Police at have launched an investigation into a fatal shooting, which occurred around 1:35 p.m. today at Pegwell Boggs, Christ Church.
According to lawmen, a group of people were gathered in the area when a vehicle approached, an occupant of the vehicles exited and discharged a number of gunshots at the gathering before fleeing the scene.
The injured man collapsed a short distance away, outside of a residence.
A medical doctor visited the scene, examined the body and pronounced death.
A resident told The Nation she was relaxing on the patio when she heard the gunshots.
“I saw everyone scattering, and then I put down the phone and I ran over there to see what is going on. I don’t know why, but I went to see what was happening, and when I went up there, I saw somebody lying on the floor. I saw the other guys just standing up around the tree and persons obviously were in chaos and crying and shouting,” she said.
The woman said she did not know the deceased personally, but often saw him and his girlfriend as they walked through the community.
Police are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed the incident or have any information that might assist them to please contact the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1800-8477, Police Emergency 211 or the Oistins Police Station at 418-2612 or 418-2608. (PR/SAT)
The European Parliament has suspended the approval of a key US trade deal agreed in July in protest against Donald Trump’s demand to take over Greenland.
The suspension was announced in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday, as the US president addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The move followed renewed trade tensions between the US and Europe sparked by Trump’s bid to acquire Greenland, which had rattled financial markets, reviving talk of a trade war and the possibility of retaliation against the US.
Hours later, Trump said on social media he had reached a “framework” deal on Greenland’s future and would not carry out threats to put new tariffs on eight Nato members.
Trade tensions between the US and Europe had eased since the two sides struck a deal at Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland in July.
That agreement set US levies on most European goods at 15 per cent, down from the 30 per cent Trump had initially threatened as part of his “Liberation Day” wave of tariffs in April. In exchange, Europe had agreed to invest in the US and make changes on the continent expected to boost US exports.
The deal would have still required approval from the European Parliament to become official.
But on Wednesday, days after Trump threatened fresh US tariffs over Greenland, Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, said it was “left with no alternative but to suspend work on the two Turnberry legislative proposals”.
He said work to implement the trade plans would be on hold “until the US decides to re-engage on a path of cooperation rather than confrontation, and before any further steps are taken”. (BBC)
That is the clear message being sent by the Barbados Light & Power Company (BL&P) as election campaigning intensifies.
The company has renewed warnings that campaign posters and signs must not be placed on utility poles because of the serious danger they pose to both the public and BL&P workers.
Since Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley rang the bell last Saturday, supporters from the two major political parties have been out and about plastering posters on poles across various constituencies.
The power company yesterday reiterated that “placing unauthorised signs or any other materials on utility poles is dangerous”, stressing that “the long-standing practice puts both the public and Light & Power crews at serious risk and should be discontinued”.
It pointed out that items such as posters, nails, staples and tacks create multiple safety hazards.
“Staples, tacks and similar devices equal danger for our linesmen, who climb poles for maintenance,” BL&P cautioned, noting that these objects often remained embedded in poles long after posters were removed. It stated that when they come into contact with climbing spurs used by linesmen, they “can cause dangerous falls and severe injury”.
The company appealed directly to the political parties, candidates and their supports, asking them to “remove any items that have already been placed without delay”.
In addition to the physical danger, the company further warned posting on poles “also interferes with routine work, delays emergency response when pole numbers are covered and exposes non-utility workers to potentially fatal electrical hazards. Pole ID numbers must always remain visible. They allow Light & Power crews to respond quickly during emergencies”. Covered numbers mean “delayed response which equals compromised public safety”.
BL&P also pointed to damage to protective equipment, explaining that “nails can puncture boots and protective clothing, exposing workers to life-threatening hazards while performing essential maintenance for customers”. Posters placed at heights where ladders must be positioned further compound the risk, as “this slows routine work and increases the chance of accidents”.
The BL&P said while they recognised that posters might be placed on their poles in spite of this appeal, they were advising to use only glue or tape.
In response, a spokesperson for political party Friends of Democracy said the warning had already been factored into the party’s campaign approach.
“Yes, we are aware of the message from the BL&P and that has been taken into consideration regarding our marketing and branding strategy,” the spokesperson said.
“No posters have been put up as yet and so there is nothing for us to remove. We have not given any instructions as yet. That briefing of our support base will happen when we give the posters to them for distribution.”
The spokesperson added that the party intended to lean heavily on online outreach. “In 2026, the digital space is just as important as the physical and so while we will utilise the traditional methods of promotion, the greatest billboard or pole we can put a poster on is the one that everyone, old and young, carries around with them (their phones) and so we are going to make full use of the Internet in our strategies for visibility and promotion.”
The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) said it also recognised the risks and had issued clear instructions to its candidates and supporters regarding where and how signage might be placed.
