Category: CANA News

The Jamaica government has dismissed social media reports that citizens would be prevented from hosting parties during the Christmas season as the country recovers from the October 28 onslaught by Hurricane Melissa that killed at least 45 people and left nine billion (US) dollars in damages.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness responding to the rumours circulating on social media warned that misinformation has the potential to undermine public order. ‘There are those people.who are vested in telling you lies to mislead you. For what reason? I don’t know. Maybe they want the country to descend in chaos. They don’t like to see law and order,’ he said.

Holness, who was speaking with residents at a hurricane shelter during the Prime Minister’s Christmas Treat over the last weekend, encouraged entertainment activities, emphasising though that such events must be properly organised and aligned with public safety requirements.

‘The police have said that they will give permits for parties so long as the promoters make the proper arrangements,’ Holness said, outlining several practical considerations that organisers must address, particularly in communities still facing infrastructural challenges.

‘Some places don’t have light, so if you’re going to keep a party, you have to put up light. You have to get one generator, people have to have water [to] use bathroom facilities,’ he said, underscoring the need to safeguard patrons.

‘Some of the entertainment areas are sometimes targeted by criminals, and therefore, you have to prepare for the safety of the patrons. So, you need to arrange for security.

‘The government wants communities to return to normal, and therefore, go back to your business. Having parties and dances are part of the business to return the community to business,’ he added.

Prime Minister Holness also cautioned residents to be mindful of the information they consume, particularly on social media platforms.

‘Information is like food, if you consume bad food, it will make your body unhealthy. If you consume bad information, it will make your mind unhealthy,’ he said, warning that false claims could influence poor decision-making.

Local Government and Community Development Minister, Desmond McKenzie, also refuted the rumours circulating online, reiterating that once the relevant authorities grant approval, citizens are free to proceed with their events, adding that the misinformation stemmed from confusion about guidance that applied only to the activities of government organizations.

‘Anybody here, once the municipal corporation and the police agree and you can find light, every Jamaican can have their party. What was said only goes for government and not for the wider Jamaica. It is mischief. Once the police and the municipal corporation grant the permission, you are free to party until you say when,’ he added.

A District Court judge has sentenced a Dutch national to 24 years in jail after he was found guilty of killing his wife during their vacation to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country last year.

Justice Cynthia Klein sentenced Rotterdam resident Radj H. to prison for killing his wife, Shama Mathoera, after she found that the case against him for manslaughter had been proven. The Public Prosecution Service had sought a 30-year prison sentence for murder and disposing of the body. But the judge said it could not be established with sufficient certainty that the crime was premeditated, convicting the accused of manslaughter instead of murder.

The court heard that Radj H had killed his partner, buried her body in a wooded area near their lodgings in the Saramacca district . The 24-year jail sentence will be reduced by the time the defendant has already spent in pretrial detention.

Radj H. was arrested on September 4 last year, after police launched an investigation into the disappearance of his 52-year-old wife. The couple, from Rotterdam, were in Suriname for a three-month vacation and were scheduled to return to the Netherlands in early September. But Mathoera’s family raised an alarm at around the time they were due to return after indicating that they had not been able to contact her by phone.

Radj H. initially assured the family that nothing was wrong and that the woman had already left for the Netherlands, but his statements became increasingly unconvincing. Eventually, family members filed a missing persons report, after which the police launched an investigation.

While searching the residence, officers found a woman’s purse wrapped in a plastic bag. Inside the purse were the missing woman’s personal belongings, including her passport, mobile phone, and jewelry.

Radj H. said he had no knowledge how the purse ended up on the property with the court being told that the police found his statements incoherent and contradictory.

Along with family members, police combed the area around the property and discovered a narrow path with fresh tracks. In the adjacent woods, officers found a recently excavated area. After excavation, Shama Mathoera’s remains were found and transferred to the morgue for forensic examination.

The police said that they had detained a woman who had had an extramarital affair with the suspect. But She was later released because it could not be proven that she was involved in the crime.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Monday said it has launched the nee HEARTS Quality Framework , which countries can immediately use to enhance hypertension and cardiovascular risk management, prevent heart attacks and strokes, and deliver better care through primary health care closer to people’s homes.

PAHO said that the HEARTS approach is already transforming hypertension and cardiovascular risk care. It said communities in Colombia, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and others have similarly increased control rates after adopting HEARTS standards.

