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Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Aditi Joshi moved to the top of the standings on tiebreak after winning both of her matches on the opening day of the 2026 National Junior Chess Championship at Olympic House, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.
Joshi defeated Matthew Singh in Monday morning’s first round before getting past Jeremy Cole in the afternoon to finish the day on two points.
Candidate Master (CM) Sachin Pitamber and defending champion Kyle Couchman also recorded two victories and are level with Joshi.

Pitamber, who has the tournament’s highest rating of 1974, defeated Javier Davenand in the opening session and Nicholas Zhang in round two.
Couchman also made a strong start to his title defence. The 1906-rated player defeated Aiden Tinnie before scoring his second win against Davenand.
Alexander Zhang sits just behind the three leaders with 1.5 points. He drew with his brother, Nicholas Zhang in the morning before defeating Sam in the second round.
Singh is fifth with one point after responding to his defeat against Joshi by beating Tinnie. Nicholas Zhang, Sam, and Cole each have half a point.
Nicholas Zhang earned his half point from his opening draw with his brother, while Sam and Cole drew against each other. Davenand and Tinnie remain without a point after losing both of their matches.

Competition will continue with two more rounds today. Couchman will play Singh in the morning, while Joshi faces Alexander Zhang and Pitamber meets Sam. Nicholas Zhang will take on Davenand, with Tinnie opposing Cole.
The afternoon session will be highlighted by the meeting between Pitamber and Joshi. Couchman will play Nicholas Zhang, Alexander Zhang will face Tinnie, Cole will oppose Singh and Davenand will meet Sam.
Two rounds will also be played on Wednesday and Friday before the ninth and final round on Saturday.
The round-robin championship is expected to remain close, with the three early leaders still to play each other. Joshi will meet Couchman in round eight, while Couchman and Pitamber are scheduled to clash in the final round.

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Dear Editor,
Transparency and accountability are required by elected officials to justify their existence in the public space. Their stewardship is scrutinised by the subjects over whom they govern, we require no less. That critical and detailed examination of their actions is required at all times, if they fall beneath the bar then consequences should follow. This goes for both Government as well as opposition, because, when you assume the position of Government, public transparency and accountability become mandatory watchwords.
Recently, there has been a flurry of information as it pertains to the President’s acquisition of a farm on the highway, this allegation has been done by the opposition leader Us-sanctioned and indicted Azruddin Mohammed himself. He comes on the scene as an overly concerned opposition leader, who has suddenly landed on a smoking gun story. He peddles his story with all the sensationalism that a politician of his ilk can muster, but is this the true picture of what is painted in the media? I think not, because, a true assessment of the political climate of this fugitive offender, turn concerned opposition leader, shows a man who is trying desperately to save himself from extradition to the United States to face corruption charges. So, as the noose tightens around his neck, he is trying every which way to stir up trouble for the Ali-led Government, while hoping somehow that his personal troubles will go away.
But what I can tell Mohamed, is that this is no new phenomenon when it comes to the opposition’s stance against the PPP/C, the corrupt blame represents a prime strategy employed by the PNC during the Jagdeo Presidency; it was one of the PNC’s main deceptions in their arsenal of tricks. They hounded Jagdeo both locally and internationally, Pradoville readily comes to mind as their accusations reached melting point. So, this latest attack on Ali comes as no surprise. The point is, the opposition is going to use every clever subterfuge to distract from the real issue here, that is, his imminent extradition.
There is an integrity commission to which all public officials must declare their assets, and all allegations of corruption should be directed to that statutory body. The Integrity Commission has the powers to investigate, if there be any evidence of misconduct in public office. Dr Ali in a show of transparency and accountability, has made his declarations to the integrity commission and that is all that matters. Then it behooves us to ask the question is Azruddin Mohammed of the mistaken belief that he is exempt from the said commission? Is he exempt from declaring his assets, while making accusations of the President? I think not.
Are we witnessing another episode of the Biblical character Eli and his sons? Eli’s eyes could have been wide open to see the so-called inebriated lips of the praying sister; however, those eyes were conveniently blind towards the evil deeds of his sons. Is US-indicted Nazar and Azruddin Mohamed a reenactment of that Biblical father and son story?
Azruddin Mohamed is pretending to have morals, and virtues which he does not actually possess, because he points the accusing finger when he himself is the epitome of corruption. I leave the readers to judge.

Respectfully,
Neil Adams

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…to create jobs, business opportunities across Region 6 – Bharrat

Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat has announced that a Dominican Republic (DR) consortium is expected to begin exploration activities within the Berbice Block in six months. In May 2026, the Guyana Government had signed an agreement with DR to jointly explore and potentially develop oil and natural gas resources in the onshore Berbice Block. Under the deal, the Dominican Petroleum Refinery will represent the Dominican State and receive a 10 per cent stake in the project without requiring an upfront capital investment. If commercially viable reserves are discovered, the Dominican Republic would gain access to crude oil or natural gas under preferential terms, strengthening the country’s long-term energy security. The initiative stems from a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2023 by President Luis Abinader and President Mohamed Irfaan Ali. The project has involved technical coordination between the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Refidomsa, and Guyanese authorities. Providing an update on the initiative during the Starting Point podcast on Sunday, Minister Bharrat said, “we’ve given them a very short timeframe to start these activities. Within four-six months, we must see some kind of activities within the Berbice Block.” Minister Bharrat added that the agreement signed between Guyana and DR is for three years, “where they will obviously do their surveys and they will start drilling at some point in time soon”.
Previously held by CGX Energy (under ON Energy), the Berbice Block along with the Demerara Block were surrendered so the company could focus on the offshore Corentyne Block. Minister Bharrat noted that, “CGX would have done some drilling in the Berbice Block in the past”. According to CGX Energy’s website, “there is strong evidence that oil has migrated onto the onshore Guyana Berbice Block and has been trapped…There has been pay on logs and oil shows in cuttings from Berbice wells drilled by ON Energy Inc. Large structures and stratigraphic changes on Berbice provide hydrocarbon traps. There is strong evidence that these traps are well positioned to be filled with hydrocarbons that have migrated to onshore Guyana.”
The website outlined that the company previously drilled three wells on the block and acquired 17 2D seismic lines along with an aeromagnetic and gravity survey. To augment these data, it was noted that CGX conducted a Geochemical Soil Survey in late 2018. “A surface soil gas survey was conducted by Exploration Technologies Inc. (ETI) in collaboration with the University of Guyana (UG) Berbice Campus and several of the Berbice technical institutes. A total of 314 shallow soil gas vapours were collected between 27 October and 4 November of 2018 from a depth of 4 feet subsurface. The data set is wide-spread, with samples collected on 1 kilometre (km) spacing along three roads and two gridded areas. The geochemical survey confirmed the presence of subsurface oil sources within the Berbice block,” the website noted. Meanwhile, the Natural Resources Minister highlighted the economic benefits that will unfold for Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) when activities begin in the Berbice Block by the DR consortium.
“It will generate a lot of opportunities in Region Six, whether it’s for direct employment, indirect employment, provision of goods and services, training, there will be many opportunities, housing, transportation, these are all services that are required when exploration activities are ongoing,” he emphasised.

