read more here

Republicans pay the price for Trump's wall crusade

Republicans might be resorting a lot more often to prayer -- the new strategy several senators have adopted for dealing with their capricious President -- because of the forces unleashed by the latest fraught moment of the Trump era. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did manage to avert the political disaster of a new government shutdown by securing a pledge Thursday that President Donald Trump will sign a federal funding bill that lacks money for his wall. But he may be paying the price for years to come. Read more here

15th February 2019

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