iNews Briefs & Community Events
Cayman Islands Business Licensing Counter to close early on Tuesday (26)
The Department of Commerce and Investment’s (DCI) Business Licensing Counter will close at 3pm tomorrow (Tuesday, 26 July), for a staff training event.
The counter will resume its normal 9am to 4pm working hours on Wednesday, 27 July.
The counter’s early closure tomorrow will not affect the main DCI office, which will maintain its normal hours from 8:30am to 5pm.
DCI staff apologise for any inconvenience the closure may cause. For more information please call 945-0943 or email i[email protected]
Cayman Islands Judge rejects activists’ stoppage of Oxitec GM mosquito release
The application by local activists to overturn a decision of the National Conservation Council regarding the release of Oxitec genetically engineered mosquitoes in West Bay has been rejected by Justice Ingrid Mangatal.
The judge, however, has agreed to a stay of 24 hours to give the applicants a chance to appeal her decision once they see the ruling.
Global warming to help colder countries
From The Carbon Wars
While climate change is intensifying storms in the Asia Pacific and forest fires in Australia, there’s a dubious benefit to our neighbors to the north, Denmark, who may enjoy warmer summers at the beach, according to an international research project partially funded by the Danish Meteorology Board (DMI). The study, undertaken by a group of Greek researchers, sought to come up with projected summer temperatures for a range of countries in Europe. Their resulting report states that only two other European countries – Andorra and Luxembourg – are expected to see higher temperature increases than Denmark.
“Denmark takes third place amongst the countries that will see a positive increase in the tourism-climate index during summer months,” comments Cathrine Fox Maule, a climate researcher at DMI who has closely followed the research project. Or as The Local DK puts it, “the broad, flat sands of Denmark’s windswept coast might one day find themselves transformed into a northern Costa del Sol.”
While good for our northern neighbors, the 2 degree rise in Celsius is devastating elsewhere.
For more: http://www.thecarbonwars.com/global-warming-to-help-colder-countries/
With lower fuel prices, gas consumption goes up
From The Carbon Wars
The fuel efficiency standards that President Barack Obama championed in 2012 will fall short of the 54.5 miles-per-gallon target the administration set for 2015 because consumers are buying more pickup trucks, vans, and sports utility vehicles than expected, according to a new technical assessment report by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The shift could undercut one of Obama’s signature climate initiatives, trimming the greenhouse gas benefits as cheaper-than-expected oil prices — and large ad campaigns — have lured car buyers toward bigger vehicles than anticipated. The two agencies said that based on current trends, the average vehicle in 2025 would consume between 50 and 52.6 miles per gallon. That measurement, used by the Transportation Department, would translate into a real world fuel economy of 36 miles a gallon.
The Alliance for Automobile Manufacturers has been pressing for a loosening of the standards, while experts concerned about climate change have sought to protect the gains Obama promised in what was seen as one of his biggest steps to contain greenhouse gas emissions while bolstering U.S. energy security.
“Rather than weaken its projections, the administration must strengthen the rules, to make sure we hit the president’s goals for slashing oil use and global warming pollution,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign. “President Obama’s program is the biggest single step any nation has taken to fight global warming. Based on the plethora of low-cost gas-saving technologies the report documents, there is no excuse not to improve efficiency and strengthen the standards.”
The shift toward larger vehicles means that the administration could fall short of the greenhouse gas savings it hoped. According to the executive summary of the technical report, vehicles would emit 3.6 percent to 8 percent more carbon dioxide than anticipated when the 2012 standards were written.
For more: http://www.thecarbonwars.com/with-lower-fuel-prices-gas-consumption-goes-up/
Panama Papers fallout
Contributed by Arnold & Porter (UK) LLP From ILO
In April 2016 the release of the Panama Papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) sparked widespread condemnation of practices used to evade tax, launder money and breach sanctions through the Panama tax haven. On May 9 2016 the ICIJ released a searchable database of the offshore entities referred to in the Panama Papers.
A taskforce led by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the National Crime Agency has been established to investigate allegations relating to UK companies and individuals named in the leaked papers. The taskforce will work alongside analysts from the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) who are also conducting investigations arising from the leak. The investigative team will report on their findings to the chancellor and home secretary later in the year.
Following the revelations of the Panama Papers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has asked a number of City law firms to review their files for links to Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the centre of the data leak. On April 7 2016 the FCA ordered banks and other financial companies to carry out a similar review of their connections to the law firm.
For further information on this topic please contact Kathleen Harris, Stuart Baker, Michael J Atkinson or James McSweeney at Arnold & Porter LLP by telephone (+44 20 7786 6100) or email ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]). The Arnold & Porter website can be accessed at www.arnoldporter.com.
