The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) headquarters was vandalized this afternoon in what party officials are calling a suspicious break-in. According to General Secretary Steve Blackett, the incident occurred around 4:45 p.m. when security cameras captured individuals attempting to breach the front gate. “They got in by cutting the chains and locks,” Blackett reported. “They then proceeded to break into the office and conference room.” The police were immediately contacted upon discovery of the break-in and are currently investigating the scene. While no missing items have been confirmed yet, Blackett expressed particular concern over a seemingly deliberate act: “What is most egregious is that the perpetrators actually changed the locks to the conference room and therefore the legitimate leadership of this party can no longer access the office.” Blackett suggested the possibility of an inside job, stating, “More than likely an inside job, an inner inside job”. The motive behind the...

82 Police are at the headquarters of the Democratic Labour Party investigating what General Secretary Steve Blackett has described as a break-in.Blackett told reporters at the George Street location that just before 5 p.m., he received an alert of an intrusion. “We secured the premises just around 1:45 p.m. today, placed the locks as usual on the . . . two front gates. The office was locked since early in the week. When I got that [intrusion] report, I called the police immediately. The police came and they are still on the scene investigating the break-in,” he said.

Barbados is boosting its clean energy production with a new wind farm project on the way. The government announced its collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to develop the Lamberts Wind Farm, located in the parishes of St. Lucy and St. Peter. This initiative aims to tackle climate change, diversify the island’s energy sources, and bring down energy costs in the long run. The wind farm is expected to generate between 30 and 50 megawatts of power. The project will be developed as a public-private partnership (PPP), with IFC acting as a transaction advisor. The government will hold a competitive bidding process to find a qualified private company to build and operate the wind farm according to international standards. For a firsthand look at a similar project, representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Business (MEB), IFC, and local stakeholders recently visited the BMR Jamaica Wind Project. This 36-megawatt...

22 “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time”. The above saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln came to mind as I read Emmanuel Joseph’s report of his interview with Ital Bardov, Israel’s Ambassador to Barbados, in your edition of May 10, and Bardov’s anger with Barbados’ decision to recognise the State of Palestine and his message: “It is important for the people in Barbados to understand that Israel is seeking to have peace.” If the horror inflicted on the Palestinian people was not atrocious then Bardov’s comments would be hilarious. What peace is Israel seeking? Over 35 000 reported deaths of Palestinians in the last seven months at the hands and weapons of Israeli Occupation Forces. And those are the reported deaths, it is estimated that the number doubles...

158 Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting after a political event Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile. The populist, pro-Russian leader, 59, was hit in the stomach after four shots were fired outside the House of Culture in the town of Handlova, some 150 kilometres (93 miles) northeast of the capital where the leader was meeting with supporters, according to reports on TA3, a Slovak TV station. A suspect has been detained, the country’s president said in a televised statement. A message posted to Fico’s Facebook account said that the leader “has been shot multiple times and is currently in life-threatening condition.” It said he was being transported by helicopter to the Banská Bystrica, 29 kilometres (63 miles) away from Handlova because it would take too long to get to Bratislava due to the necessity of an acute procedure. “The...

Some car rental companies are not seeing an uptick in business for the upcoming International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup. Less than three weeks before the start of the global event, checks by a Nation team on Monday revealed that four local automobile renting businesses had not yet received a single booking while others had gained only a few. Representatives from Adam’s Car Rentals, Jones Garage & Rent-A-Car, Nationwide Car Rentals and McCarthy’s Garage said they received a few queries but had not yet confirmed any business specifically for the June 1-29 tournament in which Kensington Oval will host nine matches, including the final. Some operators, including Jones Garage & Rent-A-Car supervisor Rupert Forde, put the lack of interest down to a recent trend where many visitors for cricket come to the island as part of groups with tour packages that include hotel accommodation, airline tickets, match tickets and...

16 And you thought last year was bad. You had all reason and science to think so. The El Niño phenomenon was the key contributor to last year’s record-breaking temperatures here and everywhere in the world. But El Niño is all but gone; its opposite, La Niña, is on the rise. Above-normal temperatures are still forecast for the northern hemisphere summer. And what’s worse, La Niña contributes to the ‘perfect storm’ of climate conditions for birthing Atlantic hurricanes. And on Tuesday, roughly halfway through the month of May, we sweltered through a scorcher as temperatures soared to 33°C, tying the hottest mark so far this year. But brace yourselves – the real misery is yet to come. Meteorologists warn that this excessive heat wave, fuelled by record-warm Atlantic Ocean temperatures during La Niña will intensify in the coming months. A blistering peak of 35°C is projected to bake the land...

With more than 400 outstanding cases before the Employment Rights Tribunal (ERT), the Barbados Employers’ Confederation (BEC) is calling for this and other agencies concerned with overseeing the enforcement of labour laws to be “properly resourced”. Executive director Sheena Mayers-Granville pointed out yesterday that the Ministry of Labour had the chief mandate for enforcing labour legislation, while the ERT, with an “expanded mandate”, was responsible for adjudicating labour-related cases. “We are concerned about the resources available to these institutions and one thing that the BEC would wish to highlight before we add new legislation [is] let us ensure that our enforcement agencies are properly resourced,” she said. She added that the BEC was in discussion with the Ministry of Labour on how to improve the functioning of the ERT, but suggested the employers’ organisation was also aware that the ERT’s administrative structures would need to be improved. Subscribe now to...

24 Chris Hoad leads the chase for the coveted Barbados Rally Club (BRC) champion driver title ahead of the two marquee events of the year, the First Citizens King of the Hill and BCIC Rally Barbados. Driving the car in which he won the 2023 Barbados and Caribbean BimmaCup titles, Hoad won the BRC’s Clubman 2 class in both the first two rounds, the Bushy Park RallySprint and BRC Shakedown Stages for a maximum 35 points. Stuart Maloney (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) is second on 33 points, ahead of Neil Corbin in the Toyota GT86 CS-R3 on 30 points and and Stuart Garcia (BMW M3), who has 28 points.In the RallySprint, organised by the Vaucluse Raceway Motorsports Club (VRMSC), BRC points were based on each driver’s fastest qualifying time, not on the later knockouts. This worked well for Hoad, as he lost his semi-final to David-Anthony Balgobin (BimmaCup), who then...