In the Dominican Republic, HEARTS is a government priority, providing free treatment to millions. El Salvador expanded HEARTS across its primary health care network, achieving control rates of nearly 70 per cent and Mexico has also initiated large-scale implementation nationwide.

‘These results show that hypertension control and cardiovascular risk management at scale is possible,’ said Dr. Esteban Lo

‘Primary health care equipped with standardized clinical pathways, reliable medicines, team-based care, and quality-improvement tools can generate life-saving impact for millions.’

In launching the framework published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, PAHO said in the Americas, including the Caribbean, heart disease and strokes claim more than 2.2 million lives each year, and many of the victims are people in their most productive years.

It said that high blood pressure, known as the ‘silent killer, is the leading risk factor, affecting nearly four in ten adults across the region. Despite the availability of affordable and effective treatments, only one in three people with hypertension currently has it under control.

‘Hypertension remains the world’s deadliest but also one of the most manageable health threats,’ said Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO Director.

‘This Framework is not just another policy document-it’s the playbook already saving lives in thousands of neighborhood clinics. If countries adopt and scale it up, we can prevent millions of heart attacks and strokes over the next decade.’

The new HEARTS Quality Framework translates real-world experiences into a tested blueprint for overcoming barriers that keep millions from getting the care they need. These include inaccurate blood pressure measurements due to outdated equipment, limited availability of essential medicines, inconsistent treatment across providers, and unnecessary monthly visits to renew prescriptions.

PAHO said HEARTS in the Americas is the world’s largest adaptation of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global HEARTS initiative and is now active in 33 countries, reaching nearly 10,000 primary health care facilities and putting more than six million people on treatment.

It said where fully implemented, six in 10 patients achieve blood pressure control, almost double the regional average.

‘The framework turns these proven successes into a structured model that any country can adopt and tailor to its needs. It lays out concrete strategies, such as mandating the use of reliable, automatic blood pressure monitors, ensuring a steady supply of quality medicines at affordable prices through bulk regional purchasing, enabling multi-month prescriptions, and empowering trained nurses to adjust medication doses. It also proposes simple monthly monitoring tools so clinics can track performance and make rapid improvements.’

PAHO said combined, these strategies support the ’80-80-80 target’ for blood pressure control: 80 per cent of people with hypertension diagnosed, 80 per cent of those diagnosed treated, and 80 percent of those treated getting blood pressure under control.

‘Reaching this goal could prevent more than 400,000 deaths and 2.4 million hospitalisations by 2030 in the Americas,’ explained Dr Pedro Orduñez, the corresponding author and PAHO Senior Advisor for Cardiovascular Disease.

‘We urge ministries of health, policymakers, and health-care providers to adopt the HEARTS Quality Framework,’ said Dr Anselm Hennis, Director of the Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health at PAHO.

‘By committing to this model, we can deliver better care for NCDs, save millions of lives and strengthen primary health care across the Americas.’

Government Monday said it remains open to holding discussions with the opposition One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) on the Absentee Voting Act 2025 after the legislation failed to meet the requirements necessary for it to proceed under the Standing Orders of the House of Assembly.

Shadow Minister of Tourism, Culture and Transport, Dwayne Robinson, said that the OBA had expected to debate its Absentee Voting Act in parliament last Friday. However, the party was informed on that day that the proposed legislation would not be allowed to go ahead because, if approved, its provisions would require money to be spent by the Parliamentary Registrar.

‘While we are disappointed that the Absentee Voting Act 2025 will be removed from the order paper for good, the OBA is proud to have put this important issue on the public agenda. The Government was given an opportunity to collaborate on the OBA’s Bill, but instead chose political mischief,’ Robinson added.

But in a statement, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation, Diallo V. Rabain, said the government had reached out to the opposition ‘in writing and offered to sit down and discuss the bill’ being piloted by the OBA prior to it being presented to Parliament.

‘From the outset, we said clearly that we support absentee voting for students studying off-island. At the same time, we were equally clear that the Bill, as submitted, was not workable and could not be fixed through amendments on the floor of the House.’

‘Unfortunately, the OBA chose not to sit down and discuss the Bill and instead decided to press ahead with it,’ Rabain said, adding ‘the Bill was ultimately found not to meet the requirements necessary for it to proceed under the Standing Orders of the House of Assembly.

