Diego Mar­tin North East MP Colm Im­bert is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to with­draw its con­tro­ver­sial leg­is­la­tion rais­ing the le­gal ages for al­co­hol, to­bac­co, cannabis and gam­bling and in­stead send it to a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC) for pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion.

Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness in the Low­er House Bar­ry Padarath says the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Al­co­hol, Cannabis, Dan­ger­ous Drugs, Gam­bling and To­bac­co) Bill is aimed at chang­ing cul­ture and sav­ing young peo­ple and will not come in­to ef­fect un­til next year.

Com­ment­ing on the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Al­co­hol, Cannabis, Dan­ger­ous Drugs, Gam­bling and To­bac­co) Bill, 2026, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les said this is just an­oth­er mon­ey-mak­ing ven­ture for the gov­ern­ment.

While their de­mo­graph­ic re­mains the fo­cus of a pro­posed in­crease to the le­gal age of drink­ing, smok­ing and gam­bling, some Year One and Two stu­dents of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), St Au­gus­tine, say they have mixed views of the pol­i­cy, with some en­dors­ing the de­ci­sion as a means of curb­ing reck­less be­hav­iour, while oth­ers ques­tion the prac­ti­cal­i­ty of leg­is­lat­ing be­hav­iour.

De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge says the Gov­ern­ment’s con­tro­ver­sial leg­is­la­tion re­strict­ing young peo­ple’s ac­cess to al­co­hol, to­bac­co, cannabis and gam­bling is an act of “tough love,” com­par­ing it to a par­ent phys­i­cal­ly dis­ci­plin­ing a child for his or her own good.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo says moves to open up re­mote gam­bling be­tween peo­ple in Trinidad and To­ba­go and over­seas have tremen­dous rev­enue-rais­ing po­ten­tial, while Op­po­si­tion MP Kei­th Scot­land has warned of ad­dic­tion and oth­er ill ef­fects on vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple and youths.

A Sig­nal Hill woman is re­cov­er­ing in hos­pi­tal af­ter al­leged­ly be­ing chopped in the neck by her hus­band, who lat­er set their home on fire with her dis­abled son still in­side.

Clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist and Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies lec­tur­er Dr Kati­ja Khan is urg­ing so­ci­ety to stop nor­mal­is­ing in­ti­mate part­ner vi­o­lence and vic­tim-blam­ing, say­ing abu­sive be­hav­iour should nev­er be dis­missed as or­di­nary re­la­tion­ship con­flict.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to a vi­ral video show­ing a man al­leged­ly ver­bal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly abus­ing a woman while dri­ving reck­less­ly.

The Gov­ern­ment will ac­cord ca­lyp­so icon Dr Slinger “Mighty Spar­row” Fran­cis­co an of­fi­cial state-as­sist­ed fu­ner­al, with Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin al­so an­nounc­ing a na­tion­al trib­ute and oth­er plans to ho­n­our his lega­cy.

Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo has bro­ken her cus­tom­ary si­lence on at­tacks against her and the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent, say­ing there are times when re­straint must give way to de­fend­ing the dig­ni­ty of the of­fice.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pene­lope Beck­les says she will write to Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo over Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s lan­guage about In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors.