For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is try­ing her best as po­lit­i­cal leader of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM).

Peo­ple are be­ing tar­get­ed by scam­mers pos­ing as Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) or Min­istry of Hous­ing agents, who claim they can se­cure HDC homes by by­pass­ing the of­fi­cial al­lo­ca­tion process in ex­change for mon­ey, the HDC has warned.

Busi­ness­man Do­minic Hadeed and his wife, Genevieve, have se­cured an ur­gent hear­ing be­fore the Court of Ap­peal next Tues­day, as they seek to over­turn a de­ci­sion by Jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad re­fus­ing their re­lease from de­ten­tion over an al­leged plot to as­sas­si­nate Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials.

For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says he has re­ceived threats from “cer­tain of­fi­cials of state” but in­sists he is not in­tim­i­dat­ed, warn­ing that he be­lieves the coun­try is en­ter­ing a dan­ger­ous pe­ri­od where state pow­er is be­ing used against per­ceived po­lit­i­cal op­po­nents.

He may be in his nineties, but the “Ca­lyp­so King of the World” says he is as good and won­der­ful as ever.

For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has dis­missed sug­ges­tions that Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar se­cured a diplo­mat­ic vic­to­ry at the re­cent Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing, say­ing in­stead that re­gion­al lead­ers “bailed out Trinidad and To­ba­go from it­self” af­ter what he de­scribed as an un­nec­es­sary for­eign pol­i­cy dis­pute.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of at­tempt­ing to link the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) to drug traf­fick­ing, while ques­tion­ing why al­leged gang mem­bers are be­ing de­tained un­der Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs) in­stead of be­ing charged.

For­mer for­eign and Cari­com af­fairs min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to ex­plain Trinidad and To­ba­go’s de­ci­sion to ab­stain from a Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly (UN­GA) vote call­ing for an end to the Unit­ed States’ eco­nom­ic em­bar­go on Cu­ba.

Gov­ern­ment is mon­i­tor­ing a se­ries of cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty in­ci­dents that have af­fect­ed sev­er­al min­istries and State agency web­sites, with Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence Do­minic Smith as­sur­ing that in­ves­ti­ga­tions are un­der­way to de­ter­mine the ex­tent of the breach­es.

Nestlé’s de­ci­sion to ex­plore the sale of its dairy and juices busi­ness has ig­nit­ed a fresh po­lit­i­cal bat­tle over the state of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor, with the Gov­ern­ment in­sist­ing that in­vestor con­fi­dence is ris­ing, while the Op­po­si­tion ar­gues that re­cent poli­cies are mak­ing the coun­try less com­pet­i­tive.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­turned to Trinidad and To­ba­go on Wednes­day evening af­ter at­tend­ing the 51st Reg­u­lar Meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment of Cari­com in St Lu­cia, and im­me­di­ate­ly went to over­see the re­lief ef­forts be­ing or­gan­ised for Venezuela.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is call­ing on Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath to ad­dress com­plaints of pro­longed wa­ter short­ages in sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties.