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T&T cyclists Nedd, James, D’Abreau get silver medal upgrade

Af­ter al­most a year of wait­ing on an up­grade for a per­for­mance that earned them a bronze medal in the team sprint at the 2025 Ju­nior Pan Amer­i­can Games in Asun­cion, Paraguay, the trio of Je­lani Nedd, Dar­nell James, and Ryan D’Abreau fi­nal­ly got the up­grade that their per­for­mance de­served, to the sec­ond-place sil­ver medal on Monday (June 15) at a medal-up­grade cer­e­mo­ny at the Olympic House on Wood­ford Street, Port-of-Spain.

Modernising the State, protecting the people, empowering T&T

The fol­low­ing is the pre­sen­ta­tion of the 2026 Sup­ple­men­tary Ap­pro­pri­a­tion and Mid-Year Re­view by The Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo, MP House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives

Is FIFA president Gianni Infantino shameless or just honest?

The di­choto­my of con­trol. ​A cou­ple of days ago, a "thought of the day" came across my time­line. It was a quote from the Sto­ic philoso­pher Epicte­tus. It jumped out at me be­cause of some­thing FI­FA pres­i­dent Gi­an­ni In­fan­ti­no said in an­swer to a ques­tion.

The violence we do not at first see

“No child in this coun­try should ever have their fu­ture stolen by vi­o­lence, and no fam­i­ly should ever have to car­ry this kind of pain.”

Sammy lauds Windies’ “smart” play in T20I series win over Sri Lanka

KINGSTON, Ja­maica – West In­dies head coach Daren Sam­my has praised the re­gion­al team for play­ing in­tel­li­gent crick­et in the third and fi­nal T2oI against Sri Lan­ka that se­cured a first se­ries-win in the for­mat at home in al­most two years.

Imbert: Moody’s upgrade not due to Govt performance

For­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Colm Im­bert has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of dis­hon­est­ly tak­ing cred­it for Trinidad and To­ba­go’s im­proved Moody’s out­look from a neg­a­tive to sta­ble sta­tus, ar­gu­ing that the in­ter­na­tion­al rat­ings agency’s de­ci­sion was dri­ven by high­er oil and gas prices linked to con­flict in the Mid­dle East, rather than Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of the econ­o­my.

Beckles calls for stronger protection of elderly citizens

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is call­ing for greater care and pro­tec­tion for the na­tion’s el­der­ly, say­ing se­nior cit­i­zens de­serve to spend their lat­er years in dig­ni­ty and peace, not fear.

Students, Govt supporters fill Parliament gallery during Mid-Year Budget debate

As de­bate on the Mid-Year Bud­get Re­view to adopt the re­port of the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee con­tin­ued in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day, the pub­lic gallery was filled with vis­i­tors, Gov­ern­ment sup­port­ers and school­child­ren.

AG defends crackdown on illegal PH drivers

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie says the Gov­ern­ment will not back down from its crack­down on il­le­gal PH dri­vers, de­spite calls from the Op­po­si­tion for le­nien­cy.

Payday coming

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo has as­sured nurs­es, teach­ers and oth­er pub­lic sec­tor work­ers still await­ing the con­clu­sion of salary ne­go­ti­a­tions that fi­nan­cial re­lief is on the way. How­ev­er, the nec­es­sary mon­e­tary al­lo­ca­tion for them will be made in the 2026/2027 Bud­get pack­age once on­go­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions and cal­cu­la­tions are com­plet­ed.

Will Cuba fall before November?

De­spite the dis­cus­sion of the Caribbean as a “Zone of Peace”, the 2026 cap­ture of Nicholas Maduro by the US Delta Force was more in keep­ing with an ac­tion movie than an idyl­lic sea­side va­ca­tion. In­stead of va­ca­tion­ers’ yachts, the turquoise wa­ters of the Caribbean were cov­ered in the sil­hou­ettes of Black Hawk he­li­copters through­out 2026 as the US Marines, Army and Air Force con­duct­ed reg­u­lar ma­noeu­vres.

D'Abadie man dies after being stabbed during altercation

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing in­to the death of a D'Abadie man who was re­port­ed­ly killed fol­low­ing a do­mes­tic dis­pute on Sun­day night.

Joseph’s career haul, Holder’s big hitting secure memorable series win for Windies

KINGSTON – Shamar Joseph’s five-wick­et haul, cou­pled with some ex­tra­or­di­nary pow­er hit­ting by Ja­son Hold­er, en­sured West In­dies se­cured a se­ries-win­ning five-wick­et vic­to­ry over Sri Lan­ka in the third and fi­nal T20I in Ja­maica on Sun­day.

Strong numbers, lingering concerns

The 2026 Mid-Year Bud­get Re­view is as much a po­lit­i­cal doc­u­ment as it is a fis­cal up­date, pre­sent­ed by a gov­ern­ment ea­ger to demon­strate that, af­ter one year in of­fice, it has be­gun to re­verse eco­nom­ic de­cline, re­store con­fi­dence and re­build State in­sti­tu­tions.

PM calls for criminal probe into Scotland over T&TEC legal matter

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day an­nounced that she in­tends to file a re­port to the po­lice for a crim­i­nal probe to be launched in­to Op­po­si­tion MP Kei­th Scot­land for al­leged­ly con­spir­ing to de­fraud a State en­ti­ty.

AC PoS pulls out WoLF... cites financial woes

A lack of fi­nan­cial sup­port has been giv­en as the key rea­son for the with­draw­al of Ath­let­ic Club Port-of-Spain (AC PoS) from the 2026 T&T Women’s League Foot­ball (WoLF).

Arouca man found shot dead in Carlsen Field

The body of an Arou­ca man was found with gun­shot wounds in Pig Farm Road, Carlsen Field yes­ter­day af­ter­noon.

Mercedez’s mother discharged in time for final farewell

Dis­charged from hos­pi­tal on­ly yes­ter­day, the moth­er of 12-year-old Mer­cedez Layne will be close­ly mon­i­tored to­day as she bids a fi­nal farewell to her child, rel­a­tives said.

Vendors fear being priced out of new ANR Robinson airport terminal

To­ba­go ven­dors are com­plain­ing about be­ing priced out of do­ing busi­ness at the new­ly con­struct­ed ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port ter­mi­nal.

Opposition seeks Speaker’s intervention over allegations of staff bias, MP’s conduct

The Op­po­si­tion has for­mal­ly writ­ten to House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh seek­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion on al­le­ga­tions of bias in­volv­ing par­lia­men­tary staff and con­cerns over the con­duct of Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness Bar­ry Padarath.

Browne warns against wholesale exchange of old $100 notes

Econ­o­mist and for­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance, Mar­i­ano Browne, has cau­tioned against any move to al­low the whole­sale ex­change of old $100 ban­knotes, say­ing such a de­ci­sion would raise se­ri­ous ques­tions about un­ex­plained wealth and cor­rup­tion.

T&T women edge Jamaica in Billie Jean King Cup opener

The dou­bles pair of teenag­er Jor­dane Dook­ie and vet­er­an An­neliese Rose de­feat­ed Ja­maica’s Ki­na Gra­ham and Kather­ine Gibbs in straight set to se­cure a 2-1 win in their open­ing match in Group B when the Amer­i­c­as Group Three Bil­lie Jean King Cup served off at the Fed­era­cion Sal­vadore­na de Te­nis in San Sal­vador, El Sal­vador, Monday (June 15).

Missing aircraft found, crew unharmed

The pri­vate air­craft that went miss­ing on Fri­day, af­ter de­part­ing St Vin­cent en route to To­ba­go, has been found.

Padarath denies attack on parliamentary staff

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath is re­ject­ing sug­ges­tions that he at­tempt­ed to in­tim­i­date par­lia­men­tary staff dur­ing last Fri­day’s chaot­ic Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee meet­ing, in­sist­ing in­stead that his ac­tions were aimed at iden­ti­fy­ing in­di­vid­u­als linked to what he be­lieves is a pat­tern of bias against Gov­ern­ment MPs with­in Par­lia­ment.

Time to overcome the silence around male breast cancer

For In­ter­na­tion­al Men’s Health Month, this re­porter set out to doc­u­ment the re­al­i­ties of men di­ag­nosed with breast can­cer. The goal was to high­light a de­mo­graph­ic of­ten left out of con­ver­sa­tions sur­round­ing a dis­ease over­whelm­ing­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with women.

The hidden cause of childhood constipation

Chron­ic func­tion­al con­sti­pa­tion is the most com­mon type of con­sti­pa­tion in young chil­dren. There is noth­ing wrong with the child’s hor­mones or in­testi­nal sys­tem. It is a so­cio-psy­cho­log­i­cal prob­lem re­lat­ed to par­ent­ing. It is be­com­ing com­mon as moth­ers have to work out­side the house and chil­dren are placed in nurs­eries at an ear­ly age. Con­sti­pa­tion is al­so sel­dom seen in fam­i­lies where chil­dren eat prop­er­ly.

The things men never say

A man can tell you ex­act­ly what’s wrong with his car. He can iden­ti­fy a faulty bat­tery, a worn tyre, a strange vi­bra­tion com­ing from the en­gine, or the faintest hint that some­thing is not quite right.

Dr Rajeev Nagassar keeps watch over....

The next ma­jor pub­lic health threat fac­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go may not ar­rive with the vis­i­ble fear and ur­gency of a pan­dem­ic.

Death of a child

“The sor­row for the dead is the on­ly sor­row from which we refuse to be di­vorced. Every oth­er wound we seek to heal, every oth­er af­flic­tion to for­get; but this wound we con­sid­er it a du­ty to keep open; this af­flic­tion we cher­ish and brood over in soli­tude” Wash­ing­ton Irv­ing (1783-1859).

THA satisfied with Mid-Year Budget allocation, says Finance Secretary

Fi­nance Sec­re­tary Petal-Ann Roberts says the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) is sat­is­fied with its al­lo­ca­tion in the Mid-Year Bud­get Re­view.

Teachers reject backpay relief delay; nurses welcome timeline clarity

Teach­ers and nurs­es had mixed re­ac­tions af­ter Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo in­di­cat­ed that fi­nan­cial re­lief for pub­lic sec­tor work­ers, who are still await­ing the con­clu­sion of salary ne­go­ti­a­tions and back­pay, will be pro­vid­ed through al­lo­ca­tions in the 2026/2027 bud­get.

Dukharan: T&T heading towards debt default

Econ­o­mist Mar­la Dukha­ran has is­sued a warn­ing re­gard­ing T&T’s fis­cal tra­jec­to­ry, cau­tion­ing that the na­tion is rapid­ly gain­ing mo­men­tum on the road to­wards an even­tu­al sov­er­eign debt de­fault or re­struc­tur­ing.

Break bottlenecks to boost growth, business groups say

Per­sis­tent op­er­a­tional bot­tle­necks like se­vere for­eign ex­change short­ages, pro­longed VAT re­fund de­lays, and ris­ing crime con­tin­ue to choke lo­cal busi­ness growth, de­spite a dra­mat­i­cal­ly im­proved na­tion­al bal­ance sheet.

Moonilal denies Paria for sale to Trafigura

For­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter Stu­art Young has ques­tioned whether the Gov­ern­ment is pur­su­ing a deal in­volv­ing state-owned Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny and glob­al com­modi­ties com­pa­ny Trafigu­ra, warn­ing that any loss of State con­trol over the com­pa­ny’s as­sets could threat­en Trinidad and To­ba­go’s fu­el se­cu­ri­ty.

Rowley denies being on T&TEC ‘secret list’

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has de­nied claims by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar that he and his wife were among in­di­vid­u­als placed on a “se­cret list” at the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) that pre­vent­ed dis­con­nec­tion for un­paid bills.

Gonzales: T&TEC keeps list of high-profile customers

For­mer pub­lic util­i­ties min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les says the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) main­tains an in­ter­nal list of high-pro­file cus­tomers, in­clud­ing min­is­ters, judges and diplo­mats, to mon­i­tor ac­counts flagged for dis­con­nec­tion or un­usu­al ac­tiv­i­ty.

Understanding the United Nations

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s elec­tion as a non-per­ma­nent mem­ber of the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil has brought the im­por­tance of the Unit­ed Na­tions in­to na­tion­al fo­cus. And at a crit­i­cal time, when mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism, the UN’s core pur­pose, is un­der threat.

Iran says the deal to end the war with the US requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanon

Iran’s top diplo­mat said Tues­day that the ten­ta­tive deal to end the war with the Unit­ed States would re­quire Is­rael to with­draw from Lebanon — a con­di­tion Is­rael has al­ready re­ject­ed and that could sink the agree­ment, lead­ing to the re­sump­tion of all-out war.

Fit to be tied: The big upsets at the World Cup so far have been matches ending at 0-0, 1-1 and 2-2

The teams that are ranked 61st, 67th and 85th in FI­FA’s world rank­ings all were heavy un­der­dogs in their first match­es at the World Cup.

Sri Lanka Emerging players put WI Academy bowlers to the sword

HAM­BAN­TO­TA – Pulin­du Per­era’s cen­tu­ry led a dom­i­nant bat­ting dis­play by Sri Lan­ka Emerg­ing Play­ers, as the West In­dies Acad­e­my’s bowlers were made to toil with lit­tle suc­cess on the sec­ond day of the sec­ond un­of­fi­cial ‘Test in Sri Lan­ka on Tues­day.

Rowley posts electricity bill; denies T&TEC list

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has post­ed what he said was his lat­est elec­tric­i­ty bill as he con­tin­ued to re­ject claims that he ben­e­fit­ed from spe­cial treat­ment at the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC).

Deadline looms for CSOs to access free governance certification

With just five days re­main­ing, civ­il so­ci­ety or­gan­i­sa­tions (CSOs) across Trinidad and To­ba­go are be­ing urged to seize a rare op­por­tu­ni­ty to earn recog­nised pro­fes­sion­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tion at no cost.

Sports Minister Grange, Shallow have discussions aimed at strengthening bond between Jamaica & CWI

ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Pres­i­dent of Crick­et West In­dies (CWI), Dr Kishore Shal­low and Ja­maica’s Min­is­ter of Cul­ture, Gen­der, En­ter­tain­ment and Sport, Olivia Grange, met re­cent­ly to dis­cuss a range of ini­tia­tives aimed at strength­en­ing crick­et in Ja­maica and con­tribut­ing to the growth of crick­et in the re­gion.

UN Secretary-General visits Haiti as gang violence soars

U.N. Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­tónio Guter­res vis­it­ed Haiti on Tues­day, where surg­ing gang vi­o­lence has left more than 1 in 10 peo­ple home­less.

Da Silva, Jangoo recalled to West Indies squad for Sri Lanka Test series

​ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Wick­et­keep­er-bat­ter Joshua Da Sil­va and bats­man Amir Jan­goo have earned re­calls to the West In­dies Test squad, head­lin­ing a 15-mem­ber team an­nounced by Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) on Tues­day for the up­com­ing se­ries against Sri Lan­ka in An­tigua.

Cops seek PDOs for 11 held in Gasparillo anti-crime operations

Pre­ven­ta­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs) are be­ing sought for some 11 per­sons ar­rest­ed dur­ing an­ti-crime op­er­a­tions that were car­ried out in Gas­par­il­lo be­tween June 6th and 15th, 2026, the Po­lice Ser­vice has con­firmed.

Kylian Mbappé sparks France with two goals in 3-1 win over Senegal at the World Cup

Kylian Mbap­pé scored twice to move past Pelé and Li­onel Mes­si with 14 World Cup goals, Bradley Bar­co­la added an­oth­er and France re­bound­ed from a sur­pris­ing­ly poor first half to beat Sene­gal 3-1 Tues­day.

South business chambers: Wage payments could deliver quick boost to retail sector

Re­tail spend­ing in South Trinidad re­mains close­ly tied to pub­lic sec­tor wage cy­cles, with busi­ness lead­ers say­ing Gov­ern­ment’s planned salary re­lief could quick­ly rip­ple through su­per­mar­kets, hard­ware stores and oth­er re­tail out­lets as house­holds gain ad­di­tion­al spend­ing pow­er.

We are not biased

Par­lia­ment staff are deny­ing al­le­ga­tions of bias, af­ter claims by Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness Bar­ry Padarath that mi­cro­phones used by Gov­ern­ment MPs were de­lib­er­ate­ly mut­ed dur­ing par­lia­men­tary sit­tings.

Cedar Grove School to reopen today after two-week closure

Stu­dents of Cedar Grove Pri­vate School are ex­pect­ed to re­turn to their class­rooms to­day, af­ter a two-week clo­sure prompt­ed by com­plaints that rats were liv­ing on the com­pound.

Cuban Ambassador to T&T rejects US case against Raúl Castro

Cu­ba's Am­bas­sador to Trinidad and To­ba­go has re­ject­ed re­cent ac­cu­sa­tions against for­mer Cuban pres­i­dent Raúl Cas­tro, de­scrib­ing them as base­less and part of ef­forts by the Unit­ed States to jus­ti­fy in­creased hos­til­i­ty to­wards the Caribbean na­tion.

Tancoo assures: Relief coming for nurses, teachers in 2027 Budget

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo has as­sured nurs­es, teach­ers and oth­er pub­lic sec­tor work­ers still await­ing the con­clu­sion of salary ne­go­ti­a­tions that fi­nan­cial re­lief is on the way. How­ev­er, the nec­es­sary mon­e­tary al­lo­ca­tion will be made in the 2026/2027 bud­get pack­age.

Police seek public’s help to locate missing teenager

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice is ap­peal­ing to the pub­lic for ur­gent as­sis­tance in lo­cat­ing 16-year-old Daniel­la Ma­haraj, who has been re­port­ed miss­ing.

