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The rapper formerly known as Kanye West is offering to buy right-wing friendly social network Parler shortly after getting locked out of Twitter and Instagram for antisemitic posts.

The acquisition of Parler would give West, legally known as Ye, control of a social media platform and a new outlet for his opinions with no gatekeeper.

But even among the new breed of largely right-wing social apps that purport to support free speech by having looser rules and moderation, Parler’s user base is tiny.

Parlement Technologies, which owns the platform, and West said the acquisition should be completed in the fourth quarter, but details like price were not disclosed. Parlement Technologies said the agreement includes the use of private cloud services via Parlement’s private cloud and data center infrastructure.

Ye was blocked from posting on Twitter and Instagram a week ago over antisemitic posts that the social networks said violated their policies. In one post on Twitter, Ye said he would soon go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” according to internet archive records, making an apparent reference to the US defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON.

Ye is no stranger to controversy, once suggesting slavery was a choice and calling the COVID-19 vaccine “the mark of the beast.” Earlier this month, he was criticized for wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt to his collection at Paris Fashion Week.

“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” Ye said in a prepared statement.

The acquisition could also breathe new life into Parler, which has struggled amid competition from other conservative-friendly platforms like Truth Social, started by former President Donald Trump. Parler had a relatively tiny average of 983,000 monthly active users for the first half of this year, according to Data.ai, which tracks mobile app usage.

Truth Social had 2.4 million monthly users during the same period, despite launching just in February and only on Apple devices, according to Data.ai. The market research firm said another right-leaning platform, Gettr, which launched in July 2021, is ahead of both Parler and Truth Social with about 3.8 million monthly active users.

None of them come close to Twitter, which reported that it had a daily average of about 237.8 million active users during its most recent quarter. Many of the right-wing platforms emerged from opposition to the content-moderation restrictions at mainstream services such as Twitter and Facebook, though billionaire Elon Musk has pledged to lessen some of Twitter’s speech restrictions if he follows through with a promised $44 billion takeover of the San Francisco company later this month.

Parler, which launched in August 2018, didn’t start picking up steam until 2020. But it was kicked offline following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. A month after the attack, Parler announced a relaunch. It returned to Google Play last month.

“This deal will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech,” Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer said in a prepared statement.

By Michelle Chapman

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Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales, third from right, and IDB country representative Carina Cockburn, fourth from left, are joined by San Fernando West MP Faris Al-Rawi, San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello, San Fernando East MP Brian Manning and other officials at the commissioning of the San Fernando wastewater treatment plant on Friday. Photo by Marvin Hamilton

SOME 17 years after the project was first conceptualised, San Fernando has finally received the promised WASA wastewater treatment plant. The plant has a capacity to treat 45 million litres per day and serve a population of approximately 116,000 people in surrounding communities of San Fernando East and West, Pointe-a-Pierre and Oropouche East.

“The San Fernando wastewater treatment plant is the culmination of years of planning and construction, and a capital investment of just over $120 million,” Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales said, as he formally commissioned the facility at Gulf View, La Romaine on Friday.

The project was funded by the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), with main contractor Acciona Agua SA in association with Atlatec, SA De CV and AAA Wastewater Treatment Plant Ltd (AAA). Consulting firm AECOM Canada Ltd supervised and designed the facility and its collection system.

Gonzales said along with the projects at Malabar and Trincity, the San Fernando plant now places TT as having the largest wastewater coverage in the entire Caribbean, which stands at 42 per cent.

“We have heard about the importance of wastewater in so far as it relates to human health and reduction of water-borne diseases affecting so many of our children and populations around the world.”

In the circumstance, he said, “I propose to go further to continue the drive to expand wastewater coverage in TT.”

