NEWS
Search for woman swept away in floods – NO SIGN OF THERESA
Lopinot woman Theresa Lynch remained unaccounted for up to Thursday evening, despite exhaustive searches throughout the day by police, firemen, Lopinot villagers, her relatives and friends and members of the Hunters Search and Rescue Team. At 6 pm, with sunlight rapidly fading, the search was called off for the day. Lynch was swept away by strong currents while trying to cross the Surrey River in Lopinot just after midday on Wednesday. Police said she and her brother William Ramlogan were on their way to tend to their garden when she was swept away. Read more here
Over 600 students for secondary school business competition
Over 600 secondary school students across the country will be competing against each other in this year’s annual National Secondary School Entrepreneurship Competition (NSSEC). The Ministry of Education-endorsed competition allows students to build their own businesses virtually in order to compete against one another, simulating a real-world environment. Read more here
POLITICS
Hinds: National Security allocations sufficient for now
Any shortfall in allocations for the National Security Ministry will be made up during the mid-year review. This was the refrain from Minister Fitzgerald Hinds during the Standing Finance Committee examination of the allocations in the draft estimates of expenditure for the financial year 2023 under Head 22. Hinds enumerated a number of vacancies in various sectors of the ministry. He said there were 237 posts in administration at the National Security Ministry, of which 92 were filled, 145 were vacant, 143 vacant with bodies and two without bodies. The 2023 estimate for salaries and cost of living allowance is $18,400,000, an increase of $1,549,100 over the previous year. Read more here
BUSINESS
Angostura launches sustainable future cocoa project
Angostura has announced a programme designed to ensure a sustainable future for small scale organic cocoa farmers in TT. The programme will empower small local cocoa farmers while protecting and promoting Trinidad’s prized Trinitario variety, the majority state-owned enterprise said in a release. Angostura launched cocoa bitters in 2020 as a celebration of the company’s provenance and as part of its commitment to promote local industries. Angostura cocoa bitters uses nibs of TT’s local agricultural treasure – Trinitario cocoa, which is world renowned for its bold, fruity characteristics and depth of flavour and aroma. When combined with Angostura’s blending expertise it creates an award-winning cocoa bitters that is perfect in cocktails such as the Espresso Martini or to enhance the flavour of culinary dishes like savoury sauces and desserts. Read more here
Explainer: How will OPEC+ cuts affect oil prices and inflation?
Major oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia have decided to slash the amount of oil they deliver to the global economy. And the law of supply and demand suggests that can only mean one thing: higher prices are on the way for crude, and for the diesel fuel, gasoline and heating oil that are produced from oil. The decision by the OPEC+ alliance to cut 2 million barrels a day starting next month comes as the Western allies are trying to cap the oil money flowing into Moscow’s war chest after it invaded Ukraine. Read more here
REGIONAL
$1.8B more in relief for old-age pensioners
OLD-age pensioners will be receiving a one-off grant of $28,000 from the government, as part of a new welfare measure that will put an additional $1.8 billion into the pockets of this vulnerable group. This was announced by President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, on Thursday, in a video message broadcast on his official Facebook page. President Ali said that since being elected to office in 2020, his government has been placing emphasis on ensuring the lives of all Guyanese are improved, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable groups in society. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Putin's dream of Russian victory slips away in Ukraine
"The truth is on our side and truth is strength!" Vladimir Putin boomed into a microphone on Red Square last week, after a grand ceremony at which he proclaimed four large chunks of Ukrainian territory to be part of Russia. "Victory will be ours!" But in the real world, things look very different. Even as Russia's president signed his illegal annexation treaties in the Kremlin, Ukrainian forces were advancing inside the areas he had just seized. Hundreds of thousands of men have been fleeing Russia rather than be drafted to fight in an expanding war. And things are going so badly on the battlefield that Mr Putin and his loyalists are now reframing what they once claimed was the "de-Nazification" of Ukraine and the protection of Russian speakers as an existential fight against the entire "collective" West. Read more here
7th October 2022