Tag Archives: caribbean

SV&G: Former PM, Sir James Mitchell, Has Died

CMC- Sir James Mitchell, the second prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, died on Tuesday, his family has confirmed. He was 90 years old.

His death has brought to an end an era in the history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, since he had been the last surviving parliamentarian at the time when the island gained political independence from Britain on October 27, 1979.

“We are saddened to hear the news that the founder of the New Democratic Party (NDC) Sir James Mitchell has passed away. He was one of the founding fathers of our nation and served as the second Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines from 1984 to 2000, as well as premier to St. Vincent and the Grenadines from 1972 to 1974,” the NDC said in a statement following the announcement of his death.

“During his time serving our nation, he achieved huge amounts in steering St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the right direction, by providing economic stability and improving housing across our islands. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) once said of his economic leadership ‘there’s much to please and little to fault’.

“Sir James is undoubtedly to be credited for numerous developments in our country. He was the embodiment of a true statesman and a nation builder.  Sir James was much loved by everybody that knew him and we pray for his family during this difficult time. May he rest in peace,” the party added in the statement.

Sir James, who was popularly known as “Son Mitchell,” died five days after being discharged from the Intensive Care Unit of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Barbados, where he had been taken after falling ill at his home in Bequia, on October 30.

He was initially diagnosed, in Bequia, as having a gallstone, but was brought to the capital, Kingstown, where doctors said he had an infection

“I have never hidden my condition from the people of St. Vincent and as you know, I have always been reporting how I am feeling well and swimming and all of that,” Sir James told CMC in a telephone conversation from his hospital bed in Kingstown, on October 31.

He said then that he had taken a fall in his kitchen about four months ago and while he suffered no broken bones, he had been experiencing some health challenges since then.

Doctors later decided to transfer Sir James to Barbados, where he was treated for severe dengue and sepsis, among other complications, his family said.

After being discharged from hospital in Barbados last Thursday, Sir James was taken back to “his beloved home Bequia” where he died.

“Throughout this entire ordeal, Sir James has been comforted by the support and love expressed on a daily basis by his former cabinet ministers, colleagues, constituents and his cherished NDP family,” the family said in a statement last Thursday after his release from the hospital.

“We appreciate the outpouring of concern from every segment of the Vincentian populace for Sir James. We also thank his friends and colleagues from across the world who have reached out. The family is truly humbled by the tremendous solicitude and support at this time,” said the statement issued by his daughters, Sabrina, Gretel, Louise and Gabija.

The government, which financed the cost of Sir James’ medical treatment in Barbados, has not yet made any statement regarding his death.

Sir James, an agronomist, was born in Bequia on May 15, 1931. He was premier of St. Vincent from 1972 to 1974 and then prime minister from 1984 to October 2001. He remained NDP president until 2000 when he retired from electoral politics.

At the time of his death, he was a member of the Interaction Council of former presidents and prime ministers.

After his retirement from electoral politics, Sir James campaigned with the NDP in the general elections of 2001, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020, as well as the constitutional referendum of 2009, when the NDP persuaded the electorate to reject proposed changes to the 1979 constitution that would have allowed the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to be the island’s highest court.

He also focused on his family’s hotel businesses and writing and commented intermittently on national issues. His most recent comments on national issues focused on trying to convince residents of SVG, where there are pockets of deep-rooted coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine hesitancy, to get inoculated against the virus.

In September, he proposed that the government create a one million dollar (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents)  fund to finance EC$50 meal vouchers to an estimated  20,000 people taking the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

“Some might call it bribery. But we’re not foreign to bribery here in this country anyway,” said Sir James who reasoned that “vaccination is the safest and fastest way out of the pandemic”.

He also lauded the Ralph Gonsalves government’s COVID-19 vaccination policy, which saw vaccines becoming mandatory for a large section of public sector workers from November 19.

He had also been critical of politicians who he said were “lukewarm about vaccination”, an apparent reference to the position adopted by the NDP.

“I regret to say that everybody is entitled to their view but as a scientist, as a person who has spent a lot of time 50 years of my life, helping and looking after the people of St. Vincent, if you think you owe me one, the one thing that I say Vincentians owe me is to get vaccinated. Please, go and get vaccinated,” Sir James said then.

