NEWS

Child Protection Unit suggests 3 ways to protect your child this Carnival

The Child Protection Unit (CPU) of the TT Police shared tips on some of the ways to ensure that children are protected during the Carnival season during the weekly police press briefing held at the police administration building on Wednesday. Child Protection Unit Supervisor Valerie Hospedales said it was important to ensure that children are safe whether they were partaking in Carnival or not. “As parents and guardians it is our responsibility to properly survey our surroundings and proactively identify potential threats and take measures to neutralise or reduce them,” Here are some of the tips she shared that could protect your children from falling prey to criminals or predators this Carnival. Read more here

Two T&T nationals in China’s coronavirus district

There are two T&T na­tion­als in Chi­na’s Hubei province where the coro­n­avirus was found, in­clud­ing one in Wuhan city where the out­break be­gan, and they have to re­main there un­der quar­an­tine, Gov­ern­ment has con­firmed. The For­eign Af­fairs Min­istry is­sued a state­ment on the de­vel­op­ment yes­ter­day. The Min­istry stat­ed the two na­tion­als haven’t “ex­pressed any de­sire to be evac­u­at­ed at this time.” The de­vel­op­ment arose as the New York Times yes­ter­day re­port­ed Chi­nese of­fi­cials have con­firmed over 6,000 cas­es of the mys­te­ri­ous virus and 132 deaths. US and UK gov­ern­ments are air­lift­ing their cit­i­zens out of Wuhan, the out­break’s epi­cen­tre. But in­ter­na­tion­al con­cern has in­creased since the virus shows signs of spread­ing over­seas, with peo­ple who nev­er vis­it­ed Chi­na falling ill in Ger­many, Japan, Tai­wan and Viet­nam. Read more here

Naiee's final moments: She saved her friend

Christa Prevatt, who has promised to give her murdered friend a voice, says closed circuit camera footage of Naiee Singh's final moments has been released. And that was the only video that mattered, she said. Naiee Singh, 31, was shot dead by her estranged husband, Roger Singh, who then killed himself in the parking lot of Venture Cedit Union in Couva on Monday morning. Prevatt said, "Have you seen Naiee’s video? I have. It is on loop in my mind, different frames and views like they do in CSI, putting pieces together."

Prevatt then related details of her friend's final moments and the shooting which ended her life. Read more here

POLITICS

AG: Vast amount of legal action regarding police

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said this country is a very litigious society and he has seen “a vast amount of litigation” at the State concerning police activity. “And I compliment in particular Mr David West, who is the head of the Police Complaints Authority, for being in the communities on a constant basis alerting people to their rights and options as it relates to any perceived or potential abuse of the law.” He was responding to a question in the Senate on Tuesday from Opposition Senator Wade Mark on specific conditions that would allow a police officer to enter the home of a citizen without a search warrant. Read more here

Cabinet to discuss coronavirus plan today

On the heels of a coro­n­avirus scare in Ja­maica on Tues­day, Min­is­ter of Health Ter­rence Deyals­ingh will go to Cab­i­net to­day for ad­vice on how T&T should treat with pas­sen­gers on in­com­ing flights. He con­firmed the move while speak­ing on the Morn­ing Brew yes­ter­day. “How do we deal now with in­com­ing air traf­fic? There are var­i­ous op­tions. I took the de­ci­sion on Sun­day night that this now needs Cab­i­net in­ter­ven­tion and Cab­i­net would be re­ceiv­ing my in­for­ma­tion to­mor­row (to­day) and hope­ful­ly some sort of de­ci­sion would be tak­en to­mor­row (to­day) as far as trav­el is con­cerned”. There is glob­al con­cern over the mys­te­ri­ous coro­n­avirus which has now spread to 15 oth­er coun­tries af­ter first be­ing record­ed in the Wuhan province of Chi­na. Deyals­ingh de­clined fur­ther de­tails on the kind of trav­el re­stric­tions that may be un­der con­sid­er­a­tion, be­cause he didn’t want to “pre­empt Cab­i­net.” He said he would place his trust in the Cab­i­net to ad­vise him how to move for­ward. Read more here

BUSINESS

‘We need more DeNovos’

