NEWS
No stop to violence – Killings, shootings, bodies found over weekend
After a series of shootings and murders last week, the violence continued over the weekend as three more murders were recorded between Saturday and Sunday. In the most recent incident the body of a 29-year-old Belmont man was found wrapped in garbage bags in St Anns on Sunday morning. Police said they received a report of passer-by seeing a body of a man on the bed of the St Anns River, beneath a bridge on Fondes Amandes Road, at around 11.30 am. Read more here
Omicron amps up concerns about long COVID and its causes
More than a year after a bout with COVID-19, Rebekah Hogan still suffers from severe brain fog, pain and fatigue that leave her unable to do her nursing job or handle household activities. Long COVID has her questioning her worth as a wife and mother. “Is this permanent? Is this the new norm?” said the 41-year-old Latham, New York, woman, whose three children and husband also have signs of the condition. “I want my life back.’’ More than a third of COVID-19 survivors by some estimates will develop such lingering problems. Now, with omicron sweeping across the globe, scientists are racing to pinpoint the cause of the bedeviling condition and find treatments before a potential explosion in long COVID cases. Read more here
POLITICS
UNC: What will Shanghai's hospital-project exit cost taxpayers?
UNC shadow minister of works and transport Dr Roodal Moonilal is calling on Udecott chairman Noel Garcia to reveal the nature of negotiations still being carried out with Shanghai Construction Group, as the contract for the construction of the Central Block of the Port of Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) had been terminated. Speaking at the UNC’s media conference on Sunday, he asked how the requirements of termination would be satisfied. Moonilal said the group’s notice of intention to terminate the contract told Udecott that it would expect full compliance with Clause 16.4 which explained how payment on termination should be undertaken. Read more here
Minister: Report on Mosquito Creek expected this week
The report into the partial collapse of the South Trunk Road which cost taxpayers $280 million is due this week says Works Minister Rohan Sinanan. An expanse of the crumbling revetment wall at Mosquito Creek has been dismantled even as Sinanan awaits the report. Speaking to Guardian Media Sunday, Sinanan confirmed that works are ongoing at the site. He said he was expecting to get a report pending the completion of investigations this week. “Once I get the report, we will issue a statement to the media,” Sinanan said. Read more here
BUSINESS
‘Highway failure may have unforeseen cause’
The Association of Professional Engineers of T&T (APETT) said yesterday that the cause of the failure of a section of the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension to Point Fortin at Mosquito Creek may have been “unforeseen phenomenon”. In a news release yesterday, APETT board member Richard Akong said: “The nature and extent of the current roadway failure may well be an unforeseen phenomenon resulting from increasingly changing environmental conditions influencing existing complex geological and therefore geotechnical challenges. Read more here
REGIONAL
1,000 affordable wooden houses to be constructed
The government will be constructing 1,000 houses utilising 100 per cent local wood as part of its efforts to provide affordable homes to Guyanese. This was announced by President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali on Sunday, via his Facebook page. He said the project forms part of the value-added scheme to the government’s housing programme. Since its ascension to office in August 2020, the administration has accelerated its national housing programme through the allocation of lands and the construction of low, moderate and young professional homes for citizens. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Trump offers chilling glimpse into possible second term
Former President Donald Trump conjured a vision of a second term that would function as a tool of personal vengeance, and become even more authoritarian than his first, when he vowed to pardon US Capitol insurrectionists if he runs for the White House again and wins. His pledge at a Texas rally Saturday was accompanied by a call for demonstrations if prosecutors in New York, who are probing Trump's business practices, and those in Georgia, looking into his attempts to reverse his election loss in the state, do anything that he defined as wrong or illegal. The comments underscore Trump's obsession with delusional lies that he won the 2020 election, and his determination to put that falsehood at the core of the Republican worldview. As was often the case during his four years in office, Trump's pardons threat shows that he still makes no distinction between his personal goals and the national interest or rule of law. Read more here
31st January 2022