Category: CANA News

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat against West Indies on the opening day of the third and final Test here at the Bay Oval on Thursday.

West Indies have made one change with Alick Athanaze replacing Ojay Shields, while New Zealand has also made one change with Ajaz Patel coming in for the injured Blair Tickner.

WEST INDIES: Roston Chase (captain), Brandon King, John Campbell, Alick Athanaze, Kavem Hodge, Shai Hope, Justin Greaves, Tevin Imlach, Kemar Roach, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales.

NEW ZEALAND: Tom Latham (captain), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Hay, Michael Rae, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Zak Foulkes, Ajaz Patel, Jacob Duffy.

Umpires: Alladhuddien Paleker, Alex Wharf.

TV Umpire: Paul Reiffel,

Reserve Umpire: Chris Brown.

Match Referee: Javagal Srinath.

The following is the CANANews and SPORTS Schedule for Wednesday December 17, 2025.

ST. JOHN’S – The Antigua and Barbuda government Wednesday said it ‘actively engaged’ in discussions with the United States authorities after President Donald Trump included the island and two other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries whose nationals would either be ‘fully’ restricted or have limited entry into the United States.

ROSEAU – Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says he believes that ‘a case of mis-communication’ could have led to the decision by the United States government to impose travel restrictions on Dominicans entering the North American country.

BASSETERRE – Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew has presented an EC$1.07 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) national budget to Parliament telling legislators that the fiscal package is being guided by a robust framework which sets out the government’s fiscal strategy for the next three years.

BRIDGETOWN – Public sector unions have given a guarded response to plans by the Barbados government to provide permanent appointments to more than 2 000 public officers.

CASTRIES – Parliament has given the green light to a motion tabled by the new St. Lucia government of Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre to amend the Value added tax (VAT) legislation providing for the island’s first VAT-free shopping day.

SPORTS:

Mount Maunganui – West Indies seeking to tie the three-match test series against New Zealand as the decisive third Test gets underway here on Wednesday night at Bay Oval.

The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Wednesday welcomed the ratings by the US-based Standard and Poor’s (S and P) Global Ratings, affirming the bank’s issuer credit rating of ‘AA+’ and an improved short-term issuer credit rating of ‘A-1+’, with a Stable Outlook.

The region’s premier financial institution said that this rating reflects S and P’s view that, over the next two years, CDB will maintain high capitalisation and a solid business profile, as the region’s preferred lender.

It said that this assessment endorses CDB’s continued financial strength and its critical role in supporting sustainable development across the Caribbean.

According to S and P, the affirmation follows a comprehensive review under its revised methodology for multilateral lending institutions.

The CDB’s risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratio increased to 59.6 per cent, well above the threshold for extremely strong capital adequacy. This improvement was supported by CDB’s recent Exposure Exchange Agreement (EEA), which reduced portfolio concentration and enhanced risk management.

‘This rating underscores the confidence of our shareholders and partners in CDB’s prudent financial and risk management and its unwavering commitment to the region,’ said CDB Daniel M. Best.

‘Our strong capital position enables us to continue delivering on our mandate to accelerate inclusive and resilient growth for our 19 Borrowing Member Countries,’ he added.

The S and P highlighted CDB’s very strong enterprise risk profile, citing its policies and status among Caribbean sovereign borrowers. The Stable Outlook reflects expectations that CDB will maintain high capitalisation and robust liquidity over the next two years, even amid global economic headwinds and climate-related challenges.

‘The bank’s enhanced capital base positions it to expand its loan portfolio in order to strengthen regional climate action and sustainable development,’ the CDB added.

The West Indies’ fast bowling unit has been dealt another setback with fast bowler Ojay Shields ruled out of the third and final Test match, which bowls off on here on Thursday at the Bay Oval.

The 29-year-old Shields, who made his debut in the opening Test, has taken five wickets in the first two matches of the series.

