Daily Brief- Monday 2nd March, 2020

NEWS

Industrial Court president to serve on IMF tribunal

President of the Industrial Court of TT Deborah Thomas-Felix will be joining with judges from across the globe to form the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Administrative Tribunal according to a release from the Industrial Court on Sunday. Thomas-Felix who presided over the case between members of the Oilfield Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) and the now defunct Petrotrin in 2018, was appointed to the tribunal on March 1. She will be joining with judges from South Africa, the US, Spain and Lebanon to make up the tribunal which has responsibilities in resolving employment disputes between the IMF and their employees, the release stated. Read more here

Demerit Point System takes effect today

The UTURN Soft­ware Man­age­ment Sys­tem which in­tro­duces a De­mer­it Point Sys­tem for mo­torists across the coun­try goes live to­day. “This new mod­ern tech­no­log­i­cal plat­form will al­low for the full im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cles and Road Traf­fic Act No. 9 of 2017 for the in­tro­duc­tion of a De­mer­it Points Sys­tem, new Traf­fic Tick­et­ing Sys­tem, and Red-Light Cam­era En­force­ment Sys­tem in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” a re­lease from the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port sys­tem. In­tro­duc­tion of the soft­ware, which fa­cil­i­tates the process for mo­torists to be no­ti­fied via mail af­ter be­ing caught in breach of traf­fic reg­u­la­tions on cam­era, al­so in­volves dis­tri­b­u­tion of new Hand­held Mo­bile Traf­fic Tick­et­ing De­vices to of­fi­cers of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), Li­cens­ing Di­vi­sion and Traf­fic War­den Di­vi­sion, which will be put in­to use.” Read more here

 

POLITICS

Neurosurgeon suspended over alleged confidentiality breach

A visiting neurosurgeon has been suspended over alleged breaches of patient confidentiality, reported Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh. He was responding to a question in Parliament on Friday from Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe, who asked the reason for the suspension of privileges of Dr Peter Mayer and for a status update on the case. Read more here

Latt in uproar over PM's stand on impeachment of CJ

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has once again re­fused to re­con­sid­er his stance on the im­peach­ment of Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie. This time, the Prime Min­is­ter wrote to the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (LATT) mak­ing his view clear. “I have con­sid­ered, ful­ly tak­en in­to ac­count and ob­served the find­ings and state­ments of Mr Jus­tice (Vashiest) Kokaram in his judg­ment. I, there­fore, re­con­sid­er my de­ci­sion on the HDC (Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion) is­sue with an open mind and with­out re­gard to any po­lit­i­cal or oth­er mo­ti­va­tion on the part of the LATT,” he said. “Af­ter such con­sid­er­a­tion, I have de­cid­ed not to make a rep­re­sen­ta­tion to the Pres­i­dent un­der s137 of the Con­sti­tu­tion. I adopt those rea­sons for my said re­con­sid­ered de­ci­sion and do not set them out here. Read more here

 

BUSINESS

A pain for already hurting economy

The deadly coronavirus does not only threaten lives but will cast a dark and dangerous shadow over Trinidad and Tobago’s economy. Read more here

 

REGIONAL

Cruel Act! - 65-Year-Old Woman Allegedly Killed By Man 11 Years Her Senior

The children of 65-year-old Patsy Donaldson-Powell are in shock and have been overcome with grief after finding their mother with her throat slashed allegedly by a 76-year-old farmer who lives with his wife and children in Junction, St Elizabeth, but has a child with the deceased. The accused was taken into custody in connection with the murder of the woman, who was a livestock farmer of Exton district in Junction. According to the police, shortly after 6 p.m. on Saturday, Donaldson-Powell’s daughter, who lives next door to her mother’s house, came home and noticed that the lights inside her parent’s house were on and went to investigate. Read more here

‘We’re well prepared’

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has given the assurance that all systems are in place for smooth elections today as Guyanese go to the polls to elect a new government. Over 600,000 Guyanese are eligible to vote in the 2020 General and Regional Elections. “We are well prepared,” GECOM Chairman, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh told Kaieteur Radio on Sunday. “We are prepared to deliver free, fair and credible elections. Everything has been put in place towards transparency.” Read more here

 

INTERNATIONAL

EU launches 'coronavirus response team'

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has launched a "coronavirus response team", in an attempt to stem the spread of the disease across Europe. She also said the EU had raised its coronavirus risk level from "moderate" to "high". Read more here

Biden races to lock down moderates as Buttigieg exit rocks rapidly shifting Democratic race

Joe Biden is moving closer to consolidating the support of moderate Democratic voters and donors after a resounding victory in South Carolina and Pete Buttigieg's departure from the party's presidential race. The question heading into Super Tuesday is whether the former vice president and his growing momentum will be enough to keep pace in the delegate race with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. He'll also need to stave off former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose ads have blanketed the airwaves and social media apps in Super Tuesday states. Bloomberg could be positioned to be a spoiler for Biden, helping Sanders rack up delegates by dividing moderate voters. Read more here

2nd March 2020

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