Several schools that are located in Paramaribo were closed last Tuesday because of the flooding that was caused by the heavy rainfall last Monday.

One of the principals told Times of Suriname that she went to school early Tuesday to assess the situation because she knows that the school is flooded after each heavy rainfall. “I saw that the school was partially flooded and that some of the classrooms still had junk that was floating on the water so I called the Inspection before instructing the teachers to inform the parents that the school would be closed,” said the principal.

A concerned parent told Times of Suriname that he sent his children to school but that they returned home after a short while. He pointed out that the flooding issue has existed for many years and that he wonders when the government will finally come up with a structural solution. Several principals also want to know when the flooding issue will be addressed.

A teacher who works at a primary school located at Flora explained that she has worked at the same school for the past nine years and that there is always a problem in the rainy season. All of the principals who ran this school informed the Ministry of Education Science and Culture of this problem but nothing has been done about it. The teachers and the parents hope that the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture will address this issue soon…[+]

FRANCE – An “unprecedented” manhunt is taking place in northern France for a prisoner who escaped during a deadly ambush.

Mohamed Amra, known as “The Fly”, was being taken back to jail from a court in Normandy last Tuesday when a car rammed his prison van at a toll booth. Armed men then opened fire on the vehicle, killing two officers and seriously injuring three others.

The shooting marks the country’s first fatal attack on prison staff for more than 30 years. “All means are being used to find these criminals,” French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. Mr Darmanin told French media yesterday the attack was an act of “cold-blooded barbarity” and that around 450 gendarmes and police officers had been mobilised in the Eure department of Normandy in an “unprecedented” search. President Emmanuel Macron has told France that “everything is being done to find the perpetrators”.

Meanwhile, French prison officer unions have called for walkouts at institutions across the country yesterday in support of the two who died. Hundreds of staff at prison and detention centres across the country have been been staging work-to-rule protests, where they will only perform essential tasks.

In a joint statement, the unions demanded urgent measures to improve staff safety – including the “drastic reduction of extraditions” of prisoners to court hearings, by promoting video-conferencing, and an “overhaul” to escort levels. A minute’s silence took place yesterday at 11:00 (09:00 GMT), and there have been demonstrations outside of French prisons, including in Paris according to local media.

Addressing a press conference, Paris state prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the attack took place just before 11:00 local time when the van carrying Amra crossed the toll barrier in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France and “immediately, a Peugeot vehicle hit it from the front to stop it”. “Men with long guns got out, joined by other armed men who got out of an Audi vehicle, which was likely following the prison vehicle.” They “fired several times” at the two vehicles, killing and injuring officers, before leaving the scene and taking Amra with them. The Paris prosecutor said two vehicles believed to have been used by the criminals were found scorched, in different locations.

Mr Dupond-Moretti told reporters that one of the officers killed “leaves behind a wife and two children who were meant to celebrate their 21st birthday in two days”. While the second officer killed, aged 34, leaves behind a wife who is five months pregnant. Three other officers were injured in the attack. As reported by local media, Ms Beccuau said the three injured officers are also fathers – aged 48, 52 and 55 years old. “Everything – and I mean everything – will be put in place to find the perpetrators of this vile crime,” Mr Dupond-Moretti said, adding that the perpetrators were “people for whom life has no value”. They will be found and punished “in a way that is proportionate to the crime”, the justice minister added.

Amra was convicted of burglary on 10 May and had been indicted by prosecutors in Marseille for a kidnapping that led to a death. His lawyer, Hugues Vigier, told French news channel BFMTV “he would like to believe that he [Amra] didn’t know about the plan to free him”. “For me this plan doesn’t match with what I know of him. If he’s behind it then I failed to understand who he is,” Mr Vigier added.

According to some French media reports, Amra had tried to escape his prison cell earlier this week by trying to saw the cell’s bars.

Ms Beccuau, the capital’s state prosecutor, told a news conference Amra had 13 convictions, with the first one dating back to October 2009 – when he was 15 years old. Although the now 30-year-old was not a “closely watched inmate”, the Paris prosecutor said his transportation required a “level three escort”. Amra is said to have ties to a gang in the southern city of Marseille, which has been plagued by drug-related gang violence. But his criminal record to date does not contain any convictions for drug offences, the Paris prosecutor said.

(BBC)…[+]

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has overruled the decision of Guyana’s Court of Appeal, allowing the Government of Guyana (GoG) to join the fight with ExxonMobil and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against an unlimited parent company guarantee for oil spills.

