The Ministry of Tourism Hosts the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in March 2022
The Ministry of Tourism will be hosting representatives from the UK Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) from the 2nd - 11th March 2022. The main purpose of the visit is to meet with local stakeholders to discuss Darwin Plus: Environment funding for the UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs).
Darwin Plus, also known as the Overseas Territories Environment and Climate Fund provides funding for a total of fourteen (14) UKOTs' environmental projects, as well as fellowships for nationals of UKOT’s to bolster technical and scientific expertise and broaden knowledge and experience of environmental projects.
DEFRA representatives will engage with the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Fisheries and Marine Affairs to determine how well the Darwin Fund is fulfilling its purpose and whether it is required to make necessary adjustments to the programme to better serve overseas territories and the UK. DEFRA is the UK agency responsible for funding and ultimately deciding what is funded through the Darwin Plus programme. Darwin Plus has funded applied conservation work on Caicos pine, Turks and Caicos rock iguanas, wetlands, coral reefs, and other species and habitats; and has developed capacity in management tools such as marine spatial planning, natural capital accounting, and fisheries science, in the Turks & Caicos Islands.
“The Turks and Caicos Islands have benefitted enormously from Darwin Plus grants, some of which have helped save species and habitats from extinction and have further protected the livelihoods of Turks and Caicos Islanders. In our Beautiful by Nature islands, we depend wholly on the pristine environment and its escapist appeal to drive our tourism industry. Darwin Plus helps us balance the needs of our economy with those of nature and the environmental security of future generations”, said Honorable Minister Josephine Connolly.
The visit will include meetings with various TCIG Departments, including the Department of Environment and Coastal Resource (DECR), the Energy and Utilities Commission, Department of Planning and the Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources (DFMR). A trip to South Caicos will include a visit to sites of historical and ecological importance as well as to the local fishing community. The team will also travel to North and Middle Caicos for a tour featuring visits to sites where conservation work has been supported by Darwin Plus and previous DEFRA funding initiatives.
Perhaps most importantly, it will bring together both conservation management staff and on-the-ground conservation team members in DECR with the UK Department responsible for managing the funding, to assess the efficacy of funding and how best to address environmental challenges and how the funds are accessed. This important visit gives Turks and Caicos Islands the opportunity to show how successful past grants have been and to identify adjustments that will be helpful in future conservation management to ensure that the natural environment is adequately protected for future generations.
Zara, Paypal and Samsung suspend business in Russia over Ukraine invasion
Zara, Paypal and Samsung are the latest international firms to suspend trading in Russia after it invaded Ukraine.
The clothes retailer's owner, Inditex, will shut all 502 stores of its eight brands, including Bershka, Stradivarius and Oysho, from Sunday.
Payment giant Paypal cited "violent military aggression in Ukraine" as the reason to shut down its services.
Samsung - Russia's top supplier of smartphones - is suspending shipments over "geopolitical developments".
Other global brands, including Apple, H&M and Ikea, have already stopped selling in Russia.
The clothes store closures are expected to hit more than 9,000 of Inditex's employees who work in Russia.
The Spanish-owned business told the BBC it was drawing up a plan to support them.
"In the current circumstances Inditex cannot guarantee the continuity of the operations and commercial conditions in the Russian Federation and temporarily suspends its activity," the Zara owner company said.
Adam Cochrane, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Research, told Reuters that logistical difficulties and the weakness in the rouble - resulting in large price increases for the Russian consumer - would make "operations difficult for all retailers importing into Russia".
Source - BBC
The TikToker spreading viral videos
Marta Vasyuta is a regular 20-year-old Ukrainian. And like many people of her age she's on TikTok.
Until last week she had a few hundred followers on the video-sharing app. She posted videos from nights out, and lip-synced to her favourite music.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, she happened to be in the UK visiting friends she'd met at university.
She watched in horror at reports of Russian bombs falling on Kyiv.
Since 23 February, the videos she's posted from the conflict in Ukraine have garnered tens of millions of views. For many people on TikTok, and in particular younger people, she's become a key curator of news on the ground in Ukraine.
"I just want people to understand that Ukraine is not only a problem of Ukrainians, it's everyone's problem," she says.
Marta speaks fluent Ukrainian, Russian and English.