With the coming onstream of this facility, he said, “the raw sewage overflows which occurred ever so often due to non-functioning privately-owned pumping stations in this catchment area, will now be a thing of the past resulting in a reduction in the risks to public health and the environment

Stating that the treatment plants present a number of opportunities for TT to explore, Gonzales said instead of throwing wastewater out into the environment, he intends to engage the IDB in a discussion where highly treated wastewater could be used by the agricultural, commercial and industrial sectors.

In this way, he said, potable water now used for these purposes can be channelled to homes to provide a 24/7 service.

“When you look at a modern facility like this one in San Fernando, you would not be able to distinguish wastewater and water from the bottle that we are drinking from.”

In keeping with the proposals to transform the water and sewage system, Gonzales said approval was given, two weeks ago, for another loan facility of US$315 million from the IDB.

There are three components to this facility – water stabilisation and improvement, support for water-sector transformation, and network optimisation.

“That first operation will be made available to us by the end of the year and it will be put to use to support major infrastructure works around the country and will increase water supply.”

Gonzales said they have been hard at work over the last few years, putting together plans not only for the transformation of WASA, but designing some specific key project all across TT which will not only turn around WASA from an institutional management perspective.

He said it would initiate a number of projects to increase water production, automate all WASA infrastructure and improve water supply to the people of TT.

He said WASA is undertaking a series of repair and rehabilitation works at several water treatment plants, to bring them up to capacity, as too often they were not aware of the amount of water being produced in some of plants or when wells go down.

Tired of hearing complaints on social media about water disruptions, he said there is a proposal to automate WASA’s water production, transmission and distribution.

“So we can understand, in real time, and know when disruptions occur so that we can reduce the negative impact on our customers.”

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ROZENGEUR / Gerold Rozenblad Vandaag moet het gebeuren. Of de markt, waarin de assembleevergadering vrijdag ontaardde en abrupt door voorzitter

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SHOT DEAD: Schoolgirl Naomi Nelson, 14, shot dead last night in Big Yard, Carenage.

THREE years after Naomi Nelson was shot in the back of the head, in a police-involved shooting incident, investigators could not determine who shot her and have recommended the matter be sent for a Coroner’s inquest.

Nelson was killed on May 3, 2019. She was shot during a confrontation between police and gunmen at Big Yard, Carenage.

Naomi was on her way to buy food when the incident happened. Two men, Kareem “Baldwin” Roberts, 27, and Keron “Frosty” Eve, 30, were also shot dead in the shootout. Three others were charged with gun-related offences including shooting at the police

Police have claimed responsibility for Roberts and Eve’s deaths but said Nelson was killed by bullets fired by either of the two men or by people affiliated to them.

Police said they went to the area in an unmarked car and were shot at, forcing them to return fire. One officer was grazed in the shooting and had a bullet stuck in his bullet proof vest.

The inquest, whenever it is called, will allow a coroner to examine all the evidence presented and make a determination on if any criminal charges can be laid and if so against whom.

The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is yet to complete its investigation in the matter as it awaits the final police file.

The matter was being investigated by the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB). Lead investigator, ACP Ramnarine Samaroo, who is awaiting Parliament’s approval on his Police Service Commission (PSC) nomination for the post of Deputy Commissioner of Police, told Newsday the ballistic tests were done and the results were inconclusive.

He said officials at the Forensic Science Centre returned to the scene of the shooting and mapped out what took place but could not conclusively say whether Nelson was killed by police or gunmen, hence the need for a Coroner’s inquest.

Samaroo, when asked if the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) gave advice for the inquest, said inquests can be addressed without the DPP’s involvement. He added that he completed the investigation about a year ago and only last week, the legal department completed its review of his file and made the recommendation.

The next step will be for the case file to be sent to the court for a coroner to be appointed.

Samaroo, a past court prosecutor, said the coroner can call witnesses to clarify something after reading the file or can make a determination, without hearing any witnesses, after reading said file.

He said the main delay in the investigation was the completion of the certificate of analysis which did not say who shot Nelson. He added that both police and the men who shot at them used nine-millimetre calibre weapons.

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