When the Iguana field was discovered in 1982, 43 kilometres off the west coast of Trinidad, it wasn’t immediately considered a viable asset. The industry was different then, DeNovo managing director Joel “Monty” Pemberton tells Business Day, with a surplus of gas, so wells that didn’t have a particularly commercial payload wouldn’t have been considered for investment. Now the industry has changed, and with gas curtailments constraining the country’s downstream energy sector, these smaller, previously ignored fields could hold the potential to mitigate that. “(There are) a lot of resources that can be explored and developed. That’s where the DeNovos of the world can lead the way. We’ve demonstrated it can be done and we are geared up to add to the benefit of the country by minimising the curtailments and we think the possibility is there,” he said. Read more here

Bookings for Carnival 2021 already taking place—hoteliers

If you are think­ing about book­ing a ho­tel room in or around Port-of-Spain for your friends and fam­i­ly to come for Car­ni­val 2020 then think again. Be­cause, ac­cord­ing to Tourism Trinidad Ltd (TTL), there is no room at the inn. A re­lease from TTL yes­ter­day said ho­tels with­in the Port-of-Spain and sur­round­ing en­vi­rons are present­ly wit­ness­ing a 100 per cent oc­cu­pan­cy rate for Car­ni­val 2020. In fact, some ac­com­mo­da­tion prop­er­ties in­di­cat­ed they were com­plete­ly sold out since June last year, TTL stat­ed. “In­deed, guests have al­ready be­gan to make book­ings for Car­ni­val 2021. This year’s Jan­u­ary and Car­ni­val sea­son is even bet­ter than in 2019 as there have been very few book­ing can­cel­la­tions,” it stat­ed. Tourism Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell, to­geth­er with TTL chair­man Howard Chin Lee, and TTL’s chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer, Hei­di Alert, host­ed a fo­rum for hote­liers on Jan­u­ary 22, to speak to Car­ni­val 2020 ex­pec­ta­tions and al­so to ad­dress any con­cerns and chal­lenges with­in the Trinidad’s ac­com­mo­da­tion sec­tor. Read more here

Is T&T’s exchange rate dysfunctional?

Last week, in this space, under the headline ‘Is Dr Rowley right on free float?’ several questions were raised regarding the position of the current administration that the free flotation of the TT dollar would disadvantage Read more here

REGIONAL

‘Bring Back My Son - US Legal Battle Looms To Force Mom To Send Boy Back To Jamaica

A father is making a public plea for the safe return of his son, who was taken to the United States by his maternal grandmother under the guise that the then six-year-old would be brought back to the island at the end of the 2018 summer holidays. The child, whose identity is being withheld by this newspaper, was taken overseas to spend time with his mother, Lacy-Ann Raymond, who migrated there in 2016. For the child’s father, Desmond McKenzie, what was to be a one-month visit has turned into a three and a half year nightmare and protracted legal battle to have his son back in his care. “I need to see my son. I need to speak with him. I need to know that he is okay. I didn’t know it would have been so difficult for me to even speak with my son, and I’ve tried so many mediums,” McKenzie said, indicating that he last spoke to his son in December 2018 when he turned seven years old. Read more here

‘We’ll put oil money in your homes’

AMID a diverse group of Guyanese from all walks of life, President David Granger reinforced the incumbent A Partnership for National Unit + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition’s commitment to improving the lives of every citizen, through tangible efforts such as disbursement of cash grants from the oil revenues. In making his case for a second term, President Granger said when the oil sector comes on stream, the bounty will be used for the betterment of every Guyanese. ExxonMobil and its partners have made 16 oil discoveries thus far in the Stabroek Block, the latest at the Uaru Well located northeast of the producing Liza field discovery. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Republican theory for Trump acquittal could unleash unrestrained presidential power

Impeachment was meant to punish Donald Trump's unrestrained use of his authority, but the grounds on which Republican senators plan to acquit him may instead give him a green light to use his power however he wants to win reelection. Trump's GOP defenders looking to end his Senate trial in the next few days are increasingly arguing that it's time to shut things down because even if Trump is guilty of coercing Ukraine for political favors, such conduct would not be impeachable. They are seizing on stunning arguments envisioning almost unchallenged presidential power and highly limited criteria for defining the abuse of power and impeachment laid out by a maverick member of Trump's legal team, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz. Read more here

Coronavirus: Death toll rises as virus spreads to every Chinese region

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has risen to 170, and a confirmed case in Tibet means it has reached every region in mainland China. Chinese health authorities said there were 7,711 confirmed cases in the country as of 29 January. Infections have also spread to at least 15 other countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) will meet on Thursday to again consider whether the virus constitutes a global health emergency. "In the last few days the progress of the virus, especially in some countries, especially human-to-human transmission, worries us," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. Read more here

30th January 2020

Back