 Welcome to the NTN Nightly, I'm Misha Charles. This edition stops stories. The government of St. Lucia to address deficiencies in the society that affect the disabled. A number of students prepare to take up study in Cuba. Travel agents from key source markets recently converged on St. Lucia for the inaugural Global Peter Awards. All that plus the latest in youth development, sports and the NTN Nouvelle Arquéon. St. Lucia is among four countries chosen by the Caribbean Development Bank, CDB, to pilot a project central to inclusivity in the society and economy. To address the dearth of data in the region on disability, the Board of Directors of the CDB is supporting disability assessments in St. Lucia, Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. The CDB will assist the government of St. Lucia in breaking barriers that include inaccessible infrastructure, inaccessible communication, stereotypes, legislative and policy commitments. The Disability Assessment Project was launched Thursday. More from Janelle Nouvelle. Deputy Chief Economist in the Ministry of Economic Development, Kerry Joseph, described the initiative as a timely one as St. Lucia is preparing for Census 2020 and the multi-indicator cluster survey to be undertaken over the next few months. Joseph noted that persons with disabilities over the years have been disadvantaged, however in an effort to enable their full participation in the society and economy, national and regional stakeholders need reliable data to inform and strengthen their programming to adequately address the needs of persons with disabilities. The Caribbean Development Bank, as a development partner, gave its commitment to addressing the disability data deficits in the region by offering technical assistance to allow for the collection and collation of reliable data on persons with disabilities in the region. The bank approved a grant to the government of St. Lucia and three other borrowing member countries, Grenada, Jamaica, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to support disability assessments in their country. The objective of the disability assessment is to enhance the capacity of these countries to develop more targeted, evidence-based projects and programs, knowledge projects and services to support the greater inclusiveness of persons with disabilities in planning and development. In 2011, St. Lucia took its first major step towards creating an equitable space for persons with disabilities by signing on to the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The treaty, according to Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment, Lenita Joseph, was created with the intention of promoting, protecting, and ensuring the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. As a participating borrowing member state and the pilot country for this project, St. Lucia is well poised to set the standard and benchmark future initiatives for societal inclusion of persons with disabilities. The provision of this technical assistance from the Caribbean Development Bank is timely as Cabinet recently approved the appointment of a Human Rights Committee. This committee, through the Department of External Affairs, has demanded to ensure that as a country we remain on track with our commitments to international organizations and that we implement and facilitate the provision of the requisite services in accordance with the conventions and treaties that we are signatory to. Social analysts in the Social Sector Division of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Anisia Gilgidis, explained that through several assessments, a number of challenges have been brought to the fore, including the lack of data. We recognize that disability in and of itself is a heterogeneous experience which differs by type of disability, severity of disability, among other consideration. But importantly, disability intersects with other vulnerabilities associated with gender, gender inequality, and differences attributable to men and boys and girls and women, indigenous identity, religion, age of the disability, onset of the disability, whether it's congenital and from birth, or it is acquired later on in life, and of course other socioeconomic characteristics. The disability assessment project was launched on Thursday 20th June 2019. For the Government Information Service, I am General Norville. A number of St. Lucian students have been presented with scholarships by the Government of Cuba to pursue degrees in a number of fields, including medicine and engineering. Over the past 40 years, the Government of Cuba has afforded St. Lucian the opportunity of tertiary education. Alongstanding bilateral relations between Cuba and St. Lucia, has seen more than 600 specialists and professionals graduate from universities in Cuba. Recently, another cohort of students got the opportunity to follow their dreams in a country which has been known to produce top quality medical specialists. Cuba's ambassador to St. Lucia, his Excellency Alejandro Samin Casmarin, reiterated his Government's commitment to St. Lucia. We will always, from our humble capabilities, we will do everything that will be in our hands to contribute to the development of St. Lucia. And the formation of his human resources, the formation of his professional, we think is a very important contribution. That is in your hands now to accomplish, to finish this moment that we start right now. The Minister for Health and Wellness, Senator the Honourable Mary Isaac, who also studied in Cuba, says it is an opportunity of a lifetime. Medicine is a profession that is dignified. It is a profession that requires humility and humbleness, honesty, integrity. And this is what I believe the Cuban culture can inculcate in you as St. Lucia, so that you are coming back to St. Lucia when you've finished, and you will finish because you must have faith that you will finish. You are going out there to do something, and that is what you must focus on. To do this something and come back, bring it back with you, a culture that you are going to incorporate, assimilate into your St. Lucia culture to make you a great person. The Chief Planning Officer in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Claudio Lui, is proud that another group of St. Lucia's are able to study in Cuba. She says it is beyond the dreams and aspirations of the students themselves, but it also represents the dreams of a developing nation. We need citizens who are qualified, yes, academic qualifications, but we also need people who are critical thinkers, we need innovators, we need entrepreneurs. So while you're there, you have to take the opportunity to broaden your mind and broaden the way that you think. You embrace, it's a global culture. You will be going to Cuba, but you'll not only be exposed to Cuban culture, you will be exposed also to cultures from all the other students who will be there present. So you'll meet people from the African continent, from the South African, South American continent, you'll meet other Caribbean people. Since 1961, more than 70,000 students from 159 countries have graduated from Cuba. The Government of St. Lucia is taking advantage of opportunities to tackle problems associated with plastic pollution and its negative impacts on human health and the environment. In January of 2019, the Government announced its intention to phase out the use of Styrofoam and selected single-use plastic food service containers in the local food service industry. St. Lucia's journey to reducing single-use plastic commences on August 1, 2019 with a ban on the importation of these items, a ban on the use, manufacturing, sale and distribution of items, will commence from June 1, from August 1, 2020. In the month of July, the Department of Sustainable Development invites other public and private sector departments, agencies and groups to join in minimizing the dependency on single-use plastics, including Styrofoam. Dubbed plastic-free July, this is an international campaign designed to increase awareness of the amount of plastic in our lives by encouraging people to significantly reduce the use of single-use plastics for one month. And this is DNTN Nightly, Ryan O'Brien is up next. The world's climate is changing and that affects all of us. Storms are becoming increasingly intense, periods of intense drought and heavy rain, stress farm animals and destroy our crops. Higher average ocean temperatures kill our coral reefs and change the migratory patterns of fish. St. Lucia contributes only 0.0015% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but is doing its part, along with countries around the world, to reduce the emissions that are warming our world and changing our climate. These efforts are called mitigation. But decades of emissions have already changed the climate and the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today will increase average global temperatures even more. We need to adapt, that is, do everything we can to prepare for and respond to the actual and expected negative effects of climate change and everyone has a role to play. We need to protect our crops, build homes that withstand storms and keep our drains and waterways free of garbage to help us recover or bounce back from climatic events. Learn more about the Government of St. Lucia's National Adaptation Plan and the steps you can take to protect yourself and your fellow St. Lucia's. Welcome back. We join Ryan O'Brien for the latest happenings in youth development in sports. Thanks, Nisha. Welcome everyone. This is your weekend update from Youth Development and Sports on the NTN Nightly News. I'm Ryan O'Brien. The annual School Sports Awards came off Friday at the St. Mary's College auditorium. Cricketer Zayda James of Archipelago Secondary won the prestigious title of Female Student Sports Personality of the Year, while the award for Standing Male Student Sports Personality went to another cricketer, Akim Ogis of St. Mary's College. The minister responsible for youth development and sports, the Honourable Edmund Estefan, delivered the feature address at the ceremony. We are working with the various associations for much-improved format for school sports. The first part of the new process was implemented this academic year. We saw the introduction of the Big Eight in football. After much analysis and evaluation, it was determined that we shall continue with this format and expand it to the other sports, namely, netball, basketball, and probably tennis. Minister Estefan congratulated all for the achievements during the year. Runners from member countries have already started arriving here for Sunday's Karikom 10K. The Ministry of Youth Development and Sports helped prepare the logistics for Sunday's run. Patrick Matre is the Director of Sports and has been coordinating preparations here for Sunday's event. It's coming together nicely. Today, as you would know, the race is on Sunday morning and today we have seen the arrival of the past disciplines. Dr Bristol, who is one of the organizers from Karikom, is already on Island. This morning we saw the contingent from Barbados. Later on we're going to see the contingent from Anguilla coming in and tomorrow the majority of the runners will be in. So far we have been blessed with good weather and we're hoping for the same on Sunday as we prepare. In terms of preparation, I think we have marked out the routes. We are putting things in place and I expect an incident-free race and I am hoping that all goes well on Sunday. Mr Matre also spoke about the actual distances and start points for Sunday's run. We're going to start from 7.30 in the morning. We are also thinking seriously of maybe changing start time based on the weather conditions. So we're looking at that closely. We start off in the Rodney Bay area opposite the Marina, which is very close to Marina Haven along the Grosley Highway. We run down the highway right into the John Compton Highway and we finish off the Saplain Field. It's basically 10K. The 5K run starts at the junction of Marysil, the Marysil Corning Junction, just about there is a 5K and of course the 1K starts at the top of Vic Boutet in the Roundabout area and we expect that all of the races we kick off at the same time and hopefully we'll have a prompt start based on the field that we've seen so far. It will seem that maybe the last runner for the 10K might cross the finish line in about 45 to 50 minutes. And with that focus on the 2019 CaliCom 10K, we wrap up our segment from youth development and sports for this week. I'm Ryan O'Brien. Thanks Ryan. Travel agents from key source markets recently converged on St. Lucia for the inaugural Global Peter Awards. The event welcomed the top-selling travel agents who contributed to St. Lucia's record-breaking year for tourism in 2018. We're working all over to enhance our product, training our employees, training people. We've just broke ground on a new market to improve the facade of the downtown area in Castries as part of a whole new makeover of the city centre and the ports and you know we're just doing a whole lot to remodel and you know to change what we do here in St. Lucia. And stay with the NTN Nightly. Up next, Primus Hutchinson is here with the NTN Nouvelle Arquéon. Frankie, you know I'm travelling to Antigua this afternoon and I forgot my passport at home? Boy it's a good thing I have my driver's license, I'll still be able to travel. Oh, how can you travel to Antigua without your passport? Under the OECS Freedom of Movement regime, OECS citizens can travel to any of the seven protocol member states without a passport. Once they have an official and valid identification card with their picture and nationality on it. Really? Since when? Since the establishment of the Eastern Caribbean OECS Economic Union under the revised Treaty of Bastet it entered into force in 2011. So you mean to tell me that I can leave St Lucia and go to another OECS country with just my driver's license or national ID and customs and immigration won't stop me? Yes, you can even use your voter's registration card or social security card. As a matter of fact, as a citizen of an OECS protocol member state you are entitled to indefinite stay when you travel to another OECS protocol member state so you can live and work without a work permit or skilled national certificate. As a construction worker here, I could take my trade to Grenada or any other OECS country? Yes, Frankie, you're straight. And what about my wife and children schooling? Frankie, OECS citizens and their children will be granted equal rights and privileges under the freedom of movement. That includes access to social services, labor market schemes, health and education for your children and your wife. This free movement thing sounds nice! Haselfly travel to any OECS country, live and work for as long as you like the OECS Economic Union is the real deal! For more information visit www.oecs.org Welcome back. We join Primers-Hudgson for the NTN Nouvelle-Arcueil. Thank you very much, Mr. President of the University of Nouvelle-Arcueil for the information. The government, the CIGIS, the National Television Agency, and the NTN for the Nouvelle-Arcueil, for the Primers-Hudgson. I was able to find the fish to be fished more effectively in the near future. The Minister of Agriculture and Agriculture, Ezekiel Joseph, who made a statement on this, an observance of the fish that was found in the 20th century. The Minister of Climate Change has affected the fishing industry so much that the government has made plans to kill the new fishing technology and make fish for a back-conditioning of Salah, and also the government has considered seriously to encourage younger people to invest in fishing. The government has given us the opportunity to work here. At least to encourage younger people to fish here. And we also have the fish department. Based on the program that you gave me, I would like to see the direction of the Nouvelle-Arcueil industry. Minister, I would like to serve the opportunity to wish these fish good luck, but I would also like to ask you to reflect on your work, and to help the government and the fishing department so that they can do more work in the fishing industry in the near future. Because it is not easy to fish here, and I would like to emphasize that if we are serious about the fishing industry, we should be careful about the safety of the fish. Because we are very aware that if the fish are here, we will not be able to serve the fish. We are very careful about the safety of the fish. It is more difficult for us to be able to serve the fish in the near future. So, when we celebrate the fishing industry, I would like to encourage and educate these fish to be important so that they can be considered seriously, so that they can come out and fish, so that they can be safe. I would like to address the fish and observe the fishing industry so that they can serve the fish in the near future. Minister, I would like to give you the opportunity to make a touristic. I would like to wish you the best of luck for your trip to Canada, England and Ireland, so that you can serve the fish in the near future. I would also like to give you the opportunity to remember that we have been here for a long time, and I want to say that we have been here for a long time. It's a great honor for us. We will continue to work together as friends, to get the attention and to work together to help the fish. We are very committed to this. We are very committed to this. We have been here for a long time. We are very committed to this. We are very committed to this. University of West Indies, a TIG, Agba Bioda, which is the fourth MAM OCS lab where you can establish your Bosch University Salar. Vice Chancellor of the Greek Executive University, Professor Hilary Beckles, is the founder of the MAM Media Coffinance at Moner campus in Jamaica. Professor Beckles, you are the one who is born to be the one who considers the university to be a formal app. You can establish your campus at TIG, Agba Bioda, as the MAM CTP of the OCS lab where you can start your operation in September for 800 students. Beckles also announced that the majority of the students will be registered to sign a TIG that has already started a college at TIG which is an educational institution in Agba Bioda and the University of Salar. As you can see, we have a lot of news that I would like to share with you to keep in mind. I would like to invite you to join me to discuss the life of the University of New York. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And here's a look at what's happening to us, whether wise. Skies will be partly cloudy to cloudy and breezy with some scattered showers and a chance of thunderstorms mainly over the Windward Islands and areas further south. A tropical wave will bring some scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms over the eastern Caribbean region today and tomorrow. Heaviest showers are expected around the southern islands. Another tropical wave located over the far eastern Tropical Atlantic is moving rapidly westward at about 29 miles per hour or 46 kilometers per hour. Tropical cyclone formation is not expected over the tropical Atlantic during the next five days. Tides for Castries Harbor high at 1.02pm low at 5.48pm Tides for Viewford Bay low at 8.03am high at 7.15pm Seas locally rough with waves 6 to 8 feet or 1.8 to 2.4 meters Small craft operators and sea-divers advise to exercise caution due to brisk winds and rough seas. The sun will rise a Saturday at 5.38am. And that brings us to the end of the NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7pm with a repeat at 7am. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I'm Nisha Charles.