“The Democratic Labour Party takes public safety seriously and is fully aware that the improper placement of posters, particularly through the use of nails, staples, or unsafe mounting practices can pose risks to utility workers, road users and the wider public,” the party said in a statement to the MIDWEEK NATION.
The DLP noted that concerns over signage were not new, stating: “This is not a new issue in Barbadian elections . . . which is precisely why campaigns must be guided by clear rules, good judgement and respect for national infrastructure.”
While acknowledging that signage might be placed on poles “in keeping with established practice”, the party said they were aware that traffic signs and restricted public assets remained strictly off-limits.
“There are designated and approved spaces for political signage, including private property with the owner’s consent, campaign offices, temporary frames and other lawful advertising locations.”
The party said it had implemented internal guidelines and monitoring systems, adding “the Democratic Labour Party commits to removing any posters found to be improperly placed, once identified or reported.
“Public safety must always take precedence over political visibility,” the DLP added.
The party statement said they would continue to promote its message with community meetings, canvassing, broadcast media, social media and digital platforms, “methods that allow for wide engagement without compromising public safety”.
Yesterday, Pat Parris, chief executive officer of the Barbados Labour Party, said they could not comment on the issue, noting: “We have not received any letter from the Barbados Light & Power.”
Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate for St Lucy, Ian Griffith, is reminding constituents that the country is built from the community.
He was speaking this morning at The Garden, Checker Hall, St Lucy, where a wreath laying ceremony was held to mark Errol Barrow Day in honour of party founder and national leader Errol Walton Barrow.
Griffith, a first-time candidate in the February 11 General Election, said he was on the side of those who laboured to make the country better.
“I stand with those who put their hands to the plough, who clear land, cut bush, build playing fields and only ask one thing in return, that their communities can become vibrant again,” he said.
“I stand with the churches who are fighting not just for Sunday services on the morning or Saturdays, but for Sunday school and Sabbath school so that our children can have guidance, discipline and purpose because they are the future of this land.
“And I stand with the fishermen, the divers and the farmers who put food on our tables, in our plates often without recognition, often without applause but always with sacrifice.”
An undertaker by profession, he answered the question of why he was putting himself forward as a candidate.
“I am here because I understand something very important. You know what is that? A country cannot be built only in Parliament. A country is built in communities. A country is built in households. A country is built in the struggles that people carry silently every day.”
Leader of the Opposition Ralph Thorne later picked up the theme of the community, noting that something had gone wrong in the major institutions – the church, school and home – which were instrumental in building people and community.
He told the gathering, which included Rev. Hugh Sandiford of St Lucy Parish Church, that as the country moved away from faith-based organisations, “we lose much of who we are “.
He added: “We have to reintroduce our young people back to those three institutions that shaped us.”
Thorne said if the DLP formed the Government, the focus would be on strengthening those institutions.
“We have to make life affordable, but we have to inject values back into people’s lives. And that is where we pledge to be as a new government.”
He called on Barbadians to commemorate, celebrate and honour the life of Errol Walton Barrow, recognised not only as the father of Independence, but the father of this country.
Errol Barrow Day is observed annually on January 21, the day of his birth.
Seven countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt say they will join US president Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, according to a joint statement.
They will join Israel, which also publicly confirmed its participation earlier on Wednesday.
The group of Muslim-majority countries named in the statement are Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Qatar.
The board was originally thought to be aimed at helping end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and oversee reconstruction. But its proposed charter does not mention the Palestinian territory and appears to be designed to supplant functions of the UN.
However Saudi Arabia said that the countries endorsed the aim of consolidating a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, supporting reconstruction and advancing what they described as a “just and lasting peace”.
Following their accession, Slovenia’s prime minister Robert Golob said he had declined the invitation because the body “dangerously interferes with the broader international order”.
So far Bahrain, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Vietnam have also agreed to join.
It is not clear how many countries have been invited to join Trump’s new body -Canada, Russia and the UK are among them, but have not yet publicly responded.
The Vatican also confirmed Pope Leo has received an invitation. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the Pope would need time to consider whether to take part. (BBC)
President of Solutions Barbados Grenville Phillips II is through with elective politics.
Despite being the most successful third party in the 2018 General Election, securing 3 772 votes, Solutions fell off drastically in the 2022 poll when it only mustered 784 votes.
Phillips told the CAMPAIGN EXPRESS he no longer believed there was any room for a third party in Barbados.
“I have come to the conclusion that the Barbadian public is either Bees or Dees and that’s what they will be for the foreseeable future. So for me, that’s why I’m really out of it,” he explained.
However, Phillips said he was willing to support anyone who wanted to put themselves forward under the Solutions banner, though this was a major risk in Barbados’ political climate.
“If any members of the party want to go forward, then I would support them all the way . . . but it’s a big ask. I mean, they put themselves forward, and then the heavy hammer comes down with people losing their jobs. Silly things happen just because you’ve decided to offer yourselves [as candidates]; but that’s what happens.