Speaking during his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, West Indies skipper Roston Chase revealed that Alick Atahanze had been named as his replacement. ‘We’ve announced our team, and we have one change with Ojay Shields out and Alick Athanaze is in. Shields has an injury,’ Chase said.

Despite the team’s devastating defeat in the second Test, which they lost by nine wickets inside three days, Chase said the mood in the camp was still good.

He said the squad had spent two days relaxing and bonding and was in good spirits heading into the final match of the series.

‘The mood is still good. I spoke to the guys and told them that we drew the first game, we lost the second, so the only thing left for us to do is to win and we just have to keep believing.

‘I think that we’ve had some sparks of brilliance throughout the series, and it’s just for us to put them together for a longer period of time, especially in the batting. I think the bowling has been doing an excellent job, but we’re just trying to find a way to get that 300 score in the first innings,’ Chase said.

‘We think that if we can post that 300 run total in the first innings it would go a long way in us winning a Test match here.’

The Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) Wednesday said it has been approved for membership in the Santiago Network that aims to catalyse technical assistance for developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change impact.

The CCCCC said membership in the Santiago Network is also a recognition of its demonstrated capacity to deliver ‘coordinated, high-quality technical assistance to CARICOM member states to avert, minimise and address loss and damage arising from the adverse impacts of climate change’

DR. Colin Young

CCCCC executive director, Dr. Colin Young, said that the CCCCC’s membership in the Santiago Network is recognition that it possesses the capacity and know-how to effectively serve as a delivery partner to provide technical assistance to member states in their pursuit to avert, minimize and address loss and damage caused by anthropogenic climate change.

‘With the increasing frequency and intensity of climate related shocks, which invariably increase loss and damage, the CCCCC membership in the Santiago Network, will enhance CCCCC’s capacity to provide timely technical assistance requested by member states,’ Young added.

The Santiago Network, established in December 2019 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aims to catalyse technical assistance for developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Membership in the Network enhances coordination among organisations, bodies networks and experts (OBNEs) to support countries in averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage.

The CCCCC said that its membership in the Santiago network is one of the few regional OBNEs  and underscores the entity’s long-standing role in shaping global responses to loss and damage, particularly for Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

‘This partnership with the Santiago Network, as an OBNE, will strengthen the CCCCC to more effectively channel resources, regional expertise, and capacity to assist member states, while highlighting context-specific solutions and best practices from the Caribbean,’ the CCCCC added.

It said that it would to advance on its mandate to support CARICOM member states in strengthening climate resilience, improving access to climate finance, and deepening regional capacity to respond to the impacts of climate change and loss and damage.

‘At the same time, the CCCCC continues its advocacy role to shape and influence global climate policy processes, including those related to loss and damage, to ensure that Caribbean priorities, perspectives and lived realities are meaningfully reflected in international agreements.’

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Wednesday said Trinidad and Tobago is not involved in the moves by the United States President Donald Trump to order a ‘total and complete’ blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

Caracas has already described the action as ‘warmongering threats’.

Speaking to reporters following the funeral service of Dr. Daphne Phillips, who had served in the People’s Partnership government that Persad-Bissessar led between 2010-15, the prime minister said ‘Trinidad and Tobago is about Trinidad and Tobago first’.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, speaking to reporters following the funeral service of a former government minister on Wednesday.

Trump statement about the blockade followed the US seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, but he gave no details as to how the wide-ranging blockade on sanctioned oil tankers would be enforced.

Venezuela Monday said it had with ‘immediate effect’ terminated any existing contract, agreement or negotiation with Trinidad and Tobago after accusing Port of Spain of being complicit in the decision of the United States to seize the Venezuela oil tanker.

The US has built up a military presence in international waters off Venezuela claiming it is intended to deal with the illegal drugs trade in the region.

Caracas has accused the Persad-Bissessar administration of being in cohorts with Washington in a bid to effect regime change and earlier this week, Port of Spain said it had given the US permission for its military aircraft to transit the local airspace ‘in the coming weeks’.

