Category: CANA News

CMC -Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says tourism is on the rebound following the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa in October. Bartlett who was speaking with Radio Jamaica news on Friday said he is pleasantly surprised by the pace of the restoration to the sector following the destruction caused by the storm.

Bartlett said he was also in discussions with the operators of the Hyatt Hotel chain which suspended the operations of seven of its hotels until November 1, 2026.

He said tourists are again flocking to the island ‘and getting to where we had up to the 31st of December 450,000 visitors coming and generating US$474 million for the economy.’

‘We are looking into continuing that recovery programme. We have about seven or so properties that are still to come back on stream. I’m having discussions with our stakeholders with regards to timelines and I’m anticipating a contraction of some of the timelines as the repair work is moving apace,’ he noted.

The Tourism Minister added that there will be significant improvements in the hotel infrastructure in the coming weeks to help revive the sector.

‘The new hotels that are under construction are still moving apace and some new ones are going to start construction in the first quarter of this year. Our airline partners are still very bullish about Jamaica and I’m anticipating that the recovery will only strengthen as we go on with the experience,’ he said.

Jewel Andrew stroked an impressive half century in an otherwise unimpressive batting display by the West Indies Under-19s in their first warmup match of the ICC Cricket World Cup against Ireland, which was abandoned here on Saturday due to rain.

Andrew scored 81 from 107 balls with seven fours and three sixes, as the Windies were bowled out for 246 in 42.5 overs after choosing to bat first at the Wanderers Cricket Ground.

Ireland, however, never got the opportunity to begin their run chase with heavy and persistent showers forcing the match to be called off. Andrew was instrumental in helping the West Indies reach their eventual target after several other batters got starts but failed to carry on.

He added 44 with opener Zachary Carter, who made 26, following the early loss of Tanez Francis for two and then added 36 with captain Joshua Dorne to see the Windies progress to 95 for two in the 17th over.

However, they lost three wickets in quick succession to slump to 117 for five, before Andrew and Jonathan van Lange, who hit a quickfire 28 off 21 balls, put on 47 runs for the sixth wicket.

The Windies then suffered another mini slide, losing three more wickets for the addition of just five runs, to collapse to 169 for eight.

But Andrew found a capable partner in Isra-el Morton, who scored 36 off 33 balls, and the pair carried the regional side past the 200-run mark during a 46-run partnership for the ninth wicket.

And when Jewel was eventually dismissed, the last wicket pair of Morton and Aadian Racha added 31 valuable runs, before the former was run out.

Luke Murray was Ireland’s best bowler with 3-39, while Thomas Ford (2-38) and Febin Manoj (2-57) provided good support.

Caribbean-American Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Chair (CBC), has hailed the passage of the Affordable Care Act tax credit extension in the United States House of Representatives. ‘The Congressional Black Caucus applauds the steadfast leadership of Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries,’ Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Friday. ‘Despite significant Republican opposition, House Democrats-under his leadership-successfully forced Speaker Mike Johnson to bring a bipartisan discharge petition to the House floor to restore the Affordable Care Act tax credits and lower health care costs for millions of Americans.

‘This critical legislation now moves to the Senate for consideration,’ she added. ‘While President Trump and congressional Republicans-who have been hellbent on dismantling our nation’s health care system-continue to dismiss the affordability crisis as a hoax, Democrats have been laser-focused on delivering real solutions.

‘We are working to lower the cost of living, strengthen our health care system, and provide meaningful relief to hardworking Americans,’ Clarke continued. ‘We now call on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to bring this bill to the Senate floor for an immediate vote so the American people can receive the affordable, quality health care they deserve.’

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar on Thursday welcomed the passage of the Affordable Care Act tax credit extension in the US House of Representatives.

‘Today is a historic day,’ said the Democratic leaders in a joint statement. ‘House Democrats, alongside 17 of our Republican colleagues, successfully passed legislation to restore the Affordable Care Act tax credits and prevent millions of people from losing their healthcare.

Jeffries said he was ‘thankful for the resolve of the House Democratic Caucus and our partnership with Senate Democrats, who made clear for months beginning in September that our commitment was to fix our broken healthcare system and address the Republican healthcare crisis, beginning with the extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits.

The National Environment and Planning Agency, NEPA is condemning the illegal capture and sale of protected parrots.

This follows the recent arrest and charge of an individual in the northern parish of St. Ann.

In a release on Friday, NEPA noted that on December 24, a joint enforcement operation with the police led to the seizure of two Yellow-billed Parrots also called the Amazona collaria. The species is protected under Jamaica’s Wild Life Protection Act.

