A long-an­tic­i­pat­ed diplo­mat­ic meet­ing be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela is set to take place to­day, with For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers trav­el­ling to Cara­cas for talks with Venezue­lan For­eign Min­is­ter Félix Plasen­cia.

On Au­gust 31, 2026, Trinidad and To­ba­go marked 64 years of In­de­pen­dence. An­niver­saries in­vite cel­e­bra­tion, but in­de­pen­dence al­so de­mands an ac­count­ing. Af­ter three decades of en­er­gy booms, in­dus­tri­al clo­sures and re­peat­ed promis­es of di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, where are we mov­ing as a coun­try? Are we pro­gress­ing or re­gress­ing?

Trinidad and To­ba­go winger Ryan Telfer net­ted his first goal of the sea­son, but it was in a los­ing ef­fort as his Hal­i­fax Wan­der­ers FC was edged 4-3 by Pa­cif­ic FC in the Cana­di­an Pre­mier League at Starlight Sta­di­um on Sun­day.

S o, is it just me, or has every­one else no­ticed an un­mis­tak­able rise in crosstalk at front­line coun­ters these days? I don’t think that it’s a fig­ment of my imag­i­na­tion. It seems as if every­where I go, there are end­less con­ver­sa­tions hap­pen­ing be­hind the coun­ters that have noth­ing to do with my trans­ac­tion.