Asked by reporters whether she had been part of the moves by Washington to impose the blockade on the oil tankers, Persad-Bissessar said ‘our partnership with the United States is about Trinidad and Tobago safety and security here.

‘Those are issues for the Trump administration and for the United States. Trinidad and Tobago is no part of that blockade. We are about Trinidad and Tobago’.

She told reporters that the government is ‘very happy about how things are progressing with the US and with the state of emergency’ adding that ‘murders are down by 240.

‘There are 240 less murders this year than last year. Let’s not forget that. Over 200 million in drugs busted only recently, so we are very happy.there is some good news about all of this,’ she added.

Persad-Bissessar is on record as saying that those involved in the illegal drugs trade should be killed ‘violently’ as the US continues to bomb vessels it claim to be carrying illegal drugs without any shred of evidence.

Meanwhile, former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley has accused Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar of attempting to turn Trinidad and Tobago into a ‘vassal state’ as he wared that Trinidad and Tobago’s sovereignty and national pride are being undermined.

Rowley, speaking to reporters following the funeral service of the founding member of the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), Ferdinand ‘Ferdie’ Ferreira on Tuesday, said that he was deeply disappointed by what he described as the direction in which the country was heading.

‘I am very disappointed. I have lived in this country since 1962 and I was always tremendously proud of Trinidad and Tobago, and I am still proud of Trinidad and Tobago. As a small nation, we held our heads high.’

Rowley said that during his tenure as prime minister, Trinidad and Tobago always projected itself internationally as a confident and independent state.

‘Whenever I spoke or took a position anywhere as leader of this country, the position was that we might be small, but we are not insignificant,’ he said, accusing the current head of government of acting without transparency or regard for national dignity.

‘I think for me it is very horrible to see a prime minister secretly, disdainfully and dismissively convert proud Trinidad and Tobago into a vassal state,’ Rowley said.

As of last week, more than 30 of the 80 ships in Venezuelan waters or approaching the country were under US sanctions, according to data compiled by TankerTrackers.com.

In his statement posted on his social media, Truth Social, Trump wrote that Venezuela was ‘completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America’.

He added that it would ‘only get bigger’ and ‘be like nothing they have ever seen before’.

On Wednesday, the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres called for restraint and for the immediate de-escalation of the situation

‘He calls on all stakeholders to honour their obligations under international law, including the UN Charter and any other applicable legal framework to safeguard peace in the region. And of course, as always, he believes that any difference must be resolved by peaceful means,’ Farhan Haq, the Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General told the daily UN press briefing.

He said regarding the oil tanker blockade and whether it is a violation of international law, the UN is ‘looking at what the applicable laws are at this stage, and we’re studying the situation. ‘But certainly, parties have to abide by the UN Charte,’ he said, adding ‘the Secretary-General is following the current situation very closely, and he is engaging with relevant parties’.

The United Nations Wednesday said that the humanitarian situation in the department of Artibonite in Haiti is deteriorating quickly as armed groups expand their control in several communes.

Artibonite is Haiti’s largest department, a vital central region known as the country’s ‘breadbasket’ due to the fertile Artibonite River valley, historically Haiti’s main rice-growing area, with its capital in Gonaives.

The Deputy UN Spokesperson, Farhan Haq, told the daily UN press briefing that officials at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) are warning of the deteriorating situation which further restricting access.

Armed gangs have been seeking to overthrow the interim government in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) government ever since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July7, 2021.

They are in control of most of the capital, Port-Au-Prince and in October, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution approving the deployment of the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) to combat rampant gang violence, restore public safety, and support Haitian institutions amidst severe humanitarian crisis, replacing the earlier Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission.

The GSF is tasked with controlling gangs, securing infrastructure, combating arms trafficking, and creating conditions for elections operating for an initial 12 months with UN support.

