Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­driguez has con­firmed that Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is per­sona gra­ta in Venezuela, sig­nalling a sig­nif­i­cant shift in re­la­tions be­tween the two neigh­bour­ing coun­tries.

Pro­man is re­duc­ing its glob­al work­force, cit­ing con­strained and un­cer­tain gas sup­plies in Trinidad and the re­sult­ing im­pact on the com­pa­ny’s mar­gins.

Roy­al Caribbean Group is set to ac­quire a 50 per cent eq­ui­ty in­ter­est in San­dals and Beach­es Re­sorts for ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$3 bil­lion, un­der a land­mark part­ner­ship aimed at ex­pand­ing the all-in­clu­sive re­sort com­pa­ny’s pres­ence across the Caribbean.

US Chargé d’Af­faires Philip Kern says Trinidad and To­ba­go’s down­stream en­er­gy sec­tor re­mains im­por­tant to both coun­tries, par­tic­u­lar­ly as the coun­try works to se­cure ad­di­tion­al nat­ur­al gas sup­plies.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of us­ing its par­lia­men­tary ma­jor­i­ty to rush ma­jor leg­is­la­tion through Par­lia­ment with­out ad­e­quate scruti­ny, con­sul­ta­tion or pub­lic de­bate.

Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence Min­is­ter Do­minic Smith says he will be guid­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Cab­i­net on whether the min­istry’s name will change fol­low­ing the Prime Min­is­ter’s en­dorse­ment of “Su­per In­tel­li­gence” as a re­place­ment term for Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence.

Venezue­lan Act­ing Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez and US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump held a first face-to-face meet­ing on Tues­day night in New York amid the rapid rap­proche­ment be­tween Wash­ing­ton and Cara­cas.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the il­lic­it flow of firearms and nar­cotics re­mains one of the most press­ing se­cu­ri­ty threats fac­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go and the wider Caribbean, and she in­tends to use this coun­try’s seat on the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil to press for stronger in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion to erad­i­cate this scourge.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ad­dress to the 81st Ses­sion of the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly (UN­GA) has drawn sharply con­trast­ing re­ac­tions from gov­ern­ment and op­po­si­tion fig­ures.

Trinidad and To­ba­go has signed Air Ser­vices Agree­ments with Pana­ma and Ghana, paving the way for stronger avi­a­tion links with Latin Amer­i­ca and Africa.

The na­tion’s teach­ers, for the most part, have re­ceived their long-await­ed back­pay for salaries cov­er­ing 2020 to 2023, ac­cord­ing to Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der has de­fend­ed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s plan to ex­clude Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM)-led con­stituen­cies from spe­cial op­er­a­tions, say­ing the Gov­ern­ment will cre­ate a “wall of law en­force­ment of­fi­cers” to keep crim­i­nals away from “good peo­ple” in com­mu­ni­ties where the mea­sures are im­ple­ment­ed.