For­mer Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell has cau­tioned against what he de­scribed as the “re­duc­tion” of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cul­tur­al ex­pres­sion to mere “noise,” fol­low­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s an­nounce­ment of new mea­sures to curb noise pol­lu­tion, in­clud­ing a ban on all fetes at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has or­dered an im­me­di­ate stop to all fetes at the Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um, cit­ing per­sis­tent com­plaints from near­by res­i­dents about ex­ces­sive noise.

Cal­i­for­nia Gov­er­nor Gavin New­som is­sued a force­ful warn­ing about the state of Amer­i­can democ­ra­cy, say­ing the Unit­ed States is at risk of aban­don­ing long-stand­ing de­mo­c­ra­t­ic norms and le­gal process­es.

While many have wel­comed the Gov­ern­ment’s Re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion Blue­print, an am­bi­tious plan to trans­form T&T’s eco­nom­ic and in­fra­struc­tur­al land­scape, res­i­dents tucked away along King’s Wharf, San Fer­nan­do, are won­der­ing what’s re­al­ly in it for them. Many hope that Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials will meet with the rough­ly 100 res­i­dents face-to-face to ex­plain the project and hear their con­cerns.

St Vin­cent and the Grenadines Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves says nei­ther he nor his fam­i­ly did any­thing wrong in ac­quir­ing homes on the mar­ket for sale from the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC).

Beetham res­i­dents say they were fo­cused on help­ing, not steal­ing from vic­tims of an ac­ci­dent that oc­curred along the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route on Mon­day.

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro says there is no resur­gence of kid­nap­pings for ran­som, even with the kid­nap­ping and mur­der of Vish­nu Lal­la just last week­end.

Port-of-Spain will be safe lead­ing up to the busy Christ­mas sea­son, but that safe­ty may come with some in­con­ve­nience.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Ag­gre­gate Pro­duc­ers Al­liance (TTA­PA) says it has de­cid­ed to re­open its mem­bers’ quar­ries af­ter re­cent “con­struc­tive con­ver­sa­tions” with the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, even though no pro­cess­ing li­cences have yet been is­sued.

In­spec­tor of Pris­ons Michael O’Neil says he plans to vis­it the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre (ECRC) soon, fol­low­ing grow­ing com­plaints from de­tainees about in­hu­mane con­di­tions at the fa­cil­i­ty.

The own­er of Trin­ba­go Ship­ping Ex­press, Pamela Lind­say, says out­stand­ing de­mur­rage fees and un­re­solved cus­tomer pay­ments are be­hind the pro­longed de­lays in ship­ments to Trinidad. Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia on Mon­day, Lind­say said she owed more than US$200,000 to a steamship line af­ter con­tain­ers re­mained at the Port of Port-of-Spain be­yond the free stor­age pe­ri­od.

The threat of dis­as­ter doesn’t just come from the skies or the oceans: it comes from the qui­et and com­pound­ing strain on na­tion­al bud­gets. At COP30, Small Is­land De­vel­op­ing States (SIDS)—a glob­al com­mu­ni­ty fac­ing dis­pro­por­tion­ate risks from the cli­mate cri­sis—are plead­ing with the world to ho­n­our the 1.5 de­grees Cel­sius thresh­old ini­tial­ly out­lined in the Paris Agree­ment. Most SIDS are caught in a vi­cious cy­cle where se­vere weath­er events dec­i­mate crit­i­cal in­fra­struc­ture, high re­liance on im­ports fur­ther strains re­sources, and mount­ing debt lim­its their abil­i­ty to in­vest in re­silience projects they des­per­ate­ly need.