NEPA says the parrots were recovered alive and transferred to Hope Zoo for safekeeping.

It notes that the operation also led to the arrest of the individual with charges being pursued based on Section 6 of the Wild Life Protection Act.

This prohibits the hunting and possession of a protected animal or bird without the necessary permits.

NEPA says the matter is set to heard in court on March 5.

Enforcement coordinator at NEPA, Rochelle Afflick, says the agency has zero tolerance for breaches of the Wild Life Protection Act.

She notes that it’s the agency’s duty to ensure particular species are protected for current and future generations.

NEPA is urging members of the public to make a report of suspected wildlife crimes to the agency or the nearest police station.

It says that if individuals are found guilty under the Wild Life Protection Act, they can face a maximum fine of J$3 million or up to three years imprisonment.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Jan 10, CMC – Barbados Saturday told the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) that for small island developing states (SIDS), renewable energy is not only a climate response but also ‘a developmental imperative, an affordability issue, and an equity issue.

‘Our energy transition is about reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels, stabilising electricity prices, and freeing national budgets to better support social and economic development,’ the Barbados Ambassador to IRENA, Annalee C. Babb, told the opening ceremony of the 16th session of the IRENA assembly, taking place here through Monday.

The assembly is overshadowed by the decision of the United States to withdraw from IRENA and 65 other international organisations, many of them UN-affiliated bodies.

Babb, who is also Barbados’ Ambassador to the UAE, said her country had reached a pivotal stage where energy storage is indispensable to unlocking further renewable energy deployment.

‘We face multiple hurdles with respect to financing our renewable energy transition,’ she told the session that focused on ‘Pathways for a Renewable Future across Latin America and Caribbean Subregions’.

She said that as a small-island developing state, Barbados needs tailored financing solutions to translate its renewable energy ambition into sustainable reality.

‘Caribbean SIDS operate small, isolated grids, unlike many Latin American countries with interconnected systems and large hydro resources,’ Babb said, adding that high perceived risk results in a higher cost of capital, highlighting the importance of partnerships with multilateral institutions and concessional finance.

‘Without access to finance, without access to battery energy storage systems, we will not be able to meet our climate goals,’ Babb said, adding that this is true of all SIDS.

‘We face structural disadvantages, including small procurement volumes, limited economies of scale, and higher storage costs. In addition, accessing concessional finance is often constrained by onerous application processes and limited human resources.’

The diplomat said Barbados supports differentiated approaches that recognise SIDS’ vulnerabilities and offer simplified, more accessible financing pathways.

She said IRENA, as an energy transition agency, together with national and regional stakeholders, can collaborate to enhance progress in these areas by providing technical assistance.

‘Continued support on energy storage planning, valuation of grid services and stacked-use models,’ Babb said, adding that IRENA can also provide technical cooperation on wind resource assessment, turbine selection and hybrid wind-plus-storage configurations.

She said that IRENA could also mobilise finance and investment through the facilitation of concessional and blended finance instruments for battery energy storage systems and wind-plus-storage projects.

IRENA says Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) subregions have historically been global leaders in clean energy, boasting a significant share of hydropower, wind, and solar generation, which has provided a strong foundation for decarbonisation efforts.

‘This abundant resource base presents a massive opportunity for the region to become a global renewable energy powerhouse.’

The recently published ‘Regional Energy Transition Outlook (RETO) for South America’ report, developed by IRENA in collaboration with key regional partners, presents a roadmap for achieving a just, inclusive, and resilient energy transition.

It envisions the region reaching net-zero emissions by the 2050s, in line with the global goal of limiting temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius.

The report provides a comprehensive, quantitative assessment of pathways to 2050, identifying the technology choices, investment priorities and policy actions required to accelerate the region’s energy transformation.

The analysis underscores the need for a substantial scale-up of renewables,

significant improvements in energy efficiency and deeper regional power system integration to enhance flexibility and resilience.

Together with IRENA’s earlier work in Central America and on cross-cutting areas such as bioenergy and critical materials, the RETO contributes to a coherent analytical foundation for advancing a more integrated, renewable-based transition across LAC.

Babb suggested that IRENA can advocate with multilateral lenders to simplify and streamline application procedures while maintaining due diligence.

As regards SIDS equity and advocacy, she suggested stronger representation of SIDS-specific challenges in IRENA’s analytical work and global advocacy.

Babb said IRENA could explore a dedicated or preferential procurement window for energy storage for SIDS, recognising small order sizes and long lead times and provide continued leadership, including through the SIDS Lighthouse Initiative (LHI), to champion equitable access to storage and finance.