As soon as she heard about the invasion, she began to scroll though Ukrainian channels on the Telegram messaging app. Telegram is hugely popular in Ukraine.
People in Ukraine were uploading videos on to these channels. Marta trawled through and began to save them.
"My phone is completely filled with all the videos, all the news I found," she says.
She then went about trying to verify the videos, looking at the related comments. "I could see that people were saying that this was true, that this is what was going on right now."
She began to post the videos on to TikTok and then fell asleep.
"In the morning I woke and I checked my TikTok and they already had nine million views," she says.
Sam Gregory is the programme director of Witness, and looks at how social media is used during humanitarian crises. He says that TikTok's algorithm is aggressively topic-based.
"Content is served up to you based on your interests, not your feed," he says.
"So if you start to show interest in Ukraine, you're going to get shown more content that is either from Ukraine or talking about Ukraine".
It's helped people like Marta to become TikTok influencers, almost overnight. Her videos have had more than 17 million likes and she now has 200,000 followers. She reads the numbers from her phone, still in disbelief, "saying those numbers I just can't comprehend it".
Experts, however, warn that although TikTok can be a good place to find videos from the ground, disinformation is also rife on the platform.
Marta admits that trying to verify content can be difficult.
Even if a video is from Ukraine, and people are speaking Ukrainian, videos may still be from the long conflict in the east of the country that began in 2014. And she admits she is not an expert at verifying videos.
Some of the videos she has shared have been confirmed by news outlets as genuine, including the BBC.
But even so, she believes that some people would rather get their news from social media sources like her than from the traditional news outlets.
"Some people don't trust even professional journalists, even verified sources," she says. For her, being a regular young woman from Ukraine, makes her relatable to a wider audience. "That makes them trust me more, to trust my videos more," she says.
Marta has family in Ukraine and is worried about their safety. But by propagating these videos she believes she is helping the world, and particularly younger audiences, to see what is truly happening on the ground. Given that she is now stuck in the UK, TikTok is her way of doing something.
Source - BBC
Real Madrid go eight clear with comeback
Real Madrid came from behind to beat Real Sociedad and go eight points clear at the top of La Liga.
The visitors led through a Mikel Oyarzabal penalty after 10 minutes with what would prove to be their only shot.
Eduardo Camavinga and Luka Modric scored brilliant goals from long range for Madrid in quick succession.
Karim Benzema, who had two goals disallowed, scored a penalty and substitute Marco Asensio sealed the win from Dani Carvajal's cut-back.
France veteran Benzema, who is La Liga's top scorer, has scored 20 league goals for the fourth campaign in a row.
It looked as if his luck was out when he had a goal ruled out seconds after Camavinga's opener - and then another in the second half by the video assistant referee - both for offside.
But the VAR ended up helping him score when it gave a spot-kick for a foul on Vinicius Jr which Benzema coolly slotted home.
Carlo Ancelotti's Madrid, who have not lost a home game in La Liga this season, took advantage of second-placed Sevilla drawing 0-0 at Alaves on Friday.
Real Sociedad, who would have gone third with a win, remain sixth in the table.
Source - BBC
Russell Wilson asked Ciara for more babies
Ciara guest hosted The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday and her husband Russell Wilson joined, surprising the singer with an unexpected proposal.
The Seahawks quarterback got down on one knee and said, "I have a question for you. Serious question. Can we have more babies?"
The “Level Up” singer threw her head back in laughter while Wilson continued to plead for more children. "We definitely can, but we've got a little time before we get there," Ciara joked.
The couple share three children, 19-month-old son Win Harrison, four-year old daughter Sienna Princess and Ciara’s seven-year-old son Future Zahir, whom she shares with rapper Future.
Source - ABC
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION CELEBRATES EDUCATION WEEK 2022
Education Week 2022 will be hosted under the theme “Success for Every Learner”. It is an ideal that strides continue to be made towards. Activities are planned at the national level and at the school level and will take place from March 6th to March 11th.
