This is your board with us today evening. We are here to choose the February 8th. Legislatures today stamped their approval on the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2022, which makes way for two opposition senators to be represented in the Senate and for an 18-year-old to become a member of the upper chamber. Attorney General Dale Marshall insisted to allow the political party with the second highest vote in a general election. In this case, the Democratic Labour Party, the opportunity to appoint two senators in a case where there is no leader of the opposition, is an attempt to give the party a voice in the country's affairs. That for the purposes of deepening our democracy, we should stipulate that that should be governed by some political nuances. And that's what we are trying to provide for in this context. No. The opposition Democrat Labour Party has said we don't have the power to make any offer. Let me make it clear, we are not offering anything. But as the government, we have the power, we have the capacity to structure our constitutional arrangements in such a place that what we are thinking of could be offered. And that's all that we are doing. We are seeking to amend the Constitution to provide, Mr. Speaker, that in any instance where either the President or the Prime Minister or anybody else has a duty in the Constitution to consult or to get advice from the leader of the opposition where there is none, where there is no leader of the opposition, you have a duty then to go to the opposing party with the highest number of votes. The AG also addressed the amendments relating to the age of eligibility for the House of Assembly and the Senate. And that age is set at 21 under the Constitution Amendment Bill 2022 and 18-year-old citizen of Barbados will qualify to be appointed as Senator while any person 18 years are older with the Barbadian citizen and resident is eligible to be elected as a member of the House of Assembly. 18 is the age of majority. In countries across the world you can go off and fight in wars and sacrifice your life at 18. The time has come serving we need to recognize that promising individuals having achieved the age of majority should not have an artificial ceiling placed above their heads that would determine how far they could go at the age of 18. And the Prime Minister has indicated that she proposes to appoint a young man to the Senate. And some may argue that this amendment is triggered by that. I would say that that is the occasion for the amendment because this is an amendment sir, the time for which has undoubtedly come. Argentina's President Alberto Fernández has ended a one-day working visit to Barbados holding discussions with Prime Minister Mia Motley and leaders of the organization of Eastern Caribbean States. Prime Minister Motley said that visiting on the score the importance of deepening the bilateral relations between the two countries. In their discussions both Prime Minister Motley and Fernández expressed the need to advance efforts to re-align the international financial system so as to alleviate the problems of foreign debt and low and medical income countries as well as strengthen the strategic relationship between Latin America and the Caribbean. The discussions also dealt with the need for further cooperation to deal with the impact of climate change, particularly as it affects small island development states and the coronavirus pandemic. Following their meeting the two leaders traveled to the National Botanical Gardens where they planted trees to mark the occasion of the visit. In the latest COVID-19 update there were 714 new COVID-19 cases on Monday from among the 2000s. In the latest COVID-19 update there were 714 new COVID-19 cases on Monday from among the 2674 tests conducted by the best assent to a public health laboratory. Of the positive cases 150 people were under the age of 18 and 564 were 18 years and older. Persons in isolation facilities numbered 158 while 12,300 were in home isolation. Two women aged 38 and 63 died from the virus on Monday. They passed away while at the Harrison's Point isolation facility were both unvaccinated. The death toll currently stands at 288. There's regional and international news after this short break. Hi, I am Onika, I am a mother, I am a daughter and I am a wine educator. When vaccines first came on the scene last year I was really apprehensive about getting vaccinated. I was worried about taking a drug that I felt was experimental so at first I really wasn't about it. I decided to get vaccinated. I had to acknowledge the fact that I am asthmatic and my son is also asthmatic. I have a career in wine. We depend on our senses and I decided that I did not want to risk it for being afraid of taking a vaccine. Coronavirus has affected everyone around the globe and keeping this in mind make sure that your decision is not a selfish one and that you are thinking of the benefits of the goal. Let's roll up our sleeves and get back to living. The regional news in Jamaica, a leading medical official is reiterating calls for the government to legislate mandatory vaccination for frontline workers. The University of Technology, Dr. Alvastin Bailey, it is critical at this time if the country is to get out of the pandemic. We need to add COVID-19 to the child immunization list. In my opinion, mandatory vaccination must be legislated for frontline workers such as healthcare workers, civil servants, members of the security and emergency services and other areas groups. What the most important issue of the table is to provide tangible incentives for people to become vaccinated. Dr. Bailey is also cautioning Jamaicans not to become too complacent whether it is decline in daily COVID-19 cases. He says the country is now at the peak of the fourth wave. The positive rate at which up to 70% on the 13th of January, it is now trending slowly downward. But for the past five days, we have stubbornly remained at 25%. We are very far from the 5% that we hope to achieve. In my opinion, this can only be achieved through widespread vaccination. For under a few in Madagascar, at least 20 people are dead and 55,000 have been left warmness after a cyclone slammed into the island's eastern coast. The World Food Programme has warned that the cyclone destroyed stable crops, hidden the way for a food crisis. Cyclone butch sarai brought with it heavy rains, strong winds, death and destruction. The tropical storm weakened as it moved across Madagascar but not before causing serious damage. Thousands of buildings destroyed or flooded across the island. It is already southern Africa's second biggest cyclone this year. Residents of Manangery, the epicenter of the storm, are still waiting for help. Our house collapsed. We don't know where to go. We have no food. We have nowhere to go. All our things were in our house. The children's clothes, school supplies, everything was destroyed. We have to help everyone whether they live on the beach or in the city. We really have to find a solution. The World Food Programme warned that cyclone destroyed stable crops, making a food shortage crisis in the months to come almost inevitable. We know for sure that rice fields and rice crops will be damaged, it will be lost. This is the main crop for Madagascar people. They will be seriously affected in their food security in the next three or six months if we don't do something immediately. We don't help them to recover. An estimated 150,000 people have been affected so far. More than three quarters of Madagascar's 28 million people live in poverty. Aid workers are expecting the number of affected people to go up. That's news but for the very latest, visit our website at www.borbidestoday.be. You can also subscribe to our ePAPR email updates on like us on Facebook and sign up for our breaking news alerts via WhatsApp. We're also on our zoom in media and bus terminals as well as screenplay at supermarkets and gas stations near you. You can also hear us on mix96.9fm and capital media HD99.3fm. .