Good news for a change, the ozone hole is getting smaller
From The Carbon Wars
Human actions have consequences. It takes years for humankind to acknowledge a certain problem and start working on a solution for it. When it was discovered in the 80s, the ozone depletion became one of the biggest environmental threats and one of the best-known symbols of the human capacity to cause damage to the environment unintentionally. The loss of this high layer of the atmosphere -stratospheric molecules consisting of three oxygen atoms – is related to the increase of skin cancer cases because it acts as a filter for harmful ultraviolet rays (UV).
The main cause of the advancement of this big hole over Antarctica was the chlorine present in these high layers of the atmosphere from molecules called chlorofluorocarbons (CFC). At the time, these were issued by the sprays, cooling systems and products for dry cleaning. For this reason, in 1987, almost all the countries of the world jointly signed a protocol in Montreal (Canada) to eliminate the use of CFCs for the sole purpose of recovering the ozone layer.
Today, almost 30 years later, it is a global effort that has paid off. The ozone layer is recovering, and the gaping hole over Antarctica has shrunk more than 4 million square kilometers since 2000, according to the recently published research in the journal Science. Work has also been led by the prestigious researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Susan Solomon, who discovered in 1986 the relationship between the presence of chlorine, the incidence of light and the low temperature of the atmosphere as key factors which initiate the disappearance of stratospheric ozone.
The combination of chlorine, sunshine, and low temperature creates the polar stratospheric clouds in the chemistry of chlorine that is produced, so it is lethal to the ozone layer. For that reason, the period of greatest destruction begins in August, when Antarctica begins to emerge from its dark austral winter and reaches its maximum size hole in October. Hence, measurements have always been taken during the month of October. However, Solomon and her colleagues, who include US and British researchers, thought that perhaps some years the conditions of September would be more favorable to measure the effects of chlorine on the ozone. Time has proved them right.
The authors have demonstrated, for the first time, chlorine levels descended as a result of the ban on CFCs and the rate at which the ozone hole increases in September has slowed down between 2000 and 2015. Compared to the moment of maximum ozone loss in 2000, the size of the hole shrank more than 4 million square kilometers in 2015, further reducing comparable to the size of India and Spain together.
There are still many years ahead of trying to fix the damage that our kind has caused to the planet, but the first positive results give us the hope and will to continue finding new solutions and ways to heal it, thinking of the future of humankind.
For more: http://www.thecarbonwars.com/good-news-for-a-change-the-ozone-hole-is-getting-smaller/
Bodies of Caribbean immigrants found in Albany [New York]
By Tony Best From NY CaribNews
Two Caribbean immigrants have died in a boating incident in upstate New York, according to the Albany County Sheriff’s office and to published reports in the state capital.
Michael Marshall, 52, and Audley Sealy 51, who were described by officials as cousins from Barbados were on a sailing trip in an aluminum boat on an upstate Lake when it reportedly capsized. Their bodies were later pulled from the lake after an 18-hour search by divers using sonar devices.
Craig Apple, Albany County Sheriff, told the Times Union newspaper that the men were cousins who were employed by the county government. Officials were unable to say what caused the tragic accident. The lake is located about a dozen miles southwest of Albany near the towns of New Scotland and Coeymans.
Albany County, a municipal area of three cities, 10 towns and six villages, is situated on the banks of the Hudson River. It is located approximately 135 miles north of New York City and is at least three times the size of St. Lucia and has a population of just under 300,000 people.
Albany, New York State’s capital, is home of the State Governor’s office and official residence as well as the Assembly and the State Senate.
For more: http://www.nycaribnews.com/latest-news/bodies-caribbean-immigrants-found-albany
Carbon particulates increase tropical hurricane strength
From The Carbon Wars
Powerful tropical hurricanes, more commonly known as cyclones, like the super typhoon that lashed Taiwan with 150-mile-per-hour winds last week and then flooded parts of China, are expected to become even stronger as the planet warms.
So far, the warming effects of greenhouse gases on tropical cyclones have been masked, in part by air pollution.
Over the past century tiny airborne particles called aerosols, which cool the climate by absorbing and reflecting sunlight, largely cancelled out the effects of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions when it came to tropical storm intensity, according to a new scientific review paper published this week in the journal Science. That might sound like a good thing, but many of those carbon particles came from the burning of fossil fuels and wood, and contributed to acid rain, smog and lung damage. As vehicles and power plants added filters and scrubbers to reduce their impact on human health, levels of man-made carbon particulates in the atmosphere began to decline. At the same time, greenhouse gas concentrations continued to rise.
That compensating effect won’t continue if greenhouse gas warming keeps increasing. Using model simulations, they provide new calculations of the cancelling effects of aerosols and greenhouse gases on tropical cyclones worldwide. They also take a closer look at the still-developing understanding of how climate change will affect tropical cyclones, also known regionally as typhoons or hurricanes.
“The fact that global warming’s fingerprints don’t yet jump out at us when we look at hurricanes isn’t surprising – it’s what current science tells us we should expect,” said lead author Adam Sobel, a professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and School of Engineering. “The same science tells us that those fingerprints will show up eventually in more ultra-powerful storms.”