‘That outcome did not change our position. The Government has already committed, in our election manifesto, to introducing absentee voting for students as part of a wider programme of electoral reform. That reform must, and will, include input from the people of Bermuda.

‘The door remains open for the OBA to take part in that work. Electoral reform, including absentee voting, is not something that should be done by one party acting alone. It requires bipartisan engagement and serious policy development if we are going to change how our elections are governed.’

Rabain said the government will continue to move forward in the right order ‘listening to the public, engaging stakeholders, and developing clear policy before bringing legislation to the House. Bermudians will continue to have a voice in that process.

‘Our democracy deserves careful work and good faith, not rushed gestures,’ he added.

Opposition Leader, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, has accused the ruling New Democratic Party (NDP) government of ‘deception’ over its promise to pay public sector workers a ‘bonus salary’.

The former prime minister’s comments came amidst public debate over what the NDP said during the campaign for the November 27 general election and what it suggested, after it won the elections ending Gonsalves’s attempt of his Unity Labour Party (ULP) being elected for a sixth consecutive term in office.

NDP leader and now Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday first made the promises at an NDP press conference in October, presenting a pledge card with his photo on one side and the four pledges that the NDP intends to keep within 60 days of taking office.

‘These are things that are real and practical. So, we are pledging to immediately make people’s lives better within 60 days of being elected,’ he said, outlining what an NDP government would do, including providing ‘salary bonuses to all public servants.to help to deal with the cost-of-living crisis’.

The promises were repeated throughout the campaign and two weeks before the general election, the NDP held a press conference at which it signed a memorandum of agreement with the Public Service Union (PSU).

‘It is a document that puts the welfare and dignity of workers front and centre in our national development,’ said PSU President, Elroy Boucher, who signed on behalf of the union.

While he did not refer to the four promises he had made in October, Friday instead focused on how an NDP government intends to interact with the public service.

But Gonsalves told a weekend news conference that the NDP’s ‘bonus salary’ promise was a ‘big deception’.

Gonsalves said he had been advised ‘that a member of the government was on a radio station saying that the NDP never promised a double salary in December; they promised a bonus.

‘Well, that’s not what was said. You said explicitly on the platform a double salary for December, and you also said in your little card a bonus salary. If it was a bonus, you will say a bonus,’ Gonsalves said, adding that by saying a ‘bonus salary’, ‘bonus’ is the adjective and ‘salary’ is the noun.

‘That’s plain, simple English language which any grade 5, grade 6 student knows, and the teachers should be teaching that: what is the adjective and what is the noun? The NDP promised the bonus salary – analyse and parse. Now they are saying, No, it’s a bonus.’

Gonsalves recalled his announcement during the Independence Day celebrations on October 27 of a Christmas COLA for public servants, ‘they scoffed at it.

‘They said, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no; we are giving a salary. Because the Christmas COLA paid in your November salary was for three months, at three per cent for three months,’ he said, adding that while this amounted to nine per cent, people were using 10 per cent for ease of calculation.

‘Is the average bonus, which they were now going to pay, more than the Christmas COLA? So, if you are so deceptive to people, how are you going to regain trust? So, you’re breaking the trust so early in the day?’ said Gonslaves.

The discussion about a double salary for public sector workers, payable by Christmas, has become a topic of debate on social media and on radio programmes.

Junior minister of Education and NDP public relations officer, attempted to manage public sector workers’ expectations, saying the NDP had promised to ‘give a bonus payment to all public servants.

‘I understand that there seems to be a little bit of a misunderstanding, and I understand why, as well, if I’m being transparent, that the persons who are talking about a double bubble, the truth is the language and words from the party president has always been, and there will be no clip found of Dr. Friday saying a double payment.’

King said Friday had ‘always maintained that it would be a bonus payment on your salary.

‘And I want the public to know that we have promised this in 60 days, not in the first month, be it in December. We said in 60 days, and 60 days hasn’t happened just yet.’

Barbados Monday released a new comprehensive report detailing how the island is restructuring government to deliver on its six national missions for inclusive and sustainable development.

