NEWS
Parenthood sets up office in TT
The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched its second regional office for the Americas and Caribbean on Thursday, located at Reserve Road, Trincity Industrial Estate. The first office is in Colombia. The event was attended by regional director Eugenia Lopez Uribe and deputy regional director Dona Da Costa Martinez, among others. Lopez Uribe told reporters the TT office would complement the one in Colombia. "We're opening the office because we're re-building our presence in the region. It is very important to have the two locations to make sure America works better with the Caribbean and we give the space and effort required that the Caribbean needs in our fighting ensuring universal access to reproductive and sexual rights. It is also a matter of reproductive justice, social justice." Read more here
Scrap iron association ready to report errant dealers to save industry
Desperate to stop the Government from shutting down their industry, the Scrap Iron Dealers’ Association (TTSIDA) is threatening to report dealers who buy stolen metals to the police. Association president Allan Ferguson says it will not be difficult to find these errant dealers, as he announced a list of self-regulatory measures the TTSIDA will take to try to stop the thefts at a press conference on Thursday. “Don’t believe I won’t be coming in your yards and also before we act, we will call you in, we will tell you to straighten out your situation and if you don’t want to straighten out your situation, we will inform the authorities,” Ferguson said. Read more here
POLITICS
Hinds: Trinidad and Tobago worked hard to reduce human trafficking
National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said while the country has maintained its position in the US Trafficking In Persons Report 2022 from last year, the government made significant strides in hopes of doing better. “We were hoping to move higher up the ranking but I think we did well enough to have maintained the place that we were at from last year, that is to say Tier 2 Watch List and we are working with the United States in order to satisfy them because they are the assessors.” Hinds said some of the steps taken by the country between last year and this year was training and sensitising people, broadening the opportunities for detecting the offence and screening people. Those efforts, he said, were not considered enough to move TT up the rankings. In 2020 TT was ranked Tier 2 and dropped last year. Read more here
Moonilal tells Rowley: Take FUL report and clean your Tobago goat pen
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley must take the report into the T&T Police Service’s Firearm Users’ Licence (FUL) operations and clean his Tobago goat pen with it, since that is only to undermine Gary Griffith’s application for Police Commissioner, says UNC MP Roodal Moonilal. He made the comment at Thursday’s UNC media briefing in response to Rowley’s recent disclosure about the completed FUL report. Moonilal claimed the report was “part of a deepening conspiracy involving applications” for the CoP post and the UNC wasn’t surprised it arose when it became clear Griffith had reapplied for the post. Read more here
BUSINESS
Risanne’s sustainable Carnival dream
What if you could play mas and be socially responsible? Imagine playing mas and being environmentally friendly at the same time. It may sound far-fetched or not thought about at all by some, but it is coming very soon. This is the aim of Brown Cotton Caribbean with their Freedom Vibe Tribe line. Brown Cotton Caribbean is a sustainability-focused creative agency which is currently based in the Spice Isle Grenada. It is managed by two Trinidadian women Risanne Martin, its founder and Leah de Gannes. The brand is making waves as it recently released a sustainable Carnival Costume concept which will be worn by several masqueraders hitting the road in Grenada’s SpiceMas in the next couple weeks. This concept, Martin and Brown Cotton hope, will shape the Carnivals of the Future. Read more here
Set timeline for proclamation of act
Procurement Regulator Moonilal Lalchan said Attorney General Reginald Armour has asked the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR) to put together a timeline for the realistic proclamation of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act. The OPR and AG Armour met last Tuesday. Lalchan told members of Transparency Institute, in a Zoom meeting on Thursday night, that the OPR board will meet next Wednesday to formalise the timeline. And he’s optimistic it can be done in a reasonably short time. Read more here
REGIONAL
Blairmont estate being re-engineered to become profit centre for GuySuCo
With support from the government, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) will be re-engineering the Blairmont Sugar Estate to become a critical profit centre. According to a press release from GuySuCo, several plans are in the pipeline for the estate, which will be maximised for the production of bulk and packaged sugar to satisfy the existing demand for this commodity. Currently extension work on the sugar bond is being undertaken, and approximately 48 per cent of the work is completed. This is being done at a time when the estate has commenced harvesting of the second crop for 2022. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Capitol riot hearings: Eight key moments
The committee investigating the US Capitol riots has put the spotlight on the behaviour of former President Donald Trump as armed demonstrators invaded the seat of American democracy on 6 January 2021. The congressional committee - made up of five Democrats and two Republicans - has been look at the planning and execution of the attack that sent shockwaves around the world. Its members have called dozens of witnesses, all with the goal of building a case that Mr Trump launched an illegal bid to overturn his defeat at the hands of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and to retain power at all costs. The panel has suggested there might be enough evidence bring criminal charges against Mr Trump. Read more here
22nd July 2022