NEWS
10-year-old shot in Carenage in ongoing Trinibad gun violence
A ten-year-old boy was shot in the left foot on Monday afternoon when gunmen started shooting at a car at Upper Benedictine Street, Carenage. Police reported that the shooters were aiming at the 24-year-old driver when the child, who was nearby, was shot. The driver was injured in both hands, police said, and was taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital. Police said the child, who lives at Benedictine Street, was a bystander when the shooting took place around 4 pm. The intended target, who also lives at Benedictine Street, and the child are not related. Read more here
SEA results to be released July 3
The Ministry of Education (MoE) has revealed that results for the 18,797 pupils who wrote the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) 2023 will be released via the Ministry’s SEA Online Portal at https://searesults.moe.gov.tt/ on July 3 at noon. In a media release yesterday, the ministry said to access the results, parents/guardians must visit the SEA Portal at www.moe.gov.tt. It reminded parents that no hard copy results slips will be available. The ministry said the following information from the SEA admission slip will be required: student’s date of birth, student number and admissions number. Read more here
POLITICS
LGE candidates concerned about crime, poverty, infrastructure
Crime, poverty and the repair and maintenance of roads and other infrastructure are among the chief concerns that several candidates who put in their nomination papers for the local government election intend to address once elected. Several candidates raised those issues as the key needs of the people of Port of Spain as they applied for candidacy at the OWTU and Communication Workers Union offices on Henry Street on Monday. UNC candidate for Belmont North and West Chantal Subero said there was a significant amount of unemployment among youths, which she believes is a key contributor to another area of concern for Port of Spain – crime. Read more here
Paria widow to run for UNC in Local Elections
The United National Congress is hoping that the widow of one of the divers in the Paria tragedy would take home a marginal seat in the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation (CTTRC) in the upcoming Local Government Elections. Vanessa Kussie, 48, shot into the spotlight when her husband, Rishi Nagessar, and four of his LMCS colleagues were sucked into a 30-inch underwater pipeline at the No 36 Sealine riser on Berth #6 at Paria Trading Company Ltd, Pointe-a-Pierre, on February 25, 2022. Kussie and the other families remained in the national spotlight for months after the underwater maintenance exercise took a deadly turn. Read more here
BUSINESS
Paria’s profit jumps 58.8%
Paria Fuel Trading Ltd has declared after-tax profit of $257.3 million for the financial year ended September 30, 2022, a 58.8 per cent increase over the $162 million the company reported in its 2021 financial year. The wholly state-owned company reported an 80.6 per cent increase in its revenue from contracts with customers, which jumped to $14.1 billion in its 2022 financial year from $7.8 billion in 2021. Paria said that of the total of 15.2 million barrels of product sold, some 7.3 million barrels were supplied to the local market for the period ending September 30, 2022. That compares to 14.5 million barrels of product sold in the 12-month period ending September 30, 2021, of which 6.5 million barrels was sold on the local market. In his report accompanying Paria’s audit, the company’s chairman, Newman George, said its performance was “driven by increasing prices on the international market.” Read more here
Budget day in Tobago FARLEY WANTS $4.5b
Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Farley Augustine has requested an allocation of $4.54 billion from the Central Government to run Tobago over the next fiscal year. Presenting the THA’s draft budget estimates for fiscal 2023/2024 in the Assembly Legislature yesterday, Augustine slammed the Government for “tiefing from Tobagonians” over the years. He also took aim at Finance Minister Colm Imbert for his “illegal conduct” of “single-handedly” reducing the amount of money approved by the Parliament for the THA. Read more here
REGIONAL
Collaborative, comprehensive approach to be taken to tackle country’s drug-abuse issues
Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Monday emphasised that a collaborative effort between the relevant stakeholders is needed to tackle drug-abuse issues in the country. He made this remark during a ceremony that was held to observe International Day against Illicit Trafficking and Drug Abuse. According to Dr Anthony, the health ministry has approached this issue from a medical perspective to help ascertain the best measures or ways to prevent these types of habits from developing. He noted that medical professionals believe that the school system is the best place to start, as it is here that children of all ages can be educated about the harmful effects of drugs. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Climate change: Deforestation surges despite pledges
An area of tropical forest the size of Switzerland was lost last year as tree losses surged, according to new research. It means that a political pledge to end deforestation made at COP26 by world leaders is well off track. Some 11 football pitches of forest were lost every minute in 2022, with Brazil dominating the destruction. But a sharp reduction in forest loss in Indonesia shows that reversing this trend is achievable. Read more here
27th June 2023