The document, titled ‘Implementing Mission Barbados: A Roadmap for State Transformation,’ is co-authored by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley and Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London and founding director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). The report represents the latest milestone in a three-year partnership that has seen Barbados pioneer a mission-oriented approach to national transformation.

The report builds on the November 2023 publication, ‘A Mission-Oriented Strategy for the Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth in Barbados,’ which established the country’s six missions around sustainable development, citizen empowerment, food and water security, public health and safety, economic empowerment, and digital transformation.

The government said the new publication focuses on the practical work of retooling government institutions and processes to achieve these ambitious goals.

‘From the highest levels of government providing political will to civil servants working diligently on the ground, and with our social partners and citizens rallying behind a shared purpose , Barbados is mobilising a whole-of-nation effort to transform our country,’ Prime MInister Mottley said.

‘This courage to break old moulds and govern with vision is not easy, but it is necessary. We believe it will provide valuable lessons to other countries on how to tackle global challenges through strategic, outcomes-oriented policies,’ she added.

Professor Mazzucato said that having worked with many governments she can ‘say that Barbados truly stands out for its ambition and commitment to deep transformation. ‘Missions by their nature challenge business-as-usual and demand stepping outside comfort zones. Barbados is working on the premise that achieving inclusive and sustainable growth requires tackling problems at their root,’ Mazzucato said.

The report provides concrete recommendations across five critical areas.

Regarding the Mission-Oriented Policy Design, the document notes designing policy with a clear focus on transformative outcomes rather than short-term outputs.

‘The Roofs to Reefs programme exemplifies this approach by simultaneously addressing housing resilience, water security, climate adaptation, and marine conservation. Accelerating the Sustainable Mobility Plan could reduce transport emissions and fossil fuel dependence whilst generating an estimated BDS$15.6 billion (One BDS$=US$0.50 cents) in savings and new jobs in clean energy and transport.’

On the issue of Governance, Partnerships, and Participation, it notes that strengthening the social partnership, uniting government, labour, and business leaders, as the core institution driving collaborative implementation through the mission boards, which comprise senior ministers and diverse representation from across society.

The document states that aligning financial strategies with mission outcomes, Barbados’s pioneering US$592.7 million debt-for-climate swap directly advances the third mission of food and water security, by funding critical water reclamation and climate-smart agricultural projects, exemplifying mission-aligned finance in action.

It said the establishment of GovTech Barbados aims to enable agile, user-centred digital transformation, modernising public services through essential digital infrastructure and that moving from output tracking to a comprehensive, learning-driven framework that monitors real-world outcomes across social, economic, and environmental dimensions.

‘The One Family Programme provides an innovative multi-dimensional monitoring framework, tracking poverty reduction across education, housing, health, and employment.’

The collaboration between IIPP and the Barbados government has included an applied learning programme delivered in 2024 to build public-sector capabilities, training senior civil servants in mission-oriented policy implementation, digital governance, and innovative public procurement.

From March to July 2025, IIPP senior policy adviser, Luca Kuehn von Burgsdorff, was seconded to the Prime Minister’s Office to support on-the-ground implementation.

‘During this period, the government established new governance structures, including the Mission Boards and the Mission Barbados Control Centre, and developed a national ‘missions dashboard’ to monitor progress

It said the report reaffirms IIPP’s commitment to supporting Barbados as it moves from strategy to implementation.

‘Barbados stands as a leading example within IIPP’s global portfolio of mission-oriented projects, illustrating how governments can rethink their strategies and structures to achieve ambitious outcomes.’

Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit Monday said he his country is prepared to act as a mediator in the current conflict between the United States and Venezuela reiterating that the Caribbean region should always be a zone of peace.

Speaking at the end of year news conference, Skerrit told reporters that Dominica and the wider Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region is urging ‘dialogue and diplomacy’ to deal with the situation given that ‘there would be an impact on every country’ should there be a war in the Caribbean. ‘Dominica is a good friend of both the United States and Venezuela and in the past we have worked together as an intermediary and we are prepared to do so in this current situation if there are messages from either side to each other.

Dominica believes it is well placed to provide that service. But we hope and pray that nothing happens and the US President himself has been involved in a number of negotiations across the world and has used the US’s influence to bring a number of conflicts to an end and I would urge the United States to draw upon that trajectory to advance that noble cause and actions that he has been able to achieve over the years,’ Skerrit said.