The SIDS LHI is a framework for action to support SIDS in their energy transition efforts from fossil fuel dependence to renewables.

The Initiative brings together 41 SIDS as well as 53 partners, including developed countries, regional and international organisations, development and multilateral agencies, private companies, research institutes and non-profit organisations. IRENA is the coordinator and facilitator of the initiative.

Babb told the delegates that Barbados is an island that is 21 miles long and 14 miles wide.

‘Our population is 280,000 people. And the challenges we face, I think, are peculiar to many small island developing states, and we need to have solutions that allow us to be a part of this evolution as it continues,’ she said.

Sherfane Rutherford ended up an unlikely hero for the Pretoria Capitals in his side’s surprising 21-run victory over the Paarl Royals in the SA20 here on Saturday.

With his side struggling on 74 for six, Rutherford rescued his side with an unbeaten knock of 42 off 35 balls, including three sixes and three fours, to get them up to 138 for nine in their 20 overs after electing to bat first at Boland Park. Rutherford, who was named Player-of-the-Match, shared a crucial 31-run partnership with captain Keshav Maharaj for the seventh wicket that carried the Capitals past three figures.

Shai Hope was the next highest scorer with 22 off 21 balls, while Roston Chase made nine off six balls.

Sikandar Raza, Dan Lawrence and Hardus Viljoen took two wickets apiece for the Royals.

Faced with a seemingly straightforward run chase, the Royals were stifled by a remarkable bowling effort and could only muster 117 for six.

Captain David Miller topscored with 45 off 36 balls and Rubin Hermann made 35 off 37 balls, but they were let down by the other batters with only Asa Tribe, who made 14, scoring more than 10.

The West Indies Under-19 squad has arrived safely in Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, ready to compete in the 2026 ICC Men’s Under 19 World Cup which got underway with its first slate of warm-up games on Friday.

They will play the first of their two warmups here on Saturday against Ireland at the Wanderers Cricket Ground.

The West Indies Under-19 team left Barbados on Tuesday

The boys in maroon have been drawn in Group D of the competition alongside South Africa, Afghanistan and TanThe boys in maroon have been drawn in Group D of the competition alongside South Africa, Afghanistan and Tanzania, against whom they will commence battle on January 15.

West Indies’ three group matches will be played at the High-Performance Oval in Windhoek and prior to the start of the group phase, the team will warm-up against Ireland and Japan also in Windhoek, on January 10 and 13.

The full squad departed the region via Barbados on Tuesday with a first stop in the United Kingdom, before proceeding to the African continent.

Thirty-two years after it began operations as the country’s third daily newspaper, Newsday announced on Saturday that it had commenced legal proceedings to wind-up its business.

A public notice published in all daily newspapers, states that a petition to wind-up Daily News Ltd, publishers of Newsday, was filed on December 31, 2025, and the first hearing is set for January 19.

The company’s managing director, Grant Taylor, said in a statement that ‘a perfect storm of challenges has led to where we are now: closure.’ Newsday was established in 1993 by a group of journalists led by the late Therese Mills and it challenged the two other established daily newspapers, the Trinidad Express and the Trinidad Guardian, both being part of conglomerates.

In announcing the newspaper’s closure, Taylor said it ‘is no different in most respects from the other players in the market,’ adding ‘ this is an industry under severe pressure.

‘But one crucial difference is that, as a stand-alone entity which is not part of a media conglomerate, there is nowhere for Newsday to hide the year-on-year losses all the local daily newspapers are suffering.

‘Whilst the scourge of covid is certainly a factor – as the country shut down more than once, and with it, advertising sales fell off dramatically – that was by no means the only nail in the coffin.

‘The elements of this perfect storm are as varied as they are damaging, with no single factor exclusively to blame. This is also not a ‘this just suddenly happened’ scenario, but rather, a symphony of events playing out over a decade.’

Taylor acknowledged that the challenge is not unique to Trinidad and Tobago, as globally, traditional print media have been under pressure for some time.

He said thousands of newspapers have closed worldwide. In the United States alone, more than 3,500 are estimated to have closed in the last 20 years, adding ‘some challenges have been causes of our demise; others have hastened it’.

The Newsday official said that the cost of raw materials, and in particular paper, the largest expense, has also sky-rocketed in the last decade and that the cost of machinery and of maintaining it have also increased significantly, as manufacturers of the main components have gone out of business owing to the industry’s contraction.

‘The world has also changed, and Trinidad and Tobago is no different. The value placed on traditional media has diminished and the political campaign to discredit them for nefarious reasons has ramped up.

