NEWS
Prison officers claim plot by inmates: 13 must die before Xmas
Following the murders of two prison officers within a few days of each other, the president of the Prison Officers Association (POA) Ceron Richards has called for a meeting with the Prime Minister. Richards was speaking during a press conference at the association’s office in Arouca. General secretary of the association Lester Walcott has said prison officers are refusing to work in the Wayne Jackson Building (building 13) at the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca as inmates have threatened 13 more killings before Christmas unless they are moved from building 13. Read more here
T&T added to CDC’s ‘very high’ risk travel category, Americans warned to avoid travel here
Trinidad & Tobago joined several other countries on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Level 4 COVID-19 Advisory List. The announcement on Tuesday, in the US public health agency’s weekly update, comes mere days after T&T registered 10,000 active COVID-19 cases. According to the CDC, a country is moved to Level 4 when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days. T&T was previously at Level 3, which only advised against nonessential travel if unvaccinated. The Level 4 travel category advises Americans to avoid travel to T&T unless vaccinated due to very high levels of COVID, however, the agency warns that even fully vaccinated people may be at risk of getting and spreading COVID-19 variants. Read more here
POLITICS
Imbert consulting on how to spend $4b from IMF
Finance Minister Colm Imbert is consulting local and foreign experts as to how to spend US$644 million or $4.6 billion in funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) known as special drawing rights (SDRs), he told the Senate on Tuesday. He was replying to a question by Opposition Senator Wade Mark. SDR is not a currency, but an artificial currency instrument created by the IMF to supplement the official reserves of its member countries and provide them with liquidity. Read more here
BUSINESS
Massy opens supermarket in Freeport
Massy Stores has expanded its operations with the opening of its newest supermarket at Freeport. Chief executive of Massy Stores Roxane De Freitas and her team were at the location for the official opening of the new branch yesterday. She said, “This is our 20th store in the Massy supermarket chain. Massy Stores Freeport is also our second location in central Trinidad. Read more here
REGIONAL
President Ali departs from Granger-era COVID-19 measures
For the first time ever, since the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic in Guyana, the Central Board of Health (CBH) has assumed its full responsibility of issuing and managing COVID-19 regulations, taking that power away from the Minister of Health, in keeping with the 1934 Public Health Ordinance of Guyana. Despite being a colonial era law, the Public Health Ordinance was enacted in Guyana at a time when the country was dealing with a high number of deaths because of ‘dirt diseases’ including dengue, typhoid, and yellow fever. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Yemen's Marib: The city at the heart of a dirty war
Marib is full. At a time when rich countries in Europe are in political crisis about hundreds of new refugees, one city in the poorest Arab country has had to deal with the arrival of something approaching one million people fleeing for their lives since Yemen's war started in 2015. Another 45,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have arrived at the city in the desert since September. The pressure of the war pervades every part of life in Marib. Read more here
1st December 2021