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Child is 6th Death in Christmas Parade Tragedy, Suspect Charged

today

An 8-year-old boy became the sixth person to die Tuesday as a result of a man driving his SUV into a suburban Milwaukee Christmas parade, with a criminal complaint alleging that the suspect in the case steered side-to-side with the intent of striking marchers and spectators.

Darrell Brooks, center, is escorted out of the courtroom after making his initial appearance, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021 in Waukesha County Court in Waukesha, Wis. Prosecutors in Wisconsin have charged Brooks with intentional homicide in the deaths of at least five people who were killed when an SUV was driven into a Christmas parade. (Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Darrell Brooks Jr., 39, was charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide, a charge that carries a mandatory life sentence if convicted. He rocked back and forth in his seat and cried throughout his court hearing on Tuesday, his attorney’s arm on his back, as the charges against him were detailed. His bail was set at $5 million, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for Jan. 14.

Eyewitnesses described the aftermath of the crime as nothing short of horrific.

Angelito Tenorio, an alderman and candidate for state treasurer, was marching in the parade when he heard a loud bang. “Then I heard deafening cries and screams. It was very gut-wrenching,” he told the New York Times. “People were running away, leaving their belongings behind, sobbing. When the crowd cleared out, it looked like there were people on the ground who might have been struck by the vehicle.”

“There were pom-poms and shoes and spilled hot chocolate everywhere,” one person told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal. “I had to go from one crumpled body to the other to find my daughter. My wife and two daughters were almost hit. Please pray for everybody. Please pray. My family is safe but many are not. I held one little girl’s head in my hand; she was seizing and she was bleeding out of her ears. I held her mother as she collapsed. Please pray.”

The suspect

Police soon recovered the vehicle and took into custody the driver, Darrell E. Brooks. Officials said Brooks, 39, had apparently been involved in a domestic incident just before driving the SUV down the parade route. “There was no pursuit that led to this incident,” Waukesha police chief Daniel Thompson added during a press conference Monday, saying officers hadn’t yet responded to the scene of the earlier incident. In a court appearance on Tuesday, prosecutors charged Brooks with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide. His bail has been set at $5 million, and he is expected to face a sixth count for the death of 8-year-old Jackson Sparks, who passed on Tuesday.

On Monday, the Associated Press reported that Brooks has a lengthy criminal record and has been charged with crimes 16 times since 1999:

Online court records showed a person named Darrell Brooks, with a birthdate making him 39, has two open criminal cases in Milwaukee County. In one case, filed Nov. 5, he is charged with resisting or obstructing

“The nature of this offense is shocking,” said Waukesha Court Commissioner Kevin Costello.

Additional charges related to the sixth death and the more than 60 people injured will be coming later this week or next, said Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper. The criminal complaint said 62 people were injured, up from the 48 previously announced by police.

Brooks is accused of speeding away from police and entering the Waukesha Christmas parade on Sunday night, refusing to stop even as an officer banged on the hood of his SUV. Another officer fired three shots into the vehicle, but it did not stop.

Five people ranging in age from 52 to 81 were pronounced dead within hours. Jackson Sparks, 8, was the first of many injured children to have died. He was walking in the parade with his 12-year-old brother Tucker, who was injured in the crash and was being discharged from the hospital, according to his GoFundMe page.

“This afternoon, our dear Jackson has sadly succumbed to his injuries and passed away,” the page’s organizer, Alyssa Albro, wrote.

The city’s livestream video and bystander video captured the chaotic scene when an SUV sped along the parade route and then into the crowd. Several of those injured remain in critical condition.

According to the criminal complaint, witnesses told police that the vehicle “appeared to be intentionally moving side to side,” with no attempt to slow down or stop as it struck multiple people and sent bodies and objects flying.

Brooks ignored several attempts to stop him, according to the criminal complaint.

A detective — wearing police insignia and a neon orange safety vest — stepped in front of Brooks’ vehicle and pounded on the hood, shouting “Stop,” several times but Brooks drove past him, according to the complaint.

A uniformed police officer who saw Brooks’ SUV traveling toward the parade route also tried to get his attention, yelling “Stop, stop the vehicle” several times but was ignored, according to the complaint. The officer “observed the driver looking straight ahead, directly at him, and it appeared he had no emotion on his face,” the complaint said.

Brooks braked at one point, but instead of turning away from the parade route, he turned into the crowd and appeared to rapidly accelerate, the complaint said.

Another police officer shot at the vehicle, striking it three times as it entered the parade route. Brooks was not hit by the bullets, the Waukesha police chief said Monday.