Many factors contribute to a tropical cyclone’s intensity. At the most basic, the storm’s convective strength – the boiling motion of air rising from the ocean surface to the atmosphere – depends on the temperature difference between the surface ocean and the upper atmosphere. Computer models that simulate the physics of tropical cyclones suggest that this difference should increase as the climate and sea surface temperatures warm, and that tropical storm strength should increase with it.
We have seen harbingers of that change in recent years: Typhoon Haiyan, also known as Yolanda, killed more than 6,300 people as it devastated parts of the Philippines as a Category 5 storm in 2013. Last year, Hurricane Patricia became the second most-intense tropical cyclone on record when its sustained winds reached 215 mph before weakening to hit Mexico with winds still powerful at 150 mph.
For more: http://www.thecarbonwars.com/carbon-particulates-increase-tropical-hurricane-strength/
Jamaica to participate in Zika vaccine trials
From Caribbean Journal
Jamaica will soon be participating in a number of clinical trials in the fight to find a vaccine to treat the Zika virus, according to Jamaica Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton.
The clinical trials are part of an international study, and are supported by the World Health Organization.
Tufton said the vaccine could become available within a year.
Jamaica is among some 65 countries fighting Zika.
“The Zika virus is new and there is no resistance. The immune system has not experienced it and developed the capacity to fight against it. So, when something is new like Zika, it tends to spread faster until you develop some sort of resistance to it,” Tufton said.
But he also urged the country to fight Zika with the free flow of information at all levels.
“The biggest and most significant line of defence to fight this virus is us,” he said.
For more: http://www.caribjournal.com/2016/07/24/jamaica-participate-zika-vaccine-trials/#
Leading offshore law firm Advises on 10 HKEX Listings worth HK $1.1B in half-month’s time
From Offshore Bankers
Leading offshore law firm Appleby advised on 10 IPO listings in Hong Kong in a half-month period over June and July, representing an aggregate amount of more than HK$1.1 billion.
Appleby acted as Cayman counsel in these listings on both the Main Board and the Growth Enterprise Market of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Two more listings are expected to launch in the coming weeks.
Judy Lee, a corporate partner in Appleby’s Hong Kong office, led each transaction with the assistance from Counsels Jo Lit and Chris Cheng, Senior Associate Maggie Kwok, Associate Yorkie Au-Yeung and other colleagues including Robert Sit.
Below is the full list of the IPOs Appleby advised on between 30 June and 15 July 2016:
SingAsia Holdings Limited HK$62.5 million listing on GEM Board
Hailan Holdings Limited HK$343.5 million listing on the Main Board
Astrum Financial Holdings Limited HK$120 million listing on GEM Board
Plover Bay Technologies Limited HK$125 million listing on the Main Board
Star Properties Group (Cayman Islands) Limited HK$68 million listing on Main Board
China Leon Inspection Holding Limited HK$70 million listing on GEM Board
Xinyi Automobile Glass Hong Kong Enterprises Limited HK$38.5 million listing on GEM Board
China Golden Classic Group Limited HK$107.5 million listing on GEM Board
Ever Harvest Group Holdings Limited HK$90.9 million listing on Main Board
Li Bao Ge Group Limited HK$80 million listing on GEM Board
Venezuela first lady’s nephews confessed to drug scheme, say US prosecutors
From Caribbean News Now
IMAGE: Efrain Antonio Campo Flores (second from L) and Franqui Fancisco Flores de Freitas stand with law enforcement officers in this November 12, 2015, photo after their arrest in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Photo: US Attorney’s Office Manhattan/Handout
NEW YORK, USA — According to documents filed by US prosecutors in a Manhattan federal court on Friday, two nephews of Venezuela’s first lady, who face charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, confessed to US agents after being arrested in Haiti in November to being involved in the drug scheme.
Details of the confessions by Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, 30, and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, 29, nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, were contained in summaries of US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) interviews conducted on a November 10 flight to New York from Haiti
However, the men have said that their post-arrest statements should be suppressed on the grounds that they did not fully understand their rights under US law to remain silent.
Both men have been held without bail since their November arrest and indictment.
12th consecutive Junior Caribbean squash title for Guyana
From News Room Gy
Guyana won the overall Team title for the 12th consecutive year when the Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Junior Championship wrapped up on Saturday in the Cayman Islands.
Guyana defeated the Cayman Islands 3-2 in the Boys final, but loss by a similar margin in the Girls final to Barbados.
For more: http://newsroom.gy/2016/07/23/12th-consecutive-junior-caribbean-squash-title-guyana/
Cayman Islands Pirates Week calls for food vendors
The Pirates Week Festival Office is inviting participants for the annual Food Festival to submit their vendor applications for the below dates/times:
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Friday 11th November |