The week starts in God’s house with the annual ecumenical service. All services will take place on Sunday, March 6th using a format where churches have again partnered with us and are allowing us to join in their regular Sunday morning service. We have been accommodated by the following churches:
The Salem Baptiste on Grand Turk at 11:00 am
The New Testament Church of God on South Caicos at 11:00 am
The Bethany Baptist Church on Providenciales at 11:00 am
The Church of God of Prophecy, Kew on North Caicos at 11:00 am
The Mount Moriah Baptist Church on Middle Caicos at 11:00 am
On Monday, March 7 the activities start with the Fortis Virtual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Teachers Workshops. The company’s commitment to improving the teaching of STEM in the country, will see educators taken through key topics that include, the Principles and Practice of STEM Education, Inquiry Based Pedagogies for Stem Learning and Technology for STEM Learning.
The session for Primary School teachers will run from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon to be followed by the session for Secondary School teachers from 1:00 pm and 4: 00 pm.
On Monday afternoon, commencing about 5:30 pm there will be a symposium on the Education Week theme of Success Every Learner. The symposium begins with a keynote address and will be followed by a panel discussion. The panel will discuss the theme with a view towards providing recommendations aimed at improving the Education systems ability to facilitate, what the theme postulates.
On Tuesday, a TVET (Technical Vocational Education and Training) Day will be hosted at the Gustarvus Lightbourne Sports Complex. The purpose of this exercise is to bring attention to the strides being made locally to ingrain TVET into the fabric of the education that we provide to students. The public, especially proud parents and potential partners and employers are welcome to join us.
In addition to the main activities, individual schools across the country will be hosting a variety of activities. We encourage parents to look out for the activities at their children’s schools as an important feature of the school level activities will be the recognition of the academic and co-curricular success of our students despite the challenges, they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Education Week concludes on the 11th Teachers Day. Consider a quote from Donald D. Quinn, “If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at the same time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer or dentist, without assistance had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job.”
Teachers are this world’s unsung heroes, remember a teacher or that special teacher that made a difference in your life and helped you to become the successful individual the you are and send him, her or them a shout out. Our Minister of Education will join in recognizing our teachers for the challenging and often underappreciated work that they do. They need all of our support your assistance and definitely your prayers as well.
Vote for Your Favourite High School in the Consumer Protection Jingle Competition!!
As part of "The Consumer is King" Campaign, high school students from across the Turks and Caicos Islands were invited to showcase their creativity by developing a jingle which endorses the slogan: "Consumer Protection is Everybody's Business". The deadline for entries was February 28, 2022.
On March 2, 2022, judges reviewed eight (8) entries from five (5) high schools. The following entries were short-listed:
- Maranatha Academy;
- Champions for Christ International School of Excellence; and
- Clement Howell High School.
Short-listed entries have been posted on the TCIG Press Facebook Page for the general public to vote for their favourites (https://www.facebook.com/pressofficetcig/). Social media voting (i.e. rated by likes, shares and positive comments) constitutes 70% of the final score. Voting ends at 12:00 p.m. on March 10, 2022. Votes cast after this time will not count as part of the final score.
The winner will be announced on March 15, 2022, which is celebrated as World Consumer Rights Day. The following prizes will be awarded:
1st prize - Trophy and $1500
2nd prize - Trophy and $500
3rd prize - Trophy and $250
The Department of Trade invites you to like, share, and comment on your favourite entries! Vote! Vote! Vote!
WEATHER FORECAST FOR THURSDAY AND FRIDAY
GENERAL SITUATION: A WEAK COLD FRONT IN THE VICINITY OF THE TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS WILL CONTINUE TO DISSIPATE AS HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS IN ITS WAKE.
SPECIAL WARNINGS: BEACHGOERS SHOULD EXERCISE CAUTION DUE TO THE MODERATE RISK OF RIP CURRENTS ALONG NORTH AND EAST COAST BEACHES.
ALL AREAS
WEATHER: VARIABLE CLOUDINESS AND WARM WITH THE CHANCE OF A FEW ISOLATED SHOWERS MAINLY ACROSS THE CENTRAL AND TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS TODAY. MOSTLY FAIR AND MILD WITH POSSIBLE SHOWERS IN THE VICINTY OF THE FRONTAL BOUNDARY TONIGHT.
ADVISORY: SMALL CRAFT SHOULD BE ALERT FOR GUSTY WINDS AND HIGHER SEAS IN OR NEAR HEAVY SHOWERS.