The complaint said one witness who spoke with police said the SUV “continued to drive in a zig zag motion. It was like the SUV was trying to avoid vehicles, not people. There was no attempt made by the vehicle to stop, much less slow down.”

Waukesha Police Chief Dan Thompson said Brooks was leaving the scene of a domestic dispute that had taken place just minutes earlier when he drove into the parade route.

He had been free on $1,000 bail for a case in Milwaukee County earlier in November in which he’s accused of intentionally striking a woman with his car. Prosecutors said they’re investigating their bail recommendation in that case, calling it inappropriately low.

Brooks has been charged with crimes more than a dozen times since 1999, mostly in Wisconsin but also in Georgia and Nevada, and had two outstanding cases against him at the time of the parade disaster. That included resisting or obstructing an officer, reckless endangering, disorderly conduct, bail jumping and battery for the Nov. 2 incident.

 

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Thompson said that there was no evidence the bloodshed Sunday was a terrorist attack or that Brooks knew anyone in the parade. Brooks acted alone, the chief said.

NBC News published doorbell camera footage that appeared to capture Brooks’ arrest. It showed Brooks, shivering in just a T-shirt, knocking on a homeowner’s door and asking for help calling for a ride. Moments later, police surrounded the house and shouted, “Hands up!” Brooks, standing on the porch, held up his hands and said, “Whoa whoa whoa!”

Hundreds gathered at a downtown park Monday night in Waukesha, Wisconsin, for a candlelight vigil in honor of those lost and hurt. A pair of clergy solemnly read the names of those who died. Volunteers handed out sandwiches, hot chocolate and candles at the vigil, which was attended by interfaith leaders and elected officials.

“We are parents. We are neighbors. We are hurting. We are angry. We are sad. We are confused. We are thankful. We are all in this together. We are Waukesha Strong,” said a tearful Amanda Medina Roddy with the Waukesha school district.

Mayor Shawn Reilly described the parade as a “Norman Rockwell-type” event that “became a nightmare.”

___

Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press writer Doug Glass contributed from Minneapolis.

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Six More Hanged Bodies Found in Violence-Plagued Mexican State

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The bodies of six people were found hanged from a bridge and a tree on Tuesday in a region of central Mexico ravaged by criminal gang violence, the second such incident in the area in less than a week, authorities said.

Three of the victims were hanged from an overpass and three others from a tree, according to a statement by the Secretary of Public Security of Zacatecas state said. Another two bodies were found on the ground of a property in a nearby community.

The killings followed the discovery of 10 bodies in Zacatecas on Nov. 18, nine of them hanging from a bridge, in apparent gang-related killings.

The recent uptick in deadly violence is a result of disputes between two criminal groups fighting for control of drug trafficking in the area, according to a state government official who declined to be identified.

At least 948 people were killed by violence in Zacatecas in the first 10 months of this year, according to official data, some 342 more than in the same period a year earlier.

Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, writing by Cassandra Garrison, editing by Mark Heinrich

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Colombia’s Military Seize Cocaine Worth More Than $300m

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombia’s armed forces seized 10 tonnes of cocaine on Tuesday, the largest shipment so far this year, and destroyed two drug labs in an anti-narcotics mission in the southeast of the country, Defense Minister Diego Molano said.

The cocaine and the labs, which belonged to leftist rebels the National Liberation Army (ELN), were found in a rural zone of the Samaniego municipality, located in Colombia’s Narino province near the border with Ecuador, Molano said.

“This is the most important blow in terms of cocaine seizures this year,” Molano said in a recorded message. “Ten tonnes would have seen the ELN receive more than $300 million.”

Despite decades of fighting against drug trafficking, Colombia remains a top global producer of cocaine and faces constant pressure from the United States to lower the size of coca crops, the drug’s main ingredient, as well as production of cocaine.

Drug trafficking helps finance illegal armed groups in Colombia amid a long-running internal armed conflict, which has left more than 260,000 dead.

Aside from the ELN, ex-members of the demobilized FARC guerrillas who reject a 2016 peace deal are involved in drug trafficking, as well as criminal gangs, according to security sources.

Colombia’s military and police confiscated a record 505 tonnes of cocaine in 2020.

Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta Writing by Oliver Griffin Editing by Leslie Adler

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Colombia: Despite Peace Deal Armed Gang Violence Displacing Indigenous People

BBC- Sheets of tarpaulin supported by sticks pepper a public square in the northern Colombian city of Montería where a community of indigenous Emberá people have lived since mid-April.