Battage’s four-wicket haul gives Sri Lanka Emerging Players edge over Academy

HAM­BAN­TO­TA – Off-spin­ner Chamod Battage claimed four wick­ets to put Sri Lan­ka Emerg­ing Play­ers in a strong po­si­tion over the West In­dies Acad­e­my at the close of play on the first day of the sec­ond un­of­fi­cial ‘Test’ in Sri Lan­ka on Mon­day.

Advocaat: Heavy loss to Germany nothing to be ashamed about

HOUS­TON – De­spite be­ing thrashed 7-1 by Ger­many in their first-ever World Cup match in the Unit­ed States on Sun­day, Cu­raçao head coach Dick Ad­vo­caat does not be­lieve his side should be em­bar­rassed by the score­line.

Iran and US reach an initial deal to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz but challenges remain

The Unit­ed States and Iran reached an ini­tial agree­ment Mon­day that would ex­tend their shaky cease­fire and lead to the re­open­ing of the Strait of Hor­muz, but sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges re­main to end­ing the war, in­clud­ing whether Is­rael will con­tin­ue its of­fen­sive in Lebanon.

Zakour: T&T in regional search for missing plane

A pri­vate air­craft that left St Vin­cent and the Grenadines en route to To­ba­go on Fri­day has gone miss­ing, prompt­ing a re­gion­al search and res­cue op­er­a­tion in­volv­ing mul­ti­ple agen­cies.

The myth of the neutral playing field

It is re­peat­ed by ad­min­is­tra­tors in board­rooms, by fans in the stands, and by com­men­ta­tors: “Keep pol­i­tics out of sports.” It is a nice sen­ti­ment, a de­sire to view sports as a sa­cred, a pris­tine sanc­tu­ary where the on­ly things that mat­ter are the scores, the timer, the of­fi­cial calls, and the ath­let­ic skills on dis­play.

T&T darts duo stun 14th-ranked Latvia, plead for Caribbean investment

FRANK­FURT, Ger­many—On a his­toric Fri­day night in Ger­many, Trinidad and To­ba­go’s James Walk­lin and Joshua Bal­four carved their names in­to the an­nals of re­gion­al sport.

Resident calls for more empathy after fatal East PoS fire

An East Port-of-Spain res­i­dent who as­sist­ed in res­cu­ing a man from a dead­ly fire on Fri­day night is ap­peal­ing to the pub­lic to show more em­pa­thy.

Police probe separate kidnapping, abduction incidents

Po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing two sep­a­rate in­ci­dents in­volv­ing a Venezue­lan na­tion­al who was kid­napped and a Unit­ed King­dom na­tion­al who was ab­duct­ed and robbed in un­re­lat­ed at­tacks over the past week.

Opposition Leader, La Brea MP join Mercedez’s vigil in Los Iros

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and La Brea MP Clyde El­der put aside pol­i­tics on Sat­ur­day evening as they joined hun­dreds of Los Iros res­i­dents in a can­dle­light march call­ing for greater pro­tec­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s chil­dren, fol­low­ing the killing of 12-year-old Mer­cedes Layne, a stu­dent at the Erin RC Pri­ma­ry School, whose bat­tered body was dis­cov­ered last Sun­day near an oil pipeline.

Ramlogan urges Govt to allow exchange of old $100 notes after court ruling

For­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan is ap­peal­ing to the Prime Min­is­ter and Fi­nance Min­is­ter to con­sid­er al­low­ing cit­i­zens who were un­able to con­vert their $100 bills for the poly­mer notes.

Moody’s upgrade boosts renewed interest in refinery, says chairman

Chair­man of the State-owned Guaracara Re­fin­ery Com­pa­ny Ltd (GR­CL), Gow­tam Ma­haraj, says the shut­tered Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery is at­tract­ing re­newed in­ter­na­tion­al in­ter­est fol­low­ing the in­ter­na­tion­al rat­ing agency Moody’s de­ci­sion to up­grade Trinidad and To­ba­go’s sov­er­eign eco­nom­ic out­look from neg­a­tive to sta­ble while af­firm­ing its Ba2 cred­it rat­ing.

Parliament must not degenerate into a theatre of disorder

The po­lit­i­cal ha­rangue among Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment dur­ing last Fri­day night’s Fi­nance Stand­ing Com­mit­tee meet­ing re­flects a trou­bling es­ca­la­tion in ten­sions be­tween the rul­ing Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment and the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM).

Tobago airport terminal fully certified, ready for opening

The ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port’s new ter­mi­nal build­ing has been ful­ly cer­ti­fied for op­er­a­tions, with of­fi­cials yes­ter­day re­ceiv­ing the doc­u­ments re­quired to for­mal­ly com­mis­sion the fa­cil­i­ty.

Stakeholders eye Tancoo as he delivers Mid-year Budget Review

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo en­ters to­day’s Mid-Year Bud­get Re­view fac­ing de­mands from unions, busi­ness groups, po­lice of­fi­cers and the Op­po­si­tion, all seek­ing an­swers on jobs, wages, eco­nom­ic growth and Gov­ern­ment spend­ing as Par­lia­ment pre­pares to ab­sorb an ad­di­tion­al $2.93 bil­lion in ex­pen­di­ture.

Solidarity Forever: How workers forged a nation through struggle and unity

Be­fore Labour Day be­came a pub­lic hol­i­day and be­fore thou­sands marched through the streets of Fyz­abad every June 19, there was one idea that unit­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s work­ing class – sol­i­dar­i­ty for­ev­er.

Hinduism’s evolution through the years

Most In­di­an em­i­grants were con­sid­ered il­lit­er­ate, al­though many could read and write their own In­di­an lan­guage. Un­til about 1900, the Hin­dus did not have for­mal­ly trained pun­dits. In the be­gin­ning, they did not have suf­fi­cient mon­ey to build their mandirs and lim­it­ed copies of a few scrip­tures like Tul­si­das Ra­mayana.

Science Laureate pledges US$35K prize to health cause

New­ly named Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy Lau­re­ate, Dr Niv­en Narain, has pledged to use his US$35,000 cash prize from the An­tho­ny N Sab­ga Awards for Caribbean Ex­cel­lence to es­tab­lish a foun­da­tion fo­cused on women’s health in Guyana and the Unit­ed States.

Anita Haynes: ‘We warned you’

For­mer UNC MP Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne has is­sued a strong con­dem­na­tion of the Gov­ern­ment and her for­mer par­ty, warn­ing that Trinidad and To­ba­go is be­ing gov­erned by “ab­sent lead­er­ship” sup­port­ed by “syco­phan­tic un­der­lings” and urg­ing cit­i­zens not to be afraid to chal­lenge au­thor­i­ty when they be­lieve some­thing is wrong.

From fortress to academy

For gen­er­a­tions of cit­i­zens, the sprawl­ing com­pound on the West­ern Main Road has been en­tire­ly syn­ony­mous with law en­force­ment. Since the 1890s, near­ly every po­lice of­fi­cer who has sworn to pro­tect and serve our na­tion has marched through its his­toric gates. Yet, long be­fore it be­came the bedrock of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), the St James Bar­racks was a vi­tal mil­i­tary strong­hold built to safe­guard the British Em­pire’s most prized Caribbean pos­ses­sion.

Legendary Carol Addison-Lewis returns home ‘to shine’ with new album

With her soul­ful, pow­er­ful voice, big smile and stun­ning fash­ion en­sem­bles, the vo­cal leg­end knows ex­act­ly how to draw in her au­di­ences, hav­ing per­formed songs from her three al­bums for decades on stages across the world.

Little fashionista

Mary Im­mac­u­late Uni­verse RC Church pre­sent­ed Fel­low­ship in Style II Tea Par­ty and Fash­ion Show at their Parish Hall on Sun­day May 31.

Trini musician earns prestigious US doctoral fellowship

For 27-year-old Mark Haynes, mu­sic has al­ways been more than melody; it has been a ve­hi­cle for trans­for­ma­tion. The Trinida­di­an dou­ble bassist has once again placed his home­land on the map, se­cur­ing a pres­ti­gious Doc­tor of Mu­si­cal Arts (DMA) de­gree at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mi­a­mi’s Frost School of Mu­sic, ac­com­pa­nied by a full tu­ition schol­ar­ship and the high­ly cov­et­ed Hen­ry Manci­ni In­sti­tute (HMI) Per­for­mance Fel­low­ship.

La Vega: A nature escape in the heart of Gran Couva

For na­ture lovers seek­ing a peace­ful out­door re­treat, La Ve­ga Es­tate in Gran Cou­va of­fers a unique blend of recre­ation, re­lax­ation and nat­ur­al beau­ty.

Author Christopher Lewis launches ‘Dear Caribbean People’

Laugh­ter and easy­go­ing con­ver­sa­tion filled the cosy, art-lined space of Tea Leaves 1881 in Wood­brook on Mon­day as 25 spe­cial­ly in­vit­ed guests gath­ered for a show­case of Christo­pher Lewis’ three books, cul­mi­nat­ing in the launch of his lat­est work, “Dear Caribbean Peo­ple: A Col­lec­tion of Proverbs for Liv­ing and Thriv­ing.” The in­ti­mate evening, com­plete with a wel­come char­cu­terie board and a com­pli­men­ta­ry cock­tail, al­so marked the au­thor’s 65th birth­day.

