NEWS

Living Water founder gets German award

Director and founder of the Living Water Community Rhonda Maingot on Tuesday night received the Franco-German Award for Civil Society Action, for her decades of philanthropy and charity work for socially displaced people in TT. Speaking at a handing-over ceremony at his Scott Street, St Clair, home, German ambassador Holgen Michael commended Maingot and her team for their years of commitment to improving the lives of others and said the occasion was also a special one as it celebrated 56 years of continued diplomatic ties between Germany and France. Read more here

Sobion to show off his artistic skills in Switzerland

It was just last year T&T at­tor­ney Justin So­bion, a St Mary’s Col­lege alum­nus and son of late At­tor­ney Gen­er­al/Min­is­ter of Le­gal Af­fairs Kei­th So­bion, was ap­point­ed as an As­so­ciate Hu­man Rights Of­fi­cer in the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent of the UN Hu­man Rights Coun­cil in Gene­va, Switzer­land. To­mor­row, So­bion who is al­so a well-known artist, will stage his art ex­hi­bi­tion “I’m from the Caribbean” to a Swiss au­di­ence and Caribbean di­as­po­ra at Life of Art Stu­dio, Gene­va, Switzer­land. The se­ries will show­case 25 orig­i­nal pieces of the artist’s work and will il­lus­trate his trade­mark splash­ing colours fused to­geth­er with poignant in­flu­ences from the re­gion where he was born and raised. Read more here

POLITICS

‘Wrong to say we did nothing’

Minister of National security, Stuart Young, said it was wrong to say TT authorities did nothing to get the Ferreira boys out of Syria and repatriated with his mother to Trinidad. At a press conference at his office in Port of Spain yesterday, he said when the International Red Cross approached the government in July last year about the boys being in a refugee camp in Syria, and wanting government assistance in dealing with it, he immediately set about establishing a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency team that was dubbed Team Nightingale. Read more here

Duke confirms opposition Tobago parties in unity talks

Leader of the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) Wat­son Duke has con­firmed that op­po­si­tion par­ties in To­ba­go are hold­ing talks to form a po­lit­i­cal en­ti­ty to fight the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions due in 2021. This fol­lows a call by Wen­dell Berke­ley, Vice Chair­man of the PNM's To­ba­go Coun­cil, for all op­pos­ing par­ties to de­clare their po­lit­i­cal al­le­giance. Speak­ing at the To­ba­go Coun­cil's press brief­ing at the par­ty’s head­quar­ters in Scar­bor­ough on Wednes­day, Berke­ley said po­lit­i­cal par­ties are again “team­ing up” to beat the PNM. Read more here

BUSINESS

Blows for West over ‘shanty town’ comment

San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello has put the love of his city over party politics. He is criticising Minister in the the Ministry of Finance, Allyson West, for referring to San Fernando as becoming more of a shanty town. Read more here

REGIONAL

Ja Silent On ‘New Leader’ As Protests Rock Venezuela

Jamaica yesterday steered clear of endorsing Juan Guaido, Venezuela’s opposition leader, as interim president, even though the politician declared himself so in a defiant speech amid widespread protests against putative head of state Nicolas Maduro. United States President Donald Trump said yesterday that he recognised Guaido as the new president, a sentiment that found approval with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. While Jamaican Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith skirted the issue in a brief statement to the press issued yesterday afternoon, her comments at a British Broadcasting Corporation World Service Radio World Questions forum last Tuesday suggested that Jamaica may take a different tack from its northern neighbours. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Venezuela crisis: Maduro cuts ties with US after it recognises opposition leader

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has broken off relations with the US after it recognised opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim leader. Mr Maduro gave US diplomats 72 hours to leave the country but the US said the "former president" no longer had the authority to order them out. On Wednesday, Mr Guaidó had declared himself president during mass protests. The US has urged the military to back Mr Guaidó, but so far it has remained loyal to Mr Maduro. Read more here

Pelosi claims win over Trump in State of the Union showdown

Nancy Pelosi isn't giving an inch.

The House speaker, fortified by brutal polling for Donald Trump, refuses to provide the President an easy way out of his own political box as the government shutdown sparked by his demand for a border wall drags into a 34th day. In his latest skirmish with Pelosi, Trump effectively admitted defeat late Wednesday and conceded that he would not be able to give his State of the Union address until after the shutdown ends. Earlier in the day, he had publicly thrown down a gauntlet and tried to force the speaker to back down over her refusal to let next Tuesday's showpiece speech take place in the House chamber. Read more here

24th January 2019

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