The community fled violence which broke out between rival armed groups in their rural communities many hours away, along the banks of the Sinú river.

One barefoot Emberá woman said she wanted to return, but fears for her and her family’s lives.Margarita Pernia poses for a photo with her three daughters

“We are here out of serious need,” says Margarita Pernia, 42, sitting beside her three teenage daughters in their traditional indigenous clothing and face markings.

“They have guns. After 6pm we couldn’t go out anywhere, because even though we are on our land, they prohibit it,” Ms Pernia said. “We lived in terror.

Ms Pernia said they fled because different armed groups were taking control of the land on their indigenous reserve, although she was unable to identify exactly who the groups were.

In Montería, the Emberá community sleep on the ground on thin pieces of foam and wash themselves in the nearby river, where they also defecate.

Children sleep on makeshift beds in a camp in Montería
The Emberá’s living conditions in their makeshift camp are extremely basic

“We’re here, putting up with mosquitos and hunger. Our children have gotten sick and some have died,” said Fabio Bailarín, 52, a spokesperson for the Emberá people who is part of the 2,700 who fled.

This is a small example of the multiple forced displacements happening each month around Colombia, a country where armed conflict violence is on the rise.

The twenty-fourth of November marks the fifth anniversary of the official implementation of a historic peace deal signed between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebel group and the government in 2016.

But for many in the Andean nation, peace never arrived.

Existing or dissident rebel groups and new illegal armed groups involved in drug production or trafficking and illegal gold mining have moved into and vie for control of the areas the Farc rebels left behind after demobilising.

An overwhelming amount of these illicit activities occur on the ancestral lands of Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.

Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office reported a 213% increase in the number of displaced families, from 1,682 in 2020 to 5,266 in 2021.

During the first half of this year there were 102 incidents of mass displacement, where 44,290 people fled to usually more urban areas for safety from armed conflict violence.

“For many communities across Colombia, the promise of peace has become a devastating disappointment,” said Juan Pappier, senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“While the peace process initially brought some relief, violence in remote areas is now increasing and many regions are at risk of experiencing a return to pre-peace process levels of violence.”

An Emberá woman works on a bead necklace
Image caption,

Many displaced Emberá women try to earn a little money by making and selling beaded necklaces

Armed groups confining communities is another phenomenon on the rise.

“Illegal armed groups exert control over local populations by restricting their freedom of movement. This means “confining” them which involves imposing curfews, check points and not allowing persons to leave or enter the community in question or to bring in outside goods into the area,” said Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, Andes director for the advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

The southwestern Pacific region, especially Chocó, has been worst affected by this. The United Nations said in a recent report that 96% of confined people this year belong to indigenous or Afro-Colombian groups.

Most of those under confinement do not speak out to local authorities, rights groups or journalists out of fear of reprisal.

Ms Sánchez says confining communities allowed armed groups to gain military advantage against whomever they are fighting with and guarantees that the local population submits to their demands.

Young and underage Colombians also continue to be recruited into the ranks of illegal groups.

ACAPS, a non-governmental organisation which analyses humanitarian crises globally, predicted in a September 2021 report that forced recruitment, gender-based violence, massive displacement and massacres were likely to increase in the coming months in Colombia’s provinces on the Pacific coast, where “at least 10 armed groups are disputing territory”.

The report said that confrontations between armed groups for territorial control increased the number of confinements, mass and individual displacements, and homicides in 2021 – a trend likely to continue.

The Pacific provinces are key for coca cultivation – the raw ingredient for cocaine – which is at an all time production high too.

Landmines and other explosive devices are also being planted again by armed groups to protect their valuable coca fields, which frequently maim civilians and security forces.

A Colombian government spokesperson told the BBC they could not provide a direct response to questions posed about rising violence in the country.

On the other side of the public square in Montería, 52-year-old Ireña Domico Charras sits alone.

Ireña Domico Charras looks into the camera
Image caption,

Ireña Domico Charras received death threats

Using a sewing pin, she carefully scoops up small beads and places them onto a piece of thread to make bracelets to sell around the city. She is a local leader within her Emberá community.

“They’ve killed some of our leaders in Sinú. I have received death threats and my husband too,” says Ms Charras, who said her brother was killed by the Farc and she was displaced three other times before the peace deal.

