NEWS
Two held for stealing from central businessman

Two men are in custody after they reportedly stole a quantity of cash from a Chaguanas businessman on Monday. According to a release from the police on Tuesday, the men ages 36 and 27 were held at their workplace along Endeavour Road, Chaguanas. Read more here

Two killed in Queen Street shooting

A shoot­ing in­ci­dent on Queen Street, Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, re­sult­ed in the deaths of two men and left a teenage girl hos­pi­talised with gun­shot wounds. Po­lice launched a mas­sive search for the killer, who they en­gaged briefly along East­ern Main Road with an ex­change of gun­fire. Three men were lat­er de­tained. Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, at about 2.25 pm gun­men alight­ed a white car and opened fire on a group of per­sons on Queen Street, near Dun­can Street. The gun­men then drove off. A re­port was made to the po­lice who re­spond­ed and found three per­sons suf­fer­ing from gun­shot in­juries. They were tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment. Read more here

POLITICS

Sharma: We are all Targets

Former Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma said TT is now a country where “anyone is a target” to senseless violence as he reacted to the death of his 38-year-old nephew Dr Rudradeva Sharma, who was abducted with a colleague on Tuesday night. Sharma said he and his relatives were struggling to come to terms with the his nephew’s death but he is not blaming the authorities at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) or the South-West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA). Read more here

Duke wants sedition charge dropped

Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke wants his Au­gust 2019 sedi­tion charge dropped in light of the rul­ing by jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad ear­li­er this week pro­nounc­ing sec­tions 3 and 4 of the act to in­fringe on the rights of an in­di­vid­ual. “I have been a vic­tim of bad jus­tice...when we go to court, my at­tor­neys are pre­pared to ask that this mat­ter be dropped com­plete­ly be­cause the ho­n­ourable Frank Seep­er­sad ruled that the law is il­le­gal. It is null, void, and has no ef­fect,” Duke said in a press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day. The se­di­tion charge against Duke re­lates to state­ments on pro­posed lay­offs at TSTT, T&TEC, and WASA, which he made in a press con­fer­ence on No­vem­ber 16, 2018. Read more here

BUSINESS

Healthy minds priceless for life in TT

Modern life is hectic. Between work, traffic and just living, there’s so much packed into one day that it’s hard to find time to just sit quietly, take a deep breath and reflect on your day. But, as psychotherapist and yoga instructor Simone Da Costa advises, that’s exactly what you should do – even if it’s just for five minutes – as a way to bring some order to the chaos. “I know it’s hard. You have all these things to do. Read more here

Patriotic meets government

Pro­duc­tive dis­cus­sions be­tween a gov­ern­ment team and Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies and Tech­nolo­gies Com­pa­ny Ltd and oth­er stake­hold­ers yes­ter­day. Pa­tri­ot­ic is the pre­ferred bid­der for the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery. They were ac­com­pa­nied to the talks with the eval­u­a­tion com­mit­tee and a Cab­i­net sub-com­mit­tee com­pris­ing of Stu­art Young in the ca­pac­i­ty as Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Robert Le Hunte, Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties and Franklin Khan, Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries (MEEI), by their in­ter­na­tion­al ad­vis­ers. The Min­istry of En­er­gy de­scribed the meet­ing as "very pro­duc­tive," say­ing the main ob­jec­tive "be­ing the restart of the re­fin­ery." Read more here

Ministry: Refinery to be inspected ahead of restart

The Ministry of Energy said yesterday that it is focused on restarting the Pointe-a-Pierre oil refinery, which was the main objective of a meeting yesterday between Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company and the Government. Read more here

REGIONAL

CMU Plunder - Pinnock, Education Ministry Officials Rapped For Culture Of Cover-Up, Splurge

A trail of questionable spending, flagrant human-resource breaches, and other violations of government protocol has been uncovered at the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) in a much-anticipated Auditor General’s Special Audit Report. The revelations have again thrust Ruel Reid, the embattled former minister of education, and Fritz Pinnock, CMU president, into a whirlwind of controversy a week before they are slated to appear before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on corruption, fraud, and misappropriation charges. Read more here

PM, Dr. Cummings to headline APNU+AFC Brooklyn rally today

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Karen Cummings will, today, headline an APNU+AFC coalition re-election campaign rally in Brooklyn, New York. The event will take place at the prominent Grace Christian Church of Adventist, located at 434 DeWitt Street, Brooklyn NY 11207, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Prime Minister Nagamootoo and the Foreign Affairs Minister travelled to New York to participate in the official handing over of the G77 chairmanship to Guyana, which took place on Wednesday. Dr. Cheddi Jagan, Jr., son of late PPP leader and former President of Guyana President, Dr, Cheddi Jagan, is expected to endorse President David Granger and the APNU+AFC coalition for re-election. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Trump shows that impeachment will not moderate him

President Donald Trump is not waiting to be acquitted of impeachable crimes to show that no one can stop him doing what he wants to do. No Constitution, Democratic House, code of accepted presidential behavior, foreign Islamic Republic, common notion of proportionate force, media fact checker or legal precedent is going to rein him in. On a day that was an apt leitmotif for his administration, Trump was formally accused of abusing power and obstructing Congress when Democrats finally transmitted articles of impeachment to the Senate. He then simply pressed on with the kind of unfettered conduct and violation of governing conventions that that got him in trouble in the first place, showing that for him impeachment might be a stain, but it won't be a lesson. Read more here

Sir David Attenborough warns of climate 'crisis moment'

"The moment of crisis has come" in efforts to tackle climate change, Sir David Attenborough has warned. According to the renowned naturalist and broadcaster, "we have been putting things off for year after year". "As I speak, south east Australia is on fire. Why? Because the temperatures of the Earth are increasing," he said. Sir David's comments came in a BBC News interview to launch a year of special coverage on the subject of climate change. He told me it was "palpable nonsense" for some politicians and commentators to suggest that the Australian fires were nothing to do with the world becoming warmer. "We know perfectly well," he said, that human activity is behind the heating of the planet. Read more here

16th January 2020

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