NEWS

JSC told, rice industry down the drain

The country’s rice industry is “on the brink of total collapse”, National Rice Farmers Association head David Paponette yesterday told Parliament’s Joint Select Committee (JSC) on State Enterprises chaired by Anthony Vieira. The committee heard no-one wants to buy the Carlsen Field rice mill because of a drastic drop in the growing of local rice to be milled there. Fazal Akaloo, who has farmed rice for 40 years, lamented that the State has failed to provide farmers with a guaranteed market and price for their goods, that is grown in too great a bulk to be sold to individuals at a street market. Read more here

Faulty sewer system shuts down port

The in­ter­na­tion­al port of Ce­dros has been shut down af­ter a sew­er sys­tem mal­func­tioned, leav­ing scores of Venezue­lans and oth­er for­eign­ers in a quandary. An im­mi­gra­tion source said five fer­ries car­ry­ing about 150 pas­sen­gers as well as six oth­er car­go ves­sels had to turn back yes­ter­day af­ter ser­vice providers were in­formed by Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers that the port was of­fi­cial­ly closed. Since the Venezue­lan cri­sis, more than 700 Venezue­lans have been flock­ing legal­ly through the Ce­dros port on a week­ly ba­sis. Fer­ries now sail four days per week, while small­er ves­sels car­ry­ing be­tween 18 to 20 pas­sen­gers make un­sched­uled stops. Read more here

POLITICS

No $$ yet for Sando Carnival

San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello said yesterday that the San Fernando Carnival Committee (SFCC) is yet to receive its 2019 allocation from the National Carnival Commission (NCC). Regrello said SFCC is in the process of planning this year’s Carnival events, although it is not sure how much it will receive. “We have to start putting things in place although we do not have the funding in our hands for City of San Fernando,” Regrello said. The various Carnival bands are working around the clock to be ready for Carnival, he said. Read more here

UN to help on roadmap towards Venezuela peace, security

If the con­di­tions are right, the Unit­ed Na­tions (UN) will as­sist in es­tab­lish­ing a roadmap to­wards peace and se­cu­ri­ty for Venezuela and the re­gion. This was re­vealed in a press re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day by the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, one day af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley left Trinidad with For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Den­nis Moses to meet with Unit­ed Na­tions Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­to­nio Guter­res at the UN’s head­quar­ters in New York. Row­ley joined a del­e­ga­tion, led by Cari­com’s chair­man and Prime Min­is­ter of St Kitts and Nevis Dr Tim­o­thy Har­ris, Prime Min­is­ter of Bar­ba­dos Mia Mot­t­ley, Ir­win LaRocque Cari­com’s sec­re­tary gen­er­al and Am­bas­sador for T&T to the UN Pen­ne­lope Beck­les to dis­cuss the on­go­ing ten­sions in Venezuela. Read more here

REGIONAL

Grads Feel Pressure - Former PM Raises Concern Over Low Wages In Tough Job Market After University

Former Prime Minister Bruce Golding says he is puzzled as to how recent university graduates manage to stay afloat financially, given what he describes as the mind-blowingly low wages they are pocketing each month. Golding, who was speaking last night at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Kingston and Port Royal at the Eden Gardens Wellness Resort & Spa in New Kingston, said a tracer study carried out by The University of the West Indies (UWI) showed that of the 2,495 graduates of the Class of 2014, some 24 per cent were not in jobs. Eight per cent were doing advanced degrees and a small percentage could not be employed for other reasons. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Brexit: Will MPs find agreement in their plans?

"It might not be 326 that matters". According to one cabinet minister, that's the strange situation that Brexit has led us to. The government's ambition is so low - or its hurdles so high - that what No 10 seeks to do on Tuesday is not to win (326 is a majority in the House of Commons), but to reduce the scale of resistance to their central policy that, in the words of another cabinet minister, only the "hardliners oppose", so that Theresa May can get the rebels down to a "few dozen", so then they can crack on. But crack on with what, I hear you ask? Read more here

Why America's fight with Huawei matters

The United States has ramped up its fight with China over technology by revealing charges against top telecoms company Huawei. The US Department of Justice alleges Huawei stole trade secrets from US-based companies and conspired to dodge US sanctions on Iran. Charges were also unsealed against the company's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who is under arrest in Canada and faces possible extradition to the United States. What happens to Huawei and Meng will have huge implications for the world's top two economies, which are locked in an expanding clash over trade and technology. The dispute will shape ties between Beijing and Washington for years to come and could make or break China's aim to become a global technology power. Read more here

29th January 2019

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