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……hitting a million
No!! Your Eyewitness didn’t stumble over a bag with a million dollars as he blearily navigated the couple of blocks from his neighbourhood watering hole!! Not that it would’ve meant that much with Tom Ford suits going for at least US$6000 – equivalent to 2.3 million of our greenbacks!! No…he’s talking about the announcement by our Bureau of Statistics that our population hit 1,025,334 by the end of 2025 – up from 956,044 at the end of 2024!! Finally!!
Imagine we live in a country about as large as all the Caribbean islands combined and we hadn’t been able to reach that number in the couple of hundreds of years we’ve been a viable proposition!! For the record, the Caribbean’s population’s around 44 million and like us they’ve had an extensive continuous migration for over a hundred years!! But let’s face it; our migration has been a veritable deluge ever since Burnham established his dictatorship from the sixties! While Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba also had vicious dictatorships – unlike Papa and Baby Doc, Trujillo and Castro, Burnham didn’t try to stop no one from decamping!!
He figured that migration was like the valve on a pressure cooker that let off steam – here the likelihood of a revolution by the oppressed masses!! And so we’ve got a situation where Guyanese are the FIFTH largest ethnic group in New York City – occupying large swathes of Queens and Brooklyn!! It’s said that there are more Guyanese “outside than inside” – and there’s no reason to doubt that claim!! The remittances that have poured in for decades from them – amounting to more than all our agricultural exports – brought in crucial foreign currency that made those of us who remained in Ole Mudland live with some degree of dignity!!
Anyhow, here we are with finally a million of us within our borders!! What happened to the bleeding?? Has it stopped?? Nah…even with all our vaunted oil riches and cash grants, Guyanese are still leaving for “furrin”!! The grass supposedly being greener and all that – even with ICE’s scorched earth policy towards immigrants!! But in addition to a SLOWING DOWN of the bleeding, one reason for the uptick in population might be that scads of Guyanese from furrin are obtaining local addresses to collect the aforementioned cash grants!! Are they being counted as “living in Guyana”??
Then, of course, is the massive influx of refugees from Venezuela – amounting by some estimates to be as much as 60,000!! And also furriners coming in to fill those jobs calling for skills that we’re short of. Like all those Cuban doctors who’re so visible in our hospitals across the country!!
Maybe all these new blood – not having our historic ethnic gripes – might end our divisions??

…a bubble
As we enter the big leagues with our oil production about to reach 1 million bpd – and our reserves sure to increase with new seismic surveys – we gotta watch out for economic challenges that come with the territory. Remember what Johnson said about the rich contracting gout because of their rich diet?? Similar challenges face poor countries suddenly coming into BIG money!!
One of these is the creation of “bubbles” in the economy. That is, in particular areas of economic activity at various times, there will be feeding frenzies as the nouveau riche smell blood…er, profits…and jump in all at once. So, the old law of supply and demand kicks in and prices in that area reaches for the sky. Right now in Guyana, your Eyewitness can see a bubble developing in the hotel and apartments sector. Ain’t no way the occupancy rates are gonna be high enough to service the mortgages!! The problem is the speculating moneyed local and foreign folks!!
Until the bubble bursts!!

…reversing a collapse
When your Eyewitness heard about us importing a thousand pregnant cows from Brazil, the crack about “shipping coals to Newcastle” came to mind!!  Didn’t we have a Cattle Trail to ship OUR own cows from the Rupununi??

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…relief aid arrives in earthquake-stricken country as Caracas
thanks Guyana, Caricom

Guyana’s Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud, says the country stands in solidarity with the people of Venezuela as relief supplies, coordinated by the Government of Guyana in partnership with other Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states, have arrived in the earthquake-stricken South American nation. Two vessels, Mega and Motti arrived at La Guira Port in Venezuela on Sunday, with humanitarian supplies comprising food, medicine, construction materials, machinery for rubble removal, and 300 water tanks. The shipment forms part of a regional response led by President Dr Irfaan Ali with support from Caricom member states and the private sector. The supplies were received by the Foreign Affairs Minister of Venezuela Yvan Gil, alongside Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela Dr Richard Van West-Charles, who pledged additional shipments. Minister Gil expressed gratitude on behalf of Venezuela toward the neighbouring nations and the diplomatic corps that facilitated the handover, specifically acknowledging Guyana and all Caricom member states that joined the initiative. According to a teleSUR report, he further emphasised the geopolitical significance of the assistance in addressing the emergency in the hardest-hit zones, noting that the donation supplements other international aid received since the seismic event, which has bolstered response capacity and the restoration of essential services. “The only way to face these natural events that truly impact the population of our entire region is through unity,” he underscored. The relief supplies were contributed by the Governments of Guyana, Belize, the Bahamas, St Lucia, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, the local Private Sector, civil society organisations, citizens, and members of the Venezuelan community in Guyana. In a social media post, Guyana’s Foreign Secretary emphasised that “Guyana remains a reliable partner in times of crisis and stands in solidarity with the Venezuelan people as they recover from the devasting impacts of the earthquake.” This show of solidarity and support between Guyana and Venezuela comes as the two South American neighbours are embroiled in a decades-long border controversy. The matter is currently before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is expected to deliver a ruling sometime later this year or early next year.