“If you don’t do what they say, they’ll kill you. We need the government to guarantee our safety before we can go back.”

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Armed Mexican Gangs Threaten Lottery Winning Children’s Nursery Members

Parents in southern Mexico say they are being threatened by a gang after their children’s nursery won 20m pesos ($950,000; £710,0000) in a lottery.

The nursery has just over two dozen pupils and their parents were put in charge of administering the prize.

Soon after their win was made public, they received threats from an armed group, which demanded that they use the money to buy weapons for the gang.

The families say they had to flee their village and have been living rough.

Gang violence is rife in Mexico and armed groups often try to recruit locals in their fight with rivals for control of territory.

A number of the 500-peso tickets in Mexico’s much-publicised “plane lottery” were bought by anonymous benefactors and donated to poor schools and nurseries across the country.

The Mexican state organised the lottery after a previous plan to raffle off the presidential plane to raise funds for hospital supplies had been shelved because it was deemed impractical.

A list of the 100 winners was announced in September 2020 and published in Mexican newspapers.

The tiny nursery in the indigenous village of Ocosingo was among the winners.

While the windfall was cause for celebration at first, the problems started soon after news of it spread.

Members of the parents’ association say that they started receiving threats from an armed group called Los Petules which demanded that the prize money be used to buy guns for the gang, which reportedly planned to attack a rival group in a neighbouring village.

The parents refused and instead spent part of the money on a new roof for the nursery.

The threats increased this year when the parents decided to use the remaining 14m pesos for works to improve their village.

In March, one father was shot at by gang members who demanded he hand over the prize money.

Last month, the situation escalated further when the gang reportedly attacked women and children in the village, causing 28 families to flee.

One member of the parents’ association said the community had lost “cattle, our homes, refrigerators, our corn and bean harvests, our chickens”.

A spokesman for the families said that they had alerted the local authorities to their plight but that unless the gang was disarmed and dissolved, they would not be able to return to their homes.

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A New Republic: Barbados Celebrates Cutting Ties with Britain-A Caribbean Trend Setter?

Reuters

A statue of Royal Navy Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson stands with its plinth vandalised a day after the government of the Caribbean island of Barbados said it wished to remove Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as its head of state and become a republic, in Bridgetown, Barbados September 16, 2020. REUTERS/Nigel R. Browne

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Barbados, a former British colony, will next week ditch Queen Elizabeth as head of state, breaking its last remaining imperial bonds with Britain nearly 400 years since the first English ship arrived at the Caribbean island.

Barbados casts the removal of Elizabeth II, who is queen of Barbados and 15 other realms including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Jamaica, as a sign of confidence and a way to finally break with the demons of its colonial history.

“This is the end of the story of colonial exploitation of the mind and body,” said Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, a Barbadian historian. He said this was a historic moment for Barbados, the Caribbean and all post-colonial societies.

“The people of this island have struggled, not only for freedom and justice, but to remove themselves from the tyranny of imperial and colonial authority,” said Beckles, vice-chancellor of The University of the West Indies.

The birth of the republic, 55 years to the day since Barbados declared independence, finally unclasps almost all the colonial bonds that have kept the tiny island in the Lesser Antilles tied to England since an English ship claimed it for King James I in 1625.

It may also be a harbinger of a broader attempt by other former colonies to cut ties to the British monarchy as it braces for the end of Elizabeth’s nearly 70-year-old reign and the future accession of Charles, who will attend the republican celebrations in Bridgetown.

Barbados’s move is the first time a realm has removed the queen as head of state in nearly 30 years: Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, proclaimed itself a republic but remained in the Commonwealth, an association of mostly former British colonies which is home to 2.5 billion people.

Buckingham Palace says the issue is a matter for the people of Barbados.

SUGAR AND SLAVES

Originally populated by waves of Saladoid-Barrancoid and Kalinago migrants, Spanish slaver raids forced Amerindians to flee. Barbados was unpopulated when the English first arrived.

The English initially used white British indentured servants to toil on the plantations of tobacco, cotton, indigo and sugar, but Barbados in just a few decades would become England’s first truly profitable slave society.

Barbados received 600,000 enslaved Africans between 1627 and 1833, who were put to work in the sugar plantations, earning fortunes for the English owners.

“Barbados under English colonial rules became the laboratory for plantation societies in the Caribbean,” said Richard Drayton, a professor of imperial and global history at Kings College, London who lived in Barbados as a child.

