NEWS
Stand-off in Sea Lots between residents, police
Sea Lots and residents and officers of the Guard and Emergency Branch (GEB) and the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) were engaged in an almost hour-long stand-off on Pioneer Drive on Wednesday afternoon after barricades were placed along the highway in protest. Newsday understands police from both units were called there at around 1 pm after receiving reports of burning rubbish in the area. Newsday went to the scene and saw that officers of the GEB armed with tear gas and riot gear kept a close watch on a group of residents who gathered at the top of Pioneer Drive, before warning them to stop blocking the roads. Read more here
Invasion of protected forested areas
Managing director of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) Hayden Romano says state agencies should develop policy position to end squatting and land grabbing. “People are saying the (state) agencies need to take action...and I am saying the agencies need to take action with a policy position.” Romano said that policy position should not change when a new government takes office. He made his comments against the backdrop of encroachment on environmentally-sensitive lands at Matura, Aripo and Nariva which the EMA safeguards. Those lands are under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner of State Lands (COSL). Read more here
POLITICS
Young: People 'jittery' over general election
National Security Minister Stuart Young said there was nothing untoward in the extension of the deadline for the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) to submit its tenth report. He was contributing to debate on the Miscellaneous Amendments (No 2) Bill in the House on Wednesday. Clause 22 of the bill seeks to amend the Elections and Boundaries Commission (Local Government and Tobago House of Assembly) Act by extending the existing deadline for the submission of the Tenth Report to June 11, 2021. Read more here
PM lays Roadmap Recovery report in Parliament
“Leave no-one behind and retain and create jobs.” That‘s among the core objectives of phase one of Government’s Recovery Roadmap report for T&T to pursue in its post-COVID-19 movement. Phase one of the report was laid in Parliament yesterday by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley. Around the same time he spoke, a heavy police presence in areas bordering the Parliament was dispersing with tear gas, a group of placard-bearing protestors who were heading for the Parliament. On the inside, Rowley noted the Roadmap team was created in April to identify and implement further solutions for T&T. Read more here
BUSINESS
Stage Gone Bad hitmakers score in music management
Andre Jeffers and Andrew Bailey barely had any experience when they approached soca legend Neil Iwer George and offered to be his managers. Best friends since their days at Naparima College in San Fernando, they both revered the iconic Water Lord growing up and were stunned he even offered to meet them. They were flabbergasted when he agreed to their plan. The premise was simple, so crazy that it just might work: give them five years and they would win Iwer the Road March title. And in Carnival 2020, they achieved that goal. Stage Gone Bad, sung by Iwer and featuring Kees Diefenthaller, was the clear winner, played 386 times – 291 more times than the second place winner Conch Shell – and giving Iwer his first Road March title since 2000. Read more here
PM tables first road map report
The World is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that is unleashing dramatic economic and societal disruptions, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday as he tabled in the House of Representatives the Report of the Road Map to Recovery, Phase One. Read more here
REGIONAL
Jurisdiction or no Jurisdiction?
Next Wednesday, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will hand down its decision on whether it can assume jurisdiction in a challenge seeking to set aside the ruling of the Court of Appeal that the election of the President must be on the basis of “valid votes.” President of the CCJ, Justice Adrian Saunders, who led a panel of five judges, made the announcement on Wednesday (July 1) after hearing more than five hours of legal arguments virtually on whether the CCJ has jurisdiction to hear the case filed by People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C’s) General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo and Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali; and if it has jurisdiction, whether the Court of Appeal’s decision that the words “more voters are cast” in Article 177 (2) (b) of the Constitution are interpreted to mean “more valid votes are cast,” should be upheld or set aside. The ruling will be delivered at 15:00hrs on Wednesday, July 8, 2020. Read more here
Scandal-Plagued Wheatley May Get Second Chance As Minister
Despite adverse findings against Dr Andrew Wheatley by the director of investigation at the Integrity Commission, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has hinted that he would not rule out appointing the embattled former energy minister in a future Cabinet. Asked by Radio Jamaica’s Dionne Jackson Miller during Wednesday’s digital press conference if he would return Wheatley to a new Cabinet after a general election, the prime minister suggested that his position on that issue remained unchanged from yesteryear. “My answer then would be an excellent answer for your question today (Wednesday),” said Holness, referencing a similar query asked in 2018 after Wheatley resigned in the wake of the then auditor general’s findings into allegations of malpractices at Petrojam. “I have paid close attention to public opinion. I’m always a believer in second chances, reforming, and redemption, but at this moment, there are still things to consider before that can happen,” said Holness in 2018. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Coronavirus: Dozens of countries not in UK quarantine
Dozens of countries will be exempt from a travel quarantine from Monday, UK government sources have indicated. Currently, most people arriving into the UK from anywhere apart from the Republic of Ireland have to self-isolate for two weeks. Ministers had previously indicated they were working to establish a relatively small number of travel corridors. Travel and tourism companies have been calling for urgent clarity over the corridors amid rising bookings. Last weekend, the government said it would relax its advice on travel abroad and would rate countries as either green, amber or red, depending on the prevalence of the virus. Now government sources have indicated that a very long list of countries is likely to be published by the end of this week. Read more here
Trump's anti-mask crusade is coming back to bite him
President Donald Trump's refusal to set an example by wearing a face covering, despite growing evidence that it may be one of the most effective ways to slow America's increasingly disastrous coronavirus pandemic, was always a political statement. Now, as the clinical and electoral damage builds from a resurgent virus that is close to racing out of control after another record day for new cases on Wednesday, the President may be edging, very slowly, toward a rethink. By going barefaced when everyone around him masked up, Trump created a false impression that the worst was behind us, that normality was about to come roaring back. He cemented his bond with grassroots supporters who see mask-wearing mandates as a sign of servitude to government and elites and an impediment to their rights. Read more here
2nd July 2020