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National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds addresses the media on Friday at his Abercromby Street, Port of Spain office. With him are acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob and Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales. – Sureash Cholai

Government’s announcement of its intention to implement a six-month ban on the scrap iron industry is expected to negatively affect about 20,000 people, says president of the TT Scrap Iron Dealers Association Allan Ferguson.

To combat what the Government has now described as a national security issue, legislation is being drafted to regularise the industry.

The ban is expected to come into effect after the Finance and General Purposes sub-committee of Cabinet finalises the plan.

This was announced on Friday by National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds during a media conference at his ministry’s Abercromby Street, Port of Spain office.

He said the need to put a ban on the industry arose after continuous acts of vandalism on state assets including water pump stations where copper wires have been stolen, cable barriers, electricity poles and other assets.

Hinds said, intelligence suggests the acts are not random theft but deliberate attacks against the State by some who may be affected by the restructuring of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).

He said the regularisation will place the scrap iron industry under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and only authorised dealers will be allowed to continue.

Speaking with Newsday after the media conference, Ferguson said many people will be affected. He said he will not say more on the issue until he meets with his attorneys, as he is contemplating filing for an injunction to stop the move by government.

A Cabinet committee comprised of Hinds, Energy Minister Stuart Young, Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon and Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, agreed to temporarily ban the industry. The committee was formed after the Prime Minister, on July 2, chastised cable-wire thieves and said he will speak with Armour on banning the entire industry.

Hinds said he met with Fergusson’s association two weeks ago. However, sources within the industry said they were only informed on Thursday that a decision was made to temporarily shut down the industry.

Acting Police Commissioner Mc Donald Jacob said in the past 30 months, 129 people, including two scrapyard dealers, were arrested in relation to the theft and sale of copper and other metals. Given the hint by him and Hinds that the thefts are not simply larceny but malicious attacks against the State, Jacob could not say how many WASA and other state employees were among those arrested.

Hinds interjected saying the culprits had working knowledge of the compounds vandalised, suggesting that they had inside help.

Jacob said police have increased patrols around state-owned compounds.

“We have decided to offer a reward of $100,000 for any information that can lead to the arrest and prosecution of the persons responsible.”

Also at the media conference was Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales who said vandals and thieves caused the State to find an additional $22 million to repair and replace state assets.

Hinds dismissed the notion that the plan is a roundabout way of taking the industry away from the average citizen and putting it in the hands of his party’s financiers.

He said the malicious attack is part of a larger plot which may need the Anti-Terrorism Act to prosecute.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 1.7 million men who have sex with men face the biggest threat from monkeypox right now.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters on a call Thursday that gay and bisexual men who are HIV positive or who are taking medicines, called PREP, to reduce their chance of contracting HIV face the greatest health risk from monkeypox.

The federal government has delivered more than 600,000 doses of the vaccine since May, according to HHS.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Jynneos in 2019 for adults ages 18 and older who are at high risk of smallpox or monkeypox. Jynneos, made the Danish biotech company Bavarian Nordic, is the only approved monkeypox vaccine in the U.S.

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Walensky acknowledged last month that demand for the vaccine has outstripped supply, leading to long lines outside clinics in many cities. Sexual health clinics that serve the LGBTQ community have said the vaccination campaign needs to expand to anyone who thinks they’re at risk of getting monkeypox to bring the outbreak under control.

“What we really want to do is get to the point where we can vaccinate everyone who wants it,” said Dr. Ward Carpenter, co-director of health services at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which is administering monkeypox vaccines, conducting screenings and prescribing antiviral treatments.

Monkeypox has been spreading primarily through skin-to-skin contact during sex among gay and bisexual men, public health officials say. About 98% of patients who provided demographic information to clinics identified as men who have sex with men, according to the CDC.

But public health officials have repeatedly emphasized that anyone can catch the disease through physical contact with someone who has it or contaminated materials such as bedsheets and towels.

But as infections rise, the risk grows that the virus could start spreading more broadly. At least two children in the U.S. have caught monkeypox likely through transmission within their families, according to the CDC.

Source: CNBC.com

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File photo: Rudranath Indarsingh

COUVA South MP Rudranath Indarsingh has joined the long list of dissenting voices rejecting government’s latest four per cent offer to the protective services.

“Four must become more,” Indarsingh asserted as he called on the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Colm Imbert, who he said have been hiding behind the CPO, “to wheel and come again.”

Earlier this week, Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) Dr Daryl Dindial moved Government’s last offer from 0,0,2,0,0,2 for the period 2014-2019 to four per cent.

The Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM), the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Social and Welfare Association (TTPSSWA) and the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) have expressed disagreement with the proposal.

In a statement on Wednesday, Indarsingh, a former trade unionist said the “measly, paltry, pathetic, uncaring four per cent offer was abominable and insulting.

“It is the epitome of the PNM selfishness, nonchalance, spite and poor economic governance that we have seen over the past seven years.”

He said the protective services and other public-sector workers engaged in negotiations through their representation unions – the Public Services Association (PSA), TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) and the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) – have not received salary increases since 2014.

“This Government and ‘Rowleynomics’ have created an economic hole that has seen the exponential increase in the cost of living through the provocation of higher fuel prices at the pumps, higher food prices, higher utility rates, approaching property taxes, lower job security, less foreign direct investment and the collapse of an affordable and inclusive education.

“This is a government that serves every need of the one per cent, but offers our protective services only four per cent.”

In the midst of firing workers in the state sector, Indarsingh, said more disingenuous are reports that government has hired a former People’s National Movement (PNM) election candidate as a consultant at WASA, which is earmarked for restructuring and the loss of jobs, at a salary of $35,000 a month.

“This comes days after hiring newcomer Khamal Georges at TSTT as a senior manager at a supposed rate of $85,000 per month,” he claimed.

“We must now be worried as to what low-level offers will be made to public officers across the country and their recognised majority unions.

“Clearly, the wealth of this country is not for workers, but for PNM hacks finding favour with the Prime Minister.”

Indarsingh said the Opposition stood in solidarity with the unions and its members called on them “to comprehend how this Government continues to allow the economic oligarchs in this country to prosper, while suffering the lower and middle working class.”

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