“It becomes the laboratory for slave society, which is then exported to Jamaica and the Carolinas and Georgia after that.”

More than 10 million Africans were shackled into the Atlantic slave trade by European nations between the 15th and 19th centuries. Those who survived the often brutal voyage, ended up toiling on plantations.

While full freedom was finally granted in 1838, the plantation owners preserved considerable economic and political power might into the 20th Century. The island gained full independence in 1966.

REPUBLICAN SEEDS

Prince Charles, the 73-year-old heir to the British throne, will travel to Barbados for the ceremonies marking the removal of his 95-year-old mother as head of state.

Barbados will remain a republic within the Commonwealth, a grouping of 54 countries across Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific that has always been a priority for Elizabeth, who heads it.

Though its name will remain simply Barbados, its removal of the queen may well sow the seeds of republicanism further across the Caribbean, according to Drayton.

“This will have consequences particularly within the English-speaking Caribbean,” said Drayton, who pointed to talk of a republic in both Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

“The queen has had an enormous personal relationship to many of these countries and has shown her own commitment to the Commonwealth vision which she inherited from that imperial moment of the 1940s and 1950s, so I do think that in the wake of the queen’s passing that some of these questions would become more urgent in places like Canada and Australia.”

The queen has made many visits to Barbados and, according to Buckingham Palace, has had “a unique relationship with this, the most easterly of the Caribbean islands”.

The republic of Barbados will be declared at a ceremony which begins late in the evening on Monday, Nov. 29 at the National Heroes Square in Bridgetown.

“The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind,” Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a 2020 speech prepared for Governor General Sandra Mason, who will replace Elizabeth as Barbados’ head of state after being elected president.

“This is the ultimate statement of confidence in who we are and what we are capable of achieving.”

Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Alex Richardson

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St. Kitts & Nevis Bar Assoc. in Law Week Donation to Flamboyant Nursing Home

NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS — Residents of the Flamboyant Nursing Home in Nevis were presented with a donation from the St. Kitts and Nevis Bar Association as part of the organisation’s annual Law Week activities.

In presenting the gift to Registered nurse Kella Didier, who at the time is in charge of the facility, and nursing assistant Cecilia Stanley; Ms. Anmarieta Staines, on behalf of the association, noted that the donation is not the first of its kind to the nursing home.

“Today we are here doing our presentation to the Flamboyant Nursing Home which is something we would have been doing for several years now and this is our little token. Because of the pandemic we were not able to fellowship with the residents of the Flamboyant Home so today we are doing our part in giving back to the community…

“We hope that they appreciate the little gesture from the St. Kitts and Nevis Bar Association. Some of the items that we have today: – standing fan, we have wipes, tumblers, toiletries and this is just a portion. We do intend to continue throughout the week but today is just the first day for our presentation,” she said.

Ms. Staines also used the opportunity to encourage members of the public to participate in the final activity which will herald the end of Law Week 2021.

“Law Week ends this Saturday, November 27, where in St. Kitts we will be going on a Hash at the Romney Manor and that starts at 3:30.

“In Nevis we will be going on a hike to the lighthouse. The cost is just $30 so we encourage persons to come and get fit with us in our ‘Fit to Practise’ activity in Law Week,” she said.

Meantime, in response to the gift nurse Didier thanked the association.

“On behalf of the residents and the staff of the Flamboyant Nursing Home, we would like to thank you for your donations over the years.  We really do appreciate your kind gesture and we thank you for thinking about the residents,” she said.

Also present were Ms. Shemica Maloney and Ms. Janicia Hodge both members of the association.

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Mexico Boosters, US Vaccine Mandate, World Stats, More

Mexico eyes COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, especially for older adults

MEXICO CITY, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Mexico will analyze administering booster vaccine doses against COVID-19, especially for older people, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday, softening his previous stance on the need for a third shot.

Less than two months ago, Lopez Obrador had rejected suggestions that Mexico should administer a third vaccine shot, saying experts deemed it to be unnecessary.

But his government has gradually opened the door to giving more people shots, including teenagers.

“The booster vaccine will be analyzed in some cases, especially for older adults, but that still has to be decided by the doctors, the specialists,” he told a news conference.

Several countries, including the United States, are already administering booster shots given data showing that protection from the original inoculations wanes over time, and with rising breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated driven by the easily transmitted Delta variant of the virus.

