Caribzone News Highlights

Jamaica

Hundreds of students at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, are livid after learning that they will have to pay as much as $128,000 extra for tuition this upcoming academic year despite an earlier pledge that fees would be frozen amid the coronavirus pandemic.

While tuition fees remain the same as last year, the amount required for students in some faculties will be higher because costs are quoted in United States dollars. Students in the faculties of Medical Sciences, Law, and Engineering will be primarily affected.

Last Wednesday, the Jamaican dollar closed at $147.71 against the greenback but The UWI pegs its tuition rates at J$141. Last academic year, the university assessed its rates at J$138

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National

Three thousand Jamaicans who are beneficiaries of the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) have again found themselves in uncertain waters after the Trump administration issued a new memo, seeking to end the programme within a year.

The Jamaican Dreamers had breathed a sigh of relief after the United States Supreme Court ruled last month that the White House could not end the programme, which was instituted by executive order by President Barack Obama eight years ago.

In a 5 to 4 decision handed down then, the Supreme Court called the decision to end the programme an “arbitrary” and “capricious” violation of the law.

 

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International

 The World Health Organization on Thursday warned that spikes in coronavirus transmission in a number of countries were being driven by young people "letting down their guard".

"Young people are not invincible," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference in Geneva.

While the pandemic, which has killed nearly 670,000 and infected more than 17 million people worldwide, has disproportionately impacted the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions, he stressed that "younger people are at risk too".

"Young people can be infected, young people can die, and young people can transmit the virus to others." 

Tedros lamented that a major challenge in trying to rein in the novel coronavirus was "convincing younger people of this risk".

He pointed to evidence that "spikes of cases in some countries are being driven in part by younger people letting down their guard during the northern hemisphere summer".

"Young people must take the same precautions to protect themselves and protect others as everyone else," he insisted.

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Jamaica

Asafa Powell is in the market for a good lawyer, but might as well he hire Orville Burrell. The many times Olympian has requested a paternity test for his daughter.

This development comes after he (Powell) was hauled before the courts last week, on a request from his ex, Amita Persaud Webb that he pay a monthly sum of $40,000 in maintenance towards the child.

According to a well-placed OBSERVER ONLINE source, Powell and Persaud Webb had an informal arrangement where Powell should have been paying $25,000 in maintenance each month, but the former sprinting sensation did not honour that commitment.

The source said as a result, Persaud Webb decided to get a formal agreement through the courts for $40,000, but Powell threw a spoke in the wheel when he disputed paternity.

Subsequently, the arrangement of $25,000 remains in place until the paternity dispute is settled.

Powell has two other children, both boys, and Persaud Webb recently gave birth to a baby girl.

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Trinidad & Tobago

The Trinidad and Tobago government has announced that new measures aimed at preventing the further spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) would come into effect as the country recorded a few clusters of the virus in recent days.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, told a news conference last week, that “mathematically” the country could experience a growth in the number of cases after having recorded 13 in a 24-hour period.

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Guyana

The Guyana government said it has received US$3.6 million as part of the second payment for the country's oil and gas royalties, which has now been deposited in the Natural Resources Fund (NRF).

Finance Minister Winston Jordan said the payments were received on schedule and were deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York account.

The second royalty payment will be added to the over US$90 million already in the NRF, he said, indicating that the payments are for April, May and June's gross oil production.

Royalties are calculated monthly and paid 30 days after every quarter of the year. The country's third royalty payment is expected in October and Jordan expressed satisfaction with the “transparent manner” in which the monies are being transferred.

Guyana, which is emerging as a major energy supplier following the discovery of several gas and oil wells, received its first royalty payment in May 2020 along with the payments for his crude shipments.

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Sports

Olympic gold medallist and former executive of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) Donald Quarrie has called for a change at the top of the local track and field body, saying the sport needs “more capable” leaders who were respected by corporate Jamaica.

The California-based Quarrie said, come November when the elections are due, the delegates should vote for someone who will “inspire change”, and called on the voters not to sit back but to make the change happen.

“The job of the JAAA is a work in progress; we want an association led and directed by a much more capable person, someone who is not only well respected in the JAAA, but also in corporate Jamaica,” he said.

President of the JAAA Dr Warren Blake has, however, hit back and defended his stewardship by daring anyone to show where the association has fallen short of its mandate.

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