World Oceans Day: Reimagining conservation education

Every year on June 8, World Oceans Day serves as a glob­al re­minder of the vi­tal role oceans play in sus­tain­ing life on plan­et Earth. Cov­er­ing more than 70 per cent of the plan­et’s sur­face, the oceans reg­u­late cli­mate, sup­port bio­di­ver­si­ty, pro­vide liveli­hoods, and pro­duce much of the oxy­gen we breathe. For is­land na­tions in the Caribbean, in­clud­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, how­ev­er, the ocean is more than an en­vi­ron­men­tal as­set; it is deeply wo­ven in­to cul­ture, iden­ti­ty, en­joy­ment, and eco­nom­ic sus­tain­abil­i­ty.

Dr Bhagwatee Seunarine’s legacy remembered

The con­tri­bu­tions of Dr Bhag­wa­tee Se­u­nar­ine to health­care in south Trinidad are be­ing re­mem­bered fol­low­ing her re­cent death at the age of 91, with fam­i­ly and for­mer col­leagues re­flect­ing on a life ded­i­cat­ed to med­i­cine, ser­vice and fam­i­ly.

When odissi meets moko jumbie: Bridging cultures through dance

For In­di­an clas­si­cal dancer Sádé Budhlall, it’s im­por­tant that cre­ative ex­pres­sion is fused with open mind­ed­ness, prop­er re­search and mean­ing­ful col­lab­o­ra­tion for its full essence to be felt.

Doodnath Maharaj -From the beating heart of the trade union movement

Labour Day, June 19, is five days away. To­day, we pay trib­ute to one of the pi­o­neers of the labour move­ment whose name many peo­ple may not even know.

2 killed as fire rips through PoS apartment building

A fire at an apart­ment build­ing in Port-of-Spain on Fri­day led to the deaths of two women and saw some ten­ants jump­ing sev­er­al feet down, re­sult­ing in bro­ken limbs in a bid to es­cape the flames.

NJAC condemns Marcelle’s ‘divisive’ remarks at PNM meeting

The Na­tion­al Joint Ac­tion Com­mit­tee (NJAC) has con­demned com­ments made by Laven­tille West MP Ka­reem Mar­celle dur­ing a Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) pub­lic meet­ing in his con­stituen­cy last Thurs­day, de­scrib­ing the re­marks as di­vi­sive and harm­ful to na­tion­al uni­ty.

Schoolboy’s family in fear after deadly home invasion

The fam­i­ly of a school­boy who was shot dead dur­ing a home in­va­sion in Mara­bel­la is now liv­ing in fear as po­lice in­ves­ti­gate the killing. Kr­is­han Khanai was gunned down at his fam­i­ly’s Tram­line Road home late Thurs­day night. Two rel­a­tives, Kr­ish­na Khanai and Leela Pariag, were al­so shot and wound­ed dur­ing the at­tack.

The men and women the Republic forgot

Max Al­bert and I con­tin­ue our dis­cus­sions on the To­ba­go au­ton­o­my ques­tion. In our pre­vi­ous ar­ti­cle, we sug­gest­ed that many of To­ba­go’s con­sti­tu­tion­al de­bates may ul­ti­mate­ly stem from an un­re­solved ques­tion: Did the con­sti­tu­tion­al de­vel­op­ments rep­re­sent­ed by the restora­tion of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly in 1980 and the ad­min­is­tra­tive de­vel­op­ments of 1988 and 1996 pro­duce a cor­re­spond­ing change in the psy­chol­o­gy of the Re­pub­lic?

Young questions $500M police overtime bill

MP for Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West Stu­art Young chal­lenged Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der dur­ing the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee of Par­lia­ment Fri­day night over a pro­posed in­crease in po­lice over­time spend­ing, ques­tion­ing whether the fig­ure was jus­ti­fied and how it com­pared to salary costs.

AMCHAM CEO lauds Shell/Venezuelan gas licence

While wel­com­ing news that Trinidad and To­ba­go is set to re­ceive 1.7 tril­lion cu­bic feet of nat­ur­al gas from Venezuela’s Lo­ran field, Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of the Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce of Trinidad and To­ba­go (AM­CHAM), Ni­rad Tewarie, warned that so­cial and po­lit­i­cal di­vi­sion could un­der­mine the coun­try’s abil­i­ty to ful­ly cap­i­talise on the op­por­tu­ni­ty.

Speyside Sec teachers claim Form 1 student terrorising school

Teach­ers and stu­dents of Spey­side Sec­ondary claim they are un­der siege and be­ing ter­rorised by a Form One stu­dent.

Five held, gun and illegal drugs seized by cops

Five peo­ple were ar­rest­ed and a firearm, am­mu­ni­tion and quan­ti­ties of cannabis, co­caine, metham­phet­a­mine and ec­sta­sy were seized dur­ing a se­ries of po­lice ex­er­cis­es con­duct­ed across Trinidad on Fri­day.

Chaos in the House: Padarath rejects intimidation claims after row erupts over mic muting accusations

Cou­va South MP Bar­ry Padarath is stand­ing by his com­ments re­gard­ing the con­duct of par­lia­men­tary staff and has dis­missed calls by the Op­po­si­tion for him to be in­ves­ti­gat­ed for the al­leged in­tim­i­da­tion of staff as a de­flec­tion at­tempt by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment.

Govt confirms Independence Day parade is back on

The Gov­ern­ment in­tends to pro­ceed with In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions, in­clud­ing the tra­di­tion­al pa­rade at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, de­spite the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE).

Years of warnings, a trail of victims: Dangers of unregulated PH taxis

For near­ly six years, Can­dice Ri­ley has been wait­ing for jus­tice af­ter trag­i­cal­ly los­ing her daugh­ter, Ashan­ti Ri­ley, al­leged­ly at the hands of a PH taxi dri­ver.

Former Speaker: Parliament chaos fuels anti-social behaviour

The be­hav­iour wit­nessed in the Par­lia­ment on Fri­day night is be­ing sharply crit­i­cised by the for­mer speak­er of the House, Nizam Mo­hammed.

PM, MPs backs Padarath’s claims of muted Govt mics

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has backed Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness Bar­ry Padarath’s al­le­ga­tions that par­lia­men­tary broad­cast­ing staff have been un­fair­ly mut­ing the mi­cro­phones of Gov­ern­ment mem­bers, say­ing the is­sue has per­sist­ed for years and should be for­mal­ly raised be­fore the Par­lia­men­tary Broad­cast­ing Com­mit­tee.

NPTA criticises MPs’ behaviour: Children are watching

The Na­tion­al Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (NPTA) has ex­pressed con­cern over the con­duct of Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment dur­ing Fri­day’s Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee meet­ing, say­ing the ex­changes sent the wrong mes­sage to young peo­ple and un­der­mined ef­forts to ad­dress in­dis­ci­pline in schools.

Taking advantage of opportunities

Trinidad and To­ba­go has faced a trou­bled eco­nom­ic out­look since 2014, when en­er­gy prices de­clined. The twin pri­or­i­ties since then have been, first, to ad­dress crime and the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion, and sec­ond, to put the econ­o­my on a sol­id foun­da­tion to lim­it the ef­fects of volatil­i­ty in the en­er­gy sec­tor. Thank­ful­ly, the coun­try has not suf­fered a nat­ur­al dis­as­ter. How­ev­er, like most coun­tries, we had to al­lo­cate ad­di­tion­al re­sources to ad­dress the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, which in­creased our debt bur­den.

The Healthy Person Myth: Why we still dont truly understand health

It is one of the most com­mon as­sump­tions that if you eat well, avoid smok­ing, lim­it al­co­hol, and ex­er­cise, you will re­main healthy and avoid dis­ease. The truth is that health is not mea­sured this way. Re­al­i­ty can tell a dif­fer­ent sto­ry be­cause many of us who ap­pear to do every­thing “right” can still de­vel­op heart dis­ease, can­cer, men­tal health is­sues, and oth­er health com­pli­ca­tions.

Teach You a Lesson: A powerful call to protect students and teachers

South Ko­re­an dra­mas have earned a rep­u­ta­tion for tack­ling dif­fi­cult so­cial is­sues, and Net­flix’s Teach You a Les­son is no ex­cep­tion. This grip­ping se­ries shines a spot­light on one of the most trou­bling chal­lenges fac­ing schools to­day: bul­ly­ing, vi­o­lence, and the break­down of re­spect with­in the ed­u­ca­tion­al sys­tem. Through in­tense sto­ry­telling, com­pelling char­ac­ters, and thought-pro­vok­ing themes, the se­ries asks an im­por­tant ques­tion: Who pro­tects the peo­ple who are sup­posed to be safe at school?

Who is on the Lord’s side?

Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come un­to me.” And all the sons of Levi gath­ered them­selves to­geth­er un­to him (Ex­o­dus 32:26).

Birthday Club