Nearly 76 million of Mexico’s 126 million inhabitants have had at least one vaccine dose, according to government data.

The Pan American Health Organization earlier this month recommended booster shots for people who received vaccines by China’s Sinovac Biotech (SVA.O) and Sinopharm (1099.HK), which have been used in Mexico.

Mexico has recorded 3,864,278 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 292,524 related deaths, according to government data.

Reporting by Raul Cortes; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Bill Berkrot
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Biden seeks to revive workplace vaccine mandate

The Biden administration on Tuesday asked a federal court to reinstate a workplace vaccine mandate that was put on hold earlier in November, as officials seek to boost vaccination numbers heading into the winter months.

In court papers filed overnight, the administration urged a Cincinnati-based federal appeals court to lift a court order blocking the public health rule, which requires larger businesses to have employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine or undergo regular testing and mask-wearing.

“Delaying this standard would endanger many thousands of people and would likely cost many lives per day,” government lawyers argued. “With the reopening of workplaces and the emergence of the highly transmissible Delta variant, the threat to workers is ongoing and overwhelming.”

The move comes amid an uptick of COVID-19 cases nationwide as the U.S. heads into its second holiday season during the pandemic, with many families that may have skipped gatherings last year now planning to gather this Thanksgiving.

The Tuesday filing is the most significant legal move the administration has made since the vaccine mandate case was moved earlier this month to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, where numerous legal challenges have been combined into a single lawsuit.

President Biden announced in September that the administration was rolling out a new rule that would require all private employers with 100 or more employees to mandate vaccines or weekly testing for all personnel, a guideline that has the potential to impact nearly 80 million workers.

The administration, through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), issued its six-month emergency vaccinate-or-test requirement in early November, sparking immediate legal challenges from states, employers and religious groups.

The extensive Tuesday court submission filed by OSHA, which came in a lengthy 55-page brief, underscored just how important this round of litigation is to the mandate’s long-term prospects, legal experts said.

“Because the emergency standard can only be in effect for six months, its fate rests mostly on the outcome of this stay motion,” said Sean M. Marotta, a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells.

Although the workplace mandate for the private sector has been ensnared in court fights almost since its inception, a similar mandate for the federal workforce has been seen as largely successful. More than 90 percent of federal workers had received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine as of the Monday deadline, according to White House figures.

In an earlier stage of litigation over the private-sector mandate, the New Orleans-based U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit temporarily blocked, or stayed, the rule in an order that is now the subject of the government’s latest filing.

The 5th Circuit ruling called the mandate “fatally flawed” and ordered that OSHA not enforce the requirement “pending adequate judicial review” of a motion for a permanent injunction.

The case has since been moved to the 6th Circuit after a Washington, D.C., judicial panel selected the Cincinnati-based court from the nation’s 12 regional federal appeals courts and merged the litigation into one lawsuit.

OSHA said in a statement last week that while it is confident in its power to protect workers amid the pandemic, it is suspending activities related to the mandate, citing the pending legal challenge.

Biden administration officials have argued that the mandate is necessary to boost vaccination rates. To date, the pandemic has killed more than 770,000 people in the U.S.

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MICHIGAN HOSPITAL CHIEFS PLEAD WITH PUBLIC

Chief medical officers who oversee community hospitals in Michigan urged the public to do its part to stop the surge of coronavirus infections amid near-record hospitalizations and staff shortages in the state.

In a statement posted to the Michigan Health and Hospital Association’s website Monday, chief medical representatives stated that medical facilities have been inundated with COVID-19 patients.

As of Nov. 21, the release stated, Michigan has seen 3,785 people hospitalized for COVID-19, including 784 in community hospitals’ intensive care units. The majority of those hospitalized are unvaccinated, the medical officers said.

“In addition to these high numbers of COVID-19 patients requiring emergency care and hospitalization, we are seeing high numbers of patients with other medical conditions requiring care,” the statement said.

Between the COVID-19 infections and other, non-coronavirus related ailments, officials warn, hospitals are at capacity.

“We cannot wait any longer for Michigan to correct course; we need your help now to end this surge and ensure our hospitals can care for everyone who needs it.”

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Panel widens probe into pandemic aid fraud

© getty: Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.)

A congressional subcommittee investigating financial fraud during the pandemic widened the scope of its investigation on Tuesday to include two of the leading processors of COVID-19-related financial assistance.