‘On 15 December, local sources reported that six people were killed and others wounded following an armed attack in the commune of Verette. Houses and agricultural storage facilities were reportedly set on fire. People were forced to flee, though figures are not yet available,’ Haq said.

He said the assailants also attempted to set fire to the Albert Schweitzer Haiti Hospital, a major medical institution in Verette, but were repelled by security forces in the area.

‘Two weeks earlier, more than 11,000 people were displaced in the same department following attacks in the communes of L’Estère, Pont-Sondé, Descordes and Liancourt,’ Haq said, adding that OCHA continues to closely monitor the situation, and the UN and its partners are mobilised to deliver aid as soon as security conditions permit.

New Zealand reached 83 without loss at lunch against the West Indies on the opening day of the third and final Test here at the Bay Oval on Thursday.

NEW ZEALAND 83-0 in 28 overs (Devon Conway 42 not out, Tom Latham 39 not out).

Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew says an additional month’s salary, commonly referred to as a ‘double salary’ will be paid to public servants and other qualifying groups.

‘I am pleased to announce an extra payment of one month salary, commonly called the double salary,’ said Prime Minister Drew.

The announcement of the ‘double salary’ came as Prime Minister Drew, who is also the Finance Minister, was concluding his budget presentation on Tuesday. Debate on the EC$1.07 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) fiscal package is due to begin on Wednesday.

He told legislators that the payment is a deliberate and prudent measure, rooted in the government’s people-centred approach and recognition of the dedication of public sector workers.

‘Hard work must be recognised,’ he said, adding that the additional payment will apply to civil servants, government auxiliary employees, pensioners, and workers on the STEP Programme, underscoring his government’s intention to ensure that those who contribute daily to national development directly benefit from the country’s economic stability.

Prime Minister Drew said that the payment will be made before the Christmas holidays, providing timely financial support to thousands of households.

‘This payment will be issued on Friday, 19 December, 2025,’ he confirmed, outlining specific caveats to the double salary arrangement.

He said under this year’s payment, government ministers and advisors will be excluded and that this approach reflects the administration’s values and priorities, describing it as a departure from past practice.

‘This has never been done this way before,’ the Finance Minister said, adding that the decision demonstrates his government’s commitment to protecting and rewarding its workforce while exercising fiscal discipline.

‘For our hardworking civil servants, you will get an extra one salary,’ he reiterated, adding that the 2026 national budget is a people-focused and confidence-building fiscal package aimed at easing cost-of-living pressures, strengthening social protection, and continuing to invest in national resilience and shared prosperity.

The Justice Department has filed a complaint against the United States Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD) alleging that the territory’s unreasonable delays and conditions on lawful gun owners’ rights create an unconstitutional permitting process in violation of the Second Amendment.

It said numerous applicants complained that VIPD is unreasonably delaying their gun permit application decisions and added unreasonable conditions, including bolted-in gun safes, prior to issuing gun licenses.

The Justice Department said that the VIPD continues to enforce a proper cause regulation nearly identical to the law that the U.S. Supreme Court previously struck down in another case years ago.

‘This Civil Rights Division will protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,’ said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

‘The newly-established Second Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to bring the Virgin Islands Police Department back into legal compliance by ensuring that applicants receive timely decisions without unconstitutional obstruction.’

The US attorney for the District of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Adam Sleeper, said the territory’s firearms licensing laws and practices are inconsistent with the Second Amendment.

‘This lawsuit seeks to uphold the rights of law-abiding citizens to bear arms in the U.S. Virgin Islands,’ he added.

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a regulation it labeled ‘proper cause,’ which New York law enforcement used to deny gun permits if the applicant did not provide ‘proper cause’ reasons for the gun permit.

US authorirites say that the case is the established law of the land, including the territory of the Virgin Islands and the Virgin Islands currently maintains and enforces a law nearly identical to the overturned law.

Additionally, complaints have poured in from residents showing unconstitutional delays and requirements, including police conducting unconstitutionally unreasonable home searches.