The decision was handed down after being heard by Justice A. Saunders, Justice W. Anderson and Justice M. Rajnauth-Lee. Guyana’s High Court had ruled in favour of public interest litigants, Godfrey Whyte and Frederick Collins on May 3, 2023 for ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) formerly Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) to provide an unlimited parent company guarantee to protect the nation from costs of an oil spill. In his judgment, Justice Kissoon was very clear and had castigated the EPA for abdicating its statutory responsibilities stating that the EPA had “relegated itself to state of laxity of enforcement and condonation compounded by a lack of vigilance thereby putting this nation and its people in grave potential danger of calamitous disaster.” Both the EPA and the oil company had appealed the ruling of High Court Judge, Justice Sandil Kissoon, while the AG, who was not initially a party to the case, applied to join the appeal on May 12, 2023. He was subsequently denied on December 19, 2023. On January 31, 2024, the AG moved the CCJ to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision. During his weekly programme, ‘Issues in the News’ on Tuesday evening, the AG explained, “after hearing submissions from all parties on the 13 May, 2024, not surprisingly, the CCJ reversed and overruled the decision of the Court of Appeal by allowing the Appeal and ordering the Attorney General to be added as a party to the Appeal which is still pending in the Court of Appeal.” According to the written ruling of the CCJ, it has been ordered that the Appellant be added as a party to Civil the Appeal No. 67 of 2023. The AG argued that since the GoG is a party to the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with ExxonMobil, the operator of Guyana’s Stabroek Block, the State should have been added to the appeal. “We also explained in great detail that the Attorney General represents the public good and the public’s interest. This is one of the most important contracts ever executed in the history of this country to which the government is a party and from which the government is getting hundreds of millions of dollars annually which the government is using to finance its budget and to execute transformational projects for the benefit of the citizens of this country and that the Attorney General protects the public’s interest in law,” Nandlall posited following the ruling. He pointed out that the government will now apply to the Appeal Court to be added to the matter.

(Kaieteur News)…[+]

ENGLAND – Buckingham Palace revealed the first official portrait of King Charles III since his coronation, and it’s proving to be divisive with its lurid red brushstrokes. The 8.5 by 6.5-foot painting is by British artist Jonathan Yeo, who has painted high-profile subjects throughout his career including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, actor Nicole Kidman and education activist Malala Yousafzai.

Yeo, who began the project while Charles was still Prince of Wales, depicts the monarch wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards, sword in hand, against a fiery red background that appears to almost swallow him whole, as a butterfly looks like it’s about to land on his shoulder.

“Much like the butterfly I’ve painted hovering over his shoulder, this portrait has evolved as the subject’s role in our public life has transformed,” said Yeo in a statement released by Buckingham Palace. “I do my best to capture the life experiences etched into any individual sitter’s face. In this case, my aim was also to make reference to the traditions of royal portraiture but in a way that reflects a 21st century monarchy and, above all else, to communicate the subject’s deep humanity.” Yeo had four sittings with the King, and also worked from drawings and photographs according to the palace.

The work was commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Charles’ membership in The Drapers’ Company, which funds education initiatives among other philanthropic efforts, and will be exhibited to the public from May 16 to June 14 at the Philip Mould Gallery in London. It will later hang at Drapers’ Hall from the end of August alongside other royal portraits.

The King and Queen are reportedly happy with the portrait — Yeo told the BBC Camilla said: “Yes you’ve got him,” after seeing the result, while the monarch was “mildly surprised by the strong color, but otherwise he seemed to be smiling approvingly” — and there was no shortage of commentary on social media.

Commenting under a post of the portrait on the royal family’s Instagram account, one user wrote: “with the uniform and that color it looks like (the) visual representation of the massacre cause by colonizers,” and one said: “I would have loved this if this was any other color than red. He really captured the essence of him in the face, but the harshness of the red doesn’t match the softness of his expression.” Another post read: “Looks like he’s going straight to hell.”

Art historian Richard Morris said on X: “I really like the portrait… before photography, to have a great painter capture your real appearance you accepted the revelation of your flaws and your mortality. It’s what Yeo captures here.” While the celebrated artist works mainly in oils, he has dabbled in another medium: collage. In 2007, after a commission to paint former US President George W. Bush fell through, he decided to make an “ironic homage,” according to his website, by collaging cutouts from hardcore pornographic magazines to create a portrait of the then US president, a satire on “the assumed moral superiority of the extreme right in American politics.” It was the first in a wider series depicting public figures “understood to have traded on their sexual morality,” including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sarah Palin, Silvio Berlusconi and British conservative activist Mary Whitehouse.

As for the portrait of the King, Yeo said on his website that the vivid colors of the glazes are “not only resonating with the royal heritage found in many historical portraits but also injecting a dynamic, contemporary jolt into the genre with its uniformly powerful hue — providing a modern contrast to more traditional depictions.” He added the butterfly symbolized beauty and nature while highlighting the king’s passion for the environment.

Yeo’s paintings are included in the permanent collection of London’s National Portrait Gallery. The King is an artist himself, and a collection of his watercolors went on show in London in 2022. He has previously described painting as “one of the most relaxing and therapeutic exercises I know,” adding that it “refreshes parts of the soul which other activities can’t reach.”

(CNN)…[+]