WINDS: NORTHEAST TO EAST AT 10 TO 15 KNOTS OVER OPEN WATERS.
SEAS: 2 TO 4 FEET OVER THE OCEAN.
DAYTIME HIGH TEMPERATURE 81°F 27°C
OVERNIGHT LOW TEMPERATURE 63°F 17°C
SUNRISE: 6:31 AM SUNSET: 6:12 PM
MOONRISE: 6:42 AM MOONSET: 6:20 PM
LOW TIDE: 7:24 AM & 7:47 PM
HIGH TIDE: 1:47 PM & 1:58 AM THUR.
WEATHER OUTLOOK : 11:00 AM (FOR TOMORROW/WEEKEND) HIGH PRESSURE WILL CONTINUE TO BUILD NORTH OF THE AREA WHILE SUPPORTING HAZARDOUS BOATING AND BEACHING CONDITIONS ACROSS THE ISLANDS THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND.
FORECAST FOR THURSDAY
WEATHER: PARTLY TO MOSTLY SUNNY AND WARM WITH THE SLIGHT CHANCE OF A FEW PASSING SHOWERS.
WINDS: EASTERLY AT 10 TO 15 KNOTS IN THE NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS AND 15 KNOTS IN THE TURKS AND CAICOS.
SEAS: 2 TO 4 FEET IN THE NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS AND 3 TO 5 FEET IN THE SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS.
FORECAST FOR FRIDAY
WEATHER: VARIABLE CLOUDINESS AND WINDY WITH A FEW QUICK PASSING SHOWERS MAINLY ACROSS THE CENTRAL AND TURKS AND CAICOS.
ADVISORY: SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY WILL BE IN EFFECT.
WINDS: NORTHEAST TO EAST AT 15 TO 25 KNOTS
SEAS: 5 TO 8 FEET
Murder charge on a 16 year old
A 16-year-old teenager will return to court on June 22 after he was refused bail on a charge of murdering a Chinese national. The teenager is accused of murdering the Chinese businessman Zhopeng Ziang between February 22 and 23 in the northeastern village of Marigot.
He appeared before Magistrate Michael Laudat on Wednesday and was not asked to plead to the indictable offence. His lawyers were informed that they could raise the issue of bail at the High Court.
“The Chinese Embassy attaches great importance to and will continue to follow this incident. We hope the government and police of Dominica will continue to protect the safety of Chinese nationals here,” the Chinese Embassy told the Dominica Newsonline publication last month.
Source - CMC
Who does Vladimir Putin trust
Vladimir Putin cuts a solitary figure, leading Russia's military into a high-risk war that threatens to tear apart his country's economy.
He has rarely looked more isolated than in two recent, choreographed appearances with his inner circle, where he sits at a resolute distance from his closest advisers.
As commander in chief, ultimate responsibility for the invasion rests with him, but he has always relied on a deeply loyal entourage, many of whom also began their careers in Russia's security services. The question is who has his ear, during this most fateful moment in his presidency.
If anyone does, it is long-time confidant Sergei Shoigu, who has parroted the Putin line of demilitarising Ukraine and protecting Russia from the West's so-called military threat.
This is a man who goes on hunting and fishing trips with the president to Siberia, and he has in the past been viewed as a potential successor.
As chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, it was his job to invade Ukraine and complete the job fast, and by that standard he has been found wanting.
He has played a major role in Vladimir Putin's military campaigns ever since he commanded an army in the Chechen War of 1999, and he was at the forefront of military planning for Ukraine too, overseeing military drills in Belarus last month.
Described as an "unsmiling, craggy bruiser" by Russia specialist Mark Galeotti, Gen Gerasimov also played a key role in the military campaign to annexe Crimea.
Nikolai Patrushev is one of three Putin loyalists who have served with him ever since the 1970s in St Petersburg, when Russia's second city was still known as Leningrad.
The other two stalwarts are security service chief Alexander Bortnikov and foreign intelligence head Sergei Naryshkin. All the president's inner circle are known as siloviki, or enforcers, but this trio are closer still.
Few hold as much influence over the president as Nikolai Patrushev. Not only did he work with him in the old KGB with him during the communist era, he replaced him as head of its successor organisation, the FSB, from 1999 to 2008.
Source - BBC