NEWS
TT on the digital road
When he set out the economic future of TT in the reading of the 2020/2021 budget on October 5, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the country's development "must be anchored on the newly emerging digital model." Government's steps to the updated development model include the removal of taxes on devices including laptops and cell phones, allowances to businesses that invest in tech start-ups, businesses in tech solutions and those that create jobs in the tech industry. These fiscal measures take effect on January 1, 2021 and the budget reserves $3 million for each business model, an indication that government is further integrating information communication technology (ICT) in the operations of the state and daily lives of people. Read more here
UNESCO award gives Tobago tourism boost
North-East Tobago has been awarded the prestigious UNESCO Man and the Biosphere designation. The area is now the largest UNESCO site in the English-speaking Caribbean, spanning 15 communities from Belle Garden in the east towards Moriah in the northern part of the island. The announcement was made at the 32nd Sitting of the Man and the Biosphere International Coordinating Committee on Wednesday. Read more here
POLITICS
Imbert hits UNC’s Young family conspiracy
Finance Minister Colm Imbert said yesterday he does not know why the UNC keeps raising the issue of alleged impropriety involving a PNM MP’s family in relation to Government contracts awarded to NCB Global Finance. The Jamaican-based financial group is headed by Angus Young in Trinidad. He is the younger brother of National Security Minister Stuart Young and son of former Scotiabank TT managing director Richard Young. The bank has won tenders from the Government to raise $2.6 billion in debt capital for the State – or just under four per cent of the total $70 billion raised over the last five years, Imbert said. Read more here
BUSINESS
Touchstone drilling another exploration well ahead of schedule
Touchstone Exploration Inc has announced it has spudded the Cascadura Deep-1 well ahead of schedule. The company added it is currently drilling the surface hole to a planned casing depth of 900 feet. “The surface location is on the same drilling pad as the previously drilled Cascadura-1ST1 well with the bottom hole location anticipated to be 1,300 feet to the south east,” Touchstone said in a statement yesterday. It added the well is targeting three distinct Herrera thrust sheets and is designed for a total depth of 10,600 feet. The current drilling plan is based on a 45-day drilling schedule. Read more here
Broadway gas station to operate under Unipet
After more than 45 years of operating under the National Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd (NP) banner, businessman Reval Chattergoon’s service station in Broadway, Arima, will now bear the United Independent Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd (Unipet) logo. Read more here
REGIONAL
COVID-19 threatens fight against climate change
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has threatened the fight against climate change by diverting the world’s attention from environmental dangers, but President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, believes that there could be an integrated response once those issues are placed at the centre of advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The COVID-19 pandemic is having an increasingly serious impact on all countries and has exposed underlying vulnerabilities of health and social systems and the fragility of economies, especially among developing countries. Read more here
Proposals Made For Inmates Unfit To Plead
One human rights lobby has backed a raft of recommendations for improving the island’s justice system to prevent mentally ill persons accused of crimes being abused or detained in the penal system, where they could end up being lost for decades. The decades-old issue was thrown into the spotlight again earlier this year when 81-year-old Noel Chambers died in custody after being held for 40 years without a trial. He was one of 146 mentally ill people being held by the correctional department without trial, a report by the Independent Commission of Investigations revealed. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
China's military rise poses the greatest foreign policy challenge to the next US President
China was one of two countries, along with Russia, named in a 2018 Pentagon report as posing the most significant military challenge to the United States. Two years on and that challenge has only grown. Beijing's program of rapid modernization has seen its military transformed into a true global power, capable of comfortably projecting its forces throughout the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. Read more here
Covid: Are we heading back into a full lockdown?
There's no stopping the second wave of coronavirus, it seems, despite a bundle of new rules designed to do just that. Infection rates are rising rapidly, with estimates suggesting up to 100,000 people a day may be catching the virus. Across the Channel, France has admitted its regional approach is not working, by announcing a new national lockdown. Germany, to a lesser extent, is also planning one. Wales is in the middle of a short "fire-breaker" lockdown, in which bars, restaurants, churches and most shops have shut for a fortnight. So is a full-on UK-wide lockdown only a matter of time? Read more here
30th October 2020