Since September, the Donald Trump administration has carried out a series of military strikes off the coast of Venezuela, across the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific as part of what it terms the war on illegal drugs.

But political observers say President Trump is involved in regime change in Caracas, given his public statements made about President Nicolas Maduro, whom he has labelled as a narco-terrorist and the build up of military assets in the international waters near the South American country.

The US military has carried out several hits on vessels, killing more than 80 people, including two Trinidad and Tobago nationals, without providing any proof that they were engaged in drugs.

The United Nations UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also strongly condemned the airstrikes carried out by the United States against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.

Volker Trk said in a statement that the strikes ‘violate international human rights law’, demanding that they be stopped immediately.

Earlier this month, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has expressed its ‘deep concern’ regarding reports of lethal operations against non-state vessels or boats conducted by the United States in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean since early September.

The IACHR said that these operations have allegedly resulted in the deaths of a high number of persons and is urging Washington to ensure that all security operations, including those carried out beyond its borders, ‘are consistent with international human rights obligations, particularly regarding the protection of the right to life, the use of force, due process guarantees, and accountability mechanisms’.

CARICOM has also issued a statement reiterating the ned for the region to be a zone of peace, but the statement was not endorsed by the Trinidad and Tobago government, whose Prime Minister, has said that those involved in the illegal drugs trade should be killed ‘violently’.

Skerrit told reporters regarding the presence of the US military in Caribbean waters, Dominica and the wider Caribbean have enjoyed ‘excellent collaboration’ with Washington in fighting illicit activities in the region.

‘The US has been the number one partner of Dominica and continues to be, even today in terms of their investment in Dominica for national security,’ he said, noting that a radar had been made available to the island ‘to deal with our marine spaces and that was recently installed.

‘There are a number of other major infrastructural projects .that the Americans are financing.and other matters where national security is concerned. So on the issue of fighting crime and so on, the US is our partner.

‘We always maintain that the Caribbean should be a zone of peace and that any thought of military actions in the Caribbean should be reconsidered. We believe that dialogue and diplomatic channels are better ways to solve problems, differences, views that do not coincide and this is what we are urging in the circumstance.

‘Certainly, if there is a breakout anywhere in the Caribbean sea it will have a negative impact on all of us,’ Skerrit told reporters.

Former CARICOM and Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Amery Browne, has described as ‘deceptive’ a statement issued by the Trinidad and Tobago government on Monday indicating that it had granted approval for United States military aircraft to transit the local airspace ‘in the coming weeks’.

‘The United States has advised that these movements are logistical in nature, facilitating supply replenishment and routine personnel relations,’ the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs said in a statement. But, speaking on a local radio station, Browne told listeners that ‘this was a very deceptive media release by the government today.

‘Never before has our country given blanket permission for unspecified foreign military aircraft to use the airports, airspace of Trinidad and Tobago in the build up to a regime change war. There is nothing routine about this,’ Browne told radio listeners, adding ‘this has nothing to do with the usual cooperation, friendly collaborations that we have enjoyed for decades with the USA and all our neighbours’.

He said that the statement by the government ‘takes Trinidad and Tobago a further step down the path od satellite state, which has dismissed CARICOM and international law an embraced a might is right philosophy.’

Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Sean Sobers said the government is maintaining ‘close engagement’ with the US Embassy here, adding that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar ‘has affirmed the government’s commitment to cooperation and collaboration in the pursuit of safety and security for Trinidad and Tobago and the wider region.

‘We welcome the continued support for the United States,’ he added.

Prime Minister Persaud-Bissessar has over the past few months backed the United States military operation in the Caribbean as part of its drug-eradication programme, despite political observers and Venezuela itself saying that Washington’s aim is to effect regime change in Caracas and remove President Nicolas Maduro from power.

Persad-Bissessar’s position is at variance with the rest of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that has insisted that the region be maintained as a zone of peace, even while supporting Washington’s efforts to deal with the illegal drugs trade.

In its statement, the Ministry of CARICOM and Foreign Affairs said that through its ongoing partnership with the United States, Trinidad and Tobago has benefitted from joint military training exercises, enhanced surveillance capabilities, ‘including the installation of an effective radar system and collaborative efforts that have contributed to the interdiction of millions of dollars worth of illegal narcotics’.