He said when Newsday’s price increased by one dollar (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) a years ago, 40 per cent of the readership said, ‘No, thank you,’ noting that the three dollar price for a copy of the newspaper, is less than the price of one of the country’s best known delicacies.

‘A newspaper entails hundreds of people working every day of the year, and working around the clock, to keep the public informed, but three dollars is too much to ask for that service. Advertising revenue has also decreased significantly over the last decade.

‘Advertising in all media is a fraction of what it was then, but for print media, that drop has been most severe. Print advertising has fallen by 75 per cent. In the context of the significant increase in costs, this is the most impactful element of the perfect storm that has been brewing over the last decade.’

Taylor said that even as the newspaper becomes ‘another statistic in the casualties on the print media landscape, we remain proud of our legacy of unwavering independence in keeping the public informed.

‘We are grateful to those who supported Newsday throughout, to longtime readers and those who discovered and came to appreciate the paper’s strengths more recently.

‘We are grateful, too, to the dedicated staff of every department who worked every day and night for over two decades, determined that the paper must come out, in the interest of that readership.’

Taylor said he is encouraging people here to continue to supporting the local media industry, adding ‘the media are one of the most important elements in any democracy, and it is a telling sign of a democracy itself under threat when the media are under threat’.

Taylor said the industrial-relations climate has always been particularly challenging, from trying to get all interested parties on the same page to rulings that sometimes appeared to discount the financial reality of many companies to the detriment of the organisation and all employees.

‘It would be remiss, however, not to mention that the courts seem to have changed their approach in more recent times. The cost, however, is in the millions and is a challenge for a small company,’ he added.

The West Indies’ first warmup match of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup against Ireland was abandoned due to rain here at the Wanderers Cricket Ground on Saturday.

Scores

WEST INDIES U19s 246 in 42.5 overs (Jewel Andrew 81, Isra-el Morton 36, Jonathan van Lange 28, Zachary Carter 26, Shamar Apple 15, Joshua Dorne 14, Aadian Racha 11 not out; Luke Murray 3-39, Thomas Ford 2-38, Febin Manoj 2-57).

Lawyers for the leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, Azruddin Mohamed, and his billionaire father, Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed, are objecting to efforts by the prosecution to bring forward the date for their hearing in the extradition to the United States.

Overnight, US prosecutors led by King Counsel, Jamaican Terrence Williams, asked the Magistrates Court to bring forward the extradition hearing date to this month. On Thursday, Principal Magistrate, Judy Latchman, set February 5 and 6 for the hearing to resume, allowing the defendants time to consider new evidence in the form of a statement by Foreign Affairs Minister, Hugh Todd.

Defence attorneys – Roysdale Forde, Siand Dhurjon and Damien Da Silva-in objecting to the proposal to change the dates, say they have iron-clad commitments and cannot agree to a change of dates.

‘No explanation has been advanced for Mr Williams KC’s subsequent change of position on this night,’ they said in a letter to the Magistrate’s Court.

In his letter to the Clerk of the Georgetown Magistrates Court Destiny Woodman, Williams requested that the magistrate be asked to consider bringing forward the hearing in keeping with her expressed inclination to set an earlier date.

‘Counsel for the Requesting State (US) have rescheduled their diaries and are now available to appear’ on or before January, 20 2026 or the week January 26.

‘In the circumstances, and with due respect for the court’s processes, we respectfully ask that Her Worship considers convening, with notice to all parties, to the earliest fixture hearing date that is convenient to all parties and the court’s diary,’ Williams said.

But Forde said he has ‘entered into inflexible professional and personal commitments which render him unavailable during the period newly suggested’ by Prosecutor Williams and that Dhurjon and MrDa Silva are in a similar position.

‘Each is unavoidably bound by certain engagements (including much needed post-cancer treatment requiring 2 weeks of convalescence) which can admit of no rearrangement and would, in any event, be absent from the Georgetown jurisdiction for a major portion of the suggested period.

‘In those circumstances, counsel for the requested persons are unable to consent to any departure from Her Worship’s well-considered adjournment orders,’ they wrote, noting that the Trinidad and Tobago based attorney, Rajiv Persad, is also unavailable on account of his court diary and his judicial assignment.

The defence lawyers reminded that the adjournment orders made on Thursday followed an extended discourse, culminating in the fixture of the present dates which were expressly confirmed as suitable to all parties.

They said they would be willing to consider an adjournment after 5 and 6 February, ‘should that course prove more convenient to our learned friends representing the requesting State (US).’

The United States government had on October 30, 2025, requested the extradition of the 76 year-old businessman and his 38-year -old son after they were accused of multiple charges including wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and customs-related violations connected to an alleged US$50 million gold export and tax evasion scheme.