Generosity
Meanwhile, the PSC in Guyana commented that this “this collective effort demonstrated the generosity and solidarity of Guyana’s private sector, reflecting a shared commitment to standing with our regional neighbours during times of crisis”. On June 24, the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes caused extensive damage in parts of Venezuela near the country’s capital. More than 3685 persons have died and another 16,740 were injured from last month’s twin quakes, while 17,907 are homeless.

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…as GtE transmission network nears completion

Vice President (VP) Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday announced that the transmission network for Guyana’s flagship Gas-to-Energy (GtE) Project has reached 99 per cent completion, describing the development as a major milestone in the country’s energy transformation. In a post on his social media pages, the VP said, “Guyana is on the verge of a new era of affordable and reliable electricity. The project represents a major step in the country’s energy transformation, using natural gas to reduce electricity costs, improve energy security and create a stronger foundation for future renewable energy development.” The video with accompanied the VP’s post, highlighted the transmission infrastructure that has been constructed to transport electricity from the 300-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara (WBD), across the Demerara River to the substation at Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara (ECD). It notes that while most of the transmission towers stand approximately 40 metres tall, the towers spanning the Demerara River are significantly larger. “Most of these towers will stand about 40 metres tall, but the towers crossing the river are more than three times that, standing at 146 metres,” the video states. According to the video, the transmission lines extend from Wales in Region Three to the Goedverwagting substation in Region Four and will play a critical role in integrating the new power plant into the coastal grid on the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS). “The cables connecting the towers run from Wales in Region 3 all the way to the substation in Goedverwagting in Region 4 [will]… move electricity generated from natural gas at the new 300-MW power plant into Guyana’s existing grid, helping deliver more stable and expanded power across the Demerara Berbice Interconnected system,” the video said. The video also reiterates one of the project’s primary objectives, saying, “Once completed, the gas to energy project will cut electricity costs by 50 per cent for both residents and commercial consumers.”

The GtE Project is one of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government’s flagship initiatives and was conceptualised to reduce electricity costs while increasing the benefits Guyana derives from its rapidly expanding oil and gas sector through the utilisation of natural gas from the Stabroek Block. Located at Wales, WBD, the highly anticipated GtE Project comprises a 300-MW combined cycle power plant and a natural gas liquids (NGL) facility that will utilise the rich natural gas piped onshore from the Stabroek Block to generate cleaner and cheaper electricity for consumers. The US$759 million GtE Project is being constructed by United States (US)-based contractor Lindsayca. Meanwhile, the offshore Stabroek Block is operated by ExxonMobil, together with co-venturers Chevron and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). The first-of-its-kind project in Guyana combines modular gas processing technology for faster deployment with high-efficiency combined-cycle power generation and infrastructure designed to suit the country’s tropical conditions. It is being partially financed through a loan from the US EXIM Bank. ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) and its co-venturers have already completed the installation of approximately 250 kilometres (km) of 12-inch pipeline to transport natural gas from the offshore Stabroek Block to Wales.
Construction of the first gas turbine foundation began in September 2025, with the overall project now expected to come on stream by the end of 2026. The original completion target of the end of 2024 was delayed following setbacks related to site preparation and soil stabilisation works. Once operational, the project is expected to significantly reduce the cost of electricity generation, improve energy security, lower production costs for businesses and support broader economic growth.

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