“It may not happen with the Bees or Dees, because they’re basically one party. But if you want to challenge that two-party system, yeah, the price is extremely high,” he stated.
The chartered structural engineer said he had not yet been informed of anyone wishing to contest the upcoming elections under Solutions, but he would check and see.
In his latest WhatsApp blast under his series called Difficult Conversations, he said most voters appeared ready to “force their family, friends and neighbours to endure another five-year term of poorly- managed public services and high taxes”.
“The General Election date has been announced, but if Barbadian voters are not yet ready to support a third party, the results are foreseen. They will continue to load us with unsustainable debts, increase taxes to pay for those debts, poorly manage our public services and strip our freedoms until we are enslaved with chains of intimidation.
“Barbadian voters may be ready for a better party when they can no longer afford to pay their mortgages, maintain their houses or repair their cars, but to maintain our support, we are taught that for a small country, our public services and national economy are being managed as well as they can be.”
He added: “When Barbadian voters are brought to the edge of poverty, they may finally recognise that public services can be managed much better and it takes no special competence to spend borrowed money. We can do better.”
Phillips said it had been independently verified Barbados’ economy could successfully operate without value added tax and land taxes, which contributed to the unnecessarily high cost of living in the country.
“Most voters understand that both parties are the same and stopped voting. They’ve observed beneficiaries of past elections being supporters of the winning party who loitered around the trough expecting spillage as their political masters fed,” he wrote.
Reform Barbados has emerged as the latest third party looking to contest the upcoming General Election, with founder Steve Prescott saying he will most likely seek the Christ Church East seat as his family resides in Parish Land.
Speaking at his Durants, Christ Church home yesterday, Prescott said the party was still finalising its slate of candidates.
British-born Prescott, whose father left Barbados in 1960, said he has been canvassing informally since 2016 but would begin more impactful campaigning soon.
His platform, he said, would centre on economic reform and addressing the cost of living crisis. He cited statistics showing 75 per cent of taxpayers earn under $1 000 weekly, while the minimum wage of $10.71 required workers to spend three hours of labour to purchase a chicken.
“Right now, Bajans are suffering and nobody seems to talk about it in great detail from the political benches,” Prescott said. “The cost of living doesn’t seem as though it’s really a big issue in terms of politics. Nobody is addressing the issue. I need to.”
He said his political motivation stemmed from observing his family’s living conditions over four decades.
“I realised, having come 40 years later, I didn’t see a huge amount of improvement, a huge amount of change in the area in 40 years.”
He pointed to persistent youth unemployment at around 30 per cent over recent decades and argued that economic policy must be reformed.
“What there should be is policy that helps create the conditions for the success of every Bajan family so that they can advance.”
The Reform Barbados leader questioned the country’s economic progress since Independence.
“Six decades of Independence hasn’t produced economic independence. When was the last time any of us had plenty? When was the last time any of us were not in need?”
Prescott, who relocated to Barbados two years ago to pursue his political ambitions, said informal conversations with residents suggested an appetite for change.
He added that when he asked them if they would vote for the established parties or “something brand new, fresh and different”, they consistently chose the latter.
However, he acknowledged the challenge facing third parties.
“A lot of Barbadians don’t think a third party can succeed,” he said, pointing to Solutions Barbados, which contested two General Elections before fading from the political scene.
Nevertheless, Prescott said, he is committed to leaving his mark: “If I can do something to move the needle in Barbadian politics, to do something to allow Barbados to grow better than it is, then I’ll feel like I’ve done something worthwhile.”
Police at have launched an investigation into a fatal shooting, which occurred around 1:35 p.m. today at Pegwell Boggs, Christ Church.
According to lawmen, a group of people were gathered in the area when a vehicle approached, an occupant of the vehicles exited and discharged a number of gunshots at the gathering before fleeing the scene.
The injured man collapsed a short distance away, outside of a residence.
A medical doctor visited the scene, examined the body and pronounced death.
A resident told The Nation she was relaxing on the patio when she heard the gunshots.
“I saw everyone scattering, and then I put down the phone and I ran over there to see what is going on. I don’t know why, but I went to see what was happening, and when I went up there, I saw somebody lying on the floor. I saw the other guys just standing up around the tree and persons obviously were in chaos and crying and shouting,” she said.
The woman said she did not know the deceased personally, but often saw him and his girlfriend as they walked through the community.
Police are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed the incident or have any information that might assist them to please contact the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1800-8477, Police Emergency 211 or the Oistins Police Station at 418-2612 or 418-2608. (PR/SAT)
***
One man was shot and killed at Pegwell Boggs, Christ Church, earlier today.
An eyewitness told The Nation a vehicle with taxi licence plates passed through the area and the driver opened fire on the deceased, who attempted to flee.
He ran to the side of a house, the driver parked and alighted the vehicle, then followed the man and discharged more shots before leaving the area.
This is the second murder for 2026 following a shooting death at Worthing Beach, Christ Church on January 9. (Nation News)
Three weeks after being appointed a magistrate, former prosecutor Oliver Thomas has died.
The 39-year-old died suddenly today, a day after he dealt with a number of matters in the Criminal Court No.1 of the District “A” Magistrates’ Court.
Thomas, who was admitted to the Bar in 2014 and joined the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions a year later, was a Principal State Counsel prior to his swearing in as a magistrate on January 2.
Barbadian Thomas was the grandson of the late Marcus Thomas, the first Police Commissioner of independent St Vincent and the Grenadines, while his father, the late Justice Errol Thomas, served as a High Court judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
Thomas also tutored in the Regional Security Systems Fisheries Prosecution and Interdiction Course and serves as a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Barbados Boxing Association.
Yesterday, among the last set of cases he dealt with were that of Jayden Tyrell Haynes, the accused in the alleged mass shooting in the Hincks Street, The City area on January 3; and that of Dario Demario Ifill of Richard Land, Bush Hall, St Michael, who admitted to having cannabis while appearing in the Supreme Court.
The Barbados Licensing Authority (BLA) has begun working weekends and overtime in a bid to clear a mounting backlog in vehicle registrations and inspections, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Works Santia Bradshaw assured the public that their complaints “have not fallen on deaf ears”.
Recently, Bradshaw told a Nation team that additional staff were being brought in at the Pine base for training starting this weekend, as Government intensifies efforts to stabilise operations following persistent disruptions linked to the rollout of a new information technology system.
Bradshaw disclosed that progress had already been made, with 40 per cent of the backlog cleared for vehicle licensing and 25 per cent for inspections, even as staff continued to grapple with the challenges of transitioning to the new system.
Speaking on the situation, she explained that the difficulties stemmed from the collapse of the old IT system late last year, which forced a rapid build-out of a replacement platform.
“I think the public is well aware that we’ve been having some challenges with the IT system and we are working with our external consultants to be able to rectify the challenges that we are having,”she said.
“Essentially the old system broke down and we were forced to really have a quick build out of a new system. That new system requires our staff to be pretty much trained on the new system. It’s similar to the old one but it obviously has some new features, which they have to learn how to input into the current system.”
According to her, the backlog particularly affected people with existing vehicles, whose records could not be retrieved while the system was down.
“We had a number of people who were complaining, especially persons who already had an existing vehicle that they were coming to Licensing Authority. They couldn’t get the registrations done because the system was down and we could not pull up the information from their old registration.”
New vehicle registrations, however, were easier to process, she said.
“If it was a new vehicle, it was a bit simpler because in some cases it had come through the Port. Basically it was being registered for the first time, so it was not a case that you had to verify the registration documents.”
To tackle the backlog, the Authority initially added five staff members, but Bradshaw noted that training during the normal work week proved difficult due to the heavy volume of customers.
“One of the biggest challenges is that our staff have not been able to deal with the backlog during the working week, while at the same time being able to train on the new system,” she said.
As a result, staff were asked to volunteer for weekends to focus exclusively on training without the pressure of public service.
“What we’ve done today is really ask the staff to volunteer to come in to do some overtime to be trained on this system without all of the distraction of having the public in Licensing Authority, and they have agreed to do so,” Bradshaw explained.
The Authority has also reached out to retired licensing officers to assist with training and operations.
“There is one staff member who used to work here at Licensing, who’s retired, who decided on short notice to come back to assist us with the interface,” she said.
The weekend training sessions are expected to continue into the coming week and beyond.
“Today’s [Saturday] session is a full-day session. The intention is that we’re going to do afternoon sessions as well during the course of this week and we will also come back again next week to be able to do another full-day session,” the minister said.
The new system requires manual data entry and verification to protect personal information.
“Everything has to be by hand, so that was why we had to bring in persons to do data entry and to make sure that we can verify that information because we’re dealing with people’s personal information and data.
Further resources, she said, were also being deployed to address inspection delays, with mechanics being reassigned to assist.
“We also have a plan to bring in some of our mechanics who are working in the workshop to bring some of them over to assist with the inspections so that that process can flow a lot faster.”
Bradshaw did not want to commit to a firm deadline for a full resolution stating: “I don’t want to be premature in terms of saying when we will have this whole issue resolved. What is important is that we are taking the steps day by day to make sure that we can reduce it.”
She said, however, that while current registrations were being handled, the focus remained on clearing the backlog.
“The point I wanted to make was that we are current in terms of any current registrations, new registrations. What we have, though and what we are working on right now is really the backlog,” Bradshaw said as she reiterated that Government was monitoring progress closely and that further updates would be provided once the training phase is completed.
