Good morning from Georgetown. It is Thursday, which is the day the week gets tired but refuses to admit it.

BUILDING GOES DOWN, ONE DEAD

An incomplete structure collapsed somewhere in the country on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring several others. The structure was, we are told, incomplete — which raises the obvious question of what exactly it was doing holding people in the first place. Investigations are ongoing, which is the phrase authorities use when they want you to know they are looking into something without committing to any particular conclusion.

CANU HAD A GOOD QUARTER

The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit seized drugs worth more than $190 million in the first quarter of 2026. This is either very good news or a sign that a lot of drugs are moving through Guyana, depending on whether you are CANU or the people CANU is chasing. The agency did not specify which substances featured most prominently, but the number is large enough that someone had a very bad few months.

YOUR DOMESTIC FLIGHT IS ABOUT TO COST MORE

The Aviation Operators’ Association of Guyana has warned that domestic airfares will be going up, citing increased prices for aviation fuel driven by the ongoing Middle East conflict. This is the part where flying from Georgetown to Lethem stops being a mild inconvenience and starts being a financial commitment. The GEA, meanwhile, has other fuel concerns — it is urging all petrol stations to stop dispensing petroleum products into unsafe containers, which is apparently something that needs saying.

GLOBAL SHOCKS REIGNITE LOCAL REFINERY TALK

Rising fuel costs and supply chain disruptions from the US-Iran conflict have done what economists and editorialists could not: they have made people take the local oil refinery idea seriously again. President Ali is also in talks with the Dominican Republic on energy storage, and Gulf states are being invited to invest in large-scale facilities here. The theory is that Guyana should not be an oil exporter that is also at the mercy of global fuel prices, which is a reasonable position that has been reasonable for several years now.

KAMLA TAKES A SWING AT CARICOM

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar called CARICOM’s leadership “dysfunctional and incompetent” this week, and she was not alone. Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US, Sir Ronald Sanders, went further, suggesting that CARICOM Secretary General Dr. Carla Barnett should consider resigning. This is the regional equivalent of everybody at the same table deciding the chair should leave. The specific trigger appears to be a combination of the organisation’s slow response to the US-Iran war’s economic fallout and general frustration that has been building for some time.

BRAZILIANS FINED, SHOWN THE DOOR

Two Brazilian nationals — Franscio Lopes, 47, and Junior Condrad, 32, both of Boa Vista, Roraima — were charged with illegal entry and each fined $30,000 before being handed deportation orders. The fines were paid. The plane is presumably waiting.

OMAI GOLD GETS BIGGER

Canadian firm Omai Gold Mines has increased its indicated Mineral Resource Estimate by 400,000 ounces in seven months, bringing the total to a number that makes the site considerably more valuable than it was in September. This is the kind of update that makes investors happy and makes everyone else wonder how much of Guyana’s ground is worth something.

DECOMPOSED BODY FOUND AT VICTORIA KOKER

The decomposed body of a 73-year-old woman, identified as Carlyn Greaves, was found at a koker in Victoria Village, East Coast Demerara on Tuesday. Police are investigating. The Harlem Public Road also claimed a 23-year-old man this week — Bernard North lost control of his vehicle and died. A second victim from a separate Enmore accident also died. It has been a bad few days on the roads and at the waterways.

ALSO

The Guyana Water Inc. is spending $46 million to fix the Amelia’s Ward water plant in Region 10. A new primary school is coming to Parakeese Village, Region One, which has never had one. The Guyana Harpy Eagles beat the Windward Islands Volcanoes in the opening round of the West Indies Regional Four-Day Championship.

Five minutes. Four papers. All the drama.