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who chairs the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, expanded the committee’s investigation into fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to include Blue Acorn PPP, LLC and Womply, Inc., two online startups that processed a third of all PPP loans this year.

“I am deeply troubled by reports alleging that financial technology (FinTech) lenders and their bank partners failed to adequately screen PPP loan applications for fraud,” Clyburn said in a letter to each company. “This failure may have led to millions of dollars worth of FinTech-facilitated PPP loans being made to fraudulent, non-existent, or otherwise ineligible businesses.”

Backstory: The Small Business Administration allowed non-bank and non-insured depository institution lenders, including FinTechs, to provide loans to eligible recipients. But, some FinTechs and their bank and non-bank partners may have insufficiently screened applicants for indicators of financial crime and fraud. At the same time, those same companies, including Blue Acorn and Womply, were each paid over a billion dollars in taxpayer funds to process these potentially fraudulent loans.

Clyburn’s expansion of the probe followed information from the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business that indicated possible widespread fraud from the companies.

Researchers at the school found fintechs are almost five times more likely than traditional banks to have made “highly suspicious” loans through the PPP.

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WORLD STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

259,162,032

Deaths:

5,186,129

Recovered:

234,507,788
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

[back to top ↑]

Latest News

November 24 (GMT)

Updates

  • 468 new cases and 11 new deaths in Libya [source]
  • 33,558 new cases and 1,240 new deaths in Russia [source]
  • 113 new cases and 2 new deaths in Japan [source]
  • 3,698 new cases and 326 new deaths in Mexico [source]

Post expires at 1:16am on Wednesday November 24th, 2021

The post Mexico Boosters, US Vaccine Mandate, World Stats, More appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

SKN: Third Wӓrtsilӓ Engine Expected to Bring Savings for NEVLEC Customers

NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS — The procurement of a new Wӓrtsilӓ generator being installed at the Nevis Electricity Company Limited (NEVLEC) Power Station at Prospect is expected to result in savings for the company and its customers.

Mr. Earl Springette, Generation Manager at NEVLEC, told the Department of Information on November 19, 2021, that the addition of a third Wӓrtsilӓ unit is part of a process which began in 2000, to provide a more reliable supply of electricity to residents of Nevis.

“There was a new extension built on to the plant in 2000 to accommodate three Wӓrtsilӓ units. In the year 2000 we got our first Wӓrtsilӓ unit and then we got the second one in the year 2017, and now we are in 2021, we have our third unit so that unit has completed that goal of adding three reliable units to the existing plant…

“With the addition of this unit, that amount of cost that we have for operating will be significantly reduced and I think that will also pass on to the customer as a reduction in their fuel bill. It’s quite significant for us, for the people of Nevis, and we are grateful that we could have that unit at this point and we hope that we could continue to supply reliable and available electricity to the people of Nevis,” he said.

 Mr. Springette explained that the new Wӓrtsilӓ generator is a costly but significant venture for the company.

“The cost of the whole project which includes the generator and all its auxiliary systems is about US$6.3 million. It’s a 3.8 megawatt unit which is similar to the one that we obtained in 2017, except there might be some additional auxiliary system attached to it but mechanically and power wise it’s the same size of unit that we obtained in 2017…

“It’s now a significant milestone for us. The contract was signed in December 2020 with Wӓrtsilӓ and the Nevis Electricity Company Limited. Site mobilization started in April 2021 with the civil works for the auxiliary system like the fuel system, the flow by system, the cooling system, the combustion, air and exhaust system. After the arrival of the generator last Friday the 12th of November, the mechanical and electrical processes started to have the unit in operation or commission, I would say, by the second week of January in 2022,” he said.

The new generation unit is also expected to improve the environmental conditions for the workers at the power station.

“One of the areas that is sometimes overlooked is the environmental conditions that the workers undergo on a daily basis. So the completion of this new section will significantly change the conditions that the workers work under. It’s been very stressful for a number of years, and the condition will certainly do justice to their health and wellbeing,” he said.

Meantime, Mr. Jevon Eaton, Generation Superintendent, noted that NEVLEC is also in the process of upgrading its Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), simply described as the “brains of the engine.”

“I would like to let the public know that with this purchase of a new generator we’re also upgrading the communications and PLC system of the entire plant. So with this upgrade there will be a few short outages that are necessary in order to complete this upgrade but in due time we will announce these outages,” he said.

 

 

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