It said that the embassy here has also been engaged in supporting national development through educational initiatives.

Browne said that for the past six months, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar ‘has refused to address this nation and properly explain what she has done to our neutral foreign policy and our standing in the region and the world’.

One of the lawyers representing the Public Service Union (PSU) says it will pursue the vaccine mandate case before the London-based Privy Council, regardless of any decision taken by the new St. Vincent and the Grenadines government.

Attorney Shirlan Barnwell told a news conference that ‘the matter proceeds, irrespective of the government’s position, there are other aspects of the claim that need to be addressed so that this kind of matter doesn’t happen again. ‘Remember, we had a judicial review coupled with a constitutional claim,’ Barnwell said, adding ‘so, outside of just the abandonment aspect of it, wherein the officers have been returned to work, there are other issues that need to be addressed. So, the matter proceeds.’

The PSU, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union and the Police Welfare Association sponsored a lawsuit against the government after it fired hundreds of public sector workers in 2021 for failing to take a COVID-19 vaccine.

The High Court ruled in March 2023 that the government’s actions were illegal, but the Court of Appeal overturned that ruling in February 2025. The public sector workers have been granted permission to appeal to the Privy Council, the country’s highest and final court.

Prior to its defeat in the November 27, general election, the Ralph Gonsalves government which had implemented the mandate, had urged affected workers to reapply for their jobs, with all benefits intact.

However, some workers refused, saying that they did not abandon their jobs.

During the election campaign, the now ruling New Democratic Party (NDP) of Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday, promised to reinstate the workers, and several of them have since returned to their jobs.

Barnwell noted that the legal team has conditional leave to appeal to the Privy Council and has 90 days in which to file the record with the Privy Council, adding ‘ we’re currently working on that to meet that deadline’.

She said the legal team wants the Privy Council to rule on several matters, including whether the Public Service Commission (PSC) acted independently or followed a directive of the minister.

The lawyer noted that the PSC is an independent constitutional body set up to be autonomous, separate and distinct from political interference.

‘Its job is to hire, promote, appoint and transfer persons independent of any directive. So, one of the things that we have challenged that was overturned on appeal was that the Public Service Commission was acting on a direction of the minister.’

The legal team is also arguing that the government changed the meaning of abandonment.

Before the mandate, the law stated that a worker absent without leave for 10 consecutive days was deemed to have abandoned their job.

However, the legal team argues that the government expanded the definition to include any person who failed or refused to take the vaccine for 10 days and that this meant that unvaccinated workers who attended work were deemed to be absent, and, after 10 days, were deemed to have abandoned their jobs.

‘We also dealt with the issue of the fact that the prime minister was able to, under the COVID-19 Miscellaneous Act, I believe that the minister of security back then, which was the prime minister, was able to amend the act without going to Parliament, by including aspects that were not there under the Police Act . That can’t stand as well,’ Barnwell said.

‘That any type of amendment that you have to make to any legislation, save an exception of regulation that was of the act itself, the Police Act was done without going to Parliament.’

Barnwell said that the legal team was also challenging the manner in which the national emergency declaration was made under Section 17(7) of the Constitution, arguing that a proper declaration was not made, as the Parliament should have made the declaration.

The following is the CANANews and SPORTS Schedule for Monday, December 15, 2025.

PORT OF SPAIN – The Trinidad and Tobago government Monday said it had granted approval for United States military aircraft to transit the local airspace ‘in the coming weeks’.

GEORGETOWN – A Three day workshop aimed at producing a workplan for the establishment of national institutional mechanisms for synergistic implementation of the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States (ABAS) and the United nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) got underway here on Monday.

WASHINGTON – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says The Bahamas economy remains resilient even as it acknowledged that growth is expected to decelerate slightly in 2025.

ST. GEORGE’S -The Aviation Services of Grenada (ASG) has apologised to the public promising that it ‘will continue to work to minimise disruption to services’ following last weekend’s cancellation or late departure of flights at the Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA).

KINGSTOWN – Opposition Leader, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, has accused the ruling New Democratic Party (NDP) government of ‘deception’ over its promise to pay public sector workers a ‘bonus salary’.

SPORTS:

MANCHESTER – Aston Villa manager, Natalia Arroyo has described Jamaican international and Manchester City forward Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw as the best striker in the Women’s Super League (WSL).